The 2013 Annual October Horror Movie Watching Thread!!!

October 19th-

Graveyard Shift (1990)
The Strangeness (1985)
Bottom Feeder (2007)

October 20th-

Insight of Evil (2004)
Rise of the Dead (2007)

October 21st-

Salvage (2006)

October 22nd-

Cropsey (2009)
The Burning (1981)

October 23rd-

Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Sleepy Hollow High (2000)
Headless Horseman (2007)

October 24th-

The Hollow (2004)
Jack-O (1995)
Death on Demand (2008)
Halloween Night (2006)

 

October 25

 

10/19 Brain Damage (1988)
For my Halloween party I set this one up for a vote and since Frankenhooker went over so well last year this was a natural shoe in. I'd forgotten how much of a spoiler the menu is on this early disc from Synapse, if I had known I would have queued it up before hand. It went over smashingly; although I was somewhat surprised how squeamish people were with Elmer's mouth opening up. Of all the things in the movie that seemed to make the girls squeal the most. Zacherley is excellent here, really showing how versicle he truly is.


10/19 Mahakaal ( The Monster ) (1993)
This next one was pulled off my shelf by a guest and I had nearly forgotten I even had it. An Indian remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street? Who could resist? We put it up to a vote and it was unanimous. This was everything we could have hoped for, and with the kung fu even more so! The horror sequences were very atmospheric and we still got all the Bollywood staples with music, dancing, Americana badly copied and Porky's styled comedy all rolled into an epic 2 and half hour bumper car ride! The only downside was the length which nearly drove us to tears. Mondo Macabro I salute you!


10/19 Stacy ( ステーシー ) (2001)
After midnight all my guests decided they had to save themselves and ran for this lives, save for one. He hadn't had enough, so picked this one out of the lineup. You'd think after subjecting his to Hausu last year he'd know better than to let me put in a Japanese flick, even if it was about zombies. :evil: I noticed it says "Blues Campbell's Right Hand 2" in the movie not "Bruce" as subtitled. Kinda makes me wonder if the Romero squad was really named that or not now. Regardless I still thoroughly enjoyed this and noticed the SFX looked really good upconverted on my bigger screen. I love the fact that Japan's straight to video market allows these sorts of films to be made.


10/20 The Return of the Vampire (1944)
It was Bela Lugosi's birthday so I wanted to throw in something special for him. I'd seen most of my favorites already this month and some of the other standbys were screened as recently as last year so I decided to dig deeper and pull out his only other serious roll as a vampire. I liked this better upon repeated viewing. It's funny that they use the name Tesla It lays it on thick like Mark of the Vampire but without the disappointing ending. War torn England makes for an every expanding Carfax Abbey for living impaired birthday boy and I like the look and feel of that too.


Happy Birthday Bela!

 

52. Children of the Corn 6
53. Black Sabbath
54. Evil Dead (remake)

 

10.25.13 (41)

Vestron Video Classics on DVD & Blu-ray Triple Feature, Vol. 3



Splatter University (1984) (DVD)

Watchability:
Energy drain:

New teacher at University run by strict Catholic priests gets entangled in murder - somebody is slashing students and teachers. Filmed in 1981, picked up by Troma who then added 10 minutes newly shot footage in 1982, and finally released in 1984. The outcome? Messy because added silly Troma footage (punk/rock 'n' roll soundtrack, typical Troma humor minus typical Troma nudity, characters appearing/disappearing) is sticking out like sore thumb.

Mutant (1984) (DVD)

Two brothers from the city get mixed up with unfriendly backwoods-ish people while on vacation. The brothers discover toxic waste shenanigans turning small town folk into blue-skinned zombified mutants craving human blood. Solid C-Film with B-Film qualities.

The Company of Wolves (1984) (Blu-ray)

Engaging coming-of-age Folklore/Fantasy/Horror/Drama with dazzling practical f/x and dream-like, at times nightmare-ish setting. Lots of creepy moments bursting with rich atmosphere.
​

 

October 25:

The Conjuring (2013)-9/10

 

October 24:



White Zombie (1932): I bought the Blu for this but watched the "raw" version that was included in the extras. I've seen this before and enjoyed it and enjoyed it again this time. Bela is in fine form with his creepy stares and the zombies were done well enough that I'd hate to meet them in a dark alley...or anywhere else.

