You're not going to like it any better. But Michael walking around slowly yet some how (sometimes) silently ninja killing people with his superhuman strength is exactly the plot of literally every Halloween movie ever.
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31 Days of Horror (2019) - The October Movie Marathon
- Thread starter ThirstyFly
- Start date
You're not going to like it any better. But Michael walking around slowly yet some how (sometimes) silently ninja killing people with his superhuman strength is exactly the plot of literally every Halloween movie ever.
In broad daylight though ? Where you always know exactly where he is and what he's about to do? It's so predictable so far, I feel no dread at all
Hes done it before but mostly the movies take place at night. The people he kills never see him until they're dying though. Otherwise they'd run away and I dont think michael can run. He just teleports.
Halloween 2018 is easier to enjoy if you're a fan of the franchise.
Michael was put in prison by Laurie. Laurie survived but built herself her own prison anyways. She was trapped and changed by the trauma of that night Michael tried to kill her. Halloween 2018 is about her validation and ultimate victory over her tormentor and less of a typical slasher with gorey teens getting murdered.
Hmmm I'll finish it then if it's a JLC showcase because I love her. I think so much taking place during the day so far is throwing me off and of course the most unaware, oblivious " investigative journalists" ever. Seriously I look at every single bit of activity when I'm at a gas station lol.
Also seeing so much from Michaels POV is killing my suspense. I always thought he would just come out of nowhere, a specter slipping in and out of frame. I'll stop complaining now and finish it but yea, I'm disappointed.
Edit* Finished . Yea that movie wasn't very good, stupid characters , telegraphed kills, im baffled at how this got good reviews. I'm assuming the Zombie films were just that bad that this looked good by comparison.
Best parts of the movie that actually felt clever were
When Michael looks down at the front lawn and Laurie is gone and the dread music cue hits, the shot of Laurie in the dark " Happy Halloween Michael"
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I just watched Slasher Season 1. I think this is the first showing the history of tv that made no attempt to hide who the real killer is. Its plain from the start how all this was going to end. It had a strong opening and then decides to coast through the last half. No attempt at creating a red herring was made either. Just lazy, pedestrian writing.
4 wax vampire teeth out of 10
4 wax vampire teeth out of 10
12) Strangers - Nothing groundbreaking but a well done slasher/home invasion film. The lack of motivation for the killers and being evil just to be evil makes it all the more terrifying.
35. The Blair Witch Project (1999) (Rewatch) - Still holds up. It has a sense of authenticity that the ensuing flood of found footage films mostly lacks, and the escalation and sense of desperation and dread work amazingly well. 8/10
36. Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971) - I appreciate that they at least tried something different for this one, but it just wasn't very interesting. A few nice atmospheric moments and that's about it. 4/10
37. Bedlam (1946) - A worthy sendoff to Val Lewton's 1940s run of horror films, with Karloff being excellent as usual and a compelling protagonist as well, plus a satisfying if unoriginal ending. 7/10
38. Next of Kin (1982) - I wasn't expecting this to be as great as it was. It might be just a little too slow paced and the characters could have been more interesting, but the atmosphere is great and the finale is incredible. 8/10
The list so far
I do believe Blair Witch Project will always withstand the test of time. There were many found footage films to come out since then but somehow, BWP feels like it was the one to set the standard even if you're not even aware it was.
It also helps that those actors are not recognizable in any other films so the suspension of disbelief is increased in that respect
It also helps that those actors are not recognizable in any other films so the suspension of disbelief is increased in that respect
#16: Child's Play (1988)
Child's Play reminded me a lot of children's toy: it's cheap, simple, and broad. Every character in the movie is a cartoon; the child we spend much of the movie with is introduced by "charmingly" dumping sugar on cearal and half a tub of butter (tub of butter!!) on charcoal that was once bread. There are the buffoonishly oblivious cops. The well meaning mother. I don't have an issue with broad characters, cartoons, or children's toys. Those things are supposed to be fun! Child's Play is not fun. It has no intrigue, it's short on thrills, and it seems to think it can get a lot more mileage out of mixing the sacred and the profane than it does. A child's doll cursing out a grown woman as it attempts to murder her might be amusing the first time, but believe me it wears thin. There are some impressive animatronics on display, and I always like Brad Dourif (who, after appearing on screen in the nonsensical opening sequence—I'm not sure why, but random voodoo as the impetus for all this feels lazy?—is kept from injecting the movie with life for over half the run time. Instead we are left with the "gee shucks ain't I cute" kid to pull us through the narrative in the meantime) but that's where my praise runs dry. It's not worth the tedium.
#17: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
After an impressionist montage that depicts city life as a chaotic Petri dish for disease and filth (unquestionably the high point of artistry in this film), things slow down—and begin to get oh so predictable—when we hit the countryside. The location filmmaking is beautiful, but this environmental spin on the zombie genre (with a few spins on the creatures we hardly see anymore this far removed from Romero's Dead films firmly setting the template) is low on thrills until late in the film. Instead we spend most of the movie dealing with one of my least favorite horror tropes: the protagonists have to convince comically obstinate authority figures that the supernatural phenomenon, that only they conveniently encounter, is real and a threat to everyone. It's not very compellingly executed, and once the zombie action heats up it doesn't really make up for it. There are some memorable gore effects and a few effective images of the undead appearing out of the fog, or hunched over in a hospital, but in all these sequences lack the rhythmic tension of Romero's films, and the oppressive atmosphere and gross-out effects of Fulci's take on zombies. It doesn't help that the tragic finale relies heavily on us believing that people who clearly are not on fire are in fact burning up in flames. I can often overlook the occasional shoddy effect if the emotion and story can make up for their lack, but there's nothing convincing here. It's a decent little post-Night of the Living Dead zombie curiosity, but not much more.
#18: Tigers Are Not Afraid
On the surface the Pan's Labyrinth comparisons make total sense: the movie is upfront about telling a dark fairy tale about a young girl and the horrors of her reality, and the fantasy world around her that's hidden from everyone else. Unfortunately by positioning itself so clearly as a spiritual successor of sorts to Del Toro's film, it only highlights this film's weaknesses in comparison. In particular the fantasy elements here feel half baked. In Del Toro's film there was a sense of clear mythology and world building, where every character and location had their place in the story—in Tigers Are Not Afraid, outside of the constant of Estrella's mother, most of the supernatural imagery seems to be there for the sake of striking, or startling, visuals. There's a lack of oneiric quality that Pan's Labyrinth used to so seamlessly weave its fantastical elements to its realistic horrors—Tigers Are Not Afraid shoots in a more docudrama fashion, and as such it succeeds most prominently when we see the (very charming) cast of kids simply existing in the world that they've made for themselves; their own bits of fantasy, such as the impromptu talent show put on in a derelict manor, are more compelling than any of the ghosts.
