31 Days of Horror (2021) - The October Movie Marathon

[Steamlord]

1. 964 Pinocchio (1991)

Starting off the month with a nice bizarro gore fest. This certainly feels like the culmination of the 80s Japanese SOV horror scene along with Tetsuo (which Fukui also worked on). When it's weird it's really weird, but I also felt it dragged a bit at 90 minutes - there's a reason all those SOV films rarely exceed even an hour. Lots of vomit here but I think having watched Fukui's Gerorisuto (which features an unbroken three minutes of very convincing vomiting) a few months ago prepared me for that. This also has Fukui's signature guerrilla filmmaking style, with actors performing shocking scenes in unsuspecting crowds, but it feels a bit diluted here because unlike in Gerorisuto, it's not the point and it doesn't seem to be saying anything with it.
7/10


2. A Woman After a Killer Butterfly / Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death / Killer Butterfly (1978)

This was totally bonkers. Not really in a loud, hyperactive way like House, but just in the constant turns its story takes and the weird happenings from moment to moment. Despite featuring the same protagonist throughout, it's practically an anthology with how unrelated each portion of the film is to the others, save for a few connecting threads, and the fact that nearly all of them have to do with skeletons...comically unconvincing skeletons. It's also really damn funny at times. There's a moment where a resurrected 2,000 year old woman has to eat a human liver or she'll die again, so she seduces the protagonist as the automatic pastry machine he just bought (that has nothing to do with the story) spits pastry after pastry onto them with a puff of flour. When we see the aftermath, the floor is littered with pastries. It's just full of bizarre moments like that, even if they're not quite frequent enough to sustain its 2 hour runtime. Some nice Bava-esque lighting and cool shot compositions throughout as well. This was definitely a pleasant surprise.
7/10

 

[Mariachi507]

4. Jennifer's Body

I feel like Jennifer's Body got the short end of the stick when it first hit. It was during a time where pushing a film as a "Feminist horror movie" wasn't quite as en vogue. To add to that, screenwriter Diablo Cody was just coming off a bit with Juno, and lots of exposure as well as her signature style of writing was causing a backlash. I also remember the marketing being "Look how hot Megan Fox is? Ain't she?"

It's not really fair, even though Megan Fox is...well, a fox; Jennifer's Body has much more to offer. Horror is a great tool for social commentary and has been used as such in great success for decades. Jennifer's Body is a story about friends and teenage sexuality. The relationship and dynamic between Needy (who is actually the main character) and Jennifer is the driving force of the picture. The movie shines when the focus is on them.

It's funny as well, despite Diablo Cody's constant quippy dialogue sometimes leaning towards "too much". The comedy works well with the horror aspects, although the latter never really has much tension. The ending did leave me a little cold, but maybe that's because I felt there much more to mine from the dynamic of the two leads. The final showdown and aftermath felt anticlimactic and a bit flat. This would be prime material for a tv series to expand on though.

The scene of Needy simultaneously losing her virginity and acknowledging the horror of what's happened to Jennifer was amazing comedy. Especially with her screams of terror being confused by her naive boyfriend. It killed me, haha.

6.5/10

 

[Conditional-Pancakes]

This thread is so fun!

 

[Ridley327]

Damn it, I left the door open just enough for a short film to get through! Oh well, at least it's relevant in terms of subject matter for tonight's film...

A horror-comedy that definitely leans more towards the latter, this modern social media spin on a werewolf of a different kind does quite well with its topical humor as the employees and patrons of an all-black hair salon find that the money is just a little too good to let a white woman in that has transformative designs of her own. Hair humor plays its part in the proceedings, but the humor is largely rooted in the cultural appropriation of blacks and how easily one can slip into wanting to be more like the enemy here, manifesting itself in some killer gags as one by one, the salon's occupants find themselves shifting their allegiances and their physical appearances to integrate better. It's not particularly barbed humor in the way you might expect, but writer/director Mariama Diallo is clearly laying out a list of grievances a mile long while having a lot of fun getting the word out for a breezy slice of entertainment that does just about everything it sets out to and what you would want out of the subject matter, ending with an absolutely killer reference that's sure to take you by surprise for perhaps the biggest laugh in a short that's got stiff competition in that regard. Genuinely entertaining from start to finish, and though its bite isn't the kind to break skin, the laughs here may just split your sides all the same.

And for the main event...

