Halloween Horror Month 2021

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by Peachfuzz

Flannagan does some solid work. I've saw everything he's put out from Abstentia, forward (currently making my way through Midnight Mass). His The Haunting of Hill House is fabulous, but I find Hush an awful movie (Indian remake Kolaiyuthir Kaalam is even worse). I want to like the film. I'm a fan of the home invasion sub genre, but I couldn't get passed some astoundingly dumb moments. It's rare I want to shout at the screen, or throw something at it; however Hush moved me to this (I yelled at the screen, but held back from throwing the remote). I realize I'm in the minority with my opinion. Fair enough. Maybe I'll give the film another go one day, see if my opinion changes. Perhaps those idiotic scenes make sense and I somehow missed something (I watched it sober, maybe I'll go in drunk next time).

Still, even if I did miss something, or are being unreasonable, I feel confident suggesting Hush on is in no way on par with Halloween. Didn't know King had said that. I laughed. It's no wonder I stopped reading him years ago.

Hmm. I didn't notice any astoundingly dumb moments in the narrative; certainly no more than I'd expect in your average horror movie.

But there'd be no point in shouting at the screen anyway: She couldn't hear you.

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #13

Last night saw Klaus Kinski return to the role of Nosferatu (sort of ) in 1988’s Nosferatu in Venice (or Vampire in Venice).

The story goes that after already dropping one director for another after the start of shootings, Kinski’s legendary awful on set antics lead to the loss of a second and hiring of a third, then eventually losing them and leaving the producer to take over with Kinski directing parts himself (whether anybody asked him too or not).

Refusing to shave his head, or even wear the fangs and nails for most of the movie, as well as putting in a completely different performance, leaves this “film” barely connected to Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (they never even try to tie into the ending of that movie either). What we are left with is a weird patchwork of a film that leaves Kinski strutting around the streets of 80’s Venice, snarling at everything whilst decked out like a punk rock Mozart, all for little to no reason.

The movie attempts a narrative to start with, and is actually doing very well, with Christopher Plummer and Donald Pleasence putting some nice work in as a Van Helsing type and priest, respectively. Everything seems to make sense and is moving along well, then the movie unleashes Kinski’s sleeping vampire, and in a reflection of the real life issues with the film, his appearance means coherence slowly dwindles into nothingness as it all falls apart.

There are some lovely shots here, and even one or two that could stand alongside the original Nosferatu, but they all add up to very little, and the film becomes an exercise in pervy old Klaus using this as an excuse to force himself on his young female co-stars.



I closed the night off with the first episode of the new “Chucky” series, that is acting as a both a sequel to the existing 7 Child’s Play movies, as well as its own standalone story about a teenage boy struggling with his sexual identity, bullying and family
problems….before finding and old Good Guy doll at a garage sale.

A great start to the series, using Chucky as an angry, violent sweary outlet for the rage and abuse the 13-year-old lads suffers as school. There’s a few too many autotuned pops songs in here to try and give it that “modern” edge, but on the whole we seem to be tonally between the latter sequels and first 2 movies, which is perfect.

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Originally Posted by Guy87

I closed the night off with the first episode of the new “Chucky” series, that is acting as a both a sequel the existing 7 Child’s Play movies, as well as its own standalone story about a teenage boy struggling with his sexual identity, bullying and family
problems….before finding and old Good Guy doll at a garage sale.

A great start to the series, using Chucky as an angry, violent sweary outlet for the rage and abuse the 13-year-old lads suffers as school. There’s a few too many autotuned pops songs in here to try and give it that “modern” edge, but on the whole we seem to be tonally between the latter sequels and first 2 movies, which is perfect.

I also watched this and I agree - it was a good start to the series! I watched Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky right beforehand and I'm glad I did as it helped set the stage for where we left things with our favorite Good Guy. I'm always happy to support horror TV shows, so I'm hoping this one gives us some good stuff!

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by TwinCitiesBluFan

I'm always happy to support horror TV shows, so I'm hoping this one gives us some good stuff!

