Badmovies.org Forum

It's almost time, kids. The clock is ticking. Be in front of your TV sets for the Horrorthon this October. Don't miss it. And don't forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking. It's almost time.

What we saw last year (http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,135832.0.html).
Beginning October 1st you may post and share your scary viewings in this very thread  :thumbup:

Ah, good. Been getting something of a backlog of horror movies I've been meaning to watch. Now I might just keep saving them up for another month.

Definetly down with this event, I have a bad habit of buying horror movies and never getting around to watching them.

I'll have to make a point of watching those old classics, as well as those old "classics" that have been gathering dust in my collection for too long.

Count me in.  I'm with AndyC - there are a bunch that I've been meaning to get to, but I might just have to wait now...

I've been meaning to ask you JayJay: what is that in your avatar?  :teddyr:

Well I just brought up everything I own that could be considered a horror film, sans glorious B-movies like Plan 9 or trash like Alone in the Dark, for a grand total of 28 movies including a couple I've never seen.  

:cheers: :cheers:

Count me in.  This will be a first for me.  I plan on 1.5 per day  :cheers:.

Later,

John

I'm gonna try to watch a movie every day that month...it's highly unlikely I'll succeed but whatever.

Well, I've gone from having a small backlog of horror movies to actively seeking and stockpiling them. Now comes the hard part - waiting a couple more weeks before diving in.

I'm thinking of maybe snapping up Werewolf Woman (1976) and Lizard In A Woman's Skin (1971) for Halloween viewing.  Are these worthwhile?

I hope I can get my horror game reviews done in a timely manner this year.  I really want to watch the s**t out of my horror DVD collection.  :teddyr:

I jumped the gun a little.  Sorry.

1.  Ghosts of Mars

2.  Dracula II - The Assention

3.  Lethal Dose

4.  Blubberella

5.  Freddy Vs Jason

6.  Army of Darkness

7.  Night of the Demons (remake) - lame

8.  Nightmare on Elm Street 3

9.  Jason X

10.  Freddy vs Jason

11.  Exorcist III

12.  Friday the 13th II

13.  Presidential Election

14.  Dark Floors

15.  The Thing

16.  Dead Space

My mini write ups will follow.  I needed to list the movies now before I forgot.

I'm in on this, I've been trying to watch a movie every other day lately so this will be a good start.

I dug a little deeper into my movie archive and have found one horror movie for each day of October.  :teddyr:

I'm boycotting all horror movie watching until the much anticipated Scarlet Fry's Junk Food Horror Fest" sequel actually comes out.  It's been long enough already.

I think I am going to pull out my Masters of Horror season 1 blu-rays and watch Friday the 13th: the series.

I just watched Horror High. Decent enough movie, nothing special.

If you haven't seen it, it's about a creepy nerdy kid that gets picked on by some students and some of the worst teachers imaginable, so he takes a Mr. Hyde formula he's been working on for chemistry class and ends up killing them all. 

For some reason I don't think this actually had anything to do with Return to Horror High, but then again, there are quite a few things about that movie that still confuse me. 

Monday I can finally start my horror marathon  :thumbup:  I've been thinking of making a schedule of what to watch each evening, but my inner nerd is at a standoff with my inner procrastinator.

Sorry folks I jumped the gun and have decided to start the marathon early. Now I am working my way through my new lionsgate 8 and 6 movie sets. Today I watched
Return of the Living Dead 3-Directed by the talented Brian Yuzna (Society) this addition to the return series is actually really great. Maybe the best of the series and I love the first film. Basically our protaginist's girlfriend dies in a motorcycle accident and he decides to use his military fathers zombie lab to bring her back. I dont blame him because when she was alive she was HOT! Unfortunately as a zombie she is slightly more problematic. I love this period in horror filmmaking before CGI and when practical effect were at their most effective and creative. This film has great pacing and although quite funny in places it does not cross the line to where you dont care about the characters. A great start to the october marathon, I hope some of the other horror flicks will be this entertaining (I kind of doubt it, but hopefully)
A terrific horror film from one of the genres more interesting directors.

:bouncegiggle:

I got a pre-emptive start.  I kicked things off this evening with the Halloweenies episode of The Adventures of Pete and Pete (one of the best shows of all time!) and followed it up with Ghosthouse (1988).  Stupid film, but a fun way to start.

I feel like this thread should be stickied through October.

I originally saw Ghosthouse back when I was in 4th grade, and it took me about 18 years to find a copy of it.  I remember it scared me to death when I was a kid, but then on re-watch....well, I'll stick to my original memories of that one.

I got an early start on this tonight, by going to the theater and watching "The Possession".  Saw the new Resident Evil last week.  Meh.  The Possession had a couple of good jumps, but overall not really scary.  The Apparition was really cheesy, though I got a kick out of Tom Felton..

I've been away from this site for so long!  Feels good to be back.  I hope I can get a horror movie in a day this month....

I got a few out of the way this past week.

Monday- Halloween
Tuesday- Prom Night
Wendsday- Christine
Thursday- Evil of Frankenstein
Friday- The Howling
Saturday- King Kong (1976 Version)
Sunday- Dracula

Today I can make it official. I have no set ideas as to what I will watch. I would like to do a marathon of "The Wolf Man," "Horror of Dracula," and "The Mummy." When I was a kid one of the local theater's showed all three during an all day Halloween fest. It was great to see classics on a theater screen that were released long before I was born.

Here is what  I'll be watching this month.  :teddyr:

1 The Invisible Man
2 The Mummy (1932)
3 Night of the Living Dead (1968)
4 Frankenstein (1931)
5 Nosferatu
6 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
7 Seven
8 Dracula
9 The Wolf Man (1941)
10 The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
11 The Black Cat (1934)
12 Misery
13 Halloween
14 Halloween 2
15 Psycho (1960)
16 The Fly (1986)
17 Rosemary’s Baby
18 Saw
19 Saw 2
20 Saw 3
21 Carrie
22 Children of the Corn
23 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
24 The Omen
25 The Shining
26 Silence of the Lambs
27 Hannibal
28 Red Dragon
29 Alien
30 White Zombie
31 The Exorcist: Extended Director's Cut (bluray)

Got a pretty good list going myself, and I'm actually surprised I've been able to resist watching them until now. A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time looking up lists of the best horror of the past few years, as well as the best of the lesser-known horror films of the genre in general. Managed to pick out a few gems I haven't seen. Between those movies, some good ones I haven't seen in years, and some old favourites I've seen many times, I've got some good viewing options for the month. I've managed to track most of them down too.

I have no specific order to what I will be watching but here are some things I have on dvd/blu ray that need watching:

Waxwork, The Unholy, Bride of Reanimator, Cursed, Ginger Snaps 2, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Pieces, Rats: The Nights of Terror, They, Visiting Hours, Hatchet 2, 967
evil 2, Silent Hill, Friday the 13th part 4 and 5

Don't know where to start with these, Have only seen a couple before.

And just as a random recommendation that people tend to overlook for some reason is Exorcist 3, this is a terrific movie just as scary as the first one in parts. If you haven't seen it I think you could do worse than checking this one out for October!  

That one's on my list; don't really have an order to what I'm watching but it's mostly stuff from my Mill Creek sets that I haven't gotten around to yet.
I kicked it off a little early last night with DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (original) and RED DRAGON.

10/01/12 Filmcount: 1

(http://images2.static-bluray.com/movies/covers/40875_large.jpg)

Spawn: Director's Cut (1997)

Far from perfect but still entertaining enough. John Leguizamo definitely steals the show. Enjoyed those "ancient" late 90s CGI effects. 3.5/5

Ok now on to film number two. This one I found on youtube. It is:

The Amityville Horror 2: The Possession- Having only seen the first film I decided to check out this 1982 sequel directed by the Italian director Damiano Damiani (pretty awesome name I have to admit) who according to IMDB is most known for a film called "The Pizza Connection"! So what makes this film different from the endless haunted house movies we have likely seen. Well for starters we have Burt Young (Paulie from Rocky) playing an absolutely insane abusive father. Nearly every scene he is in he is screaming at or physically assaulting his family. Adding to the disturbing quality is a incest subplot between teenage brother and sister. So this movie has quite a bit going on even before demons and ghosts come into the picture.

The social dynamic is effective in creating a real sense of chaos in the house that is of course only intensified as the haunting begins. Although some of the performances aren't the best I felt drawn into the dysfunction of the household, and felt the film was scarier than due to having such disturbing unlikable characters. As for the actual haunting it begins quite early and we see manifestations frequently throughout, some we have seen before like blood pouring out of the sinks and some are new. No secret that the teenage son is eventually possessed by the house resulting in an Exorcist lite third act.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this film and found it to be preferable to the original. Their is some great Steadicam work at play here which provide some of the most engaging sequences in the film. Special Effects while not groundbreaking are never embarrassing and they come quite constantly. Above all this film pulls no punches and gives us no hero to root for, which makes it much scarier than films that use stereotypically perfect and well meaning family dynamics. Now its not perfect and much of the third act is a step down but is still quite a bit better than I would expect an entry in the Amityville franchise to be.

IMO a lost gem that I did not expect to be as good as it was.

Exorcist 3 was awesome as was Blatty's Legion book that it was based on. Fulci, I highly reccomend you give Visting Hours a go. It's a very well done and classy Canadian slasher from the golden age.   :cheers:

I've not got a list or anything, but i did get a big pile of movies stacked up next to my TV, but I have a headache tonight so I'm not watching anything :(

I think ill start with Hell of the Living Dead, which is seriously my favorite zombie movie for some f**ked up reason.

Started last night with The Burning (1981), a very good summer camp slasher movie I hadn't seen before. For some reason, it didn't get the same exposure as some of the other slashers back in the day. I hadn't even heard of it until recently.

Good movie with the standard formula. Five years earlier, a group of campers play a prank on the camp's creepy, sadistic caretaker. It goes wrong, and he ends up horribly burned. Jump forward to a new group of campers, and their silent stalker. This one had a lot of T&A, as well as sex talk, even by the standards of the genre. The girls are constantly finding reasons to undress, while the boys spend a significant amount of time looking at porn and talking about jacking off. Typical collection of one-note teenage characters, including a very young Jason Alexander, about a decade before Seinfeld. Still, the movie delivers good tension and scares, and quite a bit of blood and gore, courtesy of Tom Savini.

Overall, one of the better examples of the slasher subgenre. I liked it.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Theburningposter.jpg)

Started out with Friday the 13th (1980).  Some counselors go to Camp Crystal Lake to help renovate the cabins before the actual campers arrive.  The place is kind of run down because it's been closed for 20 years due to a few murders that took place...this does not bode well for our current staff.  I'm a big fan of the Friday the 13th franchise but this first entry is one of the weakest in my opinion.  You don't get to know the characters well enough to really care about what happens to them, and the last third of the movie really drags.  Heck the climax even drags.  It's got some nice atmosphere out in the dark woods at least.  I actually enjoyed it a bit more last night than I have when I've watched it previously.  3.5/5.

Started last night with The Gore Gore Girls.


I don't have a list either and I will just play it by ear.

Tonight though I'm going to try and watch Manhattan Baby.

I watched The Invisible Man yesterday. Simply amazing special effects considering it was made in 1933 and still holds up today. The documentary goes into how they they did it. To be blunt it's a classic.

I tried to get through Blood Waters Of Dr Z yesterday. Even with the MST3K peeps riffing, I failed.

Finally getting around to watching some horror flicks.  Been busy with a staff review for Borderlands 2. 

Kicked it all off with House (1986).  God, I love this movie!  :thumbup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmzsp4zbtG0

EDIT:
Currently watching The Stuff (1985).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f70vhJjHTMA

I should get my hands on a copy of House. Been a long time since I last saw that one.

Tonight, I watched Blood Hook (1986). Saw it on VHS years ago, and felt like giving it another watch. Probably the most noteworthy thing about this movie is that its director, Jim Mallon, and key grip, Kevin Murphy, went on to do Mystery Science Theater.

A homicidal angler is snagging unsuspecting victims off docks and out of boats during a weekend-long muskie fishing tournament in Wisconsin, and it ties back to the disappearance of a character's grandfather 17 years earlier. It's a low-budget slasher flick with its share of cheesy effects, hokey dialogue and goofy performances, but it also offers a bit of a different twist on the slasher formula, and it's quite engaging. The killer's identity is pretty well concealed by an abundance of hostile, creepy and generally weird characters. The characters themselves are surprising, in that some of them start as one-note cliches, but actually develop some depth, and end up playing a different part in the story than you might expect at first. Overall, pretty good for what it is.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-If0Qf-BWVZM/T1RjR82WtJI/AAAAAAAAHgo/dGBVfa9BhR4/s1600/blood-hook-movie-poster-1986-1020194417.jpg)

10/02/12 Filmcount: 2

(http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/57890_388149847925285_1957251659_n.jpg)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Silly and self-ware, missing charm and atmosphere from part 1. Still entertaining with lots of fun movie references. 4/5

Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) - pretty much the same plot as the first movie;  counselors show up at summer camp a few days before the campers arrive and a psycho killer slaughters them.  I liked this a lot better than the first.  The characters are a bit more developed and I actually cared about them (a little) and didn't want to see them get killed.  And a lot more is going on in this one, it's not just people sitting around doing nothing until it's their turn to die.  And Jason makes a far more frightening killer than some 50 year old woman.  Overall it's a fun slasher, one of my all-time favorites.  4.5/5.

Friday the 13th Part III (1982) - another fun entry in the franchise.  This time it's a group of kids going to a cabin, which I'm assuming is somewhere in the vicinity of Crystal Lake.  Once again the characters are fun and likable (especially Tracie Savage in that unforgettable blue bikini).  There's a cheesy 3-person biker gang who gets their just rewards courtesy of Jason, and this was originally released in 3-D so there's tons of stuff getting thrust in the direction of the camera, which lends a certain retro charm.  The last girl is actually surprisingly resourceful which makes for a much more satisfying climax.  4.5/5.

Ok now I'm up to my third film.

American Gothic (1988)-Directed by John Hough (The Legend of Hell House) and shot in beautiful British Columbia this is a creepy little movie that kept me entertained. When 6 teens are stranded on an island they decide to do a little camping before discovering that a very strange family resides on the island. The family consists of Rod Steiger, his wife and their three "children" who are fully grown and fully disturbing looking.

I liked this one for a couple reasons. Firstly the island location was well used with some pretty good camerawork. Next the creepy family is really well done, I fully believed that the three "children" have some kind of mental issues/deficiencies in real life which added to the effect of the film. Rod Steiger gets to chew up the scenery as the father and is probably the most memorable performance here.

As for what didn't work I would say they could have spent some more time on the kills in this movie but I would guess that was more of a budget issue. Overall I have enjoyed all three movies I have watched this month (Return of the Living Dead 3, Amityville 2 and this one) I don't know if that means these are good films or that I just have extremely low critical standards for my horror films. Regardless I am enjoying checking out these flicks and will likely watch one or two more today.

Well, my first October viewing was ESCAPE FROM GALAXY 3.  Now, I'm afraid to watch anything else.

Not a marathon by any means, but . . .

Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie." Hopefully, this weekend.

Close enough to a horror film and not to be confused with the porno version "Frankie's Weenie."

Tonight's Horror Movie was ... Zombie Diaries. 

Sadly enough, it is not a movie about a Zombie's diary.  That would have been much more entertaining.  (Dear Diary, today I found a ground of people held up in a farm house.  I just wanted to come in and say "hello" but it came out more as "braaaiiinnnnnssss,".  Then they shot me in the leg, the jerks, so I ate their baby.)  Instead it's a movie where some guy has a camera and records the zombie outbreak. 

So, yeah, it's one of those shaky camera held by the character films, you know they type, the ones that pass bad camera work and being unable to tell what's going on as a feature instead of a mistake.  I've never cared for that stuff.  The movie makers this time decide to spice things up by randomly having the film quality go horrible and distorted, which might have been a nice gimic if it was consistent instead of it just happening randomly then going back to the normal perfect film.  Oh, and also sometimes they decide to just skip the hand held camera stuff and film it like a normal movie. 

What else can I say abut it?  Hmm... none of the characters are likeable or memorable, that includes the zombies, and the box art has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. 

Movie 4
The Black Cat (1981)
This movie by lucio fulci is loosely based on the edgar allan poe story. Instead it is mainly based on close up eyes of the main stars (the cat). The story is pretty much nonsense and I had trouble paying attention to it throughout. Some alright cat attacks, but this film should have been much gorier than it was. The cat attacks are pretty repetitive and by about 45 minutes in when you've seen 10,000 close ups of the freakin things eyes, you will just want it to go away.
Probably the worst movie I have seen from lucio so far.

Started watching The Horde (2009) while feeding Grayson.  Despite its use of shaky camera, it's not bad so far.  It's pretty flippin' bloody, too.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) - some partying kids go to a cabin out in the woods, and next door is another cabin where the last girl lives.  Jason is as usual a huge party-pooper.  This isn't a big favorite of mine, the characters are such basic cliches - if a character has a line of dialogue, it serves no purpose but to reinforce their paper-thin stereotype;  none of the party kids has any personality beyond that.  I didn't care if they all died.  And then somebody came up with the idea of having a precocious child as a lead character.  Good grief.  It did have the usual good atmosphere and...and...3.5/5.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) - The precocious child from the last movie is now in his 20's and living in a halfway house for the mentally disturbed or something.  It's not long before a guy in a hockey mask is once again giving the local police department a lot of extra work to do.  This is another favorite of mine - the characters are really well written and a lot of fun.  It's got a wonderful sense of humor about it too.  Another 4.5/5 entry in the franchise.

10/03/12 Filmcount: 3

(http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/601523_388306994576237_1639155554_n.jpg)

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010)

Four hours of Elm Street extravaganza: All you ever wanted to know or didn't know can be found on this documentary. Enjoyable and Interesting however, some of the actors didn't age well (Tuesday Knight, wtf?) while others look better now than they did back then (Lisa Wilcox, Kim Myers). 5/5

Jack, you got it all wrong again: everybody appreciates Friday the 13th (1980) and everybody LOVES Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)  :teddyr: :wink:

I know I know lol   :teddyr:  I just gotta be different  :smile:

10-1 - watched a grim South American ghost story called THE APPEARED.  Not bad, moves a little slow.  6/10

10-2 - watched DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN although it's more like Dracula & Frankenstein occasionally appear in the vicinity of each other.  Big bowl of deep-fried cheese from Al Adamson. 5/10
and FURY OF THE WOLF MAN with Paul Naschy, wolf man's ex-girlfriend is a mad doctor who is trying to control his mind.  Or something.  This one was a tedious mess. 1/10

10-3 - watched TRAUMA, murky giallo in which Detective Handsome Man investigates murders at a girls' boarding school.  The killer reveal makes basically zero sense, but the movie only exists to show teenagers without clothes anyway. 2/10
and THE BLOODY BROOD, one of those "Evil Beatnik" flicks from the 50s; a Nice Upstanding White Boy tracks down his brother's killer.  As far as this subgenre goes, I've seen worse.  Notable mainly for being Peter Falk's film debut.  5/10

On tonight's list: SHOCK and THE SHE-BEAST.

