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

[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)

Not really horror, but it is a monster movie, and that's more what I'm into anyway. And by far the most recent film I intend to be watching this October.

I really liked this one. It's the first time Godzilla has been the sole antagonist since 1984 (that TriStar bullshit doesn't count), and comes the closest of the franchise to re-capturing that "walking natural disaster" vibe of the 1954 original. The script by Hideaki Anno (of Evangelion fame) was in part a satire of red-tape bureaucracy and in part a celebration of human determination, in the vein of the factory workers who stayed at their posts during the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.

And, just to double down:

Son of Dracula (1943)

Not one of the jewels of the Universal horror library, but it's got its charm nonetheless. It's a lot like Iron Man 2 in some respects; it's got some interesting ideas, but none of them come together in a way to really make a satisfying followup. Lon Chaney Jr's Dracula is obviously no mach for Lugosi's, but I do enjoy watching him. It's enough to make me wish Dracula got as many cheesy sequels as Frankenstein or the Mummy...or even the friggin Invisible Man.

[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)



A series of murders and a bus crash involving kids from a private school spark a strange investigation. Especially when one one of the bus victims has bizarre nightmares of a fire completely unrelated to the crash. Christopher Lee is a police (or Scotland Yard?) detective who brings his friend, a knighted pathologist played by Peter Cushing onto the case. A concerned psychologist and a nosy reporter also get involved. Unfortunately, the investigation never really picks up the sense of ominous foreboding or weirdness that a movie like this clearly wants to built. There are many scenes involving a potential suspect running around an island that are just laughable instead of threatening. When the "shocking secrets" are revealed in the last few minutes of a climax with then just ends abruptly. This could have been a good movie, at one that could have gained cult status, but every aspect of it except for (most of) the cast is a let down.

Also, the title doesn't really apply to anything. I would only recommend this for people who absolutely need like they want to see everything Cushing and Lee did together. Both their characters, along with everyone else, are kind of snippy jerks in this.

[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)



History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men. The navy's first atomic sub is on a shakedown cruise in the Pacific when it runs afoul of a mysterious radioactive object which grips the ship and leaves a piece of itself behind. Back at base, the sub's commander oversees the investigation as two experts, including a lady scientist(!) are brought in. The commander is captivated by her loveliness, but he's spent so much time at sea he's never really met one of these "new breed of women", who are just as smart and brave as any man. His pursuits ultimately take a back seat to the testing, which determine that the assailant is a giant irradiated octopus.

Curiously, this is a 50s movie where the radiation apparently isn't responsible for enlarging the creature, but rather it made it repulsive to its normal food sources so it has to come up to shallower waters. It's interesting to see how a feminist element is approached in the time period as well. While it's ultimately some manly military men who save the day, it is noted repeatedly that the lady scientist is valuable contributor and the best in her field.

The ocotopus itself never gets a name, other then "sea beast" on occasion. Nor does it really get to rampage the way a good kaiju should. It sinks one ship, and kills some people who are very close to shore. It's not much of a existential threat, when you can escape it just by getting a few hundred yards inland. It does manage to break the Golden Gate Bridge in half...yet it gripped a submarine for a long time without rupturing it. That brings up a problem with the climax, as there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger that requires swift heroic action. Nor is there much of a reason for a special weapon to be needed against the creature...it's not as if we see conventional torpedoes and bombs fail against it. It seems like there's a decent chance the army could have perforated the thing while it was half out of the water.

[Tazirai]

Due to losing power for 4 days in NC. I missed a few. But today I watched.

[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)



History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men. The navy's first atomic sub is on a shakedown cruise in the Pacific when it runs afoul of a mysterious radioactive object which grips the ship and leaves a piece of itself behind. Back at base, the sub's commander oversees the investigation as two experts, including a lady scientist(!) are brought in. The commander is captivated by her loveliness, but he's spent so much time at sea he's never really met one of these "new breed of women", who are just as smart and brave as any man. His pursuits ultimately take a back seat to the testing, which determine that the assailant is a giant irradiated octopus.

Curiously, this is a 50s movie where the radiation apparently isn't responsible for enlarging the creature, but rather it made it repulsive to its normal food sources so it has to come up to shallower waters. It's interesting to see how a feminist element is approached in the time period as well. While it's ultimately some manly military men who save the day, it is noted repeatedly that the lady scientist is valuable contributor and the best in her field.

