The 31 Days of Halloween (movies)

[simbob4000]

Isn't it kind of a stretch to include a killer bear movie for Halloween? Why not use Anthony Hopkins/Adam Baldwin in "the Edge"?

I'd sooner nominate a film about the cannabilistic nature of the Wendigo legend: Ravenous

Killer animal movies are a huge sub-genre of horror movies.

[Mr.Majestic]

Style and Dogma play at the heart of Hardware a dystopian horror film about a killer robot. Well actually it's less about the killer robot and more about society Richard Stanley is more focused on exploring this future world than actually making a scary film. A poor woman accepts a robot head from her boyfriend, eventually the robot repairs itself and stalks and murders the woman's friends and neighbors. The movie is highly stylized which is used to hide it's obvious budget restraints. For me I sort of wish that Stanley would continue telling stories in this world.

I saw this at an obscure sci-fi film festival way back when. IIRC the same one I saw Meet The Feebles. Found it confusing and boring.

Dead Again is a 1991 British-American romantic fantasy neo-noir mystery thriller film written by Scott Frank and directed by Kenneth Branagh. It stars Branagh and his then-wife Emma Thompson, and co-stars Andy García, Derek Jacobi, Wayne Knight, and Robin Williams.

A series of newspaper articles details the 1949 murder of pianist Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson), who was stabbed with a pair of antique scissors during an apparent robbery. An anklet worth thousands of dollars is missing. Her husband, composer Roman Strauss (Kenneth Branagh), is found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. Before his execution, Roman is visited by reporter Gray Baker (Andy Garcia). When asked if he killed Margaret, Roman leans in to whisper in Gray’s ear. Baker does not reveal Roman's answer at the time.

Forty years later, Mike Church (Branagh), a private detective, is asked to investigate the identity of a woman (Thompson) who has appeared at the Catholic orphanage where Mike grew up. She has amnesia, is unable to speak, and suffers from violent nightmares.

Branagh balances almost a half dozen different genres in his story of reincarnation. The movies pretty damn good, Robin Williams plays a "serious" role as a disgraced psychiatrist, and he works well as an antagonist to Derek Jacobi as a hypnotist. I think I would have liked to see a movie with those two playing a game of cat and mouse over the story we got with Branagh and Thompson. Branagh's american accent is all sorts of terrible and took me out of the story everytime he was on screen. I did however like the mystery and how he stretched the story out for an extra hour. At no point do you think these characters are stupid...which I appreciate especially when the subject matter could lead itself to stupidity.

I loved this movie but I don't really see it as horror.

Honeymoon - A couple on their honeymoon have gone to a remote cabin. One night, there are some flashing lights and the wife is found somewhere in the forest, she then starts acting like a different person. I thought it would be scarier or even creepier, it was not and was kind of a let down. Not recommended.

I agree with you, it wasn't very good. However you get to watch the lovely Rose Leslie.

Frankenhooker is a hidden gem of a film. I always avoided this one because I never really got into the sex-horror type movies but Frankenhooker actually sort of spins the genre on it's head. It's less about a Frankenstein monster that's also a hooker and more about turning a woman into the Frankenstein hooker, and it's played pretty well for laughs. I mean you have exploding body parts every 20 minutes, it either works for you or it doesn't it worked for me.

I love Henenlotter's work. Brain Damage is a personal fave.

Horns - A boy and girl are in love, the girl is raped and murdered, the boy is accused of doing it, yet is innocent. He grows horns and then people tell him their innermost secets. He uses this to investigate the murder of his girlfriend. It is based on a Joe Hill book, and stars Daniel Radcliffe. I thought it was pretty good, but went on a little long. It is worth seeing.
Dark Skies - A story about aliens trying to harass a family. There are some good scares in this movie and I thought it was good. Its worth seeing.

Horns IMHO is just a remake of The Crow. The Crow by way of Stephen King.

Didn't care for Dark Skies. Don't really like alien abduction type movies. However I recently enjoyed Extraterrestrial. Smallish budget but lots of energy.

