2021 Halloween Challenge

I second this suggestion.
"You know, after this beer, we should really have a beer sometime."

Yeah, "Louisiana." LOL.



If Leone invented the Spaghetti Western, Fulci invented Spaghetti Horror.

IIRC a fair bit of the movie was shot on location. I'm sure Wooley and Captain Terror can shed some light on how accurately the geography is portrayed.

From what I’ve read, it was filmed in New Orleans and surrounding areas.

If so, I stand corrected.

I read this on wiki a few weeks ago when I looked it up, so who knows how accurate it really is. 🤷

Meow all you want, Corax, the facts speak for themselves.

I vaguely remember watching commentary about the film talking about film locations and some set pieces being out of place. I then watched the film and smugly thought, "Well, that's not America." -- That is, the haze of my memory of 2-3 years ago tells me that this is what happened. My love of the Hafling's leaf has clearly slowed my mind.

I believe it was common practice in Italian cinema at the time to shoot the exteriors in the US (or wherever the movie was set) and interiors in Italy to keep costs down while still making the movie look credible.

LOL, I am just thinking of myself smugly judging the exterior shots as clearly not being America when it was shot on location.

It's okay, Corax. I can't stay mad at a tiny little kitten, even if they're wrong about one of my favourite horror movies.

Till Death, 2021

Emma (Megan Fox) is in a loveless marriage with her husband Mark (Eoin Macken), and the two of them celebrate a cold, passionless anniversary that culminates with a trip to a frozen lake house. But Emma awakens to a nasty surprise: she's cuffed to her husband who commits suicide, and then must drag his corpse around as she tries to escape two men (Callan Mulvey and Jack Roth) who have been hired to make sure she doesn't leave the lake house alive.

Deschain already made this observation in the Horrorcram thread, but this movie owes a HUGE debt to Gerald's Game, though this one is much more of a by-the-numbers thriller.

Honestly, I liked this film plenty. There are numerous suspenseful sequences as Emma hauls Mark's corpse around the house, trying to stay out of sight of her attackers. Movies with bad guys almost always have "the nice one", but here that character is much more convincing than usual. He's the brother of the main antagonist, and from the beginning he (correctly!) argues that sticking around to hurt Emma will only get them in deeper trouble. The dynamic between the two brothers is actually the most compelling element of the film from a relationship point of view.

What the film lacks, though, is enough depth for Emma's character. She seems pretty emotionless through the film. Not like she is in shock, but more like she's not all that surprised at what Mark has done to her. The problem is that we've had very little context for their relationship. We know that they met when Mark, a lawyer, helped prosecute a man who viciously attacked Emma. But what happened in the years since? What is being done to Emma is obviously cruel and unfair, but we just don't get to know her much as a person. I didn't mind that she was angry the whole time--who wouldn't be?!--but the character feels a bit one-note and doesn't necessarily grow or change during the film, nor do we learn anything particularly compelling about her.

There's also some inconsistency in terms of the realism of how injuries work. In one scene, Emma has trouble walking because she is getting frostbite on her feet. The makeup looks realistic. But not a short while later, people are taking powerful hits to their heads with heavy metal implements and popping into consciousness afterwards with literally no sign of ill effects.

I will give the film credit that Emma for the most part makes decisions that make sense, and that the things keeping her from escape are legit challenges.

While the film suffers by comparison with Gerald's Game (a far superior film with a very similar conceit), it's not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

I've only seen The Beyond once (shame), so I don't remember a lot of specifics. But I can confirm that this is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. It's a boring bridge to cross so if I ever saw a crazy lady with a dog I'd be thrilled.

__________________
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My Collection

She's not crazy, she's just blind.*


Shocked to see such ableism in this thread.*

Trust me, if she's standing in the middle of the Causeway, she's crazy.

Night of the Demons, 1988

Judy (Cathy Podewell) accompanies boyfriend Jay (Lance Fenton) to an abandoned house to attend a Halloween party thrown by outsider Angela (Alelia Kinkade). But when the group decides to hold a seance using a large mirror, things get out of hand as something (okay, look at the title) gets out of the mirror and into the teens.

I'll admit that this film was a bit of a letdown, and I'm not exactly sure why. Yes, I'm familiar with the title and that some people have affection for it. I've certainly seen the cover about a billion times.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of fun to be had. The performances are delightfully over the top. The practical effects are solidly gory. The way that the demon spreads itself out through the group is insidious and gruesome. I particularly liked a shot of all of the teens reflected in the shards of a shattered mirror.

But the film is, like so many of its brethren, annoyingly leering. Every female character appears topless or bottomless or both, or we get extended shots of their butts in thongs or inexplicable scenes of them standing around in a bra. This isn't a problem when there's any kind of parity, but 99% of horror films are too chicken for anything like that (sorry, I should say that we do get to see maybe 20% of one male character's chest). In a month where I'm watching a ton of horror, this is really thrown into relief and at this point I'm just finding it obnoxious. It's one of those elements that makes me feel like I'm not actually the intended audience for most of this genre and that's annoying. As Meegan would say,

I did like Podewell as Judy, even if she was just a bit hapless. But the final dude, Rodger (Alvin Alexis) is kind of his own version of hapless, so they make a good pair.

Fine, but I was expecting more. I hoped that more films this month would crack that 4-star rating.

She can't see where the middle is if she's blind.


Shocked, SHOCKED to see such ableism from a ranking officer such as yourself.

How much Linnea Quigley is in this?


I do like Witchboard and Witchtrap from the same director.*

Given my rant about the leering camera here, I will avoid the obvious sarcastic answer.

But she's in it a decent amount, especially in the first third or so.

LOL. What a bunch of wimps.

Also, anyone have suggestions for the people traveling to Europe film? I was originally going to be bold and watch Hostel 2, but I'm really not in the mood for torture stuff, and it feels like that's what most "people going to Europe" films end up as. I'm also not super in the mood for innocent tourists being seduced by lesbian French vampires or whatever. I don't know what I want---I'm feeling weirdly picky. And I feel like I'm oversaturated with hearing about Midsomer, so that's kind of out unless I can't find anything better.