I have not personally seen Dear White People in either its original film incarnation or as its TV series streaming on Netflix, but if there is one thing that I can say I've seen, it's that I've seen plenty of sophomore efforts in my time from folks that hit on their first small film that suddenly goes big in every direction. You know the kind: suddenly given a lot more money and the freedom to go along with it, they pour absolutely everything into making sure that they don't blow their chance of not being able to put all of it and of themselves out there, roping audiences in with an unusual but intriguing premise, only to snag them in the trap and unload all the stuff they really wanted to talk about and to show you. This does not make for bad films by any stretch of the imagination, but it does frequently make for unwieldy films all the same, as they stretch themselves thin to make sure that if the opportunity never comes again, then they can rest easy that they did get all of it out there. For writer/director/songwriter Justin Simien, that is very much the case here for better and for worse.

The better parts certainly do a lot of the heavy lifting here, as if Simien absolutely has too many threads (apologies in advance for what will likely be an abundance of hair puns, intended and otherwise) for one film to successfully track, let alone resolve, then he certainly throws a lot of very interesting ones out there all the same. Killer hair movies have existed before, and they can occasionally be quite very good (Exte: Hair Extensions may as well be the Citizen Kane of the admittedly limited sub-genre), but it's hard to imagine one that feels as racially and socially charged as this one does, tying in not only the mainstream culture's obsession of pushing back against racial identity for a more flattened and palatable kind of representation that's safe, boring and corporate friendly, but also how that in of itself ties into the history of black culture as itself has had to endure an age-old tale of combing out all the aspects that defined their culture for something more acceptable to the tastes of white culture, as there's apparently only room for one kind of folklore to tell tales of to children that misbehave. It's a very bluntly stated correlation to draw between the way that kind of mentality has evolved over time, but it is one that certainly feels impassioned and terribly interesting to cover in a film of this kind. The corporate intrigue elements are not as fleshed out, but they do serve their purpose well as it does tie particularly back into the main through line for a bit more bite than we tend to get in satires, giving it a nice edge as the nicest people find themselves trapped in the cycle and all they can do is perpetuate it.

Simien also throws a lot of love for the era of music that he's evoking here with this being set at an MTV-like corporation focused on urban music of all kinds, both in terms of nailing the fashion and the sounds with authentic garb and killer needle drops, but perhaps most impressive of all is taking to the pen himself to craft some genuine earworms for a supporting character that acts as both inspiration and cautionary tale for our heroine, enlisting the help of Kelly Rowland to sing on them for some tracks that honestly probably would have been modest hits had they existed back in 1989. It's almost impossible not to hum along with them, if only because they repeat often enough to stick with you for the duration of the film, making his credentials rather solid on that front. He also does well by our lead character's internal and external struggle throughout the film, as Anna find herself at a perpetual crossroads with everyone in her life as she struggles against her own marginalization and manages to find herself tangled up in an increasingly complex web of corporate intrigue, the feeling of selling out to paler masters to advance, and losing touch with her roots in a figurative and quite literal way. He gets a very good performance from star Elle Lorraine as Anna, who demonstrates a strong understanding of the messy life she has without delving into histrionic or overly solemn extremes.

So where do the issues start then? Well, frankly, for a horror movie about bloodthirsty hair weaves, it's not a particularly good horror film at any point. With Simien's interests lying elsewhere in terms of thematic subject matter and a lot of it at that, it takes the film an awful long time to even start to feel like its interested in being a horror film at all, canvassing the life of Anna as things start to look bad for her lot in life before making the fateful decision to take money intended to pay off a month's rent to a salon purported to be life-changing for its clients. It's never not an interesting film to watch with, mind you, but folks hoping for some horror in their horror film are going to be waiting an awful long time as it doesn't really start until halfway in, staged in scenes that are heavy on the CG hair effects and light, very light, on any kind of suspense, thrills, clever staging or really much of anything the genre has to offer. It honestly never feels all that comfortable with engaging with the goofy premise of killer hair for most of its run time, making the highly concentrated final 20 minutes way too overstuffed for its own good to feel like it could ever make up for lost time. Despite how overboard it goes with all the hair menace at that point, it often feels too little, too late with how much it repeats itself in those sequences, and it never manages to find anything truly novel or noteworthy with the concept to make it seem like that it was ever at any point a real passion for Simien that it had to be about killer hair. It's the worst kind of perfunctory: it calls so much attention to how disengaged it is with the horror that the film would be immediately improved, and perhaps immensely so at that, by jettisoning all of it so that it can focus on the stuff that it cares the most about in the end.

And for as much as Simien cares about nailing the era on a personal level, I'm not sure I'm on board with the visual choices made for the film. It's never not anything less than well crafted in that regard, but the approach here leans a bit too much on the artsier side than it needed, with Simien opting to get tricky with the camerawork and blocking that grinds up against the film with lots of friction. It winds up calling a lot of attention to itself, as you find yourself second-guessing the aesthetic throughout as it never finds a good answer for the why its approach, making choices that seem less integral for the kind of story its telling and more because it looked interesting enough without feeling compelled to justify it a why at all. It especially sticks out in those final 20 minutes as it seems to give up altogether on the idea and opt for very conventional and flat visual ideas for the chaos that ensues, making one wonder how Simien didn't see the issue with abandoning the previous approach when it creates such a dull extended note that the film ends on. It's quite baffling, to put it mildly.