October 25:



Dracula (Spanish Version 1931): I'd watched everything else in the Dracula box set except this one and was curious to see how it compares to the English language version. It's pretty much the same movie but obviously with different actors and a need for subtitles. There are also plenty of small, and not so small differences. Added scenes, different performances, different lighting in some scenes, more cleavage, a slightly different ending....I'm pretty glad they changed it up a bit because I had always assumed it was a shot-for-shot movie, just with Spanish-speaking actors. In reality it's a movie that can stand on it's own and be enjoyed. Weird tho that instead of Jonathan Harker it's Juan Harker, Mina is Eva, Lucy is Lucia...but with the original surnames of the characters.

Night of the Living Dead (1990): It follows the original storyline but throws in some extra flavour, complete with a different ending. Decent remake that does justice to the original but doesn't just copy.

 

October 1st

01. Night Gallery: The Cemetery


October 2nd

02. Night Gallery: Little Black Bag


October 3rd

03. Night Gallery: Finnegan's Flight


October 4th

04. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)


October 5th

05. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)


October 6th

06. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)


October 7th

07. Night Gallery: Class of '99


October 8th

08. Night Gallery: The Return of the Sorcerer


October 9th

09. Night Gallery: Aunt Ada


October 10th

10. Night Gallery: A Question of Fear


October 11th

11. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)


October 12th

12. The Shining (1980)


October 13th

13. The Fog (1980)


October 14th

14. Christine (1983)


October 15th

15. They Live (1988)


October 16th

16. The Thing (1982)


October 17th

17. Prince of Darkness (1987)


October 18th

18. In the Mouth of Madness (1994)


October 19th

19. The Mummy's Hand (1940)
20. The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
21. The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
22. The Mummy's Curse (1944)


October 20th Happy Birthday Bela Lugosi! :evil:

23. Dracula (1931)
24. White Zombie (1932)
25. The Black Cat (1934)
26. The Raven (1935)
27. Son of Frankenstein (1939)


October 21st

28. The Seventh Victim (1943)


October 22nd

29. The Mask of Satan (1960)


October 23rd

30. The City of the Dead (1960)


October 24th

31. Night of the Demon (1957)


October 25th

32. I Bury the Living (1958)
33. Night of the Living Dead (1968)


October 26th

34. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
35. Zombie (1979)

 

October 25th: Damien: Omen II



Not unenjoyable, but a weaker sequel to The Omen than Jaws 2 is to Jaws, for instance. While Jonathan Scott-Taylor is well-cast, and while individual scenes pack a mean punch (especially the journalist's death), the script simply doesn't remember what made The Omen great. Rather than steadily building an atmosphere of dread, it introduces characters simply to off them in grizzly ways without making narrative progress. And the Prince of Darkness isn't terribly discreet about this. You'd think someone in charge would notice how people associated with the Thorne empire are dropping like flies. Basically, it's a body count movie with delusions of grandeur, but it's entertaining enough.

 

With Rifftrax coming to theaters one night only for Night of the Living Dead this week I thought I'd make it a zombie themed week.


10/21 The Dead Want Women (2012)
With Charles Band turning out a decent output these last few years I thought I'd throw in this latest one as my seasonal offering to Full Moon. While production values are still relatively high on this one the thread bare script is stretched out with so much filler in the middle you it becomes difficult to suffer through. This does have a lot of nudity going for it, not quite as much as Zombies vs. Strippers, and a solid premise with lots of potential but little of that is fulfilled here. They all can't be winners so I hope this is just a bump in the road.


10/22 Dead Snow ( Død snø ) (2009)
Something of a happy accident that I remembered this that night, as I had planned to see Warm Bodies instead. It's hard to meet expectations when you say things like "Nazis" and "zombies" in the same plot description but I think this checks off enough boxes to satisfy. The remote mountain top setting and back story are good while I also like the way this is able to make things suspenseful and funny all at the same time. There's some real character growth in here surprisingly too; not much but it's there.


