Halloween Watch-A-Thon

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October 13th New School





Holidays (2016) is a collection of 8 short horror films told VHS style with different directors and I'll be frank I loved this one. Typically with anthologies you get one strong one and a couple weak ones but this one managed to get a bunch of different thematic horror styled films done right.

  • Valentines Day - Is about a teen girl bullied by her classmates that manages to be visually creepy even when it devolves into silliness, this could have been a Creepshow installment.
  • St. Patricks Day - Is the story of an irish teacher who becomes pregnant with...something. It's sort of a Wicker Man/Rosemary's Baby hybrid and it worked pretty well
  • Easter - How do you make an Easter horror film, I won't spoil it but the monster is very good it's inspired by Guillermo Del Toro aspect to it and I sort of now wish Del Toro would make a series of shorts
  • Mothers Day - Is the story of a fertile woman who gets pregnant every time she has sex. She then runs into a special group of women set out to "help" her. This was sort of a...maybe Stephen King short I think it's the weakest of the bunch because it needed to be a full film.
  • Fathers Day - This was the star of the series for me, a young girl receives a tape recorder with her dead fathers instructions on how to find her. This was one of the best Lovecraftian stories I've seen in a long time and it takes a simple premise and execution and ramps up the suspense.
  • Halloween - A cruel webcam home owner gets his comeuppance in this Kevin Smith story...that is very much a Kevin Smith story. This sort of succeeds where Tusk failed but it's a very similar plot but it felt a little short
  • Christmas - A man (Seth Green) tries to get a toy for his son for Christmas bad things happen getting the toy and worse things happen afterwards. This was inspired by Black Mirror and this was likely the second best of the bunch. Seth is surprisingly strong in this as is his wife
  • New Years - Reggie is a serial killer who trolls sites looking for victims that will love him. He's matched up with a lonely woman and we get the predictable twist. This was sort of a downer installment to end on but it's still quirky and fun Reggie is a bit to OTP for me
So even though it likely averages out to a 3 star film I'm giving this an extra popcorn for it's consistency and it's high points.
Holidays



Old School
  1. Witchery (1988)
  2. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
  3. Critters (1986)
  4. Halloween (1978)
  5. Night of the Creeps (1987)
  6. Alone in the Dark (1982)

New School
  1. Hell Fest (2018)
  2. Unsane (2018)
  3. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House(2016)
  4. Dead Night (2017)
  5. The Babysitter (2017)
  6. Holidays (2016)



Welcome to the human race...
"Father's Day" is so far above the rest of the segments it's not funny. I gave the whole thing a
and even then that feels generous.
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



October 14th New School




Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

About 10 years ago Drew Goddard made Cabin in the Woods, this is his second film. I'm not sure what genre you would call this many seem to think of this as a Tarantino clone because of the excessive violence, chapter structure, and excessive monologues . Though for me this felt more like a love letter to Hitchcock, this is the film he would have made in the late 70's when horror exploitation just really ramping up.

Basically this is the story of 4 guests who check into a room at this special hotel in Nevada/California. Like Hitchcock it's very much a series of suspense set pieces tied together with a lot of exposition with much of the horror coming off screen left to you imagination.

Goddard leans a little to far into social justice issues...surprise the black girl is the only moral one of the group! Though she's hardly treated like a lead or final girl.

Old School
  1. Witchery (1988)
  2. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
  3. Critters (1986)
  4. Halloween (1978)
  5. Night of the Creeps (1987)
  6. Alone in the Dark (1982)
New School
  1. Hell Fest (2018)
  2. Unsane (2018)
  3. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House(2016)
  4. Dead Night (2017)
  5. The Babysitter (2017)
  6. Holidays (2016)
  7. Bad Times at the El Royale(2018)



October 15th New School



What We Become (2015) is essentially an episode of the Walking Dead made in Denmark. What makes this worth watching is it's told from the start of the Zombie outbreak. As the Zombies come out the government comes in and quarantines the neighborhood. The families start to deal with the realities of an overreaching government that is willing to kill them but not really. The Zombies are almost secondary badguys to the Government and yet the Government still acts fairly ethically.



What I liked about the film is that it took it's time, you don't have fast zombies running into your house like 28 days later. This is more methodical and we get long ethical conversations sporadically interspersed with quality Zombie action.







