2023 Halloween Challenge

It's okay with me.

10-26-23

A film from North America: Halloween II (Rosenthal, 1981)

Some light spoilers. Halloween II trades the heavy atmosphere and minimalism of the first one, for a movie with many more close-up graphic kills and less suspense. It begins literally immediately after the ending of the first, which I appreciate a lot and wish more sequels would do. Overall the screenplay is very good, and particularly the first 30 minutes are highly enjoyable to me with all the outdoor scenes and camera following people walking around and into houses. We then reach the movie's main setting, the local hospital, and here things continue very well while we get introduced to the nurses. Soon however, the movie takes a turn for the worse by losing momentum and the hospital setting starts to feel dull and unmemorable, especially compared to the movie's outdoor scenes. The biggest flaw are all the constant closeups of Myers, which it demystifies him and seriously takes away from the suspense and scare factor. I think they should instead have gone for point of view shots. Combined with seeing too much of Curtis's character limping and fiddling with doors and keys, the experience quickly feels monotonous and repetitive.

At the end of the day, the movie leaves me disappointed because the screenplay had potential to be much better realized. For a slasher film however, it's fine entertainment. The wonderful cinematography combined with well-used sound effects and soundtrack makes it a solid watch.

culliford

It's okay with me.

10-26-23

A film directed by Terence Fisher: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

Good cheesy fun.

culliford

It's okay with me.

10-27-23

From a director who has won an oscar: The Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984)

A very uneven but powerful fantasy horror in the spirit of old european fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. Fantastic atmosphere, set design, costumes and physical effects. The tone varies between dark, bizarre, peaceful, sad, and resolving. Just be aware portions of the film are a bit uncompelling, especially the first 20 minutes.

Siddon

Registered User

10-28-23

The House That Screamed (1969)
Narciso Ib��ez-Serrador

I think the 60's are often overlooked when it comes to horror. You had HAMMER in the UK releasing solid work but generally speaking it's between the golden age of 50's B movies and the hardcore rebellion of the 70's. To me this is one of the overlooked and underapprechiated haunted house film. And a prototype for the Slasher genre.

The story takes place in a school for troubled girls and this is the majority of the film. We really dive into the characters and house that these young women are living in. It has this weird foreboding creepy style to it, with serious sexual undertones thrown around (including a shower scene which is pretty remarkable). You have this sense of dread throughout the film and then the third act just goes bonkers. The film also ends on the perfect note something a number of horror films struggle with. Highly recommend you check this one out.

Siddon

Registered User

10-29-23

Viral (2016)
Henry Joost

Man this movie got screwed by timing, had this film come out post pandemic I think it would have been a hit. Sadly this movie came out pre-pandemic. But Henry Joost put together a solid little B-Film. It's not great but it tells the story of a virus that spreads by vomiting blood and a bunch of dumb kids don't pay attention. The film has decent production values nice big cast the CGI looked good you had multiple settings.

Siddon

Registered User

10-29-23

Huesera: The Bone Woman
Pick a film from Another continent

Likely shouldn't have watched this the day after the South Park episode. So this is the top horror film on Rotten Tomato's and...it's okay. This is the story of a woman of color who is pregnant and haunted by demons and visions. In the second act twist the boyfriend is removed from the story and it turns out the lead actress was gay. Now why did they do this...was to cross off another type of horror (queer horror) to go along with female and horror from a person of colour....the cycnic in me says yes.

With that said if you remove the cheap pandering the film is solid. The effects are really good and restrained. The lead is solid and the more we go into the world the better the story gets. The narative doesn't come together completely but I would recommend this one if you get the chance to make up your own mind on this one.

Siddon

Registered User

10-30-23

Grave Encounters (2011)
The Vicious Brothers

Found footage is typically a low form of horror the idea that people would film themselves getting murdered is inherently silly. Grave Encounters on the other hand works around this by telling the story of a ghost hunting show The crew is then locked into a mental asylum overnight and well...bad things happen.

I actually love this movie, they use bad acting at the start to contrast the good acting as the film goes along. It's shot in a cheap style which contrasts the solid FX as the film progresses. It's a sppoky film that is effective.

Siddon

Registered User

10-31-23

Rope (1948)
Watch a film released in 1948 (75 years ago)

Sometimes great horror isn't what you see but what you know. In Hitchcocks rope the film is basically bloodless and 90% of the story is just three guys talking in a room, but man is it effective. This film didn't receive a single Oscar nomination...that's crazy. I saw Hamlet this is better than Hamlet (the winner from that year).

Maybe the voters thought the film was too gimmicky but the idea of a single shot and long conversations really worked out well for this story. So this is a film I would highly recommend especially for this year where horror options were a bit limited.

Siddon

Registered User

10-31-23

Oxygen (2021)
Alexandre Aja

A woman wakes up in a pod and is told by the computer that she is slowly running out of Oxygen, she has no memory barely any movement and she has to fight the pods security protocols to sedate her. So Aja has a pretty good resume of horror films that vary, this one made very uncomfortable as I get claustrophobic easily. And while the film is very cheap and low budget it doesn't really look that way so if you wish to do a deep dive in Netflix this is a good one.

Siddon

Registered User

10-31-23

Society(1989)
Brian Yuzna

Peoplehad been recomending this film to me for years. I can kinda see where they are coming from, this is the story of Billy who starts to lose his friends by some strange occurrences from his family. It felt to me like a Freddy Krueger bit stretched out for 90 minutes and didn't really do much for me. It tried for something and it featured some decent sex and nudity (it could have used more to be honest). That's not me being a pervert but rather the third act should have been more horifying but because it didn't have enough sex in...it just felt silly. I wouldn't recommend this one. Society just wasn't for me.

Siddon

Registered User

10-31-23

Sisters (1972)
Brian De Palma

Brian De Palma's first horror film I would argue is his best. Inspired by Hitchcock this is the story of a pair of twins, one homicidal the other not. De Palma does a lot in this film and it just flys by. The first act is perhaps a masterpiece but it goes down hill slightly. You have this weird doctor character that doesn't really work

Sedai

A system of cells interlinked

10-31-23

So close, but yet so far.

Not quite going to make it, with just two films left on my challenge. I will be able to get one more in tonight, but my wife seems to have no interest in watching either a film from 1948, or more so, a film sold as horror that turned out to be something else. On Halloween Night, my wife wants to watch classic/fun slashers or something of that nature.

We will end up getting 31 films in, but will miss two categories.

Anyway: Another fun October challenge!

Thanks to @Siddon!

__________________

�Film can't just be a long line of bliss. There's something we all like about the human struggle.� ― David Lynch

Siddon

Registered User

10-31-23

Fascination (1979)
Jean Rollin

Arrow ran a trailer for Jean Rollin's work which is horror/erotic type films and I thought I would give him a shot. The first one I saw was Fascination which is a period piece about a guy held up in a Castle being hunted by people he wronged while dealing with a pair of strange women. I was blown away maybe it's just boredom from modern films but this was a creative gorgeous dream of a film. It was like a high art slasher with really high quality nudity and cinematography I mean some of these shots look like they came from a 200 million dollar movie.

Wooley

Victim of The Night

10-31-23

Originally Posted by Siddon

When Rollin's films hit they really hit for me for the same reason, "creative gorgeous dreams". I like Lips Of Blood, The Iron Rose, The Nude Vampire, Shiver Of The Vampires, Requiem For A Vampire, and maybe a couple/few others.

culliford