31 Days of Halloween (October 1st through 31st)

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Monsters
October 20th - C.H.U.D.(1984)





The film opens with a woman walking her dog down an empty, darkened city street. As she passes by a manhole, she is attacked by a creature, and the dog is pulled in after her.

I thought this aged pretty well, New York City has this great dream like quality to it. The collective of characters feels much more real than most films of this sort and you have decent character work. The actual CHUDS look pretty good and are used sparingly which I appreciate.

October 1st - Daimajin: Monster of Terror (1966) ****1/2 stars
October 2nd - Tarantula (1955) ***1/2 stars
October 3rd - The Living Skeleton (1968) ***
October 4th - Son of Frankenstein (1939) **
October 5th - Reptilicus (1961) **
October 6th - The Undying Monster (1942) *****
October 7th - Them!(1954) ***1/2
October 8th - Night of the Blood Beast (1958) **1/2
October 9th - Black Moon (1934) **
October 10th - Island of Doctor Moreau(1977) ****
October 11th - Phantom of 10,000 Leagues (1955) **
October 12th - The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) ***1/2
October 13th - The H-Man (1958) ****
October 14th - The Fly (1958) *****
October 15th - Gamera (1965) ***
October 16th - Feast (2005) *
October 17th - Teeth (2007) ***1/2
October 18th - The Neon Demon (2016) ****
October 19th - The Shallows (2016) **1/2
October 20th - C.H.U.D(1984) ***3/4

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Monsters
October 21st Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)





The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, a winged, dragon-like, female lizard, decides to take up residence in the art-deco spire of the Chrysler Building, taking frequent jaunts in the midday sun to devour various hapless New Yorkers. The resulting bloody mess confounds detectives Dt. Shepard (David Carradine) and Sgt. Powell (Richard Roundtree), who are already occupied with a case involving a series of bizarre ritual murders linked to a secret Aztec cult. Meanwhile, Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty), a cheap, paranoid crook who wishes to be a jazz pianist, takes part in a botched diamond heist that leads him to the creature's lair atop the building. This causes Quinn's attempts to settle down and turn over a new leaf from crime to be in vain as he decides to extort from the city an enormous amount of money in exchange for directions to the creature's nest, which houses a colossal egg.

Michael Moriarty is really good as a low level scumbag, and the FX reminds me of old Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects. This is definately a treasure worth tracking down


October 1st - Daimajin: Monster of Terror (1966) ****1/2 stars
October 2nd - Tarantula (1955) ***1/2 stars
October 3rd - The Living Skeleton (1968) ***
October 4th - Son of Frankenstein (1939) **
October 5th - Reptilicus (1961) **
October 6th - The Undying Monster (1942) *****
October 7th - Them!(1954) ***1/2
October 8th - Night of the Blood Beast (1958) **1/2
October 9th - Black Moon (1934) **
October 10th - Island of Doctor Moreau(1977) ****
October 11th - Phantom of 10,000 Leagues (1955) **
October 12th - The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) ***1/2
October 13th - The H-Man (1958) ****
October 14th - The Fly (1958) *****
October 15th - Gamera (1965) ***
October 16th - Feast (2005) *
October 17th - Teeth (2007) ***1/2
October 18th - The Neon Demon (2016) ****
October 19th - The Shallows (2016) **1/2
October 20th - C.H.U.D(1984) ***3/4
October 21st - Q:The Winged Serpent (1982) ****

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Monsters
October 22nd: Little Shop of Horrors





It's hard to judge an old horror film or an old comedy and when you combine the two you get something like this.

I hated hated hated this movie, this might actually be the greatest difference between a remake and original I've ever seen. Everyone in this movie camps it up to a point where I think I tore some hair out. It has one or two decent scenes but Aubrey II's voice might just be the worst thing I've ever heard in my life.