October 1: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) - Better than I remember and still scary.  Incredible film in my opinion.

October 2: Cemeterio del terror (aka Cemetery of Terror (1985) - Pretty terrible and generic but entertaining.  Group of young folks have a party in an old abandoned mansion.  After finding an old evil book they decide to liven things up by stealing a corpse and attempt to bring it back to life via the book.  Of course they stole the corpse of the book's author who was a demonic murderer.  The film surprisingly shifts its focus to different characters in the last half hour.  The director of this made the much better and much sillier Don't Panic in 1988.

October 3: Mark of the Vampire (1935) - Tod Browning film about the strange happenings and deaths in a local village that are blamed on vampires.  It gets a little goofy but it's still enjoyable and has some lovely atmosphere.

Friday the 13th Part VI:  Jason Lives (1986) - Tommy Jarvis, the guy from the previous two movies, is having nightmares about Jason.  So he decides to dig up Jason's body and make really, really sure he's dead.  Of course this results in Jason coming back to life and it's not long before he's off ruining everyone's weekend yet again.  Jarvis tries to convince the sheriff that Jason is back, but he doesn't really believe that people can come back to life, and the fact that Jarvis spent the previous movie in a mental institution doesn't exactly boost his credibility either.  But the sheriff's daughter thinks he's cute, so she teams up with him to stop our machete wielding fiend.  This is kind of a departure from the earlier movies as the main characters aren't the focus of Jason's killing spree - he's mostly killing any random people he comes across.  It's played somewhat for laughs, and I found it very entertaining.  They don't make a comedy out of it, just add a bit of silliness.  Not one of the very best in the franchise, put pretty good.  4/5.

10/04/12 Filmcount: 4

(http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/c0.0.403.403/p403x403/385602_388771094529827_1285265548_n.jpg)

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Missing the scary atmosphere of the first, but we do get to "see more". I'm a fan of the franchise, looking forward to part 4. 4/5

On the subject of sequels that have bad reputations, today's movie is Halloween III. 

No Micheal Myers here. 

It's actualy a really good movie and I'm surprised that so far nobody has actualy tried to tie that Halloweeen mask making cult into the Myers story. 

Just watched Dario Argento's Phenomena. I remember seeing the VHS tape of this (under the alternate title, Creepers) back in the 80s. Was not yet a horror fan, and between the cover art (which turned out to be a bit misleading) and an older friend's description, I was not about to rent it at the time.

Looking at it today, it's a pretty wild movie. It starts out with a scary and mysterious murder that hooks you right away, then it spends most of its runtime meandering through lots of weirdness. A serial killer on the loose, a girl who has a telepathic rapport with insects, Donald Pleasence in Switzerland with a Scottish accent and a chimp for a servant. And apart from a heavy metal soundtrack that doesn't seem to go with anything that's happening, everything fits into the story somewhere, even if it's just to set up one cool scene later on. It's not overly scary until about the last half hour, when it all comes together and Argento cranks up the tension before letting fly with the blood, gore and other insanity. I liked it.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eHkTwd4aRic/SxAlxoEAvrI/AAAAAAAASgE/SwPV2g6GXho/s1600/phenomena_poster_02.jpg)

Watched "Alone in the Dark" last night.   The film cannot decide whether to be an action movie or a horror film, and that's probably the fault of Mr. Uwe Boll.  We get all the same shots of people kicking butt with firearms as the creatures close in on Bureau 713's final Alamo stand at the mine entrance.

I did like the special bullets used against the darkness demons.  I did not like the ending at all, and too much of the big last stand battle reminded me of "Starship Troopers."

Final verdict:  it's an action movie.

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31y9bgUPL%2BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)



I first watched it years ago under the "Creepers" title as well.  It is a weird film when you think about it.

Today I finally saw Brain Damage!  Been on my radar for ages.

Lied Aylmer, thought it pretty well-paced, but doesn't quite build to something.  Still worth a watch..  7/10.

This was horror film number...   5?  Have to double check.

Watched Pontypool (2008).  Really enjoyed it!  :thumbup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehq2a8lum_4

10/06/12 Filmcount: 6

(http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/c0.0.250.250/p403x403/563895_389519637788306_824917489_n.jpg)

Used to be one of my favorites back in video days. Great compilation of fright and terror flicks edited together and shown in themes narrated by Donald Pleasence and Nancy Allen. Could have done with a little less Halloween (1978) and When a Stranger Calls (1979). Thought it was funny they included the turd The Seduction. 4/5

Movie 5: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt-EipwlWQ0

Movie 5
Tales From the Hood (1995)
This anthology film is surprisingly really good. The stories hit a nice balance between being enjoyable horror and actually dealing with some social issues most specifically racism, child abuse, and police corruption. Look for Wings Hauser as a racist cop and David Allen Grier as an abusive boyfriend.
Movie 6
The Descent (2005)
I had heard a lot of good things about this film but never got around to watching it until now. I thought it was pretty good, not really very scary though. Some nice performances and a great score add a lot to the proceedings.

Movie 6: Jason X (2001)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3dNVkVFia8

Movie 7: Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JQs-5b7huY

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988) - a girl with psychic powers goes to a cabin at Crystal Lake with her evil psychiatrist and her mom.  Meanwhile a group of hard-partying kids are having a great time next door.  And there's another guy who could use a psychiatrist as well - that nasty old masked madman named Jason.  Another favorite of mine, with really fun characters and the whole Carrie vs. Jason thing at the end is a hoot!  It might be a little short on scares compared to the very best of the franchise, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway.  4.25/5.

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) - sigh...1.75/5.

I won't try any big movie reviews, just quick bites for whatever I see and a silly rating based off of candy from my door-to-door days. First late submissions:

Rumpelstiltskin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114306/), October 2^nd.
(http://sharetv.org/images/posters/rumpelstiltskin_1995.jpg)

This is a good example of 90s-era action-horror cheese: the gore is akin to "Greg Nicotero does Loony Tunes" and a lot of things explode, sometimes  unnecessarily. There is one thing above all else that makes this a fun movie and that is Max Grodénchik's performance as Rumpy himself, complete with medieval dialogue, awful puns, and that awesome laugh. If he looks familiar with those brow ridges and teeth, think of a pair of Ferengi ears.

This is also one of the few movies in any genre where I can pin down my favorite part to a single scene and that is this gem right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7d6uC07mM0
The image of a goblin, in sunglasses, at night, on a motorcycle has got to be one of the best things to ever come out of a Hollywood writer's session. I would play that song in an endless loop all day if I had the option. And right after that he gets a truck. It only gets better.

Rating: Whoppers.
Not my first choice out of the bag but certainly a favorite. If this movie is playing I will probably forget whatever it was that I was currently doing.

Watched Dark Shadows (2012) last night. Maybe not a horror movie in the strictest sense, but it does have ghosts, vampires, a witch, a werewolf and some grisly deaths. I've never watched the original series or the early-90s revival (this movie has actually convinced me to check them out), so I didn't really see it from a fan's point of view, but it was OK. Not the best teaming up of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, but I wasn't disappointed either, and their affection for the source material does come across.

I like that the movie is set in the same period when the original was made. Old TV shows tend to lose a lot when they are completely updated, and those big-screen adaptations that have worked generally found some way to preserve the feel of the original. And this one really did try to keep the feel of a 1960s-70s daytime soap opera, while adding the production values of a present-day movie.

If I had any complaints, I'd say the movie introduces more plot elements than it knows what to do with, and kind of loses its way through the middle. That, and there's maybe just a bit too much tongue-in-cheek humour, particularly the running gag of Barnabas Collins adjusting to life (undeath?) in 1972. It's funny, but it does get tiresome after a while. The movie does pull together pretty well for the climax and conclusion.

Overall, not bad. Certainly, as supernatural soap operas go, it beats the hell out of Twilight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpWvkFlyl4M

Last night I saw Session 9.  Decent slow burn, though I didn't love it.  7/10.

Today I saw the Unammable, a movie I remember seeing in the horror section of my youth many times but never got around to renting it.  I don't regret watching it, like'd the nerdy guy, and the monster is pretty good, but it's pretty slow and doesn't amount to much.  5/10.

I watched Angry Red Planet last Night.  I hadn't seen it in a few years, so I forgot much of the storyline but remembered liking it.  This is one of those classics that are like b-movie comfort food.  Gotta love that bat-rat-spider monster.  My favorite line is when the pilot, who is a Humphrey Bogart clone, looks out the window of the ship and says "Judging from all the vegetation around, there's gotta be something alive out there."
 :bouncegiggle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKTUFg-QLRk


Today I watched Santo vs. The She Wolves (Santo vs. Las Lobas).  This was my first time watching this one, and it did not disappoint.  It's got all the wackiness of your typical Santo flick.  Not the best Santo movie, but not the worst either.  My favorite line is when Santo, wearing his wrestling mask with his 70's slacks and casual dress shirt, knocks on the door of a villager and asks him if he has seen anything strange today.
 :bouncegiggle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbkhcjs_WEI

 

Movie 7
Of Unknown Origin
Directed by George Cosmatos (Rambo 2, Tombstone) and starring Peter Weller (Robocop) this man vs beast film is an underrated horror flick shot in Montreal. Peter Weller seems to have it all a hot wife (Shannon Tweed) a kid and a beautiful home. When the wife and kid go away things start to go awry as he realizes his home has been invaded by a giant rat. Seriously this rat is the size of a giant cat and has a personal vendetta on Peter Weller. What we get here is a psychological thriller in the disguise of a creature feature. Weller does a great job portraying one man's descent into madness trying to defend his home. On the directing front we get some fantastic shots and nice camera movement. The effects of the rat are a combination of real rats and puppet work and are still pretty effective today. 4/5

My Halloween inspired viewings so far:

The Woman in Black (1989)- TV film adaptation of story of by Susan Hill adapted for the screen by Nigel Kneale of Quatermass fame. I give this one my highest recommendation as one of the very best ghost stories put to film.

The Watcher in the Woods (1980) - Disney produced this horror/mystery thriller that actually takes yet another genre turn before it's all said and done. A good cast and interesting story keep it moving and there's many traditional horror elements here too. Bette Davis is on hand as a spooky old crone but all may not be quite as it seems.

Creepshow (1982) - Really fun horror anthology written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero brilliantly blends together creepy tales of horror but also gives them a darkly humorous bent. About as much fun as reading through your favourite old time EC Horror comics.

Devil Times Five (1974) (AKA: Peopletoys) - Exploitation horror slasher/thriller that takes an unexpected turn by having its killers be kids. Problematic and slow on many levels with a surprisingly high level of lechery and debauchery, there are some genuinely unsettling, cruel moments here and there that prove quite startling but they're never as effective as they ought to be because the characters are all so unlikable.

Devil's Partner (1958) - Unusual early horror/mystery thriller from 1958 that seems to more rightly belong to the 1960s has some startling unexpected scenes of ritual animal sacrifice and satanic worship. Still a likable cast of familiar faces (Edgar Buchanan, Richard Crane, Ed Nelson) make it entertaining enough albeit a little too easy and obvious to figure out.

The Devil's Hand (1962) - Laughably bad witchcraft film has too easily led astray hero (Robert Alda) enticed by beautiful blond she-witch vixen (played by Linda Christian) and getting involved with the cult of "Gamba, the great devil god!" led by the Grand Executioner as played by the one and only Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon from Batman) who seems to be enjoying his role a little too much and camps in up with enthusiasm.

I reviewed these in more detail in the Recent Viewings thread....http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,115439.msg482553.html#msg482553 (http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,115439.msg482553.html#msg482553)

The Fly (1986) - I don't think I need to say too much about this 80s version of the 50s classic. Makeup and animatronics still look great. Cronenberg, as always, dishes up his special brand of body horror, as Seth Brundle transforms, falls apart and loses his humanity in both mind and body. And, of course, nobody plays a manic, quirky genius quite like Jeff Goldblum. His increasingly twitchy and fly-like performance really sells it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzwxJ-M_M0

Move 8: Blood Birthday (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnsR9ME1sIM

Movie 9: Scarecrows (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxyNXgU7Jbc

Jason X (2001) - in the future the earth is all used up and everybody's moved to a new planet.  But some college kids on a field trip to the old earth happen across Jason, cryogenically frozen and just waiting for some numbskulls to thaw him out   :teddyr:  I love this movie.  Great characters, including the always awesome Lexa Doig.  Lots of sci-fi action, a great sense of fun;  don't get no better than this.  5/5.

10/07/12 Filmcount: 8

(http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/577235_389903381083265_1613794212_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/190243_389903801083223_1771507041_n.jpg)

The Survivor (1981) + Sole Survivor (1983)

The Survivor: Robert Powell is the only survivor of a terrible plane crash. Now he is searching for answers with the help of a psychic (Jenny Agutter). Psychological mystery-drama-thriller-horror that doesn't always deliver. 3.5/5

Sole Survivor: Anita Skinner is the only survivor of a terrible plane crash. She ain't searching for answers but a former famous actress charged with psychic abilities is giving them to her anyway. Creepy and scary horror with excellent atmosphere, setting, acting and whatnot. 5/5

Caltiki: The Immortal Monster (1959) - The Italian Blob, directed in part by an uncredited Mario Bava. An expedition to some Mayan ruins discovers an incredibly ancient unicellular creature that apparently wiped out the Mayan civilization when supercharged by radiation from a passing comet (the same one due to pass by again very soon). Prior to that, the Mayans had worshipped the giant carnivorous blob as the goddess Caltiki. Kind of a cool story, but it drags terribly in the middle, and we only get relatively brief monster action at the beginning and end. That and the monster is really not all that difficult to kill. The movie mostly seems like a foreign Blob knockoff that only really succeeds by offering a nastier monster that kills more graphically. The pulsing, writhing Caltiki, with its appendages reaching out and grabbing victims before dissolving the flesh from their bones, is actually surprisingly similar to the Blob of 1988.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jX_mH7NEb0

Virtual karma Claws! I also LOVE Sole Survivor. Blew me away when I saw it first on VHS, and I still love it to this day now that I've got the dvd.  :thumbup:

Movie 8
Stir Of Echoes-Saw this on blu ray last week for 6$ and said what the hell. Kevin Bacon stars as someone who contracts psychic abilities after a hypnotism session with his his sister in law (Ileana Douglas). He begins to see images suggesting a murder and it's up to him to investigate what's going on. Not so much as a horror as a mystery/thriller this late 90's effort is flawed but refreshing at the same time. No jump scares, no excessive violence or CGI, just a spooky story, with nice performances and some good use of music.
7/10
The blu ray itself while offering a nice image is not representative of the best that blu ray can offer, but if you see it for you cheap you could do worse than pick it up. Special features include a commentary, deleted scenes and a featurette.

Movie 10: Saw II

Wasn't going out of my way to see this one.  Like Dawn and Flight of the Dead, this one was randomly snatched out of my box of goodies that have been hiding out in the closet. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6w41uDYWSI

Movie 11: Ju-On (1998)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O3liLcfGwU

Movie 12: Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjV7oWtsf-w

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) - Christopher Lee stars, or at least his name is listed first in the credits - he's actually got a very small part in this.  It's mostly about a young couple, and Dracula has taken an interest in the young lady.  Still a very entertaining story, with likable and well-developed characters.  And Hammer Films' wonderful Gothic style.  4/5.

I love that movie!  Such a unique take on the zombie genre  :cheers:

Anyway,
10-4:  SHOCK.  A young woman witnesses a murder and is so stunned by it she goes into a near-catatonic state.  For help her husband brings her to a renowned psychiatrist (Vincent Price) - who happens to be the murderer.  Not terrible, but really only worth noting for a genuinely great performance by Price. 4/10

10-5: THE SHE-BEAST.  An 18th century witch is improperly executed and her body is left at the bottom of a lake.  Cut to modern day and a pair of vacationing twits happen wreck their car in the lake and the witch attempts to swap places with the wife.  Filmed for gas money and edited in a blender, it's a big mess.  Barbara Steele is theoretically the star but she's barely in it.  1/10

10-6: didn't watch anything, was helping my sister move.

10-7: THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER.  Anthology time!  The wraparound: a cheerful corporate Satan (Lon Chaney) convinces a suicide to help him collect souls in exchange (maybe) for leniency. In the first story a sexual predator gets haunted by one of his victims via photograph.  In the second (and weakest) story an anthropologist becomes obsessed with a woman's body found in a glacier.  In the third, a man is told when he will die and tries to worm his way out of it, a very TWILIGHT ZONE-esque tale.  Cheap but fun.  5/10

Also watched the "Nasty " episode of THE YOUNG ONES.  9/10

10-8:  HOUSE OF THE DEAD.  Not that one, this is another anthology from 1978.  The wraparound:  a man coming back from a booty call gets lost in the rain and stumbles into a mortuary.  The Mortician tells the tales of his most recent "customers".  Story 1, a b***hy teacher gets a lesson in home invasion.  Story 2, a serial killer who likes to record his crimes.  Story 3, two fueding detectives try to dissect the perfect murder.  Story 4,an anti-social exec learns being alone isn't all it's cracked up to be. Not outright scary but creepy in parts and pretty fun.   6.5/10

10/08/12 Filmcount: 9

(http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/254551_390256851047918_1405229590_n.jpg)

Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus (2010)

Giant something vs giant whatever. Your typical The Asylum production lacking heart, charm and atmosphere. 2/5

Just saw Pontypool myself.  Solid little film, not a huge fan of the final act though.  7/10.

Also watched The Howling Reborn.  It's better than the last 4 or 5 entries in the series, but that isn't saying much.  It's well-made, decent effects, competent acting.  Nothing special though, and has a few big holes in the logic of the film.  I did like the VERY end (the credits) more for the idea than the execution.  Worth a watch for werewolf fans, it's at least better than the Twilight films.  5/10.

Finally, saw Riki-Oh again (hadn't seen it in a couple years).  Not sure if it counts as horror or not - the level of gore puts it close to it at least.  I find it to be a pretty entertaining film, even if in many ways it is kind of awful (huge gaps in storyline, for example).  Was also kind of fun watching it with my girlfriend, who speaks Cantonese, and evidently the bishounen-style character (the androgynous member of the Gang of Four) speaks in a very deep-masculine sounding voice but his mannerisms and ending patterns are very feminine.  8/10

Movie 9
Bride of Reanimator
My second Brian Yuzna film of the month (first was Return of the Living Dead III). This one wasn't nearly as good as Return III, but wasnt complete crap either. The main problem with this movie is that while retaining the cast of the first Reanimator it fails to live up to the first film on pretty much every level. While the first film was funny and original this one is only kind of funny and not original at all. Where the first film was insanely over the top, this one only kind of (at least until the last 10 or so minutes). So pretty much this movie just made me want to watch the first one, but I dont own the first one so I'm straight of luck!