The ocotopus itself never gets a name, other then "sea beast" on occasion. Nor does it really get to rampage the way a good kaiju should. It sinks one ship, and kills some people who are very close to shore. It's not much of a existential threat, when you can escape it just by getting a few hundred yards inland. It does manage to break the Golden Gate Bridge in half...yet it gripped a submarine for a long time without rupturing it. That brings up a problem with the climax, as there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger that requires swift heroic action. Nor is there much of a reason for a special weapon to be needed against the creature...it's not as if we see conventional torpedoes and bombs fail against it. It seems like there's a decent chance the army could have perforated the thing while it was half out of the water.

For whatever reasons there's a lot more female scientists and doctors in monster movies of that time period than in regular movies. On top of my head, there was one in Them! and in the Thing From Another World and in the Peter Cushing The Abominable Snowman movie.

[Death&Return of Superman]

October 13

Blair Witch



Not really a whole bunch to say on this one, it's just The Blair With Project, only faster paced, and with somewhat of a budget to do somethings. It's also less subtle about things, not that I'd really call that a bad thing given I found this one more entertaining to watch than the original. Overall it's ok, I was hoping for more given its a Adam Wingard movie, but it wasn't terrible either so I guess that's something. If it wasn't for Deadly Friend I'd saw this was probably the least of what I've seen this year.

Also saw some of Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, but I was so out if it, and so comfortably blanketed with blankets because of the cold, well, I was just out shortly into it. Was thinking of watched the humorously name Lake Placid vs. Anaconda and Sadako vs. Kayako—almost watched them a few days.

[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)

Not a lot to say about this one. Despite the evocative title and the killer with his creepy gimmick, it's really not much more than a half-baked whodunnit. What we do get of the masked killer is all too brief, and not particularly memorable.

And while I don't expect NYPD Blue while watching 1930s horror movies, I couldn't get past the conceit of the police narrowing down the killer's identity to a student at Lionel Atwill's medical academy, and then turning the investigation over to him.

[Da Boat]

October 13 - The Skull(1965)



Have you ever seen a movie where the monster/evil spirit get you on your nerve and piss you off instead of frightens you? This was the case in this movie.

That damn Skull, dude. You have to see the movie to get that.

It's from Amicus, the sister horror studio from Hammer. Pretty solid effort all around. You have Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing at the top of their games as ally this time. Two friends who collects weird/sinister artifacts. And Lee tries to convince Cushing that the Skull that he has is dangerous and should get rid of it. But Cushing is obsessed with possessing it. Probably one of the very best perfomance from both men.

This skull belongs to the Marquis De Sade and anybody that has owned it before has lead them to their death or doing murder.

The annoying part was at the end this Skull/entity refuses to get destroyed and it keeps going and going. It's like the movie will never end. I guess you could say it was a successful monster.

There's a scene in the movie that has nothing to do with anything and it's one of the best scene I've ever seen in movies. So well done but it doesn't lead to anything. Which is the funny part. If I was a filmmaker I would steal it just so it can be used properly and being enhanced in a better context. It has to do Russian Roulette. You've got to see it to believe it.

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

October 14 - Rawhead Rex(1986)



Mildly decent movie. As a kid I always thought this was a typical Pumpkin Head big stupid monster flick and I had no interest in it. While there are some of that, I like that it has an European/foreign setting. It's in Ireland and it has to do with a beast from Irish Folklore(in the movie). The beast is unearthed by excavations and go on a tear through this Irish village. An American on vacation with his family is intrigued by this church(that has a link to the beast) and he becomes the hero that needs to confront it. It's not ra ra go America go though. It's mainly played as an outsider having to face this thing while the locals don't believe it. The goal is to find the talisman to beat the monster and they do.

It's an OK flick and the beast is literally the Nazi demons from the American Werewolf in London. They probably just used a prop left from that movie. lol

[Death&Return of Superman]

Oh man, the Rawhead Rex movie wishes it was as good as Pumpkinhead. Movie just kind of reminds me of a less interesting version of Lair of the White Worm. Guess Rawhead Rex was also original meant to look like a giant penis monster.

He does look a lot like a cross between two of those An American Werewolf in London Nazi Werewolves, but they're also much smaller, so it couldn't be the came costume. He just happens to look like a giant version of those Nazi Dream Wolfmen in Pinhead gear.

[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).



