Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Blood Of The Vines - Halloween Haunts

Pairing wine with movies!  See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell.  This week, we scare up wine pairings for three movies that fit right into Halloween week. 

Eye of the Devil is a British horror film from 1966 starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Donald Pleasence and Sharon Tate. Wait, did you say Donald Pleasence? Well, that's how we know it's a movie fit for Halloween. Who could forget Dr. Loomis in the Halloween movies? Not to mention, he was Blofeld for Bond's sake! I will always have a special place in my heart for his portrayal of a sniveling POTUS in Escape from New York. I'm sure I'm not alone there. 

The story of Eye of the Devil is a real horror tale for a wine lover. A Bordeaux vintner's grape vines stopped bearing fruit three years ago. *GASP* Not that! Believe it or not, it gets worse. The old chateau is hella creepy, but aren't they all? They're all old, too. Nobody's making any new chateaux. 

When a dead dove falls at your feet as you step out of the car, and the bird gets sacrificed at some sort of altar, logic would intervene and tell you to get the hell out of that creepy, old chateau before you become an appeasement. But is that what happens? Nooooooo, it's not. He thinks he'll beat the odds after a couple dozen estate owners before him have died mysteriously. Ask any gambler: the chateau always wins.

The magazine Wine Enthusiast is enthused this year with haunted wineries. One of them is in Napa Valley. At Trefethen Family Vineyards, a thief was reportedly caught red-handed about a hundred years ago and hung from the rafters. They say his shadow still swings to and fro when the light is just right. Trefethen's Oak Knoll District Red Blend goes for the swingin' price of $85.

The Evil Dead is a 1981 horror film directed by Sam Raimi in his first outing behind the lens.

Five college kids are having a holiday at a cabin in the woods. Uh-oh. A cabin in the woods. That's bad news. How many horror films do you have to see that center on a cabin in the woods before you start looking at better accommodations? "No, let's hide over there, behind the chain saws!"

Anyway, this is the film that put the character of Ash Williams on his way to being a franchise. Five films, a TV series, a video game, and comic books; this movie hit the jackpot. 

The kids find a cassette tape, and when they play it all hell breaks loose. Like, literally. It was a mantra in the '80s: "Always know where that mixtape came from." Inevitably, a bloodbath ensues, most of it caused by Ash. A superhero walks among us. As the last eye has been gouged out and the Tibetan Book of the Dead thrown into the fireplace, all is quiet on the woodsy front. Or is it?

The Beringer estate in Napa Valley says the halls of the Rhine House echo with whispers. Hopefully, none of those whisperers are giving away any trade secrets from the 1880s. If any of those ghostly apparitions are whispering that they are "not drinking any f*cking Merlot," pour them a glass of Beringer's Winery Exclusive Merlot for just $35 a bottle.

In 1977's The Sentinel, we see a woman renting a room in an old house that's been divided into apartments. As it turns out, it's owned by the Catholic Church, and it contains a portal into hell. Is anyone surprised at that?

What have we told you about creepy, old houses? Was the fact that one of the tenants is a blind priest not plain enough for you to see? Look, if you insist on ignoring all the signs that you're in a horror movie, we're just gonna have to let you go.

The portal to hell is a regular Penn Station for demons. They're coming and going, inviting others to join them, seemingly having a grand old time. Grand enough for demons, anyway. "I'll see you in hell" isn't part of an Irish curse for these demons. It's their way of saying "au revoir."

Demolition and reconstruction of the old brownstone isn't enough to take care of that doorway into Hades. The building may be newer, but now the resident on the top floor is a blind nun. To whom, presumably, a nod is as good as a wink.

The Winery at Marjim Manor claims to have five people and a dog haunting their space in upstate New York. No demons reported, but what's that portal there in the cellar room? They have a four-bottle package called Ghost Story Gift Pack for just under $50, if you order before midnight tonight. Operators are standing by. 


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