Halloween Horror Month 2021

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Aclea

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

Srsly? I have only seen him in White Line Fever, but he never struck me as that kind of hot material.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by ravenus

Srsly? I have only seen him in White Line Fever, but he never struck me as that kind of hot material.

Oh yes indeed, great things were expected of him by studios after The Mechanic/Killer of Killers and especially after White Line Fever proved a big hit ($35m in the days when that was big money). It was a lot like Colin Farrell's career trajectory when he was topping wish lists and it seemed like he was getting offered everything in the expectation that he was going to be box-office, but despite some big pictures and the odd major director (Richard Brooks Bite the Bullet, John Milius Big Wednesday and Damnation Alley, the big budget scifi film that Fox were convinced would make them enough money to recoup their losses on George Lucas' space samurai movie...) the public weren't buying even when he wasn't making bad choices. Hooper was probably his last hurrah as the next big screen big thing and his only solid hit (and that was down to Burt Reynolds) before his alcoholism, drug abuse, violent fights with men and, more often, the women he was in relationships with (causing one to miscarry after a beating) made studios look elsewhere. Even when he got a hit TV series, Airwolf, his offscreen behavior got him written out of the last season. And that was before he sued the paramedics who saved his life after one of his drunken car crashes (there were quite a few). But for a few years in the 70s, as far as studios were concerned he was a serious contender. But then the 70s were the decade when William Katt was being pitched as the next Robert Redford so often he got cast as the Sundance Kid. Go figure

[DaveSimonH]

#16 - Psycho

"She might have fooled me, but she didn't fool my mother."


__________

1. Dracula (1931)
2. Let the Right One In (2008)
3. Planet Terror (2007)
4. Constantine (2005)
5. The Thing from Another World (1951)
   
6. Tremors (1989)
7. Alien (1979)
8. Aliens (1986)
9. King Kong (1933)
10. The Birds (1963)
    
11. Fire in the Sky (1993)
12. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
13. Dawn of the Dead (1978, Extended/Cannes cut)
14. Day of the Dead (1985)
15. The Fly (1986)
    
16. Psycho (1960)

Covers

[Show spoiler]

[Arrowheadrevisited]

Day 10-16

A week of Macabre Visions:



Plus:

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies



Kiss of the Vampire



Progress:

[Show spoiler]

31 Days of Halloween 2021

1. Late Phases
2. The Mummy (1959)
3. The Gate
4. Hatchet
5. The Cat O' Nine Tails
6. The Curse Of Frankenstein
7. Blood Diner
8. Santa Sangre
9.Hell Night
10.Meat Grinder
11.Sleepwalkers
12.Worst Fears
13.Spiral: From The Book Of Saw
14.The Collector (2009)
15.Waxwork
16.Waxwork 2: Lost In Time
17.The Poughkeepsie Tapes
18.Black Sunday
19.I Vampiri
20.The Girl Who Knew Too Much
21.Black Sabbath
22.Kill, Baby...Kill!
23.Five Dolls For An August Moon
24.Bay Of Blood
25.Auntie Lee's Meat Pies
26.Kiss Of the Vampire
27.Baron Blood
28.Lisa And The Devil

[zallzed]

#30 - The Thing (2011)
#31 - Christine
#32 - Blood Red Sky Netflix



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
15/10 - Witchboard 1/2
15/10 - The Thing (1982)

[AnnThrope]

Originally Posted by 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.

You had me at 'an exploding owl.'

[Ste7en]

6.

I really like it, my third viewing. My wife hated it.

7.

Classic. Love it.

8.

Amazon Prime. Very well made, no idea what it was about.

[duggie walker]

19. BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON - Mock-doc that occurs in a world where Voorhees, Myers and Krueger actually exist and a documentary team is following the newest psycho on the block, Leslie Vernon, as he prepares for his big night of slaughter. It's a fun idea, technically well-executed, and interspersing the found-footage with a traditional slasher-movie gives it an original feel. Sadly, however, the script lets it all down from the start, never finding a convincing reason for why the documentary crew would so easily serve as accomplices to murder, and never managing to fully exploit the premise. It's worth-watching but prepare to be constantly wishing it were a bit better than it is.

20. THE SENDER - Restrained ESP thriller in which a troubled young man's dreams infect the staff and patients at a mental institution. It starts strongly, and there are a few very effective moments, but it runs out of steam towards the end, leaving it some way short of greatness.

