31 Days of Halloween Movies (2024) - Horror Fans Unite!!!!!!

[Monterey Jack]

[Show spoiler]Halloween Horror Marathon '12

Halloween Horror Marathon '13

Halloween Horror Marathon '14

Halloween Horror Marathon '15

Halloween Horror Marathon '16

Halloween Horror Marathon '17

Halloween Horror Marathon '18

Halloween Horror Marathon '19

Halloween Horror Marathon '20

Halloween Horror Marathon '21

Halloween Horror Marathon '22

Halloween Horror Marathon '23

First-time viewings are indicated with an ^

[Show spoiler]09/04/24: Blink Twice ^ (2024): Shaun Of The Dead (2004):
09/05/24: Beetlejuice (1988):
09/06/24: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ^ (2024):
09/07/24: Jaws (1975): Jaws 2 (1978):
09/11/24: The Front Room ^ (2024): [ZERO SKULLS]
09/13/24: Speak No Evil ^ (2024):
09/18/24: Sweet Sixteen ^ (1983): Soul Survivors ^ (2001):

09/20/24:

-The Substance ^ (2024):



Wild, caustic satire of aging and vanity stars Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, a past-her-prime actress who once was the toast of Hollywood, and how finds herself getting squeezed out of her gig hosting a cheeseball exercise show by her swinish cad of a boss (Dennis Quaid), who wants someone "Younger and hotter". Despondent, Elisabeth -- in the wake of a terrible car crash that somehow leaves her miraculously uninjured but shaken to the core -- finds herself courted by a doctor's assistant, who hands her a USB flash drive upon which is contained a concise message about a mysterious...well, substance that can allow her to enjoy her youth and beauty again. Intrigued, she injects said substance into her veins, and soon an entirely new person is birthed out of her back(!). Young, taut, gorgeous, this idealized new version of Elisabeth (who dubs herself "Sue", played by Margaret Qualley) enjoys the freedoms of her freshly-minted self (starring in an updated version of Elisabeth's workout show, being madly desired by young, attractive men everywhere), but there's a catch, Sue needing to "trade off" with Elisabeth's inert body once every seven days in order to keep a perfect balance between their two halves of the same whole. But greedy Sue wants more time to herself, taking more and more of Elisabeth's sheer essence by remaining in charge well past the seven-day limit, leading to an increasingly dessicated and warped Elisabeth to question whether her decision to cling to her departed youth in such an extreme manner is more curse than pleasure.

Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat, The Substance is like what would have happened had David Cronenberg and F/X makeup whiz Rob Bottin collaborated in the 80s to adapt one of those tidy EC Comics "Be careful what you wish for" cautionary fables. The film is full of grotesque, darkly funny body-horror ookiness, and the performances of its leading ladies give it a good deal of dramatic juice. Moore has never been better in a movie, giving her performance as a faded star looking middle age in the face and flinching a raw, lacerated edge, while Qualley plays her doppelganger's joie de vivre to the hilt, which is quickly swallowed up by her disenchantment and avarice with having to share her life with her older self.

The film works this pair off of each other in increasingly catty and malicious ways, leading to an astonishing extended climax that will likely turn off a good portion of the mainstream audience expecting more tidy genre thrills (I can't believe something like this is getting a wide release on nearly 2,000 screens) but will delight those with a taste for the extreme and surreal. This is bound to attain a fervent cult audience, and while certainly not for all tastes, is something -- love or hate it -- that you won't be able to shake very easily.

[CZAR]

9/1 - Deliverance - Great perfromance from Andra Day and refreshing take on Exorcisms.


9/2 - Longlegs - Just terrible and very slow. Nic please stop.


9/11 - The Witch - Good film! Loved the lead actress!


9/12 - Terrifier - Low budget but up my alley.


9/14 - Immaculate - Loved the lead actress and very good film.


9/15 - The Descent Part 2 - Not as good as the first, but love that it was a direct sequel.


9/16 - You'll Never Find Me - Mixed here, but it was ok I guess.


9/18 - Blink Twice - Very good movie and great directorial debut from Zoe.


9/19 - The Rental - Not a bad slasher film.

