2017 Halloween Scary Movie Challenge

I'm late to watching anything...but I'll catch up here soon. Still waiting on my tv watching recliner to be delivered from the furniture store. Somehow it got put on an 8 week backorder. still a week or so to go.

I've gotten a few new blu rays just for this month.

Probably will watch a couple, if not all, of the Phantasm movies.

 

Thus far this month:

Curtains (1983) - actresses lined up for a film audition fall prey to a slasher. Slow moving & dull.

Tales of Halloween (2015) - Ten short scary stories set on Halloween night. Not every segment is a home run but it's mostly fun.

Last Showing (2014) - Movie goers trapped inside a multiplex with a deranged projectionist (Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund)

Hush (2016) - Deaf/mute woman in secluded cabin vs. murderous home invader.

The Burning (1981) - Another batch of summer campers meet a deranged murderer, hilarity does not ensue.

Gerald's Game (2017) - Stephen King's story of a couple's sexy time gone wrong

Jaws 2 (1978) - I was rooting for the shark this time.

 

My top pick would be Del Toro's The Orphanage, a ghost story with a Peter Pan riff, well it is Del Toro! It's also much more than scary, with an ending which is either sad or uplifting, quality.

For scares alone try Annabelle Creation, so many scares moments it's beyond a joke but the thing is I kept jumping

 

#3 - The Invisible Man (1933)



This movie is well-written and well-acted, and by far the most humerus of the Universal Horror films. The only demerits are Mrs. Halls endless screaming, the Invisible Man would be easy to catch, and an Invisible Man is not that scary. He is beating up mobs of police officers, when all someone would have to do is grab him. As an assassin, great idea. When he is supposed to be terrorizing large groups it doesn't work for me. This movie is well worth checking out, especially for the amazing effects for 1933.

 

In keeping with the theme of Halloween (All Saints Day) and remembering the dead I submit Destiny (1921) by Fritz Lang.


Yep, it's a silent black 'n white one consisting of four stories of romance, all of which have the literal figure of death as an arbitrator in their destinies. Grab a toasty beverage, kick back and enjoy.. Handsome streamer

 

Or take a chance with Them!


Absent of gore or cheap shock value stunts Them (2006), a French import, still manages to thrill. On Amazon Prime.

 

Blair Witch - I saw The Blair Witch Project theatrically and remember being angry about it, it was just 90 minutes of shakey-cam and people screaming in the woods. Blair Witch is the appropriate follow-up (Blair Witch: Book of Shadows can be disregarded, like Halloween 3: Season of the Witch has nothing to do with the Halloween franchise): Ninety minutes of six idiots yelling in the woods. Only this time the titular witch is actually in the movie!

2/5. It’s a bad movie, but more competently made than its predecessor.

 

Saw this on the shelf recently (yeah, I still browse dvds) and wondered about it vs. the original. Thanks.

 

Final Destination (2000)

I remembered this one being a popular staple on video at college parties in the early aughts, but didn't recall much about it as I hadn't seen it since (and my memories of those nights are vague anyway). But it was successful enough to launch a legion of sequels, none of which I have seen.

The premise of the movie is that a class of high school students is boarding a flight to Paris for a class trip, and prior to takeoff, one of the students has a vision of the plane exploding. When he comes to, he freaks out and they remove him from the plane before it leaves. Due to happenstance, several other students and a teacher get off the plane as well. Shortly thereafter, the plane takes off and explodes in mid-air. But since this small group of people got off the plane prior to takeoff, they cheated death even though it was supposed to be their time. Now death will stalk each of them one by one.

It's an interesting set up that allows for a lot of artistic freedom in the "death scenes." After all, in all of the famous slasher flicks, the selling point is the death scenes. How will Freddy or Jason do it this time? Well, in this one, since the writers aren't tied to having a physical antagonist do the killing, they are free to concoct all sorts of crazy and gruesome death scenes. This is probably how they were able to pump out so many sequels, the possibilities are endless.

Visually, there is obviously some CGI here and there, but other than a couple moments, it was done very well. And because we know that death is stalking each of the characters, there is a lot of dramatic tension that builds up throughout the movie which creates a tense atmosphere at times.

