The 14th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (10/1 - 10/31) ***The List Thread***
10-02-18, 12:31 AM
#101
DVD Talk Special Edition
Re: The 14th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (10/1 - 10/31) ***The List Threa
List is done! 71 titles, 20 new viewings.
2005: Bill Paxton's dick in True Lies (Miss you Bill) | 2006: 97 | 2007: 79 | 2008: 57 | 2009: 59 | 2010: 77 | 2011: 56 | 2012: 48 | 2013: 60 | 2014: 56 | 2015: 23 | 2016: 65 | 2017: 86
For the sake of the management's own sanity . . . it must be stated that there may be slight spoilers ahead. Be Warned!
Oct. 01
01. Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings¹ (1993) Son of Pumpkinhead, really. Decent monster effects? But mostly just a 90s time capsule, swathed in sleeveless flannel.
02. The Crow (1994)
Oct. 02
03. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
04. Vengeance of the Zombies La rebelión de las muertas¹ (1973)
05. Nightmare City Incubo sulla città contaminata (1980)
06. Zombie 3 Zombi 3¹ (1988)
Oct. 03
07. The Mummy (1932)
08. The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
09. The Black Room (1935)
Oct. 04
10. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
11. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Oct. 05
12. Freaks (1932)
Oct. 06
13. Vampire Hunter D Kyûketsuki hantâ D (1985)
14. The Lost Boys (1987)
15. Wicked City Yôjû toshi¹ (1987)
16. The Church La chiesa¹ (1989)
Oct. 07
17. Dr. Cyclops (1940)
18. The Fly (1958)
19. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
Oct. 08
20. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
21. Forbidden World¹ (1982)
22. Dead Heat (1988)
23. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Oct. 09
24. The Leopard Man (1943)
25. She-Wolf of London (1946)
26. Night Creatures aka Captain Clegg (1962)
Oct. 10
27. The Invisible Man (1933)
Oct. 11
28. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Oct. 12
29. King Kong (1933)
30. Creature from Black Lake¹ (1976)
Oct. 13
31. Caltiki, the Immortal Monster Caltiki il mostro immortale¹ (1959)
Oct. 15
32. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
33. Night of Terror¹ (1933)
34. Son of Dracula (1943)
Oct. 16
35. Mr. Vampire Geung si sin sang (1985)
36. Nadja¹ (1994)
37. Blade: Trinity (2004)
Oct. 17
38. Bedlam (1946)
39. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
40. The Being¹ (1983)
Oct. 18
41. Galaxy of Terror¹ (1981)
Oct. 19
42. Evil Dead II (1987)
43. The Ambulance¹ (1990)
Oct. 20
44. Dracula (1931)
Oct. 21
45. The Black Cat (1934)
Oct. 22
46. The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
47. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Oct. 23
48. Creepshow 2 (1987)
49. Larry Cohen commentary on Maniac Cop (1988)
50. Cast a Deadly Spell¹ (1991)
Oct. 24
51. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Oct. 25
52. Day of the Dead (1985)
Oct. 26
53. The Prophecy (1995)
54. Vampire Cleanup Department Gao geung jing dou fu¹ (2017)
Oct. 27
55. Halloween (1978)
Oct. 28
56. Halloween II (1981)
Oct. 29
57. Nosferatu Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
58. White Zombie (1932)
59. Castle of the Creeping Flesh Im Schloß der blutigen Begierde¹ (1968)
60. Scared to Death¹ (1980)
Oct. 30
61. Dracula's Daughter (1936)
62. The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
63. MST3K version of It Lives by Night aka The Bat People (1974)
64. The Great Alligator Il fiume del grande caimano¹ (1979)
65. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
66. Silver Bullet¹ (1985)
67. The Rift¹ (1990)
Oct. 31. Happy Halloween!!!!
68. Stigma Estigma¹ (1980)
69. Visiting Hours (1982)
70. Alone in the Dark (1982)
71. Manhunter (1986)
¹ means I hadn't seen it before
---------------------------------------
The CHECKLIST. Complete!
2005: Bill Paxton's dick in True Lies (Miss you Bill) | 2006: 97 | 2007: 79 | 2008: 57 | 2009: 59 | 2010: 77 | 2011: 56 | 2012: 48 | 2013: 60 | 2014: 56 | 2015: 23 | 2016: 65 | 2017: 86
For the sake of the management's own sanity . . . it must be stated that there may be slight spoilers ahead. Be Warned!
Oct. 01
01. Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings¹ (1993) Son of Pumpkinhead, really. Decent monster effects? But mostly just a 90s time capsule, swathed in sleeveless flannel.
