31 Days Of Horror - October Horror Marathon 2017 : Because real life isn't scary enough

Flatliners is getting shelled in reviews right now. Sucks ....

Not sure if it's considered horror, but "It comes at night" is a really well done movie IMO.

I'm watching you.

GIRLY
AMER
SUSPIRIA
UNDER THE SHADOW
RE-ANIMATOR
HOUSE
BEGOTTEN
HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER
CLEAN, SHAVEN
SAUNA
THE GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA
DEMONS
ROAD GAMES
MAD LOVE
VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL
COLOR ME BLOOD RED
A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY
THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES
THE WAILING
ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
AT MIDNIGHT I'LL TAKE YOUR SOUL
SISTERS
STAKE LAND
THE BROOD
SLITHER
YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY
WITCHES' HAMMER

Bless up, Spengo. I had no idea that Mubi was a thing. Takes care of trying to track down some of the foreign films that I need to watch.


1. Gerald's Game

Gerald's Game is basically a bottle film, about a woman trapped (and trying to escape) by her own psyche as well as being cuffed to the bed by her, now dead, dickhead husband. I went in mostly blind, since I hadn't read the story beforehand. It's consistently creepy throughout it, and has a moment that will drive the squeamish's eyes towards the nearest hand/wall. I liked it well enough. The performances kept me engaged throughout the run time, which felt pretty lean. The only aspect that detracted from the story, was some of the effects work, during the flashback. It felt less otherworldly and more low budget. Other people might not have that problem.

It's not Flanagan's best film, but it's definitely worth watching. That man is pretty damned good at making solid horror films with a small budget.

Day 1 - Gerald's Game

Gerald's Game has been one of those Stephen King adaptions that has been in the works for a while but was always considered a tough movie to film due to film happening mostly on a bed room with a woman chained to the bed and her dead husbands body in the floor's but Mike Flanagan pulled it off.
Powered by a great performance from Carla Gugino, Gerald's Game is the story of a couple who goes to their lake house to try and save their marriage but a sex game gone wrong ends up with Jessie handcuffed to the bed and Gerald's body lying on the floor.
What happens next is a mental and physical as Jessie tries to save herself from this deadly situation while facing some inner demons.
The whole movie is quite creep as both Jessie and the viewer struggle to know if everything that is happening is actually real or a product of Jessie's mind.
Gugino is the motor that pushes the movie but Bruce Greenwood also gives a terrific performance as the dickhead Gerald who continues to mess up with his wife even after being dead.
Levels of discomfort reach an all time high in a pivotal scene that made me put my hand to my mouth and let off a few groans, hats off to the special effects team for the moment.
The main criticism for the movie has to be ending which is one of those that divide peoples opinions. I thought it was OK and it is a completely King moment, it makes sense Flanagan stuck with it even though it could be filmed a tad bit better.

Another solid horror movie from Flanagan who continues to show that he is one to watch for in this new wave of horror directors.



Day 2 - No Estamos Solos (We Are Not Alone)

I really wanted to like this as it is not every day we get an horror movie from a country like Peru on a streaming service like Netflix but it has so many problems. A young girl moves to a new house with her father and his new girlfriend but something is not right with the house.
It is a pretty standard horror movie plot but the movie doesn't do much with it. Characters are barely developed at all, we know the girl doesn't like the girlfriend but the movie treats it's characters like they don't have any personality besides the very basic thing they need for the plot.
This is even worse with the "things" that are in the house, barely any explanation is given and it all lacks motivation and meaning.
At a middle point of the movie (which is almost the beginning of the movie as the movie barely hits the 70 min mark), a character reveals that he had a traumatic encounter with the things but the movie doesn't show that event to you.
Sure, you don't need to show everything and sometimes a horror movie is more effective if you left somethings to the imagination of the viewer but at this point in the film, very little of interest had happened and the things weren't exactly very threatening so showing a bit of the horror they can cause could go a long way.
When we reach the final act, it becomes painfully clear why they didn't show anything. The final confrontation is ridiculously poor, bad makeup, terrible lighting, the only thing scary about it as how anyone thought this looked decent.
I didn't want to be too hard on this movie as it's clear from the bad effects work and extremely short runtime but you don't need a big budget to create an interesting story and they failed in getting a very basic plot right.
Awful, don't waste your time with this.