#19: The Lighthouse
This was extremely my shit, which is why it bugs me a little that the narrative structure of the thing was a bit of a let down amidst all the absolutely amazing cinematography, sound design, and bits of sea-faring dialogue (including a monumental Melvillian monologue precipitated by an insult to one's cooking skills). The rub is that the movie is about two men going mad together, but they both start out at like an 8 out of 10 on the crazy scale to begin with, which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a dramatic arc, especially when coupled with a scene by scene syntax that's largely dictated by the routine of their lighthouse chores. This gives the film a jerky, stop-start pacing that doesn't much allow for a steady build up, and when the really 10/10 insanity shenanigans and supernatural happenings crop up it feels just as abrupt as anything else. But the devil is in the details, and the details here are shaped by Promethean myth, sailor folklore, psychosexual domination, Freudian symbols, bodily fluids, Eldritch knowledge, gaslighting, and a shitload of alcohol. There's a lot to dig into here, to say the least, and it's all tightly coiled around the (by turns) tense, tender, and so often hilarious, relationship between Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's characters. For all its frustrations and and vague mysteries (some resolved, many left ambiguous for the theorizers), The Lighthouse is one of the best crafted and most purely enjoyable movies I've seen this year, and is surely an example of a film that has no concern for failure, as it never once stops to play things safe. If it's not as satisfying of a dramatic film as The Witch, The Lighthouse represents a courageous project for Eggers to hone his impeccable craft without playing things safe.
Child's Play reminded me a lot of children's toy: it's cheap, simple, and broad. Every character in the movie is a cartoon; the child we spend much of the movie with is introduced by "charmingly" dumping sugar on cearal and half a tub of butter (tub of butter!!) on charcoal that was once bread. There are the buffoonishly oblivious cops. The well meaning mother. I don't have an issue with broad characters, cartoons, or children's toys. Those things are supposed to be fun! Child's Play is not fun. It has no intrigue, it's short on thrills, and it seems to think it can get a lot more mileage out of mixing the sacred and the profane than it does. A child's doll cursing out a grown woman as it attempts to murder her might be amusing the first time, but believe me it wears thin. There are some impressive animatronics on display, and I always like Brad Dourif (who, after appearing on screen in the nonsensical opening sequence—I'm not sure why, but random voodoo as the impetus for all this feels lazy?—is kept from injecting the movie with life for over half the run time. Instead we are left with the "gee shucks ain't I cute" kid to pull us through the narrative in the meantime) but that's where my praise runs dry. It's not worth the tedium.
#17: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
After an impressionist montage that depicts city life as a chaotic Petri dish for disease and filth (unquestionably the high point of artistry in this film), things slow down—and begin to get oh so predictable—when we hit the countryside. The location filmmaking is beautiful, but this environmental spin on the zombie genre (with a few spins on the creatures we hardly see anymore this far removed from Romero's Dead films firmly setting the template) is low on thrills until late in the film. Instead we spend most of the movie dealing with one of my least favorite horror tropes: the protagonists have to convince comically obstinate authority figures that the supernatural phenomenon, that only they conveniently encounter, is real and a threat to everyone. It's not very compellingly executed, and once the zombie action heats up it doesn't really make up for it. There are some memorable gore effects and a few effective images of the undead appearing out of the fog, or hunched over in a hospital, but in all these sequences lack the rhythmic tension of Romero's films, and the oppressive atmosphere and gross-out effects of Fulci's take on zombies. It doesn't help that the tragic finale relies heavily on us believing that people who clearly are not on fire are in fact burning up in flames. I can often overlook the occasional shoddy effect if the emotion and story can make up for their lack, but there's nothing convincing here. It's a decent little post-Night of the Living Dead zombie curiosity, but not much more.
#18: Tigers Are Not Afraid
On the surface the Pan's Labyrinth comparisons make total sense: the movie is upfront about telling a dark fairy tale about a young girl and the horrors of her reality, and the fantasy world around her that's hidden from everyone else. Unfortunately by positioning itself so clearly as a spiritual successor of sorts to Del Toro's film, it only highlights this film's weaknesses in comparison. In particular the fantasy elements here feel half baked. In Del Toro's film there was a sense of clear mythology and world building, where every character and location had their place in the story—in Tigers Are Not Afraid, outside of the constant of Estrella's mother, most of the supernatural imagery seems to be there for the sake of striking, or startling, visuals. There's a lack of oneiric quality that Pan's Labyrinth used to so seamlessly weave its fantastical elements to its realistic horrors—Tigers Are Not Afraid shoots in a more docudrama fashion, and as such it succeeds most prominently when we see the (very charming) cast of kids simply existing in the world that they've made for themselves; their own bits of fantasy, such as the impromptu talent show put on in a derelict manor, are more compelling than any of the ghosts.
#19: The Lighthouse
This was extremely my shit, which is why it bugs me a little that the narrative structure of the thing was a bit of a let down amidst all the absolutely amazing cinematography, sound design, and bits of sea-faring dialogue (including a monumental Melvillian monologue precipitated by an insult to one's cooking skills). The rub is that the movie is about two men going mad together, but they both start out at like an 8 out of 10 on the crazy scale to begin with, which doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a dramatic arc, especially when coupled with a scene by scene syntax that's largely dictated by the routine of their lighthouse chores. This gives the film a jerky, stop-start pacing that doesn't much allow for a steady build up, and when the really 10/10 insanity shenanigans and supernatural happenings crop up it feels just as abrupt as anything else. But the devil is in the details, and the details here are shaped by Promethean myth, sailor folklore, psychosexual domination, Freudian symbols, bodily fluids, Eldritch knowledge, gaslighting, and a shitload of alcohol. There's a lot to dig into here, to say the least, and it's all tightly coiled around the (by turns) tense, tender, and so often hilarious, relationship between Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson's characters. For all its frustrations and and vague mysteries (some resolved, many left ambiguous for the theorizers), The Lighthouse is one of the best crafted and most purely enjoyable movies I've seen this year, and is surely an example of a film that has no concern for failure, as it never once stops to play things safe. If it's not as satisfying of a dramatic film as The Witch, The Lighthouse represents a courageous project for Eggers to hone his impeccable craft without playing things safe.