02. The Crow (1994)
Oct. 02
03. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
04. Vengeance of the Zombies La rebelión de las muertas¹ (1973)
05. Nightmare City Incubo sulla città contaminata (1980)
06. Zombie 3 Zombi 3¹ (1988)
Oct. 03
07. The Mummy (1932)
08. The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
09. The Black Room (1935)
Oct. 04
10. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
11. Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Oct. 05
12. Freaks (1932)
Oct. 06
13. Vampire Hunter D Kyûketsuki hantâ D (1985)
14. The Lost Boys (1987)
15. Wicked City Yôjû toshi¹ (1987)
16. The Church La chiesa¹ (1989)
Oct. 07
17. Dr. Cyclops (1940)
18. The Fly (1958)
19. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
Oct. 08
20. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
21. Forbidden World¹ (1982)
22. Dead Heat (1988)
23. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Oct. 09
24. The Leopard Man (1943)
25. She-Wolf of London (1946)
26. Night Creatures aka Captain Clegg (1962)
Oct. 10
27. The Invisible Man (1933)
Oct. 11
28. I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
Oct. 12
29. King Kong (1933)
30. Creature from Black Lake¹ (1976)
Oct. 13
31. Caltiki, the Immortal Monster Caltiki il mostro immortale¹ (1959)
Oct. 15
32. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920)
33. Night of Terror¹ (1933)
34. Son of Dracula (1943)
Oct. 16
35. Mr. Vampire Geung si sin sang (1985)
36. Nadja¹ (1994)
37. Blade: Trinity (2004)
Oct. 17
38. Bedlam (1946)
39. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
40. The Being¹ (1983)
Oct. 18
41. Galaxy of Terror¹ (1981)
Oct. 19
42. Evil Dead II (1987)
43. The Ambulance¹ (1990)
Oct. 20
44. Dracula (1931)
Oct. 21
45. The Black Cat (1934)
Oct. 22
46. The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
47. Young Frankenstein (1974)
Oct. 23
48. Creepshow 2 (1987)
49. Larry Cohen commentary on Maniac Cop (1988)
50. Cast a Deadly Spell¹ (1991)
Oct. 24
51. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Oct. 25
52. Day of the Dead (1985)
Oct. 26
53. The Prophecy (1995)
54. Vampire Cleanup Department Gao geung jing dou fu¹ (2017)
Oct. 27
55. Halloween (1978)
Oct. 28
56. Halloween II (1981)
Oct. 29
57. Nosferatu Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
58. White Zombie (1932)
59. Castle of the Creeping Flesh Im Schloß der blutigen Begierde¹ (1968)
60. Scared to Death¹ (1980)
Oct. 30
61. Dracula's Daughter (1936)
62. The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
63. MST3K version of It Lives by Night aka The Bat People (1974)
64. The Great Alligator Il fiume del grande caimano¹ (1979)
65. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
66. Silver Bullet¹ (1985)
67. The Rift¹ (1990)
Oct. 31. Happy Halloween!!!!
68. Stigma Estigma¹ (1980)
69. Visiting Hours (1982)
70. Alone in the Dark (1982)
71. Manhunter (1986)
¹ means I hadn't seen it before
---------------------------------------
The CHECKLIST. Complete!
Spoiler:
Last edited by planetaire; 11-08-18 at 03:30 PM.
10-02-18, 01:17 PM
#102
Re: The 14th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (10/1 - 10/31) ***The List Threa
2: The Predator
4: Venom
5: Willard (1971)
10: Death Note (2017)
11: Tusk
16: Lifeforce
17:Halloween III: Season of the Witch
18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers
20: Halloween 5
22: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers
23: Galaxy of Terror, The Endless, Unsane
24: Psycho (1960)
25: 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene
27: The Devils
4: Venom
5: Willard (1971)
10: Death Note (2017)
11: Tusk
16: Lifeforce
17:Halloween III: Season of the Witch
18: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers
20: Halloween 5
22: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Meyers
23: Galaxy of Terror, The Endless, Unsane
24: Psycho (1960)
25: 78/52: Hitchcock's Shower Scene
27: The Devils
Last edited by Dr. Mantle; 10-28-18 at 02:55 AM.
10-05-18, 05:45 PM
#103
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Re: The 14th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (10/1 - 10/31) ***The List Threa
October 4th
1. War of the Worlds (2005)
October 5th
2. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
1. War of the Worlds (2005)
October 5th
2. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)
10-23-18, 10:22 PM
#104
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
Re: The 14th Annual "October Horror Movie Challenge" (10/1 - 10/31) ***The List Threa
**List Final**
Part One is here: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/13400451-post26.html
October 24 [Werewolf Theme Night] (9 hours, 6 minutes watched)
1-168. [See first part]
...
169. Silver Bullet (1985, 95 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ The 'small town vibe' and narration works well as a hook into the lives of our child heroes, the same sort of feel that Stand By Me had in spades. If more films want to use the 'giallo style' killer's perspective shots that's fine with me. There are times the film seems less interesting when it reverts back to horror staples mid-movie, slightly updated redneck style. Some of the camera panning and angles are especially artful and I like the reveal twist. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme Subset
170. Wolf Guy (1975, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ 'Werewolf movie without werewolves' had everything to political conspiracy, rape revenge, telekinesis, and gang/mob thriller elements that never fails to entertain but is all over the place. The kill scenes are especially oddball and there's some gory surgery in a film more about style than content. It's like a strange amalgam of 70s Japanese cinema. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
171. Lycan (2017, 88 minutes) ★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ College kids go camping in 'werewolf country,' with lukewarm acting and attempts at mystery taking the formulaic slasher approach to werewolves, secret killer hiding in the woods offing victims often cutting to show some close up bodily carnage so the kills as neutered and the film is mostly kids anxious in the woods, Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
172. Dave Made a Maze (2017, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ The idea of a 'god' who gets lost in his creation is ripe for interpretation and it's a potentially heavy metaphor for how we construct our own reality but DMaM never gets preachy or too metaphysical with it, just leaving the premise at our feet and getting 'wtf' weird. While subtle this might be the most accessible but deep movie in recent memory. Imagery is deliciously cartoonish and practical cardboard effects everywhere are top notch. I love the confetti / silly string blood splatter, that alone could have been the film and it would have been worth seeing. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Subset
173. Cat People (1986, 119 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Takes a classic and turns it into long winder pseudo-mystical sleaze where we watch Nastassja Kinski work at the zoo gift shop for half the movies before spending the next half naked in a premise that makes little sense but does so accompanied by a cool David Bowie theme song and bittersweet melancholy. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
174. The Devil Lives Here (2015, 77 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Indie film with spotty production, you can tell something evil is happening when the video starts flashing or getting heavily edited. Despite limitations it's non-stop enough with frequent twists that I enjoyed it opening with kids jammed then an elaborate campfire style tale, home invasion, basket face, and perhaps the supernatural. Some of the plot is hammy (The Honey Baron) but because there's so much stuff works. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
October 25 [Video Nasties Theme Night] (9 hours, 50 minutes watched)
175. Driller Killer (1979, 96 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Weaves together music/sound and slow burn angst across a New York cityscape, more artist than and moody than scary or slashery but with a fascinating rhythm that uses random murder as a chorus. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
176. Anthropophagous (1980, 90 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Antsropdoagus was a tease, it held suspense better than other movies where nothing happens for so long at least before it’s nonsensical conclusion. Some great foreboding and comical odd supernatural tangents. Cool use of killer point of view and occasionally artful compositions. Format: Digital [thanks to Alyxstarr]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
177. City of the Living Dead (1980, 93 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Fulci's metaphysical zombies are too fleeting in his overly mystic plot sending a fragmented array of characters overly dedicated to understanding and stopping Fulci's gateway to hell by dead priest and Book of Enoch mythology. There's some great color scheme and imagery but it plays like a parody of gothic horror filled with non sequiturs and under cooked culminating in a horrible ending. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