Anyways to sum up, this doesnt hold a candle to the original. That does not mean it is completely without merit however. It has a great ending, some decent jokes and cool SFX, so if you are sick of watching the first film go check this one out. Just dont pay too much (I got mine on the new liongsgate multipack)

Movie 13: High Lane (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9yYSu6qA4

Not impressed.  It was basically a French Wrong Turn, except tamer and with awful English dubbing.  The version I saw, which was on Netflix instant streaming, didn't have French with English subtitles.

I think they should have called it Kinda Not Right Turn instead.   :thumbdown:

Movie 14: Santa's Slay (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKrsAFWPnl4

Movie 15: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF4EyXhZudo

Movie 16: Mutant (1984)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CwjqfgCbxc

The Mummy (1959) - Peter Cushing stars as an archeologist who digs up a mummy (well actually his father does) and once he gets back to England, one of the followers of the mummy's religion seeks revenge on all those who desecrated her tomb.  Christopher Lee is the mummy, and he makes for quite a creepy presence.  One of my favorites, with Cushing at his dramatic best and lots of wonderfully Gothic atmosphere.  4.5/5.

Lady Frankenstein (1971) - Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster but it kills him, so his daughter continues his work.  She's beautiful but completely immoral and twisted, which makes for a very interesting plot.  The doctor's former assistant is in love with her, but he's kind of old and weak;  she'd really like it if his brain was in the body of a much younger and stronger man  :teddyr:  Meanwhile the monster is wandering about the local village killing everyone it meets.  Another old favorite of mine.  Great characters, plenty of stuff going on to keep the plot moving, and that great Gothic atmosphere.  4.5/5.

I finally saw something I can add to this thread:

FRANKENWEENIE (2012): When Victor's beloved pet dog dies, he figures out a way to bring him back to life: but what happens if that reanimation technology gets into the hands of neighborhood kids all desperate to win the upcoming science fair? With it's glorious black and white visuals, lots of "monster kid" references and scary-sweet storyline, this is the best thing Tim Burton has done in many years. 3.5/5.

At the theater a little girl, probably about 5 years old, was bawling uncontrollably during the emotional finale, so obviously kids connect with these characters---maybe too well.

P.S. And although this was good, I think PARANORMAN is the best animated kids horror movie of the season.

Monster Flick #2

Proteus (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114196/), October 6^th
(http://onlinemovies2watch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/proteus-movie-poster-1995-1010382802.jpg)

This is another one from 1995. I did not plan it that way, all the crap monster movies I enjoy just somehow get released around the same time. Maybe I should try to go all October with '95 movies  :question:.

Proteus follows the standard pattern that a lot of survival/scifi-horror action films used during the decade: a group of shady characters wreck their boat and end up stranded on a seemingly abandoned structure, in this case a group of drug smugglers winding up on an oil rig. Exploration reveals a genetics lab, something that generally isn't included as a standard in roughneck equipment, and a hostile meatball that can absorb and then mimic anyone that it kills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca27eaoGIfI

Note that they're refered to as "explorers" here. That's another thing that every movie in this sub-genre shares, any mention of the crew refers to them as a group of "explorers" or a "rescue team" rather than pirates or smugglers. I don't know why writers would bother with a touch like that because more often than not you're dealing with an unwholesome collection of people. Maybe one or two of them might have redeeming qualities but right from the get-go you're told, "Don't drink the water, it's scummy." Call them "wrecked survivors" because that's what they are. Their boat exploded, you don't do much exploring in a life raft with no paddles while the spoiled girlfriend whines that she has to pee.

On a final note, all of the effects work in this movie is practical. That's one of the things that I love most about late 70s to mid 90s monster movies, the monsters were there in front of the camera and for the most part they looked really cool. The final monster in Proteus is pretty sweet to look at both from a visual and technical standpoint, or maybe I'm just a sucker for animatronics.

Rating: Milky Way
Still, if I had the choice of anything this would be pretty low on my list. The characters are mainly sulky addicts so you might not have enough interest beyond the hormonal kind to feel sorry when somebody gets liquified.

10-9: THE KILLER SHREWS.  Ohhhhh lord......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAXYR9E-_F0

Watched Autopsy (1975) last night. Cool giallo!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDMr-iryM0E

10/09/12 Filmcount: 10

(http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/535996_390593004347636_1268373568_n.jpg)

The Boogens (1981)

People always complain the creature looks too cheap. It's not Ed Wood cheap. Actually, I think it looks cool. Obviously of rubber origin but still cool. That said, I always enjoy watching this more and I'm happy to own it on Blu-ray 4/5

Oh god, that movie is an experience. I'm finding it almost impossible to think of anything I've seen before that was at the same level of insanity as Riki-Oh, it's practically "Kenshiro Goes to Prison". :tongueout:

Movie 17: Ginger Snaps (2000)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zoa1A987A_k


Movie 18: Eaten Alive (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15QBXe5_lmo

Not a movie I can manage to sit through all of the time.  At times, the gore is just too much.  That's something you'll almost never hear me say, but the part where a couple women are cut open, gutted and cooked is just too much.

And this is coming from the guy who loved Jack Ketchum's novel Off Season, which has a similar even depicted in it.

Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005) - some college kids get their hands on a barrel of Trioxyin, and after one guy tastes it and gets all wasted, the other geniuses come up with the idea of selling it as a drug at an upcoming rave.  This...causes some problems   :bouncegiggle:  The two good kids try to straighten it all out, while a pair of Russian Interpol agents use somewhat more questionable tactics to combat the zombie hordes.  I really enjoyed this.  Very fun tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek zombie movie.   The main babe is totally hawt, good lord  :teddyr:  4.25/5.

10/10/12 Filmcount: 11

(http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/523721_390925177647752_210104441_n.jpg)

Summer of Fear (1978)

Linda Blair vs Evil: Orphan Cousin from the Ozarks moves in with Aunt's family in Cali and brings along the occult. Effective horror from Wes Craven presented here on a French Blu-ray (region locked) release. Solid 4:3 transfer with burned in subs that didn't really distract. 4/5

Well, I finally decided after this viewing to toss Eaten Alive in the Goodwill box.  I feel kind of dirty passing that movie on to Goodwill, though.

Movie 19: Absentia (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkwJJ0gZDUM

A fairly freaky movie that makes me want to avoid walking through tunnels or under bridges.

Movie 20: Inside (2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FKVN4JxvlE

Movie 21: Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEmnzoTpmDA

Curse of the Devil (1973) - one of those Paul Naschy movies from Spain.  Naschy's ancestors burned a witch and she put a werewolf curse on the family, and unfortunately for our main guy, that curse takes effect with him.  He's a rich property owner and picks up some girl who's lying injured in the road, but it's just a setup and she infects him with werewolf blood.  So he's running around killing random villagers while meanwhile an insane killer is also on the loose, and the murders get blamed on him.  These things always have great atmosphere (and plenty of full frontal nudity lol).  Rather slow moving, but still enjoyable.  3.5/5.

The Ghost Galleon (1974) - a couple of fashion models get stranded on a boat and happen across an old Spanish galleon.  They go aboard and discover, of all people, the blind dead.  Meanwhile the folks who employed the girls show up to rescue them and also end up stranded aboard the galleon.  There's enough fog and creaky old wood in this thing for several horror movies.  It's...cheesy.  My wife had to MST3K the whole thing.  The zombies are really cool looking but they move at a snail's pace and, as my wife puts it, would probably "only be a threat if you were a quadriplegic and the battery in your wheelchair ran out."  Still has some pretty good atmosphere and one of the fashion models was quite cute.  3.5/5.

Last night I watched We Have To Talk About Kevin. 

Great lead performances, stunningly made, and at times emotionally devastating.  It truly is a horror film in all ways. 

9/10.

10/11/12 Filmcount: 13

(http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/374137_391309667609303_1475752998_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/229454_391309954275941_1194225828_n.jpg)

Mortuary (1983) + Mausoleum (1983)

Mortuary: Girl is haunted by death of father, a creepy stalker and a killer. Sort-of Slasher with tons of red herrings. Though filmed in 1981 they still used typical '70s disco music in several scenes. 3.5/5

Mausoleum: Woman is possessed by an evil family curse. Over-the-top unintentional hilarity with gore, blood and nudity. Fun. 4.5/5

Movie 22: Martin (1976)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJD4ZKPYlHw

Movie 23: Saw V (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd10GgTseUQ

Movie 24: Undead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQrpx13SK7k

Movie 25: Lake Mungo (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNUfmV-ExTQ

Not a bad mockumentary.  My only complaint is it isn't really scary.  Still and interesting watch, though.

Film number 10
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)-I watched most of this a couple days ago. Pretty silly and redundant "remake" of the Romero classic adds some comedic elements that save it from being a complete bust. Little touches like a zombie texting "their coming to get you barbara" are chuckle worthy but there's not much special here. I didn't hate what I saw but with so many better zombie movies out there I cant see ever revisiting this one.

Next up is 1991's The Bone Yard which I probably wouldn't be watching if it wasn't for free on youtube. Looks pretty poor so far but I'll stick with it for a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkmL4K5QGsA&feature=related

 

One Dark Night (1983) - Built on a standard teen horror premise: nice girl is dared to spend the night in a mausoleum by the mean girls she's trying to impress. In this case, the newest permanent resident of the place is a famous psychic with telekinetic powers and an ability to literally suck the life out of people. His estranged daughter, meanwhile, comes to believe he's only mostly dead, and wants to confront him. This upsets her stuffy husband, played by Adam West. Takes a while for this thing to get going, but eventually caskets are popping out of the walls and corpses are getting levitated around like rotting marionettes. Fun movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYgF1t6MFU0

I can't spin the obscure ones the way you guys can, but as for my lightweight self, I stared long and hard at the blu-ray for The Thing (1982).  Gonna have to watch that one this month.  Maybe the first Howling, too.  :D

10/12/12 Filmcount: 15

(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/2161_391753330898270_1112777018_n.jpg)(http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/46309_391753484231588_561489280_n.jpg)

Pet Sematary (1989) + Intruder (1989)

Pet Sematary: Disturbing and shocking. Underrated, doesn't need to hide behind The Shining. 5/5

Intruder: Kind of goofy but lots of bloody fun. There's some really cool dialogue and I totally love the setting. 4/5

Pet Sematary is good fun and all but that comparison makes me feel sick inside.   :tongueout:

I've failed at the one-a-day thing, but oh well:

Oct. 7: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) - The original is about as perfect as horror gets, and this one is basically nothing like it, but it's so funky and bizarre that it's still excellent.  The big underground set that's featured later in the film is a thing of beauty, and so are Caroline Williams' legs!

Oct. 8: The Ward (2010) - This one gets a bad rap and it's nowhere near as good as Carpenter's best films, but I still enjoyed it.  Heck, I thought it was creepy and I squinted through a few scenes where I knew something was gonna happen.  Not a great finale but still worth a watch.

Oct. 9: Re-Animator (1985) - Yowza!  Really good, morbid take on Lovecraft.  For such disgusting stuff it's very well made and often funny.

Oct. 13 (although it was a midnight show, so sorta Oct. 14: Curse of the Demon (1957) - First time I've seen this one and I got to see it in a theater.  Really enjoyable and quirky horror.

Movie 26: Frailty (2001)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKFi3owPUmg

^^Oohh, haven't watched FRAILTY in a while.  I should add it to my list.^^

10-10:  SATAN'S SLAVE.  Rather ugly exploitation flick about a woman who discovers her family is a bunch of devil-worshipping necromancers. Michael Gough co-stars.  2/10

10-11:  BRAIN TWISTERS.  An evil corporation is constructing computer imaging software which hypnotizes college kids and turns them homicidal, for reasons that are never really explained.  Cheap and hilariously dated 5/10

10-12: TRIP WITH THE TEACHER.  Four schoolgirls and their teacher get terrorized by a pair of looney bikers while on an overnight field trip.  Similar in style to LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT but not quite as nasty or aggressively stupid as LHOTL; genuinely unsettling at times.  5/10

10-13: MST3K: HOBGOBLINS.  It's the 80's! Do a lotta coke and vote for Ronald Reagan!
Definitely one of the essentials!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tIg9Xpu9hs

Movie 27: Baby Blood (1990)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCoq1WePMOM

Movie 28: Forget Me Not (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfj7a5GfyoY

Pretty much The Grudge with typical teenagers played by actors who couldn't be younger than 24 (some even looked 30).  Predictable teenage hedonism, boring death scenes, and very little actual fun or scares.   :thumbdown:

Couple of more recent ones this weekend.

Silent House (2011) - Liked it. Pretty scary in a "something's going to happen any second" sort of way. Does a nice job of keeping possibilities open and leaving you guessing until the end. Is it ghosts, is it flesh-and-blood people, is it a delusion? I did manage to guess correctly, but there is a further twist I didn't see coming, although there had been clues. Good movie.

Feast (2005) - Various characters are trapped inside a bar, fighting off ferocious carnivorous beasts. Good action, good monsters, nice surprises, pretty gory but to an extent that it's almost played for laughs, and just enough self-awareness and humour. Liked the way each character is introduced by a caption listing name, occupation, fun facts and life expectancy.

Film Number 11
The Boneyard
What a weird movie this was. So we have Phyllis Diller and her poodle turning into demon zombies. We have a psychic women teaming up with a detective of sorts to solve.. something or other. Honestly I watched this last night and couldn't really tell you what happened.

Film Number 12
Bay Of Blood
Wow, I had heard about this film as the movie that films like Friday the 13th ripped off but never knew just how much better this was than the imitators. Amazingly shot by Mario Bava this film does what the early friday movies do but with better direction, kills and music. For some reason I never really checked out Mario Bava but the quality of this film makes me think a couple more of his films will make an appearance this month. Like The Boneyard this can also be found on Youtube.

Next up for film 13 I'm going to watch another Bava movie this time "Lisa and the Devil".

Film number 13
Lisa and the Devil
So after being thoroughly impressed by Bay of Blood I was excited to check out a film I had heard about over the years but never seen. This was apparently a very personal film by Bava that nobody wanted to buy resulting it being recut as a exorcist rip off called "House of Exorcism". Honestly I can see why nobody would take a chance with this original version. This is a slow atmospheric story that at times seems more like a series of paintings than a horror film. Mario Bava was obviously a master cinematographer which he displays here with amazing camera work, locations and costumes. But despite all of these great things I had trouble paying attention at times and the plot seemed to be of little priority throughout.
Will have to revisit later maybe with a better print and more Bava films under my belt.

Poltergeist (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsMCOmn11zs

Creepshow (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTsRwjTDaL4

The Stuff (1985)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE6Z1nBqLwo

Movie 29: Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVEhAw7bGx4

10/13/12 Filmcount: 16

(http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/486910_392176550855948_726533677_n.jpg)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Not very original (literally steals scenes/ideas from The Goonies and Explorers) and even as a straight guy I sometimes wonder about the homophobic tone/attitude (very common in 80s movies). That said, The Monster Squad is still a very entertaining horror comedy with great f/x and visuals. 4.5/5

What I've conquered for horror movies so far this month:

October 1 The Invisible Man (1933) 5/5
October 3 The Mummy (1932) 4.75/5
October 4 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 10/5
October 5 Frankenstein (1931) 5/5
October 6 Nosferatu (1922) 5/5
October 7 Seven (1995) 7/5
October 10 White Zombie (1932) 10/5
October 12 The Wolfman (1941) 5/5
October 14 Invasion of the Body Snachers (1956) 4.5/5
October 14 Alien (1979) 5/5
October 14 Children of the Corn (1984) 0/5

"Doghouse"
A group of friends flee from their toxic relationships to have a guys' weekend.  Some of their woman problems are caused by themselves, while for others the women are just plain crazy.  One of them is a quiet fellow who is suffering through a divorce.

What the men run into at a remote hamlet is a virus that turns women into men-killing zombies.  Almost every (from a man's perspective) female stereotype is present, such as a bride, a witch, a schoolgirl, a scissor-carrying hair stylist, a dentist, and even a mountain of a woman whose appetite for everything male is too terrible to describe.  What plays out is a battle of the sexes, if women were all out to torture and kill men, and the men were only armed with golf clubs and remote control vehicles.

Come to think of it, the men are all stereotypes too.  The movie is fair in that regard.

Definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it.  I'd give it 2 or 3 slimes.



I loved the spike-studded rat bat!

(http://www.badmovies.org/capsules/o/ofunknown/ofunknown_cap4.jpg)
http://www.badmovies.org/capsules/o/ofunknown/

Film Numero 14
Curfew (1989)-Wow very likely the worst movie I have seen so far this month. There was some promise at the beginning with the bad acting and quotes being funny in a Troll 2 way but as the film goes on these moments come less and less.
So we have some annoying brothers who both ended up in jail for a murder that only one of them commited. So when they get out they go after the judge, doctor and eventually the DA's family. We are introduced to the DA's family through their daughter who is generally attractive except for some ridiculous eyebrows. It looks like two vans made entirely of hair decided to park on her forehead.
Early on she walks down a coutry road in a short skirt and this exchange happens with a neighbor.
Neighbor-May I offer you a glass of lemonade
Eyebrows-No thank you
Neighbor-Well in that case may I offer you a pair of pants?
So that right there is pretty much the highlight of the film. That should tell you enough. The film plods along well enough until we get to the DA's house in which this quickly becomes Funny Games with down syndrome. You can find this on youtube but I would suggest you wouldn't.

Semi-interesting trivia-The director would recover from this nightmarish film to have a sucessful career making children/chick flicks such as Charlottes web and Bride Wars. What a career!
Also John Putch who plays one of the brothers terribly can be proud to have directed Atlas Shrugged Part 2 surely to be one of the biggest bombs of this year.

So far this month
1) The Gore Gore Girls
2) Maniac
3) New York Ripper
4) The Monster Squad
5) Killjoy
6) Granny
7) Susperia
8) Killing Spree
9) Don't Panic
10) Popcorn
11) Return Of The Killer Tomatoes
12) The Stuff
13) Wrong Turn 3
14) Piranha 3DD
15) Colin
16) Deranged
17) The Offerings

I watched that one last night!  Been a while.  And yeah, takes a lot from Goonies/Explorers.  A lot of fun though, I loved it growing up and still enjoy it.  Great pacing too.  Some of the plot logic is a little hard to follow or unexplained too (like, where did the Wolfman come from?) 8/10.

Yesterday I also saw Super 8 again, think this was my third viewing.  It really is a very good film.  Funny, good acting, good characters, and a solid enough storyline about family and loss to stand on its own without the other part of the story.  And that the other part also works great is just icing on the cake.  Really enjoy it.  9/10.