I'd love to have seen what a horror master like Carpenter or Craven could have done with this one, but as it is, it's a solid outing which holds up surprisingly well. There are definitely some shocks and squeamish moments to be had here.

 

I watched The Horror Of Dracula for the first time this week (purchased on Vudu for $5, impulse buy). This is the first Christopher Lee Dracula movie. Someone tell me, what is so great about this movie? I found it really disappointing. I'm not trying to be a troll here, I'm genuinely curious why this one is so respected.

 

The Comeback (1978). Obscure, slowburn shocker starring once popular and talented "lounge singer," Jack Jones.

 

A shocker from 1981:

 

If you liked the first one, I'd recommend part 2. A.J. Cook does a good job as the the lead, and there's a great sequence in the first act.

As with most horror franchises, the sequels do get progressively worse.

 

If you are coming to it after having seen decades of vampire movies made since its release, I could see someone finding it underwhelming. So many films have ripped it off that you don't have to have seen it to know what's going to happen in the plot. It set the stylistic foundation for a generation of vampire movies and still has Christopher Lee's imposing presence as Count Dracula.

 

That's what surprised me - I didn't really find Lee all that imposing. After having seen him play Sauron I was expecting a more impressive presence. I knew I was going to see a much younger guy but the big authoritative voice wasn't there, and plus Lee couldn't have had more than about six lines in the whole movie! I remember in the mid 70's reading about Lee's various Dracula films and it was described as him just showing up a couple of times and snarling, and I was surprised that that's basically what he does even in the first movie. The movie mucked around with the plot of the book extensively but that didn't bother me as much as the sheer predictability of the movie. But I get it - for a lot of people that was their first Dracula, I'm just surprised that it doesn't seem to stand up so well today. The Bela Lugosi version I found much better.

 

Rings - I honestly thought this was a remake of (American) The Ring, not a sequel. And while I never saw Ring Two I can’t imagine it filled-in any valuable backstory. Anyway, some notes:

•Holy blue! I may have not really noticed it except I just watched Blair Witch which was shot almost entirely in natural light. Rings has the most blue saturated color I think I’ve ever seen.

•I mentioned the Hollywood cliché about ‘ghosts that save the protagonist last minute against the villain whom killed them’ in my review of The Pact two days ago. Has the added deus ex machina of magically curing blindness just because that’s the only way this ghost kills people.

•Totally retconned Samara Morgan’s Chinese adoption

•Now if you don’t copy a VHS tape (who still has a VCR?) the ghost will email everybody the video anyway. How convenient! Also negates the whole point of the curse.

•Samara’s mother, the original victim in this family story, is just wasted. Nobody bothers to bring her any justice they don’t even attempt to find her body (‘F’ you, teenage sex slave murder victim, nobody loves you)

2/5. They botched a lot of backstory just so Vincent D’Onofrio could play a forgettable part in this sequel.

 

Really liked it too.

 

Night of the Living Dead (1968, George Romero)
It started the entire Zombie universe.
Still drollishly dead (Rest In Peace Mr. Romero) after all these years. No-Brainer pick.

 

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)

This film tries too hard to establish itself as a black comedy. It's about a slasher from another film (of the same name) which is about an actual slasher crime spree in the 60s. Everyone in the town is shown in a way that makes them appear to know more than they're telling; which makes everyone a suspect. Then, after a big build up and the slasher is going to be exposed, I didn't even recognize who it was based on the long list of suspects making an appearance in the film. The creepy, slasher filled kill scenes were done really well, though. Fun flick if you want to kill some time.

 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
The only "Halloween" sequel I'm not completely sick of by now.
Added bonus, my 10 year old son watched it w/me for the first time and he loved it.

 

ME TOO! we watch it every season.

 

Though it may be classified more as a "Thriller" than "Horror", the original version of The Hitcher from 1986 (starring C Thomas Howell and Rutger Hauer) has always freaked me out.

 

“Five more days till Halloween...Halloween. Five more days till Halloween”

 

If it freaks you out it counts.

 

OK, now I hear it in my head! HA!