Backcountry In this terrifying and critically-acclaimed thriller, a young couple's romantic camping trip becomes a tale of survival as they face the darkest side of nature: a man-eating bear. Backcountry is a slow burn, we get about an hour watching these two characters develop basically the first half is seeing a pair slowly break up and the second half is a brutal Bear vs Couple match that feels very genuine. It never hits the highs of Yellowbrickroad or the Blair Witch Project those films make the woods feel much more menacing but it's worth a look.

Didn't like it. Didn't like the characters.

Aren't their three killer bear movies this year? There's that, Into the Grizzly Maze, and I want to say there' some more I can't think of the name for.

Despite the strong cast didn't like that one either.

-->>Now for my recommendations. Lifeforce Alien space vampires? Zombie invasion? Mathilda May naked thoughout? Steve Railsback? Patrick Stewart making out with some guy? A classic. Tobe Hooper is talented.

Q Larry Cohen's works should get a nod. His stuff is original and in this movie particularly. A stop motion monster and the greatest example of an actor playing in an entirely different movie than the one he's in. Michael Moriarty plays a two-bit criminal in a monster movie opposite David Carradine but he's playing it like he was in a Scorcese or a Cassavetes. Breathtaking and bewildering.

Coffin Joe An interesting horror series from Brazil from way back. Different mores make for different horror.

Salem's Lot The original Tobe Hooper mini-series. Wonderful and scary. The part with the younger brother at the hospital window has stuck in my head since I was a child. A classic scene.

Undead + Daybreakers Really like the Spierig brothers.

The Convent A small funny horror movie from Mike Mendez. Watch his stuff, it's good.

30 Days Of Night I love David Slade's movies' looks. I like him so much that I forgive him for directing a Twilight movie.

If I can think of anything else I'll post it.

[jessecuster3]

10/1 - Tusk
10/2 - It Follows
10/3 - Housebound
10/4 - As Above, So Below
10/5 - Annabelle
10/6 - The Houses October Built
10/7 - Posession Of Michael King
10/8 - Found.
10/9 - The Bay and The Den
10/11 - Afflicted
10/12 - The Taking Of Deborah Logan
10/13 - Unfriended
10/14 - Willow Creek
10/15 - The Town That Dreaded Sundown(2014)
10/16 - Oculus
10/17 - Cooties
10/19 - Creep
10/21 - 13 Sins
10/22 - Honeymoon
10/24 - Horns and Starry Eyes
10/25 - Dark Skies

10/26 - Hidden - a really good story about a family living in a fallout shelter, while something is outside hunting them. It stars Alexander Skarsgard as the father. It tells a good story, and defintiely has scares. Defintiely worth seeing.

10/27 - Goodnight Mommy - an Austrian movie about twin boys whose mother comes home from the hospital with her face in bandages. The boys do not believe that its their actual mother. Its a good movie and the twist makes it worth watching. Recommended!

[jessecuster3]

I agree with you, it wasn't very good. However you get to watch the lovely Rose Leslie.

Horns IMHO is just a remake of The Crow. The Crow by way of Stephen King.

Didn't care for Dark Skies. Don't really like alien abduction type movies. However I recently enjoyed Extraterrestrial. Smallish budget but lots of energy.

Yes, Rose Leslie made it worth watching. The alien stuff reminded me of Dreamcatcher, which was comepletely horrible.

I can see the Crow comparisons, but I still thought this one was worth telling. Plus, the story was more personal in this.


I really liked Dark Skies, I thought the creepy stuff was the right kind of creepy. I will check out Extraterrestrial.

[Jared]

Isn't it kind of a stretch to include a killer bear movie for Halloween? Why not use Anthony Hopkins/Adam Baldwin in "the Edge"?

For killer bear movies, I'd say Prophecy is more fitting than The Edge. The latter isn't even primarily about the bear, as I recall. It's just one (albeit the biggest) obstacle facing Hopkins and Baldwin in their struggle to survive. I wouldn't think of The Grey as a Halloween movie, either. That said, I personally will include something for Halloween even if it's a comedy, provided there's a supernatural or killer angle, or its spoofing a Halloween-related genre. One year I included Clue...which I'll admit was stretching it, but I wanted to keep my number up!

I'd sooner nominate a film about the cannabilistic nature of the Wendigo legend: Ravenous

Fun performances from Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, among others.

I felt like the movie was missing something in the story though. I seem to remember it as just a matter of "oh, turns out drinking blood/eating human flesh heals you and makes you immortal." Seems funny that nobody ever noticed that before.

