2021 Halloween Challenge

Yeah, I also enjoyed it quite a bit, even if it's silly in some parts. My favorite thing about the film was how the outcome of a few characters was pretty surprising.

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I wasn't actually that surprised, despite the fact that, yes, the film does make some unconventional choices.

Well, to each their own. For what it's worth, I think I gave it a 6/10 when I reviewed it a couple years ago. I was thinking of giving up on it after the first 15 minutes as it wasn't doing much for me, but even though some of the things which annoyed me in the opening lingered throughout the film, I ended up enjoying a few things about it, including what I mentioned up above.

It's entirely explicable. It is a feature, not a bug. You can't watch an 80's horror/slasher and really expect anything else. Takoma doth protest too much, methinks.

You are also missing an interesting turn. A young African American male makes it all the way through the movie. Not only does a black man make in an 80s horror film, but he leads the way at the end. Rodger shows the actual grit needed to survive, grasping barbed wire with his hands to climb. Then he helps Judy over the wall. Black man not only survives, but saves the white dumpling.

There's Someone Inside Your House, 2021

In a small Nebraska town, seniors at the local high school are being slaughtered by a killer who wears a mask of his victims' faces and exposes their secrets to the town. A small band of misfits, Makani (Sydney Park), Alex (Asjha Cooper), Darby (Jesse LaTourette), Zach (Dale Whibley), and Rodrigo (Diego Joseph) try to figure out who is to blame. But Makani is harboring a few secrets, including a romance with local "sociopath" Ollie (Theodore Pellerin).

Chalk up another film that's not great, but certainly worth a watch.

To start with the positives, the kills are decently grisly and gory. At first, with the pattern of the victims, it seems like the film is hammering some sort of political point. And while the movie does kind of have one---about race and class--it's not the obvious message that it would seem at first. Yes, the misfits belong to the stereotypical demographics (a non-binary student, racial minorities, a gay student, etc), but they are not innocent nor are they immune to the killer's attention.

Sydney Park is good as the main character, someone who wants to fit in and values the place she's been given by her peers, but who also lives in perpetual fear that they will discover who she "really" is. She has good chemistry with Pellerin, whose Ollie lives on that boundary between love interest and murder suspect.

Again, though, this film is good but not great. I guessed the identity of the killer fairly early on, but maybe that was just luck. Still, it's always kind of a pain waiting for the film to catch up to what you've already sussed out. There's also not a ton of character development aside from Sydney, which takes away a little of the power of the ending.

This is a horror-comedy in many ways, and I would say that the humor works for the most part. But it's all that very familiar ironic, meta kind of humor. Echoes of films like Scream, if you get what I mean.

Well worth a watch.

All I mean is that

I wanna add a category to the Challenge:

A movie called The Unnamable. Which you then have to report back to Wooley on.

Well, more specifically in and around New Orleans.
It's actually one of my favorite movies filmed here.

Well, you were right, it was not America. It was New Orleans.

Um. An American Werewolf In London?

I was busy guessing that one in your screenshot game. I'm still mad that you didn't give me 10 points for it though

I don't remember that info about Jay, but it's been a while since I've seen it, so I'll take your word that his arc is telegraphed ahead of time. Even though the film had potential to be bolder though, I did admire the effort shown for a few characters. I probably won't watch it again, but I'm glad I watched it once.

Seen it already, but that would be a great pick.

I mean, I'm certainly glad I watched it. But it has that frustrating feeling of something that could have been much better and bolder.

Assuming no rewatches (so Suspiria, American Werewolf in London, and Don't Look Now are out)....
Stuart Gordon's Dagon? For filming purposes, the location was changed to Spain. You'll be disappointed by it, just warning you now, but it isn't torture porn.


Other than that, I stumbled into mine with The Black Cat and someone else did This Old House, which makes me think people traveling to old Europe might be more of a trope in those old Universal movies than I would initially guess (or maybe that was just a fluke).


If ai think of any others...
Now if it was travelling to Southeast Asia...

ETA: Presumably An American Werewolf in Paris will also qualify (but I haven't seen it. So I can't say).

Sorry, somebody else got it too, right?

Okay, fine. I guess I'll drop my vendetta with you then...for now.

I like Dagon.
American Werewolf In Paris much less.

It sounds like some of the things wearing down Tak might drag down Dagon (though I can't say for sure, since those are things I wasn't keeping an eye out for) - and also, it's just not Re-Animator or From Beyond. I guess Castle Freak would also count. Though I guess it depends on travelling to Europe because you're inherited a castle count? Which... does that mean Bava's Baron Blood count? (I can't remember where they're travelling from).
Damn. I just realized Lisa & the Devil would count for those who haven't seen it. Though it's not clear where Lisa is from...


Anyhoo. It crossed my mind that movie Spring which I've never seen nor have seen a trailer of, sounds like it would also satisfy this.



I guess getting back Don't Look Now though, I guess travelling for work because they're temporarily living there might not count. Because otherwise, there's probably a number of Argento giallos that would qualify.

I think I've found something that will work. I will keep Castle Freak on the back burner in case I have to bail on my choice.

I have seen Dagon, which I agree would be good for this.

And I will throw out there an endorsement for Spring. It's not perfect, but I really liked it.

The Village, 2004

Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) lives in a rustic village where she gently crushes on Lucius (Joaquin Phoenix). The village is ruled over by elders, including Edward Walker (William Hurt) and Alice Hunt (Sigourney Weaver). The village maintains a strict border, as the woods are stalked by mysterious creatures. As romantic melodrama unfolds among the young people, attacks and other strange happenings begin.

Oof, it's so hard to try to give an honest reaction to a film when you've been given a lot of key information ahead of time. Unfortunately, many of the plot turns in this film have long since been spoiled for me. As this is a film where certain reveals are critical to the pacing and unfolding of the story, it's hard to tell what I would have thought about it if I'd gone in without that foreknowledge.

That said, I think that even going in ignorant about the plot this film would be a little too long and not entirely satisfying in its character arcs.

The plus size is the look of the film. I liked the use of color (especially yellow and red). A sequence where a character is stalked through the woods by a creature is effective and tense. I also appreciated that the cast has some interesting and quirky choices, like Michael Pitt and Judy Greer.

I did think that the performances were a bit hit or miss. I know that Adrien Brody got a LOT of flack for his portrayal of the village simpleton, Noah. But while the performance is a choice, I think that the writing is largely to blame. Howard and Phoenix manage to kind of emote their way through it, but many characters feel not quite right, and not in a way that serves the film.

Without getting into spoilers, I think that this is a good example of a film that prioritized extending its central mystery instead of deepening its characters. I think that in a stronger film, who the characters are would tie much more strongly to the strange things happening around them. But instead the two things feel siloed, and neither entirely resolves in a satisfactory way.

Yep, throw another one in the "it was fine" pile.