October 16th
 

Night of the Demons (2009)

A remake of Kevin Tenney's eighties classic. Although this slicker take has a bigger budget and a better cast it doesn't have that film's charm and get's lost in running around in indistinguishable darkness during it's last twenty minutes and yet again i was willing it to end.

Up to then it had been good fun. Essentially it's the same story as the original in which Angela (Shannon Elizabeth) hosts a Halloween night party at an old mansion and once there becomes a demon who kills or transforms the guests into other demons.

This has a cracking soundtrack from the likes of Wednesday 13, Goatwhore 45 Grave and best of all Type O' Negative whose Black No. 1 plays as Shannon Elizabeth gets it on with Bobbi Sue Luther.

The film proves another nail in the acting coffin of Edward Furlong but genre stalwarts Tiffany Shepis and Linnea Quigley, who once again flashes her tutu'd cheeks, have brief cameos.

Bloody Disgusting on the dvd cover say the film is "Loud, brash, sexy and gory" which it is. It's also a little bit shit too.

Dr. Phibes Rises Again (Robert Fuest)

Yes, it's not a patch on the first film, but I just love the endless cameos from various stalwarts.
Our vocally challenged fiend sods off to Egypt to further his aims with the plod eventually on his trail. It still looks like no other film from the period.
:nod:

October 16th (2)
 

Inferno (1980)

The story follows a young man's (Leigh McCloskey) investigation of his sister's disappearance from her New York apartment, an apartment that was allegedly home to an ancient witch, one of the three mothers, Mater Tenebrarum (the other two being Mater Lachrymarum and Mater Suspiriorum ).

Inferno has everything you'd want in a Dario Argento film. There's the trademark gore, shot as stylishly as ever, like watching a painting created out of blood, together with a terrific score from rock legend Keith Emerson and there's the colours.

Prior film Suspiria (1977) is rightly lauded for it's use of colour. Reds that prove so vibrant that they are integral to the film's aura, yet Inferno is very much the same with a powerful use of bright pinks and blues, often in the same shot and are every bit as stylish as anything Suspiria offers up, even more so perhaps as i think the colour palettes work even better here so much so that even dark night time scenes have a day-glo vibrancy to them. It's not so much a stylish Gothic horror as a stylish Art Deco horror and it's utterly mesmeric.

As a whole the film is a hypnotic nightmarish descent into hell, perfectly encapsulated by the opening scenes as Irene Miracle's Rose takes a swim in a water filled basement trying to reach her keys and coming across a putrefying corpse in the submerged cellar. It's unnerving and highly claustrophobic and sets the scene of the terrors to come.

Round-up AGAIN
 

I'm so shit at this :lol: Here's another round-up post!

Fri 13th Oct
Freddy Vs Jason (2003)

Honestly, why did I do this to myself, it literally ranks dead last in my Jason rankings. Oh, I know why, it's because you lot were all banging on about how much you enjoyed it haha. I do like some bits (cornfield rave and the stealing the dream drug from the hospital), not many, and I hate the teenage cast members. That dude at the beginning being like bitch, now, don't make me ask twice... I was thinking ugh I hate that guy so thankfully he meets his demise very quickly. UGH.

Sat 14th Oct
Satan's Blood (1978)

Spanish horror films are unlike any other films, they are off the charts. Like who in the right mind thinks, when meeting a total stranger on the street, well he says he knows me from school so I guess I can follow him an hour out of the city down some dodgy looking dirt tracks to his Satanic Cult Mansion because his wife did say, don't worry we have some wine and cheese. Sure... Boobs and dicks ahoy :lol: I liked it :lol:

Sat 14th Oct
Zombi Holocaust (1980)

Well I guess it's OK, didn't really get the story. Mad doctor (butcher) in the jungle experimenting on natives, but in the next scene the natives have kidnapped the lead lady and painted daisies on her. People die, get bits chopped off, get munched on, then the zombies come and kill the natives, then the zombies get blown up. Also a room of upside down tribes people, literally a row of dicks because of the camera angle, boy I've chosen them this week :lol: Didn't love it, but not terrible.

Sun 15th Oct
Stephen King on Screen (2023)

I saw this in the shop on Bluray and I was going to buy it, then I checked online and I could rent a stream for 99p so did that and I'm glad I did because I wont watch it again. Basically this is a bunch of guys who have directed a film based of Stephen King. Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Mike Flannigan etc there are loads of them, and they all have interesting stories to tell about King. However, the editing is awful, clips with dialogue are played over the interviewees talking, and the background music was so loud all of the way through. I liked it, but as I said a one time watch.

Mon 16th Oct
The Stalls of Barchester (1971) & Lost Hearts (1973)

Yes, I know it's not Christmas, but nether of these two stories, and in fact Lost Hearts takes place in October! I was planning to watch my new Bluray remaster of these last Christmas when it came out, I was so excited, I was taking it with me to Edinburgh where I was staying for 3 weeks, only when I got on the train I remembered that I had left it on the table, next to my house keys so I wouldn't forget it :lol:

Anyway, you've all seen these, they are spooky and scary and very atmospheric, highly recommended.