And today I saw The Seventh Curse.  This is one of the crazier golden age Hong Kong horror films, with just EVERYTHING in it.  Several nude scenes, buckets of gore, kung fu fights, gun battles, car crashes, slapstick comedy, a skeleton that eats spinal cords, a giant reptile monster, a flying killer baby, and Chow Yun-Fat with a rocket launcher.  It might help to add it's made by the same people who did Story of Ricky.  I don't think this movie goes more than 30 seconds without something genuinely entertaining happening.  Just great stuff for most of the people on this board.  9/10.

Slither (2006) - An organism falls from space outside a small town, takes possession of one of the locals, and the place is soon overrun with zombies and Lovecraftian monstrosities. Horror/comedy that works well, with well-timed laughs, memorable scenes and the odd quotable line, while at the same time delivering some tense and unsettling moments, and some very effective makeup and effects work. Clearly made by horror fans for horror fans, with homages and references to a slew of other movies. Among the requisite group of off-beat small-town characters, the big standout for me was Gregg Henry as mayor Jack MacReady (three guesses who he's named after). The guy gets most of the really funny lines. Really pleasantly surprised with this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-f8wU6Fpeo

Zombie Cheerleading Camp (2007) - there's some cheerleaders at a camp, and then there's three horny guys, one of whom has been bitten by a zombified squirrel yadda yadda yadda.  This was awful.  Tries to be a spoof but all the jokes fall flat.  It's not low budget, it's zero budget with non-existent production values, non-existent acting, etc.  Theme music is terrible and annoying inappropriate, sound is all screwy with the dialogue being the quietest thing on the entire soundtrack.  Loved when I turned it on and the opening music could be heard halfway down the street.  The "zombies" are completely non-threatening, people acting afraid of them is boring.  1.5/5.

10-14: SAVAGE WEEKEND (1979) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibPlt2Xeb98
It was.......long. 3/10
 Fun fact: this movie helped launch a surprising number of careers. William Sanderson, who plays Otis The Slack-Jawed Yokel, has appeared in BLADE RUNNER, THE CLIENT, AVATAR and had recurring roles on DEADWOOD, BATMAN:TAS, NEWHART, and COACH, just to name a few.  He's still getting steady work today.  Chris Allport, who plays polyamorous Nicky, also picks up quite a bit of tv work.  There's a very brief appearance from WITCHBLADE's Yancy Butler, who plays an unnamed rural child.  And of course there's RE-ANIMATOR's David Gale as Mac The Sadistic Yokel.

10-15: THE MANSTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4BrwSSAj2M
Dr. Frankenstein in Japan, pretty much.  All the cultural and sexual tact you'd expect from  a 1950's movie.  4/10

I really enjoyed "Slither" and the writer/director is the same gent who is directing the "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) movie.  Despite the weird superhero mix in that one, what really made me interested in it is James Gunn's involvement.  He's got a twisted and funny sense of humor.  The use of Air Supply at completely inappropriate times was awesome, and I also thought a lot of the dialog was really funny.


http://www.badmovies.org/movies/slither/slither4.wav

Monster(?) Flick #3

Faust: Love of the Damned (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0223268/), October 16^th, or Brian Yuzna is Lord.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/Faust-Love-of-the-Damned.jpg)

This whole month I've made it a rule to only watch movies that I've never seen before. So far this has not damaged me but with Faust I was going into a film I had also never heard of. As it turned out I had nothing to worry about because this movie was a lot of fun.

We follow the tragic tale of one James Jaspers, a man whose life loses all meaning after his girlfriend is murdered in front of him by some thugs who figured that she'd gone long enough without paying them for smuggling her into the country. On his way to ending it all with a plunge into the river, James' life gets even more rosey when a beautiful woman and a sinister not-sinister-looking-whatsoever man who calls himself "M" pull up in a limo and offer him great power and vengence if he'll turn over his soul. Loans never seem like a good idea until you've hit rock bottom, too.

James receives a pair of gauntlets that each sprout two long and nifty blades whenever somebody full of blood happens to be nearby and he quickly goes about hunting down the thugs from before. It's a gory circus from this point on and just tons of fun to watch. Also, when M and his posse try to off James after he refuses to continue killing for them after he's had his revenge, we end up with this:
(http://pics.imcdb.org/0is505/faustdemo12xh4.1044.jpg)
Orbit, No Matter What!

Take Ash, give him even less regard for humanity, the vocal cords of Christian Bale's Batman, then turn the result into a hell-born batman-wolverine creature that destroys the very fabric of the human mind with how unlikely such a DC/Marvel crossover would be and you have Faust. It's almost surprising that his head isn't on fire, too. The first time I saw this guy I was hooting and knocking over the chips because there is nothing in my experience that compares to the awesomeness that is Faust. This film won an award for its effects work and rightfully so. It's got great makeup work and a devil-rises-to-earth climactic creature that's miles away from your standard "Look at me, I'm teh Devil" red guy with horns.

It's also got this thing that I can only think to dub the "bust-booty monster." It's a big "wtf" moment that comes from nowhere and since I'm not sure how racy it is, I'll just post a link rather than the actual image. Note that she eventually gets much blobbier than that. Faust: Love of the Twinkies (http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/tag/faust-love-of-the-damned)

On a closing note, the soundtrack is also loaded with metal whenever James/Faust has a fit and goes on a toady killing spree. I happen to enjoy (good) metal and find that it's a natural fit with Ash-Bat-Wover-Satan. It might just be me seeing what I want to see but I swear that sometimes a particular riff or twang would syncronize with Faust's blade work, which only made the effect even cooler.

Rating:
Tootsie Roll
The first thing I'm going for in the bag until every last one is gone. I try my best not to go on and on here in the forum but with Faust it was a challenge because I just haven't enjoyed a cheesey horror movie as much as this one in a long time. The makeup is cool, the villain is awesome, gloves with claws are awesome and I WANT a pair. It's plain, guilty fun and I am as charged and will sit in prison forever because this movie won me over. :teddyr:

Last night I watched Short Night Of Glass Dolls. A kinda run of the mill giallo. I found it a bit boring to be honest. Looked nice and had a great Morricone soundtrack, though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0NTED8SJSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3wtvLlvUWM&feature=relmfu
Film Number 15 House of Witchcraft (1989)
This later film by Umberto Lenzi (Nightmare City, Cannibal Ferox) is a pretty lackbuster entry in Italian Horror. Early on we learn that the marriage between our protagonist and his wife is on the out's. The wife decides a vacation may be a good idea to fix their marriage. Too bad the family home they go to is the one he's been having nightmares about...
So what awaits us at this house?
 
A blind man-Because for some reason every single italian horror movie is required to have at least one blind character. I think its a union thing.
A Black Cat-Just because.
A Witch-This is the house of witchcraft don't you forget.

So any fan of italian horror will see nothing here they haven't seen done better before in other movies. I think the TV budget really limited this film as the effects are generally shoddy, and worst of all it is visually uninteresting. There is nothing really scary about the house and the shots are uninspired throughout. I cant say I liked this at all, I will still check out other Lenzi film's as I hear this is one of his worst.

Fulci - you should check out Ghosthouse. Quite bad. But good.  :smile:
Tonight I think I'm gonna try to tackle Blood Cult (1985).

It cant be much worse than House of Witchcraft, so I'll probably fit it in before the end of the month. Have fun with Blood Cult don't think I've ever been able to make my way through that debacle.

(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080716214513/marvel_dc/images/9/99/Logan_Wayne_Amalgam_001.jpg)

Dark Claw.  From the Amalgam comics. 

Yeah....

Also, watched Ginger Snaps again!  Good stuff.  8/10.

Movie 30: Andre the Butcher (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB1XlKUUF1A

Movie 31: Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNGwpLHDDIA

Movie 32: Student Bodies (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di4FI23I8RU

Movie 33: The Descent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm7udIu6_7c

Student Bodies!   Joe!  lol.  :)

"Malvert afford hookers!"

"All these stairs... I hope I don't die first!"

Humongous (1982) - some kids are out boating but end up shipwrecked, er...boatwrecked on a remote island.  Turns out there's a mysterious resident living on the island, and he's Humongous!  Yeah, don't wanna mess with that dude.  This was a really good ol' classic slasher.  Characters were sympathetic, it had nice atmosphere and the whole last act was quite suspenseful.  Definitely not the fastest moving plot, but I still enjoyed it a lot.  4.5/5.

The Cabin in the Woods

A horror movie that explains why the plot of almost every horror movie is nearly identical:  the promiscuous girl, the jock, the nerd, the drinker/toker, and the virgin get together.  They go somewhere on a trip, mess with something they shouldn't, and they die.  Why?  Well, there's a bit more to than than just ancient curses and dark gods.

Enjoyable, and if not clever as it could have been, still an interesting twist on the standard horror movie formula.  The end, when the script literally lets everything loose, is a lot of fun.

Ooops, got some catching up to post:

14 ~ The Prowler (1981) 4/5 BD
14 ~ Halloween II (1981) 4/5 BD
14 ~ Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) 4/5 BD
15 ~ Rest Stop: Don't Look Back (2008) 3/5 BD
16 ~ The Devil Inside (2012) 3/5 BD
17 ~ The Loved Ones (2009) 4.5/5 BD

/life

Movie 34: The Howling (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WtdBKUnVkc

Movie #4

Hellgate (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097498/), October 17
(http://i2.listal.com/image/3150496/500full.jpg)

This log from 1990 bobs among the many juicy apples that I could have picked instead if I'd known anything about it. That rotting face and tale of a murdered woman's soul that sucks the life out of men passing through town is only there to lure you in. I wouldn't even call her death a murder, more like a ridiculous accident: She's being molested by a group of bikers called The Strangers when her dad throws a hatchet into the biker's head and the dead biker plows himself and the daughter through a brick wall. Did you know that brick walls have a one-brick thickness and can support themselves without mortar?

After that happened, Dad hated all strangers (see what they did?). One of his employees finds a weird crystal on the property that apparently kills living things and brings dead things back to life. In both cases the zapped thing explodes after about twenty seconds. This was the only part of the movie I could actually get any enjoyment out due to the goofy effects work, which is maybe five minutes out of ninety-one. So daddy brings his girl back from the dead to lure people into town so that he can kill them. Why doesn't she explode? Why does daddy want to lure strangers into town if he doesn't want them there? It's the 90s bro, who cares!

Rating: Pennies
You ring the doorbell in anticipation, the door opens, and out comes a bunch of pennies. All of the characters are obnoxious and all the cars have vanity plates, a seemingly big big plot point turns out to be utterly pointless, and nothing gets accomplished. It's a criminal offense if the writers on this job got paid because they try to hang the film on one thing: naked women. "Let's have this dead girl be all hot and athletic and wanting so people don't notice that the movie makes no sense." Don't get me wrong, my blood's as red as the next, but if you're going to use nudity just for the sake of it, just to get people to watch a piece of garbage like Hellgate, you're committing an act akin to fraud in horror.

Plus she's dead. What's going on there exactly? You want to talk about it?

The Skull (1965) - Peter Cushing stars as a collector of demonic curios, and he's offered the chance to buy the skull of the Marquis de Sade.  Fellow curio collector Christopher Lee warns him the the skull is evil, but by that time it's already influencing Cushing's mind, so he has little choice in the matter.   That ol' skull is determined to complete it's evil mission, whatever that may be.  I really enjoyed this, it has excellent atmosphere, Cushing is great, and there's nothing like seeing an evil skull floating around the room.  Even if you can quite easily see the wires it's suspended by.  4.5/5.

Spirit Camp (2009) - some cheerleaders go to spirit camp but of course there's a nasty killer lurking about in the woods.  Great horror/comedy with really witty characters that are a ton of fun.  Sexy too.  :wink:  Follows the classic old slasher formula to a T, with all the stereotypes present and accounted for, and has a really good time with them all.  5/5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8tiOuKjp9c

Next up on the chopping block is TERROR AT TENKILLER. 

Terror at Tenkiller is sort of an 80s slasher movie that forgets to do the slashing... or much else really.  It has all the terror, suspense, action, and pace of a Lifetime Original Movie starring the Golden Girls. 

Also there aren't ten killers in the movie.  Nor are ten people killed.  The name Tenkiller comes from an old Indian legend that was made up by the father of one of the main characters.  It's shoehorned into the ending as well, but otherwise has nothing to do with anything. 

So, what does the movie have going for it?  The single worst "Oh no!  The Killer isn't really dead!" jump scare I have ever seen in a movie. 

I'm going to ruin the ending for you now, so if you don't want it ruined, stop reading. 

So, the only surviving member of the cast and the killer have just knocked each other out of the boat they were in ... somehow. I already forgot how it happened... and she's swimming to shore while he slowly drowns.  The movie shows her reach the shore and sitting there while we get a voice over saying that the police investigated, but they never discovered who that guy really was, where he came from, or what his motives where.  THEN after the voice over, while she's still at the shore, we see him jump back out of the water in the stupidest pose imaginable. 

So, did he somehow come back to life AFTER the police investigated, or before, or what?  It's not like he was some supernatural evil or super human killer either.  He was just a normal guy. 

For the B-Teams Halloween triple bill this year, I'm putting on these numbers:

"Dark Night of the Scarecrow" (1981)

"Night of the Demons" (1988)

and

"Trick or Treat" (1986)

I nice 80s theme for Halloween, I am looking forward to it greatly.

Triangle (2009) - A group of people out for a day of sailing are capsized by a freak storm and picked up by a mysterious and seemingly deserted cruise ship. Turns out it's not completely deserted, and people start dying.

I've noticed that the horror/thriller movies I've enjoyed most in recent years are the ones that assume the audience can figure out what's going on, and deal with it, whether by keeping us guessing or by letting us think we've got it figured out, then throwing us a curve. Triangle is a fun movie. At the most superficial level are horror movie plot devices we've all seen - freaky weather, a ghost ship, stranded travelers seeking shelter, a killer stalking them - but that is just the beginning. Watching it for the first time, it becomes a continuous game of fitting things together, figuring out what's going on, thinking you know what will happen and then having another layer of weirdness added on top. Any little thing that happens, no matter how trivial, can prove significant later on, and seemingly simple events can turn out to be more complicated than they seem. The kind of movie that keeps you thinking well after it's over. Loved it.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Triangle_%28Christopher_Smith%29.jpg)

Movie 35: Creepshow (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA2Ga4g5e4A

I like how the one guy in The Crate is like, "Hey, I see a pair of ominous eyes staring at me from inside the box.  Why, I should put my hand in there and find out what it is!"

Movie 36: Saw VI (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKJviTdrqzk

Movie 37: The Host (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw6xfpZ7xpw

Movie 38: Phantasm (1979)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4FbozQKViw

10/18/12 Filmcount: 23

(http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/427900_394023677337902_864948433_n.jpg)

Messiah of Evil (1973)

Always watch this once a year. Great movie, creepy and atmospheric. 4.5/5

Horror of Dracula (1958) - a guy travels to Dracula's castle under the pretense of becoming his librarian, but it turns out he's a vampire hunter.  He manages to kill Drac's girlfriend, but the Count (Christopher Lee) turns the tables on him and takes a little nibble out of our would-be vampire hunter.  Drac's not too happy about losing his girlfriend, so he travels to the guy's hometown and bites his fiancee.  Peter Cushing shows up as Dr. Van Helsing, and tries to help the family defend against their newfound vampire problem, with mixed results.  This is one of the most well-known and popular Hammer Horror films, but it's never done much for me.  Other than Cushing, the rest of the characters just aren't very developed and I didn't really care what happened to them.  The story really isn't too interesting and it just doesn't manage to create any suspense.  The ending is pretty good though.  Not a bad movie by any means, just not one of the better Hammer films.  3.5/5.

The Prowler (1981) - Like The Burning, this is another classic slasher that wasn't at my local video store in the 80s, and never seems to come up in conversation, so I've only just discovered it.

In the early 1940s, Rosemary sends a "Dear John" letter to her boyfriend overseas. In June 1945, the troops have come home from Europe, and Rosemary is at the local college graduation dance where she slips outside to make out with her new boyfriend. A masked G.I. in full battle dress sneaks up and sticks a pitchfork through both of them. Jump forward 35 years, and everyone is getting ready for the first graduation dance allowed since the murders. This includes a mysterious figure lacing up his combat boots and packing his weapons.

I liked this movie. It was well made from a technical standpoint, as slashers go. It looks good. The 1940s scenes are convincing enough. Tom Savini is in top form with the blood and gore, and a slasher in a G.I. uniform is just plain cool. I did think the movie kind of lost its way in the middle. It felt disjointed and ended rather quickly. Questions that were raised were barely answered, if that, and some characters and plot points seemed to be wasted. I got the feeling it was edited in a hurry (at least for the second half) and a fair bit was left on the cutting room floor.

A pretty good slasher movie that had the potential to be great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stnK1-uPVX0

I recently watched:

Brides of Dracula
The Tall Man
Poltergeist 2

I also watched Tom Baker's "Voodoo" segment of "Vault of Horror" on You Tube. I didn't feel like watching the whole thing and the Baker story is the best. Well, this is coming from a slightly biased Doctor Who fan. Also a great performance from the late Denholm Elliot.
 
Part One

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_HDeFP_Y9g

Part Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCF-TXgLETw&feature=relmfu

Part Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhDWBnWKAk&feature=relmfu

 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) - Dr. Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) creates a monster (Christopher Lee) and it, well, doesn't really do much.  Another hugely popular Hammer Horror movie that leaves me rather flat.  Takes quite a while to get going, the monster just isn't scary, and the characters are fairly one-dimensional.  Still good but not one of my favorites.  3.5/5.

The Plague of the Zombies (1966) - a professor of medicine travels to a small village to look into some problems one of his former students is having.  Turns out residents of the place are dying at an alarming rate, and don't seem to stay in their caskets after burial.  This is a big favorite of mine, with excellent characters, a somewhat intriguing plot, and lots of good atmosphere.  4.5/5.

The Brotherhood of Satan (1971) - This was one of a handful of horror and sci-fi movies produced by L.Q. Jones and Alvy Moore in the late 60s and early 70s. The pair are also among the principal cast of the movie. Jones is a familiar craggy-looking character actor, often seen in westerns and the like. Moore most notably starred in the sitcom Green Acres. Well, he didn't really star, but he was a central character. Well, not really central, but..... What was I saying?

Anyway, the movie starts with a little boy's toy Sherman tank becoming real and crushing a car with a family inside. A couple with a little girl happen upon the wreck while driving to Grandma's place, and make a detour into the nearby town of Hillsboro to report it. This attracts much attention, as nobody has been able to get into town for some time. Lately, adults in the town are turning up dead, and children are going missing. The steel pancake by the side of the road contained a family that tried to leave town. And although three people have just gotten in, forces are now at work to keep them from leaving. Pondering this mystery are the sheriff (Jones), his pulp-reading deputy (Moore), the local priest and the town doctor (Strother Martin). And all the while, the old folks in town seem pretty happy about something.

