2022 Halloween Challenge

As a big fan of The Munsters (I have actually finally come to see it as superior to The Addams Family, which it is) and a pretty big Zombie supporter, nothing about this looks good to me and I just don't know if I can bring myself to watch it.

I did too, I thought there would be more from her, but I was happy to see her nonetheless.

They're both good shows, but I also prefer The Munsters over The Addams Family. It feels like its at a whole other level production-wise. The Munsters has more variety because they actually go out and interact with the community, while the Addams Family very very rarely leaves the house. The one big thing that the Addams Family does better is that the supporting characters get time in the spotlight, whereas 95% of Munsters episodes revolve around Herman.

1. Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957/YouTube)



An hour-long movie about giant crabs who absorb their victim's minds and can broadcast them telepathically. The crabs look pretty impressive compared to other Roger Corman monsters of the era, despite their goofy eyes. Like most '50s creature features, its pretty talky, but there's enough action and violence to be entertaining.

Yeah, I enjoy both, but the Addams Family basically leans into the same jokes just non-stop, like you say, never leaving the house and every show is basically just "Ok, who are we gonna have show up at their house and get freaked out by them this week? Bank robbers? A Loan Officer? A Nosy Neighbor?" Whereas The Munsters really is a pretty funny and entertaining show and the actors/characters are all very good.

I'm a fan.

Skip it. Seriously. Not essential and not loving enough to the original to give you an overall good experience.

Eeeeee! I LOVE Attack of the Crab Monsters. So quotable.

A. The opening: I went with The fog (2005): Not a great film to start with had some good parts but i mostly thought it was bland and the maggie grace character twist was kinda weird. B. Double feature: I went with childs play 2 and 3: Both of these i have seen multiple times and i enjoy them for what they are i feel like chucky got more bold as the films in the series went on and i liked the addition of kyle in the second film as another hero in the franchise and you had the young kid in the third movie that chucky victimized so i think i have always felt the same way about this franchise not my favorite horror franchise but not my least favorite either it falls somewhere in the middle as far as that goes. But that's how i got started!

Bloody Moon, 1981

One night a young man named Miguel (Alexander Waechter) sexually assaults and then brutally stabs a young woman at a party. Years later, he is released into the custody of his sister, Manuela (Nadja Gerganoff), with whom Miguel has an erotic fixation. Manuela's family is now running an international school for girls, and Miguel soon sets his sights on Angela (Olivia Pascal). But there are strange dynamics afoot at the school, and as Angela's classmates start dropping dead, Angela must question who is behind the killings.

This is a wildly uneven but mostly entertaining little slasher, courtesy of Jesus Franco.

The first 4/5 of the film is mainly made up of spaced out stalkings and slashings of the various female students. The killings are definitely all highly designed. In one sequence, a woman is stabbed in the back and the knife blade emerges through her breast. Another woman is tied up in a mill and pushed slowly into the mill's blade.

This movie just begs for some better pacing. There are some effective images throughout, such as a woman retrieving an article of clothing from a closet, only to fail to note the plastic wrapped body of her classmate. (Okay, this is a total ripoff of that similar sequence from Wait Until Dark, but's still effective. I also really liked the sequence at the mill. As the woman is being killed, a child sees that she is in danger and tries to save her. It adds an unexpected jolt to the sequence, as does the way it all ends.

The last 10-15 minutes are packed full of plot and conspiracy and character reveals and betrayals, and it's great soapy stuff but it all happens incredibly quickly. You barely have time to process a key piece of information about a character before they are then killed off by someone else with a secret.

Also, I just have to note how much I loved Angela's horrible Spanish. She has somehow made it into an international Spanish program but no one has taught her about how the double L doesn't make an L sound? She repeatedly pronounces "silla" as "silia" and I laughed out loud when the teacher tried to correct her twice, then when she still says "silia" he's just like "Um, yeah, good job."

Not terrible, but not terribly memorable either, despite some distinct kills.

Howling: New Moon Rising, 1995

In a small town in California a man named Ted (Clive Turner) arrives on his motorcycle. Soon thereafter, the locals are shaken by a series of deaths that seem to have been committed by a large wolf.

I was shocked at how genuinely horrifying this Howling franchise sequel was.

Oh, I'm not talking about the werewolf stuff. Sorry, did you think I was talking about werewolves? No no no. There are no werewolves in this werewolf movie. (Okay, to be fair there is one werewolf for about 15 seconds, and we also get some snazzy red-tinted point of view shots to imply, you know, a werewolf peeping tom situation).

What's horrifying is that I would estimate fully 73% of this horror movie consists of some of the most unenthusiastic line dancing I've ever seen. Just when you think, "Surely that's enough line dancing. My god, they must see that it's enough!" a guitar twangs and we're back in the hell that is watching well-meaning but bashful extras boot scoot around the bar where probably 95% of the film takes place.