Tue 17th Oct
Damien: Omen II (1978)

One of those films I've seen a few times but can never remember what happens apart from some of the key death scenes, like the crow lady and the horrific trapped under ice man. Turns out that it's actually a bit boring, has no tension and is not remotely scary. I did like Damien freaking out after reading the bible and knowing instantly that he has to look for the mark of the devil on his head and finding it :lol: I've never seen the 3rd film, which I'm going to watch soon, but not until after the rest of October is finished!

What do the blu rays look like Justin?

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They are really good, a little bit of print damage which has not been fixed, but it's what you'd expect from 50 year old negatives from the BBC, the company who recorded over their video taped shows :lol:

Loads of natural film grain, so if you don't like that beware, but to me that's great, the detail is the grain! Sound quality is excellent as well.

Ah, I may well hold off. The dvds look great and i have to admit I'm not a big fan of film grain. Much as i appreciate why it's there.

12. Grandmother’s House

first time watch - low budget, low impact, but a bit of fun. Don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the twist at the end was fairly f**ked up.


13. Guest House Paradiso

I felt in need of a break from all the grue and gore so went back to Guest House Paradiso, one of my all time favourite slightly horror dark comedies. Hilarity ensues at this nightmarish Fawtly Towers-esque hotel when radioactive fish is fed to the guests. Wonderful stuff. I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming blu ray release teased by Indicator, and assume they will be using the Vinegar Syndrome remaster and special features.


14. Paranorman

one with the kids. This is a really fantastic animated film about a wee boy who can see ghosts. Considering its a kids film it is genuinely scary in parts. My kids have always enjoyed (age appropriate) horror stuff but when they were younger this was the one film that really frightened them - In particular the part where the ghost of Norman’s uncle comes out the toilet!


15. The Curse of Bridge Hollow

Netflix - Not bad, not great, but the kids enjoyed the fast paced dialogue and jokes.


16. Sick

NowTV - from the writers of Scream. As one Letterbox’d reviewer gave it - “they’ve swapped ‘what’s your favourite scary movie?’ for ‘where’s your mask?’” This was good fun, set around the beginning of the covid pandemic, and starts with a guy following the one way arrows around a supermarket before agreeing to go to a party with a stranger who invited him via text. The stranger follows up by asking what his testing status is and that’s where the trouble begins. Good fun, and a bit of a send up for the panic and paranoia.


17. Critters 2

first time watch. Good stupid movie and was able to watch it with the kids.


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Itsy Bitsy. 2019.

Bruce Davison is the old collector of rare antiquities and proud of his new rare vase that has a legend of a goddess. Elizabeth Roberts is the new carer for the old guy who is troubled and trying to cope with two young children. When the new vase is broken and something has escaped and takes the form of a spider. This is never going to be spectacular, it has a decent premise of a chilling horror even for those who are arachnophobe. The old guy telling the young boy about the back story of the goddess like a dark jackanory story, it has some good suspense moments but due to some questionable writing/directing that isnt played out well.

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THE NEON DEMON – At its heart lies a classic tale of the unravelling of an ingenue who sides with the corruption around her, but Winding-Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ convinces more as an exploitation movie decked out like a perfume ad. It’s about Jesse (played by Elle Fanning), a small-town girl barely out of high school, now in LA with hopes of making it on the catwalk. She meets a trio of fashion victims and begins a descent into a glam world full of all the poisonous peacockery and angst we civilians love to lap up from the safe distance offered by the queue in Primark. But the gist isn’t so much a loss of innocence fable as a darkside revel – Winding Refn wastes no opportunity in bringing on a slew of macabre gewgaws, including occultic ‘Demon Seed’-esque prism imagery, blood baths and randomly errant panthers; even if ‘Neon Demon’ makes as if to critique commodification and objectification, it feels more like a feint that allows Refn to serve up scenes of cannibalism and necrophilia. All this seems more important than the ‘human’ side of the story, and it should be – why tell us what we already know? The culture industry is commonly acknowledged to be a mean and shallow place, at least in films like this. So I’m all for baroque eye candy over heart-on-sleeve, and Winding Refn really does let go with the excess ornamentation, often pretty much stopping the film to say “hey, this looks really cool, no?” before dissolving the image in a plane of diabolically pretty wallpaper, or some slow motion neon pulsation straight out of J’Adore by Argento. This might make ‘Neon Demon’ as spiritually vacant as its characters, but it’s beautifully done. It’s a mesmerising film that captures a true feeling of a dark enchantment, and no matter how outré ‘Neon Demon’ seems in places, you almost want to believe it’s not all that different from what goes on in the shadows backstage at one of these shows. Just as a quick aside, all the performances hit the right chilly tone, but I was particularly taken with Keanu Reeves. He plays a sleazy rooming house owner and isn’t in it all that much, but I just really like his intro scene – we start off by looking at this sinister silhouette behind a grotty sex hotel door, then it flies open, and – Keanu! Wasn’t expecting you to drop in!