The 31 Days of Halloween

[Jared]

I'm going to have some catching up to do to hit 31, usually it's later in the month that I run into trouble.
as soon as Agents of SHIELD ends tonight I'm gonna start my Dracula week with the Bela Lugosi original. I haven't actually seen it since I was a kid, and I don't remember much of it. In fact, I'm not entirely sure I even saw it, or one of the others Lugosi did.

I'll definitely be seeing Dracula Begins...er... Dracula Untold, sometime over the weekend. Prior to that I think I'll also throw in the Frank Langella version, which I really like. Gary Oldman's which has highs and lows. If I can find it, the Jack Palance telemovie which I've never seen. I'd read the now-common notion of Mina being Dracula's reincarnated lover originated in that retelling.

Gotta have some Christopher Lee, of course. I'd actually like to watch the whole Hammer Dracula series in order, if possible.

[T.D.]

I'm going to get through more than 31 this year, I'm sure.

I'm doing these reviews in six words each:

1. Jeepers Creepers - Terrifying first half. Practical effects! Psychic?

2. Grand Piano - Hitchcockian fun. Finally: Good Cusack again.

3. Night of the Creeps - Cool opening. Mostly boring. Blah characters.

4. Scream - A favorite. Virtually perfect. That cast!

5. Scream 2 - Worthy sequel. Killer reveal... just okay.

6. Horror of Dracula - First Hammer! Horror swashbuckler. Cushing rocks.

7. Frankenstein - Amazing classic. Hated "abnormal brain" bit.

8. Bride of Frankenstein - Weird first thirty. Unbelievably brilliant after.

9. Prince of Darkness - Great ideas, bland characters. That ending!

10. The Fog - Lesser Carpenter. Barbeau's excellent. Nice atmosphere.

11. Son of Frankenstein - Loved Rathbone, Lugosi. Not scary enough.

[jessecuster3]

October 1: Children Of The Corn
October 3: Christine
October 4: Cujo
October 5: Cat's Eye
October 6: Thinner

October 7: Needful Things - It was pretty good, I liked the way dischord was shown, yet there was nothing particularly scary about this. This one seems to have had the best cast of all of the movies so far, we got Ed Harris, Bonnie Bedelia, JT Walsh, Max Von Sydow, Amanda Plummer, and Ray McKinnon.

What seems to be the problem with this theme this year, is that none of the movies have actually been scary.

[T.D.]

I'm doing these reviews in six words each:

1. Jeepers Creepers - Terrifying first half. Practical effects! Psychic?

2. Grand Piano - Hitchcockian fun. Finally: Good Cusack again.

3. Night of the Creeps - Cool opening. Mostly boring. Blah characters.

4. Scream - A favorite. Virtually perfect. That cast!

5. Scream 2 - Worthy sequel. Killer reveal... just okay.

6. Horror of Dracula - First Hammer! Horror swashbuckler. Cushing rocks.

7. Frankenstein - Amazing classic. Hated "abnormal brain" bit.

8. Bride of Frankenstein - Weird first thirty. Unbelievably brilliant after.

9. Prince of Darkness - Great ideas, bland characters. That ending!

10. The Fog - Lesser Carpenter. Barbeau's excellent. Nice atmosphere.

11. Son of Frankenstein - Loved Rathbone, Lugosi. Not scary enough.

12. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Cartoonishly bombastic. DeNiro has his moments.

[Siddon]

October 6th

Re-Animator (1985)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089885/?ref_=nv_sr_1


vs

The Captive (2014)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2326612/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8


Cassandra was a local girl who was kidnapped eight years ago, with many not knowing why. Now a small number of people are out to find the answers as well as find Cassandra after some clues appear suggesting she may be alive. Atom Egoyan is normally a competent director but this was just a pretentious mess. You had several decent performances but the story's structure is just so lackadaisical this was worth a skip. Canadian Thriller turned out to be quite the oxymoron.

A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus. I thought the movie progressed a bit too quickly but I genuinely enjoyed it

Re-Animtor (1985) (B+) beats The Captive (2014) F

[T.D.]