Film 22 - Maniac Cop
This was an unscheduled viewing last night, because my son has got my dvd of The Devil's Rejects round his house, and the Shudder version of that film freezes half an hour in every time. However, Maniac Cop is also on Shudder, and I just picked it at random.
It was a good pick too, I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's fairly standard 80s fare, and though quite low on gore or scares, it gets a big boost by featuring the ever wonderful Bruce Campbell. He plays, with handsome panache, a Police officer falsely accused of the crimes being committed by the eponymous villain.
The thing that struck me most about the movie were a couple of things about the dialogue. One character says something about Aids that you can't imagine appearing in a script these days, while on the other hand a black character makes a comment about having seen cops shooting unarmed people in the back that sounds extremely up to date...
Verdict: Good fun, but I'm not sure I'll bother with the sequels.
Films I've watched so far
This was an unscheduled viewing last night, because my son has got my dvd of The Devil's Rejects round his house, and the Shudder version of that film freezes half an hour in every time. However, Maniac Cop is also on Shudder, and I just picked it at random.
It was a good pick too, I enjoyed it quite a lot. It's fairly standard 80s fare, and though quite low on gore or scares, it gets a big boost by featuring the ever wonderful Bruce Campbell. He plays, with handsome panache, a Police officer falsely accused of the crimes being committed by the eponymous villain.
The thing that struck me most about the movie were a couple of things about the dialogue. One character says something about Aids that you can't imagine appearing in a script these days, while on the other hand a black character makes a comment about having seen cops shooting unarmed people in the back that sounds extremely up to date...
Verdict: Good fun, but I'm not sure I'll bother with the sequels.
Films I've watched so far
#18. Colossal - I thought I was cheating a bit by adding this to my list since I was aware that the Kaiju aspect of the film was pretty limited and ultimately metaphorical but the movie ended up being the most terrifying thing I've seen this month. The true horror of our age is the fucking "nice guy" and the movie is not afraid to show just how pathetic that type of person is. Dealing with addiction and abusive relationships, we see more destruction than any giant monster could ever possibly cause. This movie was fantastic. Highly recommended.
Yes, one of the most overlooked films of the past few years.
18. I Know What You Did Last Summer
19. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
20. Scream
The same review applies to all of these. For me these were the horror movies I watched the most as a 10-12 year old. They are basically comfort food for me at this point despite the flaws (especially I Still Know). They just immediately take me back to that time and I'm just a super happy camper watching these films.
19. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
20. Scream
The same review applies to all of these. For me these were the horror movies I watched the most as a 10-12 year old. They are basically comfort food for me at this point despite the flaws (especially I Still Know). They just immediately take me back to that time and I'm just a super happy camper watching these films.
I need to check out Maniac Cop - I don't think I ever watched this. Next of Kin too - never heard of this one.
Was a big surprise for me too when I saw it earlier in the year. Wasn't expecting the drama of the film to hit so hard or be so unsettling and dark
You'd be hard-pressed to find a Disney film with more horror overtones than that one, aside from the obvious Night on Bald Mountain sequence in Fantasia. That said, Pinocchio does get close at times.
tonight is something a little different a little known british horror from 99 called Lighthouse
Week 3 (Oct 13-19): Hrůza - The Czech Word for Horror!
October 18 (Day 20)
The Noonday Witch (Polednice):
Daylight horror sure has come a long way! Once relegated to the parts of the movie before the killing of teenagers started, it's become a premier setting for all kinds of sub-genres, offering up a lot of unique challenges to a filmmaker in order to create the proper atmosphere, as well as having to brainstorm ways of generating frights when putting haunts in the shadows is no longer an option. Executed properly, and the sunny days prove just as scary as any night of terror, with a level of danger and exposure that's hard to top.
The Noonday Witch starts off quite promisingly in that regard, with the village our heroines have moved to looking just a little too bright. In the midst of a brutal heat wave that's already claimed a couple of victims, there's the sense that no one should be living here, especially as happily as most do. In fact, it doesn't seem like that there's any call for uncertainty until Eliska and Anetka arrive, clearly not in the most ideal of circumstances. And then come the stories of a witch in the area, always searching for that unlucky child to take into her possession, never to be seen again. Is the heat bringing out the worst in the citizens, thereby bringing out the worst in its newest residents, or is there something far more sinister at work, one that persists at all hours of the day, ensuring that any calm is impossible?
The more psychological horror approach is an inspired direction to take with a story like this, especially since it does delve into more legitimate psychological topics than most, with the supernatural leanings offering up a good visual descriptor for what the characters could imagine the witch to look like that manages to keep her appearance a relative mystery to preserve the uncertainty of whether or not that she exists at all. Yet for all that clever working and use of the environment to inspire such a tale, I could not help but feel that the dramatic underpinnings of the story itself were built on a rather flimsy foundation. There's an element to the relationship between Eliska and Anetka that, despite the best efforts from actresses Anna Geislerová and Karolína Lipowská, never quite adds up, one that feels like the writers never quite found the right amount of logical progression and hoped that finding the right actresses for the parts could carry it past the character inconsistencies. Their situation is definitely in the realm of a raw nerve that a mother would certainly try to protect their child from, but here it feels like it's practically negligent parenting that makes the whole charade that Eliska maintains rather silly and unconvincing, resulting in the suspense and mounting dread of how things could potentially turn out, rendered in a profoundly unearned manner.
The lack of genuine drama in the writing is something that can't be saved by the strong aesthetic qualities or the good performances, as it forms so much of the skeleton of the film that it rings false when they decide to go through with it anyway, as if no one would notice such an inherent flaw with the way they decided to tell the story. As spooky as the film can get, it was hard for me to not have the thought of there being a much easier way to avoid all of these problems altogether, which is a serious deal breaker in the late game when the situation does escalate to the point where tragedy seems inevitable once more. I wondered far too often as to when and where they could have made the adjustments necessary to keep the friction between mother and daughter to be properly invested in everything else the film has going for it, which is a hell of a fatal flaw for a film of this nature to have. It's unfortunate, as it's clearly a film made with serious craft and offers a great premise that could have made for a novel spin on the topic of grief processing, but its mishandling of the story borders on sabotage for how much harm it inflicts upon the proceedings.
