October/Halloween Movie Watching List

[Jim H]

Last night I saw the Howling 2.  Wow.  What a bad movie.  It was a lot more entertaining and coherent than the Howling 3 though.  Some REALLY bad acting from some characters, though of course Christopher Lee was solid enough.  It retcons the first Howling film in stupid ways - which is a shame, as the ending of the first Howling film could have generated interesting sequels.  It's the oldest horror film I'm aware of where an event occurs that would let everyone know the existence of supernatural monsters worldwide.  But no, they say in the film the footage of Karen White was never broadcast (despite their being a series of reaction shots of viewers at the end of the film).  And now werewolves are from Transylvania, have magic powers, have a similar vibe to vampires with "consecrated ground" (GRRRRR) and can only be killed by titanium (!?!?!?!).  The other howling films completely ignore the mythology from part 2, which is good.  Apparently every Howling film almost totally ignores every film before it though (except maybe the Howling V).  It's pretty lame. 

The montage over the ending credits is hilarious, seeing as it shows Sybil Danning ripping her top off like 30 times.  Also, the one bit of the theme song that goes "Ow ow ow ow ow" is, I think, unintentionally hilarious.  Watched it with a friend, and it made for great riffing material.  As a bad movie to watch with friends, I'd give it a 7 or possibly 8/10.  As a serious film for people who love werewolves as I do, a 3/10.  At least we get Sybil Danning topless.

[InformationGeek]

Today for Halloween, I decided to watch a whole bunch of scary/black comedy movies.  I watched/or will be watching:

Vampire's Night Orgy
Ghostbusters
Poltergeist
Tremors

Have a Happy Halloween!

[Jim H]

Had a good Halloween.  I saw most of The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, but I missed too much to give it a rating.  I also watched the season premiere of Walking Dead.  I thought it was solid, but not quite great or anything.

I also watched Trick R Treat.  Second viewing, and I hadn't seen it in quite a while.  It stands up very well to repeat viewings..  I think this is going to be the Halloween equivalent of A Christmas Story, a film I watch around every Halloween.  Really enjoy it.  Rating is now bumped up to a 9/10.

[claws]

10.31. Filmcount: 64



The Exorcist (1973)

Looking great in HD. I'm saving the Extended Director's Cut for a rainy day.
October/Halloween score: 5/5

Halloween (1978)

See, I can deal with the loss of blue hues when still presented in excellent reference quality, unlike Code Red's Madman re-release for example. But then again Blu-ray pretty much always wins by default. Only my opinion.
October/Halloween score: 5/5

[Jim H]

10.31. Filmcount: 64



The Exorcist (1973)

Looking great in HD. I'm saving the Extended Director's Cut for a rainy day.
October/Halloween score: 5/5

Halloween (1978)

See, I can deal with the loss of blue hues when still presented in excellent reference quality, unlike Code Red's Madman re-release for example. But then again Blu-ray pretty much always wins by default. Only my opinion.
October/Halloween score: 5/5

I wasn't aware of the controversy with Halloween.  Been reading up on that.  Thanks for the heads up, as I've been intending to get a better copy of it for a while (I have it on LaserDisc). 

[Jack]

Shapeshifter (2005) - A monster is loose in a jail, and chases the inmates and a guard around for the duration of the movie.  This is an old favorite of mine, the characters are very colorful and entertaining.  It actually has somewhat of a plot as one of the inmates has a connection to the monster, and the revelations during the movie are somewhat interesting.  Jennifer Lee Wiggins spends the whole movie in a tight tank top, which is definitely the highlight for me    There's plenty of gore, some good cheesiness, overall I had fun.  4.5/5.

