Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: 1980s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

The characters of The Bible have been a fount of inspiration for horror movies since the days of silent film. Many of these films focus on the exploits of demons and the Devil, supernatural beings out to possess, corrupt, and destroy. The Seventh Sign takes a different approach, turning to the back of the Book to see how God’s judgment might be poured out onto the Earth.

If the title had not already been taken by Ingmar Bergman, perhaps The Seventh Seal might have been a more appropriate title. A mysterious man named David (Jurgen Prochnow) is globetrotting, breaking the seal on various parchments. With each break, another disaster occurs, from the fish in the ocean in Haiti dying to the discovery of a frozen desert in the Middle East. Eventually, David finds his way to Abby (Demi Moore), a pregnant woman who is due to give birth on Leap Day. Abby’s lawyer husband Russell (Michael Biehn) is busy trying to get a young man with Down’s Syndrome clemency from the gas chamber for killing his parents (who were also brother and sister), a strange B story that eventually does become more important in the final act.

David rents a room above the garage and tells the couple a story over dinner involving sparrows and their song. According to David, all souls are stored in a place called the Guf. As a soul comes to inhabit the body of a newborn baby, the sparrow sings its song. While the story sounds charming on the surface, Abby soon finds herself face-to-face with the realization that David is actually the second coming of Jesus Christ. And the Guf is all out of souls, starting with her baby. God is ready to judge the world, and only Abby can stop it.

The Seventh Sign takes an interesting approach to its storytelling by melding Jewish folklore with the New Testament. The Guf is not mentioned in the Bible, but it is mentioned in the Jewish text, the Talmud, which is sort of an interpretation by rabbis of the Torah, the oral history of the Jewish people that also incorporates the first five books of the Bible (confused yet?). If nothing else, it was a bold move by the makers of The Seventh Sign to take Jewish folklore and apply it to the apocalypse. In comparison to horror films that tap into Christianity for inspiration, there have not been too many films inspired by Jewish folklore.

Perhaps the most famous being from Jewish folklore featured in films is the Golem, a protector made from clay who comes to life to save and serve the Jewish people. Another figure in Jewish folklore is the dybbuk, a spirit who clings to its host, possessing that person, causing mental anguish. One recent film that explores a dybbuk is Demon (2015), a Polish film featured in the All the Haunts Be Ours: Volume 2 set from Severin Films. Also featuring a dybbuk was The Unborn, a film from 2009 starring Gary Oldman as a rabbi who is consulted to get rid of the spirit. Oh how I love all of the different forms of folk horror! I learn so much about different cultures from these stories, even if I do not care for the film itself sometimes.

But fortunately, I really enjoyed The Seventh Sign, more than others it seems (currently only a 2.7 star rating on Letterboxd). It is a film that I never got around to watching for whatever reason (perhaps due to the lack of champions for the film). But I found it to be very thought-provoking. Demi Moore in the lead role helps for sure. And although the film seems too scared to go for an unhinged ending it could have, there is some comfort in thinking that the prayers and actions of one woman could change God’s mind, a consistent thread throughout the Bible.

I watched this one as God intended—on a VHS cassette tape I bought from Goodwill years ago but before now never cracked the seal so to speak.

Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: 80s!

About the Author: Parker Simpson is a writer and podcaster focusing on cult films and their social impacts. They currently cohost Where Is My Mind, a podcast focusing on underappreciated films from a variety of genres and countries. They have also held panels, chartered local organizations, and written articles to their blog. When not writing or studying, they like to spend time with their pets and go outside. Check out the podcast Linktree and blog.

Note: I wrote this in early September. This has been edited accordingly to make it seem like I watched it recently.

It’s not every day you see a mass walk out of a film over one scene. Or seeing those who stay have their jaws permanently agape. Or those same people become increasingly sweaty and anxiety ridden as time passes. It’s rather funny, really. I would highly recommend the experience.

This is an accurate summary of my local drive-in’s screening of Society, which they decided to double-bill with Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I don’t know how they keep getting copies of cult horror films to show in small town America, but I respect it and will keep forking over my money to them (you should, too). Seriously, last weekend they screened Lamberto Bava’s Demons with Return of the Living Dead, and next week is a two-night event including Girls Nite Out, Madman, Re-Animator, Spider Baby, and Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things. What is in the water here?