Thrillers, like real thrillers, have very little overlap (basically none) with horror movies. Now thrillers as a pretentious thing to call a horror movie have a lot, like when people say Jaws is a thriller, or when some director calls their horror movie a thriller...but that's because it's just a horror movie.

Jaws is horror, sure. But a movie that might include some scary scenes but isn't really built around them, I wouldn't call a horror movie. I wouldn't call The Devil's Advocate, The Prophecy movies, Constantine, or Pan's Labyrnthe horror movies. "Supernatural" movies, sure, and thriller fits with them better than "action" or "drama".

Name one "real" Thriller that can't also be classified as another genre.

Yeah, it is common to add a descriptor in front of it: legal thriller, erotic thriller, political thriller, etc...

Terminator is a great example of the differences between thrillers

Terminator is a Thriller - horror film - Evil Robot goes into the past to stalk and murder a woman, that's horror.
Terminator 2 is a Thriller-Action film - Two Robots battle it out in the past to change the future, that's action.

I think Alien and Aliens would be a better example of the genre-move you're talking about. Most people consider The Terminator an action movie.

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Different Filmmakers



The Tenant is a 1976 psychological horror film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, and Shelley Winters. It is based upon the 1964 novel Le locataire chimérique by Roland Topor.[3] The film is also known under the French title Le Locataire. It is the last film in Polanski's "Apartment Trilogy", following Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby.

This might just be my favorite Polanski horror film, Polanski is a filmmaker that typically makes you wait till the very end before scaring you. He does this in Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Knife in the Water...but in this one we get the payoff throughout the film. The lead character Polanski is slowly going mad or slowly being driven mad by the people in his apartment, that is up for your interpretation but I loved it.

October 1st - John Carpenter - Someones Watching Me! (1978) **
October 2nd - Brian De Palma - Raising Cain (1992) *1/2
October 3rd - Dario Argento's - Trauma (1993) **
October 4th - Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon (2010) ****
October 5th - John Schlesinger - Pacific Heights (1990) ***
October 6th - Sam Raimi - Army of Darkness (1992) **1/2
October 7th - Alejandro Amenabar - Thesis (1996) ***1/2
October 8th - Lewis Teague (Steven King) - Cujo (1983) DUD
October 9th - Adam Simon (Roger Corman) - Braindead (1990) ***
October 10th - Michael Laughlin (Strange Series) - Strange Invaders (1983) *1/2
October 11th - Leigh Whannell (James Wan) - Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) ***
October 12th - Moustapha Akkad, Malek Akkad, Daniel Farrands (Halloween) - The Curse of Michael Myers: The Producers cut (1995) **
October 13th - Harold Young (Universal Mummy) - The Mummy's Tomb (1942) ****
October 14th - Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott- Cooties (2015) **
October 15th - Guillermo del Toro - Crimson Peak (2015) ****
October 16th - Eli Roth - Knock Knock (2015) *
October 17th - Richard Stanley - Hardcore (1990) **
October 18th - Keneth Branagh - Dead Again (1991) ***
October 19th - Frank Henenlotter - Frankenhooker (1990) ****
October 20th - John Harrison - Tales from the Darkside (1990) ***
October 21st - Gregory Widen - Prophecy (1995) **
October 22nd - Adam Macdonald - Backcountry (2015) ***
October 23rd - Roman Polanski - The Tenant (1976) *****

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Different Filmmakers



A retired San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her. Vertigo is to some Hitchcock's greatest film, for me I wouldn't go that far but it is very good. I was a little surprised to see that James Stewart didn't get an Oscar nomination for this because I do think this was his best work. I do feel like the movie peters out around the end, and that it peaks a bit to early in the second act. But I enjoyed it for a third time viewing

