October Horror Movie Marathon

[MrBarlow]

Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter. 1984.

After being declared legally dead, Jason bounces back to life and escapes from the morgue and heads back to the woods.

The first in the Tommy Jarvis Trilogy and Crispin Glover busting out some dance moves surprised he didn't give himself a headache or a cracked neck but if you want to pull a girl give his moves a go. Corey Feldman plays the young hero and does have good taste spying on Judie Aronson getting undressed in the house next door.

Erich Anderson plays the mysterious hitch hiker who's true intentions for being there is revealed but nearly manages to succeed. The kills are done a bit better except for the spear to the nuts but new creative ways to kill horny teens.

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[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Have you seen the first film, Offspring, Nordy?

Sequel Darlin' is really good i thought.

Not seen them I'll have to now.

[MrBarlow]

Friday The 13th V: A New Beginning. 1985.

Tommy still haunted by what happened is sent to a secluded halfway house and soon the killings begin to happen.

Ok this one got a bit of a bad write up but for me this was decent enough, they carried on the Tommy Jarvis character who has slowly manned up and learned to fight and face his demon in the form of Jason Vorhees. The kills were done differently and again more creative but using garden shears...bit of a rip-off from another horror flick from the 80s and a bit of a Scooby-Doo ending, unmasking the killer and given a back story on one. Plenty of boobies shots in this one.

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[MrBarlow]

Friday The 13th Part Vi: Jason Lives. 1986.

Tommy Jarvis digs up Jason's grave to cremate him which goes wrong, now revived Jason heads back to the only place he knows Crystal Lake.

So Tommy wanted to burn his enemy but ends up accidentally doing a Frankenstein moment on him and bringing him back to which nobody believes him. So does this one completely ignore the previous instalment, it does mention the funny farm, or have they resurrected the guy who was attempting to be Jason? either way...I was entertained with this one and always have been, guy getting impaled by a branch on a tree and leaving a smiley face, the nice somewhat iconic stance of Jason in the cemetery.

Did they use part of Mussorgsky Night On A Bald Mountain for part of the background score?

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Have a good night all

[MacBlayne]

CHILD'S PLAY

A widowed mother finds the perfect birthday gift for her young son – a Good Guy doll. Based on a very popular children’s show, the Good Guy doll is able to respond to simple questions. This one calls himself Chucky, and seems to know a lot more than the three advertised sentences.

What surprised me upon revisiting this old favourite is how insidious the film feels. It is self-aware in that it knows its own premise is ludicrous, but Chucky is not the one-liner spouting machine he is in the sequels. In fact, for the first two acts, the film barely shows any of Chucky. It is only in the final act that Brad Dourif unleashes his horror, and rather than crack puns, he unleashes vile, misogynistic statements that threaten blood-curdling violence.

Chucky is very creepy in this. There is something unsettling in watching this doll put the sweet-natured Andy (a brilliant child performance by Alex Vincent) in danger, and it seems to delight in tearing the poor kid’s life apart. While Don Mancini’s script is very fast-paced, the film does take its time in showing Chucky’s true threat. And when it does, it is a marvel of special effects. Seeing this little doll scurry out the door, or trying to stab somebody never fails to inspire awe in me. Getting this little doll to move like this must have been a Herculean task. Full marks to Kevin Yagher and his team.

That said, Child’s Play is very funny. Mancini’s script is littered with catty remarks, some slight satire of child consumerism, and a cast willing to ham it up. Catherine Hicks twists her face into every contortion when trying to deal with the little monster, while Chris Sarandon channels every screwball comedy performance into his role of a hard-boiled detective. Not the most obvious decision, but one that works extremely well.

And although he fought with producer David Kirschner a tonne, Tom Holland does a remarkable, stylish job with the direction. Holland stretches the tension as long as he can, and his chase sequences are shot with an almost Raimi-like bravura.

Child’s Play has no reason being as good as it is. What could have been a Charles Band cheapie somehow got studio backing, and even Steven Spielberg’s interest (Spielberg recommended Holland for the job, and then persuaded Universal Studios to buy the rights for the sequel). But it goes to show, that with some care and attention, even the daftest premise can become a cultural landmark.

[MacBlayne]

CHILD'S PLAY 2

Chuck’s back!

If you thought the first film was fast paced, then Child’s Play 2 will leave you breathless. There’s barely an ounce of fat in this, with Don Mancini trimming his script to the bone, but somehow leaves enough character development.

But Mancini and director John Lafia knows that we’re here for Chucky, and boy, do they deliver. Opening with a tremendous Frankenstein-style credit sequence, hardly a minute passes by without Chucky committing an atrocity or cracking a one-liner. Realising that Brad Dourif was their secret weapon in the first film, the filmmakers had Dourif act out Chucky first, and Kevin Yagher and his team animated Chucky to match Dourif’s performance. This Chucky is a marvel, and blows the last film’s already impressive efforts out of the water.

Many fans call Child’s Play 2 the best of the series, and I can see why. The lightning-fast pace, the brilliant special effects, the solid cast (Jenny Agutter and Grace Zabriskie), the suberb score, and dazzling cinematography makes it a very strong contender. However, I must admit to preferring the first film. Lafia leans mores into comedy-horror, whereas the first film was more of a horror-comedy. I miss the unsettling edge that Holland brought to his film.

That all said, I wish more horror sequels would take a page out of Child’s Play 2’s book. This is a wildly entertaining sequel that understands what fans enjoyed about the first, and ups the quota. Barrels of fun!

[Demoncrat]

Revenge Of The Dead (2014)

Starts off aping Dark Water. A coma victim returns home to a rather less than welcome reception ahem. Add an unfaithful spouse into this mix and it's isolation central baby. Some creepy bits as the story unfolds. Then it whiplashed the plot on me and I should always remember "never say never" ahem. An oddity. Indonesian btw.


Hell High (1989, Douglas Grossman)

A young girl causes an fatal accident. 18 years later, some 25 year old high schoolers goof off and stuff. Their teacher is frustrated. Great to laugh at this one was. The cliches come thick and fast.



The Lost Episode (2012)

A group of millenials return to the site of a notorious disappearance. Relating the tale of a tv crew, our tepid adventurers bored me rigid. Then Michael Rooker turned up as one of the g-g-g-ghosts. This was not enough. Avoidy.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

I can never decide if this is the work of an unrivaled genius or a sloppy mess in it's mixture of serial killer Michael Myers and Occult shenanigins. Some of the kills are excellent but other sequences are hideous, yet it's a film i return to every October so it must be watchable even if it is so far removed from the John Carpenter original that only Myers, the town of Haddonfield and a returning Donald Pleasence - for the last time - provide any connection.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Hell High (1989, Douglas Grossman)

A young girl causes an fatal accident. 18 years later, some 25 year old high schoolers goof off and stuff. Their teacher is frustrated. Great to laugh at this one was. The cliches come thick and fast.

Haha it’s a bad one this isn’t it, the prologue was the best bit, girl in her pink dress playing with her dollies. It seriously goes off the rails later. I wasn’t sure if the intention was that we didn’t know who the grown up version of the girl was???!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

MEN 2022

Alex Garland's folk horror-superb! Watch it now.

I'm not usually a fan of modern horror,but this proves to be an exception.

I don't want to give anything away,but all I will say is that Rory Kinnear is outstanding!

A breath of fresh air,it's creepy,atmospheric and in the last act turns up the gore.

FANTASTIC!