October 1st - Daimajin: Monster of Terror (1966) ****1/2 stars
October 2nd - Tarantula (1955) ***1/2 stars
October 3rd - The Living Skeleton (1968) ***
October 4th - Son of Frankenstein (1939) **
October 5th - Reptilicus (1961) **
October 6th - The Undying Monster (1942) *****
October 7th - Them!(1954) ***1/2
October 8th - Night of the Blood Beast (1958) **1/2
October 9th - Black Moon (1934) **
October 10th - Island of Doctor Moreau(1977) ****
October 11th - Phantom of 10,000 Leagues (1955) **
October 12th - The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) ***1/2
October 13th - The H-Man (1958) ****
October 14th - The Fly (1958) *****
October 15th - Gamera (1965) ***
October 16th - Feast (2005) *
October 17th - Teeth (2007) ***1/2
October 18th - The Neon Demon (2016) ****
October 19th - The Shallows (2016) **1/2
October 20th - C.H.U.D(1984) ***3/4
October 21st - Q:The Winged Serpent (1982) ****
October 22nd - Little Shop of Horrors (1960) DUD

[Death&Return of Superman]

Missed watching something Sunday, only saw something Saturday because it was on tv.

October 22





Mostly it's just a cool kill sequence at the start and one at the end. Those two sequences are so good, and this movies cast is so good, it really makes you wish it was better. If only The Dark Knight's heist betrayal scene was a good as the one in this. They were never anything great, but the idea of what Dark Castle was trying to do those first few years was fun; wish there was some making bloody schlock once a year still.

Ghost Ship, which seems to play all the fucking time as a network tv weekend movie, reminds me I should probably give Virus a watch sometime soon. Unlike Ghost Ship I haven't seen that one since it came out.

[Death&Return of Superman]

I'm pretty sure the scene of soldiers being attacked in the start of Aliens is taken right out of CHUD. And you know what, CHUD is the better movie.

[Sean Whitmore]

\October 1 - The Body Snatcher (1945)
October 2 - Isle of the Dead (1945)
October 3 - Dead Men Walk (1943)
October 4 - Cat People (1942)
October 5 - An American Werewolf in London (1981)
October 6 - Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
October 7 - The Old Dark House (1932)
October 8 - Silver Bullet (1985)
October 9 - Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
October 10 - Bedlam (1946)
October 11 - Scream and Scream Again (1970)
October 12 - Shin Godzilla (2016)
Son of Dracula (1943)
October 13 - Doctor X (1932)
October 14 - Son of Frankenstein (1939)
October 15 - Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Monster House (2006)
October 16 - The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Innocents (1961)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
October 17 - The Invisible Ray (1936)
October 18 - The City of the Dead (1960)
October 19 - The Lost Boys (1987)
October 20 - Horror Express (1972)
October 21 - The Thing From Another World (1951)
October 22 - The Oblong Box (1969)
October 23 - The Creeping Flesh (1973)
Ocotber 24 - The Gorgon (1964)

Pretty standard Hammer flick, everything looks beautiful and Lee and Cushing are great. The second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, does well in a small role. The problem with this one is that the monster isn't very strong; she doesn't talk, she doesn't get get to throw people around and get shot like the Mummy, and she doesn't even seem to have any goals. Cushing comes the closest to a human baddie, and he gets a decent fight scene at the end, but he's not evil, and not even really conflicted enough to be interesting.

[Jared]

October 1. The Crooked Man (2016)
October 2. Creature (1985)
October 3. Twins of Evil. (1971)
October 4. The Vampire Lovers (1970)
October 5. Lust for a Vampire (1971)
October 6. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
October 7.
October 8. Corpse Bride (2005)
October 9. Blade II (2002)
October 10. Vampire Hunter D (1985)
October 11. The Wolfman (2010). Sorority Row (2009).
October 12. Nothing but the Night (1973)
October 13. It Came From Beneath the Sea. (1955)
October 14. Countess Dracula (1971). The Frighteners (1996).
October 15. The Devil's Tomb (2009).
October 16. Red Riding Hood (2011).
October 17. Fright Night (2011). Dracula (1979).
October 18. Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013).
October 19. The Batman vs. Dracula (2005).
October 20. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).
October 21. Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
October 22. War-Gods of the Deep (1965). Outland (1981).
October 23. House at the End of the Street (2012). Phantasm (1979).

October 24. Species (1995).



A hybrid (see what I did there) of Alien and...I dunno, maybe pick a Sharon Stone movie from the 90s. Government scientists use instructions from an extraterrestrial signal to grow be being that is half-human, half H.R. Giger monster. When they try to cancel the experiment with extreme prejudice, their creation, Sil, breaks free and ends up on Los Angeles. Project leader Ben Kingsley brings in team of specialists: two scientists, and empath, and a special "problem solver" to track her down. Michael Madsen's character is supposed to be a shady freelance manhunter/assassin for the government, but that background has no impact on the movie at all. He doesn't do anything that a regular detective or Federal agent couldn't or wouldn't.

