October Horror Movie Marathon

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

Christopher Lee plays a defrocked, devil-worshiping Catholic priest who convinces a man (Denholm Elliott) to sign over his daughter Catherine (Nastassja Kinski) so she will become the devils' representative on earth on her 18th birthday. How will Occult expert Richard Widmark prevent this apocalypse?

As with Hammer's previous Dennis Wheatley thriller The Devil Rides Out, To the Devil a Daughter has strong Occult themes, but this films modern day setting removes it's fantasy elements placing it firmly in the era of The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976)

To tie in nicely with watching it in October, the film is set during the run up to All Hallows Eve when the final satanic ritual will take place. The climactic showdown between Lee and Widmark is unfortunately a bit of a let down and it passes by in a blur of wildly coloured film stock, however there's plenty of occult nastiness before hand to make up for it including a naked Lee (probably a stand in) taking the virginal Catherine on the altar and a frankly disgusting sequence with a demonic baby literally giving her head. These sequences are genuinely grim and should have inspired Hammer's direction into the 80's but alas it was not to be.

The final horror film from the studio that dripped blood. To The Devil a Daughter is one of Hammer's unsung great films.

[MrBarlow]

Contracted: Phase II. 2015.

Riley who had contact with Samantha and suffers the same fate tries to find a cure and also search for patient zero before time runs out and the spread of the disease goes global. This one starts where the previous one finishes and wastes no time in getting to the point of the story and focus of a character who has now consumed with the disease and the determination to find what exactly is wrong before time runs out. Like the previous film this is set over 3 days with a bit more blood and gore involved. The acting was decent and better camera work.

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(Extra scene during end credits)

[Demoncrat]

Return Of The Evil Dead (1973)

How a demon loves a film.

A town has a festival, celebrating a historical event.
Little do they know, some rather special guests are coming ...
This one. The first Templar flick that I ever did see. On severely truncated vhs harumph (67 min!!!!). Even then ...
This BD looks wildly clear to my crusty old peepers. And intact
I miiiight just go and watch it again.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Terrifier 2 (2022)

My first revisit to Terrifier 2 and it's still absolutely superb. Good characters and ones to root for too thanks to strong performances which makes the brutality carried out on them all the more powerful.

The best horror film in years.

Thanks to your review, I've ordered The Bloody Duo set with both films, currently £11.69 at Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terrifier-B...dp/B0B8PCYJYB/

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Thanks to your review, I've ordered The Bloody Duo set with both films, currently £11.69 at Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terrifier-B...dp/B0B8PCYJYB/

I hope you aren't disappointed, Nos. Have you seen either previously?

The second film is a huge step up from the first.

If you weren't aware the character of Art the Clown was first seen in an anthology film called All Hallows Eve which is very low budget but fun and has a great central performance from an unknown actress called Katie Maguire as a babysitter.

[Frankie Teardrop]

HELL NIGHT – There haven’t been that many slashers in my Halloween run down so far, so here is one. It’s ‘Hell Night’, a bona fide entry in the first wave of the slasher cycle, though not exactly top tier. Despite its shortcomings, it’s grown on me over the years. The set-up is as generic as they come – a fraternity / sorority hazing takes place overnight in an abandoned mansion with a backstory – textbook stuff. What sets ‘Hell Night’ apart is that it merges slasher tropes with the Hammer look. The pretext of the college kids’ fancy-dress night is an excuse for the filmmakers to doll everyone up in gothic garb in a set flickering with candleflame, and it’s a lovely incongruity that gives ‘Hell Night’ a leg up when all the usual shenanigans start to unfold. It’s also a good decision on the part of the makers, because ‘Hell Night’ doesn’t deliver all that much slasher action at all, really – there are four main protagonists plus a couple of sub-plot facilitating pranksters in the background, making for a fairly meagre body count that isn’t dispatched with much graphic chutzpah. If that leaves ‘Hell Night’ with only the ‘goth atmosphere’ card to fall back on, it’s a card well played. The feel is strongly Autumnal, and even though the season isn’t referenced specifically you get all these evocative images of fallen leaves and windswept avenues. Then of course there’s the house itself, a maze of tunnels and dim corridors festooned with cobwebs, where Linda Blair wanders like a forlorn countess with a candelabra. Admittedly, a problem connected with the lack of emphasis on kills is the unwieldy runtime; you can only stare at nice looking shadows and sinister staircases so long before you start to twitch. But as much as you could make a case for ‘Hell Night’ being a bit of a yawn, there’s too much I like about it for me to feel that way. Even when it hits slight doldrums there are quirks that come to the rescue, such as the cops who don’t give a shit that a desperate guy’s just reported a murder, and little bits where we’re left wondering whether we’ve seen a ghost or another one of those unfunny student pranks. There’s also a really weird set-up where it’s hammered home that part of Linda Blair’s backstory is that she used to be a mechanic, just so that near the end she can fix the archetypal ‘car that doesn’t start’ and escape – a clever nod that falls flat because the rest of the movie isn’t particularly meta. In the end though, there’s something heartwarming about ‘Hell Night’s combination of lame slashing, vague Scooby Doo-ism and misty October vibes.

