October Horror Movie Marathon

[MrBarlow]

The House Of Mortal Sin. 1976.

A troubled young woman goes to confession and begins to be stalked by a sexually frustrated priest.

Another macabre dark atmospheric and twisted premise from Pete Walker with Anthony Sharp as Father Meldrum who uses his power of religion for abuse purposes and believes he is doing good and not evil. Susan Penhaligon plays the intended target, Stephanie Beacham as the loving sister and Norman Eshley as the newer priest and close friend.

I won't say this was a horror as such but more psychological chiller with a nod to the British Giallo genre, the kills are what we would expect from a 70s low budget but they are nicely done. Everyone certainly pulls their weight with the acting. May not be for everyone's taste but certainly worth a watch.

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Up next Ogre

[MrBarlow]

Ogre. 2008.

A town stuck in the past offer sacrifices to a monstrous Ogre, when a group of people come to their town they try and stop the monster and free the people.

This was a made for T.V. movie so don't really expect much except John Schneider...yeah the guy from Dukes Of Hazard and Smallville playing the community elder and a somewhat prick who actually settles down 3/4 way through the film. As usual the teens in this try to be the heroes and a girl being upset that her boyfriend broke his ankle at the wrong part of the forest.

Don't expect to see a green coulred pointy eared Shrek in this or the one from Lamberto Bava's film The Ogre, although the makers made sure his tickle tackle was covered, the effects were used were in fact CGI. Since this was aired on The Horror Channel back in 2011 this is the third time seeing this and it doesn't get any better so laying it to rest now.

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Not sure what to watch until my shift ends, have a good Monday

[MacBlayne]

CURSE OF CHUCKY

Chuck has got a brand new look!

Paraplegic Nica (Fiona Dourif) resides with her mother and broken dreams. Her dull existence is shattered when her mother commits suicide, shortly after the arrival of a certain doll. Nica’s estranged sister and her family arrive to help out, but nothing can prepare them for the night to come.

Don Mancini returns to the director’s chair, albeit with a lower budget, and going direct to video. But do not let that fool you – Curse of Chucky is a tremendous horror film that marks Chucky’s glorious return to pure horror.

Mancini’s script is witty, but the focus here is terror. And it is a rather creepy film. A family is trapped in an old house during a storm, shortly after the death of a loved one, and the new doll just can’t stay in place. Like the first film, it’s not until the final act that Chucky reveals his true self to the audience, and it is moment that could freeze blood.

The acting by all is great. Dourif is a given, but his daughter is also excellent as the wheelchair-bound Nica. Her performance shows Nica as a character that feels the sting of being pitied, but tries to power through it. Not once does the film involve fake pathos to score sympathy points – Nica is a human being who just so happens to not be able to use her legs. She is not defined by her disability. This is something I noticed in my rewatch of the series – Mancini has a knack of writing marginalised characters without relying on false pity or white knights. If Disney is hellbent on trying to capitalise on the less fortunate, then they maybe should consider hiring Mancini for some projects.

Anyways, speaking of Mancini, his direction is massive improvement on Seed of Chucky. His pacing is a lot more assured, and his use of cinematography is stunning. He’s clearly been studying Mario Bava and Brian DePalma – Curse of Chucky is an elegant, stylish film that looks well beyond its sub-$5 million budget. There are some dodgy CGI shots (although I think the shot of Chucky on the stairs is creepier than a puppet would be), but this is a handsome looking film that would be better suited for cinema projection than TV screens.

My only main criticism is the abundance of exposition towards the end. It’s not bad, as both Dourifs sell it, but it does stop the heart stopping pace for it.

Curse of Chucky is a mean little horror, and the scariest of the series. It’s also the cruellest, delivering a breathtakingly ironic, grim finale. However, stay for after the credits. There’s a lovely surprise for fans of the series.

P.S. I don’t mean to sound like a perv, but Fiona Dourif is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in a film.

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[Nordicdusk]

30 Day Of Unseen Horror

Day 9


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Struggling to make her rent and struggling to keep her addictions at bay Riley and her boyfriend hatch a plan to break into an abandoned warehouse where there is a container that no one has ever claimed. Inside the container is a single safe that hold the puzzle box confused but strangely drawn to the box Riley volunteers to hold on to it until Trevor can find someone who may be able to value it but from this point on her already fractured life will start to completely shatter when the puzzle box starts to take what it wants and people she loves start to disappear. With her history of addiction no one is willing to believe her at first just believing she has fallen off the wagon once again.

I went in to this with high hopes and I was quite interested to see what a female pinhead would be like and after watching the first trailer when that came out awhile back it looked really good but a trailer usually isn't a good reflection on the finished product so did it live up to my high hopes?

NO

Carrying on from lessons learned from Hellraiser Bloodline and Inferno I kept an open mind and I was very relieved to find out it was a reboot rather than a remake which is always a better choice new ideas are always welcome if implemented properly. The effects are great with some as you would expect gorey flesh ripping torture kills but the main downfall of this is Pinhead and the Cenobites I just didn't care much for the look I love the leather and latex BDSM look of them throughout the series but here they feel flat with not much character to them I didn't feel groosed out looking at their skin peeled back it just felt very fake costume if you get what I'm saying usually they look natural like mutikated people not people in a costume they just weren't very sexy just bland. Usually when Pinhead and the Cenobites are on screen your excited and it's a treat this time around that have zero presence it's just like ok now that's happening and then we move on. Also on Pinhead the voice they used was terrible no authority to it at all even saying the famous Pinhead lines they just fell flat and if you had never seen Hellraiser before you would just move past it without a second thought of think ohhh I like that.