178. R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly (2008, 93 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ It's hard to rate kids' programming but I didn't feel like MG had the enduring quality of cartoon and was overlong for the plot. The ghoul is nicely fiendish and there is a cool underdog plot. Disposable film but considering limited family friendly offerings not a waste. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
179. A Bay of Blood [English Cut, Tim Lucas Commentary] (2008, 93 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Commentary on the commentary - Lucas gives overly detailed background on the many actors, there is are some golden tidbits and he does more than narrate. Information on some of the filming effects, transitions, set design, and actor/director comments add value to the film and understanding of cinema. I remember BoB to be a parade of spectacular deaths & it doesn't disappoint, but there's not as much character development so it works well with commentary. Format: Blu-ray [Arrow UK]. 1st Viewing [of commentary] Theme
180. Ban the Sadist Videos! [Parts 1&2] (2005, 94 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Video store time capsule that explains the inception of home media leading to reduction in public censorship and corresponding moral crusade. Talking heads everywhere intersected by clips of the films or news in reference over infectious beats. The documentary is biased against censorship but offers some insight into the historical climate of video nasties. Format: DVD [packaged with Severin's House of Straw Hill blu]. 1st Viewing Theme
October 26 [Frankenstein / Mad Scientists Theme Night] (4 hours, 26 minutes watched)
181. Dr. Caligari (1989, 80 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Epic Visuals melding in a surreal and exciting way with oddly dystopian elements that detract from it. In an arena of camp it's hard to be critical of performance but some of the actors were so stilted even if thematic/intentional it detracted from the experience. If the film had been silent it might even have been better and the namesake expressionistic elements are a highlight, as is the overall theme that slowburns from wtf weirdness to more challenging thoughtfulness. I would be down for more tongue wall and forehead syringes but less talking for much of DC. Format: Digital [thanks to Alyxstarr]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
182. Upgrade (2018, 100 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Stylish action thriller with some predictable elements but a cool premise and plot that reminds me of other psychedelic body horror movies handled her with more mundane crime drama elements and less gross out. A splattery modern neon lit sync score action thriller. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme?
183. Frankenstein's Army (2013, 86 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Second viewing showed more of the rubbery defects of the creatures, and while plagued with shaky cam I still feel like FA is more relentlessly creative than many horror offerings even if it's slow going and offers perhaps too little of the terrors. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
October 27 [Fangoria / USA Up All Night Featured Theme Night] (8 hours, 22 minutes watched)
184. Maximum Overdrive (1986, 98 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Truck theme gives some great road carnage and sense of chase, it slyly lampoons the 'stranded against horrors' conventions we've seen with films like Night if the Living Dead while also being terrifying in its own. I love the blue collar emphasis here & 'truck stop at the end if the world' image is top notch. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme Subset
185. #FromJennifer (2017, 80 minutes) ★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Well marketed film caught my eye on release last year, but despite a cool image of a woman and a giant the film really goes nowhere. Derek Means may be hulking but he can't act and spoils many of his scenes as a wide eyes simpleton. Attempts at being meta fall flat and character motives ultimately make little sense, many 'twists' are just characters acting in implausible irrational ways.Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
186. The Sleeping Room (2014, 78 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Everything ties together too conveniently about a surprisingly wholesome call girl who conveniently stumbles on a dark family secret that makes little sense and should not play out like it does, which is too conveniently self contained. The type of film that only 'works; if you adopt a radically different interpretation than is on screen (like everyone might be insane) begging much forgiveness for some ok tension later on. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
187. The Halloween Tree (1993, 69 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Classically animated take of youths who meet a ghoul that shows them some history behind their costumes. It's like a strange history channel gothic cartoon. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
188. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922, 91 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Interesting relic with some too infrequent world class practical effect imagery and a nicely dated view of mental health. The pseudo-scientific sometimes seems long winded. Format: Digital [Vudu HD].
189. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Stylish and well shot with homages to the original that get old quickly and prevent the remake from really shining as it's own film (for example when an epic murder is bloodspurting everywhere and there's an excerpt of the original film). Remake > original here and this one is bloodier and better paced. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
October 28 [Supernatural Theme Night] (10 hours, 56 minutes watched)
190. Marrowbone (2017, 111 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Slow going with an emotional gut punch but some elements like their father or some odd choices from Tom and Allie that are so distracting they nearly consume the film's better elements. Scenic but indulges in some plot devices that are my least favorite. Format: Digital [Hulu]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
191. Suddenly In the Dark (1981, 111 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Color bathed kaleidoscope shots and screaming housewives - not as lurid or far out as I suspected but a paranoid slow burn with elements of Poe and some artful direction in a tale of jealousy and revenge. It's the type gleefully persistent irony that we might see in the Twilight Zone and has a familiar feel of victims so sure of their terrors and so doubted by the world but also uniquely Korean in ambiguous haunts through the last frame creating an image that is unforgettable. Format: Blu-ray [Mondo Macabro limited red case] . 1st Viewing Theme
192. The Atoning (2017, 89 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Minimalist ghost story that does little original but I really enjoyed, it's abstract and there are some cool looking demon creatures. It's a melancholy film with few characters. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
193. I Am A Ghost (2012, 76 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ Unusual movie from the ghost's point of view that artfully uses repetitions to weave a strange tales about that which haunts a ghost. I enjoyed this on a second viewing, and there is an annoying twist that I found less annoying now. Odd structure without obvious beginning or ending, emphasis on arthouse.Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
194. Ben (1972, 94 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Direct continuation from Willard that ups the rat quotient and adds a syrupy theme song, the rats never take on an evil presence outside of being rats so unless you're disposed to fearing rats the humans response is so disproportionate - which is maybe the point. Elements of 'so bad it's good' cinema. Watched it with the kids and they seemed to enjoy it, although as a parent I felt guarded about some of the oddly cruel human response to rats (as the kids have pet rats). Format: Blu-ray. 1st Viewing
195. Hellmouth (2014, 95 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Styilzed black and white film with splashes of color and an overly digital feel, like the Sin City films. The effects are sometimes great and occasionally dredge up CGI that looks like it was tossed out of a PS2 game. Not especially frightening but relentlessly fantastic, out hero does little but enjoy the ride - never seeming in control or even intention about whatever happens but often somehow mastering it in a tension less stroll through the damned. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
196. Sweet Home (2015, 80 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Tense home invasion film with twists that rocket it along. Watched this again with my wife who correctly pointed out more of the plot holes than impacted by first viewing. It's one of the better recent home invasion films, which isn't saying much, and has a gritty obnoxiously critical theme that would do better to not preach about economics of rent control and stick to the literal face smashing imagery. Format: Digital [Netflix].