21. PREY - My first Norman J.Warren movie and this is an odd one by anyone's standards. A flesh-eating alien, disguised as a human, ends up in a house with two lesbians, one of which might be a psychopath, where he dresses as a woman and struggles to resist eating their parrot. Seriously. And what's most surprising is that it actually works somehow, like a Pinter play crossed with THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. I see now why Warren is held in such relatively high regard and look forward to seeing more of his work. PREY would make an interesting double bill with UNDER THE SKIN (which remains one of the scariest movies I've ever seen).

22. JOHN CARPENTER'S BODY BAGS - As far as modern anthology-horrors go, this is a pretty decent one and not as bland as I'd thought it would be. Carpenter directs two of the segments, one a tense slasher set at an all-night garage, the other a genuinely amusing black comedy about Stacy Keach taking a miraculous new hair-treatment (and co-starring Sheena Easton!). The third and least-good segment is directed by Tobe Hopper and stars Mark Hamill, in a recycling of the hoary-old trope of the possessed replacement organ. The wraparound story stars John Carpenter himself as a morgue attendant and, like the whole shebang, is knowingly cheesy. Amusing stuff and leagues better than the execrable CREEPSHOW 2.

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #15

Last night I clocked off of work, we threw dinner into us and set off on a 2 hour journey to Manchester for the first of our Halloween outings this year (For the Love of Horror Convention).

Once we got into our hotel (well into the night) we raided the vending machine for crisps and chocolate and sat in bed with tea streaming the William Castle/Vincent Price 1958 classic "House on Haunted Hill" as one of the entries in Elvira's 40th anniversary (meaning she pops up a few times mid-movie to do her schtick).

House on Haunted Hill is a perfectly hammy tacky b-movie with Price gurning his way through each scene deliciously. Plenty of daft jump scares and cheapo skeletons as each scene more or less begins and ends with characters running in and out of rooms breathlessly.

Perfect midnight movie fodder.

[saltysam]

Day 17:
Malignant

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #16

2018's part sequel/part re-make "Halloween".

Not sure how I feel about the fact that we're now titling sequels with the original's name (Candyman, Scream) but whatever, so desperate are we to keep these franchises going we keep sequelising, re-making, rebooting, requeling until all sense has disappeared.

I was going to watch the original, phenomenal Halloween first, but let's be honest I can quote that movie back and forth, and why punish myself with something so perfect knowing these can't match up?

I don't mind Halloween 2018. I don't think turning Laurie Strode into Sarah Connor works, especially after removing the family connection meaning she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time in '78. I think going on to be a teacher with underlying depression in Halloween: H2O was a better fit for the bookworm introduced in the original (though ironically it would make sense for H2O's Laurie to become a gun nut knowing Myers is her brother and kills family specifically).

However that bit of obviousness aside we basically have a reintroduction of everything we know of Halloween...minus the perfect creeping sense of dread that the original hung it's mask on. Here Michael is a geriatric Terminator smashing his way through the heads of Haddonfield, and what the movie lacks in dread it makes up for in entertaining visceral impact whilst overdoing it a bit on the visual callbacks from the original.

[zallzed]

#33 - Halloween (78)
#34 - Halloween 2

TV
Wolf Creek Season 2

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by Guy87

.

Not sure how I feel about the fact that we're now titling sequels with the original's name

I had a conversation about this with someone. The earliest example I could think of was Sam Jackson's Shaft, which was so long ago it has had a second sequel just called Shaft, so now there's Shaft (1971), Shaft (2000), and Shaft (2019), which is pretty impressively recursive. They're accelerating though so Roundtree only has to hold out a little longer to make Shaft (2028).

[Ste7en]

9. I'm being a bit selective in introducing my wife to David Cronenberg.

[duggie walker]

23. THE MASK OF SATAN aka BLACK SUNDAY - Beautifully made and clearly influential but I just couldn't quite get into this Gothic Bava classic. More me than the movie, I think, and I'll attempt to rewatch, perhaps when it comes to 4K (as is rumoured).