For the first part of the movie, Sil is pre-early teen. There are times in the movie, especially in this first act, where Sil is presented as a sympathetic figure. So much so that I wonder if the script took a change in direction somewhere in development, as she's later presented an utterly remorseless and premeditated killer. I think it would have been a more daring, though less sexy film, to leave Sil as young and confused, a modernized take on Frankenstein's monster who is dangerous but doesn't necessarily deserve to be hunted.

Regardless, Sil soon metamorphs into her adult form, a bombshell black widow played by Natasha Henstridge. Like any good Giger alien, she's driven to reproduce and it's bad news for the human race if she does. The directing is competent, the production value quite good, and the actors are all quality, even Henstridge, whose sex appeal was huge part of the promotion as I recall, acquits herself fairly well in her first movie role. Some CG visuals toward the end look very fake today, but they're brief and at the time were probably cool looking. What the movie really lacks is a good chase/suspense setpiece somewhere in the middle. I suspect most of the budget went to the actors, the rest to production design, so the actual structure of the movie itself had to be sacrificed.

On this, my second viewing ever, I realized that the girl playing young Sil is Michelle Williams, later the best actor to come out of Dawson's Creek. The DVD pack I have includes II and III, which I haven't seen yet but will likely check out in coming days, and then perhaps I'll track down the Natasha-less fourth. Incidentally, two kids and 20 years later, Natasha Henstridge has held up better than any special effect. I say bring on Species V: Hunter-MILF.

BTW, Ben Kinglsey's character is a professor, named Xavier Fitch. Well played, gentlemen.

I'm pretty sure the scene of soldiers being attacked in the start of Aliens is taken right out of CHUD. And you know what, CHUD is the better movie.

Them's fightin' words!

31 Days 31 Monsters
October 21st Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)

After seeing this is a kid, for months while outside I'd randomly get a shudder of fear that blood was going to fall on me from above.

[Da Boat]

October 1. The Crooked Man (2016)
October 2. Creature (1985)
October 3. Twins of Evil. (1971)
October 4. The Vampire Lovers (1970)
October 5. Lust for a Vampire (1971)
October 6. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
October 7.
October 8. Corpse Bride (2005)
October 9. Blade II (2002)
October 10. Vampire Hunter D (1985)
October 11. The Wolfman (2010). Sorority Row (2009).
October 12. Nothing but the Night (1973)
October 13. It Came From Beneath the Sea. (1955)
October 14. Countess Dracula (1971). The Frighteners (1996).
October 15. The Devil's Tomb (2009).
October 16. Red Riding Hood (2011).
October 17. Fright Night (2011). Dracula (1979).
October 18. Fright Night 2: New Blood (2013).
October 19. The Batman vs. Dracula (2005).
October 20. Count Yorga, Vampire (1970).
October 21. Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988).
October 22. War-Gods of the Deep (1965). Outland (1981).
October 23. House at the End of the Street (2012). Phantasm (1979).

October 24. Species (1995).



A hybrid (see what I did there) of Alien and...I dunno, maybe pick a Sharon Stone movie from the 90s. Government scientists use instructions from an extraterrestrial signal to grow be being that is half-human, half H.R. Giger monster. When they try to cancel the experiment with extreme prejudice, their creation, Sil, breaks free and ends up on Los Angeles. Project leader Ben Kingsley brings in team of specialists: two scientists, and empath, and a special "problem solver" to track her down. Michael Madsen's character is supposed to be a shady freelance manhunter/assassin for the government, but that background has no impact on the movie at all. He doesn't do anything that a regular detective or Federal agent couldn't or wouldn't.

For the first part of the movie, Sil is pre-early teen. There are times in the movie, especially in this first act, where Sil is presented as a sympathetic figure. So much so that I wonder if the script took a change in direction somewhere in development, as she's later presented an utterly remorseless and premeditated killer. I think it would have been a more daring, though less sexy film, to leave Sil as young and confused, a modernized take on Frankenstein's monster who is dangerous but doesn't necessarily deserve to be hunted.

Regardless, Sil soon metamorphs into her adult form, a bombshell black widow played by Natasha Henstridge. Like any good Giger alien, she's driven to reproduce and it's bad news for the human race if she does. The directing is competent, the production value quite good, and the actors are all quality, even Henstridge, whose sex appeal was huge part of the promotion as I recall, acquits herself fairly well in her first movie role. Some CG visuals toward the end look very fake today, but they're brief and at the time were probably cool looking. What the movie really lacks is a good chase/suspense setpiece somewhere in the middle. I suspect most of the budget went to the actors, the rest to production design, so the actual structure of the movie itself had to be sacrificed.

