October Horror Movie Marathon

[Inspector Abberline]

Starting with two crazy old men, fueled by anti antisemitism and a heatwave engage in a bit of road rage which ends with them both driving into a petrol tanker and being engulfed by flames.Thus begins a strange tale of Nazi's trafficking in diamonds,American espionage and a bit of torture on Dustin Hoffmans gnashers. Laurence Olivier as Dr. Christian Szell is an evil figure and does nothing for the dentistry trade,but he is nowhere near as evil as Gregory Peck in The Boys From Brazil,which is another twisted tale of Nazi's and this time cloning.With some marvelous supporting roles from Roy Scheider and William Devane its a dark twisted thriller with some nice moments of duplicity and paranoia that reminds one of the Parallax View.Hoffman again plays the nerd who turns the tables on his persecutor's.

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[Demoncrat]

"Is it safe??"

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 15th

Trick or Treat (1986)

Although it's a bit of a rip off of Phantom of the Paradise (1974), De Palma didn't have Ozzy Osbourne as an evangelical preacher or Gene Simmons, excellent here as a local radio DJ, in his film

OTT in all the right places, Trick or Treat is a blast from start to finish as a young fan (Marc Price) brings recently deceased rock god Sammi Curr (a malevolent Tony Field) back to life at the high school Halloween dance with catastrophic results when Simmons gives him an acetate of Curr's final recordings. (Yeah right! You can tell this film is far fetched. Simmons wouldn't give anything away)

Wildly entertaining, this high school horror film featuring an killer soundtrack from 80's metal band Fastway should be near the top of any rock n' rollers Halloween viewing.

So Long at the Fair (1950)

The 1889 Paris Exposition serves as the backdrop for this eerie mystery, in which English tourist Jean Simmons (No, not the one from Trick or Treat) and her brother, David Tomlinson, visit the fair and retire to their separate hotel rooms for the night. Simmons arises the next day to discover her brother missing, a hotel full of staff who swear they've never heard of him and most oddly, his room is no longer there.

So Long at the Fair is a classy British mystery directed by a pre-Hammer Terence Fisher who gives the whole thing an extremely paranoid feel, very much them - the foreigners - and us - The British abroad. It's all quite slick and nicely paced. Simmons does well with the whole 'Am i losing my mind' approach and Dirk Bogarde is stoically heroic as the only person who believes her. Whilst the film isn't a horror by any stretch of the imagination it's certainly a dark thriller and the finale is wonderfully macabre.

[Inspector Abberline]

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Burgess Meredith is a very very hen pecked husband and put upon bank clerk,and what is his crime that gives him so much torment from other people..Well he is a reader,yes he cannot get enough of the written word,yet he never seems to have the time to read anything,especially since his wife has banned him from reading.WTF...???. Any how one day he sneaks off to do a bit of elicit reading in the banks vault,only for nuclearwar to happen while he is locked in the vault..(I hate it when that happens)..Scrambling out amongst the ruins He realises that he is now alone,and upon finding a gun he decides to shoot himself but seeing the remains of the library and all the books scattered around ,he now knows he has plenty of time to read to his hearts content...Its a simple tale and with a very economic cast and setting,but its an effective little story and Burgess Meredith is as usual top notch...

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Seedy priest played by Anthony Sharp has the hots for Susan Penhaligon (hey who hasn't) Not only that but Sharp is stark raving mad psychopath.Sharp plays the role perfectly as the ultra conservative priest who harbors these deep seated lustful thought's.The only person more madder than Sharp is his house keeper played by Walker regular Sheila Keith,who is really evil and certainly not a member of Help the Aged.The film does raise a few issues especially things like how the Catholic Church deals with abortion and celibacy within the priesthood.But seeing as this is a Pete Walker film I don't think were meant to take any of this to seriously,especially as you have a priest who bashes peoples heads in with incense and strangles women with a rosary.I sometimes find Walkers directorial style at times a bit pedestrian,but I think Anthony Sharp really carries the film and gives it some much needed class, if that is at all possible...

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 16th

Demons of the Mind (1972)

One of Hammers more atypical delights, about a 19th century Baron, - a delightfully hammy Robert Hardy, - who keeps his adult son and daughter locked up in his Bavarian mansion convinced they are tainted with the family curse of insanity.

Beautifully filmed at a Gothic mansion, Demons of the Mind is a censor baiting masterpiece full of sexual and sadistic neurosis including the bleeding of the lovely Gillian Hills (Beat Girl) in a scene which always makes me cringe as well as a horrific throat and wrist slashing shown several times in the Baron's fever dreams.

The addition of Patrick Magee as the family doctor gives the film a culture clash of psychoanalysis and the usual folklore and superstition (If MTDS wants to see villagers on the march then this should be his first stop). The film is ambiguous in nature and at times a difficult watch. Lacking the usual vampires or Frankenstein monster types, for much of the film it's difficult to tell exactly who is the villain of the piece or if indeed there is one or is the whole thing just mental oppression and the sins of the father whilst tainted by supernatural exploitation.