Old School
  1. Witchery (1988)
  2. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
  3. Critters (1986)
  4. Halloween (1978)
  5. Night of the Creeps (1987)
  6. Alone in the Dark (1982)
New School
  1. Hell Fest (2018)
  2. Unsane (2018)
  3. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House(2016)
  4. Dead Night (2017)
  5. The Babysitter (2017)
  6. Holidays (2016)
  7. Bad Times at the El Royale(2018)
  8. What We Become (2015)



Welcome to the human race...
I saw Bad Times at the El Royale and I never once considered classifying it as horror. Suspense thriller is probably the most accurate descriptor, but I still think that's significantly different to straight horror (especially when what few horror elements there are end up being "left to the imagination", which doesn't seem like enough to make the whole film qualify).

Still an okay movie, though..



Fallen way behind on this with work lately, but found another last night.

Scream (1996) https://letterboxd.com/smudgeefc1985/film/scream/


Horror-tober 10

One I've been meaning to revisit for a while, and since it turned up on tv tonight, why the hell not? This is actually the first time I'd seen it since I got my hands on an illegal VHS copy not long after it came out, since I was too young to see it. I guess that means I was 11/12 at the time. I enjoyed it then, but I think watching it back now as a proper horror fan, I got so much more out of it and spotted all the more subtle horror references. The film manages to be both a parody, as well as a love letter to all the slasher films we know and love.

That opening has become as iconic as some of those scenes from those old classics. Drew Barrymore's 12 minute cameo at the very start is some of the finest slasher fare you'll see anywhere, as well as reviving the idea of the early shock death seen in Psycho (just one of many classics referenced multiple times). After that, the dialogue is sharp and funny, the atmosphere and jump scares top notch, and the film's smiling self awareness is just beautiful. The way the scenes in the party are intercut with the kids watching Halloween is done so well, from Randy being stalked by the killer as he watches Jamie Lee Curtis being stalked on tv, to the 'obligatory tit shot' cut with the sex scene. An excellent rebirth of a genre.




Welcome to the human race...
Saw a couple of things.

#19 - The Thing
John Carpenter, 1982


The staff of an American research outpost in the Antarctic wilderness encounter an alien creature that is capable of imitating any life form.

Original review found here.

Additional notes: I think for films I've already reviewed I'll just link to the original reviews and leave it at that unless the difference is so great that I feel compelled to knock out a couple of paragraphs' worth of retraction. Anyway, I still reckon The Thing is one of the best horror movies ever made (and still an all-time favourite). That review could use some work, but you don't need me to sell this movie to you twice.

#20 - The Thing
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., 2011


A team of researchers travels to a Norwegian research outpost in the Antarctic wilderness to investigate a shape-shifting alien only for it to break free after they arrive.

Original review found here.

Reading your old reviews can be a tough (if sometimes necessary) experience, and seeing how I originally wrote about 2011's The Thing after having revisited it for the first time since its release was an interesting experience. Originally conceived of as a direct remake of John Carpenter's iconic 1982 film of the same name, The Thing ultimately ended up being reconfigured as a prequel that traced the events leading up to two crazed Norwegians flying a helicopter into an American research station in order to kill a seemingly ordinary husky. The Americans in Carpenter's film investigate the Norwegians' station only to find it burnt-out and strewn with corpses, plus there's a conspicuously hollow block of ice. They eventually learn that this horrid tableau is the result of the Norwegians discovering a spaceship buried in the ice and excavating its occupant, which turns out to be a shape-shifting alien that consumes and imitates all other life forms it encounters (which naturally causes problems when it starts targeting the American station next). Van Heijningen's film aims to tell the story of what had happened at the Norwegian station when it was targeted by the creature better known as the Thing...but first, it's got to introduce a handful of token Americans who fly in to join the largely European (and conveniently English-speaking, with one especially inconvenient exception) ensemble already occupying the station.

