October Horror Movie Marathon

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by MrBarlow

Still time to put in for a holiday or last minute sick day Nordi

My sister is my boss I don't get away with anything

[MrBarlow]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

My sister is my boss I don't get away with anything

Oats
1/4 water
Slight food colouring

Mix in your mouth and make a heaving noise....that use to work for me

[Graveyard]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Started a pile, only a few items in it so far. A couple of them were on my pile last year and didn’t get watched.



Also planning on Trick R Treat and Hell Fest to make a repeat appearance this year as well.

Looking forward to read your thoughts about Mahakaal, is on my shelf probably for one year now.. unseen

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Graveyard

Looking forward to read your thoughts about Mahakaal, is on my shelf probably for one year now.. unseen

It's been on the pile for a while here too, the only thing putting me off is the running time, sometimes you just want an entertaining 90 minutes or less

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Gave my front room / tv room a thorough dusting today before all the Halloween crap, er' goodies, come out tomorrow and the room is littered with spooky tea light holders.

[MrBarlow]

So far for this year's horror moviethon

Scream
Urban Legend box set
Visiting Hours
The Leech Woman
The Pit And The Pendulum
Night Of The Eagle
Tales Of Terror
Count Yorga Vampire
The Ballad Of Tam-Lin
Blood And Lace
Subspecies V
Couldron Of Blood
The Sorcerers
See No Evil (Mia Farrow)
Carnival Of Blood
The Bell From Hell
The Loreley's Grasp
Torso
Splatter University
Demonoid

So far thats the list and more will be added but subjected list may change or delay in watching and posting.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

It's time...

[MrBarlow]

Starting it off this month for me with

Scream. 1996.

Scream works because it is set in a world where horror movies do exist and teenagers know clichés. It is a self-aware horror film and has a lot of references to classic horror films like Halloween. Scream is forced to be inventive and Craven who is a master of the horror genre, so knew what he was doing with this film.

Neve Campbell plays the heroine of the film along with David Arquette, Courtney Cox and Jamie Kennedy who try to survive murderous duo Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard. The start of the film we see Drew Barrymore who becomes the first victim who is left bloody and hanging in her garden. This didnt appeal to me on its release and after a re-watch certainly more entertaining now.

scream-1996-poster-BKGYMY.jpg

Up next The Shining.

[MrBarlow]

The Shining. 1980.

One of the most significant aspects of this movie, necessary for the story as a whole to have its most significant effect, is the isolation, and it's presents flawlessly. Even the opening shot of Jack driving to the hotel and saying he made the trip in 3 and half hours tells you that the Overlook is in a isolated area,making it the perfect place for horror.

Jack Nicholson is remembered for a number of roles but this has to be one of his top best performances as the ex teacher, reformed alcoholic who becomes a caretaker of a hotel with a haunting past. Often ask if Shelley Duvall was the right casting choice for the loving devoted wife but then...we know Kubrick pushed her to the brink of madness and exhaustion.

One of the creepiest parts about the movie is the feeling of isolation that Kubrick makes. The hotel is very silent, and the rooms are huge, yet always empty. It is also eerily calm when Danny is riding his bike through the barren hallways, everyone says "you never know what is round a corner" and then we see the Grady Twins just standing there and then a blink and miss of the blood covered walls and the bodies of the girls.

Philip Stone gives a chilling performance as a waiter who then reveals to be the previous caretaker Grady, going from a calm bumbling waiter and delivering his lines as a ghost is a brilliantly done switch by both actor and director with some good creative writing.

Danny Lloyd who plays young Danny is great as the troubled child who we learn had his arm broken by Jack and then seeing fear of being in a isolated area, and learning of Shining by hotel cook Scatman Crothers. Crothers doesnt seem to have a big part but certainly brings some relief that he has a connection to Danny and goes to form his own rescue party and is meet with a grim demise to the hotel caretaker. A great piece of cenematic movie.

b3cc6-shining_ver1_xlg.jpg

Up next will be Pit And The Pendulum and some point later.

[Frankie Teardrop]

I could’ve picked a less obvious choice with which to launch my thirty-one day, Halloween-facing horror binge, but here we are and let’s start with a classic –

THE EXORCIST – It’s been so long since I last watched it, I couldn’t even find my old blu-ray and ended up having to stream it. No idea whether it was the new, shiny upgrade, but the sickly luminescence at its core shone through. ‘The Exorcist’ was the film a callow teenage Frankie snuck into during a local revival screening in the early nineties. I remember being in awe of all the talk of subliminal shots and quivered in my seat a little as I waited for Eileen Dietz’s face to flash up in the darkness ahead. Things like that seem to carry an additional heft if you’re watching them alone in a mostly deserted theatre, particularly if you’re as young and impressionable as I was. Of course, there was all the other stuff people talked about, the stuff that made people on ‘Points Of View’ mutter about blasphemy and society falling apart. I’ve never been remotely religious, but some of that material is shocking even now – see Linda Blair’s escapades with bloodied crucifix etc etc. Also, what a foul-mouthed brat! Forgot about all that. I think ‘The Exorcist’ stands up really well. It looks and plays like true early seventies American cinema, like it was made at a time when film was growing up, dismantling the stagey conventions of the prior decades and becoming more elliptical, more supple, but more cynical, more world-weary; most US horror films from the era still seemed stuck in the sixties, just that residue of starchy clunk, but here you can sense the horizon beginning to darken even if you can’t hear the machine guns rattling in Vietnam. Watching it now, it’s the stuff beyond the mushy peas that stands out – the performances, Burstyn and Blair particularly (although you could say that the atmospheric kernel of the film belongs as much to Dietz and Mercedes McCambridge), the gradual build in ominosity as the possession gets underway and we hear rats in the attic and speak with Cap’n Howdy. A landmark still capable of delivering dark atmosphere and some unforgettable images.