October 29 [Mind Games Theme Night] (14 hours, 42 minutes watched)
197. Brainscan (1994, 96 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ There's something very sly and meta about the film lampooning the all too often political refrain of violence in entertainment really equating to violence in reality. Brainscan is often so 'on the nose' with the worse sort of stereotypes about 'kids today.' It's like the kind of film some youth pastor wrote as a cautionary tale but goes into it with gleeful abandon playing on these social concerns in an insidious way beyond the obvious setup, more tongue in cheek revealing in horror rather than cautioning against it. I enjoyed The Trickster character and the wtf first person 'game' aspects. Format: Blu-ray. Theme Subset
198. Almost Mercy (2015, 85 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Gleeful murder picture with a well developed but obnoxious antihero narrator and a self righteous spite towards cartoonish extremes in apple pie american lifestyle. It borders on flaunting bad taste with a tale of alienation that gets credit for only hinting at the molestation under the service but reveling in overexaggerated small town america weaknesses like plastic surgery and consumer debt. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
199. Warlock (1989, 103 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Adventure cheese filled with mysticism as a coonskin clothed time traveler chases a fashion challenged warlock. Not 'so bad it's good' and not scary but existing in the middle ground of mindless television escapism, the kind of dreck work having on in the background but not offering much to demand your full attention. Format: Blu-ray.
200. Satan's Slaves (2017, 107 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Dark film that extorts the sort of long haired ghost imagery we've seen before to tell of a lurid family history where revised magazine articles play a key role in exposition. It crescendos well into a rainy multifaceted conclusion as one of the better supernatural offerings of late. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing
201. Stephanie (2016, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Especially well paced story with an amazingly morphing structure - the sort of cryptic film that keeps you guessing but ultimately doesn't hold back on the payoff. I loved the premise of it, and cannot think of any other film like it. I think the 'problem' with marathoning horror movies is that it can sometimes highlight how stale conventions are or repetitively cloned some movies are. Stephanie was a good antidote for that. The child lead actress did a good job. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
202. The Ritual (2017, 94 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Strange tale with fantastic imagery capitalizing on grief in the woods twisting haunted forest tropes into something much more far out and wonderfully unique to a let down ending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
203. Gerald's Game (2017, 103 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ Brilliantly draws out a shameless and corny molestation subplot with glorious imagery and tone perhaps tying everything together too neatly; well paced with much creativity and an un-necessary tacked on extended ending. Takes a simple premise and and rocks things along in an engaging way well beyond the stage benefiting from microscope character psychology. Format: Digital [Netflix 4K]. 1st Viewing Theme
204. The Night of the Virgin (2017, 100 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Odd body horror movie with a strange mythos combining lukewarm sex comedy with absurd body horror, there's some nice splatter and despite being stupid NotV carries itself more seriously thank the plot deserved - for example there's a a pivotal plot point where a character orgasms on pair of panties and an ongoing 'joke' where the lead insists he's not a virgin. Format: Digital [Shudder].1st Viewing
205. Predators (2010, 108 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Paper thin characters parade around a film with too many 'plot twists' and too little Predator. Adrian Brody is not a Schwartzeneggar and unintentionally funny at times. Loses points for so spectacularly failing what should be a safe bet in Predator mythos introducing predator dogs and warring predators when it's not more concerned with dull human evil. Format: Digital [FandangoNow 4K].
