Monday, October 28, 2013

October Horror Challenge 2013 - Days 24-27

Excuse my laziness as it has resulted in this post being a long one, encompassing 4 days of the challenge.



Day 24 started off with Dario Argento's Sleepless. My feelings on this film get stronger with each viewing and that is that this film is the best giallo of at least the last 20 years. It is Argento's best work of the 21st century and can stand toe to toe with the best of the genre and not look any worse for wear.



Next up was Antiviral, the debut from Brandon Cronenberg. I'd been excited to see this one for a while and I have to say that it is a solid debut that you can definitely see wear his legendary father rubbed off on him. My main complaint is that I feel it drags a little but not enough to say that I dislike the film or that it's bad. It certainly shows promise.



The day came to a close with The Watcher In The Attic, a Nikkatsu erotic horror film. I have to admit that I was incredibly tired during this one and wasn't giving it my full attention but I liked it. The film has some strange visuals and characters and ends up being a bit bizarre in the best way.

October 25th started with the Korean horror anthology Horror Stories, which I reviewed HERE.


Then came Spirits Of The Dead, another anthology film based upon stories of Poe and directed by Federico Fellini, Roger Vadim and Louis Malle. Rarely during the month long marathon do I get to see such a class of directors work together and while this is far from their best work it is worth seeking out. The Blu-ray from Arrow looks pretty nice.



A viewing of Swamphead with some friends closed out the day. I first saw this movie a couple years ago when it premiered online for a few brief hours and I've been anxiously awaiting my chance to see it again and I finally own it. If you're into trashy, hilarious and over the top campy horror you will love it.


Day 26 was a pair of disappointing films starting with The Oblong Box. When a horror film stars Vincent Price and Christopher Lee I fully expect greatness. And while the performances were excellent the story was lacking and slow. It wasn't bad but definite let down.

Take Price, Lee and add in Peter Cushing and Scream, And Scream Again is largely the same result. Excellent performances overshadowed by a mediocre film. The end of this one was very good but it was a dull ride getting there.


The Ravens had a bye week yesterday so day 27 could have been spent on a movie marathon... instead it was spent recovering from a Halloween party the night before and watching other football. I did squeeze in 2 movies, the first of which was The Purge. Thankfully I had a free rental credit so it didn't cost me anything but I still feel like I'm owed something for wasting the time on this piece of shit. How the film makers could take such a great idea and make something so boring, uninspired and predictable is beyond me and it kind of pisses me off.



The day closed with a viewing of The Mansion of Madness, from the director of Alucarda. This one was a trip to bizarro world where an insane man has taken control of a nut house and essentially turned it into a living episode of The Twilight Zone where visitors are subjected to all sorts of crazy nutty batshit crazy things.

Today's Rundown
Sleepless - 8/10
Antiviral - 6.5/10
Watcher In The Attic - 6.5/10
Horror Stories - 6/10
Spirits Of The Dead - 6.5/10
Swamphead - 8/10
The Oblong Box - 5.5/10
Scream And Scream Again - 5.5/10
The Purge - 3/10
The Mansion Of Madness - 7/10

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