My own personal October Challenge thread

William Castle
13 Ghosts
(1960)
+
Light-hearted supernatural horror/mystery that has a rather embarrassing prologue by the director himself on how to use the 'special' viewer (that was provided at screenings) which perfectly sums up how hokey the whole affair is. That some of the acting and dialogue are stilted really comes as no surprise whilst many of the low budget effects don't exactly set the pulse racing but there are a couple of worthwhile moments and the mystery aspect is just about enough to maintain interest in proceedings. Perhaps using the special viewer might improve it but tbh I seriously doubt it

18/35

George A. Romero
The Crazies
(1973)
+
Well enough paced horror that taps into a general mistrust of government/military presenting a reasonably believable scenario of ill-fated covert practise and subsequent attempted cover-up that despite suffering from a fair amount of poor acting and dialogue still remains an effective enough watch.

19/35

Dario Argento
Profondo rosso [Deep Red aka The Hatchet Murders]
(1975)
+
Lovely stylised giallo that may be a little too affected in places (and shamefully cruel to a certain animal in one) but is also divinely rich in others using both sight and sound to wonderful effect as the tale delightfully twists and turns on it's journey to a thrilling conclusion.

20/35

Lucio Fulci
Quella villa accanto al cimitero [The House By The Cemetery]
(1981)
+
Lesser offering from Fulci that opens well enough and certainly does have it's moments on the way to a nice enough final set piece. Sadly though the low production values and mediocre acting are prevalent too much of the time and, no matter that it's perfectly understandable here, it still feels wrong to spend the vast majority of any fillum wishing an innocent child would hurry up and get theirs

21/35

Tobe Hooper
Poltergeist
(1982)
+
Really well put together supernatural tale that admittedly does dip occasionally and some of the effects are a little weak but the vast majority is a fabulous, fun ride with a few iconic moments that even a few decades later still holds up really well.

22/35

John Carpenter
The Thing
(1982)
+
Sublime sci-horror mix that is beautifully paced with an effective score that aids the slow and inexorable build-up of tension as the engrossing story of well-worked paranoia gradually builds to it's explosive climax. Sadly, the only thing that keeps this from a perfect 10 for me are some of the effects .... not that they are bad overall and I applaud the supreme amount of effort that must have gone into them but there's no denying that they do look somewhat dated now.

23/35

Creature Feature
Alien
(Ridley Scott, 1979)

Simply divine sci-horror mix that for me is nigh-on perfection, from design to lighting and sound to the characterisations to the storyline and pace. Still as much a joy to experience today as it was during it's initial theatrical run.

24/35

Vampire
Nosferatu The Vampyre
(Werner Herzog, 1979)

Decent enough Dracula offering that is quite hauntingly eerie in places, aided by Kinski's portrayal of the count as a slave to his curse that is to be pitied as well as feared. Sadly though the score doesn't always feel entirely appropriate and proceedings are let down in the final minutes by a conclusion which compared to the overall pace feels rather rushed with the inclusion of a segment therein where both dialogue and tone feel jarringly out of place.

25/35

Sequels (1)
Scream 2
(Wes Craven, 1997)
+

Nice slasher sequel that playfully sends up itself as well as the genre and despite falling a bit flat at times in the first half still contains some memorable scenes whilst the second half is on a par with the original imo.

26/35

Slasher
Alice Sweet Alice aka Communion
(Alfred Sole, 1976)


Mixed slasher that's inescapably 70s in looks and suffers from some really poor acting plus contains far too much histrionics in the first third but despite that actually develops into a decent enough watch if one sticks with it.

27/35

Home Invasion
Inside
(Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, 2007)


Certainly visceral with a decent performance by Dalle as the antagonist but also a bit of a mess that would have benefitted from a fair bit of fine tuning on the screenplay imo.

28/35

Supernatural
Drag Me To Hell
(Sam Raimi, 2009)


Delightfully playful offering that mixes atmosphere, tension, scares and touches of the gross with a healthy dose of dark humour and tinges of the somewhat absurd all together. In other words, Raimi in fine form.

29/35