10/23 Diary of the Dead (2007)
After reading the bad reviews and finding Land of the Dead less than satisfactory I had held off on watching this for many years now. Put I figured I could throw this in just before seeing NotLD again to help get myself up to speed with where Romero's been lately. The first act was a real chore to get through, with cliche characters doing cliche things. Many of the initial zombie encounters are so neutered that found myself counting the minutes left until the end. Fortunately the second act really picks up the pacing and gives the characters better things to do. By the end I was satisfied and glad I'd seen it. I like the reference to The Mummy, which Romero was at one point going to remake for Universal, and it paid off unexpectedly at the end to boot. I'd like to say more but I think I'd just be rambling at this point.


10/24 Rifftrax Live! (2013): Night of the Living Dead (1968)
I planned my whole week leading up to this day. Nelson's stand alone commentary track was pretty direr, the followup Rifftrax with Bill and Kevin was good but not stand out. This however, this Rifftrax Live!, is one of the best they've ever done. It was a little slow to start but once Ben is in the picture it picks up speed real quick. There were quite a few gasps throughout so it was also nice to see that many in the audience were still disturbed by what happens on screen even with all the humor piled in here. It's not every year I get a chance to see NotLD three times in the theaters so this year has been a real treat.


10/25 Frankenstein's Army (2013)
For Frankenstein Friday I decided to throw this on as it got muscled out earlier in the month. Zombie Nazi's twice in one week, what fun! Not reading much on this I was curious how it'd work out as a mockumentary, I had no idea it'd be from the Russian perspective. There's a lot of great ideas here but the found footage aspect is really forced and hampers it more than helps. In the end it plays out more like a video game with ineffective baddies or walking through one of those community haunted houses where stuff jumps out at you then simply paws playfully at you.

I'm glad I've scheduled next week to be all classic Universal horror, as I'm getting pretty sick of the found footage films I've watched this year. (And that was only 3 of'em!)

 

October 26th
​

63) Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

64) Halloween (1978)

 

October 25th:

Prince of Darkness & The Conjuring Blu-Rays. My husband actually gave me money so I could purchase The Conjuring. The same husband that knew that I wanted it, and he wanted me to shut up about getting it.

 

October 1st: Friday the 13th (1980) (3/5)
October 2nd: Bereavement (2/5)
October 4th: Friday the 13th Part 2 (3/5)
October 4th: Switchblade Romance (5/5)
October 5th: Return of the Living Dead (1985) (5/5)
October 6th: Gravity (3D) (5/5)
October 8th: And Soon the Darkness (2010) (3/5)
October 11th: Friday the 13th Part 3 in 2D (2/5)
October 11th: Suspiria (5/5)
October 15th: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2.5/5)
October 17th: Friday the 13th part IV (3/5)
October 18th: Grindhouse (theatrical blu) (5/5)
October 19th: Movie 43 (2/5)
October 19th: Maniac (2012) (2/5)
October 19th: Descent (2007) (2/5)
October 19th: Night of the Demons 2 (3/5)
October 20th: V/H/S 2 (2/5)
October 20th: Immortals (1/5)
October 21st: Friday the 13th Part V (3/5)
October 21st: Friday the 13th Part VI (3/5)
October 22nd: I Spit on Your Grave 2 (3/5)
October 22nd: Rites of Spring (2011) (3/5)
October 23rd: Dead Season (2012) (3/5)
October 24th: Friday the 13th part VII (3/5)
October 24th: Friday the 13th part VIII (1/5)

October 25th: Jason Goes to Hell (1/5) - Damn. And I thought part VIII was a turd. This one is actually worse.

October 26th: Jason X (4/5) - Yep, well made/plotted movie, with good dialogue (It's ok! He just wanted his machete back.). It's campy and silly in parts, but it's actually funny and well made - more action than horror perhaps, but good.

October 26th: Freddy vs Jason (3/5) - This movie is technically well crafted, but just average. I'm not much of a Freddy fan at all though.

October 26th: Friday the 13th (2009) (4/5) - The remake delivers.

