October Horror Movie Marathon

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Dracula (1931)

Every time i see this classic Universal monster film something new grabs me which i hadn't noticed previously. Not always good either because this film although rightly a game changer in cinema of the time, it's also a bit clunky as well. Scenes really don't hang well together unlike those in Frankenstein (also 31) or The Old Dark House (1932) coming across more a collection of scenes rather than anything cohesive.

One sequence i did notice which i found fascinatingly eerie was Renfield (Dwight Frye) crawling across a floor when he sees a maid laid out unconscious on the carpet. He has a look in his eye that seemed really seedy. The camera cuts away in the moment he reaches her limp body so it's left to my equally seedy imagination as to what happens next.

I won't finish without mentioning Bela Lugosi. You can tell he really puts his all into his performance and in a way it's sad that this role, this one performance defined the rest of his screen career because as his work in The Black Cat (1934) and also Val Lewton's The Body Snatcher (1945) showed he could do so much more than just look slightly menacing and speak in an East European drawl.

The Universal Blu-ray has a fascinating forty minute documentary about Bela's career with quality contributions from Steve Haberman, Kim Newman, Stephen Jones, Sir Christopher Frayling, Greg Mank, Ramsay Campbell, Joe Dante and others.

[MrBarlow]

House On Haunted Hill. 1999.

A billionaire offers 5 strangers $1 million to spend the night in a building with a horrifying past.

William Malone's remake of the William Castle film, with Geoffrey Rush playing the rich man with a super spoilt bitchy wife Famke Janssen, Pro baseball player Taye Diggs, film exec Ali Larter, tv celeb Bridgette Wilson, Doctor Peter Gallagher and housekeeper Chris Kattan.

Kattan's performance is good and doesn't match up to Elijah Cook's portrayal of Pritchett but in this version he is more scared of the building, yeah original was a house this version is a asylum on the top of the hill. The original is a classic and always a favourite for the dark atmosphere but slight twist to the end, where as this is a haunted house/building. It does include the dark muggy atmosphere within the bowels of the building and good attempt to bring the evil to the screen. When this first came out I was hesitant but after a first watch I totally loved this remake.

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Up Next Return To House On Haunted Hill

[nicholasrope]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

28 Weeks Later. 2007.

With the help of the U.S. Army, a part of London is now a safe area, families are reunited. Don who fled from a farm house leaving his wife believing her to be dead but is alive and unaware that although she shows no signs of infection she is a carrier for the Rage disease.

Sometimes sequels work and sometimes they don't but this was a bit of a hit and miss for me, at the start I did scream at Robert Carlyle leaving his wife while he hauled and saved his own ass. Sanctuary time in London and you know there is nowhere to run if there is a outbreak and then the shit hits the fan.

Using John Murphy's score in a tense moment is greatly done during the "Code Red" scenario. The actors done a good job there is no fault there but the quick movement of the camera is a bit of motion sickness part for me. I do rate it highly and recommend for the story line but not for the cinematography.

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The star power in this Film is stronger now than when it first came out.

[nicholasrope]

Smile

This is the story of a Psychiatrist (Who I first thought was Hillary Swank) who after witnessing a Suicide of a Patient starts having the same visions as her and other victims. This is more of a Psychological Horror and there are some scenes of gore, I found it to be too long and kind of repetitive. I think the 18 Certificate was to do with cutting and suicide scenes.

Hostel: Part III

The first (And shockingly) and only Straight To DVD Sequel doesn't have anything to do with Eli Roth, sees The Elite Hunting Club have a branch in Las Vegas where this time other customers get to watch. All things considering, it could have been a lot worse, there are a couple of twists and a nice gore scene. The Blu-Ray has a Director's Commentary, which I may get to down the line.

Again, surprised Sequels galore haven't popped up.

[MrBarlow]

Return To House On Haunted Hill. 2007.

After a few years when Sara and Eddie escaped the Vanacutt Institute, a group of researchers and a mercenary team seek the same thing The Baphamot Idol that holds the key to the demonic possession of the house.

How did Sara Eddie get down from the roof...never clearly explained but the cleaners must have helped them. This one follows Sara's sister and a professor with a colleague who believe they Idol should be in a museum. The Merc's who also want the idol are being paid to find it. After the first 10 minutes the film does pick up, I have always enjoyed this sequel as at times direct to dvd sequels never usually work but this does. Only problem I have with this, the interior seems a bit different and CGI shot at the end of the asylum, but Jeffrey Combs does return as the mad doctor.

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This is where I shall leave the movie viewing, gotta be up early tomorrow, take care all

[MacBlayne]

THE HITCHER

The Hitcher is one of those miraculous debuts that leaves you with two questions:

1: What on earth was Roger Ebert watching when he gave this zero stars?

That somebody could watch a film this beautiful, this haunting, this well-acted and crafted, that reaches for tone rather than blood, and deem it to be utterly worthless is beyond me as the Hitcher’s actions are. I can only think Ebert was offended by Howell’s lack of a Chicago accent.

As for question 2: What on earth happened to director Robert Harmon?

Harmon has done solid work on other films, but he was operating on God Mode with this. Watching The Hitcher, you’d swear you were watching the next John Carpenter. Harmon takes Eric Red’s lean and mean screenplay, and with John Seale’s tremendous cinematography and Mark Isham’s haunting score, creates a film of poetic elegance.

The film is perhaps closer in tone to European arthouse than the American slashers that the producers were probably hoping to cash in on. Rather that a series of stalk-and-slash scenes, there are many scenes of silence set in dimly lit locations or against dark clouds, with only the wind whistling. Harmon avoids explicit displays of violence and gore, but what he suggests is almost sickening. He is helped by his talented cast that includes C. Thomas Howell, an angelic Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jeffrey DeMunn. Howell is superb, as it is through him that Harmon can sell the carnage. Howell face becomes paler and hollower as the film progresses, the sign of a man who just can’t comprehend what is happening around him.

But it is Rutger Hauer who reigns supreme as the titular Hitcher, who seems less human and more demon. He is terrifying, as the fantastic dolly in as he picks himself off the road suggests. Hauer never overplays it. He brings the right level of impishness to his performance, suggesting that he enjoys what he does. Red’s script does give an element of pathos to his character. In the opening scenes, Hauer urges Howell to say “I want to die.” Howell yells “I don’t want to die,” before kicking Hauer out of his car.

Hauer accepts this, as he never actually seems to try and kill Howell after this. He stalks him, kills those around him, torments him in every way he can, but he never tries to kill him. In body, at least. By the end, he breaks Howell’s soul. Hauer leaves his Hell, but Howell has to stay in the vast emptiness of the desert, and contemplate all that he has lost.

The Hitcher is one of my all-time favourites. Roll on that 4K release!

[Justin101]

A little catch-up on the past couple of days, hopefully tonight's viewing will be a bit more successful!

My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022)

I've read the book, but the best thing about it is the front cover and the only story beat I could remember was that Gretchen puked up black sludge, so I guess the book was quite mid. Same with the film! It's OK, but I'm never going to watch it again.

The power of Boy George compels you...

Rude Awakening (1980)

A fun and entertaining riff on the groundhog day trope. Sleazy estate agent played superbly by genre favourite Denholm Elliott is having strange dreams about a country manor, a dead wife and the secretary he's having an affair with! Episode three of the Hammer House of Horror series.

Monster Man (2003)

I haven’t hated a film so much in a long time. What were the film makers thinking? Frat boy gross out humour, Jeepers Creepers style road rage and a TCM rip off family with a monster truck. A wasted evening

[MrBarlow]

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 1974.

Five friends head out to Texas after graves were vandalised and stumble upon a farm house and find the owners are cannibals.

When this was released in the late 90s I found it to be boring and wondered why this was on the banned list, we only see one person...or hear one person getting hacked up by a chainsaw while alive, one person dead and being sliced. Total false advertisement for a film, yet over the years it has grown on me, Edwin Neal playing the creepy hitch hiker was basically a good start to meet the family of killers.

Good old Tobe Hooper managed to give us a curve ball, when Sally runs from the house and heads back to the gas station and think ok she is safe only for the owner to be the head of the family and back to square one. Kudos for Guner Hansen to be in a heavy suit and mask and able to give us a somewhat iconic ending.

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[Justin101]

When I watched TCM in the cinema it was just me and some other bloke in the screen, it was something like a Tuesday at 2pm so it would be empty. But I personally found it to be very tense and I was a bit of a nervous wreck when I came out. The dinner table scene pushed me over the edge I think haha

I'm thinking it was 1998? I seem to remember going to see Halloween H20 around the same time and I had the screen to myself for that one, it didn't affect me the same way but I do love that film to this day.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Justin101

When I watched TCM in the cinema it was just me and some other bloke in the screen, it was something like a Tuesday at 2pm so it would be empty. But I personally found it to be very tense and I was a bit of a nervous wreck when I came out. The dinner table scene pushed me over the edge I think haha

I'm thinking it was 1998? I seem to remember going to see Halloween H20 around the same time and I had the screen to myself for that one, it didn't affect me the same way but I do love that film to this day.

The films have grown on me, Saw Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Masscre 3 once, and the 4th...well only decent part in that was Tonie Perensky flashing her boobs. I'm hesitant about the new one.