Halloween FilmsSee listings for detailsHalloween is in the air. The oddly impressive halloween-bop costume aside, though, none of us seem to have the time or inclination to get into the spirit of things with any pumpkin carving or trick-or-treating. Fear not, as there’s always that steadfast of the scary season: the horror movie. Fortunately, Oxford’s film societies are happy to oblige.On the night of the 31st, Magdalen Film Society is showing James Wan’s Saw (2004). Two strangers (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell) wake up in a bleak, neon-lit washroom, chained to each other and unsure of how they got there, or indeed why. The latter question, at least, is answered when the recorded voice of Jigsaw, their sadistic imprisoner, tells them that to survive, one of them must kill the other within the next eight hours. The only means which which to escape from their manacles is a hacksaw: not for the shackles, of course, but for their ankles. In the same vein as David Fincher’s Se7en (1995), Saw has a somewhat holeridden plot and shallow psychology, especially when it comes to the motives of Jigsaw. However, in the midst of the glib macabreness of it all, none of this really seems to matter.The sequel to Saw has just come out in cinemas, sporting the tagline ‘Oh Yes, There Will Be Blood’. That’s all you really need to know about the first film, as well. As if an hour and a half of blood and gore wasn’t enough, following on immediately afterwards is George Romero’s legendary horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), also at the Magdalen Film Society. Again, the taglines of the movie are to be cherished, with such beauts as ‘They Won’t Stay Dead’ and ‘They’re Coming to Get You … Again!’. This is a movie that does exactly what it says on the tin, following the attempts of a group of people trapped inside a farmhouse to survive the night, with a horde of the living dead outside. Shot in gritty black and white, Night of the Living Deadmarked a new dawn in the horror genre, forsaking any sentimentality or neat conclusions in favour of unrelenting gore and tension, as the group under seige desperately try to cling to their humanity while the inhuman closes in around them.To complete our backwards movement in time, Corpus Cinema is this week showing one of the earliest and most classic horror films, FW Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). When a real-estate agent, Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) visits the sinister Count Orlok (played with spinechillingmenace by Max Schreck), an evil is released upon Hutter’s home town, not to mention hiswife, that should have stayed in the shadows. Murnau’s silent film relies on haunting scenery and eerie music to get across its thrills, rather than the easy shocks of modern counterparts. A testament both to how far the horror genre has come, and the legacy to which it owes its tremendous potency.ARCHIVE: 3rd week MT 2005