31 Days of Halloween: 6 Word Reviews

1. Jeepers Creepers - Terrifying first half. Practical effects! Psychic?

2. Grand Piano - Hitchcockian fun. Finally: Good Cusack again.

3. Night of the Creeps - Cool opening. Mostly boring. Blah characters.

4. Scream - A favorite. Virtually perfect. That cast!

5. Scream 2 - Worthy sequel. Killer reveal... just okay.

6. Horror of Dracula - First Hammer! Horror swashbuckler. Cushing rocks.

7. Frankenstein - Amazing classic. Hated "abnormal brain" bit.

8. Bride of Frankenstein - Weird first thirty. Unbelievably brilliant after.

9. Prince of Darkness - Great ideas, bland characters. That ending!

10. The Fog - Lesser Carpenter. Barbeau's excellent. Nice atmosphere.

11. Son of Frankenstein - Loved Rathbone, Lugosi. Not scary enough.

12. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Cartoonishly bombastic. DeNiro has his moments.

+ 13. Shaun of the Dead - Brilliant. Maybe best horror-comedy ever.

[Jared]

October 6. Dracula (1931)



I'm sorry, but even making allowances for the production and content values of the time, I thought this was a lousy movie. Lugosi gives the only performance that isn't terrible, as over-the-top as he is. "I never drink...wine." But moreover, it's just badly written, the third act in particular is just abysmal. The close-ups of Lugosi doing his best menacing gaze are better than most SFX, however.

[7thangel]

not doing it this year but i would rec a movie some of you may have seen I Saw the Devil

[Jared]

I can't keep my days straight, so I'll just number what I've watched so far.

1. The Lost Boys.
2. Night Angel
3. Under the Skin
4. Dracula (1931)
5. Horror of Dracula (aka Dracula)





Horror of Dracula:
Christopher Lee's iconic first round as the count, from 1958. Much better than the Lugosi version, I must say. Christopher Lee cuts an impressive figure as Dracula, but he's given shockingly little screentime, and even less dialogue, which is a shame. Like the Lugosi version, it's not a strict adaptation of the novel by any means, but here, there's really no attempt to the follow the book at all, it just takes some of the book's characters (some changed considerably) and tells it own story. And it works fine, at that. However, Abraham "Tarkin" Vanhelsing's protoge had to be the worst vampire hunter I've ever seen. Curiously, despite all the aristocratic British accents abound, this movie seems to be set entirely in Romania. Dracula isn't a stranger come to a foreign land, all the characters live in his home country. Like I said, very much its own story.

[Jared]

1. The Lost Boys
2. Night Angel
3. Under the Skin
4. Dracula
5. Horror of Dracula.
6. Dracula Untold





Dracula Untold: (just pasting what I wrote from another site, some spoilers, but you can guess most from the trailers)

It's considerably better than Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which is probably the film it's most similar to, conceptually. This has better action (you can actually see it!) and is better executed overall. Or perhaps, this is best thought of as a darker, masculine take on Maleficent's concept. As you should expect from the previews, it's a dark fantasy epic more than horror movie, but the vampism is handled quite well, I thought.

I think some stuff may have been cut to get to the action quicker. Most of the supporting cast isn't fleshed out at all. Dracula's best friend, his adviser, the monk who is maybe also his brother, the weird guy who for some reason wants serve a vampire, they flit in and out of the movie and we have barely any reason to even remember who they are.

For that matter, the movie's secondary villain is the Sultan's top henchman (who I thought was Taylor Kitch), this would have been perfect to make him Radu Dracula, Vlad's historical turncoat brother who stayed with the Turks. It would also explain neatly why the Sultan knows about vampire lore later; Radu remembers the myths from his childhood.

There also seems to be a scene or two missing in the third act, as some people who show up when it wasn't clear they were still alive earlier.

The dragon armor looks cool, I wish we'd gotten more of a sense of its significance to Vlad. He kept it locked up in a closet in a monastery miles from his castle, after all. Just because he did nasty things for (or to? not clear on that) the Turks last time he wore it? Who did he fight when he was with the Turks? Why keep it at all?

Charles Dance really was born to play a vampire..

Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee both wore a ring. Luke Evans has one as, I'm presuming, the Prince's signet, if that's the proper term. Nice touch.

I would have liked to see him turn into a wolf at some point. Maybe he can but didn't learn it yet, we only see the bat-swarm. The swarm (flock?) seems to roughly correspond to his own size, which I liked.

The vampire-vision is a pretty cool here. I've seen a lot of movies just lazily make it infra-red. But here, it's like echo-location combined with infra-red or some kind of blood-highlighter.

There's one part where I was totally hearing the Batman Begins theme in my head.

I'd say it's hardly a spoiler to reveal that Dracula isn't destroyed in his 15th century origin story. I didn't mind the present-day epilogue I might have preferred them setting it in 19th Century London, but then, THAT story has been told, and retold a hundred times by now. Also, given how Vlad doesn't seem all that shocked to be meeting his wife's apparent reincarnation, I think we can assume that the original story's events already happened. Nevermind that in the *original* story, Mina is never so much as hinted at being Drac's lost love, in fact, his only interest in her at all comes about as a means to strike at band of heroes that are hounding him. Anyway, the one thing really missing from that scene was a modern song of some sort, ideally something classic rockish. 'Sympathy for the Devil' would have worked, except Interview with the Vampire already did that, using a GnR cover of the Rolling Stone song. Maybe 'Time is On My Side', 'Paint it Black', also from the Stones, or 'Time has Come Today' by the Chamber Brothers. If you see the movie, see if you don't agree that it needed a song there.

In my head-canon, this Vlad Dracula is totally a descendant and/or reincarnation of Bard. For that matter, on a map of Europe, the Mountains of Shadow should be roughly where the Carpathians are, so Mordor could include Trananslyvania...it all fits!

[Angilasman]

I'm sorry, but even making allows for the production and content values of the time, I thought this was a lousy movie. Lugosi gives the only performance that isn't terrible, as over-the-top as he is. "I never drink...wine." But moreover, it's just badly written, the third act in particular is just abysmal. The close-ups of Lugosi doing his best menacing gaze are better than most SFX, however.

Disagree. I mean, it's probably the weakest of the main Universal films, but there's a lot to enjoy. Frye is great as the histrionic Renfield, and even when the film becomes a largely static, filmed stage-play it still drips atmosphere. I don't think the whole movie warrants a rewatch every Halloween, but I can't let the season go by without at least watching the first 15-20 minutes or so with all the Transylvania/Dracula's castle stuff.

[GrifterWC]

1. V/H/S

MV5BMTUwODAxMzMwNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTk3MTQ5Nw@@._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg
When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.

Enjoyed the segments for the most part.

[GrifterWC]

1. V/H/S
2. Storage 24

MV5BMTY4MjY3Njk4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDc3NjU3OA@@._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg
In London, a military plane crashes leaving its highly classified contents strewn across the city. Completely unaware that the city is in lockdown, a group of people become trapped inside a storage facility with a highly unwelcome guest.

Decent enough movie for the budget.

[TomServofan]

October 6th

Re-Animator (1985)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089885/?ref_=nv_sr_1


vs

The Captive (2014)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2326612/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_8


Cassandra was a local girl who was kidnapped eight years ago, with many not knowing why. Now a small number of people are out to find the answers as well as find Cassandra after some clues appear suggesting she may be alive. Atom Egoyan is normally a competent director but this was just a pretentious mess. You had several decent performances but the story's structure is just so lackadaisical this was worth a skip. Canadian Thriller turned out to be quite the oxymoron.

A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus. I thought the movie progressed a bit too quickly but I genuinely enjoyed it

Re-Animtor (1985) (B+) beats The Captive (2014) F

Re-Animator has been one of my favorite horror films since i rented it 25 years ago and such a nice adaptation of Lovecraft and one of the best zombie films there. Evil Dead meets Frankenstein, Barbara Crampton has been one of my boyhood crushes and Jeffrey one of my fave actors.

