31 Days & Nights of Halloween: 2018 Edition

[Jared]

October 1. Suspiria (1977)
October 2. Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
October 3. Halloween (1978)



It's not Halloween marathon without a Halloween movie in there somewhere. There's plenty to choose from, but with the new rebootquel coming out it's as good a time as any to revisit the original.

I'm used to seeing the TV version which added a couple scenes from running time. But the movie really doesn't need them, the pacing as is works perfectly. There's also something to be said for only seeing young Michael's face at the end of the prologue.
https://youtu.be/3LLO3Z0LzAo

[Sean Whitmore]

1. Tourist Trap (1979)
2. Poltergeist II (1986)
3a. Frankenstein (1931)
3b. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
4. Isle of the Dead (1945)



I rewatched this one tonight mainly because it was easily accessible, and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed it well enough the first time, but I paid more attention this time and got a bit more out of it. One of the trio of Val Lewton/Boris Karloff collaborations, this one sees Karloff as a hard-hearted Greek general who has to contend with a septic plague that breaks out among the dead and wounded of his latest battlefield. Quarantined on on an island with youir usual gaggle of mysterious characters, and faced with an enemy he can't fight, the aggressive general has to create an enemy that he can fight. This he does by allowing himself to be convinced that the plague is punishment for his group harboring a malevolent spirit among them. Moody, atmospheric, and well acted all around.

[Jared]

October 1st. 1- Suspiria (1977)
October 2nd. 2- Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
October 3rd. 3- Halloween (1978)
October 4th. 4- The Ritual (2018) 5- Phantasm (1979)




The Ritual is a recent Netflix movie, about four Brits who go hiking in Sweden to commemorate a friend. A shortcut through some ominous woods brings them across some strange pagan signs, and bad things ensue. Quality acting, production value, and a rather unique monster design puts this well above typical "idiots lost int he woods" fare.




I first saw Phantasm only a year or two ago. I liked it a bit more this time around, as I appreciate the off-kilter vibe it goes for. And a lot of the soundtrack is memorable. I'm still curious as to how well it actually leads into many sequels. It's surprising to me that the flying killer sphere is such a small part of the movie, I wonder if they show up more in the next ones since they're probably the trademark image of the franchise, after the Tall Man himself.

Given when this movie was made, I have to wonder, did the director see Star Wars and then have nightmares about Jawas?

[Tazirai]

The final Chapter, for now.

Loved this series overall. Some good story telling, and character building.

[CJStriker]

1.) Big Trouble in Little China (1986)! ~~ Blu-Ray DVD
2.) Shin Godzilla (2016)! - Blu-Ray DVD ~ English Dub
3.) Stigmata (1999)! ~ Regular DVD


4.) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)! ~~ Blu-Ray DVD

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080391/

5.) The War of the Worlds (1953)! ~~ DVD

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046534/

[Sean Whitmore]

The Ritual is a recent Netflix movie

Ha, my friend JUST told me about this movie today, and showed me the poster.

(Can we still call such things posters? They're not really posted anymore. We need a word that describes art that would normally go on a poster but instead it's for some digital-only thing. Or maybe there already is one and I don't know it)

[Sean Whitmore]

1. Tourist Trap (1979)
2. Poltergeist II (1986)
3a. Frankenstein (1931)
3b. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
4. Isle of the Dead (1945)
5a. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)



Yeah, I went right back to the well. Probably end up watching "Son Of" again before the month's out, too.

This movie's praises have been sung so loud and so long (deservedly so) that anything I might mention would be almost trite. What I will say is that every time I watch it, I notice something new. So much of what makes the film great had to be conveyed through subtext to get past the cut-happy censors of the time, that I watch every scene now thinking, "Okay, so what is it they weren't allowed to do here?"

And I'll add that I'm not terribly fond of Colin Clive in the sequel. Oddly enough, even though he's more reluctant and victimized this time around, I found the character to be more sympathetic in the first movie. There's still a hint of that hunger for knowledge in this one, but he can't hold a candle to Dr. Pretorius in that regard. And because he never really comes to terms with his wrongdoing in creating the creature, Dr. Frankenstein becomes almost unnecessary to the story. And as a result, the ending feels just a little unearned.



5b. Venom (2018)



I mean, this one doesn't really count, but he looks like a monster and bites people's heads off, so why not.

This was dumb, but fun enough. Felt more like a TV pilot with a feature-film budget than a movie, thanks to some heavy-handed editing and a script that likely wasn't much better than that of a CW show to begin with. The interaction between Eddie and the symbiote was the highlight, and some of the action was okay (though not the big homogenous-ball-of-black-CGI fight at the end).