On this, my second viewing ever, I realized that the girl playing young Sil is Michelle Williams, later the best actor to come out of Dawson's Creek. The DVD pack I have includes II and III, which I haven't seen yet but will likely check out in coming days, and then perhaps I'll track down the Natasha-less fourth. Incidentally, two kids and 20 years later, Natasha Henstridge has held up better than any special effect. I say bring on Species V: Hunter-MILF.

BTW, Ben Kinglsey's character is a professor, named Xavier Fitch. Well played, gentlemen.




Them's fightin' words!



After seeing this is a kid, for months while outside I'd randomly get a shudder of fear that blood was going to fall on me from above.

Not only is Henstridge getting hotter as she gets older but she seems really sexual, she doesn't mind flaunting her great body. She's become a sort of icon of sexy TV movie thrillers made for women. But everytime I see she's in one of those, I check it out. It usually goes along the way of "sexy teacher falls for her male student. The student also happens to be the son of a women Henstridge's character hated back in High School. The mother of the boy want this to stop, the boy doesn't want to and fights with his mother. At the end, Henstridge wants to kill the mother but the son realise Henstridge is a crazy/psycho/villain and sides with his mother. The end".

--------------

October 24 - Thinner(1996)



It's about a man that hits an old lady with his car while his wife is getting him a blowjob. Since he is from this town and he is a good lawyer, he gets away with it and the father of the old lady puts an hex on him by saying touching him and whispering to his ear THINNER. And boom he starts to lose weight to infinity. The movie somehow works despite itself. For example the fat suit is pretty goofy and unrealistic, the guy when he is in the fat suit acts all goofy and stupid. Everybody in the movie is a big over-the-top cartoon. But it's pretty entertaining throughout. The actor in this is pretty weird, especially at the end he becomes some nasty sob.

On the plus side, you get the hottest Gypsy girl ever.

[Siddon]

I'm pretty sure the scene of soldiers being attacked in the start of Aliens is taken right out of CHUD. And you know what, CHUD is the better movie.

THEM!

[Iron Maiden]

31 Days 31 Monsters
October 22nd: Little Shop of Horrors





It's hard to judge an old horror film or an old comedy and when you combine the two you get something like this.

I hated hated hated this movie, this might actually be the greatest difference between a remake and original I've ever seen. Everyone in this movie camps it up to a point where I think I tore some hair out. It has one or two decent scenes but Aubrey II's voice might just be the worst thing I've ever heard in my life.

October 1st - Daimajin: Monster of Terror (1966) ****1/2 stars
October 2nd - Tarantula (1955) ***1/2 stars
October 3rd - The Living Skeleton (1968) ***
October 4th - Son of Frankenstein (1939) **
October 5th - Reptilicus (1961) **
October 6th - The Undying Monster (1942) *****
October 7th - Them!(1954) ***1/2
October 8th - Night of the Blood Beast (1958) **1/2
October 9th - Black Moon (1934) **
October 10th - Island of Doctor Moreau(1977) ****
October 11th - Phantom of 10,000 Leagues (1955) **
October 12th - The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) ***1/2
October 13th - The H-Man (1958) ****
October 14th - The Fly (1958) *****
October 15th - Gamera (1965) ***
October 16th - Feast (2005) *
October 17th - Teeth (2007) ***1/2
October 18th - The Neon Demon (2016) ****
October 19th - The Shallows (2016) **1/2
October 20th - C.H.U.D(1984) ***3/4
October 21st - Q:The Winged Serpent (1982) ****
October 22nd - Little Shop of Horrors (1960) DUD

Wait, are you saying that the 1960 film is a remake? Dude, that is the original and it is definitely tongue and cheek. I believe Roger Corman shot this in around 3 days because he had a couple more days left on the use of a set. As a black comedy I think it's a hoot. His Creature from the Haunted Sea is pretty funny for a low budget work also.