October 1st - John Carpenter - Someones Watching Me! (1978) **
October 2nd - Brian De Palma - Raising Cain (1992) *1/2
October 3rd - Dario Argento's - Trauma (1993) **
October 4th - Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon (2010) ****
October 5th - John Schlesinger - Pacific Heights (1990) ***
October 6th - Sam Raimi - Army of Darkness (1992) **1/2
October 7th - Alejandro Amenabar - Thesis (1996) ***1/2
October 8th - Lewis Teague (Steven King) - Cujo (1983) DUD
October 9th - Adam Simon (Roger Corman) - Braindead (1990) ***
October 10th - Michael Laughlin (Strange Series) - Strange Invaders (1983) *1/2
October 11th - Leigh Whannell (James Wan) - Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) ***
October 12th - Moustapha Akkad, Malek Akkad, Daniel Farrands (Halloween) - The Curse of Michael Myers: The Producers cut (1995) **
October 13th - Harold Young (Universal Mummy) - The Mummy's Tomb (1942) ****
October 14th - Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott- Cooties (2015) **
October 15th - Guillermo del Toro - Crimson Peak (2015) ****
October 16th - Eli Roth - Knock Knock (2015) *
October 17th - Richard Stanley - Hardcore (1990) **
October 18th - Keneth Branagh - Dead Again (1991) ***
October 19th - Frank Henenlotter - Frankenhooker (1990) ****
October 20th - John Harrison - Tales from the Darkside (1990) ***
October 21st - Gregory Widen - Prophecy (1995) **
October 22nd - Adam Macdonald - Backcountry (2015) ***
October 23rd - Roman Polanski - The Tenant (1976) *****
October 24th - Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo (1958) ****

[simbob4000]

Lifeforce Alien space vampires? Zombie invasion? Mathilda May naked thoughout? Steve Railsback? Patrick Stewart making out with some guy? A classic. Tobe Hooper is talented.

And written by Dan O'Bannon, writer of Alien. It's funny that he went on to make an actual space vampire movie after Alien, given that so much of Alien is old space vampire movies. Also because the sexual aspect of Alien is made far more explicit when the monster is a very hot, and very naked Mathlida May.

[Jared]

October 1st. 1- The Last House on the Left (1972).
October 2nd. 2- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
October 3rd. 3- You're Next (2011)
October 4th. 4- The Evil Dead (1981)
October 5th. 5- The Dead Zone (1983)
October 6th. 6- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
October 7th. 7- Evil Dead II (1987)
October 8th. 8- Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). 9- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
October 9th. 10- Prom Night (1980)
October 10th. 11- Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1968)
October 11th. 12- Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
October 12th. 13- Season of the Witch (2011)
October 13th. 14- Alien vs. Predator (2004)
October 14th. 15- Terror Train (1980)
October 15th. 16- The Scars of Dracula (1970)
October 16th. 17- The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
October 17th. 18- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
October 18th. 19- The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
October 19th. 20- Nine Lives (2002)
October 20th. 21- Wolf (1994)
October 21st. 22- Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) 23- Vampire's Kiss. (1988).
October 22nd. 24- Crimson Peak (2015)
October 23rd. 25- Fright Night (1985)
October 24th. 26- Wolfen (1981) 27. Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)
October 25th. 28- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)

October 26th. 29- Fright Night Part 2 (1988).



Not as good as the first one, but still pretty good. I didn't like how Charlie goes from disbelieving, to believing, to disbelieving, to believing again. It would have been better to just reverse his role with Peter Vincent's and stick with that idea, as Charlie has convinced himself through therapy that he hallucinated the vampiric aspects of the incident with Jerry Dandrich. I also think they could have done more with the "Charlie is slowly turning into a vampire" angle, though that might have invited more comparison to The Lost Boys.
Amanda Bearse doesn't return, I wish they had at least mentioned where she went. Did she dump Charlie because he stopped believing in vampires?
There's another ghoulish servant of the vampire whose species can't quite be identified.

(Incidentally, the whole movie is on youtube, and has been for some time. It's hard to find elsewhere)

[Jared]

October 1st. 1- The Last House on the Left (1972).
October 2nd. 2- Night of the Living Dead (1968)
October 3rd. 3- You're Next (2011)
October 4th. 4- The Evil Dead (1981)
October 5th. 5- The Dead Zone (1983)
October 6th. 6- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
October 7th. 7- Evil Dead II (1987)
October 8th. 8- Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966). 9- A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
October 9th. 10- Prom Night (1980)
October 10th. 11- Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1968)
October 11th. 12- Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
October 12th. 13- Season of the Witch (2011)
October 13th. 14- Alien vs. Predator (2004)
October 14th. 15- Terror Train (1980)
October 15th. 16- The Scars of Dracula (1970)
October 16th. 17- The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
October 17th. 18- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
October 18th. 19- The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
October 19th. 20- Nine Lives (2002)
October 20th. 21- Wolf (1994)
October 21st. 22- Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) 23- Vampire's Kiss. (1988).
October 22nd. 24- Crimson Peak (2015)
October 23rd. 25- Fright Night (1985)
October 24th. 26- Wolfen (1981) 27. Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)
October 25th. 28- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
October 26th. 29- Fright Night Part 2 (1988).
October 27th. 30- Pumpkinhead (1988). 31- The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJ8Teiv6YY
Pumpkinhead was directed by FX guru Stan Winston. As such, it's got quality designs, though I didn't think the title character looks particularly demonic nor all that fearsome, as we see it slow walking most of the time. The sets and cinematography are good, but it's not as gory as I would have expected it to be. It reminds me of an alien acting out the role of a slasher villain. I'm not wild about his name, either.
Solid performance by Lance Henriksen in the lead, even though the movie has him making and reversing traumatic decisions with not enough lead-in time. Even the supporting cast, which includes all the demon's intended victims, are pretty good as well. I recognized one guy from Seaquest.
I came away feeling like this could have been an episode of Tales from the Crypt or (though it came around later) Masters of Horror, it never quite justifies being an entire movie.



The Last Witch Hunter is a Vin Diesel (vanity) project, inspired by games of Dungeons and Dragons he would play. As such, you probably know what you're getting. The production value is quite good, but generally it all feels kind of plodding and uninspired.
If there's one movie I'd compare it to most directly, it's Constantine, and that was (if you can forgive/don't care about John being American) a much more interesting film. Vin's character is immortal, and for much of the movie we don't see much, other than that, that really justifies the concept of him as the super bad ass Vin obviously intends him to be. At the same time, the you can practically imagine all the scribbles in the margins of script insisting that Caldur must come off as the coolest m'fer to ever walk the Earth. On paper, he's a combination of James Bond, John Constantine, and the Highlander...but Vin as an actor is not nearly up to task at conveying such man.


Rose Leslie (Ygritte from Game of Thrones) plays a sidekick/possible love interest who is such a forgettable character, I *honestly forgot* she was still in the movie for a time, I was surprised to see her show up again. I can't even remember if her character had an accent.

Michael Caine plays Alfred, pretty much. But he spends much of his time laying in cursed sleep like Zelda. Probably one of his easiest paychecks.

There's a "twist" during the climax final act that feels like it was just tacked on late. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything, as the movie isn't good enough, nor the character important enough, for it to really matter.

On the plus side, there are some cool visuals and action scenes. Some of the world-building is intriguing. Some of the comedic moments and quips do land, I laughed out loud a few times.

All in all, it's one of those, "watch it on Netflix or on HBO late one night if you're bored and want something on while doing chores/checking email" sort of movies. This might have been better if, instead of just the prologue, the entire thing had been set in medieval times. Perhaps I just think that because the premise (witch causes black plague, knights must save the day) was a bit similar to one of my earlier views this month, Season of the Witch. This could have been a higher quality version of that. And/or a lighter tone might have helped, more like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

[Mr.Majestic]

Hidden - a really good story about a family living in a fallout shelter, while something is outside hunting them. It stars Alexander Skarsgard as the father. It tells a good story, and defintiely has scares. Defintiely worth seeing.

Didn't like it. You could see the twist coming from a mile away. However that reminds me of a much better film The Hidden. A classic movie, smart and original. Stars Kyle McLachlan and gets a big recommendation from me.

For killer bear movies, I'd say Prophecy is more fitting than The Edge. The latter isn't even primarily about the bear, as I recall. It's just one (albeit the biggest) obstacle facing Hopkins and Baldwin in their struggle to survive. I wouldn't think of The Grey as a Halloween movie, either. That said, I personally will include something for Halloween even if it's a comedy, provided there's a supernatural or killer angle, or its spoofing a Halloween-related genre. One year I included Clue...which I'll admit was stretching it, but I wanted to keep my number up!

Ravenous Fun performances from Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle, among others.