[Jared]

October 1st. 1- Suspiria (1977)
October 2nd. 2- Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)
October 3rd. 3- Halloween (1978)
October 4th. 4- The Ritual (2018) 5- Phantasm ('79)
October 5th. 6- V/H/S/2 (2013)



Found footage anthology sequel. The first movie had a bit more variety, but this one goes bigger and is faster paced. None of the tales was a dud. My favorite was "Safe Haven", about a cult.

[AdamFTF]

I'm too late to do the challenge but I always revisit Universal Horror this time of year. Not just the popular ones like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy, but the obscure ones too. That's why today I'm watching Man-Made Monster featuring Lon Chaney Jr. as Dan McCormick, a carnival performer who gets transformed into an "Electric Man" by a mad scientist played by Lionel Atwill.

ManMadeMonster.jpg

You know, it's actually characters like this one that I wanted Universal's Dark Universe to work. I wanted to see movies like Man Made Monster, Captive Wild Woman and House of Horrors become the Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man of that Universe.

[Sean Whitmore]

You know, it's actually characters like this one that I wanted Universal's Dark Universe to work. I wanted to see movies like Man Made Monster, Captive Wild Woman and House of Horrors become the Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man of that Universe.

Heh, I could imagine a cheesey Suicide Squad pastiche where they recruit Werewolf of London, the Invisible Agent, and Karloff’s radiation-powered scientist from Invisible Ray to battle Dr. Mirakle and his army of super apes, or something.

[CJStriker]

1.) Big Trouble in Little China (1986)! ~~ Blu-Ray DVD
2.) Shin Godzilla (2016)! - Blu-Ray DVD ~ English Dub
3.) Stigmata (1999)! ~ Regular DVD
4.) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)! ~~ Blu-Ray DVD
5.) The War of the Worlds (1953)! ~~ DVD

6.) The Seventh Sign (1988)! ~~ Blu-Ray DVD


https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096073/

[Sean Whitmore]

1. Tourist Trap (1979)
2. Poltergeist II (1986)
3a. Frankenstein (1931)
3b. Sleepaway Camp (1983)
4. Isle of the Dead (1945)
5a. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
5b. Venom (2018)
6a. Son of Frankenstein (1939)



Bride is considered by many to be the best of the Frankenstein films, and maybe it is, but this one is my favorite. Poind for pound, the cast and the characters can’t be beat. Basil Rathbone as the titular son, as obsessed with proving his father right as his father was with playing God. Lionel Atwell as Inspector Krogh, a canny policeman caught between a simple, superstitious townsfolk and his own traumatic experience with the monster. And Bela Lugosi as Ygor, possibly even a better performance than his Dracula. Karloff’s monster has less to do than in previous movies, which is a shame, but everything he does do is excellent, including a scene that is both heartbreaking and extremely tense where he compares himself and Frankenstein in a mirror. Even the kid that everyone hates (who was also the voice of Bambi!), I find him adorable.


6b. Rabid (1977)



Other than seeing most of The Fly when I was a little kid, I don’t have any experience with David Cronenberg films. This is one of his earliest, and it’s got both the body horror and pessimistic tone he’s known for. I didn’t love it...women undergoes surgery and is accidentally turned into a Typhoid Mary for a not-exactly-zombies-but-basically-zombies virus. Features a really creepy scene with a baby’s bassinet.

[Jared]

I remember the Seventh Sign as movie where very little actually happens. Also, kid me was really dissapointed that Demi Moore looks visibly pregnant the whole movie.

[Tazirai]

10/6 I had to watch City of the Dead.

[AdamFTF]

Today it's Universal horror/mystery movies are ones that have a comedy element.

The Black Cat (1941)
Attachment 71871

and

Horror Island
Attachment 71872

The former is one of two "Black Cat" movies Universal made inspired (or rather "suggested") by Edgar Allan Poe's short story. This version features a mansion full of shifty relatives backstabbing each other over an inheritance and a loud-mouthed self-appointed hero who's allergic to the various cats on the estate. Also features Bela Lugosi as a creepy gardener and Basil Rathbone as one of the relatives (including a crack from the hero that "He thinks he's Sherlock Holmes").

Horror Island is about a swindler who comes into the possession of a treasure map of his ancestor's island castle. He thinks it's a hoax but decides to turn the whole thing into a money-making scheme with a "buried treasure ghost tour". He and his customers soon find that there's more danger on the island than he thinks because the place is stalked by a mysterious killer called The Phantom.

Not two of my favorite movies, but entertaining enough. Also, they both happen to be on the same disc as Man Made Monster in the Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive.