October Horror Movie Marathon

[Justin101]

Just finished watching the new City of the Living Dead disc and it looks amazing!
The story is as crazy as ever, but loads of atmosphere and some very amusing dubbing choices, loved it haha.

Now I’m watching the 40 minute Stephen Thrower piece about the film.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Just finished watching the new City of the Living Dead disc and it looks amazing!
The story is as crazy as ever, but loads of atmosphere and some very amusing dubbing choices, loved it haha.

Now I’m watching the 40 minute Stephen Thrower piece about the film.

Hope he talks faster than he writes.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)

One of the lesser known Hammer horror films but one i really like. More melodrama than outright horror as it's Barre Lyndon stage play origins means it is rather talky. (One scene of chatter lasts a good eight minutes) However this means that the horror when it does take place is all the more thrilling.

Anton Diffring, best known for his sadistic Nazi roles in films such as Where Eagles Dare takes the lead with Christopher Lee in a main supporting role. It really should have been the other way round but for whatever reason in 1959 Lee wasn't seen by Hammer producers as a leading man, more their go-to monster guy. However even with Diffring and Lee present it's the lovely Hazel Court who steals the film from under their noses with a performance of grace and beauty.

The film springs one or two surprises which i won't mention here and looks superb with it's use of colour. It's tempting to say it looks Bava-esq, but as this was pre colour Bava maybe it was he who took inspiration from Hammer.

Recommended but with caution, because it isn't the most horrific of horrors.

[Gothmogxx]

The Last House on the Left 1972

One of the most important films in the history of horror. This film started off the careers of Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven. After this film, Sean Cunningham would later go on to direct Friday the 13th, which started the Slasher craze of the 80's. Halloween may often get cited as the first one (which isn't even true, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas plus many more) but the one which opened the floodgates was Friday the 13th. That particular franchise gave birth to one of the top icons of horror: Jason Voorhees.

Meanwhile Wes Craven, who also now had a career, went on to direct other films such as The Hills Have Eyes before saving the Slasher sub genre with A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy Krueger was born. He would later go on to make Scream, resulting in the birth of Ghostface and again giving the sub genre some life.

All of this stems from this film (which in turn was inspired by The Virgin Spring). Without The Last House on the Left, the genre as a whole would have looked very different. If Wes and Sean didn't get careers, which this film gave them, then we would have no Jason Voorhees, no Freddy Krueger and no Ghostface. We would also have no slasher sub genre as we know it today. Sure in that hypothetical scenario we still could have had something similar. Halloween would have still came out regardless and a successful imitator would have inevitably come along. But in 1980? Maybe a couple of years later in 1982? Would it be a one off film or a franchise? I'm going way off topic here but its fun to think about: could we have had a slasher genre starting in the mid 80's instead of the early 80's? Different villains: presumably mask wielding maniacs like Jason or wise cracking ghouls like Freddy but who would they have been? What would they have been? Would the genre have continued well into the 90's, only to die out by the end of the decade? Perhaps instead of Scream, Adam Green could have made Hatchet or something similar as he already did and people would have made it a smash hit at the box office, giving Victor Crowley the theatrical success he deserves as a slasher villain?

This is fun to ponder but anyway, back to Last House. I think the reason a film like this works so well is due to just how realistic it is. This, in fact especially more so today, is something which could easily happen in some part of the world. Krug and the others are a bit over the top and its clear this is Wes Cravens first film but I think that helps it. Alongside Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the documentary style way in which the film is shot helps the realism.

These truly are nasty people. What they put the two girls through is true horror. They get humiliated, raped, beat up, forced to have sex with each other, cut up and finally shot. As mentioned above this is far more terrifying than a lot of the more supernatural horror films out there because this could plausibly happen.

Now it is completely ridiculous how in the whole of the United States, the gang somehow end up right outside one of the girls houses when their car breaks down (this is less of a thing in Night Train Murders: that gang end are on a train which is already going to where the parents of their victims are waiting) but at least it gives the parents the opportunity to dish out revenge: and it is sweet to watch. Reminds me of Home Alone actually when the dad sets up some home-made traps. In fact a lot of his films remind me of Home Alone: The Carter family snaring Papa Jupiter in Hills Have Eyes and Nancy (in less the half an hour somehow) setting up various traps to get Freddy Apparently similar stuff happens in People Under the Stairs (I haven't seen it). Wes Craven should have directed Home Alone!

There was some ongoing storyline about the Collingwood's telephone: its working again after being fixed or something, which is mentioned a lot, then somehow its not working but "still dead". So was it ever fixed in the first place?

