31 (or more) days of Quarantine Halloween

April 18th - DAY 31! The House by the Cemetery (1981) Lucio Fulci


In 1981 horror icon Lucio Fulci decided that he wanted to make a film inspired by Lovecraft so he made The House by the Cemetery. Basically it involves a family who move into a spooky home and horrible things keep happening to the people around them. I hated this film the first time I saw it but I knew a big reason I didn't like it was because of the horrible dubbing and poor quality of the DVD. This time I went with the Arrow Blu-Ray release







And on Blu-ray it becomes a much more polished and better horror film. It still isn't coherent but I don't think Fulci wanted a coherent film and the best part was I wasn't annoyed so when I reached the climax of the film I got sucked in. I still don't love it but it's not watchable

Oh my god. The dubbing of that little boy is something out of this world. I'm actually planning to give this another go at some point too, and it's largely for the same reasons. It's one of the worst dubbings I've ever seen.

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April 19th - Day 32 - Play or Die (2019) -Jacques Kluger


This was actually alright this is a Belgium version of SAW where a group of people have to get out of a series of deadly rooms. The acting and characters are fairly one dimensional and shallow but it's got a great setting which is the star of the film. It's like a mansion but also an asylum and while it builds up to a predictable climax you had enough red herrings to make the trip worth while.

April 20th, Day 33 - I, Madman(1989) - Tibor Takacs

Solid effects work, a good plot decent budget and followup from a cult classic The Gate what could go wrong? I don't know who let Jenny Wright lead a film or what she did to get the role but this woman sank the film like it was the titanic. The plot of the story is a woman finds a book and killings start happening in real life that mirror the novel. You also have a killer who collects body parts from the victims in a Frankenstein's Monster type of thing. It's a good idea and it works well the killer is menacing the plot moves along well the body count is nice but wholely hell was the lead annoying. Sucks for Tibor because The Gate is a classic and he could have been a Wes Craven/Clive Barker quality director.

April 21st - Day 34 -April Fools Day (1986) - Fred Walton


This is one of those movies where the twist is fairly obvious though the execution makes no sense. A group of college kids head to a vacation where an accident strands them. Then one by one they are done in by a shadowy killer. April Fools Day is a mixed bag...this is a movie that looks really good much better than your typical slasher. We also spend much more time getting to know the collection of kids which I appreciate it has a Scream quality to it where you know everyone who ends up dying. My biggest complaint with the film is they picked the wrong final girl and the twist is pretty obvious. But still I enjoyed it.

April 22nd - Day 35 - The Snowtown Murders (2012) - Justin Kurzel


Snowtown is a very different horror/true crime film, it is truly unique. The closest I could compare the film to is Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer but it's still very different. The first thing that it does that is very different is it tells the story of the accomplices more so than the main killer. The boy who is taken in by this killer is treated with more empathy than even the victims. Also most of the crimes happen matter of factly off camera with almost little to no typical tension or build. Still this is a very good and shocking film carried by Daniel Henshall who is like this pudgy creepy menacing guy but you still see his charisma and how he draws in all of these people.

April 23rd - Day 36 - Halloween (2018) - David Gordon Green




I know I lot of people weren't feeling this one or found it to be overrated..I'm in the opposite camp I thought this was a magnificent film. This is a movie that does a number of things smartly, the first 30% of the film resets up the premise and the characters and goes out of it's way to approach the slasher genre in a different form. We get the effects of longterm PTSD on the family. A character actually points out how stupid it is to obsess over the killer of five people thirty years ago.



And then we get the payoffs and reminder of why Michael is the boogeyman how he is an evil killing machine. All the rules that most slashers have are thrown out the window as Michael first onscreen victim is a child. The set designers also do an incredible job giving five or six different locations a different and terrifying feel to it. I actually love this movie the more and more I watch it.

April 24th - Day 37 - Anaconda (1997) - Luis Llosa


Why does the snake in Anaconda look better than the FX in 90% of horror movies today. And why did Luis Llosa never make another horror film. Watching this film 20 years later and I have to say it's really well done. A camera crew making a documentary about a lost tribe head into the Amazon. The film takes it's time allowing us to get to know the characters, we're given multiple scenes early on with good suspense and the FX are really well made not just for this era but period.

April 25th - Day 38 - The Changeling (1980) - Peter Medak


The spirit of a crippled boy haunts George C Scott in this Canadian thriller. This is a quality ghost story Scott plays a widower who moves into a massive estate as he teaches at his college. He's haunted by loud noises and weird goings on. The good part about this one is it balances mystery with horror as we learn more and more about the case. The bad thing about the film is because the ghost story is so old the stakes are fairly minor. Though I was entertained throughout the film so there's that.

April 26th - Day 39 - Nightmare City (1980) - Umberto Lenzi


"A cobbled together disaster" as one reviewer called this film upon it's release in 1980. I agree however it's also brilliant the story is about a plane that arrives in an unnamed city when the doors open a group of horribly disfigured Zombies come out...however these aren't typical slow moving dead zombies these are 28 Day Later fast Zombies that use weapons. The films not brilliant it is completely incomprehensible at times and very repetitive and I would call this a sub 2 star film but the last 15 minutes are so brilliant that I'm going to give this an extra star and a half. Also this film has incredible production values for a B movie cast of hundreds and FX look great...mostly. And you have to give credit to a film that tries to tell the Zombie outbreak at the beginning rather than days later.