24. MAYHEM - Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving are trapped in a high-rise office whilst a rage virus causes all its occupants to lose their inhibitions. They take advantage of the quarantine (and a limited window of legal immunity) to wreak bloody vengeance on their evil corporate masters. MAYHEM is a hyper-active, super-violent cartoon, that's lots of fun but just a little less cool than it thinks it is. Despite the viral premise, this is essentially a PURGE sequel played for laughs; and that's not a bad thing.

25. SEIZURE - Possibly the weirdest home-invasion movie ever and also the first film (I think) directed by Oliver Stone. I'm not even going to try to describe this one but it's thematically similar to Stone's next film, THE HAND, in that it's really about an artist grappling with his inner darkness. SEIZURE is a strange and interesting blend of grindhouse B-Movie and Ingmar Bergman and I'd say it was pretentious, except it actually feels quite heartfelt. It's not exactly good but there are flashes of brilliance and it held my interest. Stone completists, Herve Villechaise groupies and lovers of weird cinema should find some value in it.

26. THE UNINVITED - Ray Milland is mildly irritating in this atmospheric but tame Hollywood ghost story. It's a perfectly fine watch - ideal for a Sunday afternoon - but I'm not sure it deserves its "overlooked classic" status. The story is needlessly hard to follow and as far as scares go, it doesn't hold a candle (heh) to the likes of Wise's THE HAUNTING.

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Ste7en

I'm being a bit selective in introducing my wife to David Cronenberg.

C'mon, stop *****-footing and show her Videodrome and Dead Ringers back to back. Of course, make sure to first hide all the guns and pills in the house

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

23. THE MASK OF SATAN aka BLACK SUNDAY - Beautifully made and clearly influential but I just couldn't quite get into this Gothic Bava classic. More me than the movie, I think, and I'll attempt to rewatch, perhaps when it comes to 4K (as is rumoured).

26. THE UNINVITED - Ray Milland is mildly irritating in this atmospheric but tame Hollywood ghost story. It's a perfectly fine watch - ideal for a Sunday afternoon - but I'm not sure it deserves its "overlooked classic" status. The story is needlessly hard to follow and as far as scares go, it doesn't hold a candle (heh) to the likes of Wise's THE HAUNTING.

Think of Black Sunday as an adult fairy tale, I feel that's how it works best. Me, I just love it. The imagery is memorable, and Barbara Steele, even with a dubbed voice, shows great presence.

Yeah, The Uninvited is a lightweight when compared to The Haunting and (my personal favorite) The Innocents.

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

26. THE UNINVITED - Ray Milland is mildly irritating in this atmospheric but tame Hollywood ghost story. It's a perfectly fine watch - ideal for a Sunday afternoon - but I'm not sure it deserves its "overlooked classic" status. The story is needlessly hard to follow and as far as scares go, it doesn't hold a candle (heh) to the likes of Wise's THE HAUNTING.

While I didn't find the story hard to follow, it doesnt live up to the reputation it built up when it was completely out of circulation so long:



"They call them the haunted shores... Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories..."

The Uninvited is one of those films that owes much of its classic status to how little it was been seen over the years since its release: never available on a legitimate DVD until Exposure’s UK DVD release in 2012 and rarely seen on TV in most countries, it’s developed a formidable reputation as one of the great screen ghost stories that it can’t really live up to. Not that it’s a bad film by any means, but a few frissons apart it’s not a particularly chilling one. Given a bigger budget than usual for the genre in the 40s and a then A-list leading man in Ray Milland, the emphasis seems to be on turning it into a romantic melodrama that’s a kind of friendlier, cosier variation on Rebecca even if the plot is quite different. Accidentally stumbling across a large old house in Cornwall, Milland and his sister Ruth Hussey find it’s on the market at a suspiciously low price because of its reputation for ‘disturbances,’ but buy it anyway. The former owner, gruff Donald Crisp, wants it off his hands to keep his granddaughter Gail Russell away, and as pets refuse to go upstairs and unexpected chills and scents give way to sobbing in the night, it becomes clear that her long-dead mother hasn’t vacated the premises – and that she’s not the only ghost in the house either…

It’s a well enough developed mystery even if you can see the resolution coming as soon as one character lets slip one vital bit of back story, but it doesn’t seem to want to frighten its audience much, which was probably a sound commercial decision in 1944 but today leaves it in the shadow of more genuinely unsettling ghost stories like The Haunting. Seen with lowered expectations, it’s a nice, cosy picture (well, the screenplay was co-written by 101 Dalmatians’ Dodie Smith) with some good moments – a faked séance that turns real, some effective apparitions and a satisfying way of finally laying the malignant spirit – rather than a great one.

