October Horror Movie Marathon

[MrBarlow]

Cannibal Troll. 2021.

A group of women on a hen party are stalked by a murderous troll lurking in the nearby woods.

Cannibal: a person who eats the flesh of other human beings. Humans should be safe if the troll is a cannibal

The title is misleading, it should be Troll Of The Woods. Flashbacks of 2020 came back to me, not for the Covid-19 and lockdown part but the shitty movies I watched as I was 40 minutes in to this and It doesn't get any better.

Right at the start we see the troll that looks like it's the same height as Rawhead Rex Will admit the costume is better than the ones in Troll 2. A guy has his neck bitten and we see little blood on the guy as well as the mouth of the troll. The acting is well and truly bad, even though this was made in England, it looks badly dubbed. Avoid.

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Up next House Of Wax.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Cannibal Troll. 2021.

A group of women on a hen party are stalked by a murderous troll lurking in the nearby woods.

Cannibal: a person who eats the flesh of other human beings. Humans should be safe if the troll is a cannibal

The title is misleading, it should be Troll Of The Woods. Flashbacks of 2020 came back to me, not for the Covid-19 and lockdown part but the shitty movies I watched as I was 40 minutes in to this and It doesn't get any better.

Right at the start we see the troll that looks like it's the same height as Rawhead Rex Will admit the costume is better than the ones in Troll 2. A guy has his neck bitten and we see little blood on the guy as well as the mouth of the troll. The acting is well and truly bad, even though this was made in England, it looks badly dubbed. Avoid.

Attachment 242744

Up next House Of Wax.

Just had a look at this on IMDB. I kid you not. The director Scott Jeffrey has produced about 20 films this year so far. Unbelievable. I bet they all suck as well.

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Just had a look at this on IMDB. I kid you not. The director Scott Jeffrey has produced about 20 films this year so far. Unbelievable. I bet they all suck as well.

This was a blind watch recommended by YouTube, just checked his bio on IMDB

Unhinged
The Bad Nun
Tooth Fairy
Conjuring The Genie
Spider In The Attic

I watched these and definitely ones to avoid

[Demoncrat]

Speak No Evil (2022, Christian Tafdrup)

Making friends on holiday can be fun .... can't it?
I can't remember the last time that the ST seemed to be unbalancing the actual film? Regardless, I enjoyed this one ... mostly. It reminded me of The Invitation, in that you are not quite sure but something seems off hereabouts.
It's just that the last act doesn't quite work for me. Shame. Next!!

[MrBarlow]

House Of Wax. 1953.

Prof Henry Jarrod a wax sculptor is presumed dead in a fire that was started by his business partner. Jarrod survives but now a cripple and plans on opening a new House Of Wax using people that have been murdered as his pieces of art.

A decent remake of the 1933 film Mystery Of The Wax Museum, Vincent Price plays the sculptor turned psychotic murderer in this with a early appearance of of Charles Bronson as one of his assistants Igor and Carolyn Jones as one of his victims who becomes Joan Of Arc in his display.

Andre De Toth does a great job directing this little chiller and using 3D technology even though he was actually blind in one eye and able to create good set pieces for a film set in 1900s. Vincent Price never goes over board with his acting, it may seem very tame today but still enjoyable and never gets boring.

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Up next Impulse

[MrBarlow]

Impulse. 1984.

After a tremor happens in a small town, the locals begin to go on a path of destruction and self harming.

This was a odd one and almost like The Crazies, the toxin is not in the water but in the milk that spewed onto a farmer's property and he begins to deliver it as always to everyone.

Meg Tilly and her partner Tim Matheson head home after her mother acted a bit out of the ordinary and slowly watch as those around them seem a bit unsettled with their life Including brother Bill Paxton. This is something that Stephen King would create, it does have some good actors, eerie atmosphere and a sheriff who seems trigger happy, but the pace was a bit slow at times. Re-watch may happen.

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Up next Long Time Dead

[MacBlayne]

HALLOWEEN ENDS

Well, this was an odd one, and my feelings towards it are complicated. Overall, I liked it, but I have major issues with too. Issues so major that I’m not sure if I could objectively call it a good film. But I’m not sure I could call it a bad film either. Let me put it this way – did anybody ever watch Fallen Angels and wonder what it would be like if Michael Myers was in it?

This will be filled with spoilers. You’ve been warned.

SPOILER:

Let’s begin with the elephant in the room – Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell). Michael Myers is no longer the focus here. I’d go as far to say that whenever Michael Myers does appear, it brings the film crashing down. This is Corey’s fall down the abyss. He’s an interesting character in that he is a tragic figure. After he accidentally kills a child in the opening, he is the figure of scorn from the community. The courts absolved him, but with no Michael Myers anymore, the people need a new figure to hate, and they cripple his life.

However, there are moments that hint the evil already lurking within Corey. He flashes angry glares that threaten violence that evolve into something emptier – as if he’s retreating within himself and letting something else emerge. His acts of violence are sadistic, and indicate he has been thinking about his killing spree for a while now. His voice becomes more guttural, and he seems to become excited at the notion of destroying the town that ruined him.