Pretty good movie. Creepy, suspenseful, disturbing in places, kind of clever. Has that 60s/70s satanic horror feel to it, including the impression that a happy ending is by no means guaranteed. And quite a bit of scenery gets chewed, most notably by Martin.

Watched the complete movie on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqwTajK35L8&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1

Here's what horror movies I've watched.

October 1 The Invisible Man (1933) 5/5
October 3 The Mummy (1932) 4.75/5
October 4 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 10/5
October 5 Frankenstein (1931) 5/5
October 6 Nosferatu (1922) 5/5
October 7 Se7en (1995) 7/5
October 10 White Zombie (1932) 10/5
October 12 The Wolfman (1941) 5/5
October 14 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 4.5/5
October 14 Alien (1979) 5/5
October 14 Children of the Corn (1984) 0/5
October 15 Psycho (1960) 35/5
October 17 Rosemary’s Baby (1968) 50/5
October 17 Halloween (1978) 10/5
October 18 The Black Cat (1934) 4.75/5
October 18 Halloween II (1981) 4/5
October 19 The Omen (1976) 10/5

(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YiFvWpGsL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)

Pumpkinhead:  I have a big soft spot for this movie.  Not only is it a monster film with a cool looking  monster (love how unnaturally long his limps are), but the story reminds me of something Shakespeare would have written.  There is a blurring of the good and evil between Henriksen and the group of young kids who accidentally cause his son's death.  There is also a gruesome cost associated with calling Pumpkinhead to take revenge on someone.

Project Viper:  A confusing mess of a film, though it is nice to see a CGI beast that is a writhing mass of tentacles.

And one more:



I just watched "Vault of Horror" last night!  Tom Baker's segment is probably my favorite as well.  I do enjoy the first segment as well, with the man who takes a later supper at a very unfortunate restaurant. 

Knocked another one that has been on my list for AGES recently - Evil Ed.  How could you NOT want to see it after seeing the cover art (the good one, not the crappy one they had in the edited version)?

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/43/Evil_Ed.jpg/215px-Evil_Ed.jpg)

Suffice to say, it doesn't quite live up to the cover art.  How could it?

It's reasonably entertaining, though far less gory than I expected.  Very obviously done by foreigners, even though it's original language is English (it's Swedish), the whole film gets a very weird vibe from the dubbing - on top of the already weird nature of the film.  The plot concerns a film editor tasked with editing an atrocious series of films called Loose Limbs, and how he is driven mad by them.  I use the term 'plot' loosely.  The bits we see of Loose Limbs are actually quite funny.  The film itself has a sort of Raimi esque sense of humor, though not that good.  There's tons of Raimi references thrown in - a side character is named Sam Campbell, we get the spirit-cam from the Evil Dead, and numerous visual references.  Actually, the visuals of the film are probably its strong point - a shootout towards the end of this film makes me think the director of this should try his hand at an action movie, he could probably do a decent job on a limited budget.

My review is all over the place, just like the film.  Basically, worth a watch on Netflix instant, now that it has finally landed there.

7/10, just barely.

Today I watched Sint.  It's a Dutch horror film from a couple years ago about the TRUE story of Saint Nicholas, and how he actually comes each full moon that falls on December 5 (the eve of the day he died, according to the film) to murder people.  Oh, and he comes on a pirate ship with a bunch of guys with swords and axes.  Yeah.  Probably sounds a lot like Rare Exports, though it's not as good.

Quite good opening scene, and seems like it'll be pretty cool...  But the film never quite comes to its potential somehow.  There's gore that's well-executed, but not really that much of it.  It seems like the title character will develop a bit of personality, but then it never really gels.  I dunno.  I wanted to like it, but it's just kind of competent.  Also, the English dub (the only language available on Netflix) is HORRENDOUS, but that's not the director's fault.  Eh.  It's OK.

Just barely a 6/10.

19 (24) ~ Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) 5/5
20 (25) ~ Altered States (1980) 4.5/5 BD
20 (26) ~ The Fly (1986) 5/5 BD

The Lady in White (1988) - Set in upstate New York in 1962, this movie is based on an actual legend of a ghostly woman who is sometimes seen searching for a lost loved one. Lukas Haas plays 9-year-old Frankie Scarlatti, who gets himself locked in the school cloakroom on Halloween by a couple of pranksters. That night, he encounters the ghost of a girl who reenacts the events of her own murder in that cloakroom ten years earlier. The attacker, however, can be neither seen nor heard. Shortly after, the real killer enters the cloakroom, his face hidden in darkness. He discovers Frankie and strangles him, but the boy is rescued and revived in the nick of time.

These events kick off a number of plot threads. The girl's ghost continues to haunt Frankie, begging him to reunite her with her mother, The school janitor is arrested as a serial child killer, and charged with 11 murders (plus one attempt), even though the evidence is purely circumstantial. Frankie, meanwhile, is using the clues from his cloakroom experience to perhaps learn the identity of the real killer, who is still at large.

The way The Lady In White started out, I was afraid it was going to be a kids' movie, or some lightweight piece of baby-boomer nostalgia, as was common at the time. But it turned out to be a pretty darned good ghost story. Quite creepy in places, tense in others, with a few good surprises. Meanwhile, we still have the nostalgic setting, the family moments and the humour. Another unexpected treat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM9pIeZSy5Q

Movie 39: Case 39 (2009)
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wtgVerQuso

Note: The trailer is nothing like the actual movie, and is kind of misleading.

Not a great film by any stretch, but not as bad as I had heard it was.  For the most part, it's a creepy kid sub-genre exercise with a couple decent death scenes (including one where Bradley Cooper breaks his own neck), some interesting commentary on social work, child abuse, and the fear of becoming what our parents; and a passable role reversal theme.  Only recommended if you're a creepy-kid die hard.

Filming began in 2006 and was completed in 2007, and then shelved by the studio until 2010. Not a good sign indeed but the film still turned out to be alright. Makes for a fun double feature with Orphan (2009).

Movie 40: The Being (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk2pZ7BOQCY

Movie 41: Dead Alive (1992)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC6WAAlNHt4

Movie 42: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDqwLna8fwY

LISA AND THE DEVIL (1974): An American finds herself staying overnight at an Italian chateau managed by a butler who is the spitting image of a picture of Satan on an local fresco. A spooky and perverse final act doesn't overcome the slow and muddled opening two-thirds. 2/5.

Creepshow, I've decided, didn't age particularly well.  Although "Just tell it to call you Billy" remains a hilarious line.  :)

The Thing (1982), however, *did* age well and remains one of the finest horror movies that I've ever seen.  Tense and paranoid the whole way, and the ending just makes me smile.  Sure glad that no producers managed to pressure in a nice happy ending, which surely did not belong.

"Devil's Wedding Night" hosted by Elvira.  The movie is a boring confusing mess, and I have to comment that every other woman in the film had larger breasts than Countess Dracula (and yes, we saw them all).  The bat screeching sound was so loud and annoying that it jolted me awake from a half-doze, and it also freaked out the cat.

Elvira's skits at the commercial breaks were also extremely painful.  I remember her being a lot less chatty and not so many bad one-liners when I watched her show in the 80s.


I love that movie.  It's probably my favorite horror/science fiction film.

Sssssss (1973) - Strother Martin secretly experiments on Dirk Benedict, who begins to take on the characteristics of a snake. Mostly kind of dull, until it gets around to the homicide. Nice example of an ecologically-conscious 70s thriller, with lots of snake trivia shoehorned into the script. Martin's mad scientist, like many of his movie brethren, believes his experiments are mankind's only hope, for reasons that would probably only make sense to him if he ever really explained them. The guy seems to have some kind of cobra fetish or something. The ending was pretty much a string of WTF moments for me. On the plus side, Strother Martin was one of the best actors for playing nice, folksy people who are really evil bastards. The snakeman makeup is also well done.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) which had been on my list FOREVER.  I liked it; very Twilight Zone-y and atmospheric, even if the ending isn't that much of a twist. 7/10


HORROR HIGH (1974)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKAlI3Nt-oY

modern-day Jeckyll & Hyde story about a high school loser whose bio experiment goes horribly awry.  Real grindhouse quality; I enjoyed it except for the epileptic soundtrack.  6/10


JAWS (1975)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbisc9pKPx8

okay, so it's technically not horror.  Whatever.  Almost 4 decades later, it's still scary and still my favorite Spielberg movie. 9/10

Elvira's skits really varried in quality  Sometiems she knocked them out of the park, sometimes they just horribly limped along. 

It's worth seeing just to watch Big McLargeHuge picking a fight with Templeton "Faceman" Peck. 

So, the latest movies on my list ...

The Fog (classic version).  Lovely bit of atmospheric horror. 

Cabin in the Woods:  If you haven't seen this movie and you like modern horror, see this movie!  I can't tell you anything more without spoiling it. 

The Last Slumber Party:  Generic slasher movie with a bug eyed maniac in a doctors outfit.  There is one scene I love though.  At one point, the killer has snuck into the house and he's hiding in the bedroom.   Later the nerd that they were picking on in several scenes earlier sneaks into the house and murders the boyfriend character.  The whole time the killer is just watching this like "what the hell!?!"

Film 16
Return of Swamp Thing
Hadn't seen this film since when I was a little kid and was happily surprised to see it hold up so well. More of a comedy than a horror really, this movie doesn't take itself seriously for a second. Heather Locklear stars and looks great as the plant loving love interest of the swamp thing. Hilarious campy acting and dialogue throughout. One of my favorite b movies.

Film 17
In the Mouth of Madness
IMO Carpenter's last truly excellent film. Village of the Damned is not that bad either but this is the last movie of his that I would call "classic". This movie strikes a nice balance between the scares and the laughs making it thoroughly enjoyable. Sam Neil does a great job as usual as the protagonist.

Film 18
Pontypool
I had heard good things about this movie, so I went in with high expectations. What I got was something that was in no means bad, but certainly not the hidden gem that some had made it out to be. I liked the characters and some of the concepts, but ultimately found this to be disappointing. I was completely drawn in for the first half, but as soon as the explanations started coming in the latter half I found myself losing interest. I think the filmmakers thought that their main idea was a bit more interesting than I did, and I think that's the main problem I had here. I cant recommend it but I cant say it's crap either.

It helps not to go in with high expectations.  I went in not knowing what to expect and came away pleasantly surprised.  I think, though, had I expected brilliance I would have been disappionted.


Movie 43: The Tall Man (2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_QqA0sDMec

Not an amazing thriller by any stretch, but definitely better than I expected.  More than anything, I was thrilled to see a movie that took place in my home state other than The Ring or Benny and Joon.


Movie 44: Cujo (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0k21yeVMbM


Movie 45: Hellraiser (1987)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0alNBYrLuE

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) - a guy has the sarcophagus of an Egyptian queen down in his basement.  She's perfectly preserved, hasn't aged or decomposed at all, and coincidentally his daughter is the spitting image of her.  Of course the queen slowly takes over the mind of the daughter, and she must gather up the other artifacts from the tomb to bring the queen back to life.  This was pretty good, with lots going on in the plot to keep it interesting.  The queen laying in her sarcophagus was quite sexy as well  :smile:  4/5.

House of Dracula (1945) - a doctor is running his practice out of an old castle, and good ol' Count Dracula comes to him looking for a cure for his affliction.  Not long after the wolfman also shows up seeking help, and they happen to find Frankenstein's monster laying around in a cave too.  Turns out Dracula is kind of an evil guy and throws a monkey wrench in the doctor's helpful plans to cure everyone.  This was entertaining just due to all the monsters in it.  Good characters too.  My wife couldn't figure out how Dracula could be wearing a top hat, then turn into a bat and fly around, then turn back into a person and presto!  The top hat reappears lol.  3.5/5.

White Zombie (1932) - a young couple go to Haiti to be married, but a landowner there is in love with the woman, and he has the evil Bela Lugosi turn the woman into a zombie so he can have her for his own.  Of course this doesn't go over to well with the woman's fiancee, so he's off to solve the mystery.  This has some great scenes, like when we go to Lugosi's sugar plantation which is staffed entirely by zombies.  They run a sugar mill with all the creaking machinery you can imagine, and it's positively atmospheric as heck.  Unfortunately I just can't get into the totally melodramatic theme music these old movies have, and the overacting doesn't exactly draw me into the story.  Still worth a watch.  3.5/5.

Insecticidal (2005).  A young woman's bug experiments get loose in the sorority house, grow huge, and start eating the girls.  There's a moderate amount of nudity, but except for the first shower scene, all of the naked girls are flat-chested.  As in I have a bigger chest.  The bugs are all horrible CGI creations, especially the preying mantis that has a mouth like a giant green chicken.  Also, the editing is often terrible.  I still do not know how Cami (the bug girl) left the basement without encountering the giant spider.

Lesson Learned: 
Scorpions know how to use spray-on wipe-off shower cleaner.
A portion of a human arm is indistinguishable from a loofah.

Monster Movie #5

Monster Dog (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087616/), October 22^nd
(http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1010/383613.1010.A.jpg)

This is a Spanish werewolf film from 1985 starring Alice Cooper as Vince, a pop star going back to his hometown to shoot a music video. It's important to note that this is a Spanish film because I didn't know that until after I'd watched it and did some brief research. At the time all the acting and sound work seemed off to me, it was as though Alice Cooper were trying to channel Jeff Goldblum throughout the entire movie. Of course now I get that the movie had to be dubbed into english, hence why it all seemed jerky- Cooper didn't even dub his own voice, which explained a lot.

At its core, Monster Dog is a basic survival horror movie. Vince and friends have to beware of both the Monster Dog and the locals out to bust Vince for the ties his father had to a similar outbreak that happened twenty years before. The old house where everything unfolds is probably the best thing about the movie because it's an old sprawling behemoth with all kinds of weird rooms and half-finished alcoves filled with weird things like old dolls and stuffed clowns. The Monster Dog itself is pretty cool as what you see in the poster is actually what you get but it's always obscured by mist, fog, plaster dust, or smoke so you never get a really good look at it.

And here's why I got pulled in right from "Go":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--0vdeoudq8

Rating: Fun-size Mr. Goodbar
It's not Bestbar, it's not Worstbar, it's just Goodbar. You could do better than Monster Dog. Sure, you could do worse than Monster Dog. But if you're looking for middle of the road, tell a story horror then you wouldn't be making a poor choice here. Just enough gore, camp, character, and story to be comfortable with lunch and a can of A&W :thumbup:.

If nothing else, you have to give White Zombie points for having the best villain name ever.  It just doesn't get any better than Murder Legendre.

So, what movie did I watch?  The Killer Eye:  Halloween Haunt

It's Full Moon at it's worst.  Puppets for no reason, hopelessly shilling their merchandise, padding their time with clips from another movie, a plot that makes no sense, but on the flipside, it does have lots of nudity. 

Film 19
Visiting Hours
I first heard about this movie when I read "They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema", a book which I cannot reccomend enough. This film was shot in montreal when Canada was the destination for cool horror films. Impressed by his preformance in Cronenburg's "Scanners" producers chose Michael Ironside to play the villain in this disturbing slasher. The toast of Canada himself William Shatner also appears in a supporting role.

I found this film quite a bit more frightening then other slasher films made at this time. For a slasher this one makes an interesting choice of revealing the killers identity pretty much from the beginning. For a lesser villian this would be a mistake but in this case the fact that we know how creepy Ironside's character is from early on only adds to the suspense. This is certainly among the bleakest slasher films I have seen as it spends little to no time on titillation or comic relief.

Complaint wise I think this could have been a tad bit shorter and our protagonist could have been better developed. Overall however I think this is a fine horror film that would make a great double bill with Halloween II due to its hospital setting.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death - Been mentioned here already. Good movie. Love the atmosphere of those early-70s horror flicks. Still can't decide if the ending is clever and perfect or sudden and disappointing.

Nightbeast (1982) - Early 80s sci-fi horror with a title that sounds cool but has little to do with the movie. This was a movie I remembered seeing on the shelf back in the 80s, before I really started watching horror. Only recently got around to watching it. I can forgive a lot of this movie's shortcomings - the cheesy effects, the community-theatre acting, the overall cheapness of the thing. I can even overlook the sheriff's ridiculous perm. What I can't get past is the alien's inexplicable actions throughout. I mean, it isn't a beast at all. It's an intelligent being from a civilization sophisticated enough for interstellar travel. So, why is it acting like a homicidal idiot? I mean, what would you do if you crashed, by yourself, on a strange planet full of strange creatures? Lay low, stay out of sight, find food and shelter while attracting as little attention as possible until help arrives? No, this guy wanders aimlessly all over the countryside, shooting or disemboweling everybody he sees. Sure, he does chow down on a bit of human flesh, but mostly he just leaves bodies lying all over the place, when he can't disintegrate them. What the hell?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeMeA3eD6w

In honor of Bela Lugosi's birthday this weekend I watched:

Devil Bat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOuK_luBN-4

and

Bride of the Monster

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMb21v2d9D0

Movie 46: Audition (1999)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp0OWdkt2LA


Movie 47: Apollo 18 (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6DU6gx7-w

I enjoy found footage horror, even during mundane moments when the characters are doing nothing but being human (or maybe that's what I like about the movies).  This one, sadly, didn't impress me.  I nodded off quite a few times out of boredom only to be treated to a light amount of scares.  I don't know why, but somehow this movie didn't inspire me to care about the characters or their situation--something any f-f movie worth its salt should do.  I found myself wanting the movie to end just so I could go to bed and send the disc back to Netflix.  :thumbdown:

Son of Frankenstein (1939) - The son of the original Dr. Frankenstein moves into the castle he's inherited from his father.  The villagers all hate him because of the little monster problem his father created, but of course he assures them that he has no plans to carry on dad's work.  Not for the first five minutes at least.  As it turns out, the monster is still alive, and Ygor (Bela Lugosi) has been using him to carry out a string of murders.  But now our bolt-necked buddy is in a coma and the good doctor needs to revive him.  He can't resist carrying on his father's work, so it's not long at all before we've got a monster roaming around and Dr. F trying to cover the whole thing up.  What will happen?  Will villagers with torches and pitchforks storm the castle?  Probably   :teddyr:  I really enjoyed this.  Fantastic performance by Lugosi as the evil Ygor, he really stole the show.  Basil Rathbone does a good job as the doctor / world's worst liar.  He really gets stressed out when the town's inspector figures out what's going on.  Some excellent B&W photography as well, very atmospheric.  4/5.

Legacy of Blood (1971) - hosted by Elvira
This is a confusing mess, which manages to have no characters who are likeable.  Well, at least I think that was intentional.  What was not intentional is how confusing and how boring it is, and how icky the incest angle is between the disturbed man and his sister.  John Carradine as the nasty old father who died and left his estate to his nasty children was a waste, because he didn't get to utter any techno-babble.  Something fun I did notice is that two of the people from "This Island Earth" are there, both Faith Domergue and Jeff Morrow.  It's also hard not to notice Buck Kartalian's hairy back.  I swear that the man didn't need the monkey suit in "Planet of the Apes" when he appeared as Julius.