Day 3 - 47 Meters Down

Alright, I will start by saying that 47 Meters Down isn't a great movie, it is a bit dumb but I had so much fun with it.
The movie starts with sisters Kate and Lisa going on vacation to Mexico after Lisa's boyfriend had dumped her for being too boring (the movie wants you to believe that someone would break up with Mandy Moore because she is too boring, we have reached high levels of implausibility right on the first few minutes).
The girls go out, meet two guys and they decide to go diving into a shark cage the next day. They meet up with Captain Taylor (played by a surprising Matthew Modine) who clearly doesn't give a fuck about safety concerns as it is obvious that Lisa doesn't know how to scuba dive even if says she does.
The two guys go first on the cage and everything goes fine. Kate and a very frightened Lisa go next and at beginning it's all good. Lisa is amazed at how beautiful it all is. They start to go up and the crane breaks, sending the cage into a freefall. They hit the ground and the depth marker shows they are 47 METERS DOWN.
I will now go into heavy spoiler territory because the movie is so ridiculous that I need to talk about it.
This movie is an absolute dick to both girls, specially Lisa. They get put through so much shit it is almost hilarious.
Taylor's cuntish employer Javier goes down to save them but the girls see his flashlight stopped far away, Lisa goes to see what happened while trying to swim away from the dickish sharks who are after the girls. She manages to find the flashlight but no Javier until….JUMP SCARE, Javier has been killed by the sharks. Lisa grabs the chain from the secondary crane, the harpoon gun and the flashlight and swims back to the cage where her sister is almost out of air. They link the chain to the cage and start to get pulled up. Hooray, they going to be saved…
…of course not, we are still just 1h in. As they reach the 20M mark, the chain breaks and once again the girls tumble down to 47 METERS (DOWN).
This time, Lisa gets one leg trapped under the cage and she can't move. As both girls are almost out of air, Taylor sends down new air bottles but he explains that he didn't do it early because that would increase the probability of nitrous going to the head and it could kill them. They should watch over each other to make sure neither have started to hallucinate.
Kate goes to grab the air bottles, which incredibly landed near the cage despiste being dropped down from a boat 47 METERS up. Apparently there are no currents in the waters of Mexico.
Kate has her new air bottle and is bring the other one to Lisa when…DICKISH SHARK appears and takes Kate away.
Poor Lisa is trapped in the cage, alone and almost out of air. She reaches for the harpoon gun to try and use the harpoon to grab the air bottle but ends up harpooning her hand. Hey, at least she now has the harpoon.
She manages to grab the bottle just as her air is running out. Suddenly, she picks up Kate on the radio. Kate is badly injured and needs to be rescued soon. Lisa uses her buoyancy compensator to lift the cage a bit, manages to free herself and goes to find Kate.
Kate is bleeding bad and they can't wait for the Coastal Guard to come and rescue them. Lisa grabs Kate and starts to go up. They have to go slowly to avoid getting the bends. Lisa orders Kate to use on of the flares that came with the bottle and as soon as it lights up, it's revealed they are face to face with 3 sharks. They use the flare to keep the sharks away as they have to stop on the 20M mark to compensate for 5 minutes.
The flare goes up, Kate tries to get another one but she is too weak and drops it. Lisa frantically searches for the final flare and lights it up just as the sharks are going in for the kill. When the final flare goes up, Taylor yells for them to swim as fast as they can to surface.
They make a run for it and reach the boat. As they are being lifted up, a shark grabs Lisa and pulls her down. She gets free and gets pulled up by the guys on the boat but dickish shark grabs her even harder and pulls her down.
Lisa won't give and fights the shark, scratching his eye out. She is finally free and is put on the boat. Both sisters are full of bite marks, blood and flesh everywhere but they are safe. Lisa starts to nervously giggle, Taylor's voice gets muffled down and she looks at her hand. Strangely, the blood from the cut on her hand is floating in the air like the air was water.
The movie cuts back to Lisa giggling in the cage, still trapped on the cage at 47 METERS DOWN. The last 20 or so minutes have been an hallucination, Kate is dead and gone. At this moment, I fully expected the movie to end like this with Lisa hallucinating in the bottom of the ocean until she dies but the Coastal Guard shows up a few moments later and takes a still giggling Lisa to safety.
Yes, this is a ridiculous movie but it kept me entertained for 90 minutes and I almost want to recommend it just for the batshit move they pull.