[Maven]

October 24 - Thinner(1996)



It's about a man that hits an old lady with his car while his wife is getting him a blowjob. Since he is from this town and he is a good lawyer, he gets away with it and the father of the old lady puts an hex on him by saying touching him and whispering to his ear THINNER. And boom he starts to lose weight to infinity. The movie somehow works despite itself. For example the fat suit is pretty goofy and unrealistic, the guy when he is in the fat suit acts all goofy and stupid. Everybody in the movie is a big over-the-top cartoon. But it's pretty entertaining throughout. The actor in this is pretty weird, especially at the end he becomes some nasty sob.

On the plus side, you get the hottest Gypsy girl ever.

It's somewhat embarrassing to say given how long this movie has been around, but I really need to finally watch it one day and see if it stacks up to the book, which I read around 1999 (during my frosh year in high school). It's easily my favorite of King's Richard Bachman novels/works, and its film seems like it would rank up there with the actually good-great King flicks. My personal short list of those being Carrie (NOT the original, but the 2002 TV version for the fact that they NAILED the best part of the novel, when Carrie incinerated the town), The Shining (Kubrick version of course), Pet Sematary (very surprisingly true to the book, which is tied with Carrie for my overall King fave if I had to pick), and Sometimes They Come Back.

[Death&Return of Superman]

THEM!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGS0jsd0row

That isn't the same. The C.H.U.D. scene has a group being filmed and watched by people on a tv bank, they're using different although similar sounding devices to track they're pray, the CHUD and Aliens scenes are almost the same thing.

[Death&Return of Superman]

Wait, are you saying that the 1960 film is a remake? Dude, that is the original and it is definitely tongue and cheek. I believe Roger Corman shot this in around 3 days because he had a couple more days left on the use of a set. As a black comedy I think it's a hoot. His Creature from the Haunted Sea is pretty funny for a low budget work also.

That original Little Shop is really good. I got it a few years ago with a bunch of other stuff and was surprised by how enjoyable it ended up being.

I didn't get the feeling they were saying that was a remake. Although it seems pretty fucking weird to me that someone would say it's hard to judge older horror and comedies in relation to a damn '60s film. Weird still since they seemingly have a problem with the camp, but the remake is even more campy.

[Da Boat]

It's somewhat embarrassing to say given how long this movie has been around, but I really need to finally watch it one day and see if it stacks up to the book, which I read around 1999 (during my frosh year in high school). It's easily my favorite of King's Richard Bachman novels/works, and its film seems like it would rank up there with the actually good-great King flicks. My personal short list of those being Carrie (NOT the original, but the 2002 TV version for the fact that they NAILED the best part of the novel, when Carrie incinerated the town), The Shining (Kubrick version of course), Pet Sematary (very surprisingly true to the book, which is tied with Carrie for my overall King fave if I had to pick), and Sometimes They Come Back.

I wouldn't be surprised if King wouldn't be a big fan of the movie. Cause it's so over-the-top. But I bet the best moments in the movie must come from the book. Like I never read the book but when the main character says to the Gypsies "The white man from town is putting a curse on YOU!" was a great moment.

One of the favorite movies based on a Stephen King story was Needfull Things. It is shockingly great and the acting is also top notch throughout.

[Sean Whitmore]

October 1 - The Body Snatcher (1945)
October 2 - Isle of the Dead (1945)
October 3 - Dead Men Walk (1943)
October 4 - Cat People (1942)
October 5 - An American Werewolf in London (1981)
October 6 - Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
October 7 - The Old Dark House (1932)
October 8 - Silver Bullet (1985)
October 9 - Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
October 10 - Bedlam (1946)
October 11 - Scream and Scream Again (1970)
October 12 - Shin Godzilla (2016)
Son of Dracula (1943)
October 13 - Doctor X (1932)
October 14 - Son of Frankenstein (1939)
October 15 - Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Monster House (2006)
October 16 - The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Innocents (1961)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
October 17 - The Invisible Ray (1936)
October 18 - The City of the Dead (1960)
October 19 - The Lost Boys (1987)
October 20 - Horror Express (1972)
October 21 - The Thing From Another World (1951)
October 22 - The Oblong Box (1969)
October 23 - The Creeping Flesh (1973)
Ocotber 24 - The Gorgon (1964)
October 25 - The Brides of Dracula (1960)

The first and most overlooked sequel to Hammer's Dracula series...which is somewhat understandable, as Dracula isn't even in it. But even without Christopher Lee, this is a great one. Action-wise, story-wise, it's actually got a lot going on for it that the first one didn't. And the end always sticks with me as an originally and aesthetically powerful way to utilize the old vampire/cross staple.