Inspired by the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, the infamous "Blood Countess" of medieval Hungary, the misleadingly titled Countess Dracula is a Hammer production. Not a true vampire, per say, Ingrid Pitt here plays a woman (not named Dracula or Bathory) who is merely vampiric in her beauty regimen. Elizabeth, an aged noble widow happens to discover that a maid's blood has a rejuvenating effect on her skin, so naturally she immediately takes to murder in order to restore her youth. She even has her daughter, who'd been living elsewhere, kidnapped by ruffians so she can impersonate her. Therein lies our problem, as other than a few brief scenes her woeful attempts to escape, we barely see the daughter for most of the movie, and that leaves us without a protagonist to root for. The countess is a vain, blood-bathing psychopath, her steward is ruthlessly ambitious, and even the chief servant woman seems to have no qualms at all with girls being murdered. Hell, even the initial discovery of Elizabeth's first youthful transformation barely elicits any shock from her co-conspirators. The closest thing to a hero a young soldier on leave, who finds himself falling in love with the countess's "daughter". But over-acting and a kind of douchebag character garners him no sympathy. There is a nosy librarian in the castle, more clever than the steward gives him credit for, but he doesn't do much and turns out to not be such a good guy, anyway. The Hammer films are never big budget affairs, but this movie in particular has a very small feel, like it could (and perhaps should) easily have been a stage play. That stage feeling and the lack of an proper cinematic ending are the biggest downfalls. I don't think there's anything here as lurid or shocking as the actual tales of Elizabeth Bathory's reign. I don't know why Hammer didn't simply adapt her story direct, even if they wanted to add a supernatural twist.






Peter Jackson wasn't yet famous when he made The Frighteners. In fact, Robert Zemeckis's name gets higher billing for producing it. This represents something of a waypoint for Jackson between the gory shlock-comedies where he started and the mega-budget epics that would make him de facto King of New Zealand. (Yes, I know Heavenly Creatures was before this, but I've never seen it). The closest thing I can compare this movie to, at least in terms of feel, is Beetlejuice. It's not a modern classic like that, but still a pretty entertaining, if flawed, tale.

Michael J. Fox plays a sort of huckster John Constaine, he bums around town in a big coat and a shitty car, exorcising haunted houses for a nominal fee. He really can commune with the dead, but the poltergeists he's "banishing" after actually friends of his who are in on the con. He's a pretty big jerk on the surface, but he's racked by guilt over the accident that gave him his powers. Meanwhile, townspeople have been dropping dead of mysterious heart attacks at an alarming rate, and Fox soon learns that it's the work of a cloaked Grim Reaper who numbers his victims on the forehead before he strikes.

The movie starts with a woman being chased through a house by unfortunately dated CG effects. The ghost loves to stretch itself out of walls and other surfaces, and most of these scenes don't hold up well. Some other shots, like one involving a mirror, still look really cool, however. Fox's interaction with the ghosts is rather spotty, you can notice when the eye lines are off. Putting actors in scenes with non-existant beings is done better better in other films, including Jackson's next.

Jeffery Combs shows up as a weird, neurotic, utterly deranged FBI agent. All we really get for his backstory is that he worked undercover in a lot of cults. He gives an all out performance for this wacko, and it might be entertaining in another context, but it doesn't work here. Even thought he movie is far from serious, he's so over-the-top, and the character is so obviously broken and nuts, and he just doesn't fit. I don't know what this agent thought he was doing or why he was doing it. Every time he shows up he just disrupts the flow of the movie.

This is the only thing besides Ghostbusters that I can think of to talk about ghosts having ectoplasm. I'd always thought it was just a concept made up by Ghostbusters, but Wikipedia tells me it started with old spiritualists.

I've seen enough of New Zealand on film by now to recognize it trying to be passed off as the United States. (Thus far, Ash vs. Evil Dead does a better job of faking its location).
Curiously, a young Melanie Lynskey appears as a deputy who gets no lines. Maybe she hadn't yet learned to speak the proper way, the American Way.

I learned there's a director's cut with an extra 12 minutes. Unfortunately, I don't believe that's the version I saw. I would hope it gives some more time to Fox's ghost buddies, as well as filling in some blanks about the enemy ghost Where did he get that cloak and scythe, anyway? All the other ghost-stuff in the movie was blue and translucent.

October 13

Blair Witch

Not really a whole bunch to say on this one, it's just The Blair With Project, only faster paced, and with somewhat of a budget to do somethings. It's also less subtle about things, not that I'd really call that a bad thing given I found this one more entertaining to watch than the original. Overall it's ok, I was hoping for more given its a Adam Wingard movie, but it wasn't terrible either so I guess that's something. If it wasn't for Deadly Friend I'd saw this was probably the least of what I've seen this year.

I kinda hated this for showing what I felt was way too much in the last act. Also, the editing was too slick for a found footage movie.