There are multiple original songs performed in full. IN FULL!.

So what does the plot actually amount to? Well, there's a lot of talk about werewolves. Um, there's the aforementioned line dancing. There's a priest (John Huff) and a detective (John Ramsden) who do most of the werewolf conversation stuff.

Like, it would be hard to emphasize the degree to which basically nothing happens in this movie for a full 90-some minutes. Notoriously, there are several Hellraiser films that exist because someone wrote a horror movie and then the studio was like "We'll do it, but we've got to shoehorn Pinhead in there for brand recognition!". This movie feels like someone wrote a tepid western comedy musical revue, and then someone else said "But what if werewolf?".

One of those movies that makes you say, wow, this exists. I don't want to sit here and slam the people in the movie, because they clearly mostly aren't trained actors at all and they are repeatedly put in awkward positions. ("Listen to this song and sing along and also laugh like the lyrics are the most hilarious thing you've ever heard.").

I remember finding Bloody Moon deathly dull, but that was before I hopped on board the Franco train. Curious how I’d find it on a rewatch. I remember liking the one girl who hops on her bed tearing up a perfectly good dress, and the POV shot through a Mickey Mouse mask, but little else.

I initially read that as Burning Moon and I was 'oh no, don't do it, don't go there'


Bloody Moon is alright

Well, hopefully crumbs is right with it being alright, because it's already in my overly ambitious October watch-fest.

Huh. On some very initial searching everything about it seems very genitals focused:

From IMDb trivia: Olaf Ittenbach did all the stunts in this film because he didn't have enough money in the low budget to pay a professional stuntman to perform the stunts. Reportedly, he hit his testicles several time during filming.

From doesthedogdie.com (commenting on whether there is genital mutilation):

The tepid 5.1 IMDb rating is maybe the most interesting thing about it so far. Is it a cult favorite? I don't know the title, but I'm terrible with titles so that doesn't mean much.

I didn't find it dull, but it definitely feels slowly paced. And that's really driven home when the movie drops a ton of plot on you in the last 10 minutes.

2. Burnt Offerings (1976/Paramount+)



This haunted house movie is about a family who rents a mansion in the country that seems too good to be true. Like Oliver Reed's character, I would also want to leave when the creepy landlords show an unusual amount of excitement over my young son. But on the other hand, how evil can they be if they keep their pantry fully stocked with Ding-Dongs?

It doesn't take long for the family to become influenced by the malevolent spirit of the house. The father starts having violent outbursts, the mother obsesses over the mysterious old lady living upstairs, and the aunt's health declines rapidly. They also meet supernatural resistance when they try to leave the house.

I keep a spreadsheet of horror movies to watch in October and this has been on my list since 2015. I finally pulled the trigger and I kinda liked it. I liked how close and fun-loving the family was at first and it made it more tragic when things eventually go wrong. It has an all-star cast and they give fittingly intense performances.

On the downside, I thought the movie was a bit too long. The landlords make it pretty clear what's happening at the beginning, so I don't think it was necessary to prolong the mystery for two hours. Every character knows there's something fishy about the old lady upstairs, but they just let it go. The biggest surprise at the end of the movie isn't a reveal, but a couple of hilarious death scenes. Overall, I'd say Burnt Offerings is like The Amityville Horror, but with more class.

Accurate. I've watched Burnt Offerings more times than it probably deserves. I'm a fan.

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I can't imagine Burning Moon being a cult favorite with many people. It does have an extended scene in hell, which is both marvellously despicable and imaginative, and frankly impressive considering it must have about a three dollar budget. But the rest of the film is a misery slog that just mean spirited and boring in equal measures

lol

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2. A film in a series: Underworld: Evolution (Wiseman, 2006)



When compiling my list, I realized I'd never seen the Underworld sequels, so I'm squeezing them in here even though they're not pure horror movies - I consider them dark fantasy action with some horror elements. I love vampires (and werewolves) in general, particularly the way they are portrayed in the World of Darkness setting. The first Underworld movie is close enough for me to love it, I mean I can't be too picky since I'm not aware of many good movies in that style anyway. While far from an actual great movie, the first Underworld got all the basics right.

Underworld: Evolution, while not as good as the first, is still a worthy sequel. A whole lot of crazy action in this one and the first third of the movie is actually great. After that the quality drops but not too far fortunately. My only criticism is that the fight choreography could have been a bit better, and there's an over reliance on handguns. And Michael, how DARE he lay his filthy hands on our leather goddess?

Good cheesy mindless fun that delivers.

I mean, it's only reportedly. Just some hot gossip from the set of The Burning Moon.