October Horror Movie Marathon

[Inspector Abberline]

The Twilight Zone. Eye of the Beholder.
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While it is a great episode,you don't have to be a genius to guess how it will all turn out in the end,and while the main character is in bandages at first,and the rest of the cast are shrouded in darkness and only seen from behind or in silhouette,so we know that things are gonna go a skew. Again the tone of the episode takes a moralistic high ground,as we are supposed to re-think what society deems as ugly or attractive,well don't tell me tell those idiots who watch Love Island...Well The Eye of the Beholder is pretty much held in high regard as one of the best Zone episodes ever,but I think its all to obvious,and there are plenty of more cleverer and to be honest more fun episodes in the Zone's cannon.Still the makeup effects are very effective although they do get re-used slightly for the episode The Masks in season five.

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The Hole (2009).
I must admit this one passed me by when it first came out,I think it was originally released as a 3-D movie,and since I have no interest in the gimmick of 3-D then I more likely just dismissed it on its release.Also it sort of by passed me that this was also a Joe Dante flick,so again my bad.A newly arrived family from Brooklyn,find a trap door in the basement of there new house in Bensenville,one which seemingly has no bottom to it.The two brothers and the girl next door,soon start to see things,which are all related to there own personal fears and have some connection with the hole in the basement.While its all fairly PG-rated stuff Dante manages to crowbar in all sorts of influences from J-Horror to murderous puppets to German Expressionism cinema.It doesn't feel like the usual Dante fodder at all but just to reassure us he does wheel out Bruce Dern and Dick Miller,just in case we forgot who is directing.

[Demoncrat]

Ever seen his Eerie, Indiana series Inspector? I would say The Hole is totally in keeping with the rest of his stuff.

Currently watching an Aussie portmanteau. A Night Of Horror Volume I (2015, various) A bit hit & miss but some decent (and bafflingly arty ) segments so far ....

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 21st

Prince of Darkness (1987)

A team of scientists lead by Victor Wong and priest Donald Pleasence enter an old LA church to investigate a large strange cannister of swirling fluids which is supposed to be a doorway for the Devil to return to the Earth. The church is watched over by a sect known as the Brotherhood of Sleep lead by a disturbingly creepy Alice Cooper.

Director John Carpenter creates an interesting premise with Prince of Darkness, that of science and computers vs folklore and superstition in fact it's all quite Nigel Kneale like when you think about it, with added Assault on Precinct 13 thanks to the group not being able to escape due to Alice and his cronies. Carpenter's always present score with it's deep base interludes maintain a constant level of creepiness throughout.

The Rezort (2015)

The British zombie movie is alive and kicking thanks to this Steve Barker of Outpost (2008) fame.

Barker's film isn't exactly original as it borrows heavily from Jurassic Park and adds zombies. A hell of a lot of zombies. This could easily be seen as a sequel to Romero's original Dead trilogy.

After a long war between humans and zombies in which the humans win, the zombies are all carted off to a secure island where they are hunted for sport. The first half hour explains the hows and whys and shows us INGEN style why the island compounds are impenetrable and perfectly safe for our holidaying hunters, except of course things go wrong and we watch as one hunting party led by Dougray Scott and Arrow's Jessica De Gouw attempt to flee the island before the authorities fire bomb it.

I have to admit that i really enjoyed The Rezort. It has a decent budget and great island locations. The cast are strong and the hunting party are all characters worth rooting for, even the at first seemingly annoying gamers who won the experience via an internet shoot em' up aren't as dumb as they first seem but are totally out of their depth when it comes to actually aiming and firing real weapons. Barker keeps the film moving once the initial exposition is over and thrusts us into some interesting 'will they, won't they' scenarios.

The Rezort is the best zombie film i've seen in a few years.

[bleakshaun]

Intruder
A group of people are on the nightshift at a supermarket. One of them gets abused by her ex boyfriend and then fights the staff. They kick him out and are.then told the store is shutting down. To make matters worse, someone is killing them off one at a time.
Ultimately this is a film of 2 halves, the 1st half starts off good, but for a while runs slowly however the 2nd half is where it picks up for the most part. Some good kills and appearances by both Sam and Ted Raimi. I'd say it's worth checking out.
7/10

Sent from my MediaPad T1 8.0 Pro using Tapatalk

[Demoncrat]

Satan's Slave (1976, NJW)

Catherine needs a rest. Sadly some family come to the rescue

I either hate this film or fall in love with it all over again. Warren struck a different path than Walker imho. There is something in the atmosphere in his films. Whereas Walker revels in human misery. Which is fine and dandy ... don't get me wrong. It might just be the music??

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 22nd

It Follows (2014)

Whereas most either love or hate this film i feel i'm in the odd position of finding it all rather average. The central plot of a young woman stalked by a supernatural entity following a sexual encounter was quite original as was the idea the entity walked continuously to find her whilst occupying different bodies on the way. A scenario that gave us a couple of mildly gripping set pieces.