220px-Pumpkinhead.jpg

Pumpkinhead (1988): Underrated monster flick has been one of my favorite horror films since i saw it in theaters as a kid and the monster is awesome. The film is like Pet Sematary (same story of a man who lost his child in an accident and wants to bring him back yet an old wise person warns that father of the dangers of attempt resurrection) and Swamp Thing, worth seeing.

[Siddon]

October 7th

You'll Die At Midnight aka Midnight Killer aka Morirai a mezzanotte (1986)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091553/


vs

Oculus (2014)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2388715/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Oculus-Katee-Sackoff.jpg

Ten years ago, tragedy struck the Russell family, leaving the lives of teenage siblings Tim and Kaylie forever changed when Tim was convicted of the brutal murder of their parents. Now in his 20s, Tim is newly released from protective custody and only wants to move on with his life; but Kaylie, still haunted by that fateful night, is convinced her parents' deaths were caused by something else altogether: a malevolent supernatural force unleashed through the Lasser Glass, an antique mirror in their childhood home. Determined to prove Tim's innocence, Kaylie tracks down the mirror, only to learn similar deaths have befallen previous owners over the past century. With the mysterious entity now back in their hands, Tim and Kaylie soon find their hold on reality shattered by terrifying hallucinations, and realize, too late, that their childhood nightmare is beginning again...

Nicola (Leonardo Treviglio), who despite his name is a male policeman, accidentally spies his wife out shopping and decides to surprise her. Only the surprise is on him, when he spots her smooching with an afternoon lover in a lingerie shop. At home he confronts her, leading to the mother of all domestics: with him being stabbed with an ice pick, and her nearly being drowned in a basin full of washing up. Bleeding, he leaves, and his wife takes a shower, only to be stabbed to death by someone wearing black gloves and brandishing the ice pick she attacked her husband with.

The police, led by Inspector Pierro Terzi (Paolo Malco), reluctantly finger Nicola as the killer of his wife. Seemingly unaware of his his wife's death, he runs into the arms of his friend, Anna (Valeria D'Obici), a criminal psychologist and lecturer at the nearby college. She persuades him to leave, and then tries to convince Inspector Terzi that Nicola cannot be the murderer. She believes a psychopath is on the loose, and that the killing has all the hallmarks of the murders committed by a serial killer called Franco Tribbo, who supposedly died in a fire at the sanatorium he was being kept in 8 years previously.

Oculus is fairly inventive you constantly have to trust the narrator, the atmosphere works well and their is very little padding to the story. Oculus biggest failure is unlike an Insidious, Conjuring or Sinister the movie fails to have those terrifying scenes everything keeps very PG-13.

You'll Die At Midnight (I'm using the Y Title to fit the alphabetical theme) is one of the last decent gallo films. The film's a little to scattered for my liking you never become invested in the characters as you don't really have a lead. The biggest advantage is that the kills are actually well made which keeps it from being a bad movie.

Oculus (B+) beats You'll Die At Midnight (C+)

October 8th

Terror at the Opera (1987)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093677/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

vs

Life After Beth (2014)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2581244/

A hike alone in the woods ends tragically for Beth Slocum with a fatal snake bite. Her death leaves her parents and boyfriend Zach reeling. After the funeral, Zach tries to make friends with Mr. and Mrs. Slocum, but even they reject him, and he's determined to figure out why. Then he sees Beth. Her parents are trying to keep her resurrection a secret, but zombie Beth provides Zach with the opportunity to do everything with her that he didn't get to do while she was still alive. But with Beth's increasingly erratic behavior and even more strange occurrences around town, life with the undead Beth proves to be particularly complicated for her still-living loved ones.

A young opera singer (Betty) gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Verdi's Macbeth is run over by a car. Convinced the opera is bad luck she accepts, and becomes the target (in Argento's unmistakable style) of a psychopath - a man she has been dreaming of since childhood.

Aubrey Plaza is an inspired casting choice as a love struck zombie, and if you dug Fido or My Boyfriends Back you'll like this one. The biggest drawback is that the cast is filled with too many cameos of recognizable actors trying to be "quirky".

Opera on the other hand is one of Argento's last great Gallo's, and while the killer reveal didn't do much for me the hiigh quality sets did.

Terror at the Opera (A-) beats Life After Beth (B)