October 18 (Day 20)
The Noonday Witch (Polednice):
Daylight horror sure has come a long way! Once relegated to the parts of the movie before the killing of teenagers started, it's become a premier setting for all kinds of sub-genres, offering up a lot of unique challenges to a filmmaker in order to create the proper atmosphere, as well as having to brainstorm ways of generating frights when putting haunts in the shadows is no longer an option. Executed properly, and the sunny days prove just as scary as any night of terror, with a level of danger and exposure that's hard to top.
The Noonday Witch starts off quite promisingly in that regard, with the village our heroines have moved to looking just a little too bright. In the midst of a brutal heat wave that's already claimed a couple of victims, there's the sense that no one should be living here, especially as happily as most do. In fact, it doesn't seem like that there's any call for uncertainty until Eliska and Anetka arrive, clearly not in the most ideal of circumstances. And then come the stories of a witch in the area, always searching for that unlucky child to take into her possession, never to be seen again. Is the heat bringing out the worst in the citizens, thereby bringing out the worst in its newest residents, or is there something far more sinister at work, one that persists at all hours of the day, ensuring that any calm is impossible?
The more psychological horror approach is an inspired direction to take with a story like this, especially since it does delve into more legitimate psychological topics than most, with the supernatural leanings offering up a good visual descriptor for what the characters could imagine the witch to look like that manages to keep her appearance a relative mystery to preserve the uncertainty of whether or not that she exists at all. Yet for all that clever working and use of the environment to inspire such a tale, I could not help but feel that the dramatic underpinnings of the story itself were built on a rather flimsy foundation. There's an element to the relationship between Eliska and Anetka that, despite the best efforts from actresses Anna Geislerová and Karolína Lipowská, never quite adds up, one that feels like the writers never quite found the right amount of logical progression and hoped that finding the right actresses for the parts could carry it past the character inconsistencies. Their situation is definitely in the realm of a raw nerve that a mother would certainly try to protect their child from, but here it feels like it's practically negligent parenting that makes the whole charade that Eliska maintains rather silly and unconvincing, resulting in the suspense and mounting dread of how things could potentially turn out, rendered in a profoundly unearned manner.
The lack of genuine drama in the writing is something that can't be saved by the strong aesthetic qualities or the good performances, as it forms so much of the skeleton of the film that it rings false when they decide to go through with it anyway, as if no one would notice such an inherent flaw with the way they decided to tell the story. As spooky as the film can get, it was hard for me to not have the thought of there being a much easier way to avoid all of these problems altogether, which is a serious deal breaker in the late game when the situation does escalate to the point where tragedy seems inevitable once more. I wondered far too often as to when and where they could have made the adjustments necessary to keep the friction between mother and daughter to be properly invested in everything else the film has going for it, which is a hell of a fatal flaw for a film of this nature to have. It's unfortunate, as it's clearly a film made with serious craft and offers a great premise that could have made for a novel spin on the topic of grief processing, but its mishandling of the story borders on sabotage for how much harm it inflicts upon the proceedings.
18) Day of the Dead (1985)
This is a great big 14 mile tombstone, with an epitaph on it that no one's ever gonna read.
Not content with defining the pre and mid zombie apocalypse, Romero lays the default post-apocalypse for the next generation of zombie media too.
I saw bits of this film in the past, but never the whole thing til now. Though they were made years apart without any direct plan or connection, the Night/Dawn/Day trilogy really works as a cohesive whole. All of the zombie plotline and development in Day had its groundwork lain in the first two films, watching them together you can see a natural progression. I don't know if it was intentional or just how it came about at the time, but it's satisfying. This is another great entry overall, feeling darker and more violent (though it actually has the most upbeat ending of the trilogy), and boasting the same methodical attention to detail in its location. The underground bunker and how it all works (or rather, doesn't) feels fleshed out and obviously lots of thought went into it by Romero and crew. I feel like a lot of post-apocalyptic media brushes over living and setting detail, or just copies it from previous films/books/TV/games as shorthand. The result is that when the house of cards inevitably comes down for the climax, you feel like you know the location well as you watch it go to shit, it's not just random rooms or buildings or something. This worked really well with the mall in Dawn, and it works here too.
Acting is hammy across the board, far more so than the prior entries, but I think it adds to the film, for isolated survivors who are all varying degrees of gone round the bend in this zombie dominated world. What results is a host of memorable characters, especially Dr. Logan (a rare genuine mad scientist who somehow remains sympathetic/likable), Captain Rhodes the villain of perpetually gritted teeth, and of course Bub the somewhat docile zombie, the real star of the film.
Tom Savini sure outdid himself with this one too, the gore is off the charts. There's a scene of a character killed by zombies who has his head ripped off; his yells actually get distorted and pitched up by his vocal chords being pulled apart. That's an impressively sadistic bit of attention to detail by Savini. What a madman.
So that's the Dead trilogy, or at least, the first one. They're all must see as far as I'm concerned. I have a sinking feeling I'm not going to love Romero's second Dead trilogy from the 2000s so much. Alas, onward.
This is a great big 14 mile tombstone, with an epitaph on it that no one's ever gonna read.
Not content with defining the pre and mid zombie apocalypse, Romero lays the default post-apocalypse for the next generation of zombie media too.
I saw bits of this film in the past, but never the whole thing til now. Though they were made years apart without any direct plan or connection, the Night/Dawn/Day trilogy really works as a cohesive whole. All of the zombie plotline and development in Day had its groundwork lain in the first two films, watching them together you can see a natural progression. I don't know if it was intentional or just how it came about at the time, but it's satisfying. This is another great entry overall, feeling darker and more violent (though it actually has the most upbeat ending of the trilogy), and boasting the same methodical attention to detail in its location. The underground bunker and how it all works (or rather, doesn't) feels fleshed out and obviously lots of thought went into it by Romero and crew. I feel like a lot of post-apocalyptic media brushes over living and setting detail, or just copies it from previous films/books/TV/games as shorthand. The result is that when the house of cards inevitably comes down for the climax, you feel like you know the location well as you watch it go to shit, it's not just random rooms or buildings or something. This worked really well with the mall in Dawn, and it works here too.
Acting is hammy across the board, far more so than the prior entries, but I think it adds to the film, for isolated survivors who are all varying degrees of gone round the bend in this zombie dominated world. What results is a host of memorable characters, especially Dr. Logan (a rare genuine mad scientist who somehow remains sympathetic/likable), Captain Rhodes the villain of perpetually gritted teeth, and of course Bub the somewhat docile zombie, the real star of the film.