But this is how Halloween Ends fails as a horror film. With the exception of Corey’s stepfather (who is not killed by Corey), everybody has it coming. Seriously, Haddenfield is filled with the detestable people on Earth. I was beginning to think Michael Myers was doing us all a favour. The only suspense this film has is wondering if Corey will kill the bastards, NOT in wondering if the victim will manage to escape.

Okay, so the film isn’t the best at being a scary slasher. Maybe the horror comes from being a disturbing character piece? It does, and it doesn’t. As mentioned, Corey Cunningham is an interesting figure, but the film doesn’t allow him to become evil by himself. There are insinuations of abuse from his mother (possibly even sexual), and everybody being a dickhead means he kinda earns his killing spree. Which is a crying shame, because the scene where he imagines he is talking to Laurie, show a mind recreating reality where he is justified in his actions. Had the film had more stuff like that – where he tries to rationalise murder, and then just stop caring for reason – then it might have been an effective horror. Instead, it feels like Norman Bates-lite.

The issue with Halloween Ends is that director David Gordon Green wants to push ahead in a brave new direction, but is handicapped by the expectations of being a sequel. Honestly, Michael Myers should not have been in this. If I were making it, all I would have had was Corey finding the corpse of Michael and his mask. Corey would have found escape within the mask, and the legend of Michael Myers would have lived on. Who knows? Maybe that was Green’s intention before studio executives balked?

Either way, Michael Myers inclusion means the film goes on twenty minutes longer than it should, and results in one of the worst, truly the worst moment of the film, and a contender for the worst of the series. I mean, Busta Rhymes yelling “Trick or treat, motherf*cker!” was awful, but it’s also hilariously bad. It’s not like it was using Michael Myers as metaphor for mass shootings, and shoving his corpse into a trash grinder. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea.

So, it’s a pretty dodgy experience when you view it as a Halloween sequel. But when the film is doing its own thing, it’s borderline brilliant. The David Gordon Green that made George Washington and Joe emerges during the quieter moments, and it’s beautiful. I always felt Jamie Lee Curtis was wasted in the previous films. Rambo Laurie didn’t seem like the best fit for her talents in Halloween 2018, and Halloween Kills just confined her to a hospital bed spitting out trailer lines. But she is remarkable here. The scene with her and Will Patton (also tremendous) in the supermarket is so damn sweet that I wanted to go on for much longer.

The scenes between Allyson (Andi Matichak) and Corey are amazing too. They carry a sense of longing in that they are both haunted by their pasts and unable to find solace in their community, and naturally fall for each other. These scenes carry a sinister atmosphere too, as you can see the evil that is pushing Corey starting to infect Allyson too. This is all helped by John Carpenter’s typically outstanding music, which adopts a more haunting ambience than threatening beats.

Halloween Ends is a terrific film when it’s moving forward, but sinks to new depths when it steps back into the series. Which is a damn shame. It would have taken many years, but if the filmmakers were brave enough to drop Michael Myers, it would have been eventually seen as a masterpiece. Yeah, fans would be even more apoplectic, but they cried about Halloween III too. Instead, Halloween Ends is a bizarre mess that won’t fully satisfy anyone. I like it, may even grow to love it, but it’s a film I admire more for its parts than for its whole.

[MrBarlow]

Long Time Dead. 2002.

A group of students use a Ouija board and unleash a demonic force.

This has nothing new that hasn't been done before, a group of college students decide to play with dark forces, i'm sure we all done daft things and this is why you shouldn't play with dark forces. For some reason these coeds somehow released a Djinn which possesses one of them and goes on a killing spree.

This one I last saw a few years back and I wasn't gripped by it and the same again but did have some good tense moments, even during the seance scene can have you glued to the screen and built up well for the suspense. The death scenes aren't brutal and imaginative but they can happen when you least expect it with some of the cast. Go into this with a open mind and don't expect it to be a big budget horror flick.

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Have a great day all, be good!

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by MacBlayne

HALLOWEEN ENDS

Let me put it this way – did anybody ever watch Fallen Angels and wonder what it would be like if Michael Myers was in it?

I'm glad I'm not the only one, it's all I could think about was, Takeshi Kaneshiro on his motorbike driving through that tunnel

In seriousness though, I agree with your review pretty much spot on. A re-write to remove Michael Myers and Laurie Strode from the film and give it a proper ending and it'd be such a better film, then DGG could have made an actual Halloween Franchise ending film, because this was not it.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I'm glad I'm not the only one, it's all I could think about was, Takeshi Kaneshiro on his motorbike driving through that tunnel

In seriousness though, I agree with your review pretty much spot on. A re-write to remove Michael Myers and Laurie Strode from the film and give it a proper ending and it'd be such a better film, then DGG could have made an actual Halloween Franchise ending film, because this was not it.

That's my proplem it was a terrible send off for Michael Myers I said it in my review he deserved better. It was hard to just enjoy it as a film because we knew this was the end. As a stand alone film could of been great but it was hard to get my head around it.