And while I don't expect NYPD Blue while watching 1930s horror movies, I couldn't get past the conceit of the police narrowing down the killer's identity to a student at Lionel Atwill's medical academy, and then turning the investigation over to him.

Even judged against the hilariously low bar of typically incompetent police work in horror movies, that sounds pretty dumb.

[Da Boat]

The Frighteners is a movie I saw on the big screen when it came out but was pretty disappointed by the results while I liked some elements in it. It such such an uneasy balance between horror and comedy and Jackson has done better in that department before. But it's been so long since I've seen it that maybe I would enjoy it more now? I wonder.

[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)

Talking about this earlier in the thread got me wanting to see this one again, and having a friend over who hadn't seen it provided the perfect opportunity. What to say about a capital C Classic? Rathbone and Atwill are great, Lugosi's Ygor is an equal (better?) performance to that of his Dracula, and Karloff does wonders with the monster even though they unfortunately walked back its intelligence from Bride.

One negative I will give it is that, the more I watch it, the more I think Wolf gets off way too lightly at the end. He learns his lesson, but in a very "Tony Stark builds Ultron but then helps defeat Ultron so he's still a hero" way. I love arrogance as a character flaw, and Rathbone plays Wolf wonderfully as the kind of guy who's completely confident in his ability to solve everything if all the other stupid people in the story would just please get out of his way, but that kind of arrogance really needs to leave some kind of scar. Instead, Wolf saves the day in (in a great action set piece) and it's almost like all this bad stuff happened TO him as opposed to because of him.

Not unlike the first Frankenstein, which, by any reasonable storytelling metric, really should have ended with Henry's death. I mean, film fans are lucky that it didn't, but imagine watching that movie without knowing that a superior sequel would be coming along and not thinking, "That ending is some test-screening bullshit."

[Death&Return of Superman]

October 15

The Purge: Election Year

Murder tourists, a Death cult, and a girl with afro puffs really wants a candy bar.



More action movie than horror. Election Year follows the lead of the last film as a bodyguard for a politician running on an anti-purge platform. Weirdly, right before watching this, literally the thing I watched directly before was an episode of Spin City with Rlizabeth Mitchell also running for a political office. Not as good as the previous movie, but still a really good watch.

Interestingly, at least to me because I watched it not all that long ago too, Election Year plays out a lot like another 2016 movie, that being London had Fallen. Only in Election Year some rando might have set up a death trap in the street, and everyone that may try to kill you aren't working together to do so. It also kind of has the ending to Inglorious Bastard (but without the fire) crossed with the really good part of Red State where Michael Parks brings some out to kill them infront of his church.

Still haven't seen the first Purge movie.

[Siddon]

31 Days 31 Monsters

October 11th: Phantom of 10,000 Leagues








A mysterious, man-sized monster kills a fisherman at sea. Two government agents later find the body on the beach. One agent, Ted Baxter (Kent Taylor), tries to get a sample of a radioactive rock in the sea, but the same monster attacks him. Ted escapes and returns to the beach. It's always a little sad when the mad scientist is more interesting than the monster. This was fun, but also terrible it will engage you for the first hour but it all sort of falls apart at the end with an underwhelming climax.


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) **

[Da Boat]

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)

Talking about this earlier in the thread got me wanting to see this one again, and having a friend over who hadn't seen it provided the perfect opportunity. What to say about a capital C Classic? Rathbone and Atwill are great, Lugosi's Ygor is an equal (better?) performance to that of his Dracula, and Karloff does wonders with the monster even though they unfortunately walked back its intelligence from Bride.

One negative I will give it is that, the more I watch it, the more I think Wolf gets off way too lightly at the end. He learns his lesson, but in a very "Tony Stark builds Ultron but then helps defeat Ultron so he's still a hero" way. I love arrogance as a character flaw, and Rathbone plays Wolf wonderfully as the kind of guy who's completely confident in his ability to solve everything if all the other stupid people in the story would just please get out of his way, but that kind of arrogance really needs to leave some kind of scar. Instead, Wolf saves the day in (in a great action set piece) and it's almost like all this bad stuff happened TO him as opposed to because of him.

Not unlike the first Frankenstein, which, by any reasonable storytelling metric, really should have ended with Henry's death. I mean, film fans are lucky that it didn't, but imagine watching that movie without knowing that a superior sequel would be coming along and not thinking, "That ending is some test-screening bullshit."

Yea it feels like there must have been another cut somewhere where it goes from the guy is a supreme jerk to no no he's a hero. It's so weird and funny. Maybe it's similar to Frankenstein where they edited the almost-sure-thing death scene to the guy survived.