[u2popmofo]

9/20

The Mummy's Hand

[jeddy3]

9/20 - Evil Dead Rise (2023)

IMG_3539.jpg

(* notes first time viewing)
And the list so far -

[Show spoiler]9/1 - Pandorum (2009)
Life (2017)
9/2 - Event Horizon (1997)
9/3 - Jason X (2001)
9/4 - Beetlejuice (1988)
9/5 - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)*
9/6 - The Watchers (2024)*
9/8 - Sisters (1972)*
9/17 - Feast (2005)*
Demonic (2015)*
9/18 - Cuckoo (2024)*
9/19 - Suspiria (2018)*
Saint Maud (2019)*
9/20 - Evil Dead Rise (2023)

[BerC]

I saw this when it first came out and was blown away by how much I enjoyed the film. Now, watching it for the second time, I can say it is absolutely one of my favorite horror films of the last ten years. Much of what I enjoy about this film comes from its three leads. As the Grabber, Ethan Hawke displays the kind of creepiness that's worse when he's not being violent because you can feel the rage lying just beneath the surface, waiting to pounce like an animal backed into a shadowy corner. Mason Thames is essentially parallel to Hawke

[Show spoiler]in the fact that his anguish also resides just beneath the surface and when the tension finally snaps inside of him at the end of the film, his violent streak matches Hawke's which makes Thames' character Finney seem almost as scary as the Grabber.

My favorite member of the cast is Madeleine McGraw as Finney's wonderfully hot-tempered, foulmouthed little sister Gwen, who dreams about details of the crimes the Grabber has committed. I don't know if this will wind up being an all-time classic in my book, but for now, I must say it does rate quite high.

½

There's a good morality play in this film about the isolation caused by vampirism over an extended period of time. There's also a good morality play in this film about the isolation caused by working undercover as a police officer within a mafia family. Cross these two halves together and you get what I feel is a severely underrated horror movie which should have received more attention upon its release. It's not as wild and woolly as director John Landis's "An American Werewolf in London" which came out over a decade earlier, but it's still an exciting addition to his exemplary career. Anne Parillaud is one of the best vampires of the nineties and she's surrounded by some real heavyweights in the form of Robert Loggia, Chazz Palminteri, Tony Sirico and Don Rickles. Anthony LaPaglia was a good leading man to play opposite Parillaud. In the nineties, he kept popping up in the most unusual of places and kept delivering terrific performances each and every time. There are some very good blood and make-up effects and a small dose of silliness that help push the story forward. I do think a lot of people were put off because this film was a more straightforward horror yarn and wasn't nearly as humorous as "American Werewolf."

½

Unlike "Innocent Blood," which I think I've viewed five times since it came out, "An American Werewolf in London" is a film I revisit every couple of years. It's one of my favorite horror films of the early eighties and one of my favorite comedy films of that time as well. In truth, it's probably one of my three favorite horror comedies of all-time alongside "Evil Dead II" and "Beetlejuice." David Naughton and Griffin Dunne work well together as backpacking graduate students who lose their way while walking on the English moors. Their friendship is never in question and their banter is the kind of comfortable ribbing one expects (but doesn't always receive) from characters like this. Of course, Dunne is infinitely funnier

[Show spoiler]once he's been butchered by the original werewolf and returns as the cursed undead. He also works well with the other undead victims of Naughton's own werewolf attacks as they pester him to commit suicide so they can be freed from their curse.

Jenny Agutter has always been one of my favorite actresses, and here she has both a natural bedside manner as a nurse and a convincing infatuation as a lover for Naughton's character. The werewolf transformation sequence in this film was one of the best at the time and still has the power to impress more than forty years later. There are a lot of modern filmmakers who could learn a valuable lesson about practical effects by watching this movie.

½

They say the third time's the charm, but in the "Child's Play" franchise that wasn't true at all. The fourth installment was vastly superior and it gave horror fans hope that the filmmakers had finally hit on a winning formula they could replicate in the fifth film. Unfortunately, the humor has been inflated and the meta moments that made "Bride of Chucky" special are piled on thick in "Seed of Chucky." It's certainly true there's some good gore sequences (and there's even a bit of nudity from Stephanie Chambers near the beginning of the film) however the balance between carnage and comedy seems a little off. Writer Don Mancini accepts double duty as director for the first time and I'm not sure he was completely up for the challenge. It's not nearly as mundane as the third film, but it really doesn't rise above the level of average . . . and at this stage of his existence, Chucky should be anything but average.