His final sarcastic salute to the doomed Rhodes was spectacular.
Tom Savini sure outdid himself with this one too, the gore is off the charts. There's a scene of a character killed by zombies who has his head ripped off; his yells actually get distorted and pitched up by his vocal chords being pulled apart. That's an impressively sadistic bit of attention to detail by Savini. What a madman.
So that's the Dead trilogy, or at least, the first one. They're all must see as far as I'm concerned. I have a sinking feeling I'm not going to love Romero's second Dead trilogy from the 2000s so much. Alas, onward.
#19 - The Red Shoes (Bunhong Shin)
A simple story of cursed women's footwear, The Red Shoes gets off to a slow start but is redeemed by an engrossing final act. I admit I got a little sleepy in the beginning. The concept of the shoes was neat, people are drawn to them and then they end up dead. I just wasn't entertained by the rather basic scares, your standard loud noises whenever something pops out. However this all builds up to a great, twisty finale. Didn't see the film ending that way. Some nice editing and spooky imagery in the final scenes, it made the build up worth it for me.
Diary and Survival right? Didn't care much for the latter.
A simple story of cursed women's footwear, The Red Shoes gets off to a slow start but is redeemed by an engrossing final act. I admit I got a little sleepy in the beginning. The concept of the shoes was neat, people are drawn to them and then they end up dead. I just wasn't entertained by the rather basic scares, your standard loud noises whenever something pops out. However this all builds up to a great, twisty finale. Didn't see the film ending that way. Some nice editing and spooky imagery in the final scenes, it made the build up worth it for me.
Diary and Survival right? Didn't care much for the latter.
The side effect of this marathon's crash course in Fulci is that Prince of Darkness went from a movie I found mediocre to being one of my favorite Carpenter films
Non-31 Days HorrorWatch:
Prince of Darkness (Rewatch)
===
The Lighthouse (2019)
Non-31 Days HorrorWatch:
Prince of Darkness (Rewatch)
===
The Lighthouse (2019)
I already dislike found footage films so I'm not looking forward to Diary.
19. Nosforatu (1922)
going back to the most basic of the Dracula stories. I respect everything going on here and how trailblazing it was but I must say with so many remakes and reimaginings I don't see myself rewatching this one ever. My favorite Dracula telling is definitely still the hammer version
going back to the most basic of the Dracula stories. I respect everything going on here and how trailblazing it was but I must say with so many remakes and reimaginings I don't see myself rewatching this one ever. My favorite Dracula telling is definitely still the hammer version
I'm very lukewarm on found footage (love the idea, rarely the execution) and found Diary mostly serviceable until the final 20 minutes, and those complaints would be lodged regardless due to them revolving around the plot.
To be fair, though, I don't hold Romero's film in as high esteem as many (loved the man). I'm weirdly mixed on Dawn (again, execution issues), view Day a little better, and consider Night a masterpiece. Land has a great concept and commentary while feeling very slight.
Found footage makes me so angry. Reality tv and found footage were the worst trends of the 2000s.
Hey, now, the concept is ingenious. The glut of cheap imitators and trash doesn't diminish the strength of the subgenre at its best.
20) Zombieland: Double Tap
10 years have passed since Columbus and Tallahassee joined forces and took Zombieland by storm. 72 rules later and the gang is still together, now residing in the White House.
Little Rock falls for a boy and leaves on her own, and with an addition to the team, Madison, the rest of the gang hit the road to find her.
Im a HUGE fan of the first movie and the sequel is very much like its predecessor, but it really hits its stride midway through where the cast expands even more. Madison offers some great moments with Wichita and Columbus, and Nevada fits right in with the cast as well. It's great to see the same main cast back together after 10 years since the last film; it's a rare thing for that to happen especially given Eisenberg and Stone's success since then.
It was worth the wait. It's a fun movie with some great moments and a lot of new ideas such as the different kinds of zombies.
PS: stay for the 2 extra scenes, especially if you were a big fan of the first movie
19) Land of the Dead (2005)
Money burns.
This Super Mario Bros sequel takes it to some strange places. Stranger, that is.
This was a step down in quality, but not too steep a drop. The guts are there, figuratively and otherwise, but it's missing some skin and bone. As I praised in the reviews for the last few films, the great attention to detail for setting and location remains (particularly the high tech zombie killing armored truck). However, the vastly increased scale (to an entire fortified city) and short runtime means I felt like I only got glimpses of it. There's no time or pace to get a proper feel for the city, the countryside, the rich people's ivory tower, the poorer slums, before shit is already hitting the fan less than halfway through, rather than waiting til the climax as with Night/Dawn/Day. This goes double for the inhabitants, you get the classism themes, and all that, but it's really flying through them all.
The zombie plotline feels like a worthy and natural conclusion to what Day set up, so that's a big positive, but it's split with the other plotlines, none of which are given much time or room to develop as a result. The characters aren't particularly well drawn this time either, I couldn't tell you much about them. Dennis Hopper is bad I guess. In short, it feels like a film that needed to be about two and a half hours compressed to 90 minutes. There's also a few too many "stealth zombies", a trope that a few seasons of The Walking Dead turned me off for life.
With all that negativity aside, what is there is good, it just could have been great. The gore is extensive if unmemorable (perhaps because modern zombie films are so gory by standard now), the design work is top notch, and the zombie uprising is fun. And even with the fast pace through the setting, I can still sense this film's depiction of the postish-but-not-quite-post-post apocalypse is pretty influential (The Last of Us, for instance, borrows from a lot of sources but the fortified city at the start looks a lot like this one).
It's not Romero's best in the series for sure, but it's still good and worth a watch for zombie fans.
Money burns.
This Super Mario Bros sequel takes it to some strange places. Stranger, that is.
This was a step down in quality, but not too steep a drop. The guts are there, figuratively and otherwise, but it's missing some skin and bone. As I praised in the reviews for the last few films, the great attention to detail for setting and location remains (particularly the high tech zombie killing armored truck). However, the vastly increased scale (to an entire fortified city) and short runtime means I felt like I only got glimpses of it. There's no time or pace to get a proper feel for the city, the countryside, the rich people's ivory tower, the poorer slums, before shit is already hitting the fan less than halfway through, rather than waiting til the climax as with Night/Dawn/Day. This goes double for the inhabitants, you get the classism themes, and all that, but it's really flying through them all.
