October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 31 & The Wrap Up

After posting yesterday's viewing I eventually realized that I overlooked a movie I had watched... doh! So here it is-

A WHISPER IN THE DARK is a gothic styled Italian film from 1976 with a very deliberate pace. It involved a family seemingly being tormented by the young son's imaginary friend. The pacing could be a turn off for many people as it is intensely slow, but interesting throughout. There is some really nice photography around the Italian villa and I'm glad I checked it out for something different.


Now onto the 31st and final day...

What better way to start off the viewing than with HALLOWEEN? I tried to watch this right as the clock struck midnight but the thorn in my side that is my Blu-ray player decided not to play it even though it has played it countless times before. So after going to bed and waking up at 5am for no apparent reason I give it another chance and of course it works. I've never watched this film at 5am on Halloween morning but it was a blast. This is one of my 2 favorite films and in my opinion perfect from the opening 1-shot scene that is breathtaking to the music cues and all of the classic shots and lines in the film. Just an incredible film that is a must-watch each and every October 31st.

I followed that up with a viewing of THE SHINING. This is another Blu that the player wouldn't play the night before that it apparently kissed and made up with by morning. I've never seen this film in HD before and it looked great compared to the countless times I've seen it on VHS, DVD or broadcast TV. Nicholson is insane, Kubrick creates a sense of foreboding dread and claustrophobia. In the entire massive hotel we only see a handful of locations it has to offer. I don't care what Stephen King thinks of it, I think it is phenomenal.

After a disappointing turn out of kids trick or treating in my neighborhood I threw on THE ENTITY. I haven't seen this film in a lot of years and had forgotten most of it. It drags a bit for me but it remains an effectively creepy ghost story and Barbara Hershey is solid in the lead role. The sound effect that plays whenever the ghost is around isn't as annoying as I feared it would be visiting this one again after such a long time.

Episode 3 of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM was next

The month long challenge that at times tried my patience, melted my brain, picked me up out of a bad mood, gave me some good laughs with friends and was altogether 31 days of fun ends with a film I find truly beautiful- THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Today's Rundown
A Whisper In The Dark - 6/10
Halloween - 10/10
The Shining - 10/10
The Entity - 7/10
The Bride Of Frankenstein - 9/10


THE WRAP UP:
Another year, another 100+ films down. The burn out I was feeling about halfway through the month luckily subsided and it became fun again quickly. Next year I need to plan for a lot less crappy movies to see for the first time, if at all possible. 2013 will be my 5th year doing this challenge along with DVD Talk and will probably be my last trying to watch 100 films in the month. While I have no intentions on stopping an October horror marathon of some sort after that, 100 in a month is draining at times, especially when it is garbage film after garbage film. We will see though, only the future can tell. Thanks to everyone that read the blog, followed on Facebook and commented on either. Hopefully I was able to give you recommendations on some films (good or bad), make you laugh or get you through the work day a little easier.

Now here are some numbers...

Total Films Watched - 120
Total TV Episodes Watched - 6 (3 each of The Walking Dead and American Horror Story: Asylum)
Total Entries on the DVD Talk list - 123 (Previous high 108)
First Time Film Viewings - 92 (76%)
Average Film Score - 6.18/10
Blu-Rays That My POS LG Player Refused To Play - The Beyond, Phantom Of The Opera, Re-Animator
Best First Time Viewings - Kuroneko, The Burning Moon, Cold Fish, The Perfume OF The Lady In Black, Horrors Of Malformed Men, Whip And The Body
Worst First Time Viewings - The Last Slumber Party, The Drive-In Massacre, Home Movie, Terror At Tenkiller, Frankenstein's Castle Of Freaks, Death Bed, Nightmares Come At Night
Biggest Surprise - Horrors Of Malformed Men (Didn't expect to love it this much)
Biggest Disappointment - Piranha 3DD (After loving Aja's Piranha 3D the premise to this sounded like gold... it wasn't.)

Thoughts To Sum It Up - Anthology movies need to make a bigger comeback, Kevin Smith still sucks, Scream Factory is awesome, Horror desperately needs some talented actors like they had in the 60s and 70s, Bring on something other than shitty shot on video slashers... please!

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 30

 The 2nd to last day is here, and leading off the lineup is THE DEVIL'S RAIN. This is a ridiculous piece of cheese with a cast full of familiar names such as William Shatner, Ernest Borgnine, Tom Skerrit, and an early appearance from John Travolta. This film is a mess of plot involving a book of names that sold their soul to the devil, a big canister of souls, melting flesh that looks like a cross between The Stuff and wax and plenty of it, and Satanic imagery. While it isn't a masterpiece of cinema, director Robert Fuest, who did excellent work with the Dr. Phibes films, delivers a seriously entertaining piece of schlock that I will enjoy watching over and over again.