Much has been made of how The Thing ultimately resorts to using CGI for its creature effects instead of repeating the original's iconic use of practical effects (though the filmmakers have claimed that their practical effects were replaced by CGI in post-production). While none of those effects have aged particularly well, I don't think bringing back the practical effects would solve enough of the film's issues to salvage it as a whole. In trying to both do right by its source while also providing something new, it ends up being unable to accomplish either goal. Tension and terror are attempted through excessively frantic pursuits that are rendered even more inert by an obtrusive score. The original's other foundational strength - that of the increasingly strained relationships between the characters as they start to suspect one another of being the Thing - is also undermined by an impatient approach that depends a little too much on an audience's familiarity with the original in skipping straight to recognisable story beats without giving the characters the time or the sufficiently effective shorthand storytelling needed to develop them beyond some extremely simplistic archetypes. Even when taking into account the ways in which this doesn't play like a hastily-retooled remake (primarily during the film's third act), it tends to raise further questions that not only plague this film but might retroactively affect its source. As such, I'm disappointed (though not overly so) that The Thing didn't hold up a second time around. It may do a good job of replicating every little detail it could from the original, but the focus on superficial replication over crafting substance or even just avoiding more contemporary horror clichés is definitely clear here.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
October 18th

Piranha 3D

Horror in the water




I saw this in the theatres, got a free voucher because the film stopped near the end and used that free voucher for the sequel. My wife...God bless her soul, saw both movies with me and HATED...ABSOLUTELY HATED BOTH OF THEM. Something about it being obsessed with naked women or something, I can't remember because I was too busy paying attention to the naked women here.

My original review pretty much sums up my opinions on this film, but I'm ticking a popcorn box off this time around because the fun factor is lost on repeat viewings. The women are still hot, the blood is still red and the violence is still violent, but the sum of its parts doesn't add up. I do appreciate it a hell of a lot more than the sequel though, so there's that.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
October 19th

Tower of Terror

Family friendly horror




5 people get into an elevator one night in 1939 and are never seen from again. What happened? A singer, her actor boyfriend, a bellhop, a child starlet and her nanny. All gone, never heard from again. Decades later and elderly woman comes to a disgraced journalist hoping he can lift up the curse she believes is responsible for their disappearance.

Made for TV Disney movies are fine. They are a cookie cutter formula that works on a basic level that entertains the family, no matter how dumb or illogical it may be. Tower of Terror falls perfectly into this category. Kids will enjoy it, nothing too scary for them except for maybe one or two scenes. One involves a headless ghost, the other appears to be feet dangling just in frame.

Tower of Terror is a film you love as a kid, then maybe rewatch it years later in your 20's and see how bad it really is, but the nostalgia makes you still appreciate it. This was my first time seeing it, but the 'feeling' of nostalgia is there. It helps that I've been on the ride at Disney, which has a Twilight Zone feel to it.

One of my wife's favourite films. She watched it with me (fell asleep at parts) and wants to watch Hocus Pocus as well.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds


Suspect's List

Oct 1. Phantoms - Small town horror
Oct 2. Murder Party - Social commentary horror
Oct 3. Creep 2. - Found footage horror
Oct 4. The Ritual - Horror in the woods
Oct 5. Mother! - Psychological Horror
Oct 6. Terrifier - Killer clown horror
Oct. 7. The Vault - Ghost horror
Oct 8. Slice - B-Movie horror
Oct 9. Freddy vs Jason - Iconic villain horror
Oct 10. Urban Legend - 90's Teen Slasher Horror
Oct 11. House on Haunted Hill - Haunted House Horror
Oct 12. The Autopsy of Jane Doe - Isolated Horror
Oct 13. Better Watch Out - Holiday Horror
Oct 14. Let The Right One In - Foreign Horror
Oct 15. House on Haunted Hill - Original to a remake horror
Oct 16. The Tragedy Girls - Millennial Horror
Oct 17. Dr. Giggles - Medical Horror
Oct 18. Piranha 3D - Horror on the water
Oct 19. Tower of Terror - Family friendly horror



A system of cells interlinked
1. Starry Eyes
2. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
3. House on Sorority Row
4. Intruders
5. Super Dark Times
6. The Babysitter
7. Malevolent
8. Night of the Demons
9. Humanoids from the Deep
10. Mandy
11. Summer of '84
12. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
13. Tales of Halloween
14. The Strangers
15. The Strangers: Prey at Night
16. April Fools Day
17. Annabelle : Creation
18. The Conjuring
19. Friday the 13th Part III
20. Paranormal Activity - The Marked Ones
21. Suspiria
22. You're Next
23. Sleepy Hollow
24. Better Watch Out
25. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
26. The Exorcist III

I like a whole lot about The Exorcist III. The friendship between George C. Scott's William Kinderman and Ed Flanders' Father Joseph Dyer, the conversations between Kinderman and Brad Dourif's Gemini Killer, the slowly building dread during the first 3/4 of the film, and of course, the now infamous nurse station scare, which still plays really well. Not a perfect film, as there are some frustrating aspects to the editing, especially in one particular sequence where I swear a scene is missing. Some of the dialogue scenes (but not all, which makes it all the more frustrating) rely far too much on close-ups, and many of the scenes end abruptly. Not sure who edited this thing, but they were annoyingly uneven in their approach. The end is also not very good, and it deviates quite a bit from the book, which admittedly wouldn't have made for very good film. I guess they had to include an obligatory exorcism scene in a film called The Exorcist III...