The police officers tend to annoy people as well: they do seem very out of place in such a dark film (maybe they should have been with the dumb cops in Halloween 5?) But its never really bothered me and some of the stuff makes me laugh. For me I think its good because it takes you out of the darker stuff for a bit, same with the music. But the music works both ways here, it can get goofy but at the same time its very grim when played against the brutal scenes.

I especially love how this sequence works: Not only do you have such a great score playing in the background which works perfectly for this whole scene, but look at them. She's just been horribly raped by Krug and even he and the other two look disgusted at what he's just done. When they shoot her they don't even laugh or smile: its gone way too far by that point and they just want to get out of the area. You can see why both Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth took some parts of the score for their own individual work: Cabin Fever and The Hateful Eight (the latter of which you can also see in the same link provided) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVl5rWfSOMY&t=1s

A masterpiece of true realistic horror (though not based on a true story like the film claims at the start) and one which set up the future the genre for the 80's and beyond. 10/10. Can't wait to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre tomorrow: another early 70's controversial film.

[MrBarlow]

Poltergeist 1982.

After moving into their new house, the Freeling family start to experience poltergeist activity.

This was one horror movie I saw when I was young and it creeped me out that I didn't go near the TV for a while. Directed by Tobe Hooper, the family is living in a new built area, its not like The Amityville House, something happened there but still buy it, halfway through the movie you understand how the Hauntings have started.

The suspense of the film is brilliantly done by the cast who seem genuinely terrified like it was real and the special effects with the investigator hallucinating, the staircase ghost and also the demon at the door.

[bleakshaun]

Ghost Ship
A salvage crew get offered a job to pick up an unknown liner, what they don't realise is that its haunted (woooooooooooo spooky )
Ach its alright just takes some time to get there unfortunately.

Sent from my PRA-LX1 using Tapatalk

[Paul Zombie]

The Long Hair of Death.

Helen Karnstein's mother is falsely accused of murder and being a witch and sentenced to death by burning and curses the town before she dies. And then Helen(Barbara Steele) gets chucked off a cliff into the river to stop her exposing the truth. afterwards, her younger sister Elizabeth gets taken in by Count humboldt and is forced to marry his evil son Kurt. but Barbara Steele later rises from the grave to avenge her mother.

From Anthony M Dawson who made that classic video nasty Cannibal Apocalypse comes this top notch gothic chiller in the style of Mario bava's Black Sunday. and although it is a little dragged out in parts, it has nice style with all the old Italian atmospheres in the creepy old dusty castle with all it's secret passage ways and crypts.

Barbara Steele gives another good performance too, and looks as beautiful as ever in her period costumes, and even giving her fans a couple of scenes of brief nudity as well.

another very good release from 88 films. and i give this highly entertaining film with Wicker Man type ending 86 out of 100.

[John Matrix]

Friday the 13th

7/10

No point in describing this, every man and his dug has seen the original Friday the 13th. Mrs Voorhes has some strength.



My Bloody Valentine


6/10

Decent holiday slasher that makes good use of a tumble dryer.



Candyman

7/10

Hadn't seen this one in years. Almost as good as I remember it. Virginia Madsen basically just smokes about 60 a day. Tony Todd is creepy as fu*k and no one who watched this as a child, unless a total mentalist, has ever had the bottle to say Candyman five times in front of a mirror.




Halloween, The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby still to watch for my Hallowen viewing.

[trebor8273]

Now watching interview with a vampire only seen it once years ago when it first came out.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

All Hallows' Eve (2013)

Decent portmanteau horror about a babysitter who decides to watch a video cassette that had been left in one of her charges Halloween goodie bags.

Although let down at times by lack of budget All Hallows' Eve isn't bad at all. We have demonic creatures, aliens and Art the clown - breakout star who ended up with his own movie this year in Terrifier. - and a fairly high gore quota. The acting isn't the best although Katie Maguire is excellent as the babysitter but the whole thing is clearly made by people who have a passion for the genre and it is suitably creepy throughout.

Night of the Demons (1988)

On Halloween night a bunch of insufferable college kids hole up at an abandoned mortuary for a wild party. It's not too long before they unleash demons from hell who knock them off in hideous ways.

A reasonable fun film that feels like a carnival house of horror and is mainly let down by Linnea Quigley's stilted and wooden delivery of her lines. There's graphic gore and violence and one or two memorable scenes but it's impossible to take seriously.