[Dickieduvet]

211222_large.jpg

Always a pleasure to revisit this creepy classic, Tony Beckley is so good in this as are Durning & Kane. A favourite since that late night TV showing back in the 80's.

[Guy87]

Halloween Horror #17

Started off Sunday with a cinema trip to “Halloween Kills”. After being aware that the 2018 movie offered little tension, but a lot of decent cinematography and visceral impact, I went into Halloween Kills hoping for the latter, and my cup runneth over with bone crunching goodness.

Don’t get me wrong, they try to tie this movie into the feel of the original Halloween, bringing back characters from the original movie (literally sat in a line, and then introduce one by one with flashbacks to catch up the uninitiated), and those who love fan service (me) are going to love how this movie calls back to (and even expands on) the original Halloween night from ’78. However, lovers of well written characters and subtle dialogue (also me) are going to be disappointed by how stupid every character in this movie is, and how everyone either speaks in awful exposition (drink every time someone starts a sentence with “forty years ago….”), terrible one liners or simply repeats their one off line from the original. The only person who ever pulled this off in the Halloween universe is Donald Pleasance. We are definitely back in 80’s sequel territory, where literally unstoppable (seriously it’s beyond ridiculous) Michael Myers becomes the hero, offing a bunch of badly written cartoon idiots whilst we cheer on from the side-lines.

It’s extremely fun if you’re a slasher fan, essentially a Friday the 13th movie in Haddonfield. I definitely got my pound of flesh from it and will watch it again, probably when I’ve had a particularly bad day. If you expect to see the subtle sinister grace of the original Halloween anywhere however, you’re best to just re-watch that one and leave well alone.



Sunday night saw in 1939 Bela Lugosi thriller “Dark Eyes of London” where Lugosi is a scientist/insurance salesman who offs his clients to collect on their life insurances. His character also runs a charity home for the blind (and I’m pretty sure also hypnotises people, although this is never fully discussed…. perhaps Lugosi just really is a vampire after all?). Lugosi has himself a Frankenstein-esque murdering brute of a blind man as a henchman, which in itself is an odd selection for hitman, notwithstanding the huge fake teeth and padded chest the poor actor has to wear throughout the role.
Anyway, it’s an entertaining enough 76 minutes as a gun toting American officer partners with a stiff upper lip Brit policeman to catch Lugosi. There’s also (SPOILERS FOR AN 83 YEAR OLD FILM)

[Show spoiler]a second character played by Lugosi, which is him disguised in glasses with a fake moustache, dubbed with an English actor. It is so very, very, very clearly Lugosi in a wig….and yet my wife was still surprised by the reveal, which added a whole new level of hilarious entertainment on the movie for me.

Lastly I finished the night with Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween re-make. Jonesing for more ‘brute force’ Michael Myers and not willing to touch the awful later 80’s sequels, I decided to give this a re-watch as I haven’t seen it since I was about 17.
I still maintain this movie would be much better if not called “Halloween”. Here instead of simply being “pure evil”, Michael is the result of a trashy awful upbringing, killing animals as an outlet and eventual graduating to his bullies, then family members. We follow him through his time at the psychiatric hospital with Loomis, and then suddenly an escape and an hour into the movie…we meet Laurie Strode and are suddenly thrusted into a suspense-less greatest hits version of the original Halloween with added aggression. It’s a shame, if the film wasn’t called “Halloween” it would make for an entertaining slasher original, but as it is we go from this distressing upbringing, to a quick summary of the original film almost in the click of a fingers. It’s not terrible, just a missed opportunity to be its own beast. I’m interested in seeing where the sequel goes having never checked it out.

(as an aside, I was also taken back by the amount of T&A in this movie. You see either or both of pretty much every female cast member in the film. I mean I’m glad they didn’t do the post-coital ‘sheet wrapping’ that other horror movies do, as masking sex in a movie with this many violent deaths is both daft and unrealistic. It’s just jarring that this film leans too far into the 80’s slasher teenage sex cliché as much as Halloween 2018 leans too far away from it, with one character lamely offering to “dry ****” another)