Nazis at the Center of the Earth (2012)
Scientists as a research station in the Antarctic encounter rotting Nazis who have been hiding under the ice.  This is a much meaner film than the film it is ripping off, "Iron Sky."   The skinning of the one character, rape and skinning of a woman, and forced abortion of a pregnant girl are really mean-spirited.  The robo-Hitler was much more fun, and more in line with the Asylum's normally campy horror.

Film 20
Bloody Moon (1981)
Jess Franco's lone foray into the slasher subgenre. Having as far as I know not seen any of Franco's work I decided to check this one out. So what we have here is a pretty typical slasher setup with a disfigured murderer on the loose and a bunch of ladies at a spanish language school to prey on.

Like a lot of films of this type, the plot is largely an afterthought. What is important here is a series of inventive kills which we certainly find here. Some of the kills are particularly graphic and work quite well in closeup. Overall this is a well shot film with interesting locations and nice camera movement. The dialogue and dubbing is pretty abysmal  but that is to be expected. Overall this was a slightly above average entry to the slasher genre that makes me interested in checking out a couple more of Franco's films.

Movie 48: City of the Living Dead (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2uPJQVncHE

Recent watches..

Satan's Little Helper.  Pretty terrible little indy film.  Has a couple recognizable actors, a few funny moments, and a good concept (a serial killer on Halloween getting helped by a hapless kid who thinks none of what is going on is real) - but it's just bland, sometimes poorly edited, poorly directed/shot, and a lot of stuff happens off-screen for no reason (several deaths are totally off-screen, as in you don't even see the bodies or hear them get killed, and it feels like the movie is trying to be cheap rather than creepy).  Bad ending/twists too, which you can see coming a mile off.

3/10

Descent part 2.  Oh boy, the sequel to a very good British horror film, which had a nihilistic ending that was impossible to make a direct sequel to.  So, they went off the botched American-altered ending, which is somewhat happier.  This one is just bad though.  REALLY stupid character decisions, an unbelievable central plot (really?  Just going to drag off the lead from the previous film into the caves without telling anyone?), cheap and lazy scares...  Just not real good.  They also show WAY more of the crawlies here, and this is not to the film's benefit.  All of the claustrophobia and creepiness of the original film is gone.  It's like the corpse of a good film.  It does have some good gore and the pacing is OK at least.  It is watchable.  Atrocious twist ending as well, which just doesn't make any sense.

4/10.

Mummy's Hand.  The second Universal mummy film.  It's alright.  Short, relatively fast moving.  It's also clearly the larger inspiration for the Brendan Fraser remake, which I hadn't realized.  Some good comic relief, but it takes way too long to get going, and once it does not enough happens.  Worth a watch for Universal horror fans, but definitely one of the lesser films from the classic era (World War II era or earlier, how I define it).  

6/10.

I also, on a whim, bought The Nest, the Roger Corman cockroach film.  It's been on my "watch this eventually" list since the 1990s, but I somehow never got to it.  Oddly enough, I just found out it's getting a Blu-ray release in January!  We'll see if it is worth an upgrade in a few days when it arrives.

Movie 49: The Keep (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7t0B2URcT8

Only now did I finally see the entire movie, and I honestly wasn't all that impressed.  I love the atmosphere, music, some of the early special effects, and certain components of the story.  The main thing that puts me off is that the antagonist speaks.  I know this sounds like a weird thing to get fussy over, but I just prefer spiritual entities that don't talk much.  It makes them much creepier.  Nonetheless, I didn't dislike the movie, and actually enjoy it for the most part.  I'm just not very thrilled by it.

Movie 50: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRkrQZ0A1SU

Frankenstein (1931) - mad scientist Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) creates a monster (Boris Karloff) and, well, perhaps you know the rest of the story.   :smile:  Really enjoyed this, the highlight being Karloff's performance.  The way he lopes around like a powerful, unpredictable beast creates a sense of menace that none of the numerous other Frankenstein movies can even come close to.  Colin Clive puts in a good performance as Dr. Frankenstein and Frederick Kerr adds a touch of charm as his cantankerous father.  4.5/5.

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - picks up right where the previous movie left off.  Of course our antagonist survived the climax of the previous film and sets in motion another string of events.  Turns out Dr. Frankenstein isn't the only one working on creating life;  another mad scientist is working on the same project and blackmails our good doctor into helping his with his project - creating a bride for our flat-headed fiend.  The first two-thirds of this are mildly comedic which is sort of enjoyable in its own way, but I could have done without it.  It's in the last third that it takes off.  The scene where the bride is brought to life really shines - between the lighting, editing and B&W photography, and the awesome contraption they use to transfer the electricity from the lightning to the bride's body...77 years old and that thing still looks awesomely cool  :thumbup: 4/5.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) - picks up where Son of Frankenstein left off.  Ygor is still looking for somebody to help his shambling friend, so he goes to Frankenstein's other son and blackmails him into assisting him.  They decide a brain transplant is all that's needed to fulfill his father's original dream, but as you might guess that doesn't go exactly as planned.  Another great entry in the series, with good performances by all a good subplot to add a bit more interest to the proceedings.  4/5.

Movie 51: Wrong Turn (2003)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNHkz7H2h_E


Movie 52: The Shining (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVooUHN7j4

18 (23) ~ Messiah of Evil (1973) 5/5
19 (24) ~ Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) 5/5
20 (25) ~ Altered States (1980) 4.5/5 BD
20 (26) ~ The Fly (1986) 5/5 BD
21 (27) ~ Stake Land (2010) 4/5 BD
21 (28) ~ The Loved Ones (2009) 5/5 BD
21 (29) ~ Attack the Block (2011) 4/5 BD
21 (30) ~ Ghost (1990) 5/5 BD
22 (31) ~ Detention (2011) (no rating) BD wtf?
23 (32) ~ 30 Days to Die (2009) 1/5 BD
24 (33) ~ The Phantom of the Opera (1989) 3.75/5 BD

Film 21
Count Dracula(1970)
Having been intrigued by my viewing of Jess Franco's Bloody Moon I decided to check out his interpetation of dracula which I had heard good things about in the past. It is clear than Franco respected the original novel and sought to create a faithful adaptation. Despite Franco's reputation there is no nudity or excessive violence here, and the tone is strictly serious. This works excellently at the beginning as we are first introduced to Dracula (Christopher Lee) at his castle, everything up to Jonathan Harker jumping out the window and waking up in an asylum is creepy and engaging.

Unfortunately they spend a bit too much time in England and the pace drops to a halt. Klaus Kinski plays Renfield and certainly does appear insane enough but his complete lack of spoken lines limits my interest in his character. It is in this lengthy middle that some violence and nudity would be welcome, but alas this is not the focus here. Things start to pick up again as we enter the final act, and things are wrapped up well enough.

Franco clearly was dealing with a very low budget here, because of this locations and effects are not quite as good as they could be. This film strength lies instead in solid performances and some great use of music. I really am not a big Dracula fan but this was enjoyable enough. This is on youtube as is my other Franco pick Bloody Moon. Don't know if I will continue with my Franco viewing but am glad I at least checked out these films.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M0dvlvLu0o&feature=g-vrec

Movie 53: Dr. Giggles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiCOp12JeRY

"The doctor is in.....SANE!"

Trick 'R Treat: The Lore and Legends of Halloween (2009) - several intersecting vignettes about "the lore and legends of Halloween".  All with nasty, twisted endings  :thumbup:  You've got some girls going to a Halloween party who turn out to be something entirely different, a school principle who befriends (or does he?) a rotten kid from the school, an old recluse who loves to scare trick 'r treaters, and some kids who go to check out the legend of a school bus that took all its occupants to their death at the bottom of a lake.  Pretty decent overall, the stories were somewhat interesting and I loved the endings.  Still have no idea what actually happened at the end of the movie, but oh well.  4/5.

Die, Monster, Die! (1965) - an American goes to visit his girlfriend in England, but the villagers seem terrified of the family estate.  So after being refused transportation, he ends up walking out to her place, and then her father (Boris Karloff) gives him an icy reception as well.  He finally finds his girlfriend and they get started unraveling the mystery of the estate - something has caused all the vegetation in the area to die, and odd screams are heard in the night.  Also the girl's mother is terribly sick and the maid has disappeared.  This made me suspect some demonic power was at work, but actually it's far more sci-fi oriented.  Very cool ending too!  Suzan Farmer, who played the girlfriend, was quite hot as well   :smile:  4/5.

Visiting Hours - Another one I've known about for years but just got around to watching. Good movie, but not what I expected. More of a thriller than a slasher horror, or at least something in between. As I was watching it, I couldn't help thinking you could easily drop Dirty Harry into this movie. The killer is very much the sort you'd find matching wits with a rogue cop in an action thriller. He's clever, he has extreme views, suffered childhood trauma, relentlessly hunts a high-profile target who represents something to him, uses disguises, diversions and other tactics. Liked this movie a lot.

The Descent - Hadn't paid much attention to this one until I started hearing how much other people liked it. Scary, disturbing, suspenseful. Some of the most effective bits were before the creatures even appeared. That one really claustrophobic scene of a character getting stuck had me squirming and cringing and shuddering the whole time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdxvncHvCs

Dr. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974)
Suddenly Frankenstein is a count, and he now employs a wide variety of people with various physical and mental handicaps.  He also creates his monster using the body of a slain Neanderthal which was killed by the villagers.  The caveman angle explains the monster's inhuman strength.  There are a few scenes with female nudity to titillate the audience, and all of it is gratuitous - especially the unearthed girl who is fondled by the freaky dwarf.  The dwarf is the film's most obnoxious character, always causing trouble and eventually dismissed from Frankenstein's service.  After that he meets another Neanderthal and kicks his perversion into high gear, teaching the primitive brute to kidnap, rape, and kill women from the village.

Ronald will appreciate that the second Neanderthal is played by none other than Boris Lugosi (yes, they went there).

THE RAVEN (2012)- a serial killer is terrorizing Baltimore, using the works of Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusack) as inspiration.  That's a pretty good premise, really, but the movie never quite manages to work with it.  Silly without ever being fun, and surprisingly gory in parts.  Cusack seems to be trying a Nic Cage impression throughout, they should've just hired Cage instead.  4/10

IT'S ALIVE! - not the killer baby movie, this one revolves around a redneck who has discovered some kind of dinosaur in a cave and feeds tourists to it.  His latest batch of would-be victims include a paleontologist (of course), a jerk ad exec and his bullied trophy wife.   The rubber dino suit is hilariously bad and there's some Coleman Francis-style voiceovers (it appears they lost a couple sound reels somewhere along the production line).  Fairly riffable. 4/10

The movie that introduced me to Larry Buchanan. Love that one.

It certainly didn't bore me  :smile:   :smile:  Cinematic Titanic should take a crack at it.

Update on what horror films I've watched this month. I'm going to try and make it to 31 this month, it'll be tricky but I can do itby  playing catch up over the weekend.

* = first time watching


October 1 The Invisible Man (1933) 5/5 *
October 3 The Mummy (1932) 4.75/5 *
October 4 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 10/5 *
October 5 Frankenstein (1931) 5/5 *
October 6 Nosferatu (1922) 5/5 *
October 7 Seven (1995) 7/5
October 10 White Zombie (1932) 10/5
October 12 The Wolfman (1941) 5/5 *
October 14 Invasion of the Body Snachers (1956) 4.5/5 *
October 14 Alien (1979) 5/5
October 14 Children of the Corn (1984) 0/5
October 15 Psycho (1960) 35/5
October 17 Rosemary’s Baby (1968) 50/5
October 17 Halloween (1978) 10/5 *
October 18 The Black Cat (1934) 4.75/5 *
October 18 Halloween II (bluray) (1981) 4/5 *
October 19 The Omen (1976) collectors edition 10/5
October 20 The Shining (1980) 20/5
October 21 Saw (2004) 5/5
October 23 Saw 2 (2005) 5/5
Ocotber 23 The Fly (1986) 15/5 *
October 25 The Exorcist (1973) bluray extended director's cut 15/5

Movie 54: The Thing (1982)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYjDVCwKr6A

I also watched Wrong Turn this week. The first movie is criminally under rated. I think those redneck monsters are awesome.
I think it's the perfect combination of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes and Night of the Living Dead.
So I also had to watch the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre again the next night.

Last night I watched Jack Frost, which is more of a Christmas horror film, but I couldn't pass up the urge to see Shannon Elizabeth get banged by a snowman. I wish I could post that clip but it would probably be taken down. If you've never seen this movie,
all I can say is OMG!

Let me also say that I love Dr. Giggles. I love all things Holly Marie Combs. I just might have to watch it again before Halloween night.


Back to Wrong Turn, there are a lot of cool posters for part one. It goes without saying that they were banking on Eliza Dushku's fan base to promote the movie.

(http://www.impawards.com/2003/posters/wrong_turn.jpg)

(http://204.244.128.121/assets/product_images/1020/478874.1020.a.jpg)

(http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/10_08/2003/295700/l_295700_9ae3bad8.jpg)

(http://www.movieposterdb.com/posters/05_01/2003/0295700/l_4539_0295700_25d7d240.jpg)

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__QQHuFKHA7Y/TUAVyaEDF6I/AAAAAAAAAEU/KPkA_gAhhaM/s1600/wrong-turn-movie-poster-1.jpg)

Movie 55: American Werewolf in London (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFLQS12z8K4


Movie 56: Suspiria (1977)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwRG2qpEwl4

The Vampire Lovers (1970) - a hot and sexy vampire (Ingrid Pitt) insinuates herself into a couple of upper crust families and, shall we say "befriends" the young ladies of the families.  Real close friends  :smile:  She gives 'em a little nibble too.  Eventually she's found out, but will the good guys arrive in time to stop her from gorging on the blood of the innocent and returning to her grave for a nice long slumber?  Quite a good movie;  what it lacked in plot it made up for in bosoms  :thumbup: 4/5.

Countess Dracula (1971) - another Ingrid Pitt movie, this time she plays an old countess who's discovered that by bathing in the blood of young virgins she can regain her youth.  Bad news for the local young virgin population I'll tell ya.  Did you know you used to be able to buy a girl off the streets for 25 kroners?  Fifty kroners for a big voluptuous one.  Man, those were the days.  Anyhow, great story full of immoral scoundrels, namely her old boyfriend who isn't too happy about her new, young boyfriend.  Excellent performances by everyone involved.  4.5/5.

The Vineyard (1989)
From Dusk till Dawn
Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl
Robo Geisha
Mutant Hunt
Terror at Blood Fart Lake
Boa vs. Python
RetarDEAD

That's it so far, weak huh? Believe me I know, but I've been swamped lately. I'll probably edit in descriptions and/or what I thought of these later.

The Descent: Part 2 - Not bad. Pretty much more of the same action and the same themes with some new faces. The story and characters were a little weaker, and I found the twist at the end to be kind of forced. While the first (in its original form) throws away the traditional ending and gives us something very poignant, this one simply snatches the happy ending away for the sake of a shocking conclusion, even if it just comes out of left field and makes very little sense.

Ok so I dont lose track here are all the movies I went through so far,
1 Return of the Living Dead 3
2 Amityville Horror 2
3 American Gothic
4 The Black Cat
5 Tales from the Hood
6 The Descent
7 Of Unknown Orgin
8 Stir of Echoes
9 Bride of Reanimator
10 Night of the living Dead 3d
11 The Boneyard
12 Bay of Blood
13 Lisa and the Devil
14 Curfew
15 House of Witchcraft
16 Return of Swamp Thing
17 In the Mouth of Madness
18 Pontypool
19 Visiting Hours
20 Bloody Moon
21 Count Dracula
Some gems discovered (Bay of Blood,  Return of the Living Dead 3) and some true stinkers (Curfew and House of Witchcraft). Yikes 10 more to go, might have to keep my Jess Franco kick going

22 Friday the 13th A New Beginning
Watched this with the commentary, having seen it before. To me this is one of the most enjoyable F13 films and the commentary is really good here. The director and selected cast members offer a self deprecating humorous take on the movie. It's obvious they are having a blast looking back at their movie and the director especially is very funny.

Just watched Bay of Blood, AKA Twitch of the Death Nerve (and a ton of other titles).  This is considered the grandfather of the slasher film (with Psycho/Peeping Tom probably the great-grandfather?), and for good reason.  It's pretty unique in that there's multiple killers running around.  Film looks cheap, but is still stylishly shot - Mario Bava has some DP skills for sure.  I particularly like the bit of trivia that he used branches in front of the camera to make it look like the film was set in a heavily wooded environment - quite well, really.  Plot is a convoluted mess of course, but it's still a fun watch for gorehounds.  Just don't take it seriously.

7/10.

Wrong Turn (2003) - some young people have a car crash and end up stranded out in the backwoods of West Virginia, where the inbred mutant hillbilly cannibals live.  And sure enough they meet up with a particularly nasty family of them.  Really good movie, with lots of tension as our innocent folks try to escape and lots of icky yucky gore.  Characters were more or less okay overall.  Some sympathetic and believable, some corny and a touch annoying, and Eliza Dushku was apparently hired purely for her looks because that's the only thing her character brings to the movie.  4/5.

Sector 7 (2011) - a crew of roughnecks are on an offshore oil rig, not having much luck with the whole oil thing but they do strike it rich when it comes to discovering a killer monster.  Not what they were after at all I don't think.  Being a Korean movie, the characters and the relationships between them are done in a somewhat different style than your typical Western thing, but it's very much trying to be a by-the-numbers Western monster movie.  I liked the fact that it was a bit unique.  It had more than it's share of corny stupidity, but there was plenty of good action stuff too.  A perfectly fun waste of 90 minutes.  4/5.

The Lamp (1987) - Another 80s horror I managed to miss in the 80s. Seems like just about any kind of mythical being can be turned into a teenager-stalking monster. In this case, we have the genie of the lamp. After its previous keeper is killed in a home invasion - along with the invaders themselves - the lamp finds its way to a museum, just in time to terrorize a bunch of high school students who decided it would be fun to sneak in and spend the night. The magical genie is pretty much turned into Jason Voorhees, sneaking around and offing the teenagers one or two at a time, for no obvious reason. He does exhibit a few powers though - possessing people, temporarily reanimating dead things, invisibility. Oddly enough, even though the genie can turn into smoke or energy, a strong door will slow him down. Overall, I thought it was a fun movie, and the genie itself is pretty cool when you finally see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VEboYIJefo
And the whole movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4Ir9pgDwc

So my amazon order came in and among them was the Exorcist Blu Ray, so what better time to revisit the scariest movie of all time.
 