I felt like the movie was missing something in the story though. I seem to remember it as just a matter of "oh, turns out drinking blood/eating human flesh heals you and makes you immortal." Seems funny that nobody ever noticed that before.

People talk about killer bear movies and no one mentions Grizzly? Understandable I guess it was pretty bad. Not just crappy ending bad like The Grey but bad from stem to stern.

I loved Ravenous, me and a buddy saw it at the theatre. To this day when someone asks us if we're hungry we go NO! I'm ravenous! And then we playact the Neal McDonough going crazy/Bruce Lee-like in the river scene.

Fright Night Part 2 (1988).

Not as good as the first one, but still pretty good. I didn't like how Charlie goes from disbelieving, to believing, to disbelieving, to believing again. It would have been better to just reverse his role with Peter Vincent's and stick with that idea, as Charlie has convinced himself through therapy that he hallucinated the vampiric aspects of the incident with Jerry Dandrich. I also think they could have done more with the "Charlie is slowly turning into a vampire" angle, though that might have invited more comparison to The Lost Boys.
Amanda Bearse doesn't return, I wish they had at least mentioned where she went. Did she dump Charlie because he stopped believing in vampires?
There's another ghoulish servant of the vampire whose species can't quite be identified.

The ghoulish servant is played by my man Brian Thompson. The bad guy from another classic Cobra and countless others. I love the guy and his ugly mug. Another guy like him is Brion James. Love 'em both.

--->>>More recommendations from yours truly:The Hazing Small independant horror movie. Smarter than you'd expect. Features an Asian guy as a lead, the great Parry Shen and also one of my favourite scream-queens, Tiffany Shepis. She's at her sexiest in it.

The Dead A zombie movie in Africa. Take a familiar story and put it in a different locale. Solid.

Bone Tomahawk Just saw it this week. Kurt Russell as a cowboy vs. a small tribe of cannibals? Excellent. Very good little movie. Also stars Patrick Wilson.

We Are Still Here Had zero expectations walking in. Great little horror movie. Good scares, a fast pace and a solid cast.

[Jared]

People talk about killer bear movies and no one mentions Grizzly? Understandable I guess it was pretty bad. Not just crappy ending bad like The Grey but bad from stem to stern.

The Grey is a little better if you stay for the stinger scene. And if you head-canon it, much like Non-Stop, to be another adventure in the life of Taken's Bryan Mills. They're at least as good if not outright better than the proper Taken sequels that way.

And then we playact the Neal McDonough going crazy/Bruce Lee-like in the river scene.

I forgot that part, it was amusing. I also really liked when he wakes up in the cabin and the bad guys are just non chalantly extolling the benefits of their "regimen".

The ghoulish servant is played by my man Brian Thompson. The bad guy from another classic Cobra and countless others. I love the guy and his ugly mug.

Yeah, he was also an alien/hybrid(?) assassin on The X-Files. And Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat Annihilation...best left off everyone's resume.

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 different film makers



The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of my favorite films it's been remade several times and this is the most popular of the remakes. Plants abandon a dying planet and come down to earth and slowly take over the people of San Francisco. The All-star cast of Lenord Nimoy, Donald Sutherland, Veronica Cartwright and Jeff Goldblum play the central characters dealing with the epidemic. Like most 70's films you really get the sense of cold war paranoia has been replaced with the fear of gentrification. What we see in this film is the end of the San Francisco of the 60's and the move into the yuppies of the 80's. For me I prefer the commies but this was good. Kaufman really films the heck of this one, giving us lots of gorgeous shots around the city, the sound is great the FX is way ahead of it's time and the story plays out well.