My wife and I also watched the entire Haunting of Hill House mini-series on Netflix this weekend, which was really well done.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
October 20th

The House on Sorority Row

Sorority Girls Horror




I'm watching this and it feels oddly familiar. Then it hits me, I've seen the remake Sorority Row. The original manages to be better and worse than the remake at the same time. Which makes it a comically entertaining watch where I can yell at the screen when girls run upstairs instead of out doors or when they spin around and fall in a hallway while trying to run away crying. Pair those bad horror writing cliches with bad acting and you have yourself a recipe for a "bad/good" film.

The sorority girls hate their house mother and plan to pull a prank on her after she's belittled them one too many times. The prank goes wrong and she dies. Instead of calling the police, they hide the body in the pool (what?!?!?!) but then the girls start getting picked off one by one. Is the house mother really dead? Did she come back from the grave? Did someone see and is exacting revenge on her behalf? Which one of these girls will become the "final girl"?

The film opens in black and white to show us this is the olden days, right? A woman gives birth in seclusion, but the doctor says the baby didn't survive. Flash-forward and this woman now runs the sorority house and she never seems happy. I wonder if that opening will come back into play sometime before the movie ends?

The kills...my God, the kills are really boring. Everyone is killed with a cane. Yes, an elderly woman's walking cane. Apparently it's so deadly that it can impale people, slice their throats and hook onto others. Both ends of this device are deadly. Maybe if the killer used their environment a bit more, then the creativity might have been there to elevate the material. As it stands, it's a pretty generic slasher flick with one or two interesting elements that can’t really bring the film together as a whole.



A system of cells interlinked
^^^

I thought it had some pretty good suspense, while also being good for a few laughs.

Meanwhile...

1. Starry Eyes
2. Return of the Living Dead (1985)
3. House on Sorority Row
4. Intruders
5. Super Dark Times
6. The Babysitter
7. Malevolent
8. Night of the Demons
9. Humanoids from the Deep
10. Mandy
11. Summer of '84
12. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
13. Tales of Halloween
14. The Strangers
15. The Strangers: Prey at Night
16. April Fools Day
17. Annabelle : Creation
18. The Conjuring
19. Friday the 13th Part III
20. Paranormal Activity - The Marked Ones
21. Suspiria
22. You're Next
23. Sleepy Hollow
24. Better Watch Out
25. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
26. The Exorcist III
27. Holidays

Ouch. Holidays was some rough stuff. I liked one of them quite a bit (Father's Day), and half of another one (Christmas), but they squandered the idea and also broke their own rule they had just set up for how the tech in the story functioned. The rest of the days were ****e.



A system of cells interlinked
Easter was OK, and yes, fairly creepy. Valentine's Day was good for a couple of laughs. St Patrick's Day was ridiculous.



Welcome to the human race...
A couple more (again gotta space 'em out more), this time a much-needed re-evaluation of a divisive franchise installment and another delve into an always-fascinating filmography.

#21 - Prometheus
Ridley Scott, 2012


In the year 2093, a scientific expedition follows clues left behind by a race of aliens to a distant planet in an attempt to find out the truth about human existence.

Original review found here.

The first time I saw Prometheus in theatres, I vaguely recall being ambivalent about it. The second time I saw it was on TV, where I was considerably harsher towards it. This third time, which happened on DVD well after I watched its sequel Alien: Covenant a couple of times to boot, may be the most I've actually liked it. At the end of my old review from 2015, I remarked that Prometheus was the kind of movie that probably needed a sequel to be considered any good - I had forgotten about that until now, but now that I've seen its sequel I think I was right to call it like that. Of course, a film should always be measured on its own particular strengths rather than rely on a sequel's retroactively-applied substance and Prometheus, while spurring a more positive reaction this time around, still tends to be wanting in this regard. Admittedly, seeing Ridley Scott return to the Alien universe suggests a degree of personal passion that's not so easily seen in his somewhat indistinguishable period epics, especially considering how his own advancing age is reflected in how much of the film is driven by a search for answers to the meaning of human existence (especially when refracted through the concept of God or a God-like creator) that would only become more urgent as one came ever closer to the inevitable. This much is obviously depicted through geriatric tycoon Peter Weyland (Guy Pearce) who funds the Prometheus expedition in the hopes of finding such answers, though one can also pick up similar Scott surrogates in the form of archaeologist protagonist Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and android David (Michael Fassbender) who have their own motives for wanting to find these very same answers.