POSSIBLY SPOILER-ISH VIDEO FOR "AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON":

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFYshyGZbX0

SPOILER FREE VERSION OF THE SONG:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=niRM-DumGrI

[october27]

13. The Cabin In The Woods

[Jajuka89]

9/20

Tremors 3 (2001) 1/2

Not the best, but with beer and wings added to the mix it was a fun watch


Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010)

[kingdoxie]

Blood for Dracula



Castle of the Creeping Flesh

[HD Canuck]

Recent viewings in bold:
*Indicates first viewings.

1. The X-Files Season 7
2. The X-Files Season 8
3. The X-Files Season 9
4. The X-Files: I Want to Believe for X-Files for standalone.
5. The X-Files Season 10 (The Event Series)



Much better than season 9 and the 2nd movie. The two stand-out episodes were "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" and "Home Again". The two episodes were classic monster-of-the-week episodes.

[CelluloidPal]

9/21:

Killer Party (1986) *New to Blu-ray*
A hollow mess that didn't know what it wants to be. Is it an Animal House style comedy? A slasher? A demon possession flick? On top of that, it took what should've been a simple slasher plot and made it confusing somehow. The humor didn't land and the horror/suspense was dull and it moves at a snail's pace that doesn't build up to much of anything. Despite all of that, it does have its charm plus the scenes with Paul Bartel did get some laughs out of me and the weird yet rockin' opening scene that kicked off what could've been something better than what we got.

[Jajuka89]

Originally Posted by HD Canuck

Much better than season 9 and the 2nd movie. The two stand-out episodes were "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" and "Home Again". The two episodes were classic monster-of-the-week episodes.

Seeing your X-Files posts made me pick up the first 3 seasons on bluray

[u2popmofo]

9/21

WILCZYCA

LOKIS: A MANUSCRIPT OF PROFESSOR WITTEMBACH

CLEARCUT





First official day of fall tomorrow!

[chad_1138]

9/21 - and

and

[MassiveMovieBuff]

9/21

Burnt Offerings
Rosemary's Baby

[Martin_31]

9/20
Perhaps, one of the grossest and goriest films I’ve seen, The Substance is the highlight of horror movies released this year that I’ve seen. Insanely over-the-top with an amazing performance by Demi Moore. I think Moore deserves an Academy Award nomination.

9/21
Tonight’s watch was In a Violent Nature. Boring, insipid film. Cool gore effects though. Best scene was the

[Show spoiler]body being tossed into the display case and the girl running through the woods at the end.

[october27]

14. Aliens

I think I will upgrade this favorite to 4K next time I catch it on sale.

[jeddy3]

9/21 - The Thing (2011)

IMG_3541.jpg

The Thing (1982)

IMG_3542.jpg

(* notes first time viewing)
And the list so far -

[Show spoiler]9/1 - Pandorum (2009)
Life (2017)
9/2 - Event Horizon (1997)
9/3 - Jason X (2001)
9/4 - Beetlejuice (1988)
9/5 - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)*
9/6 - The Watchers (2024)*
9/8 - Sisters (1972)*
9/17 - Feast (2005)*
Demonic (2015)*
9/18 - Cuckoo (2024)*
9/19 - Suspiria (2018)*
Saint Maud (2019)*
9/20 - Evil Dead Rise (2023)
9/21 - The Thing (2011)
The Thing (1982)

[BerC]

The cannibal subgenre of horror has fascinated me for many years. We were first introduced somewhere in the summer of 1988 and we quickly developed a love/hate relationship that has lasted ever since. There are some genuinely outstanding films available in the category of cannibalism, but more often than not you're left with retrogressive cinema that keeps repeating one or two common themes over and over without adding anything unique. "Cannibal Ferox" falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Writer/director Umberto Lenzi crafted some intriguing horror films over his thirty plus year career, but in this instance the territory he treads is so familiar you feel you could draw its map with your eyes closed. It relies too heavily on its exceptional-but-brief moments of shock value, the scenes set in New York are a real slog to get through, and most of the dialogue sounds better suited for an Italian soap opera. I'll grant you,

[Show spoiler]the castration sequence (and subsequent eating of the penis) is emphatically unsettling and stabbing hooks through Zora Kerova's breasts leaves a lasting imprint on the viewer's brain,

but the surrounding material is paper thin. Lorraine De Selle is a much better actress than a film of this caliber deserves. How she never managed to jumpstart a career outside of horror films, I'll never know. Overall, this is a decent time waster; better than some, not as good as others, but I'm glad I watched it again.