October 1st - John Carpenter - Someones Watching Me! (1978) **
October 2nd - Brian De Palma - Raising Cain (1992) *1/2
October 3rd - Dario Argento's - Trauma (1993) **
October 4th - Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon (2010) ****
October 5th - John Schlesinger - Pacific Heights (1990) ***
October 6th - Sam Raimi - Army of Darkness (1992) **1/2
October 7th - Alejandro Amenabar - Thesis (1996) ***1/2
October 8th - Lewis Teague (Steven King) - Cujo (1983) DUD
October 9th - Adam Simon (Roger Corman) - Braindead (1990) ***
October 10th - Michael Laughlin (Strange Series) - Strange Invaders (1983) *1/2
October 11th - Leigh Whannell (James Wan) - Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) ***
October 12th - Moustapha Akkad, Malek Akkad, Daniel Farrands (Halloween) - The Curse of Michael Myers: The Producers cut (1995) **
October 13th - Harold Young (Universal Mummy) - The Mummy's Tomb (1942) ****
October 14th - Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott- Cooties (2015) **
October 15th - Guillermo del Toro - Crimson Peak (2015) ****
October 16th - Eli Roth - Knock Knock (2015) *
October 17th - Richard Stanley - Hardcore (1990) **
October 18th - Keneth Branagh - Dead Again (1991) ***
October 19th - Frank Henenlotter - Frankenhooker (1990) ****
October 20th - John Harrison - Tales from the Darkside (1990) ***
October 21st - Gregory Widen - Prophecy (1995) **
October 22nd - Adam Macdonald - Backcountry (2015) ***
October 23rd - Roman Polanski - The Tenant (1976) *****
October 24th - Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo (1958) ****
October 25th - Phillip Kaufman - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) ****

[Siddon]

31 days of horror 31 Different filmmakers



Robert Altman is a sick bastard, it's the best way to explain Quintet a film with so much promise, production value, and performances but it's stripped of any fun. It's the end of the world, we are in an ice age and the survivors are hanging out in an old hotel/outpost. Paul Newman is a seal trapper...but the seals are gone, he's got a pregnant companion and after someone attempts to murder him he gets drawn into a game called "Quintet". A strange game where you win or you die, sort of like the purge. The problem is the talking and talking and talking which is typical Altman which sometimes works but not when you are telling a Hunger Games esque story. I could sit through Haenke couldn't sit through this, but if you are feeling masochistic, this one is for you. I will say this though, I do love the themes and the ideas that this is how the world ends and this is how the rich will die, slowly by there own hubris after all the poor are gone.

October 1st - John Carpenter - Someones Watching Me! (1978) **
October 2nd - Brian De Palma - Raising Cain (1992) *1/2
October 3rd - Dario Argento's - Trauma (1993) **
October 4th - Michael Haneke - The White Ribbon (2010) ****
October 5th - John Schlesinger - Pacific Heights (1990) ***
October 6th - Sam Raimi - Army of Darkness (1992) **1/2
October 7th - Alejandro Amenabar - Thesis (1996) ***1/2
October 8th - Lewis Teague (Steven King) - Cujo (1983) DUD
October 9th - Adam Simon (Roger Corman) - Braindead (1990) ***
October 10th - Michael Laughlin (Strange Series) - Strange Invaders (1983) *1/2
October 11th - Leigh Whannell (James Wan) - Insidious Chapter 3 (2015) ***
October 12th - Moustapha Akkad, Malek Akkad, Daniel Farrands (Halloween) - The Curse of Michael Myers: The Producers cut (1995) **
October 13th - Harold Young (Universal Mummy) - The Mummy's Tomb (1942) ****
October 14th - Cary Murnion, Jonathan Milott- Cooties (2015) **
October 15th - Guillermo del Toro - Crimson Peak (2015) ****
October 16th - Eli Roth - Knock Knock (2015) *
October 17th - Richard Stanley - Hardcore (1990) **
October 18th - Keneth Branagh - Dead Again (1991) ***
October 19th - Frank Henenlotter - Frankenhooker (1990) ****
October 20th - John Harrison - Tales from the Darkside (1990) ***
October 21st - Gregory Widen - Prophecy (1995) **
October 22nd - Adam Macdonald - Backcountry (2015) ***
October 23rd - Roman Polanski - The Tenant (1976) *****
October 24th - Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo (1958) ****
October 25th - Phillip Kaufman - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) ****
October 26th - Robert Altman - Quintet (1979) *

[Mr.Majestic]

The Grey is a little better if you stay for the stinger scene. And if you head-canon it, much like Non-Stop, to be another adventure in the life of Taken's Bryan Mills. They're at least as good if not outright better than the proper Taken sequels that way.

Try to check out Run All Night. Neeson's best in a while. Simple story, good action and a great cast. Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio and Holt McCallany all guys I love in the cast. Heck even Common was good in it and I hate Common.