The zombie plotline feels like a worthy and natural conclusion to what Day set up, so that's a big positive, but it's split with the other plotlines, none of which are given much time or room to develop as a result. The characters aren't particularly well drawn this time either, I couldn't tell you much about them. Dennis Hopper is bad I guess. In short, it feels like a film that needed to be about two and a half hours compressed to 90 minutes. There's also a few too many "stealth zombies", a trope that a few seasons of The Walking Dead turned me off for life.
With all that negativity aside, what is there is good, it just could have been great. The gore is extensive if unmemorable (perhaps because modern zombie films are so gory by standard now), the design work is top notch, and the zombie uprising is fun. And even with the fast pace through the setting, I can still sense this film's depiction of the postish-but-not-quite-post-post apocalypse is pretty influential (The Last of Us, for instance, borrows from a lot of sources but the fortified city at the start looks a lot like this one).
It's not Romero's best in the series for sure, but it's still good and worth a watch for zombie fans.
Doctors Herbert West and Dan Cain are back, this time on a mission to create an entire living human using various body parts, with Dan's dead girlfriend's heart as the centerpiece of the creation. The two will have to fend off everything from a pestering police officer, re-animated zombies, failed experiments and the return of the decapitated Dr. Hill from the first movie.
If you have seen the first Re-Animator but have never seen this sequel, I highly recommend you give it a watch. "Bride" fleshes out more of the mythology behind the re-animation reagent, and the results are gloriously satisfying. The first movie is a classic, but I believe "Bride" nearly equals it in every way. Things will spiral out of control in what becomes an absolute batshit insane finale.
10/10. A very underrated sequel.
Movie 1 - Nine Dead (N)
Movie 2 - Truth or Dare (2017) (N)
Movie 3 - Are You Scared? (N)
Movie 4 - Prom Night (R)
Movie 5 - Ready or Not (2012) (N)
Movie 6 - Exam (N)
Movie 7 - 13 Sins (N)
Movie 8 - Scream (r)
Movie 9 - Saw (R)
Movie 10 - Addams Family Values (R)
Movie 11 - Saw 2 (R)
Movie 12 - Would You Rather? (R)
Movie 13 - House on the Haunted Hill (N)
Movie 14 - Uncanny Annie (N)
Movie 15 - Doom Annihilation (N)
Movie 16 - Die (N)
Movie 17 - Saw 3 (R)
Movie 18 - Cry Wolf (N)
Movie 19 - Saw 4 (N)
Movie 20 - Saw 5 (N)
Movie 21 - Scream 2 (R)
Movie 22 - Urban Legends (R)
A slower week due to some social obligations
Movie 23 - Escape Room (R)
One of the two movies that were responsible for my whole theme this year. The movie is fun, if not a little silly at times. And really loses its momentum when it actually has to explain things.
Movie 24 - Smiley (N)
I mean it's fine. Kind of a dark movie by the end, and Smiley concept is fascinating in the internet age.
Movie 25 - Circle (N)
A sub-genre growing to like this month, since it focuses on characters and their interactions/personality with one another.
Movie 26 - The Belko Experiment (N)
It's a pretty interesting experiment, and again works with the theme that man is the scariest enemy.
Movie 2 - Truth or Dare (2017) (N)
Movie 3 - Are You Scared? (N)
Movie 4 - Prom Night (R)
Movie 5 - Ready or Not (2012) (N)
Movie 6 - Exam (N)
Movie 7 - 13 Sins (N)
Movie 8 - Scream (r)
Movie 9 - Saw (R)
Movie 10 - Addams Family Values (R)
Movie 11 - Saw 2 (R)
Movie 12 - Would You Rather? (R)
Movie 13 - House on the Haunted Hill (N)
Movie 14 - Uncanny Annie (N)
Movie 15 - Doom Annihilation (N)
Movie 16 - Die (N)
Movie 17 - Saw 3 (R)
Movie 18 - Cry Wolf (N)
Movie 19 - Saw 4 (N)
Movie 20 - Saw 5 (N)
Movie 21 - Scream 2 (R)
Movie 22 - Urban Legends (R)
A slower week due to some social obligations
Movie 23 - Escape Room (R)
One of the two movies that were responsible for my whole theme this year. The movie is fun, if not a little silly at times. And really loses its momentum when it actually has to explain things.
Movie 24 - Smiley (N)
I mean it's fine. Kind of a dark movie by the end, and Smiley concept is fascinating in the internet age.
Movie 25 - Circle (N)
A sub-genre growing to like this month, since it focuses on characters and their interactions/personality with one another.
Movie 26 - The Belko Experiment (N)
It's a pretty interesting experiment, and again works with the theme that man is the scariest enemy.
Alternative title: The Last Plutocrat19) Land of the Dead (2005)
Money burns.
This Super Mario Bros sequel takes it to some strange places. Stranger, that is.
This was a step down in quality, but not too steep a drop. The guts are there, figuratively and otherwise, but it's missing some skin and bone. As I praised in the reviews for the last few films, the great attention to detail for setting and location remains (particularly the high tech zombie killing armored truck). However, the vastly increased scale (to an entire fortified city) and short runtime means I felt like I only got glimpses of it. There's no time or pace to get a proper feel for the city, the countryside, the rich people's ivory tower, the poorer slums, before shit is already hitting the fan less than halfway through, rather than waiting til the climax as with Night/Dawn/Day. This goes double for the inhabitants, you get the classism themes, and all that, but it's really flying through them all.
The zombie plotline feels like a worthy and natural conclusion to what Day set up, so that's a big positive, but it's split with the other plotlines, none of which are given much time or room to develop as a result. The characters aren't particularly well drawn this time either, I couldn't tell you much about them. Dennis Hopper is bad I guess. In short, it feels like a film that needed to be about two and a half hours compressed to 90 minutes. There's also a few too many "stealth zombies", a trope that a few seasons of The Walking Dead turned me off for life.
With all that negativity aside, what is there is good, it just could have been great. The gore is extensive if unmemorable (perhaps because modern zombie films are so gory by standard now), the design work is top notch, and the zombie uprising is fun. And even with the fast pace through the setting, I can still sense this film's depiction of the postish-but-not-quite-post-post apocalypse is pretty influential (The Last of Us, for instance, borrows from a lot of sources but the fortified city at the start looks a lot like this one).
It's not Romero's best in the series for sure, but it's still good and worth a watch for zombie fans.
