It's day 291 of my project and year. That means, we've made it to Day 17 of the 31 Days of Hallowe'en movie challenges. As always, I'm starting with my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en, which I talked about back in August and today's mini challenge is Lovecraft Inspired. I picked To Cast A Deadly Spell.
Lovecraft is hired as a private detective to find a missing spellbook, as well as keep an eye on the daughter of the man who hired him. The thing that gets in the way, is his ex-wife is now the new girlfriend of his boss. In a world that uses magick for everything, Lovecraft is the one person who refuses to. Will it help him or get him killed?
Set in the 1940s/1950's, magick is used as a metaphor for what was going on in the world. This movie tackles LGBT issues by making one of the main characters trans. There's an entire subplot about it. It's a noir pulp style detective story, and honestly, it's one of the best takes on the works of H.P. Lovecraft I've seen. Made for television back in the early 1990's, it proves you do not have to be gory to be scary.
And the 31 Day of Horror challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. Their mini theme today is Werewolves not Swearwolves... not kidding that is their title...I picked An American Werewolf in Paris.
A group of college students are traveling across Europe with a week in Paris. While at the Eiffel Tower, they see a woman about to jump. Saving her, one of the students gets injured. While he's recovering, the woman starts a relationship with him, and he soon learns she's a werewolf.
How does this connect to the first movie? It's almost a remake more so than a sequel. It's unclear if any of the characters actually have connections to the characters from the original or not? I think the lead female is suppose to be the daughter of the two main characters from part one, but at the same time, there is some hints that she was bitten by her last boyfriend. Just like the first movie, we have the ghost-ghouls of our lead character's dead friends haunting him as his journey progresses. Otherwise, this is just a big metaphor for possessive bad boyfriends, as our lead female is dealing with her abusive ex.
Don't forget to check out my daily Letterboxd lists, as I am also doing the #100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge.
Come back tomorrow to see what's on the slab
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