April 27th - Day 40 - A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973) - Jess Franco

Yeahso I have no idea what I just watchedit was supposed to be about a girl looking for her father in a mansion. But it just got way too weird for me, I kinda liked what they were going for but it was so fragmented and just confusing I have to say I'm going to have to give this my lowest score.

I've tried watching Jess Franco's film once and it didn't go well. I think it was the one called Female Vampire. I've rarely seen as amateurish crap like that and couldn't get past 30 minutes or so. I wonder if I should give him another chance (and if yes, which film, as he's done over 200).

April 28th - Day 41 - Don't Torture a Duckling(1972) - Lucio Fulci


A child killer roams a small Italian town in Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling. This was a mixed bag for me, as a mystery it fails as the perpetrator is fairly obvious...this is one of those films where they don't keep enough suspects alive until the very end. The FX are also pretty bad at times I don't know if this is the earliest Fulci I've seen but he got significantly better as the years went on. The film isn't an entire failure it handles the sexualization of children pretty well and the film has a decent scope to it. Some of the stuff here is very problematic but at the end of the day...it was fine.

Lots of fun movies in here, and also lots of stuff I've been meaning to watch. Was surprised to see Ghost Town make an appearance. I'd never heard of it until it recently aired on one of the movie channels. I recorded it because I'm always interested in western mash-ups with other genres, particularly horror. The few reviews I browsed were very poor, so it's encouraging to see that you somewhat enjoyed it.

I'm with you on Halloween (2018), although you rate it quite a bit higher. I'm not a fan of the series and I'd likely cite Carpenter's original as the most overrated horror movie ever made, yet I really enjoyed the soft reboot/remake. It felt more intelligent and nuanced than a lot of slashers, and I particularly liked how it examined Laurie Strode's PTSD and the effects it had on her family over the years. I know H20 attempted a similar angle, but much less effectively.

I can see how the dubbing would ruin The House By the Cemetery for people, but for me it only added it to the otherworldly atmosphere --- especially anytime the boy opened his mouth. There were scenes in that movie that made my skin crawl. For instance, the bat scene and the basement scene. The bat is noticeably fake, yet when it's clinging to the dude's hand, Fulci just sticks with the scene and the hysteria so long that it makes me panicky, despite the bat's obvious artificiality. It's similar to the spiders scene from The Beyond. I've still yet to watch Don't Torture a Duckling, but from what I've read of it I think there's a chance it could become my favorite Fulci.

Still yet to subject myself to a Franco film, but it's only a matter of time.

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April 29th- Day 42 - Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes(2013) Mikkel Norgaard


Jussi Adler-Olsen has written a series of books that are sort of Seven(ish) inspired stories. These films played in Denmark but they are available in the US and run feature length. I'm going to move onto series now.


Department Q is the story of a cold unlikable detective who after his partners get caught in an ambush is sent away to the cold case files. In the cold case files he comes across his new partner a Lebanesse man who is obviously put away in this department for other reasons. The first case and first film is about a rising politician that disappeared off a boat.


This is a dark story, it doesn't have a lot of twists but if you've seen the film Oldboy you know what you are getting into. The issues of revenge are powerful and the film actually has decent production values for a Danish film. You don't need to watch these films in order but it helps.

April 30th -Day 43 - Department Q: The Absent One (2014) - Mikkel Norgaard

1994a pair of twins are murdered in a prestigious school, 20 years later grief stricken their father kills himself and thus we start off with a new investigation. This one is a little different because we start with one killer who had been released but the detectives don't buy it. Once again we know who the killers are sort of it's more about catching them and seeing the crime...which is horrific. I didn't care too much for this one until the ending which I thought was very well shot and could have come out of a Thomas Harris novel. There's a lot of bouncing back and forth between the childrens story and the adults story so it feels a bit like IT...if the kids from IT were monsters.

May 1st - Day 44 - Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith(2016) - Hans Peter Moland


Well we switched up directors for the next film in the series this story revolves around a kidnapper and murderer who targets religious families. This has more of a James Patterson feel to it with the killer that seems almost inhuman when it comes to their intelligence and skill compared to the police. I'd say this is the best of the series because it encapsulates all the themes of the writer previous works, childhood trauma which leads to amoral behavior, the corruption of the innocence. This is also by far the goriest of the films the killer has a very specific weapon and the sounds of it are haunting.

I've seen a few and to be honest, you aren't missing much. I'll watch one, swear I'm done with that SOB but then something always draws me back to his crap. I have 3 of his films at 2.5/5 (Justine, Tropical Inferno and White Cannibal Queen) the rest all hover around the 1-1.5/5 mark. They're truly awful but they do have one thing going for them - complete lack of wardrobe. I think there are two I still actually want to see, Venus in Furs and Wanda, The Wicked Warden. Venus is supposed to be his "masterpiece" and Wanda has been hard to find.

I've seen the first and third Department Q films and I actually gave them exactly the same ratings. Especially A Conspiracy of Faith is a rather nice (and dark) serial killed Nordic noir.

May 2nd - Day 45 - The Incredible Melting Man(1977) - William Sachs


The Incredible Melting Man received horrible reviews and got the MST3000 treatment for it's trouble, but for me I found this to be one of those it's so bad it's good type of films. The basic plot of the story is a group of astronauts return from Space only to have two die and one become a melting zombie type creature. He runs around the California countryside killing people and avoiding capture. The star of the film is Rick Baker who did the FX and a fun fact while he was working on this film he was also working on...Star Wars. This is sort of a hodge podge of Atomic age monsters...mummy films and later Friday the 13th/Halloween type films. Is it good no...was it fun...yup.