Land is a worthy entry to the Dead series and a thematic endpoint to the core message Romero was trying to get across since '68. American society is threatened, but why should we be fighting to preserve something that was rotten to it's core? In Land we get to see a "successfully" rebuilt American city, one where the elite send out it's underclass to plunder enemy territory with the false promise that this will earn them a bigger piece of the pie. That is until Big Daddy gets tired of being fucked with and leads another revolution that topples Fiddler's Green in a single night. The world isn't Kaufman's any longer, no matter how much he pretends it is.
Though he did put a few stinkers too (but what prolific horror director hasn't?), I think Romero might be a little underrated as a writer. He gets his props for directing, but while not subtle, he does do a lot with a little in his screenplays, at least in the Dead films I've seen so far, and has a great handle on detail.
Week 3 (Oct 13-19): Hrůza - The Czech Word for Horror!
October 19 (Day 21)
The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol )
And at long last, we come to not only the film that inspired the creation of this week's programming in the first place, but one that's been a perpetual mainstay of my watchlist for marathons for some time now. Knowing little more than it being hailed as not only of the great Czech horror films but quite possibly the greatest of them all was more than enough motivation to ensure it would get watched eventually. But after a week with such wildly different approaches to content and subject matter, and certainly some with some incredible heights to have reached, one could hardly be blamed for thinking that it was possible that its age and placement in the world of cinema would have dulled its impact.
I needn't have worried, as we're quickly transported into the world of Koprfringl, sometimes Roman and sometimes Karl. In a dazzlingly expressionistic opening montage that sees the assembly of his family while out for a day at a zoo, the techniques that director Juraj Herz are immediately apparent, with disorienting editing choices that reset the scene on the fly and visionary use of handheld camera movements that give Koprfringl's world an hallucinatory vibe that's hard to shake. And for good reason, as the man finds himself deeply devoted to his profession of choice, relishing in what he feels is the spiritual purity of his tasks that lay ahead of him and feeling that he's doing world a lot of good by being the one to shepherd them into the next world. At first, there's little to suggest that he's simply a tad overexcited to be where he's at in his life, but then the other shoe drops early on in the film that takes the story into an apocalyptic direction.
I tend to not do a lot of reading into the plots of the films I peg for the marathons, so one can imagine the complete surprise I had when talks of German and Jewish blood began to enter the conversations with one of Koprfringl's closest associates, as the nature of this being a period piece became clearer and the road to Nazism becoming an all-too inevitable destination for the film. Yet for the historical context the film provides, it's far more interested in what it does to Koprfringl, as his uncertainty towards that cause gets worn down over time, though not for the reasons that those fighting for that cause would have expected. Indeed, this is an unconventional horror film, but it is a horror film all the same, as the 100 minutes of measured pacing as we fall alongside Koprfringl (portrayed to bone-chilling effect by Rudolf Hrusínský) as his blessed life breaks down as he realizes the further "good" that he could be doing for friends and family alike, showing off a monster that may have always been waiting to be unleashed when the right set of circumstances to arise. And for a film that doesn't get into the more outwardly horrific imagery until much later in, the growing madness that we have to witness beforehand leads to some truly alarming imagery long before we see any violence.
It's not an easy film to watch, for both its dizzying visual style and its grim subject matter, but it's also a film that feels like it truly embraces the potential for visual storytelling on film with how confident it is in its vision for Koprfringl's downward spiral. That it's able to get more and more horrific by its heart-stopping ending seems an impossible feat, yet one that is executed in a virtually flawless manner. The result is a truly unique and unforgettable experience, one that's bound to haunt me for some time to come. It may have taken some time for me to sit down and watch it, but it had no troubles making up for whatever gap that I may have created, bowling me over from start to finish and assuring its position as not only one of the best films I've seen in this marathon, but one of the best films I've seen in any of the marathons, period.
October 19 (Day 21)
The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol )
And at long last, we come to not only the film that inspired the creation of this week's programming in the first place, but one that's been a perpetual mainstay of my watchlist for marathons for some time now. Knowing little more than it being hailed as not only of the great Czech horror films but quite possibly the greatest of them all was more than enough motivation to ensure it would get watched eventually. But after a week with such wildly different approaches to content and subject matter, and certainly some with some incredible heights to have reached, one could hardly be blamed for thinking that it was possible that its age and placement in the world of cinema would have dulled its impact.
I needn't have worried, as we're quickly transported into the world of Koprfringl, sometimes Roman and sometimes Karl. In a dazzlingly expressionistic opening montage that sees the assembly of his family while out for a day at a zoo, the techniques that director Juraj Herz are immediately apparent, with disorienting editing choices that reset the scene on the fly and visionary use of handheld camera movements that give Koprfringl's world an hallucinatory vibe that's hard to shake. And for good reason, as the man finds himself deeply devoted to his profession of choice, relishing in what he feels is the spiritual purity of his tasks that lay ahead of him and feeling that he's doing world a lot of good by being the one to shepherd them into the next world. At first, there's little to suggest that he's simply a tad overexcited to be where he's at in his life, but then the other shoe drops early on in the film that takes the story into an apocalyptic direction.
I tend to not do a lot of reading into the plots of the films I peg for the marathons, so one can imagine the complete surprise I had when talks of German and Jewish blood began to enter the conversations with one of Koprfringl's closest associates, as the nature of this being a period piece became clearer and the road to Nazism becoming an all-too inevitable destination for the film. Yet for the historical context the film provides, it's far more interested in what it does to Koprfringl, as his uncertainty towards that cause gets worn down over time, though not for the reasons that those fighting for that cause would have expected. Indeed, this is an unconventional horror film, but it is a horror film all the same, as the 100 minutes of measured pacing as we fall alongside Koprfringl (portrayed to bone-chilling effect by Rudolf Hrusínský) as his blessed life breaks down as he realizes the further "good" that he could be doing for friends and family alike, showing off a monster that may have always been waiting to be unleashed when the right set of circumstances to arise. And for a film that doesn't get into the more outwardly horrific imagery until much later in, the growing madness that we have to witness beforehand leads to some truly alarming imagery long before we see any violence.
It's not an easy film to watch, for both its dizzying visual style and its grim subject matter, but it's also a film that feels like it truly embraces the potential for visual storytelling on film with how confident it is in its vision for Koprfringl's downward spiral. That it's able to get more and more horrific by its heart-stopping ending seems an impossible feat, yet one that is executed in a virtually flawless manner. The result is a truly unique and unforgettable experience, one that's bound to haunt me for some time to come. It may have taken some time for me to sit down and watch it, but it had no troubles making up for whatever gap that I may have created, bowling me over from start to finish and assuring its position as not only one of the best films I've seen in this marathon, but one of the best films I've seen in any of the marathons, period.