 

55. Hausu

 

10.26.13
The Fog (1980) Blu-ray
The Burning Blu-ray
From Beyond Blu-ray

 

October 26th:

 

Still chipping away...
21. Halloween Havoc 1989 (7/10)
-Some good stuff here-actually the whole thing was pretty decent. Flair and Sting battling Muta and Terry Funk in the "Thunderdome" cage match was the highlight, although they made a big deal about the electrified parts of the cage and didn't do much with it. Still a solid event!
22. Halloween 3 (9/10)
-Love this one, and the Scream Factory presentation is just a true fan's dream come true. It's got suspense, a great score, some gruesome and innovative effects, laughs...and Atkins!!! Maybe this is closer to a 10. I always really get a kick out of the Horror's Hallowed Grounds revisiting of the original shooting locations when they are included as well. If you don't have this, I don't know why.
23. Halloween Havoc 1994 (6/10)
-The matches aren't bad, but this one seems to have nothing to do with Halloween (except poor Terry Funk getting slammed on a giant pumpkin in the tag match against the wretched Nasty Boys). I will say that the Hogan and Flair cage match is one of the Hulkster's best showings and one where he actually put in a solid effort!
24. Martin (7/10)
-I liked this one a lot more the last time I saw it...and it is still a quality film. However, something just left me a little cold with this viewing. The performances are good, the direction is solid...I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Sometimes they just don't hit you like they should, I guess.
25. The Blair Witch Project (910)
- I know there's lots of different opinions on this one, but I absolutely love it. It's one of the very few movies I have seen as an adult that I actually find scary! I really think the acting performnces are highly underrated by everybody involved here too.
26. Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows (7/10)
-It's been a few years since I've seen this one, and I admit that it didn't quite hold up to my previous opinions. I seem to recall it being much more ambiguous about how to interpret what actually happened in the woods. That said, I will be visiting this one again and still liked it. Definitely not anywhere near as scary as the first one, though.
27. Halloween Havoc 1995 (9/10)
-Probably my favorite so far of the series that I've been trying to blaze through this October. Certainly ridiculous at times (Hogan knocks the Giant off of the roof of the Joe Louis Arena to a certain death after they engage in a Monster Truck sumo match where the trucks try to push each other out of a large circle...but he miraculously survives to show up for their championship match later in the evening! A match that is treated to some of the most delightful overbooking I have ever seen- Luger turns heel on Savage when they both run in, the Yeti appears, Jimmy Hart also turns, etc., etc,). The show also has several other quality matches with Luger/Savage, Meng/Luger, Flair and Sting/Anderson and Pillman (Flair turns on Sting, of course, and the Horsemen reform!), and even the Johnny B. Badd match is great against DDP! One of the best old school PPV's I have seen in a long time.

 

Wow, am I behind.

11. American Horror Story: Coven - The Replacements. They're still going at a leisurely pace, which is ok with me. Might prevent it from going off the rails later. Really interesting camera work in this episode too. I actually think I need to see it again, or at least the ending, because I think I missed a major plot point I've seen discussed on other message boards.

Spoiler

Fiona killed Madison? I swear I didn't see that. Is that what happened?

12. Mill of the Stone Women. Interesting 1960 Euro-horror. Slow paced, like a lot of movies at the time, but it's good once it finally gets going. I would have liked more use of the titular setting, as it was creepy as hell but far underused.

13. The Prowler. I'd actually never seen this. Now I know why. Good god this is a shit movie. Tom Savini's effects are outstanding, but this is so damn dull and boring. The stalking of Pam in the dorm is decent, but that's about it. The scene where they're calling for the sheriff at the lake, and the guy only pretends to look for him? It goes on forever, and is ultimately unimportant to what little plot there is. Total waste of time.

 

Spoiler

I'm guessing you must have missed the last scene. She ostensibly killed Madison with the same knife she used to do in the former Superior. I say ostensibly because of course we have seen another witch come back from apparent death earlier in the season. And Madison is a Superior.

I actually like the pace of this season, and the most recent episode has certainly been the best.

Spoiler

Incest, beastiality and matricide all in a single episode?! Aliens and demonic possession seem tame by comparison.

 

Ah, that makes sense now. I did see the knife, and never made the connection.

My prediction for the season, and I'm not spoilering it 'cause I'm not basing it on any real knowledge is that Zoe is a supreme too. Only makes sense, the reluctant protagonist.