There’s also a SYFY Day of the Dead series premiering this month.

[TwinCitiesBluFan]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

There’s also a SYFY Day of the Dead series premiering this month.

I think I heard one mention of that, but don't know anything about it. I'll have to look it up!

[saltysam]

Day 14:
The Blair Witch Project

[Aclea]

20



Every other movie star or director has a horror movie or straight to video turkey in their past, and Nomads is John McTiernan’s skeleton in the closet and one of many for Pierce Brosnan in those wilderness years between losing out on playing Bond to Timothy Dalton and finally getting the part a decade later. It’s a very silly, very 80s number that has an interesting malignant supernatural threat it doesn’t really know how to weave into a story beyond presenting it in the style of a bad Adam Ant music video. Which isn’t too surprising since Adam Ant is one of the film’s evil entities, along with Josie Cotton and Mary Woronov looking disturbingly like an ageing drag queen. The results ain’t pretty.

Lesley-Ann Down is an overworked doctor who gets her ear bitten by a manic Brosnan who promptly expires in E.R. after saying something in French and in next to no time she’s having nightmarish flashbacks to being a French house hunter in Los Angeles. From here on Down’s part largely consists of falling down, lying unconscious while various tests are run on her or retracing her patient’s footsteps in a daze, the bulk of the film being taken up with the last week of Brosnan’s life as he and his outrayjuss Fronch axe-ent discover that the new house he and his wife have moved into is the scene of a brutal murder that attracts a gang of homicidal leather-clad neo-punk Inuit spirits drawn to scenes of great calamity who hang around Santa Monica in their black van dancing to Ted Nugent songs and beating up people in parking lots. No, really.

After breathlessly, terrifyingly explaining to his wife that they have no fixed address so “Zhey are Nomads! Just like zee ones we ‘ave zeen everywhere we ‘ave been!” (oh yes, he’s an anthropologist) as if people living out of a car in LA was the most horrifying discovery mortal man could make, he naturally becomes obsessed with following and documenting them. Thanks to a convenient phone call from Irving the Explainer (actually the writer-director desperately trying to shoehorn in some exposition) and a helpful nun in a dream who makes him a nice cup of tea before the rest of her order suddenly appear to maniacally run around one of their hanging sisters while flashing their breasts we discover that they’re not just any old gang of homicidal leather-clad neo-punk Inuit spirits but ones who not only can’t be photographed because they died the wrong way but also bring calamity to anyone who looks too closely at them, drawing them into another world where they become bikers who can’t pass the California state line. The moral of the tale? Never buy a house from Nina Foch, never photograph Mary Woronov when she’s dancing on a car and never let a French anthropologist bite your ear just before he dies.

The germ of the idea is not without potential, but the film has no idea what to do with it leaving the biggest mystery quite how John McTiernan went from this to Predator in just one year.

[zallzed]

#26 - Resident Evil retribution
#27 - Resident Evil The Final Chapter



Not the best double bill.

Progress so far

[Show spoiler] 31 Days of Hallloween

1/10 - Dracula Prince of Darkness 1/2
2/10 - Resident Evil
2/10 - The Wolfman 1/2
3/10 - Resident Evil Apocalypse 1/2
4/10 - Wishmaster
4/10 -Resident Evil extinction 1/2
5/10 - Resident Evil Afterlife 1/2
5/10 - The Cave
6/10 - Quatermass and the Pit
6/10 - Bats 1/2
7/10 - To the Devil a Daughter
7/10 - Dawn of the Dead (2004) 1/2
8/10 -Scars of Dracula 1/2
8/10 - VVitch
9/10 - Sator 1/2
9/10 - Evil Dead (2013) 1/2
9/10 - Creep
10/10 - The Changling 1/2
10/10 - A Quite Place
11/10 - Lifeforce 1/2
11/10 - Blood on Satan’s Claw
12/10 - Death Line
12/10 - Terror Train 1/2
13/10 - VHS 1/2
13/10 - VHS 94 -