½

Even at the age of ten, I knew from the stellar cast list that this film would have to at least be of marginal interest. I mean: Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum, Eli Wallach, Ava Gardner, William Hickey, Chris Sarandon, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Martin Balsam, Sylvia Miles and Arthur Kennedy all in the same place? Are you kidding me? You also have Beverly D'Angelo in her first appearance on the big screen performing in a very racy supporting role . . . thus continuing my childhood fascination with her which began in "National Lampoon's Vacation." Rowr. The story is simple as posh model Alison Parker moves into a suspiciously cheap New York apartment only to be subjected to a series of strange occurrences that will call into question her sanity.

Of all the horror films I've seen from the late seventies, I think this one has the best set design. Every wrought iron fence, every decorative wall panel, every piece of ornamental bric-a-brac in every location looks like it was hand chosen for the film. The same attention to detail is displayed in the storyline as director Michael Winner (who also coauthored the screenplay) adeptly ties all sorts of little threads together - the death of Alison's father, the suicide of her boyfriend's first wife, the tangible neighbors that Alison can see who haven't actually lived in the mostly vacant building for years, the strange sedentary blind priest, et al - into one unifying strand of unhinged nastiness. There was a cycle of "gates of hell" films that cropped up in the late seventies/early eighties and while this might not be my favorite amongst them, it certainly comes close.

½

Waiting nine years for another Chucky movie - the longest wait in the series to date - really sucked. Sure, "Seed of Chucky" might not have been the best entrant, but Chucky is one icon that never really grows old. This film was my introduction to Brad Dourif's daughter Fiona who I found to be every bit as accomplished as her father. She makes a great focal point for Chucky's imagined retribution and there's something amusing about seeing father vs. daughter in a roundabout way. All of the action (with the exception of an important flashback late in the movie) takes place in Fiona's residence. Single location shoots are often hard to pull off, even in the horror genre, but "Curse of Chucky" succeeds exceptionally well on that front; there's never want for a more open environment and containing the kill zone in this instance gives the film more suspense than it might have had otherwise.

The reversion to pure horror without many comedic elements is welcome after the prominent detour the fifth installment decided to take. It does seem weird to see Chucky without his stitched up face after all these years and the first time I watched this, I was concerned writer/director Don Mancini was performing a soft reboot. As the film progressed, though, everything started to make sense. It becomes clear "Curse" is a direct continuation around the hour mark when

[Show spoiler]Chucky's mask comes off, revealing said stitches, and even clearer later on when we find out Chucky has targeted this specific family because of his infatuation with Fiona's mother. This infatuation also puts an interesting psychological spin on Chucky's relationship with Tiffany and his offspring Glen and Glenda.

Naturally, me being me, I wish the lesbian romance subplot between Danielle Bisutti and Maitland McConnell had been a bit spicier, but they say you can't have everything.

[Show spoiler]The "stinger" at the end with Jennifer Tilly is one of the best the series offered, bettered only by the "double stinger" after the credits with the returning Alex Vincent reprising his role as Andy Barclay. Of course, this second "stinger" doesn't exactly make sense considering what we witnessed before the end credit roll, but at least we wouldn't have to wait another nine years for the picture to become clearer!

HERE'S A LITTLE JOSEPH LoDUCA TO ENJOY:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf0WXSEQXC8

[KenHurd]

Never Let Go

A woman and her two children remain in a cabin to escape an evil that has infected their world. Whenever they go out, they must remain tied to a rope that connects to the cabin, otherwise the evil will get them. But when the children start to question their mother as to whether there is really evil out there, the horrific consequences of their actions start to unfold.

This one didn't really do much for me. The actors all did a fantastic job, and it had plenty of unsettling atmosphere, but the story left a lot to be desired. Hopefully my opinion of it improves after a future revisit.

[kingdoxie]

Orphan: First Kill ½

Really good and I'll be getting the first one in the next Shout sale. Makes me wonder why there wasn't a whole series of films on this character, seems ripe for exploitation.