[MrBarlow]

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Break. 2009.

Set just after the Cabin In The Woods scenario outbreak, this time the outbreak of the flesh eating virus is kicked up a notch at a school with senior prom party. After the movie begins with a school bus hitting an infected human, setting the loony deputy from the first film into an actual investigation, it thrusts you into an animated opening credit scene. Plenty of gore, black humour and a infected janitor answering a call of nature in a punch bowl and a whacky soundtrack does add in a homage to a bad 80s film.

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[Justin101]

I've just come back from a long weekend in Edinburgh visiting friends, but that didn't stop me from continuing my spooktastic horror marathon

Wed 18th Oct
Trauma (1993)

Yes, I like this one, but I will be first to admit it's not actually very good. However, while you have Asia Argento struggling to speak English in one scene you have Piper Laurie chewing the scenery in the next. "You did it, you did it, you did it"

Thu 19th Oct
Children of the Damned (1964)

This time the children go multicultural! And a dog! “He didn’t get his brain from mother.”

Fri 20th Oct
Pearl (2022)

Wow, I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. I liked X when it came out, but didn't love it, but Pearl is much better in every way. Mia Goth stealing the show. It's a slow build toward a spectacular and bloody ending. Brilliant.

Sat 21st Oct
House on Haunted Hill (1959)

I introduced my friend to classic Vincent Price and he loved it. Camp and Spooky and glamorous. "If I were gonna haunt somebody, this would certainly be the house I'd do it in."

Sun 22nd Oct
Talk to Me (2022)

A bunch of bogans connect with the dead via an embalmed hand. Let me tell you now, this one was BRUTAL and I didn't expect it. All the way through I was thinking this is what the recent Evil Dead Rise should have been like. Really good, and recommended. "I woke up and Mia was, I don't know, sucking my feet."

Mon 23rd Oct
Renfield (2023)

I was a bit dubious about Nic Cage as The Count, but do you know what, he's actually really good and clearly enjoying himself. In this movie, Renfield realises that after many decades of looking after Dracula's every whim and desire that perhaps his relationship is a bit unhealthy and he looks for a way to leave. Only things go terribly wrong when he accidentally gets involved with a crime family and the police officer trying to take them down. Some hilarious set pieces, I really enjoyed it. "I wish to spend a season in Hell, where all the amusing people are. Hail Satan!"

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Halloween: H20 (1998)

A good cast, some nice in joke easter eggs - the scene between Laurie and Norma is just gorgeous - and some well done set pieces make Halloween: H20 one of the classier offerings in the series.

A sequel to Halloween II, this feels like the real deal, even if it owes a little too much to writer Kevin Williamson's Scream, but with Michael Myers in good form it's easy to ignore those details and just enjoy H20 for what it is - a fine entry in the Halloween series and also quite probably the most fun entry. An easy film to simply sit back and enjoy.

I first saw this at the cinema and it was such a joy to see horror icons on the big screen. Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, not to mention Janet Leigh, and hearing John Carpenter's iconic theme. It still thrills me just thinking about it.

Watching that finale where Strode lops off Myers head with an axe always makes me think is that really the best thing they could come up with to bring Michael back for Halloween Resurrection? He put his mask on a paramedic...what about his blue boiler suit? And the fact the eyes are exactly the same as we've been watching for the past 75 minutes.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

A double bill of wonderful black and white horror films from the thirties and forties that run just over an hour each.

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton's masterpiece. A poetic mix of Jane Eyre and Caribbean voodoo, beautifully photographed - the use of light and shadow has never been bettered with innovative camera work that belies the films low budget with an atmospheric soundtrack to match.

I Walked with a Zombie is truly a special film for me.

The Black Cat (1934)

Horror doesn't get much better than The Black Cat. This landmark achievement was the first to double bill Karloff and Lugosi and it's debatable whether either have ever bettered themselves. Lugosi is so sympathetic, never resorting to the hammy style that would blight his later work. Boris Karloff on the other hand has never portrayed evil so magnificently. His performance as the satanist Poelzig is perhaps more Crowley than Poe but it's a performance of pure menace.

From an aesthetic point of view the film is a triumph. From the superb direction of Edgar G Ulmer, to the stunning classical score to the extraordinary Art Deco set design and all topped off by some of the most notorious censor baiting potency of the 30's - torture, drugs, necrophilia, and the final, almost poetic, skinning sequence.

The Black Cat is an eerie, nightmarish masterpiece and my favourite of the classic Universal horrors.

Eureka's Blu-ray looks lovely. Now if only Warners would release I Walked with a Zombie on Blu over here.