Though Prometheus suffers a bit during a second act where its attempt to switch gears from heady space exploration to Alien-esque horror-show can get more than a little clunky (look no further than the infamous "snake" scene), more often than not it manages to make good on its promise to deliver senses of both wonder and terror at what can happen when humankind tries to meet its maker (and also fail to recognise how it may project that obsession onto its own creations, which is obviously articulated through how various human characters treat the human-created David). Alien: Covenant refines this inherently conflicted approach and delivers something bolder in the process, but it couldn't have managed that without Prometheus laying the rough but necessary groundwork. As such, the horror side of things is reflected less in random aliens showing up and killing people than in how trying to make sense of the world our creators leave behind for us is what really causes trouble (especially when it comes to the mysterious black goo that constantly conjures all-new horrors to face, often in the form of all-pervading body horror). Such appropriately cosmic horror is realised relatively well, but only up to a point. While I'll adjust my assessment of Prometheus to grant further credit to how it's somewhat successful at expanding upon the likes of Alien or even Blade Runner, I can't say that it becomes an especially great film in the process. I recognise elements that I was originally willing to overlook in favour of smugly deriding the characters' poor choices and motivations (most of which don't actually seem to have deserved that much scorn in the first place), but I also recognise that their appeal is limited and how much it plays like a rough draft for Covenant. If Covenant was good enough to retroactively highlight what Prometheus was trying (and sort of managing) to do right, then I can only hope a third entry not only gets made but brings this prequel trilogy to a conclusion that both it and its director deserve.

#22 - The Brood
David Cronenberg, 1979


While a woman receives a radical new form of psychotherapy, her estranged husband notices that a series of violent murders may be connected to this therapy.

David Cronenberg does not make pleasant films. His filmography's most iconic images include everything from exploding heads to vagina-shaped chest wounds to a man slowly and painfully turning into a giant fly. Even by the standards already set by the films I've seen of his, there's something particularly nasty about The Brood, if only because of its subtext being more informed by his own real-life family troubles than his usual cold and clinical polemics on whatever topic happens to take his fancy at a given time (though I suppose that this film does involve some criticism of alternative medicine and therapy in the process). The method of therapy shown in The Brood involves a psychiatrist (Oliver Reed) engaging in role-playing sessions with patients that somehow result in them channeling their repressed psychological trauma into the formation of visible physiological changes to their bodies such as lesions all over one patient's torso or even a possible case of lymphoma for another patient. As intriguing a concept as this is, it's all just background for the film's main plot - that one of Reed's patients (Samantha Eggar) is also in the middle of a separation from her husband (Art Hindle), who is also concerned that she may be acting physically abusive towards their young daughter whenever she visits. As if this isn't a tense enough situation already, there's also the matter of the murderous mutant child that shows up before too long...

The Brood is definitely recognisable as early Cronenberg with its late-1970s Canadian kitsch sort of (but not really) mitigating the horror that the film tries to communicate through a combination of twisted practical effects and the uncanny circumstances that produce and surround them. The extremely personal nature of the family drama at the heart of the matter proves a strong backbone to a film where the brevity means that the creepy children show up quickly and yet you're constantly left wondering just what Reed's shifty psychiatrist is really up to when his bizarre therapy starts having dire consequences. It's definitely easy to question whether or not Cronenberg's decision to bring his real-life issues into the texture of the film might have problematic implications and end up turning the film into "My Ex-Wife Is Crazy: The Movie" (especially as it reaches its grotesquely troubling conclusion), but given how much time is devoted to examining the cyclical effects of parental abuse influencing the film's narrative it does come across as a strangely empathetic treatment of the topic that doesn't limit Eggar's character to being a deranged harpy nor does it make Hindle's character into a straight hero either. In this regard, it's a step up from the hyper-sexual nihilism of Shivers and recognisable as a significant step forward for the filmmaker towards his best works, plus it's a solid film in its own right.