This is almost a tough film to rate properly as it has so much it wants to talk about while also being fatally uninterested in the chosen format it wants to relate it in. I don't doubt that Simien wanted to make a horror film as it does fit the thematic elements of the film quite well, but I wonder if he would have been better off focusing on writing duties and letting someone else with the kind of experience needed to pull off the horror at even an acceptable level. It's a strange film like that, succeeding at quite a few things while utterly failing a rather large one. It winds up as a very noble failure as a result, captivating in its reach for all that it can attempt to put its arms around and equally frustrating in how poor its handle is on keeping everything together to add up to a satisfying whole. The pieces are almost all there, but the equation is just too flawed to add up to a proper sum, as unruly as Anna's hair before and after her weave develops an appetite.

 

[AstralSphere]

1. (N) Sputnik (2020) ****
2. (N) Dead Silence (2007) ***
3. (R) Halloween II (1981) ***

---


4. (R) Halloween IV (1988)

Oh boy, where to start.

I think the core setup is a lot of fun. A locked up 'secure' house to protect Laurie's daughter from the oncoming boogeyman of death, but whoops Michael already made it in so now you are trapped in there with him! But it's really let down by some all time stupid characters doing the dumbest shit.

Lots of wonderfully framed shots where they make great use of the contrast of Michael's white mask against a dark backdrop, which sets up some good red herrings too where you expect him to appear in the unfocused background but they hold back. But there are equally a lot of unflattering shots of that hilarious looking and entirely non-threatening mask in moments where you are supposed to be tense and terrified.

Would have loved to see the series carry on from that ending. I remember being pissed all those years ago, but nowadays I think a female Myers sounds like an interesting way to carry on the series without Michael. Shame they cowarded out.

2 stars out of 5.

 

[Demonic Drape]

1. Audition 8/10
2. The House of the Devil 6/10

#3 The Faculty.


First time watching, another film that for some reason I just never got around to seeing. I cant believe the cast for this film. It was stacked! It was really entertaining start to finish. I didnt even think the cg was that bad considering how old it is. I will probably buy this. Just a fun creature feature/alien invasion story.

7/10

 

[infinitebento]

2. session 9

the shittiest horror movie ive ever seen
no redeeming qualities, wish i could burn it from my memory

 

[Junior Asparagus]

1. Candyman (2021)
2. The Empty Man (2020)
3. The Lost Boys (1987)

This film has been a pop culture touchpoint since its release, but I'd never seen the whole thing. I've gotta say...it's was worse than I expected. The acting and writing and production were all surprisingly bad, including Dianne Wiest, who had just won an Oscar. I guess the appeal is the vampire aesthetic combined with a number of the hot, young actors of the time. Kiefer had such a presence and was easily the highlight of the movie. I was kind of disappointed with everything else.

 

[Rhaknar]

9 - Fright Night (1985) 2/5

Don't even come at me all you Fright Night fans, I already have my cross up, you don't scare me! But seriously tho, a huge case of "never meet your heroes", I always wanted to watch this given it's considered by many a cult classic, and I ended up hguely dissapointed. It did nothing for me, except make me hate the first half, the cast is awful (I HATE the main character), the writing is terrible even by 80s standards, the only saving grace for me were the very decent makeup effects. Maybe if I had watched it as a kid and had the nostalgia factor going, I dunno. Oh well :(

3. The Lost Boys (1987)

This film has been a pop culture touchpoint since its release, but I'd never seen the whole thing. I've gotta say...it's was worse than I expected. The acting and writing and production were all surprisingly bad, including Dianne Wiest, who had just won an Oscar. I guess the appeal is the vampire aesthetic combined with a number of the hot, young actors of the time. Kiefer had such a presence and was easily the highlight of the movie. I was kind of disappointed with everything else.

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as I posted my thoughts on Fright Night I was just thinking "now I'm kind of afraid to finally watch Lost Boys..."

 

[Classicrock78]

Just saw the weirdest movie ever,and it was pretty good

 

[ElephantShell]

4. You're Next (2011) 4/5

This is a rewatch for me but it's been years. I remembered the twist but still appreciated it. What I did forget is how good the movie is. I remember liking it fine but damn this time I was really into it. Great kills, great score, very smart sprinkling of dark humor (doesn't beat you over the head with it, just subtly funny at times). Recommend if you like violent home invasion thrillers and haven't seen it.