I suppose if i was to suggest a double bill for this film it would be Witchfinder General as both films are grim as hell and finish with a hysterical freeze frame of a woman screaming, in the first case Hilary Dwyer and in this case Hills. An apt description of Demons of the Mind is of "Dreams of sexual fear suppressed through guilt." or at least that's what Magee's Dr. Falkenberg says, so who am i to disagree.

[Justin101]

My October Marathon isn't going very well, I've been too busy to watch films every night I watched Wrestlemaniac on Sunday which was enjoyable rubbish about a lobotomised Mexican Wrestler thinking that his real life is a match he has to win, picking off a troupe of 'porno' makers after they discover his town! Tits 'n Ass 'n Blood for 75 mins and some woeful acting Good fun

And that's it, 2 days and no movies... I skipped a few days last week as well, so now I've changed my goal posts and I'm just going to watch as many as I can, and if I can't so be it.

Planning Halloween III and Trick R Treat close to the actual night though. Possibly a virgin viewing of Zombie's Halloween if it arrives in good time from Music Magpie!

[bleakshaun]

Originally Posted by Justin101

My October Marathon isn't going very well, I've been too busy to watch films every night I watched Wrestlemaniac on Sunday which was enjoyable rubbish about a lobotomised Mexican Wrestler thinking that his real life is a match he has to win, picking off a troupe of 'porno' makers after they discover his town! Tits 'n Ass 'n Blood for 75 mins and some woeful acting Good fun

And that's it, 2 days and no movies... I skipped a few days last week as well, so now I've changed my goal posts and I'm just going to watch as many as I can, and if I can't so be it.

Planning Halloween III and Trick R Treat close to the actual night though. Possibly a virgin viewing of Zombie's Halloween if it arrives in good time from Music Magpie!

I know the feeling mate, I'm just too tired after work

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 17th

The Hollow (2004)

Coming some five years after the similarly named Sleepy Hollow this had to be something a bit different to stand any chance of being remembered. So using the general ideas from Washington Irvine's story and bringing them kicking and screaming into the modern day works well, sort of.

The story involves a high school student (Kevin Zegers) and his discovery that he's a descendant of the legendary Ichabod Crane from Irvine's story and the newly resurrected Headless Horseman has come back from the dead once more to collect his head.

A teen high school movie was never going to grab me like Tim Burton's Gothic classic did but thanks to some likable characters - Zegers does really well in the lead role and Kaley Cuoco always seems like someone you could talk to (If anyone's interested she suits her cheerleader outfit quite nicely) meaning you have a couple of leads to root for rather than wish dead from the opening minutes. The film also benefits from a couple of veteran stars namely Stacy Keach and Judge Reinhold who both have significant screen time, especially Keach.

The Hollow is probably too much of a teen movie early doors to be viewed as any sort of essential Halloween viewing but as it progresses and we go on a haunted hay ride things take a turn for the creepy and Halloween traditions and Irvine's story are carefully examined.

As for the headless horseman? Well there's no real comparison to Tim Burton's brilliant thunder hoofed Headless Horseman and there's not much in the way of gore as the film was originally made for ABC's Family Channel (It was cut when shown) but everything has been re-inserted for this dvd including heads getting lopped off, brief nudity (with a literal idea of 'giving head') and gory remains.

[Inspector Abberline]

The Twilight Zone.Episode:Season 5, Episode 145 The Masks.
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Rich old businessman Jason Foster (Robert Keith),knows he is going to die very soon.But he has one last thing to do.To teach his money grabbing daughter and her husband and equally abhorrent children one last lesson about there true selves.A really wonderful and macabre episode that has an obvious ending but it is so well done and the makeup effects at the end are nicely done.

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Brain of Blood (1971)
When the producers of the Eddie Romero movies needed another along the same lines,it would be no surprise they would turn to Al Adamson and Sam Sherman,I mean who else of course..This is a truly bonkers movie.A dying middle eastern tyrant hire's a scientist to transplant his brain into a healthy body.So they put his body on ice and move him to another country.Well I say ice,they actually wrap him up in tin foil like he was a left over from Fuad Ramses party.Astonishingly there is some halve decent production values,especially in the laboratory and some of the brain transplant scenes.But don't worry things soon revert back to there usual ways.For instance why does a modern scientific lab (I use this term loosely of course) have a medieval dungeon as a basement..??? apart from having women chained up in it of course.Why have a midget for a nurse??. Also never send a child like monster to get a fresh body to do a brain transplant on because they always screw it up and damage the goods.Mediocrity and dullness soon take over and the last half hour seems to take an eternity as the cast traipse around the countryside while the mad scientist zaps his prey with a toy ray gun,Regina Carroll at least has the decency to get thrown off a cliff.The final shot is a brain freshly scoped out,and that's exactly how the audience is gonna feel.

[Nordicdusk]

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Bunch of assholes head to the country to meet one of the assholes parents coming to terms with his coming out of the closet and while on this journey of acceptance they decide to have a barn dance.

Holy F,IN shit this film is an absolute joke i hated every second of it so much so i couldnt even finish it. The acting is so bad the scenarios are just plain stupid and the sincringisted dancing was horrific where the hell did that come out of. Look at this shit



Maybe it got better towards the end but i just couldnt stomach anymore of it. There was a worse scene before the dance scene but i can't find a clip

All this film gave me was rage and a questioning of my own existance

0/10