[CelestialAgent]

Watched in ODEON:



I think if I grew up watching the film as a kid in the 90s I might adore this and have nostalgia for it. As it is it’s just a solid Halloween family film, perhaps going further than Disney would go today (we see the witches hanged by their necks, and the little sister continually refers to her brother as a virgin and mentions how he likes breasts.) We even see the boy and his new “girlfriend” (they’ve only really known each other for the night) sharing the same bed at 5am! Scandalous. I think the 90s elements have charm in films like Scream but here it’s more limited to liking rappers with their hats worn backwards, California tie dye and wearing trendy sneakers. I do think there’s perhaps a dissonance between the witches being the villains here, and knowing in reality witches are more a force invented out of fear, distrust and misogyny, with so many unjust deaths in the Salem witch trials that have more to do with personal grievances and scapegoating. Also, the animatronics on the cat really don’t hold up very well, and were probably more forgivable on a 90s show like Sabrina that was intended to be seen in SD on TV than projected in a cinema. Some of the fish out of water jokes are funny like the tarmac road being interpreted as a river, and interpreting children in hobgoblin costumes and a man dressed as the devil as the real thing, but the bus driver hitting on them even as they say they want to take away children just comes across as creepy, and not in the Halloween sense of the word. The ending is pretty sappy too and probably plays best to a viewer certain of the existence of the afterlife (beyond just the supernatural elements of witches being resurrected 300 years in the future.)

[Ste7en]

5.

[ravenus]

Scripted by Stephen King from his own novella Cycle of the Werewolf, Silver Bullet is set in a small town where some brutal slayings are happening and panic is rife through the community. A young wheelchair-bound boy is the only one who cottons on to what is going, but he has a hard time convincing anyone to believe him, and what's the worse, the beast is on to him.

The first time I saw Silver Bullet was as a kid. From that viewing I mainly recalled only the climax where the werewolf changes back into human form after being killed, and it made a big impression at the time. Revisiting now, the movie is less impactful - it is rarely exciting from a visual standpoint, and apart from some scenes of bloodletting, it almost has a TV movie vibe (accentuated by the overuse of background score) - but it's still a decent time-pass. The actors generally do a good job, especially a young Corey Haim who early in his career showed great promise. I thought Everett McGill's character could have been better written

[Show spoiler]to reflect his conflicted mindset of being both a priest and a werewolf

.

Shout's blu-ray gives a good presentation of the film - it's not some poster-child for detail and sharpness and the colors may run a little hot, but it's good for a film of that vintage. The stereo sound is sturdy - dialog is clear and the bass carries presence for the score and the sound FX. Among the extras, I saw a bunch of video featurettes with actors and crew members, all of who have warm and fond memories of the film. The disc also includes multiple audio commentary tracks.

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #14

Last night's movie was 1983 anthology horror "Nightmares".

This series of four stories definitely end up on the lower end of the horror anthology spectrum, in a film apparently written and shot to be a two hour pilot for a "The Outer Limits" style TV series. We start off strong with a woman heading out to buy cigarettes in a small town with an escaped killer on the loose. Next is an (increasingly relevant) warning about video game addiction starring Emilio Estevez as an angry wayward teen addicted to a certain gaming cabinet. Thirdly is Lance Henrikson as a faithless preacher attacked on the road by a black demon truck. Lastly, and most hilariously, is a family home being invaded by.....A GIANT SUPERIMPOSED (sort of adorable) RAT.

As a TV series it would be an average one or two seasoner, as a movie it's pretty woeful, although not entirely without merit, if you are, say.....drunk.



Alongside this we did episode 4 of the current season of Creepshow, which is the most uneven anthology series I've seen, but the second story this week (about viral demonic possession) was genuinely great.

