Season of the Witch aftermath

Today's report.

We only got to watch two and a half films- we couldn't really start until the niece fell asleep, and everyone had to work in the morning so a late night wasn't in the cards.

Fortunately for our viewing pleasure the niece was burned out from a full day of costumed shenanigans. Mom had wisely rationed the candy, so she plummeted to earth and crashed hard around 7 and we were left to our own devices.

We started out with the first (and best) episode of Kwaidan to whet our palate's.
Then on to our main feature, the original Japanese Dark Water, which was great. A fantastically eerie horror movie that collected scares the old-fashioned way- it earned them.
Proof of its mesmerising attraction: it laid siege to the sister in law, who's endemic hatred of the horror genre is legend. It easily breached the flimsy paper walls of parenting book she sought refuge in, subverting its promises of non-violent communication with a substantially different vocabulary.
She ended the movie on the couch with a blanket over her head, peering out of her shadowed refuge with one nervous eye.

Sister-in-law's one-eyed review: "up there with The Shining" (her all-time favorite)

My review: It's no Shining, but it was a superior movie never mind the genre, and a really great horror film. It delivered the scares without cheap tricks, had good characters and an involving plot, and enough subtext and depth to keep it from feeling mechanical. The plot is pretty simple and easily divined, but the film had enough other things going on that "solving" it didn't really make a difference in enjoyment.

I'm kinda curious to see the bastardized American remake with Jennifer Connely and play "spot the changes"- it's always instructive to note the artificial story and character limitations Hollywood imposes on its product.

By the time we were emerged from Dark Water, the brother in law was well and truly drunk and futher subtitled movies were out of the question. We decided to go with a classic; The Thing, original 1951 flava.

A fine way to wind down the evening.