October 16th Old School


Sadomania is an exploitation film from the early 80's made by Jame's Franco's father Jess Franco. The basic plot is that in a foreign country attractive women are "arrested" and sent to a work camp where once their they are raped, beaten, hunted for sport and murdered. It's very similar to Salo except you have no homosexuality and the women run around in daisy duke short shorts.



Is it horror who's to say it's definitely pornography though it's actually better than most of the high class late 70's stuff.





October 17th Old School





The Woman in White (1997) is a gothic horror story adapted from a Wilkie Collins novel. It's very subtle, and British where it tells the story of a teacher who comes to an estate to train a pair of half sisters. While in the estate he falls in love with one and the other come across a strange woman in the woods.

If you are a fan of Rebecca or Gaslight or The Innocents this is right up your alley, the story unfolds with a series of twists and turns where you can kinda tell where each chapter ends.

Old School
  1. Witchery (1988)
  2. A Bucket of Blood (1959)
  3. Critters (1986)
  4. Halloween (1978)
  5. Night of the Creeps (1987)
  6. Alone in the Dark (1982)
  7. Sadomania (1981)
  8. The Woman in White (1997)
New School
  1. Hell Fest (2018)
  2. Unsane (2018)
  3. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House(2016)
  4. Dead Night (2017)
  5. The Babysitter (2017)
  6. Holidays (2016)
  7. Bad Times at the El Royale(2018)
  8. What We Become (2015)



Welcome to the human race...
I get the impression you can trace the DNA of every David Lynch movie back to this one...

#23 - Carnival of Souls
Herk Harvey, 1962


After surviving a severe car accident, a woman travels to a new town to start another job but is plagued by nightmarish visions.

On the surface, Carnival of Souls looks like it could be yet another cheaply-produced mid-20th-century American B-movie that would be right at home in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with its stilted performances and amateurish technique. Of course, in some cases that quality turns out to be a feature instead of a bug and it's very much the case with Carnival of Souls, which takes a less-is-more approach to horror that might not be altogether obvious when starting the film. The plot even seems like a simple enough slice of small-town drama as it follows Mary as she moves to a new town following her improbable survival of a drag-racing crash. She works as a church organist despite not showing any particular signs of faith and moves from one church to another, setting up in a small boarding house as her new residence. However, as she arrives in town she finds herself being haunted by strange sights and sounds, most prominently the eerily grinning visage of a pale, black-eyed man in a suit. Even if that weren't a problem, the town itself is more than a little strange; leaving aside the abandoned pavilion on the edge of town, there's also the various individuals that Mary encounters who would prove a problem (most notably the extremely presumptuous male lodger who constantly makes advances towards her from the moment they meet).

Going into any film that you know has drawn a considerable cult following can always be a double-edged sword as so many of those films earn said followings by appealing to distinctly off-kilter perspectives that you yourself may not share, hence why so many of them are so incredibly polarising. I would consider Carnival of Souls itself to be a polarising experience as it proves a strange combination of shoestring dramatics and genuinely surreal horror that thankfully doesn't stretch itself thin and keeps things to a lean eighty-ish minutes. There is something distinctly proto-Lynchian about its juxtaposition of its protagonist's seemingly mundane troubles with adjusting to her new small-town life and the surreal depictions of creeping dread that begin to follow her wherever she goes, especially when the two start to bleed together and cause severe consequences. The low-rent nature of the film not only necessitates some inventiveness on the creators' part but actually pays it off when it comes to effective horror, rendering the somewhat plodding first two acts as ultimately worthwhile preamble to a truly unsettling third act. It's a curious piece of work that definitely earns its cult following for crafting some remarkable imagery and builds up to a persistent sense of dread after a while, which definitely elevates it above similar B-movies of the era.




28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
October 21st

The Evil Dead

Personal Favourite Horror




I don't know what else to add to what I've said about this film over the years being here. This movie made me want to make movies. This movie is one that I love and adore, a trilogy that I can watch over and over. I met Bruce Campbell, got him to sign my book and told him this, he smiled and said thanks. I'm sure he hears that all the time.

Horror, pure and simple. Iconic scenes burned into my memory. Sam Raimi showing his early signs of unique talent. Bruce Campbell being a bad actor before becoming the iconic Ash we all know and love today. I love the imperfections this film has, it adds to the experience, same with the equally awesome sequel.

The Evil Dead original review here.