Ouija: Origins of Evil
I completely skipped this movie due to how awful I heard the original film was. That was until I realized how well received it was and added it to my list this month.
Out of all of the horror films I've watched this month so far, this one was probably the scariest of the bunch. It took a compelling story and infused it with some genuinely effective scare sequences that were set up intelligently. That mirror scene, sheesh.
I love how the director tucked in little things in various spots in the frames that caught me by surprise and shot tingles down my spine. It kept me on guard throughout the whole film because I never knew what was going to show up, when and where. That's rare for a horror movie.
The layer of retro that they added to the movie to make it feel like it was comprised of an old film reel from the 70's was super cool too. Even the Universal logo at the beginning was the old one from the 70's and 80's.
The only complaints I have are that the scares were few and far between until the last 20 minutes. Thankfully, I was enjoying the narrative and the character more than enough to care too much. I thought the ending felt a bit rushed too just when things really started to ramp up. It could have used an extra 30min or so to develop a stronger final act.
I really dug this movie though. A pleasant surprise. It gets 👻👻👻👻 out of five spookies from me.
I completely skipped this movie due to how awful I heard the original film was. That was until I realized how well received it was and added it to my list this month.
Out of all of the horror films I've watched this month so far, this one was probably the scariest of the bunch. It took a compelling story and infused it with some genuinely effective scare sequences that were set up intelligently. That mirror scene, sheesh.
I love how the director tucked in little things in various spots in the frames that caught me by surprise and shot tingles down my spine. It kept me on guard throughout the whole film because I never knew what was going to show up, when and where. That's rare for a horror movie.
The layer of retro that they added to the movie to make it feel like it was comprised of an old film reel from the 70's was super cool too. Even the Universal logo at the beginning was the old one from the 70's and 80's.
The only complaints I have are that the scares were few and far between until the last 20 minutes. Thankfully, I was enjoying the narrative and the character more than enough to care too much. I thought the ending felt a bit rushed too just when things really started to ramp up. It could have used an extra 30min or so to develop a stronger final act.
I really dug this movie though. A pleasant surprise. It gets 👻👻👻👻 out of five spookies from me.
21) Goodnight Mommy
Two twin brothers suspect that their mother might be an imposter.
I've been scrolling by this movie for the past few years so I decided to finally give it a try.
I was really creeped out. There's some psychological elements at play and I found myself not knowing who to believe. There's a point in the movie where things finally make sense and boy should I have seen it coming... The secluded setting sells the helplessness and at times I found myself pretty uncomfortable. This one gets dark.
I hate cockroaches. Why tf do these kids have so many? Watching these kinds of horror movies is the reason why I don't want children...
#24 - Tenebre (1980)
My favorite Argento film, favorite Giallo, and one of my highest rated horror films in general. This is the definitive Giallo film in my eyes, and even though I've seen it numerous times throughout the years, it never ceases to draw me in with each viewing. It's a timeless classic, and I think this is Goblin's best soundtrack work next to Suspiria. It strikes a perfect balance of being suspenseful, very 80s sounding, and just a little odd much like Suspiria. The kills aren't very inventive, but they are brutal, shocking, and very memorable (Tarantino even used one of them for a similar scene in Kill Bill).
A nearly perfect horror movie in my book. Tenebre is a timeless classic.
10 authors surrounded by stylish, beautiful women while a maniac murders them to stop perversion out of 10.
My favorite Argento film, favorite Giallo, and one of my highest rated horror films in general. This is the definitive Giallo film in my eyes, and even though I've seen it numerous times throughout the years, it never ceases to draw me in with each viewing. It's a timeless classic, and I think this is Goblin's best soundtrack work next to Suspiria. It strikes a perfect balance of being suspenseful, very 80s sounding, and just a little odd much like Suspiria. The kills aren't very inventive, but they are brutal, shocking, and very memorable (Tarantino even used one of them for a similar scene in Kill Bill).
A nearly perfect horror movie in my book. Tenebre is a timeless classic.
10 authors surrounded by stylish, beautiful women while a maniac murders them to stop perversion out of 10.
I saw Tenebre for the first time today and it was amazing. My only other 5/5 this marathon since Kwaidan.
===
1) Blood & Black Lace (1964) - ★★★★
2) Kwaidan (1964) - ★★★★★
3) Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970) - ★★½
4) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) - ★★★
5) A Bay of Blood (1971) - ★★★½
6) Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) - ★★★
7) The Fifth Cord (1971) - ★★★★½
8) The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) - ★★★½
9) The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh (1971) - ★★½
10) Don't Torture A Duckling (1972) - ★★★★
11) Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) - ★★½
12) All the Colors of the Dark (1972) - ★★★½
13) What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) - ★★★
14) Torso (1973) - ★★★★
15) The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (1974) - ★★★★½
16) What Have They Done to Your Daughters? (1974) - ★★½
17) Deep Red (1975) - ★★★★
18) Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - ★★★★½
19) Inferno (1980) - ★★★
20) Dressed to Kill (1980) - ★★★
21) The House by the Cemetery (1981) - ★★★½
===
22) Tenebre (1982)
★★★★★
Whoa, this just might be Dario Argento's giallo masterpiece. Every aspect landed just right for me: the tangled web of sleaze and pulp thrills, the psychodrama, the murder mystery, the absolutely brutal kills and suspenseful stalking.
In many ways, Tenebre comes across as the '80s heir apparent to Blood & Black Lace, with its icy blend of thriller and slasher. The meta-intrigue of an author embroiled in killings inspired by his work provides a compelling foundation for the film's soap-opera dramatics, while the patient camera and energetic soundtrack builds tension before erupting in sensational gouts of crimson. The final act is a gloriously gory pulp spectacular.
14. Happy Death Day 2U
This had a much more sci-fi feel than a horror feel, but I still really enjoyed it. It may have not been necessary but it was a fun watch.
15. My Bloody Valentine (1981)
I thought this was a fun slasher, but it's nowhere near the other classics of the genre. It had some brutal deaths though.
This had a much more sci-fi feel than a horror feel, but I still really enjoyed it. It may have not been necessary but it was a fun watch.
15. My Bloody Valentine (1981)
I thought this was a fun slasher, but it's nowhere near the other classics of the genre. It had some brutal deaths though.