October 30 [Demonic Theme Night] (12 hours, 0 minutes watched)
206. A Dark Song (2016, 100 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Intense student teacher occult drama with an undercurrent of mental control and ambiguous supernatural hints enriched by detailed set design cascading along with a deafening silence of a mother's grief. Poetic in being so pointless but so tense and somber. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
207. Along Came the Devil (2018, 89 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Vanilla exorcism film with some cringeworthy acting and the same sort of demonic schlock we've seen better elsewhere to the point some key scenes are blunted, but it does have a better than average ending twist. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
208. Demon Wind (1990, 96 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ So bad it's good metaphysical demon splatter where the evil swarms and is ever present with his awkward taunting and prosthetic effcts. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
209. Hellraiser: Judgement (2018, 81 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Gorey with little setup and the evolution of Pinhead to some sort of narrator of horrors rather than a surreal fiend is unfortunate. Some of the Hellraiser sequels are a guilty pleasure of mine and this one is an improvement over the last few even if Doug Bradley couldn't reprise his Pinhead role (since Pinhead is window dressing now anyway). Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
210. The Witch in the Window (2018, 77 minutes) ★★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Creepy witch drama about father and son bonding and the bittersweet of family life that is much more effective than I could ever make it sound. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme
211. Dead Shack (2018, 77 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Juvenile humor distracts from a drunken family drama style zombie mash about a vacation in the woods ruined by a femme fatale who care takers for some zombies luring/catching people for them, kids in football gear vs the undead. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme
212. Final Prayer (2013, 89 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Found footage style film about odd events at a church, competently executed with a premise that was up my alley but overall not especially original waiting for the payoff. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
213. They Found Hell (2015, 87 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Wastes no time getting to it's CGI infested underworld with horrible actors populating thin characters; it works in a 'made for tv' movie sort of way watching disposable characters ham their way around a grand underworld and some of the effects are better done. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
214. The Witches (1990, 93 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ A classic with outstanding practical special effects. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
215. Apartment 212 (2017, 97 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ An isolated woman leaving an abusive relationship moves into an increasingly less subtle apartment dilemma, it's got some fun indie music and the lead is a competent actress but a times too slow. Better than average indie fare but not sure how it will stand to repeat viewings once the mystery of it is out - a mysterious which is nicely executed in a witty and original manner. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
October 31 [Halloween Theme Night] (13 hours, 10 minutes watched)
216. Bride of Chucky (1998, 97 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Stylishly directed with a clever premise but it doesn't really make use of with a plot that emphasizes Chucky being anatomically correct more than it does horror/tension, most of the jokes are more cutesy set dressing than funny. Format: Digital [Vudu HD].
217. Fear Inc (2016, 90 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ A 'custom scares' event that may or may not be real. The less you know going in the better it is. Intense without being especially bloody and there are some nice horror references. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
218. Satan's Little Helper (2004, 96 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Clever premise with some awkward execution to explain how the youth is so gleefully into Satan and is perhaps too much set-up for a relatively simple gag. Ends up being more mean spirited than fun at times but has enough twists to stay entertaining and an explanation that is nicely implied rather than paraded. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
219. The Cleanse (2016, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Slow going and eccentric character drama with surreal elements that's more frank about our view of imperfections and romantic than scary but does have a sinister undercurrent. Elements of metaphor and a plot that's very novel slow burn well while also offering odd payoffs along the way and left me feeling like there was more to analyze within the film. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
220. Trench 11 (2017, 90 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Grisly cool premise is draped with wandering soldiers and ranting nazi scientists. It's either worthy for going beyond it's lurid premise to stage a film, or disappointment it does not more fully embrace this gimmick. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
221. The Rake (2018, 79 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Great intro scene and creepy pasta based plot that uses heavy themes like abortion and mental illness as window dressing. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
222. Blood Fest (2018, 92 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Well paced spectacular horror homage like a thrill ride but with some elements of over explanation to literally try to get us to buy into things like zombies and vampires in the film (some things are better left unexplained). Action packed with some nice twists, reuses some of the horror rules' that we've seen before in Scream. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
223a. Room on the Broom (2012, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
223b. Curious Creations of Christine McConnell [S1E1] (2018, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
223c. The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror XX [S21E4] (2009, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
224. Happy Hunting (2017, 91 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Idyllic meth biker wasteland updates Most Dangerous Game artfully, there aren't a lot of likeable characters but they're handled with enough weight and gravitas that their clash across the dessert is tense. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
November 1 [before dusk] [Comedy Crossover Theme Night] (2 hours, 47 minutes watched)
225. Slime City (1988, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Strange lo-fi body horror about toxic wine induced flesh melting bloodshed mashing together werewolf style on and off again transformation, strange conspiracies, and the most epic dismemberment ever in a hypnotic half bad half genius gimmick. Format: Blu-ray. 1st Viewing Theme
226. Deathgasm (2015, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Fun metal with hit or miss humor that's more consistently effective than average - sort of a bro comedy with a fun metal vibe but too much bro although it does deliver on zombie/demon carnage. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
Checklist [COMPLETED MINIMUMS]:
Theme Nights [COMPLETE] [31/31 Completed]:
Subset Films [COMPLETED][0/31 Completed]:
Undeadcow's "Going for 200" 2018 October Horror Movie Challenge Part Two
2017 List [197 films] | 2016 List [179 films] | 2015 List [179 films] | 2014 List [177 films] | 2013 List [163 films] | 2012 List [136 films] | 2011 List [116 films] | 2010 List [127 films] | 2009 List [108 films]
2017 List [197 films] | 2016 List [179 films] | 2015 List [179 films] | 2014 List [177 films] | 2013 List [163 films] | 2012 List [136 films] | 2011 List [116 films] | 2010 List [127 films] | 2009 List [108 films]
Part One is here: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/13400451-post26.html
October 24 [Werewolf Theme Night] (9 hours, 6 minutes watched)
1-168. [See first part]
...