Edit: I have to write this posts more frequently. It took me 2h to write this post.

IT | Andy Muschietti | 2017 | USA | 135 min | Drama | Horror | Thriller

Like a demonic, shapeshifting clown popping his hideous head out of the sewers of Derry, a new adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel It has arisen, 27 years after its last go-round onscreen (specifically, on the small screen, as a 1990 ABC miniseries), after going through various rewrites, multiple directors, including Cary Fuganaga of True Detective fame (who sadly, wasn't allowed to direct the final project here), and what felt like an eternity in development hell. This time, only the childhood portion of the "Losers Club"'s decades-long struggle with Pennywise has been adapted, the film's timeframe has been bumped up from the 50's to the 80's, which seems like the hot new thing post-Stranger Things (which shares an actor with It, even) and Andy Muschietti of Mama fame is the lucky one who ended up directing. The important thing here is, is It any good? Well, flaws aside, my answer to that question would have to be yes, but ironically enough, that result is due less to Pennywise's presence here than just about any other aspect, to be honest..

We're introduced to Pennywise (portrayed here by Stellan Skarsgård's other son, Bill) in the film's opening scene, where he lures 7 year-old "Georgie" to a sewer drain with promises of balloons, popcorn, and the boy's lost sailboat, before baring his fangs (literally) and dragging him down in the depths to a particularly gruesome demise. In this scene in particular, Skarsgård puts in a memorable performance that's somehow equal parts cheerful and predatorially creepy, and the idea that such an obviously evil figure could get away with both charming and preying upon the children of Derry for decades, like some sort of demonic Pied Piper, seems almost plausible due to the strength of his performance, which is unfortunate, since the film never lets the actor shine that much again.

Don't get me wrong, as I did enjoy It as a whole, but I was still somewhat disappointed with its treatment of Pennywise; I mean, Skarsgård was already somewhat buried as an actor underneath the hideous clown makeup that accompanies the role, but Muschetti doesn't do him any favors in further burying him and his various incarnations underneath a reliance on unnecessary special effects, repetitive, obnoxious jumpscares, and loud noises on the soundtrack to make sure you know that this is one of the scary parts. A lot of the moments in It that actually would've been creepier had they just been delivered with a lighter touch are grossly overblown instead (one scare involving a literally giant Pennywise popping out is pretty much just straight-up schlock), and the film's prologue was the only time where it felt like Skarsgård just got to play Pennywise, before the annoying modern horror gimmicks began to get in the way of his performance, which, based off his acting in the opening scene, is a real missed opportunity. I mean, say what you will about the miniseries, but at least it let Tim Curry just PLAY Pennywise a lot more, and let him put his own stamp as on actor on the part.

That being said, not every "horrific" moment in this movie was a complete waste, as, while I was never actually scared by any scene here, I was mildly disturbed by some of the twisted, imaginative imagery that It packed (one scene involving a sink and an old haircut coming back to haunt a character was particularly messed up), which kept me entertained enough during some of the "scary" moments to keep them from being a total waste, and made decent use of the film's R rating, an advantage it holds over the watered-down-for-TV content of the miniseries. And, what ultimately makes It worthwhile, despite its faults, is actually the various coming-of-age, innocense-lost dramas that the Losers Club experiences over the long, hard summer depicted in the film, whether it be Eddie discovering his mother has been feeding him placebo pills in order to make him believe that he's chronically ill, Beverly simultaneously dealing with the difficulties of puberty, the peer pressure of being unfairly slut-shamed by both the children and the adults of the community, or the molesting advances of her father, who's determined to keep her as his "little girl" for forever, or the way that Bill uses Pennywise's illusions of Georgie in order to say goodbye to his memories of the real Georgie, and finally move on from his death, a detail that, hacky jumpscares aside, nicely dovetails the fantastical horrors of the film with real-life traumas in a much more elegant manner than a certain other 2017 horror movie (coughSplitcough).