Next was a traditional yearly viewing of  TRICK 'R TREAT which has quickly grown to be one of my favorite movie watching experiences. The film is full of Halloween spirit and the intertwining stories around the small town create such a wonderful atmosphere. It is a cruel film but beautiful in its cruelty. Love it.

I then checked out the Blu-ray of  THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 which I recently picked up. The Blu is a nice upgrade over the DVD and the movie is still a lot of fun despite being a complete 180 in terms of tone from the original, which is a perfect piece of horror. For every bit of tension the original had this one has Bill Moseley dancing with a corpse and eating his own scabs. It is purely of its time and doesn't pretend to be the first.

And after trying 3 other Blu-rays that my player wouldn't play finally HALLOWEEN 5 did. I recently got this on Blu as well and wanted to check it out... I just wanted it to be tomorrow sometime. I decided that in the wrap-up/stats portion of the closing post for the challenge Blu-rays my player wouldn't play will now be a category. Its time to get a region free BD player anyways. As for the movie that I did watch, it looks really good in HD and I enjoyed it, as I usually do. It isn't good in terms of technical merit but I find it entertaining just like the rest of this series, even on the shit entries. It is funny that I watched this film for last year's challenge too and had what was probably my least favorite time with it. I must have just been in the mood for something else because I enjoyed it for the slasher it is this year, just like every other time I've seen it.

Today's Rundown
The Devil's Rain - 7.5/10
Trick 'R Treat - 9.5/10
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - 7.5/10
Halloween 5 - 6.5/10

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 29

 Day 29 wouldn't be held down by the hurricane. Hopefully no one sustained any serious damage if you're on the east coast of the US. A pair of films from director Gordon Hessler made up the day's viewing. Both of these movies were on one of the MGM Midnite Movies double feature DVDs.

 First up was CRY OF THE BANSHEE which starred Vincent Price as the head of a family who has been cursed and tormented by a werewolf type creature and black magic. The movie is pretty entertaining even if the werewolf costume is hokey and cheap looking. The director does keep to quick glimpses of it to try and mask that fact though. Decent flick, that ended up being the better of the two.

The second was MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. While it had some decent performances and wasn't a bad movie it just dragged for me. Maybe another viewing when I'm not paranoid that the power will go out and I'll spend another week without it like the summer of 2011 may change my opinion on this one but as it stands it was really middle of the road and felt old and dated.

Today's Rundown
Cry Of The Banshee - 6/10
Murders In The Rue Morgue - 5/10

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 28

I figured I better get this posted before this big, bad hurricane shows us what it's made of (as of now it only light rain and small bursts of wind. Suck it Frankenstorm.)

Day 28 was rough... really rough. After a Halloween party the night before where I admittedly drank way more than any person should in one night I woke up to pancakes for breakfast but instead of eating them I fell asleep at the dining room table. Does missing out on pancakes count as a horror movie?

Anyways, eventually I did come back to life and got one movie in before I ventured out to catch the WWE pay-per-view which was absolute garbage.... sort of like the movie I watched. HUSH, a British film from a few years ago about a guy who abducts women in the back of his white box truck and takes them back to his dungeon of doom. It isn't actually called a dungeon of doom I just wanted to say that. A young, bickering couple spots this going on during a rainy road trip and decide to follow him since the police don't do shit about it after their call. The female half of the couple ends up getting abducted at a truck stop so of course the boyfriend now has to get even more involved. About half way through a young girl comes running out of the woods and gets in the boyfriend's car, exclaiming she had just escaped the man so they team up to go find the girlfriend. Soon after that the man looks at the girlfriend's phone that was left in the car and sees a text message from his best friend expressing thanks to the girl for the sex the night earlier. At this point the boyfriend should have turned around, said "fuck this bitch" and got hammered some where. Instead the movie continues, never gets interesting and ends with a bullshit happy lovey dovey shot.

Today's Rundown
Hush - 4/10

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 27

 A few beers with a Lucio Fulci/Bruno Mattei zombie flick? Yes it is a fun time and yes it can only be ZOMBI 3. I haven't watched this flick in easily 5 years, and had been anxious to watch it again. I know many folks don't like the sequels to Fulci's classic Zombie/Zombi 2 but I find them all to be varying levels of fun cheese. It was funny watching this one now as I had never noticed how many scenes it lifts from various other zombie flicks including one that was just a daytime recreation of a part from Return of the Living Dead. That is the kind of thing to be expected from a cornball Italian zombie flick of the late 80s though and Fulci/Mattei make a fun and entertaining piece of trash.

After some sleep I woke up and threw on ANGUISH. I wanted to get to this flick during the exploitation challenge back in April (did you read those posts? You should) but never did so it sat on the shelf until today. I was surprised by how well made and directed this movie within a movie was. It falls short of being an excellent horror film because arthouse director Bigas Luna spends a bit too much time on a few scenes that are of little consequence, at least within their drawn out nature and it causes the film to drag in the first half. The second half is pretty fucking great though and without going into details that will spoil the film it is a great piece of horror that offers up the much asked question of how dangerous can a movie be?

 BASKET CASE 2 was next, a sequel I'd wanted to see for a long time as I love the first. This one was decent but disappointing. It did have the same twisted sense of humor that Frank Hennenlotter is known for which was great but overall the movie just falls a bit flat when compared to the first. It did have some good action and the creature effects are really cool.

The day wrapped up with a repeat viewing of Jess Franco's FACELESS. I think Franco is very, very hit or miss with everyone but I think he does a good job making this one a piece of enjoyable sleaze. Beautiful women are abducted so that their faces can be surgically transplanted on to a doctor's deformed wife with tons of gore and just all around good family fun.

Today's Rundown
Zombi 3 - 6/10
Anguish - 8/10
Basket Case 2 - 6/10
Faceless - 7/10

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 26

 Barely beyond midnight and the day starts with THE HAUNTED PALACE. I was ready for another quality entry into the Corman/Poe cycle that I've mentioned here plenty of times this year, and that is sort of what I got. The pleasant surprise is that the story is based partially on the H.P. Lovecraft story The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward. So what we have is a Corman/Poe film starring Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr. with a Lovecraft flare. "How could this go wrong?" you may be asking yourself. Well, it doesn't. It is a perfectly solid horror film that features some good performances a slow burning ("burning" being a very key word in this film) story that Lovecraft would approve of. It is nice to be pleasantly surprised by a film that you expect to be good already.

Another day, another Bava as I waited a while to get to him this month but there have now been two in the last two days. This time was another first time viewing, WHIP AND THE BODY. This is a beautiful film in both its artistry and its simplicity. Gorgeous lighting and set pieces, fine performances and a mean spirit make this one a winner. I'm really anxious for the Blu-ray to get a release date from Kino/Redemption after seeing it.

When evening hit I went to a friend's house where a few of us had gathered for hanging out, drinks and a couple movies. First up was HATCHET 2. I'm very familiar with this movie and the first and while they get plenty of hate I find them to be entertaining slashers. I love the first and find the second to be a decently fun silly horror film with some wild kills.

Keeping with the silliness was  ERNEST SCARED STUPID. If you were born in the mid to late 80s you probably have memories of growing up with Ernest movies. I still think most of them are hilarious and this particular one, centering around a troll that steals kids and turns them into wooden figurines, has a certain creepiness to this day. It was a lot of fun to revisit it.



Today's Rundown 
The Haunted Palace - 7.5/10
Whip And The Body - 8.5/10
Hatchet 2 - 7/10
Ernest Scared Stupid - 7/10

October Horror Challenge 2012 - Day 25

A pair of films for day 25...

 I needed some Jason in my life so I popped in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 7: THE NEW BLOOD. It isn't my favorite of the bunch but I do like Kane Hodder as Jason quite a bit. You probably already know all about it... cheesy, fun, boobs and blood. And a party blower through the eye. And any slasher fan knows this is where the sleeping bag kill happens and not the hologram in Jason X. Fun late night flick.

There has been a lack of Mario Bava this month and I decided for my 100th film, Bava is a good choice. SHOCK was number 100! This was Bava's final theatrical film before his death a few years later and unfortunately it is a rather pedestrian affair. It has a lot of that weird vibe many Italian horror films have but it doesn't do much with it. There is a bit of gore and some... shocks but it is mainly a kid being really weird to his mentally fragile mother. The film almost succeeds with this part of the film since kids are generally really weird and creepy. As it is, it borrows heavily from The Black Cat lure, adds in a bit of weirdness and a tiny bit of gore but never really does anything with it all. Not as bad as I'd feared hearing some reviews but certainly not up to snuff with Bava's classics.

Today's Rundown
Friday The 13th 7 - 7/10
Shock - 5/10