However i did feel the film kept covering the same ground. The chills were all provided by the same 'it's here' moments and quite a lot didn't really make sense.

For example a bullet to the head whilst at the beach and the entity just got up and carried on in it's quest, yet in the finale at the swimming pool another bullet to the head stopped it dead in it's tracks filling the pool with blood. The final shot is also very ambiguous. As it shows our heroine walking down the street with a second figure walking some way behind. If this was to imply the thing was still after her then why did it not continue doing so at the pool?

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Christopher Lee's second donning of the Count's cape isn't as good as Dracula (1958) but is still a fine film in it's own right. It can be argued that Andrew Keir's monk is no substitute for Peter Cushing's Van Helsing and also that Dracula doesn't utter a single word.

However despite this Christopher Lee is excellent as Dracula and the film remains a favourite of mine due to two harrowing set pieces - the bloody resurrection of Dracula and the staking of Barbara Shelley.

[Justin101]

Don't Torture A Duckling (1972)



I watched Arrow's new disc last night which looks great. I bought this from Anchor Bay on VHS when I visited America with my family about 20 years ago. I was disappointed when I first saw it as it wasn't as gory and pulpy as The Beyond and The City of the Living Dead and I haven't seen it since, the VHS long gone.
Giving this a second airing as an adult who's seen some films since 1997 I was absolutely blown away. This and A Lizard in a Women's Skin have got to be Fulci's finest. Highly recommended!

[Inspector Abberline]

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"The Twilight Zone" The Chaser.

Like most anthology tv shows,you always get the odd frothy light weight comedy story just even out all the weirdness that has preceded it,and the Twilight Zone was no different.In the episode The Chaser,love sick sap Mr. Roger Shackelforth. Age: youthful twenties. Occupation: being in love,has fallen for Leila,but does not seem that interested.After being kicked off a public phone he was hogging,a gentleman upon hearing his plight gives him a calling card for a man who can help him with his problem.The man in question is A. Daemon...He sell's Shackelforth a love potion for a single $1,which he has to give to Leila,the potion that is not the dollar...Its a nicely done story but it feels a bit hurried and could of been longer than its 20 odd mins running time.Of course you can have too much of a good thing as our hero finds out as Leila becomes obsessed with him,so off he goes back to the old man who sold him the love potion.Now here it gets a bit odd,Shackelforth is offered a glove cleaner,now I kind of assumed that was to reverse the love potion,but apparently I also read that this is a poison,which seems abit harsh considering this was his doing in the first place.Also shrewdly the old man sells this for a $1000 dollars,obviously knowing the customer will return to reverse the original potion.A nice fun episode that shows how diverse the writing on the series was.

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Death Curse of Tartu (1966)
An ancient Indian medicine man returns from the dead to kill a bunch of of people..Im not up on my history or geography of America,but where there native Americans in the Everglades..??? I suppose there must of been,I mean films wouldn't lie would they??? Any how William Grefé gives us a dose of low budget grind house nonsense that makes Herschell Gorgon Lewis look like David Lean.That said I do love the 1960's feel of any low budget film,especially those that came out of the South and those exploitation movies made in Florida. Tartu does take a while to get going,at the start we get a lot of footage of an archeologist hacking his way through the everglades,while being followed by a snake,(this could constitute as the slowest chase scene ever filmed). When the snake does eventually pounce ,(well thrown at the actor would be a more accurate description) the fight that ensues would not be out of place in an Ed Wood movie. If you can stay awake long enough,there's plenty of fun to be had especially when Tartu starts shuffling about.Although im sort of concerned when one of the characters shouts "snakes won't hurt ya"...umm yes they will,just ask the poor bugger at the start of the film.

[Justin101]

Child's Play 2 (1990)



Pretty good sequel all said, not as successful as the original but one which finds Chucky becoming a little more campy with his one-liners which isn't a bad thing. Andy, now in a foster home with 'teen rebel' Kyle is terrorised by the re-animated Charles Lee Ray who is more desperate than ever to escape the plastic confines of Chucky and transport his soul into the boy!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

October 23rd

Pay the Ghost (2015)

Nic Cage's main problem is he can go over the top with his histrionics however he reels it all in for Pay the Ghost and is rather subdued. In fact the film as a whole is rather subdued. It's a slow burner and the first half hour is all in the acting hands of Cage and co-star Sarah Wayne Callies whom i expect many of you know from The Walking Dead. Playing out as a mystery about missing children it then takes a left turn at the half way point as elements of the supernatural and the Celtic festival of Samhain begin to take precedence, which made the film a more interesting proposition.

Thankfully Pay the Ghost isn't the usual FX fest riddled with musical jump scares, the CGI is kept to a minimum and really only comes in towards the end but it brings a nightmare scenario to life rather than anything else.

I enjoyed Pay the Ghost second time round just as much as the first. The Halloween mythology ensures it will get many more viewings over forthcoming October horrorfests.