Good effect and an interesting new take on the franchise but not memorable. The last two "BAD" Hellraiser films I watched were much better than this.

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY – More Strickland, who followed up ‘Berberian Sound Studio’ with TDOB, arguably an even stranger film. TDOB explores the sadomasochistic relationship between two lepidopterists whose household is a strange kingdom, well, queendom, full of rituals and games. Games and game-like ways of relating are pretty much central to TDOB. What we see is very opulent and the visual stylisation is pretty striking, but Strickland’s aim is more conceptual in that he’s asking us to consider the limits of role-playing and identity, the boundaries we put around ourselves and others for the sake of sharing our love. If that sounds a bit high-flown, don’t expect TDOB to be all whips and garters. The S&M theme is used more to enable the depiction of this stagey world made up of artifice and ceremony, and to push the emotional levers when the mask of ritual finally slips. But there is no big drama here really, the narrative is almost tranquil, the horror elements ‘in the air’ rather than in-yer-face; it’s a subtle approach that succeeds because the film is so atmospherically strange, even showing us a wider reality that seems to seems consist of little else besides female biologists who gather in seminar rooms full of mannequins and dummies. Much has been made of TDOB’s homage to surreal Euro erotica from the likes of Jess Franco and Jean Rollin, but there are also shades of Peter Greenaway and David Cronenberg. Hypnotic, wonderful and odd.

[Demoncrat]

I love Duke. His new one really goes for it with the archness ahem (Flux Gourmet).

[MrBarlow]

Flesheater. 1988.

College kids on a hayride decide to spend the night in the woods, a farmer unearths a coffin and inside is a zombie that awakens. Soon the teens try to battle and survive the night.

So we got Bill Hinzman star of the original Night Of The Living Dead creating his own zombie flick with a bunch of actors who have very little to 1 film credit to their name with some shitty acting that one person can put Troll 2 to shame with the "Oh My God" phrase. A Sheriff that knows what to do and gathers a lynch mob with their rifles and knows where to shoot. What makes this decent is the gore, nothing is held back, some of the young ones and their acting must have upset Mr Hinzman and he kinda thought "Yeah your dying first and it be good". May not be the best zombie flick but a lot more entertaining than Zombie 5...oh how that film has scarred me for life.

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Up next Friday The 13th Pat VIII.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

American Nightmare (2002)

Direct to dvd slasher starring Debbie Rochon as a slightly unstable nurse who murdered a group of campers the year previously then returns the following October 31st to 'off' a group of listeners of the American Nightmare pirate radio show who phone in to chat about their own fears on Halloween night.

A very low budget but competently made and acted film. The never modest Rochon is great as a Goth psycho bitch from hell in a film with a few inventive kills. Despite the dialogue being self referential (Spoorloos, Flesh for Frankenstein etc) especially at the start, it's clear the film makers are horror fans and take an idea such as a persons own fears and put it to good use in a film such as this.

Rock fans may be intrigued by the all girl band Pervis performing a cover of Venom's In League with Satan on the soundtrack.

[trebor8273]

Lady Frankenstein .

After her father is killed by his creation and it starts killing the locals , his daughter sets out too make her own creature too kill original.

Enjoyed this has a slight gothic feel too it, some gore and nudity . One I will watch again.

The uncanny

Peter Cushing plays a author who believes that cats are evil and has a group of tales involving pussies , while it's not as good as other anthologies I enjoyed all the tales, mind i didn't think the cats where evil, they where just protecting the innocent and setting right what once went wrong.


Angel for Satan.

A very enjoyable gothic tale, a small village believes their is a curse after a statute is found and number of deaths . Could the deaths actually be supernatural or more mundane in orgin. Very atmospheric and has the lovely Barbra Steele which is always a bonus.

[MrBarlow]

Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. 1989.

Our slasher awakens from his watery grave...again, and hops on board a boat full of graduate high schoolers, we know he loves those teens and how we love seeing the blood flow. Throughout the franchise, I have not been watching these back to back, did I miss something, when did Jason learn to sail a boat? Did he hoist anchor and let the current take him and hope for the best he arrives at a marina and hope for the best not to be seen leaving one boat and hopping on another?

As the 80s went on you always get that one teen who totally loves herself and tries to seduce the teacher to get high grades...that plan didn't work but at least she got a decent death, and of course new creative deaths in this even with the wannabe rock star and her guitar basically become one.

Jason takes Manhattan...or Jason goes to Manhattan, plenty people to kill but he is only after two people, smashing a door to a diner, the makers should have gave him a weapon of some sort and that would have been a perfect bloodbath scenario but no, take it the diner didn't have anything sharp or nothing to bludgeon anyone with. Still find it funny with the young boxer loosing his head that rolls down the roof top into the bin that the vibration of landing in it closes the lid I have always wanted to hate this entry but somehow I can't.

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Up Next Clive Barker's Book Of Blood.