Film 23
The Exorcist
Ok so the last time I saw this movie was around ten years ago I believe when the restored footage was added in for theatrical re release. I remember being unsettled by it back then but I must say it is immensely more disturbing coming from a more mature perspective. What struck me on this viewing was Ellen Burstyn's sheer desperation in trying to help her daughter, as well as just how incredibly disturbing the medical scenes are. Completely engrossing, magnificent performance's I don't think any other horror before or since can top this one on either a scare or quality level.

Film 24
The Unholy (1988)
Ok so we go from the Exorcist to a film originally written in the 70's to be a exorcist rip off but not made till 1988. So we have this boring priest dude who falls 17 stories and doesn't even get scratched. Impressed by this Hal Holbrook decides to let him run a church in New Orleans in which the previous priests have mysteriously died. I don't know what to make of this film as I saw it last night and can barely remember what happened. I am glad I didn't turn it off though as the climax has some truly ridiculous special effects going on.

Monster Movie #6
Unknown Origin (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114795/), October 27^th a.k.a. Alien Within
Apparently the budget didn't include a poster.

Well lookie here, another creature feature from 1995! Even better, a Roger Corman creature feature that's a knockoff of Alien and The Thing, which would account for every search yielding results for either Alien and/or The Thing: in fact, the only thing aside from reviews that I could even find was this trailer with russian dubbing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqKphBlg9Wg

Given all that Unknown Origin is, I find that all quite fitting. So what's there to say? American mining team answers Russian mining team's distress call, bring corpses back to their base along with one survivor who barfs up a parasite that infects a lot of people. How do I elaborate further?  :lookingup:

Rating: Black Licorice
I don't eat black licorice very often but, and maybe I'm a tad weird for this, when I do I really enjoy it. I need to be in the right mindset to sit down and put in a Corman movie but when I am the whole ordeal is enjoyable.

Film 25
967 Evil 2
Like many of the films I watched this month this one came to me via my Lionsgate 8 movie set. Directed by Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall, The Witches of Breastwick 1 and 2) this film thankfully doesnt take itself seriously. This movie is not so much about the evil phone service of the title as much as it does an evil professor who kills people and can leave his body when he feels like it. Those looking for a plot that makes sense should look elsewhere. Basically its up to biker dude "Spike" and the local hot chick to get to the bottom of things. This plays out like a lower quality Elm Street sequel but the principle villain is not really interesing enough to make it really work. Some nice inventive kills though and theres nudity within like a minute and a half of the thing for what its worth.

Tried to watch The Mummy (1932) yesterday.  The beginning was excellent.  The ending was kind of cheesy.  The middle...my wife and I were kind of sound asleep for that part.  Darned two glasses of wine before dinner  :bluesad:

Leprechaun (1993) - Watching The Lamp, with its killer genie, I remembered that I never did see any of these killer leprechaun movies, which came fairly late in the slasher cycle. Not really scary at all, being that it's such a tongue-in-cheek horror movie, with a playful, wisecracking villain and not a particularly high body count. Probably the only time I've found Jennifer Aniston particularly attractive, although her character (intermittently) tries to be as obnoxious as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xD8AE8ZcpA
And it immediately reminded me of this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEL1m7VJRmc

"Showdown at Area 51"
A pair of alien warriors land in Missouri (none of this movie happens at or near area 51) and start battling over a relic called the Omega Seed.  The aliens employ advanced quantum and nanotech weapons, which of course means that the final battle is resolved with their fists somehow defeating the otherwise impregnable defenses.

"Count Dracula's Great Love"
Four women and a man get stranded at a old sanitarium and discover that the doctor who owns it is actually the vampire lord.  Besides some naked women, this is a rather boring film.  However, there are a few great scenes.  One is when a minor vampire is carrying the woman who Dracula wants.  Dracula yells at the other vampire, and he immediately drops the heroine down a flight of steps.  There is also a great scene with Dracula unexpectedly throwing another vampire out of a window.  Not to be missed is that Dracula has a daughter named "Rodney."  The best scene is near the end, where Dracula commits hari-kari by stabbing himself with a stake.  At the end, I laughed again, because hostess Elvira also described the suicide as hari-kari and also used the word samurai, which I had done just a few minutes earlier.

THE FLY (1986)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BzwxJ-M_M0

"Be afraid.  Be very afraid."  8/10


MST3K "THE MAD MONSTER"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzOse9bqUOY

A deep track from season one, with a COMMANDO CODY short.  Mad scientist uses his experimental monster to get revenge on the medical community that shunned him.  Servo 1.0 is in pretty fine form here.  7/10

Film 26
Hard To Die aka Sorority House Massacre 3
Ok so at this point I am getting pretty sick of horror movies but for some reason I feel compelled to make it to 31. This is the third Jim Wynorski that I have watched this month, it will definitely be the last because his movies while fun are completely stupid and pointless. In this one bimbo's wander around an office building in lingerie. Now these are some pretty good bimbo's but in the time of internet pornography this movie has little value. 5 more to go hopefully no more Jim Wynorski films!

A while back, I watched (Also covered these in the Recent Viewings thread, been meaning to post this for a while but didn't get a chance before):

FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959) - straight sci-fi turned into monster on the loose or is it? This film is an enjoyable mish-mash of horror and sci-fi from the late 1950s. Sure it does have some dull and unconvincing moments but I liked the look and design of the monster and the idea they eventually use to explain it.  This was later, in essence, remade as THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN.

GREMLINS (1984) - a classic choice for a perhaps family friendly evening of dark comedy horror carnage depending on the sensibilities of the youth involved. I have to say I enjoyed this more in my younger days than I do now but you have to give this credit for being clever even if at times it seems a tad bit cruel and twisted and doesn't exactly place humanity in shining terms either. Still, this remains a fun film to watch especially during the Halloween season.

TALES OF TERROR (1962) - classic Edgar Allan Poe anthology film from Roger Corman plays up the exploitation element of shock and twisted perversity with its opening and closing tales standing out as being go for the throat trashy tales of horror while the second is more firmly in the realm of dark comedy and really in essence far more comedy than horror. Still with a cast of all-stars like Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, this delivers for fans of the macabre. This movie feels very much like a trashy horror shock comic book from the 1960s and 1970s. All in all, it’s more enjoyable perhaps than it should be.

THE DEMON (1981) - actually this film looks more like it was made in the late 70s and is very much a rip-off of popular slasher predecessors HALLOWEEN and BLACK CHRISTMAS. Cameron Mitchell is briefly in this one as an ex-Marine with ESP powers who's hired as a special investigator to track down a mysterious white-faced masked killer, a hulking man who wears a leather jacket and some type of claws on his hands as he stalks his prey. There are a few unexpected twists but this is for the most part a bore although it does have a lively climax featuring a woman in various states of undress being hunted through a large house by the demon killer.

NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957) - 1950s classic starring Dana Andrews as a scientist out to discredit and embarrass a devil cult leader named Karswell who doesn't take too kindly to the idea and places Andrews' character Dr. Holden under  a demonic curse. Suddenly Andrews' character finds himself battling the inexplicable as we wonder whether he can escape the vengeful wrath of the demon who seemingly stalks him. Very enjoyable, classic 1950s British style horror thriller is perhaps one of the best of that era and highly recommended.

Over the last week or so, I've caught the following (also covered these in the Recent Viewings thread):

CARRY ON SCREAMING! (1966) - fun horror comedy spoof featuring many of the "Carry On" gang has an Addams Family-esque family living in a hideaway rest home carrying on House of Wax and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde shenanigans while the local bumbling police investigate the disappearance of several local girls. Most memorable bits involve Joan Sims as a nagging wife from Hell who makes our lead Sgt. Bung (Harry H. Corbett)'s life generally miserable, a voluptuous ghoul girl named Valeria (Fenella Fielding) constantly flirting with Sgt. Bung, her brother the zombified mad scientist Dr. Orlando Watt (Kenneth Williams) as a truly goofy fiend and a couple of Oddbod monsters on the loose who have a tendency for loosing body parts about the place plus a couple of memorable Hyde-like transformations.

THE MONSTER SQUAD (1987) - it's also great to see another take on the classic Universal Monsters and this one has them mixing it up with a group of kids in a monster club, the only ones who seem to know anything about the monsters' plans and how to stop them. On hand are Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, a Wolf Man, a Gill Man, and a Mummy (plus a couple of Brides of Dracula for good measure). Dracula is presented as a truly powerful menacing villain here which is a plus and the other monsters for the most part seem pretty threatening as well and most seem true to the roots of their characters at least as far as the classic movies go. There was a surprise twist or two with a couple of the monsters I initially didn't see coming and I was surprised at the violence of the climax. Tries to be for monsters what Ghostbusters was for ghosts and succeeds to some extent.

THE SKULL (1965) - Peter Cushing falls under the evil influence of the skull of the Marquis de Sade. Is it madness or is he a victim of possession? This one was an enjoyable mystery shock thriller that leaves you guessing as to how it will play out and doesn't pull any punches when it comes to delivering twisted surprises. One of the best from Amicus.

THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970) - Wilbur Whately (Dean Stockwell) is determined to communicate with the Old Ones and plans a special ceremony in their honor with Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee) as the main attraction. Nancy's friends Elizabeth Hamilton and Dr. Henry Armitage come searching for her but what dark menace lurks hidden away behind locked doors within the Whately house and what forces will it and Wilbur Whately let loose upon the world if they can? This one is somewhat arty and has a quasi-softcore feel to it at times which it perhaps to pad out what is in essence a rather simplistic and straightforward plot. There's the thing lurking behind locked doors but other that that, this one proves a disappointing loose adaptation of Lovecraft.

DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965) - Another loose Lovecraft adaptation, this one of "The Colour Out of Space", this one has some startling moments. It tells the story of a young man named Stephen Reinhart (Nick Adams) who reluctantly comes to the dark and foreboding Witley Mansion and grounds hoping to take his fiancé Susan (Suzan Farmer) away from there at the request of her rapidly deforming and severely ill mother. However Susan's father Nahum (Boris Karloff), a creepy wheelchair bound seemingly obsessed with something mysterious and known only to him, objects to Stephen's intrusion upon his dark domain. Meanwhile, startling screams are heard in the night, shocking deaths are witnessed, mysterious cloaked figures stalk the place and some mystery is being kept hidden both down in the basement and in the greenhouse. While this one ultimately proves more science fiction than outright horror, it definitely has its horrific moments. Karloff really helps rise this one a notch or two in terms of entertainment and the rest of the cast do pretty well too. The surprise in the greenhouse proves quite memorable as does some of the film's shocking transformations.

THE HOWLING (1981) - One of the very best werewolf films, this one delivers both serious horror thrills and some fun comedic moments. It stars Dee Wallace as reporter Karen White who's trying to set a trap for a serial killer named Eddie when her encounter with him proves so shocking it leaves him traumatized. She's sent along with husband Bill to a hideaway country resort nicknamed "The Colony" by her friend and therapist George Waggner (Patrick Macnee).  The place however is inhabited by an odd assortment of characters perhaps the most notable of which is a nymphomaniac temptation for Bill named Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks). Meanwhile Karen's friends continue to research into Eddie and are shocked when his body disappears from the morgue. Eventually this leads them to delve into the legends and lore of werewolves and they, in time, stumble across some surprising connections between Eddie and other characters in the film. One of the most fun 80s horror films and certainly a terrific werewolf film that has all the traditional wolf man elements and a few werewolf folklore twists as well. The transformations here prove quite startling and the death of one character in particular stands out as being truly disturbing and scary. This also deserves points for making us care about Wallace's character Nancy and to empathize with her situation. Plus you've got to love all the familiar faces on board for this one, and the fun twist ending.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Tom Atkins plays a doctor who witnesses a bizarre murder at his hospital.  He teams up with the victim's daughter to investigate the cause - turns out some evil Halloween mask maker (Dan O'Herlihy) has cooked up a plot that's so ridiculous it's absolutely awesome!  Great '80s atmosphere and weirdness, excellent performance from Atkins and especially the fiendish O'Herlihy;  it just ain't Halloween until I've watched this movie.  4.5/5.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Mike gets out of the insane asylum and heads right back to Haddonfield, this time to try to kill the daughter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis' character from the first movie).  So it's up to her adopted sister, played by Ellie Cornell, to protect her.  And of course Donald Pleasence is hanging around to remind us that Meyers is "Evil, evil I tell you!!!" every 5 minutes.  Cornell does a great job as the heroine, creating a very sympathetic character.  And very easy on the eyes too.  Other than that though, these Halloween movies just don't work for me.  Meyers' mask looks more stupid than scary, and the way he'll stand there, even as he's about to get run over by a pickup, as if he's too cool to even try to get out of the way...whatever.  And they've always got him standing in the background looking "ominous", never mind that everybody in the movie would have to be blind not to see him there.  And of course he can seemingly teleport all over the place no matter how little sense it makes.  Toss in the obligatory idiot who's got the perfect opportunity to blow Meyer's head off with a shotgun but, awww...forgot to put bullets in the gun.  3.5/5 and that's being kind of generous.

25 (34) ~ The Ring (2002) 4.5/5 BD - One of the better remakes and quite stunning in HD.
26 (35) ~ Chernobyl Diaries (2012) 3.75/5 BD - Wasn't too shabby. Creepy setting, good jump scares.
27 (36) ~ Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) 1/5 BD - This was a pain to sit through. Awful.
27 (37) ~ Children of the Corn: Genesis (2011) 2.75/5 BD - Didn't suck that hard. Average but solid for what it is.
28 (38) ~ Alien Trespass (2009) 4/5 BD - Big fave, lots of fun.

Oh jeez they made one worse than Hellworld?   :bouncegiggle:

At least it returned to the whole "blood is needed to revive me" hook. The Hellraiser series kind of forgot that part.

Film 27
Attack of the Beast Creatures
Almost to the end of this debacle! You know you're in for a special kind of movie when you cant find a single person involved in this project who ever worked before or after this. So the movie starts with a ship sinking and the survivors finding themselves on an island. They get to work trying to survive but run into a couple problems, namely an acid river that melt's one of them early on. Acid rivers aren't the only obstacles as it turns out the island is inhabited by Beast Creatures (a surprise to be sure!). These beast creatures turn out to be... Little tiny pygmy dolls!

This film is poorly shot, scored and acted and yet it manages to be entertaining due to those very flaws.The stilted first time acting mixed with the laughable script really makes this work as a b movie you can put on and laugh through with your friends. This film was as far as I know never released on DVD but thanks to the wonderful youtube it is not lost by the sands of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw1wmDHjtN8&feature=related

I envy you, because I desperately want to see this movie.  Thank you for the YouTube link.  I'll be watching it there and still looking for a copy to add to the collection.

Film 28
Killdozer!

Ok so this month I have seen all kinds of ridiculousness, killer cats (the black cat), demon poodles (the boneyard), beast creatures (attack of the beast creatures) and even swamp things (the return of swamp thing". However a killer bulldozer may be the most ridiculous villain of them all, and that's exactly what this 70's made for tv film delivers. Ok so remember in the exorcist when the devil posessed that little girl? Well this is kind of like that only in this case a meteor possesses a bulldozer.

I had heard about this movie for a long time, and seeing its short length and availability on youtube I decided it was time to check this one out. Well I must say that this delivered all the killer bulldozer one could ask for, and some great comical dialogue. Take the following exchanges

Lloyd Kelly: How do you go about killing a machine?
Dennis Holvig: A machine? It's too heavy to hang and it's too big to put in the gas chamber.

 Lloyd Kelly: The truth is, we don't know anything for a fact.
Dennis Holvig: Except that bulldozer kills.
Chub Foster: Thats good enough for me.

Adding to the entertainment is these crazy electronic noises we get to hear every time the Killdozer appears. It sounds like what would happen if you poured coffee on R2-D2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYx1m_FWt_U&feature=related

Film 29
They (2002)
Hard to believe I'm only 2 movies away from being done this ridiculous 31 horror in 31 days challenge. So I have had "They" on my shelf for quite a while having picked it up for cheap months ago. I'll get straight to the point, this movie sucks. It could very well be the worst movie I watched this month. It's perdictable, its boring, and the script is horrendous. According to imdb the script was worked on by as many as 10 people, and from the looks of this movie they made as well of made it 100. Completely bland and terrible it bears a "Wes Craven Presents" on the dvd cover. I would think Wes Craven would be ashamed but he topped this in terms of shear horribleness when he wrote the script for the abysmal "Pulse". It's a shame because he is still a good director IMO as shown by Red Eye and Scream 4 both of which I enjoyed a lot. So two more to go maybe I'll try to put some good movies at the end of this, but sometimes that is easier said then done. Dont watch They!!!!!!

Child's Play 2 (1990) - so Chucky is still after the little kid, who's now in a foster home.  They did a pretty good job of making the doll look scary in this one, it's actually a good, cheesy horror movie.  The big climax in the doll factory is a real hoot lol.  4/5.

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) - a beggar serving time in a dungeon rapes a young girl, and she goes on to give birth to a little werewolf kid.  The story is more of a drama than anything, as this guy tries to lead a normal life but he's got his little problem with killing people whenever the moon is full.  Decent characters and although the plot is extremely slow moving it kept me entertained.  4/5.

Killdozer (1974) - the world's laziest construction crew runs their bulldozer into a weird rock - turns out it's a meteorite and now an alien blue light has taken over their big dozer!  EEK!   :bouncegiggle:  I really enjoyed this, watching the bulldozer raise and lower it's blade ominously, shift the blade from side to side ominously, and turn its headlights on and off.  Ominously.  The characters were these lazy whiny types, kind of reminded me of a class of adult fifth graders, and then you had Clint Walker as their very serious boss...wonderful '70s made-for-TV "horror" movie.  4/5.  Thanks to fulci420 for reminding me of this forgotten "gem" lol

28 DAYS LATER (2002)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEkJAaGhJhQ

One of my favorites which I hadn't pulled out in a long time.  Equals the original DAWN OF THE DEAD, imo.   8/10


THE DEMONS OF LUDLOW (1983)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0xYab4NL0c

A town gets terrorized by angry ghosts - that were trapped in a piano.  I guess.  Bill Rebane just might be the worst director of all time.  1/10
 

TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOZHEYhVtU

Satirical take on the "Killer Redneck" subgenre; I think most of us here have seen it already, but I highly recommend it.   7/10

DeepStar Six (1989) - The late 80s gave us a few undersea movies, with Hollywood still relying on the tried and true "Alien" formula for at least a couple of them. Deepstar Six is a pretty decent example of late-80s action-horror (for which I suppose we can thank James Cameron and Aliens). An undersea work crew installing nuclear missiles on the ocean floor stir up a big, nasty crustacean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pouTM3jqZCM
I've only seen this one maybe three times since it came out. It's good and there are a couple of decent charaters, the best being Miguel Ferrer as the guy who keeps screwing up until he finally loses it. Apart from Ferrer, the cast isn't all that impressive - B.J. McKay, that guy from Riptide and a few others. In terms of characters, cast, believability and monster, I never liked DeepStar Six as much as I liked its direct competitor in 1989...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7FskSqAQis
Leviathan - Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, Hector Elizondo. With a cast like that, how can it not be a better movie? The story of an undersea mining crew stumbling across a failed Soviet genetic experiment makes more sense and seems a little more believable than DeepStar Six. Better written for sure, and with more of a budget. Besides the quality of the ingredients, these two movies borrowed from slightly different places. Both owe a lot to Alien, especially Leviathan's premise of investigating a sunken ship and bringing back something that infects a crewmember. However, where DeepStar Six reminds me more of Aliens (1986), Leviathan also has a great deal of The Thing in it. This monster hides inside people, takes them over, absorbs them, adding the even more unsettling detail that they retain their individual awareness of what's happening to them. Much more of a horror element in this one.