 

[kidtamagotchi]

October 3, 2021

Movie: The Wailing

Watched on: Pluto TV On Demand

Finally was able to watch this today. For years I heard how good this movie was, but I never could actually watch it. Lo and behold, it's on Pluto TV and Tubi! This is a really good movie. It will keep you guessing throughout. Heck, you'll still be trying to figure it out after it's over! Great performances by the actors (especially the little girl). Great stuff!

 

[Hoggle]

October 3, 2021

Movie: The Wailing

Watched on: Pluto TV On Demand

Finally was able to watch this today. For years I heard how good this movie was, but I never could actually watch it. Lo and behold, it's on Pluto TV and Tubi! This is a really good movie. It will keep you guessing throughout. Heck, you'll still be trying to figure it out after it's over! Great performances by the actors (especially the little girl). Great stuff!

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To this day the old Japanese dude is probably the scariest thing I've seen in a movie. The lack of sound and the way he appears is so good.

 

[Akumatica]

4. Lifeforce (1985)
An uneven film about space vampires from director Tobe Hooper with a script co-written by Dan O'Bannon. Elements of the laters other works like Alien and Return of the Living Dead populate the screen here. It isn't as good as either, but it's very watchable.

Nudity, a ton of extras, explosions and special effects keep things interesting. It plays everything as serious while presenting some very schlocky ideas. I ended up liking it though.
= 3 out of 5

 

[Wanderer5]

4. Frankenstein (1931)

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Tackling another old classic, and it is just really cool to see the early versions of these monsters. Started to really appreciate Frankenstein in recent times, and this film certainly doesn't disappoint. Just a overall nice simple take on the story, with an aged but memorable monster design, and some pretty cool camerawork. Beside having quite a few great shots with the monster, I also loved the shot of Maria's Father carrying her body through the village, and see the mood change to terrifying as more and more villagers realizes what has happened. I thought that opening bit with Edward Van Sloan was very interesting also, and makes me think of how horrifying these films could have been back then.

 

[Rhaknar]

10 - 12 Hour Shift 3/5

Very cool horror (thriller? ah whatever) comedy about a nurse that sells organs on the black market, with a fantastic performance from Angela Bettis, its bloody, it's funny, it's silly, and the characters are great. I really enjoyed this, very easy watch.

 

[Hoggle]

4 - Dagon (rewatch in black and white)







This is a rewatch and I enjoyed the film even more this time around. I originally watched this in black and white halfway through last time to make up for the absolutely awful blu ray disc that's rife with compression artifacts and also the far too garish colours. And to my surprise I found the film looks a thousand times better this way and feels like a cheesy 60's flick with some pretty impressive practical make up effects.
Unfortunately it also has some rather dodgy CGI, but the B&W hides it a little better in some scenes.

Yeah the acting and dialogue are awful, but it's a fun enough film with fantastically realised setting. Give it a go in black and white if you have a chance (I just turn my TV's colour off)

 

[Pitcairn55]

Film #06 – Nobody Sleeps In The Woods Tonight

One of the most deriviative movies I have seen in ages, this backwoods cannibal slasher from Poland is not great. While the psycho does have quite an interesting backstory, and the second half of the film is marginally better than the first, the truth is that everything here has been done better elsewhere, many times. Apart from one small wrinkle, the plot is entirely predictable, the final girl is exactly who you knew it was going to be the moment you set eyes on her in the opening moments, and there's no invention in the kills, some of which are copies of deaths in other movies. There's one in particular that is an exact replica of the opening axe murder in Wrong Turn 2. Now I know that

Spoiler: Spoiler for the kill

Half the Man He Used to Be

is a movie trope, and maybe WT2 nicked it from somewhere else, but this is pretty much a shot for shot counterfeit, so much so that I had to go and watch the scene from the earlier movie to make sure I wasn't imagining it. I mean, there's homage and then there's straight up thievery.

The tone of the film is also very uneven; it sets itself up as a horror comedy and then keeps forgetting it's supposed to be funny. Which is actually a shame, because it is occasionally quite amusing, particularly when taking potshots at what might best be described as the less progressive elements of Polish society. Also on the plus side, it's quite well put together, the acting's pretty good, the effects are solid and there's enough blood and guts to keep the average gore hound diverted for while. And although the characters are all obvious stereotypes, the writers have tried to give them each a little quirk to keep things interesting; so the Jock is a virgin, the Joker is gay, the Bimbo is looking for true love and the Nerd has a YouTube channel with nearly a million subs. But even so, there are many many similar films I'd recommend over this one.