[Decky]

Originally Posted by Decky

4th - Freddy Vs Jason
5th - Rod Zombie's Halloween 2
6th - House Of Frankenstein
7th - Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
8th - Psycho Goreman
9th - John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars
10th - John Carpenter's Village Of The Damned
11th - The Guest

12th - N/A
13th - The Dark Eyes Of London and The Black Room from Karloff At Columbia
14th - John Carpenters Vampires

[Gerby]

I really liked the 1st reboot, this one not so much. Not bad but not great either.



It's been a long time since i'd seen this & i'd forgotten just how batsh*t crazy it is!
Tremendous trash.

[zallzed]

#28 - Witchboard
#29 - The Thing

TV - True Blood Season 1



Progress so far

[Show spoiler] 31 Days of Hallloween

1/10 - Dracula Prince of Darkness 1/2
2/10 - Resident Evil
2/10 - The Wolfman 1/2
3/10 - Resident Evil Apocalypse 1/2
4/10 - Wishmaster
4/10 -Resident Evil extinction 1/2
5/10 - Resident Evil Afterlife 1/2
5/10 - The Cave
6/10 - Quatermass and the Pit
6/10 - Bats 1/2
7/10 - To the Devil a Daughter
7/10 - Dawn of the Dead (2004) 1/2
8/10 -Scars of Dracula 1/2
8/10 - VVitch
9/10 - Sator 1/2
9/10 - Evil Dead (2013) 1/2
9/10 - Creep
10/10 - The Changling 1/2
10/10 - A Quite Place
11/10 - Lifeforce 1/2
11/10 - Blood on Satan’s Claw
12/10 - Death Line
12/10 - Terror Train 1/2
13/10 - VHS 1/2
13/10 - VHS 94 -
14/10 - Resident Evil retribution
14/10 - Resident Evil The Final Chapter /2

[ravenus]

Last night I saw Richard Stanley's film of Color Out of Space, streaming on Prime.

The movie is based on HP Lovecraft's terrific SF story, but in execution it is its own beast. HPL's story was a dark and depressing saga of a family literally deteriorating after a strange meteorite falls in their backyard, spread over several weeks. The movie's script highly condenses the events into a few days, and the tone walks a thin line between horror (that tips its hat to The Thing) and some jet-black comedy. Surprisingly for a film with Richard Stanley and Nicolas Cage involved, it never gets self-indulgent and remains engaging throughout. I don't know if I'll get a disc and re-watch it (The Prime version had some horrible banding in the night scenes), but this was a fun experience at least the first time.

[duggie walker]

18. HALLOWEEN (2018)/ HALLOWEEN KILLS - I didn't like the 2018 "sequel" when I saw it but I decided to rewatch it before seeing the new film. To my great surprise, I found myself really enjoying it and I now see it as an absolutely worthy follow-up and the best in the series outside of the original.

And HALLOWEEN KILLS is a worthy follow-up to that. It's a fairly pure slasher film, with all the limitations that implies but if you simply want Michael Myers knocking about killing people in brutal ways, this delivers in spades. The most original thing about it is how it embraces the notion of the mob mentality, as Haddonfield's residents decide to take matters into their own hands. It can't help but have a certain topicality, even though it was made before the recent unpleasantness.

The juiciest surprise, however, are the flashbacks to the original movie's timeframe, which are brilliantly done, including a replacement Donald Pleasance that will drop your jaw. Whilst HALLOWEEN KILLS is obviously the middle film of a trilogy, it comes to a satisfying conclusion in itself. It's no masterpiece but I had a great time watching it.

[saltysam]

Day 15:
Halloween Kills
Day 16:
Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch

[Aclea]

21



Made at a time when Jan-Michael Vincent was the next big thing and Harrison Ford and Dennis Quaid were just ‘Jan-Michael Vincent types,’ 1976’s Shadow of the Hawk was part of a mid-70s-early-80s vogue for horror movies built around or incorporating elements of Native American mysticism like Shadow of Chikara, The Manitou, Prophecy and Nightwing (the latter conveniently sharing a Bluray with this). Seen today it’s a bit of a plodder, shot on the cheap in tax shelter-friendly Canada with a distinct lack of atmosphere and a less than unnerving ghostly spirit that looks a bit like the creature from the Outer Limits episode Cold Hands, Warm Heart.