Society is a film known more for its ending (I will try to not spoil too much) than what precedes it. Its timely imagery of the rich literally eating the poor has aged just as well as the special effects Brian Yuzna got the plot from. Despite the continual citing of his and collaborator Stuart Gordon’s influence in recent efforts (see: The Substance), his directorial career is rather bumpy, ranging from extremely amusing (Faust: Love of the Damned) to awful (Beyond Re-Animator). This is his high point: if you ask me, he hit it out of the park with Society and should have done more with social commentaries instead of basing his career on getting ideas from Screaming Mad George. Then again, I shouldn’t curse the man who holds the rights to my favorite franchise.

What makes this stand out from the rest of Yuzna’s filmography is not the melding of naked bodies and human beings turned inside out – it’s the elaborate pacing and making the most of its surroundings. By the time the late 80s rolled around, the popular landscape was more interested in making money than engaging the general public. Culture had shifted away from the organic roots of the 60s and 70s, being redirected to malls and television. It may have been a sign of economic prosperity, but it signaled a cultural downfall we are still feeling the effects of. Setting Society in the wealthy area of Beverly Hills only amplifies this bubble we often see in films of the time – gone are the seedy streets of the inner city, in come the gentrified suburbs. 

However, in the spirit of Blue Velvet, there must be something lying underneath the glimmery surface. Enter the Whitney family, composed of parents Nan and Jim, daughter Jenny, and son Bill. Bill is the black sheep – there is clearly a rift between him and the rest of the family. He knows something is wrong, but he can’t put his finger on it. It’s only when his friend (and sister’s ex) bug the family’s car that he finds out about Jenny’s “coming out” party – something his parents also did, and which features a murderous orgy. Not the sort of thing you want to hear anyone participating in, let alone your immediate family. Only from there does the rift continue to grow, culminating in the now infamous shunting sequence. What could be taken as cheesy teenage angst turns into a genuine feeling of paranoia; while Bill is never really part of his family (he suspects he was adopted), he’s never really able to escape them. He finds their influence extends to the furthest corners of Beverly Hills, as seemingly everyone within a 50-mile radius plots against him. It all culminates in a feast of bodies merging into one another as liquor (and honey?) pours over a sickly orange lighting, a visual you will never really forget. Films primarily based on special effects don’t always work, and while they don’t get to shine until the final 20 minutes, Society may be the one exception.

I could write on and on about this, truly. But it is something you must witness with your own two eyes, an experience you will never forget no matter how or where you watch it. I cannot give this a higher possible recommendation. Just make yourself a nice cup of tea and see it.

(this is my last piece for the month. Thank you to Sam for letting me write for the site and to anyone who has been reading both my pieces and any of the other contributors’ pieces!)

Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Hammer or British

Playing with Straight On Till Morning in the UK and Demons of the Mind in the U.S., this Hammer film finds Peggy (Judy Geeson) moving with her husband Robert (Ralph Bates) to work at a school in the countryside. The night before they leave, she’s attacked by a man with a fake arm, which sends her into hysterics. 

Robert’s new boss is Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing), who is married to Molly (Joan Collins). After their first meeting, Peggy is again attacked by the one-armed man. The next night, she notices that Robert only has one arm; she shoots at him with a shotgun, but it doesn’t stop him. She faints, only for her husband to reveal that there’s no job at the school. He’s treating Robert, who plays recordings of the old students to try to remember what it was like before a fire destroyed the school.

The twists start here, as Robert and Molly have been having an affair, and he only married Peggy to drive her insane and make her kill Michael. Michael, however, is a step ahead, using the intercom of the school to taunt his enemies, even tying up his wife and coaxing Robert into shooting her, thinking that it’s him. Peggy survives, thanks to the one-armed man she believed was her enemy; her husband’s body hangs from a noose as choir music plays from the empty school.

Directed by Jimmy Sangster, who co-wrote the script with Michael Syson, this is the kind of cold, dreary British murder mystery I love. It’s not as stylish as the Giallo, but it comes from the same fione. 

You can watch this on Tubi.