Score: Wrong Turn 2 out of 5

Films I've watched so far

 

[AstralSphere]

Movie 3 | Prince of Darkness, 1987

This one has been on my list for a long time - in theory, it's right up my alley. The metaphysics, the religiosity, the sheer nihilism of it. It doesn't quite live up to what it could be, but it gets admirably close.

The big thing for me is the hopelessness - in most "devil" movies there's either a certain power to God and Jesus, or they're explicitly made a mockery of. But here, they're just... meaningless. There is no God. But it's not an empty universe, it's an actively malicious one: an anti-god. In a worse film, that would sound like 19th century philosophical wankery, or maybe just something an edgy teenager would come up with, but when you take it seriously it's a really harrowing concept. They do just enough explaining to unsettle, perfect threading of the needle. I was hoping the end would be a little more brutal, but I think the "win the battle, lose the war" vibe is enough. And even then, there's some really horrible endings for a lot of the cast - can only imagine what happens when you're trapped on the other side of that mirror.

Effects were top notch, like real best-of-the-industry level stuff. And I loved the proto-found-footage dream sequences. In a lot of ways, though, it feels more like a "rough draft" of The Thing than an iteration; they're treading the same water, thematically and materially, and Prince of Darkness just doesn't do it as well. Worth the watch, though!

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Pleased to see the appreciation for this film here. I've always liked it since I first saw it back in the early Nineties and I feel its fairly underappreciated.

It has some flaws and a bit of cheesiness but it's all offset by an overwhelmingly cold and bleak atmosphere, the type of which I feel isn't tapped into anywhere near enough in the horror genre. It's very hard to explain the specific feeling the film evokes as it's very unique even to the horror genre, but the visuals, the setting, and the soundtrack all work overtime to overcome the goofiness of what is happening. It's basically a zombie film, but with a really powerful sense of evil permeating throughout.

The final jumpscare is the most effective one I ever experienced on my first watch.

Spoiler: Jumpscare towards the end

 

[Ravelle]

Film #3 Alucarda.

This felt more like a stage play than a film and there was a lot of screaming involved.

 

[Rhaknar]

The list so far

11 - The Conjuring 5/5

If I'm going to watch the CCU (lol) I might aswell go back and rewatch the one that started it, and thankfully it totally holds up. James Wan crafts a super creepy and moody haunted house / possession flick, with some great jump scares (I love how silent the movie is sometimes) and a fantastic cast. Of course it's annoying when you think of the BASED ON A REAL STORY implications, aka, the Warrens were a couple of con-artists of course, but in universe, I love Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga so it is what it is. Super solid spoopy good time with this one.

 

[Ravelle]

The first two mainline conjuring movies are some fantastic horror movies, great characters and atmosphere. I did the CCU watch-through last year and while it was a lot of fun (especially with Kinda Funny's In-Review) It's a shame it's a lot of wasted potential.

 

[Rhaknar]

Don't forget Letterboxd for a easy place to make your 31 days of horror lists for easy access for yourself or others (easier than updating a Era post everytime)

Letterboxd • Your life in film

Letterboxd is a social platform for sharing your taste in film. Use it as a diary to record your opinion about films as you watch them, or just to keep track of films you’ve seen in the past. Rate, review and tag films as you add them. Find and follow your friends to see what they’re enjoying...

letterboxd.com

You can even score them like we do here (even with half stars for you heathens that like that) :)

 

[HiLife]

Finally watched Old. It sucked but I was entertained. It was like watching a car crash and I couldn't take my eyes off it. I swear M Night Shyamalan loves the smell of his own farts. Some of this dialogue was so bad, even for him. And his constant cameos in movies, sheesh.

"She died from lack of attention" lmao.

 

[Clown_im_OP]

Sorry to take advantage of this thread, but can I get some quick recs for recentish (20/21) horror movies? We're always doing movie nights around the 31st and I put them together and try to spread them out a bit (classic, cult/trash, recent), and I'm missing one newer flick. Malignant is on the list already.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Sorry to take advantage of this thread, but can I get some quick recs for recentish (20/21) horror movies? We're always doing movie nights around the 31st and I put them together and try to spread them out a bit (classic, cult/trash, recent), and I'm missing one newer flick. Malignant is on the list already.

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Sweetheart is from 2019. Too old? A woman is stranded on a deserted island and there is a monster around. Fun flick.

Sea Fever was a good one too, but also 2019. Irish fishing ship isolated at sea and there is something fishy going on. Good thing there is a marine biologist on board that can explain how and why everyone is dying!

 

[coma]

05. The Body Snatcher (1945, Robert Wise) ★★★★

Pretty good movie that's elevated to greatness every time Boris Karloff is on screen. Creepier here than any monster he's played.