169. Silver Bullet (1985, 95 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ The 'small town vibe' and narration works well as a hook into the lives of our child heroes, the same sort of feel that Stand By Me had in spades. If more films want to use the 'giallo style' killer's perspective shots that's fine with me. There are times the film seems less interesting when it reverts back to horror staples mid-movie, slightly updated redneck style. Some of the camera panning and angles are especially artful and I like the reveal twist. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme Subset
170. Wolf Guy (1975, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ 'Werewolf movie without werewolves' had everything to political conspiracy, rape revenge, telekinesis, and gang/mob thriller elements that never fails to entertain but is all over the place. The kill scenes are especially oddball and there's some gory surgery in a film more about style than content. It's like a strange amalgam of 70s Japanese cinema. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
171. Lycan (2017, 88 minutes) ★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰✰ College kids go camping in 'werewolf country,' with lukewarm acting and attempts at mystery taking the formulaic slasher approach to werewolves, secret killer hiding in the woods offing victims often cutting to show some close up bodily carnage so the kills as neutered and the film is mostly kids anxious in the woods, Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
172. Dave Made a Maze (2017, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★★✰✰ The idea of a 'god' who gets lost in his creation is ripe for interpretation and it's a potentially heavy metaphor for how we construct our own reality but DMaM never gets preachy or too metaphysical with it, just leaving the premise at our feet and getting 'wtf' weird. While subtle this might be the most accessible but deep movie in recent memory. Imagery is deliciously cartoonish and practical cardboard effects everywhere are top notch. I love the confetti / silly string blood splatter, that alone could have been the film and it would have been worth seeing. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Subset
173. Cat People (1986, 119 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Takes a classic and turns it into long winder pseudo-mystical sleaze where we watch Nastassja Kinski work at the zoo gift shop for half the movies before spending the next half naked in a premise that makes little sense but does so accompanied by a cool David Bowie theme song and bittersweet melancholy. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
174. The Devil Lives Here (2015, 77 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Indie film with spotty production, you can tell something evil is happening when the video starts flashing or getting heavily edited. Despite limitations it's non-stop enough with frequent twists that I enjoyed it opening with kids jammed then an elaborate campfire style tale, home invasion, basket face, and perhaps the supernatural. Some of the plot is hammy (The Honey Baron) but because there's so much stuff works. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
October 25 [Video Nasties Theme Night] (9 hours, 50 minutes watched)
175. Driller Killer (1979, 96 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Weaves together music/sound and slow burn angst across a New York cityscape, more artist than and moody than scary or slashery but with a fascinating rhythm that uses random murder as a chorus. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
176. Anthropophagous (1980, 90 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Antsropdoagus was a tease, it held suspense better than other movies where nothing happens for so long at least before it’s nonsensical conclusion. Some great foreboding and comical odd supernatural tangents. Cool use of killer point of view and occasionally artful compositions. Format: Digital [thanks to Alyxstarr]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
177. City of the Living Dead (1980, 93 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Fulci's metaphysical zombies are too fleeting in his overly mystic plot sending a fragmented array of characters overly dedicated to understanding and stopping Fulci's gateway to hell by dead priest and Book of Enoch mythology. There's some great color scheme and imagery but it plays like a parody of gothic horror filled with non sequiturs and under cooked culminating in a horrible ending. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
178. R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly (2008, 93 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ It's hard to rate kids' programming but I didn't feel like MG had the enduring quality of cartoon and was overlong for the plot. The ghoul is nicely fiendish and there is a cool underdog plot. Disposable film but considering limited family friendly offerings not a waste. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
179. A Bay of Blood [English Cut, Tim Lucas Commentary] (2008, 93 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Commentary on the commentary - Lucas gives overly detailed background on the many actors, there is are some golden tidbits and he does more than narrate. Information on some of the filming effects, transitions, set design, and actor/director comments add value to the film and understanding of cinema. I remember BoB to be a parade of spectacular deaths & it doesn't disappoint, but there's not as much character development so it works well with commentary. Format: Blu-ray [Arrow UK]. 1st Viewing [of commentary] Theme
180. Ban the Sadist Videos! [Parts 1&2] (2005, 94 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Video store time capsule that explains the inception of home media leading to reduction in public censorship and corresponding moral crusade. Talking heads everywhere intersected by clips of the films or news in reference over infectious beats. The documentary is biased against censorship but offers some insight into the historical climate of video nasties. Format: DVD [packaged with Severin's House of Straw Hill blu]. 1st Viewing Theme
October 26 [Frankenstein / Mad Scientists Theme Night] (4 hours, 26 minutes watched)
181. Dr. Caligari (1989, 80 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Epic Visuals melding in a surreal and exciting way with oddly dystopian elements that detract from it. In an arena of camp it's hard to be critical of performance but some of the actors were so stilted even if thematic/intentional it detracted from the experience. If the film had been silent it might even have been better and the namesake expressionistic elements are a highlight, as is the overall theme that slowburns from wtf weirdness to more challenging thoughtfulness. I would be down for more tongue wall and forehead syringes but less talking for much of DC. Format: Digital [thanks to Alyxstarr]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
182. Upgrade (2018, 100 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Stylish action thriller with some predictable elements but a cool premise and plot that reminds me of other psychedelic body horror movies handled her with more mundane crime drama elements and less gross out. A splattery modern neon lit sync score action thriller. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme?
183. Frankenstein's Army (2013, 86 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Second viewing showed more of the rubbery defects of the creatures, and while plagued with shaky cam I still feel like FA is more relentlessly creative than many horror offerings even if it's slow going and offers perhaps too little of the terrors. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
October 27 [Fangoria / USA Up All Night Featured Theme Night] (8 hours, 22 minutes watched)
184. Maximum Overdrive (1986, 98 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Truck theme gives some great road carnage and sense of chase, it slyly lampoons the 'stranded against horrors' conventions we've seen with films like Night if the Living Dead while also being terrifying in its own. I love the blue collar emphasis here & 'truck stop at the end if the world' image is top notch. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme Subset
185. #FromJennifer (2017, 80 minutes) ★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Well marketed film caught my eye on release last year, but despite a cool image of a woman and a giant the film really goes nowhere. Derek Means may be hulking but he can't act and spoils many of his scenes as a wide eyes simpleton. Attempts at being meta fall flat and character motives ultimately make little sense, many 'twists' are just characters acting in implausible irrational ways.Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
186. The Sleeping Room (2014, 78 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Everything ties together too conveniently about a surprisingly wholesome call girl who conveniently stumbles on a dark family secret that makes little sense and should not play out like it does, which is too conveniently self contained. The type of film that only 'works; if you adopt a radically different interpretation than is on screen (like everyone might be insane) begging much forgiveness for some ok tension later on. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
187. The Halloween Tree (1993, 69 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Classically animated take of youths who meet a ghoul that shows them some history behind their costumes. It's like a strange history channel gothic cartoon. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
188. Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922, 91 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Interesting relic with some too infrequent world class practical effect imagery and a nicely dated view of mental health. The pseudo-scientific sometimes seems long winded. Format: Digital [Vudu HD].
189. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Stylish and well shot with homages to the original that get old quickly and prevent the remake from really shining as it's own film (for example when an epic murder is bloodspurting everywhere and there's an excerpt of the original film). Remake > original here and this one is bloodier and better paced. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
October 28 [Supernatural Theme Night] (10 hours, 56 minutes watched)
190. Marrowbone (2017, 111 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Slow going with an emotional gut punch but some elements like their father or some odd choices from Tom and Allie that are so distracting they nearly consume the film's better elements. Scenic but indulges in some plot devices that are my least favorite. Format: Digital [Hulu]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
191. Suddenly In the Dark (1981, 111 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Color bathed kaleidoscope shots and screaming housewives - not as lurid or far out as I suspected but a paranoid slow burn with elements of Poe and some artful direction in a tale of jealousy and revenge. It's the type gleefully persistent irony that we might see in the Twilight Zone and has a familiar feel of victims so sure of their terrors and so doubted by the world but also uniquely Korean in ambiguous haunts through the last frame creating an image that is unforgettable. Format: Blu-ray [Mondo Macabro limited red case] . 1st Viewing Theme
192. The Atoning (2017, 89 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Minimalist ghost story that does little original but I really enjoyed, it's abstract and there are some cool looking demon creatures. It's a melancholy film with few characters. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
193. I Am A Ghost (2012, 76 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ Unusual movie from the ghost's point of view that artfully uses repetitions to weave a strange tales about that which haunts a ghost. I enjoyed this on a second viewing, and there is an annoying twist that I found less annoying now. Odd structure without obvious beginning or ending, emphasis on arthouse.Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
194. Ben (1972, 94 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Direct continuation from Willard that ups the rat quotient and adds a syrupy theme song, the rats never take on an evil presence outside of being rats so unless you're disposed to fearing rats the humans response is so disproportionate - which is maybe the point. Elements of 'so bad it's good' cinema. Watched it with the kids and they seemed to enjoy it, although as a parent I felt guarded about some of the oddly cruel human response to rats (as the kids have pet rats). Format: Blu-ray. 1st Viewing
195. Hellmouth (2014, 95 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Styilzed black and white film with splashes of color and an overly digital feel, like the Sin City films. The effects are sometimes great and occasionally dredge up CGI that looks like it was tossed out of a PS2 game. Not especially frightening but relentlessly fantastic, out hero does little but enjoy the ride - never seeming in control or even intention about whatever happens but often somehow mastering it in a tension less stroll through the damned. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
196. Sweet Home (2015, 80 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Tense home invasion film with twists that rocket it along. Watched this again with my wife who correctly pointed out more of the plot holes than impacted by first viewing. It's one of the better recent home invasion films, which isn't saying much, and has a gritty obnoxiously critical theme that would do better to not preach about economics of rent control and stick to the literal face smashing imagery. Format: Digital [Netflix].
October 29 [Mind Games Theme Night] (14 hours, 42 minutes watched)
197. Brainscan (1994, 96 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ There's something very sly and meta about the film lampooning the all too often political refrain of violence in entertainment really equating to violence in reality. Brainscan is often so 'on the nose' with the worse sort of stereotypes about 'kids today.' It's like the kind of film some youth pastor wrote as a cautionary tale but goes into it with gleeful abandon playing on these social concerns in an insidious way beyond the obvious setup, more tongue in cheek revealing in horror rather than cautioning against it. I enjoyed The Trickster character and the wtf first person 'game' aspects. Format: Blu-ray. Theme Subset
198. Almost Mercy (2015, 85 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Gleeful murder picture with a well developed but obnoxious antihero narrator and a self righteous spite towards cartoonish extremes in apple pie american lifestyle. It borders on flaunting bad taste with a tale of alienation that gets credit for only hinting at the molestation under the service but reveling in overexaggerated small town america weaknesses like plastic surgery and consumer debt. Format: Digital [Amazon Prime]. 1st Viewing
199. Warlock (1989, 103 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Adventure cheese filled with mysticism as a coonskin clothed time traveler chases a fashion challenged warlock. Not 'so bad it's good' and not scary but existing in the middle ground of mindless television escapism, the kind of dreck work having on in the background but not offering much to demand your full attention. Format: Blu-ray.
200. Satan's Slaves (2017, 107 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Dark film that extorts the sort of long haired ghost imagery we've seen before to tell of a lurid family history where revised magazine articles play a key role in exposition. It crescendos well into a rainy multifaceted conclusion as one of the better supernatural offerings of late. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing
201. Stephanie (2016, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Especially well paced story with an amazingly morphing structure - the sort of cryptic film that keeps you guessing but ultimately doesn't hold back on the payoff. I loved the premise of it, and cannot think of any other film like it. I think the 'problem' with marathoning horror movies is that it can sometimes highlight how stale conventions are or repetitively cloned some movies are. Stephanie was a good antidote for that. The child lead actress did a good job. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
202. The Ritual (2017, 94 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Strange tale with fantastic imagery capitalizing on grief in the woods twisting haunted forest tropes into something much more far out and wonderfully unique to a let down ending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
203. Gerald's Game (2017, 103 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ Brilliantly draws out a shameless and corny molestation subplot with glorious imagery and tone perhaps tying everything together too neatly; well paced with much creativity and an un-necessary tacked on extended ending. Takes a simple premise and and rocks things along in an engaging way well beyond the stage benefiting from microscope character psychology. Format: Digital [Netflix 4K]. 1st Viewing Theme
204. The Night of the Virgin (2017, 100 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ Odd body horror movie with a strange mythos combining lukewarm sex comedy with absurd body horror, there's some nice splatter and despite being stupid NotV carries itself more seriously thank the plot deserved - for example there's a a pivotal plot point where a character orgasms on pair of panties and an ongoing 'joke' where the lead insists he's not a virgin. Format: Digital [Shudder].1st Viewing
205. Predators (2010, 108 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Paper thin characters parade around a film with too many 'plot twists' and too little Predator. Adrian Brody is not a Schwartzeneggar and unintentionally funny at times. Loses points for so spectacularly failing what should be a safe bet in Predator mythos introducing predator dogs and warring predators when it's not more concerned with dull human evil. Format: Digital [FandangoNow 4K].