Film Number 30
Sleepaway Camp

I more day till halloween and only 1 more movie to go after this. So I had heard things about this movie and knew about the twist ending, but I did not anticipate this movie being so insane! I always thought this was just another F13 cash in which in a way it is but this has a ton of strange and disturbing things going on.
Firstly unlike the 30 year olds that usually pass for campers in these films we have kids of what appear to be between 11-13. Their youth doesn't stop them from swearing like sailors and trying to get laid however. Early on a chef who appears to be in his 40's talks about having sex with the children, which is pretty messed up!
Next up we have a lot of homosexual under and overtones. None of the men/boys are wearing much clothes at all and the male counselors seem to be more interested in skinny dipping with each other rather than with the girls.
Adding to the weirdness of this movie is how angry everyone in this movie is, they are nearly constantly screaming and fighting each other.
So I went in expecting F13 and what I got was something quite a bit more subversive than I expected. The ending is still shocking and great tho, and a lot of it is pretty funny. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePkcsSvnu0I

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) - in the far-off future of 1973, some people go to Mars (For those of you not familiar with astronomy, Mars is so far away that it's actually "beyond space".)  Just before they leave to return to earth, an unwanted stowaway makes his way aboard, a big scary Martian dude.  You certainly can't accuse our space pioneers of being unprepared for this however - they've got whole boxes of hand grenades as well as a bazooka, all of which they use while aboard their space ship.  Man they used to build things to last back in the '50s.  Of course none of it does any good, as the guy's rubber suit is impervious to their weapons.  Most of the movie is spent with the monster on the lower levels of the ship, while our character fret about what to do on the upper levels.  The final solution is, shall we say, not based in firm scientific theory.  Characters were fairly undeveloped and the plot moved at a very moderate pace.  But it managed to be interesting enough.  3.5/5.

Creature (1985) - some alien stuff is discovered on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, and both the US and Germany send ships to investigate.  The American commander is a total douchebag and orders his ship to land before a proper survey of the surface can be completed.  So the ship falls through a hole and is damaged beyond repair.  But the German ship is in good shape, except there's a killer space monster aboard and the only human survivor is the perverted and rather nutty Klaus Kinski.  So our good spacefarers spend the movie trying to decide what to do while battling the scary ol' critter.  The characters in this were great, really well developed and likable.  Story was pretty good too.  It was just a bit cheesy to be taken seriously.  Still a pretty fun watch.  4.25/5.

Sleepaway Camp - Another one I managed to miss until now. Knew the surprise already, but it was still creepy. Agree with fulci420 that there is a lot of weird and surprising stuff going on, things I wouldn't have expected in a teen horror of the early 80s. And knowing how it ends actually made the rest of the movie more interesting in some ways, such as spotting the clues that are all very clear when you know where they lead, and watching how the movie tries to divert suspicion away from the killer, who is practically wearing a sign. Really good.

29 (39) ~ Piranha 3DD (2012) 4/5 BD - Fun.
29 (40) ~ Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012) 3.5/5 BD - Above average DTV release. Cheesy CGI werewolf though.
30 (41) ~ The Hole (2009) 3.5/5 BD - Very old school with quite a few (80s) movie references.
30 (42) ~ Tales from the Crypt: The Secret, Season 2.18
30 (43) ~ Tales from the Crypt: Split Second, Season 3.11

House of The Devil (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOur3WwZvM

Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UP1vv0wWp4

Wes Craven's A New Nightmare (1994)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV8za5nWxwo

Ok, tallied it up and I did:
1.DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (80'S)
2.RED DRAGON
3.THE APPEARED
4.DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN
5.FURY OF THE WOLF MAN
6.TRAUMA
7.THE BLOODY BROOD
8.SHOCK
9.THE SHE-BEAST
10.THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER
11.THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD (1978)
12.THE KILLER SHREWS
13.SATAN'S SLAVE
14.BRAIN TWISTERS
15.TRIP WITH THE TEACHER
16.MST3K: HOBGOBLINS
17.SAVAGE WEEKEND
18.THE MANSTER
19.CARNIVAL OF SOULS
20.HORROR HIGH
21.JAWS
22.THE RAVEN (2012)
23.IT'S ALIVE
24.THE FLY (1986)
25.MST3K: MAD MONSTER
26.28 DAYS LATER
27.THE DEMONS OF LUDLOW
28.TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL

Tonight I'll be watching NOSFERATU (which I do every year), THE THING '82 and Universal's FRANKENSTEIN.  Which brings me to exactly 31.
This was fun but I'm glad it's almost over.

SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D (2012): Sharon, the little girl from SILENT HILL now grown into a teenager, returns to the mysterious West Virginia ghost town to save her father, who has been abducted by cultists. Badly scripted and hard to follow, with underdeveloped characters and some eye-rolling dialogue, but the creature designs and general atmosphere are good; dedicated horror fans should be able to wring some scary satisfaction out of the mess. 2/5.

SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS (1971): An American journalist recalls investigating the disappearance of his Czech girlfriend---as he lies on a mortuary slab, either dead or in a deep catatonic state. Extremely slow-moving and not worth the eventual black magic payoff. 1.5/5.

Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. Actually the reason I checked out the movie is because one of my favorite podcasts "How did this get Made" just did a special on it the other day, really funny stuff IMO
http://www.earwolf.com/episode/sleepaway-camp/

31 (44) ~ The Frighteners [Director's Cut] (1996) 4.5/5 BD
31 (45) ~ The Exorcist [Extended Director's Cut] (1973) 5/5 BD
31 (46) ~ House of Dark Shadows (1970) 4/5 BD


Fun month with lots of good movies watched. Looking forward to next year  :thumbup:

Forbidden World (1982) - some sort of intergalactic problem-solver dude gets a call from a genetic research lab, turns out they've created a nasty little monster and need some help dealing with it.  There are two incredibly hot babes in this thing, and they get nekkid more than once - makes me glad I got this on Blu ray  :thumbup:  Pretty by-the-numbers flick other than that.  I enjoyed it.  4/5.

Sorority House Massacre II (1990) - some girls move into an abandoned house that they're going to fix up into a sorority house.  Unfortunately some murders were committed there years earlier, which we see via flashbacks to Slumber Party Massacre lol.  Is the killer's spirit still haunting the place?  Or maybe the creepy neighbor who's always lurking about is the killer?  In any case, the girls do a lot of showering, changing clothes, and running around in their lingerie.  Total cheese fest from beginning to end  :smile: 4/5.

Watched 45 movies this month!  Thanks to Claws for starting this whole thing, I had a great time.  Still got House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows on Blu ray arriving Saturday, so I'll continue my horror movie marathon at least until then. 

Here's the horror films I watched this month.  :teddyr:

October 1 The Invisible Man (1933) 5/5
October 3 The Mummy (1932) 4.75/5
October 4 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 10/5
October 5 Frankenstein (1931) 5/5
October 6 Nosferatu (1922) 5/5
October 7 Se7en (1995) 7/5
October 10 White Zombie (1932) 10/5
October 12 The Wolfman (1941) 5/5
October 14 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 4.5/5
October 14 Alien (1979) 5/5
October 14 Children of the Corn (1984) 0/5
October 15 Psycho (1960) 35/5
October 17 Rosemary’s Baby (1968) 50/5
October 17 Halloween (1978) 10/5
October 18 The Black Cat (1934) 4.75/5
October 18 Halloween II (1981) 4/5
October 19 The Omen (1976) 10/5
October 20 The Shining (1980) 20/5
October 21 Saw (2004) 5/5
October 23 Saw 2 (2005) 5/5
Ocotber 23 The Fly (1986) 15/5
October 25 The Exorcist (1973) bluray extended director's cut 15/5
October 26 Misery (1990) 4/5
October 27 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) 5/5
October 28 Carrie (1976) 5/5
October 28 Dracula (1931) 50/5
October 29 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 15/5
October 30 Hannibal (2001) 10/5
October 30 Red Dragon (2002) 5/5
October 31 Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) 1/5

Nightmare Castle

I love this movie.  This is the one that got me started on my interest in Eurohorrors.  I watched it again yesterday. It was perfect for Halloween.

Halloween night viewing courtesy of TCM:

THE BODY SNATCHER (1945): Karloff's evilest performance. 4.5/5.

I also caught the first 30 minutes of FRANKENSTEIN but had to leave on an errand.  :bluesad:

Ok so I made it to 30 and heres the final list
1 Return of the Living Dead 3
2 Amityville Horror 2
3 American Gothic
4 The Black Cat
5 Tales from the Hood
6 The Descent
7 Of Unknown Orgin
8 Stir of Echoes
9 Bride of Reanimator
10 Night of the living Dead 3d
11 The Boneyard
12 Bay of Blood
13 Lisa and the Devil
14 Curfew
15 House of Witchcraft
16 Return of Swamp Thing
17 In the Mouth of Madness
18 Pontypool
19 Visiting Hours
20 Bloody Moon
21 Count Dracula
22 Friday the 13th A New Beginning
23 The Exorcist
24 The Unholy
25 967 Evil 2
26 Hard To Die aka Sorority House Massacre 3
27 Attack of the Beast Creatures
28 Killdozer!
29 They
30 Sleepaway Camp

Best Movie of the Bunch-The Exorcist by leaps and bounds. Revisiting this and seeing how much power it still held I realized this is not only the most effective horror movie I have seen but deserving of being considered one of the best films period.
 
Worst Movie of the Bunch-They-At least with crap like Curfew and Hard to Die, you can say they were dealing with limited resources and did what they could. They is well shot, obviously backed up with lots of money and it is clearly the least inspired and horrible film on this list. This list really cemented the fact that for the most part will always reach for a pre 00's horror if given a choice.

Biggest Surprises- Return of the Living Dead 3 and Amityville Horror 2 were surprisingly really well done horror films that I would revisit with friends.

Biggest Discoveries-Before this list I hadn't seen any Mario Bava or Jess Franco films. Let alone Killdozer and Sleepaway Camp! In fact I would have to say I learned quite a bit about horror during this month as I pretty much only watched thing's I hadn't seen before with an exception or two.

So overall this was a fun look at the world of horror but I will admit by the end I was pretty sick of horror movies and look forward to staying away from them for a while.

I saw this one recently and I share your sentiments exactly. It's so slow and boring that I wouldn't even classify it as a giallo - not much mystery going on and zero stylish murders. One to avoid.

Yeah, it gets a lot of praise on IMDB and elsewhere but I just don't get it. The premise that the guy is lying on the slab, maybe dead, maybe not, and remembering the events that led up to that state, is a good one. But the actual story isn't.

Last night, for Halloween, my girls and I watched THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE.  Decent German adaptation of Lovecraft's story, but pretty slow at the beginning.

Here's my complete list:
1. Pontypool.  Good stuff.  8/10.
2. Howling Reborn.  Reasonably well made, but not great.  6/10.
3. Riki-O.  Always fun.  8/10.
4. Session 9.  Good slow build.  Decent.  7/10.
5. Unnameable.  OK.  5/10.
6. Brain Damage.  Fun.  7/10.
7. We Have To Talk About Kevin.  Powerful drama, a horror drama really, brutal stuff.  9/10.
8. Ginger Snaps.  Like this one quite a bit.  8/10.
9. Brain Dead - Pretty good, generally funny when it means to be.  7/10.
10. Deadheads.  Ok romantic zomedy.  Not as touching as it tries to be.  6/10.
11. Missing!  Damn it.
12. Missing!  Damn.
13. Super 8.  Very good film on every level.  9/10.
14. Monster Squad.  Really enjoy it.  8/10.
15. Seventh Curse.  A lot of film, ALL OVER THE MAP though.  9/10.
16. Evil Ed.  Mixed bag, good cinematography.  6/10.
17. Saint Nicholas (AKA Saint).  Alright.  Terrible dubbing.  Doesn't build to much.  5/10.
18. Descent part 2.  Weak, obvious.  Terrible ending.  5/10.
19. Satan's Little Helper.  A few laughs, terrible mostly everything else.  3/10.
20.  Mummy's Hand.  Starts off OK, but slow for a 70 minute film.  Meh.  5/10.
21. Sinister.  Genuinely creepy.  Ending too predictable.  Good overall.  8/10.
22. Bay of Blood.  Atmospheric, mostly weird but entertaining.  7/10.
23. The Ring.  It's alright, not a big fan.  6/10.
24. Freddy VS Jason.  Tons of fun, always loved it.  9/10.
25. Quarantine 2.  Watchable, but miles from the Spanish original.  5/10.
26. Sleepaway Camp 3.  Something about part 2 and 3 I find vaguely repellent and unpleasant - and I generally LIKE slasher films, mind you.  Mostly I just want the killer in this one to die very badly.  Maybe its the bloodless, but somehow pointlessly cruel kills, or the mild but not over the top sense of humor, or just the atmosphere.  I just find parts 2 and 3..  Not enjoyable.  3/10.
27. House of the Devil.  Creepy, slow build up and I liked the 80s style feel of it.  Pretty good.  7/10.
28. The Nest.  Did not live up to my expectations, and I'd been interested for more than 10 years in the film.  Watchable though, slow build.  Fans of 50s monster movies might like it as it is a real throwback in style but with 80s gore.  6/10.
29. We're Going To Eat You.  Kung fu cannibal horror comedy flick.  Really, what is there NOT to like?  8/10.
30. Shaun of the Dead.  Enjoyable zomedy.  I don't get the heaps of love it gets though.  8/10.
31. I saw it November 1, but oh well.  Silent Hill.  Murky, and a bit confusing, but has some fantastic visuals.  Mixed bag overall, but is probably the only video game movie that is actually a movie, if you know what I mean.  6/10.

Good month overall, most of my movies were first time viewings.  I'll have to update this message with the two missing ones, think I can figure it out...

Just a couple more from Halloween night. As usual, the rest of the family went out trick-or-treating, and then to a party, which left me and the dogs home alone for quite a while. Where we live, not many kids are likely to come to the door, so I just shut off all the lights to discourage the handful of bigger kids who might go to the trouble, which gives me terrific atmosphere for movies. Got in three that evening.

Suspiria - Very stylish, very atmospheric. Argento's use of lighting, music, settings, camera angles all make this a creepy movie, even in parts where nothing overtly scary is happening. I did find it a little hard to follow at times, and the pacing is kind of uneven. The scary parts are well done, but I found things tended to drag a bit in between. There's quite a lot of movie for what is really a very simple plot.

Chernobyl Diaries - What can I say? It had a great premise, a great setting, lots of interesting historical tidbits a lengthy setup and loads of potential, then did bugger-all with it. What plot there is relies heavily on people doing the wrong thing nearly all of the time, and none of the characters are particularly likable, so it was difficult to muster any kind of concern.

Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers (1988) - I remember seeing this one at the video store back in the day, I was very much into this kind of movie by then, but I just never got around to seeing it until now. Maybe it's because I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Angela is back, after considerable therapy, a sex change and a partial name change, and she's working as a camp counselor. She's a very chipper, very proper young woman, who is actually not unlike her crazy aunt from the first movie - cheerfulness and good manners barely concealing a dark and psychotic personality. It's a very tongue-in-cheek sequel, and typical of what the slasher genre had become toward the end of the 80s, thanks in large part to the success of Freddy Krueger. This movie is full of sex and drugs and heavy metal music, in a world where all the girls are hot and tend to flash their tits a lot. The killer is not silent, mysterious or hidden from the audience. It's Angela, we know why she's doing it, and we get to laugh at the witty, ironic and downright crazy things she says. She brutally dispatches unruly teenagers as though it were a firm-but-fair punishment from Mom. The kills mostly try to be creative, gross and even amusing, rather than going for actual horror. Teenagers at the time (like me) ate that stuff up. The interesting thing is that in spite of all this, Sleepaway Camp 2 does manage to get pretty dark and disturbing by the end. Pretty good for what it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2bMmCIBTik

Finished my Halloween viewing with 3 classics:

NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922): creepy, eerie surreal film basically adapts Dracula but with a few changes and added touches here and there. Makes terrific use of visuals, darkness and light and especially shadows not to mention some unsettling motion effects. Max Shreck is as scary as they come as Count Orlok. A must watch for the true Horror fan.

DRACULA (1931): the Universal classic starring the one and only Bela Lugosi who so owns the role of Count Dracula he became synonymous with the character for years and generations to come (really even to this day). A great spooky atmosphere permeates this one and some terrific show-stealing acting performances from Lugosi and Dwight Frye as Renfield really help to keep one watching.  Surprisingly simple and formulaic on some levels and arguably even a tad bit creaky, it nevertheless manages to create a lasting impression upon the viewer.

HALLOWEEN (1978): it wouldn't be Halloween without a viewing of this annual classic from John Carpenter. Even though I've seen this so very many times, I still notice little things I didn't notice before with every viewing such as Michael Myers lurking in the background of even more scenes than I realized before. His presence is this film definitely borders on omnipresent. The film is great of course slowly building and building the suspense until it finally breaks loose when Michael Myers decides to come home to Haddonfield for Halloween night. The music and the atmosphere of being constantly watched and stalked really adds a lot to this one.

I failed miserably at watching horror films, or any films for that matter in October.  I have a feeling I'll be watching a lot of stuff this month.

October 15 Witchcraft Double Feature:  The Worst Witch (1986) - Terrible children's film that predates Harry Potter's school of witchcraft.  Pretty amusing, especially the absolutely hideous special effects.  Tim Curry plays the grand wizard or whoever and his arrival to the school on Halloween leads into an insane music video.  Worth watching.  7/10

Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) - Incredibly great "documentary" about the history of all things witchy.  The best parts are those featuring various devils and debauchery, but it's all pretty excellent stuff.  Never thought I'd see a film from the twenties with child sacrifice and women kissing the devil's bare arse.  9/10

October 18: It!  The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) - A nice 50's time-waster but it's pretty shabby.  Nothing too exciting but marvel at the heavily armed astronauts firing guns and a rocket launcher inside their spaceship!  5/10

And that's it...I failed to watch so many that I had my heart set on.  Blah, maybe I'll have more time this month.