 

[Rhaknar]

these motherfuckers just dropped a magical black person halfway through this movie, we still doing that trope huh? fuck me...

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Sorry to take advantage of this thread, but can I get some quick recs for recentish (20/21) horror movies? We're always doing movie nights around the 31st and I put them together and try to spread them out a bit (classic, cult/trash, recent), and I'm missing one newer flick. Malignant is on the list already.

Click to shrink...

Oh shit, How could I forget Wolf of Snow Hollow from 2020?!? One of my fav lesser known flicks of the past few years. A real hidden gem that should tick all your boxes.

 

[Clown_im_OP]

Oh shit, How could I forget Wolf of Snow Hollow from 2020?!? One of my fav lesser known flicks of the past few years. A real hidden gem that should tick all your boxes.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for your recommendations! I'm interested in good flicks from every year of course, but I try to stick 20/21 - I'll check out Wolf of Snow Hollow for sure. It has Robert Forster!

 

[More_Badass]

Sorry to take advantage of this thread, but can I get some quick recs for recentish (20/21) horror movies? We're always doing movie nights around the 31st and I put them together and try to spread them out a bit (classic, cult/trash, recent), and I'm missing one newer flick. Malignant is on the list already.

Click to shrink...

- The Boy Behind The Door
- Seance
- In The Earth
- Censor
- Wrong Turn
- The Empty Man
- Kandisha
- The Old Ways
- Caveat
- Bloody Hell
- Come True
- The Block Island Sound
- Sputnik
- Boys From County Hell
- The Dark & The Wicked
- Relic
- His House
- Impetigore

 

[Deleted member 9241]

Thanks for your recommendations! I'm interested in good flicks from every year of course, but I try to stick 20/21 - I'll check out Wolf of Snow Hollow for sure. It has Robert Forster!

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His last role, and it is a great send off.

 

[Rhaknar]

The list so far

12 - Annabelle 2/5

Completely mediocre but passable horror movie that ultimately just left me asking "why was the doll even in the movie". It honestly feels like it was a random demon movie that they just lumped in the doll just to connect it to Conjuring when that hit big. I didn't hate it unlike The Nun, it has some decent moments and the leads are very likeable, but overall it's just a movie I would never check out if it wasn't for the CCU thing. Also fuck that magical black person trope, come on man be better writers.

 

[ThirstyFly]

So, just so we're tracking, hour long shows don't count right?
Currently making my way thru latest season of American Horror Story...

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We generally try to keep this a movie marathon, so TV seasons don't count.
I've done some TV stuff in the past, but counted it as bonus viewings, and not in my tallied count.

Can I just share my Letterboxd list here instead of tracking a separate list?

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If you mean just linking off to Letterboxd, please no. You can do the same list, but paste it here as well so people don't have to go off site.

 

[Clown_im_OP]

- The Boy Behind The Door
- Seance
- In The Earth
- Censor
- Wrong Turn
- The Empty Man
- Kandisha
- The Old Ways
- Caveat
- Bloody Hell
- Come True
- The Block Island Sound
- Sputnik
- Boys From County Hell
- The Dark & The Wicked
- Relic
- His House
- Impetigore

Click to shrink...

Thx, that's alotta movies. What's your favourite?

 

[More_Badass]

Thx, that's alotta movies. What's your favourite?

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His House, Impetigore, and Sputnik are all excellent

 

[Rhaknar]

random recommendation post, but since Netflix has a bad rep with it's movies, I actually feel they have quite a few good horror ones, and since everyone and their grandma has Netflix, here you go:

- Gerald's Game
- His House
- Apostle
- The Ritual
- Fear Street Trilogy
- In The Tall Grass (this one isn't very good but I'm a Patrick Wilson fanboy)

 

[ThirstyFly]

31 Days of Horror (2021) - The Torment of the Terrible Trios

Trio 1 (Movies 1-3) - The Hammer Dracula & Karnstein Series (Finale)

During 31 Days of Horror in previous years, I began both the Dracula series and Karnstein trilogy from Hammer and have been chipping away at them almost every year. This year, I've finally finished both series* with the final two indirect sequels to Horror of Dracula, and the stealth sequel to the Karnstein trilogy.
*Unless Vampire Circus counts as part of the Karnstein trilogy too, then I've still got one more to watch.

1) The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) (Oct 1)

Two years after the events of Dracula A.D. 1972, Dracula once again returns, only this time he has bigger plans than just revenge on the Helsing clan.