October 30 [Demonic Theme Night] (12 hours, 0 minutes watched)
206. A Dark Song (2016, 100 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Intense student teacher occult drama with an undercurrent of mental control and ambiguous supernatural hints enriched by detailed set design cascading along with a deafening silence of a mother's grief. Poetic in being so pointless but so tense and somber. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
207. Along Came the Devil (2018, 89 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Vanilla exorcism film with some cringeworthy acting and the same sort of demonic schlock we've seen better elsewhere to the point some key scenes are blunted, but it does have a better than average ending twist. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
208. Demon Wind (1990, 96 minutes) ★★★★✰✰✰✰✰✰ So bad it's good metaphysical demon splatter where the evil swarms and is ever present with his awkward taunting and prosthetic effcts. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme Subset
209. Hellraiser: Judgement (2018, 81 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Gorey with little setup and the evolution of Pinhead to some sort of narrator of horrors rather than a surreal fiend is unfortunate. Some of the Hellraiser sequels are a guilty pleasure of mine and this one is an improvement over the last few even if Doug Bradley couldn't reprise his Pinhead role (since Pinhead is window dressing now anyway). Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
210. The Witch in the Window (2018, 77 minutes) ★★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Creepy witch drama about father and son bonding and the bittersweet of family life that is much more effective than I could ever make it sound. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme
211. Dead Shack (2018, 77 minutes) ★★★★½✰✰✰✰✰ Juvenile humor distracts from a drunken family drama style zombie mash about a vacation in the woods ruined by a femme fatale who care takers for some zombies luring/catching people for them, kids in football gear vs the undead. Format: Digital [Shudder]. 1st Viewing Theme
212. Final Prayer (2013, 89 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Found footage style film about odd events at a church, competently executed with a premise that was up my alley but overall not especially original waiting for the payoff. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
213. They Found Hell (2015, 87 minutes) ★★★½✰✰✰✰✰✰ Wastes no time getting to it's CGI infested underworld with horrible actors populating thin characters; it works in a 'made for tv' movie sort of way watching disposable characters ham their way around a grand underworld and some of the effects are better done. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
214. The Witches (1990, 93 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ A classic with outstanding practical special effects. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
215. Apartment 212 (2017, 97 minutes) ★★★★★★½✰✰✰ An isolated woman leaving an abusive relationship moves into an increasingly less subtle apartment dilemma, it's got some fun indie music and the lead is a competent actress but a times too slow. Better than average indie fare but not sure how it will stand to repeat viewings once the mystery of it is out - a mysterious which is nicely executed in a witty and original manner. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
October 31 [Halloween Theme Night] (13 hours, 10 minutes watched)
216. Bride of Chucky (1998, 97 minutes) ★★★★★✰✰✰✰✰ Stylishly directed with a clever premise but it doesn't really make use of with a plot that emphasizes Chucky being anatomically correct more than it does horror/tension, most of the jokes are more cutesy set dressing than funny. Format: Digital [Vudu HD].
217. Fear Inc (2016, 90 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ A 'custom scares' event that may or may not be real. The less you know going in the better it is. Intense without being especially bloody and there are some nice horror references. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
218. Satan's Little Helper (2004, 96 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Clever premise with some awkward execution to explain how the youth is so gleefully into Satan and is perhaps too much set-up for a relatively simple gag. Ends up being more mean spirited than fun at times but has enough twists to stay entertaining and an explanation that is nicely implied rather than paraded. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
219. The Cleanse (2016, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★½✰✰ Slow going and eccentric character drama with surreal elements that's more frank about our view of imperfections and romantic than scary but does have a sinister undercurrent. Elements of metaphor and a plot that's very novel slow burn well while also offering odd payoffs along the way and left me feeling like there was more to analyze within the film. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
220. Trench 11 (2017, 90 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Grisly cool premise is draped with wandering soldiers and ranting nazi scientists. It's either worthy for going beyond it's lurid premise to stage a film, or disappointment it does not more fully embrace this gimmick. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
221. The Rake (2018, 79 minutes) ★★★★★½✰✰✰✰ Great intro scene and creepy pasta based plot that uses heavy themes like abortion and mental illness as window dressing. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
222. Blood Fest (2018, 92 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Well paced spectacular horror homage like a thrill ride but with some elements of over explanation to literally try to get us to buy into things like zombies and vampires in the film (some things are better left unexplained). Action packed with some nice twists, reuses some of the horror rules' that we've seen before in Scream. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing Theme
223a. Room on the Broom (2012, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
223b. Curious Creations of Christine McConnell [S1E1] (2018, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Netflix]. 1st Viewing
223c. The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror XX [S21E4] (2009, 26 minutes) ★✰ Pending. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
224. Happy Hunting (2017, 91 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Idyllic meth biker wasteland updates Most Dangerous Game artfully, there aren't a lot of likeable characters but they're handled with enough weight and gravitas that their clash across the dessert is tense. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. 1st Viewing
November 1 [before dusk] [Comedy Crossover Theme Night] (2 hours, 47 minutes watched)
225. Slime City (1988, 81 minutes) ★★★★★★★✰✰✰ Strange lo-fi body horror about toxic wine induced flesh melting bloodshed mashing together werewolf style on and off again transformation, strange conspiracies, and the most epic dismemberment ever in a hypnotic half bad half genius gimmick. Format: Blu-ray. 1st Viewing Theme
226. Deathgasm (2015, 86 minutes) ★★★★★★✰✰✰✰ Fun metal with hit or miss humor that's more consistently effective than average - sort of a bro comedy with a fun metal vibe but too much bro although it does deliver on zombie/demon carnage. Format: Digital [Vudu HD]. Theme
Checklist [COMPLETED MINIMUMS]:
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Theme Nights [COMPLETE] [31/31 Completed]:
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Subset Films [COMPLETED][0/31 Completed]:
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Last edited by Undeadcow; 11-08-18 at 02:02 PM.