In a classic bit of not-even-trying casting Vincent’s the Native American who’s made it in the white man’s world only for his grandfather (Chief Dan George) to literally crash his party and try to get him back to the reservation to help him lift a curse from an evil spirit seeking vengeance for being killed by their tribe, which for some reason she still holds a grudge about. To which his immediate reaction is to try to send him home on the bus before getting emotionally blackmailed into driving him back with reporter Marilyn Hassett along for the ride and, naturally, finding out that he’s not as crazy as he thinks.

You suspect that somewhere along the line this was pitched as a journey of self-discovery from the modern white society that has assimilated Vincent’s character back into his Native American past that he’d rejected, but no-one could be bothered to get round to addressing that aspect. Instead for the most part it’s a long walk in the woods with the odd bit of nice scenery while along the way they’re threatened by a man in a spectacularly unconvincing bear suit, peeved off and supposedly-but-not-remotely sinister gas station attendants and an exploding owl. There’s also some terrible stunt doubling, whether it’s that guy in the bear suit who isn’t even trying to mimic an animal’s movements (honestly, it’s like he’s taken his dog for a walk in the park and is trying to attract its attention after its slipped its lead) or the stuntman fighting with it who has completely different colour hair to Vincent, none of which is as much fun as it sounds. Directed by TV veterans George McCowan (Frogs) and an uncredited Daryl Duke (The Silent Partner, Tai-Pan) with an air of competent “Will this do?” lack of interest, it’s a TV movie – sorry, film with absolutely no narrative drive, just walking through most of the plot points without much commitment or any atmosphere before ending in a half-hearted rehash of the protective magic circle scene from The Devil Rides Out (one moment in particular is just crying out for Bill Murray’s Ghostbusters line “Okay, so she’s a dog” – and talking of dogs, Robert McMullins score at times sounds like it would be more at home in an episode of Scooby Doo).

The three main characters are barely developed, the film’s villainess never becoming a presence let alone a personality while Hassett has one of those thankless parts that seems to have been created solely to prove the hero isn’t gay. The chief asset is, appropriately, Chief Dan George, an actor who never seemed to do much and often read his lines in a flat manner yet always seemed genuine and a welcome presence on the screen, but he doesn’t seem to be particularly bothered on this outing. Even when bitten by a snake and the film develops into an incredibly lethargic and blasé race against time to get him to the magic medicine he needs to cure him he seems completely indifferent to either his own fate or anything that’s going on around him.

It’s not entirely mundane: there’s one good scene on the obligatory rickety bridge that’s falling to pieces in a high wind, a neat effect when a car hits an invisible wall a la Alan Bridges’ 1966 British scifi flick Invasion and a few good visuals with a warrior dressed in a Thunderbird transformation mask jumping from rock to rock overhead like a hawk. But ultimately it’s just the kind of humdrum film that just passes by without leaving any trace on your senses. Of course, you could always try livening things up by turning it into a drinking game and taking a shot every time Chief Dan George says “You have done well, little hawk,” but I wouldn’t recommend it if you have a low tolerance for alcohol.

[Ste7en]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Last night I saw Richard Stanley's film of Color Out of Space, streaming on Prime.

The movie is based on HP Lovecraft's terrific SF story, but in execution it is its own beast. HPL's story was a dark and depressing saga of a family literally deteriorating after a strange meteorite falls in their backyard, spread over several weeks. The movie's script highly condenses the events into a few days, and the tone walks a thin line between horror (that tips its hat to The Thing) and some jet-black comedy. Surprisingly for a film with Richard Stanley and Nicolas Cage involved, it never gets self-indulgent and remains engaging throughout. I don't know if I'll get a disc and re-watch it (The Prime version had some horrible banding in the night scenes), but this was a fun experience at least the first time.

I watched this with my wife last night. My third viewing and I really like it. My wife hated it and tore a strip off me for making her waste her time and sit through "That tripe!"