While Dracula A.D. 1972 suffered from an undercooked police investigation plot, the Satanic Rites of Dracula suffers from an undercooked MI5 spy thriller plot where Dracula goes all in on world destruction. Unfortunately, the whole thing is just really, really dry. The goofball premise is taken way too seriously to be any fun and there's just too many scenes of old, stuffy men standing around in uncomfortable looking suits talking. There are a few fun vampire sequences, but nothing even comes close to topping the incredible black mass scene from Dracula A.D. 1972. I definitely did not expect to see a scene of people running away while being shot at by a sniper in a Dracula movie either.

Overall, I can see why Christopher Lee decided to nope out of the series after the Satanic Rites of Dracula. I suppose it was nice to see his Dracula face off against Peter Cushing's Van Helsing one last time, but Lee's Dracula deserved a much better sendoff than being turned into a second rate Bond villain.

Poor. 1 / 5

2) The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974) (Oct 2)

Van Helsing is asked to aide in the destruction of the 7 Golden Vampires and a lot of people get kicked along the way.

Well, I have to give them credit for trying something different, I guess. The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is a Hammer/Shaw Brothers collaboration and was... well... let's see... The plot is basically nonexistent, serving only to get the too large cast of characters from one action scene to the next. I don't even know why they needed Van Helsing, until his final confrontation with the poorly integrated Dracula at the end, his major contribution seemed to be just telling the martial artists to attack the monster's hearts. The 7 Golden Vampires didn't seem all that difficult to to defeat anyway, one of them is already dead before Van Helsing gets involved.
The action scenes are obviously meant to be the big draw here, but they have a really staged feel where nothing flows naturally and they constantly cut from character to character since there's just way too many people involved in the fights. I suppose the final climatic battle was kind of impressive and they actually killed off some of the heroes, which I didn't expect.
The most surprising thing in the entire movie was a shot of Peter Cushing falling backwards, directly into a campfire with a genuine look of shock on his face. It looked like a real accident they decided to keep in, but I couldn't find any evidence if it was planned or not.

Overall, I don't know enough about the martial arts movies of the era to say how The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires compares to them, but as a horror movie, it's not a very good one for the time.

Skip it. 1.5 / 5

3) Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter (1974) (Oct 3)

A swashbuckling swordsman is summoned to a small village to solve the mysterious deaths of a series of young women.

One of Hammer's lesser spoken about vampire movies, I had fully expected Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter to be one of, if not the worst movie I had lined up this month. I gotta say, my expectations were completely wrong. It's an energetic and often comical swashbuckling vampire adventure with a great pace and extremely fun characters.
The story itself may seem simple on the surface, but they do a good job of including just enough character depth and backstories to make them interesting. It's basically a live action comic book with some fun surprises, and they do a great job of avoiding anything that would bog the story down.
If I had to complain about anything, it's not quite as flashy as Hammer's Dracula efforts and could have used some more impressive production design. There's some creative shots and beautiful sets, but it could have used some nice mood lighting like The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires featured.

Overall, I was really, really surprised with Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, and I think I'd go as far as to say it's one of the most enjoyable Hammer films I've seen yet.

Definitely recommended. 4 / 5


And now I'm finally done Hammer's two vampire series. Later in the month I'll be starting their Frankenstein series, but next up is the Giallo Selection (Italian)!

 

[LakeEarth]

Finally watched Sleepaway Camp. It's pretty much exactly what I was told it was. A generic "slasher at camp" movie that goes crazy in the last 5 minutes. Worth watching once.

 

[Xiofire]

It's the best month of the year!

1. No One Gets Out Alive

Pretty solid movie that completely falls apart after it's reveal. Some movies really need to learn restraint when it comes to peeling back the veil of the looming threat. Showing it so explicitly throws away all the mystery and tension you've built until that point. A shame, because it was really good until the final quarter.

2. Seance

St Trinians/Mean Girls meets a by-the-numbers slasher; Seance struggles to find an identity for much of its runtime, but when it finally lets its guard down and has some fun, it's already over. A shame because it does a nice blend of comedy and horror that isn't outright parody like others in the space and has some genuinely funny moments. Give it a whirl, there are much worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

3. Possession
A smorgasbord of hysteria, trauma, angst and themes, Possession is as grating as it is impenetrable to interpretation. Throughout the whole viewing I felt like a child only seeing the tumultuous parts of their parents relationship through an equally rocky divorce. I find the conversations about relationships being shaped by the partners interpretation of the other very intriguing, and symbolising this through a classic 80s body horror style monster was very cool, but I can't shake that the incoherent nature of the film handicaps the impact of such a message. Layer on top of this the clearly political angle via the soldiers and the Berlin wall, I feel so much was slapped out here in hopes that something sticks, rather than refining what we ultimately got. Definitely one that I'll sit on and muse over before giving my final verdict, but whereas I came away from similar "mood-piece" horrors intrigued and ready to search for answers, something about Possession's absurdity has made me completely disengaged from finding out more.