[claws]

My stats:

Movies & TV Episodes: 67
From the 80s: 22
Blu-ray: 20
From the 70s: 20
From the 00s: 16
First time viewing: 9
From the 90s: 5
From the 60s: 4

Five best first time viewings:

01 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007)
02 Predators (2010)
03 A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
04 The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
05 Love Me Deadly (1973)

Previously seen movies watched for the first time on Blu-ray. PQ ranking:

01 The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
02 The Amityville Horror (2005)
03 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
04 Carrie (1976)
05 High Tension (2003)

Perfect Combination: my favorite October Double Features

01 Deadly Blessing (1981) + Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
02 Carrie (1976) + The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
03 Day of the Dead (1985) + The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
04 Love Object (2003) + High Tension (2003)
05 House (1986) + Witchboard (1986)

My thanks to Jack and Jim H and those who took the time to post their October/Halloween viewings.
It seems like watching horror movies in October is a possible non-tradition with folks at badmovies.org, with only a few exceptions, but at least this thread did better than last year  

[venomx]

Some great Halloween movies in this thread.

I finally got my Abbott & Costello Meet Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1953) so I watched that last night.
Boris Karloff was such a great actor. I need to find more movies with him. (any suggestions?)

[Jim H]

Overall list:

Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde (1920)
I Spit on Your Grave
I Sell the Dead
Friday the 13th 1-9
Subspecies
Monsturd
Deranged
Tombs of the Blind Dead
Carnival of Souls
The Changeling Exorcist III
Baby Blood
Mutant (Wings Hauser one)
The Gorgon
The Undertaker and His Pals
Far Cry
The Manster
Superstition
Night of the Demons
The Body Snatcher
I Walked With a Zombie
Return of the Vampire
Howling 3
Legend of Hell House
Addams Family
House on Sorority Row
Howling 2
Trick R Treat

Total films viewed: 35.  I did see some horror TV stuff as well - an episode of the Outer Limits, several Dexter episodes, and The Walking Dead.  I usually watch a good number of horror films in October, but I've decided from now on my new October tradition is at least one horror film for every day in October.  

Boris Karloff was such a great actor. I need to find more movies with him. (any suggestions?)

Hmm..  The Black Cat, The Body Snatcher, Targets, The Man They Could Not Hang, and The Raven spring to mind.  My personal favorite performance of his is probably the Body Snatcher - certainly not the best film he's in, but MAN is he great in it.  Such a complete and total ***hole it's incredible.

[venomx]

Cool, thanks for the help. I'll check out The Body Snatcher.

[KYGOTC]

I'm about to watch the 30's Frankenstein for the first time eveR, at 22 years old. A friend tried showing it to me as a kid, but I was to much of a p***y back then. 

[Jim H]

I'm about to watch the 30's Frankenstein for the first time eveR, at 22 years old. A friend tried showing it to me as a kid, but I was to much of a p***y back then. 

My reaction was pretty much: very iconic design, a few really great ideas and some great looking shots and sequences (especially for the time, the scene where the monster comes to life is an editing and sound design marvel), but as a film it's just good, not great. 

I've only seen one horror film this far (Touch of Satan via MST3k, which was HORRIBLE),  I need to play catchup to get to at least 31 films viewed.  First on my list is the Ninth Configuration, but I also hope to see Jigoku, Of Unknown Origin, Chronos, Village of the Damned, and a number of others.

[Psycho Circus]

I shall be watching the usual films:

Transylvania 6-5000
Once Bitten
Trick Or Treat
Re-Animator
Night Of The Demons
Halloween 4 & 5

[FatFreddysCat]

Trick Or Treat

This one's on my list to watch as well.

I also have recently purchased "Halloween H20" and "From Dusk Til Dawn" but haven't watched either one yet (I've seen both films numerous times before already, though)... will have to make time for them too!

[KYGOTC]

Last night I watched EVIL ED, which was cool and unique, but became extrememyl genereric and lame durring the second half of the movie,

and the night before THAT, I watched the 30's THE MUMMY.
It was ok. kinda dull. but not bad.

Tonight I'm not sure what I'm gunna watch yet. Hopefully gunna keep with the trend of seeing ones I haven't.