Hashtag's Halloween Challenge

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Oct 1.


Plot: A young woman is convinced an antique mirror is responsible for the death and terror that her family suffered 11 years ago.

I've seen previous work by this director before (Mike Flanagan). I thought Gerald's Game was pretty good and that Hush was a total bore. I was curious as to what this film would be like.

It's actually really solid. The focus of the film switches back and forth between Gillian (Amy Pond from Doctor Who!) and Thwaites' battle with the mirror and their troubled childhood. Amy Pond gives a really good performance and her fake American accent is spot on. The first part of the film where Tim is arguing with his sister about the logic of a 'ghost' mirror was probably my favourite part of the film. The conversation is very intense and the brother's questioning encourages the audience to question the legitimacy of what we'll see throughout the rest of the film.

The horror in the film is effective as well. A pounding, unsettling soundtrack fuels every scene it is in. The film's pretty much jump-scare free, and the ones that are there just kinda 'happen', and don't have an obnoxious loud noise accompanying them. There also appears to be sprinklings of mental illness themes (a la Hereditary), such as when Amy Pond says "It runs in the family", making the supernatural elements of the film all the more ambiguous. In the past segments they seem to explore the fear that is having no control over anything: The children are left helpless as their dad turns psychotic, and are too naive to take a stand or run away. There's also some elements of paranoia: With the brother doubting Amy Pond's memory of events and the mother constantly asking about "The woman at the office".

The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the ending.
WARNING: spoilers below
Considering this film is such a downer, it would be more satisfying to have a happy ending


Very solid film.




I feel the same. Not actually expecting good things about this at first but I definitely enjoyed it back then.



Film 2

Whistle and I'll Come To You


Plot: A snooty British man gets haunted after blowing a mysterious whistle in a graveyard.

Quite a unique watch. A T.V. movie from 1968, only 40 minutes long, and just one part of the 'BBC Ghost Stories' collection.

It has a great atmosphere and overall tone. The constant wind blasting the main character, the wet beaches, the quaint hotel etc. Michael Hordern's performance as the stuck-up rich man is very good and really shows his character: Constantly muttering and singing to himself, giving a long-winded 'non-answer' when a man asks him about the existence of ghosts as saying yes may lower his image.

The film does have quite a big problem though, it's much too slow. Absolutely nothing of importance happens in the first 13 minutes. There's also a 3 minute picnic scene in the middle of the film which also adds nothing to the film. Quite cheeky for a film to do this when it only has a very short run-time to tell its story.

In terms of horror, it's really good. The atmosphere and tone I mentioned above certainly adds a rural feel to the whole thing. There's also no music either. The dream sequence is quite frightening: Surreal imagery, disturbing noises, loud noises etc. The ending is pretty spooky too.

Really cool watch

+

If anyone cares to see it it's on YouTube:



Film 3

The Invisible Man

The effects are absolutely brilliant for their time, and still very impressive today. His appearance when he only has the bandage half-ways off is actually really creepy. I liked the comedic relief: The crazy lady and the Invisible Mans maniacal laughing when he screws with everyone. Everyone in this film is such a dumb-ass: Everytime they get played with by the Invisible Man they’re always like “WhAt? WhAt’S gOiInG oN?!?!”, when in reality everyone would drop-kick his ass in about 2 seconds.




Film 4

The Old Dark House


I'm really starting to take a liking to this James Whale guy. I love the whole atmosphere of the film: Being confined to a cold, stony Gothic castle during a heavy rainstorm, with constant pitter patter on the roof and windows. Great job also with the lighting in the house. The first three-quarters of the film are very light-hearted, while the rest of the film is actually very dark in comparison. You become genuinely curious and interested in the mysterious family that live at the castle.

+



Film 5



Major spoilers

I hadn't seen this film before last night. I nominated it because when I was still in single digits, I saw the trailer for this and was fascinated by it. When I saw this HoF I thought of the film and said *GASP* That's the perfect film to nominate!

And I don't regret it a single bit.

I absolutely love the snowman design. You may say it looks terrible, but I love it. The fact that it look more like plastic than snow, the fact that he moves in the film about as much as an actual snowman. His screechy voice. His goofy smile and angry eyebrows. It's beautiful.

I fail to see why this has a 4 on IMDB. It may be awful but I find it absolutely impossible to hate. I cant give much of a review, I just have to list all the things I found amazing.

-That completely out of place opening.
-The town is called "Snowmonton".
-Scott MacDonald looks and acts like a porno actor.
-There's a weird bicycle-pump noise whenever they do a flashback.
-The fact that the CGI blood cells scene looked pretty good for this type of film.
-The kid's oats look like mini-marshmallows mixed in dog s*it.
-'Snowballs'
-Stephen King bullies.
-Final Destination looking-ass death.
-I only 'axed' you for a smoke.
-The sound effect for Jack emerging is the Bull-squid sound effect from Half Life.
-Utterly inappropriate music during the strangling scene.
-During the strangling scene the camera zooms in on Jacks face like he's in a cartoon/porno and he's going 'hubba hubba'. You can't make this up people.
-The one cop who keeps on making creepy jokes about the corpses.
-"This watery footprint has the same DNA print as a fingerprint"
-Too many stock sound effects.
"Turn on the lights" "But I'll get scared in the dark"
-Well it ain't f*cking Frosty!
-She dries her hair BEFORE taking a bath!
-'Christmas came early this year'
-Just awful stock music throughout the whole film.
-The policeman shoots the water!
-LOOK MA! I'M A PICASSO! HAHA!
-'Fastest blow-dryer in the west'
-HE PUT ANTI-FREEZE IN THE OATS BECAUSE HE 'DIDN'T WANT HIM TO GET COLD!
-They bury him in the ground instead of quarantining him.

I'm still smiling writing this review, I'm so glad this film exists.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
It's tough to keep up when life gets in the way.
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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

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