4. Possum
Bleak and harrowing imagery with a cacophonous soundtrack make for a haunting British slow burn. Most will be put off by the somewhat nonsensical telling and obtuse script, but those willing to connect the dots and practice some patience will be greatly rewarded by the black-as-coal tale being told. I can already feel this one sticking to my brain, great horror flick.

Either going to watch Luz or The Call (if that counts as horror 👀) tonight. Will definitely be pinching some of your suggestions/watches to fill my roster.

 

[Joe Molotov]

First weekend of October is in the books! I don't think I watched any of the movies on my list I made up earlier lol

#1 Messiah of Evil - Dir. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, 1973 (Shudder) ****
#2 Two Evil Eyes - Dir. George Romero & Dario Argento, 1990 (4K UHD) ** 1/2
#3. Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives - Dir. Tom McLoughlin, 1986 (Blu-ray) *** 1/2
#4. Friday the 13th, Part VII: The New Blood - Dir. John Carl Buechler, 1988 (Blu-ray) * 1/2
#5. Village of the Damned - Dir. John Carpenter, 1995 (Blu-ray) *
#6. Return of the Living Dead, Part II - Dir. Ken Wiederhorn, 1988 (Blu-ray) **
#7. Wax Mask - Dir. Sergio Stivaletti, 1997 (Shudder) ***

 

[Junior Asparagus]

Sorry to take advantage of this thread, but can I get some quick recs for recentish (20/21) horror movies? We're always doing movie nights around the 31st and I put them together and try to spread them out a bit (classic, cult/trash, recent), and I'm missing one newer flick. Malignant is on the list already.

Click to shrink...

Have you watched Host (2020)? We're still in COVID times so it's still an appropriate time for horror via Zoom! Plus it's only like an hour long so you can fit into a schedule.

 

[sigma722]

3 - Housebound (2014) - This movie ended up being pretty meh for me because it wasn't too scary and it wasn't too funny. Didn't nail either for me as much as I'd like. I love typical NZ dry comedy, and there were bits. One thing I did really like is how they kept getting the bad guy "wrong" and kept having stereotypical answers for what could have happened, and then they end up not being the bad guy till the end. One of those was particularly funny. 6.5/10

4 - Unsane (2018) - We ended up really enjoying this one. Solid Psychological horror/thriller. The lack of power she finds herself with after making two pretty average mistakes was rough. 8/10

 

[Rhaknar]

Oh cool, I found something even worse than The Nun, didn't expect that so soon.

13 - Poltergeist (2015) 0/5

The fuck is Sam Rockwell doing in this putrid, souless cash grab? Damn that was awful. I can't even be arsed to write anything about it, there's nothing to say, it's a horrible remake of one of the best horror movies ever, so there.

List so far

 

[ViewtifulJux]

1. Titane (2021) - This was wild. A gruesome/horny family affair. 4 out of 5

2. Halloween (2018) - I don't know about this one. Didn't do much at all for me. 2 1/2 out of 5

 

[Clown_im_OP]

Have you watched Host (2020)? We're still in COVID times so it's still an appropriate time for horror via Zoom! Plus it's only like an hour long so you can fit into a schedule.

Click to shrink...

Nope, but sounds fun (and like something my wife would be into). Thanks!

 

[Kreizler]

7. Rewatch - HAPPY DEATH DAY Picking some movies my partner would enjoy as she doesn't like to actually be scared, usually. Fun time-loop shenanigans.

8. Rewatch - HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U Jessica Rothe is just charming as hell. I hope they get to make a 3rd one in the future.

9. New - BASKET CASE No one in this hotel can get a decent night's sleep.

 

[atdawnwestrike]

07. Fear Street Part One: 1994. (2021) (New) 3/5
I'm a sucker for teen slashers so I had fun with this one. There are some great gore effects and there is one kill in particular that caught me off guard in the best way.

 

[Oneiros]

The list so far

12 - Annabelle 2/5

Completely mediocre but passable horror movie that ultimately just left me asking "why was the doll even in the movie". It honestly feels like it was a random demon movie that they just lumped in the doll just to connect it to Conjuring when that hit big. I didn't hate it unlike The Nun, it has some decent moments and the leads are very likeable, but overall it's just a movie I would never check out if it wasn't for the CCU thing. Also fuck that magical black person trope, come on man be better writers.

Click to shrink...

The first Annabelle is by far the worst one, which is weird for a horror series.

 

[Rhaknar]

The first Annabelle is by far the worst one, which is weird for a horror series.

Click to shrink...

Really? That's kinda exciting then.