Anyway, like I said before, It is not a perfect film; in addition to its over-the-top jumpscares and silly, computer-generated effects, it has the occasional bit of tonal whiplash, and is rather loose structurally, generally going from scene to scene rather haphazardly, with certain characters just floating (no pun intended) in and out of the story seemingly at random. But, all of that being said, it's ultimately the film's sense of heart and soul, the way it cares enough about its young characters to take the time to develop almost every one of them (even one of the bullies), that goes beyond not just what most horror films attempt in terms of character development, but what just a lot of movies have in general, that redeems It, and makes it a worthwhile cinematic experience. Warts and all, this is a fundamentally good movie, and if you see it, then I think that... you'll float too? I dunno, I just felt I had to shoehorn that into my review somewhere. Anyway, just go see It already.

2. Life

If you're looking for something that subverts or creates something new with the space horror blueprint that Ridley Scott created back in the 70's, then you'll need to look elsewhere. Life does nothing to assuage the viewer that it's the child of Alien and wears it's inspiration proudly on it's sleeves. It even has similar set pieces and follows the same beats as the first film, only it doesn't do as good of a job of establishing the interpersonal connections between the crew of the space station. The antagonist...the alien of the film, lacks the defining characteristics that made the Xenomorph so terrifying and comes across as less of the ultimate apex predator and more of a gelatinous generic slasher film blob-guy-thing.

Having said all of that, it felt like the Alien movie that I thought that I was going to get with Covenant, and I ultimately enjoyed my time with it. It's entertaining. Calvin (the alien) is just...an asshole. It does so much unnecessary OD shit to the cast when it gets it's tendrils around them. It basically goes out of it's way to be mean, throughout it's "evolution". The cast, while not as honest as the crew on the Nostromo, felt human and the mistakes they made felt like honest mistakes, instead of the rampant idiocy that plagued everyone outside of David in Alien Covenant. The ending is pretty fucking great too, albeit a little bit random. If you want to see an "Alien" movie, go for it.



3. A Cure For Wellness

I was not sober in the slightest when I watched this (one bowl to many). What I do recall was that I didn't particularly care about a single character outside of Hannah and one of the older women that was there for the cure. It felt...excessively long and was a bit of a drag in the middle. Lockhart was doing things that made no fucking sense to me at all and he's framed as being efficient and extremely quick on the uptake. By the end, it fell into a mishmash of silly af cliches and barely feels coherent to itself. That's a real shame, because I enjoyed the running theme and foundation of the story itself. Not to mention, it's fucking gorgeous. Certainly, the colors popped more due to the weed, but damn. I just wish that the rest of it was directed as well as the visuals.

The Cure For Wellness is indeed a mess of a movie but it's gorgeously shot.
Makes me interested in what Gore Verbinski could do with Gambit.

... I remember watching half of the older movies when I did this things 3-4 years ago. I need to do a new horror list, but for weekends (no time on weekdays for now).

I watched Pumpkinhead. I liked the concept and the soundtrack going between little house on the prairie and friday the 13th is amazing but the kills are pretty underwhelming and so is the payoff. i liked the old lady.

4. House on Willow Street

A group of criminals decide to waltz into the house of a wealthy businessman, and kidnap his daughter to hold her for ransom. The only problem is, when they get to the house, it's clear as day that they should have aborted the mission. Due to their desperation, they follow through and end up taking a woman possessed by an overpowered demon.

I can't get enough of story setups that blend genres. Unfortunately, the premise is the best part of the film. Once they snatch Katherine, it devolves into a typical run of the mill jump scareathon that does very little with it's Stephen King-esque funhouse. The "protagonists" are to cool for the story, dialogue is stiff, shots are repeated constantly, scares are shamelessly borrowed from other current films, heart strings are pulled at in the most typical of fashions, and the melodrama is below soap opera standards. I had already checked out when the ending hit. Damn shame, because it had some pretty cool shots, was lit well, and I really did dig the narrative. The execution wasn't there and Sharni Vinson was wasted.


5. The Blackcoat's Daughter

If you don't enjoy "slow" movies and thought films like "The House of The Devil" and "The Innkeepers" put you to sleep, you're not going to make it through this with open eyes. I'm hesitant to even call it a slow burn. It's primarily focused on building tension through musical score (more on that in a sec) than ghosts throwing priceless china at the wall, or jumping out of barely lit corners with bed hair. There is a dense air of creepiness that permeates all of the scenes. Something always seems off. Unlike the movies that I referenced earlier, the atmosphere of this film relies way to heavily on the sound. With the exception of a couple of weird things that a certain character does, the soundtrack is the only real indication of what type of film this is or even wants to be, right up until around the midpoint where understanding is finally attained. I went in totally blind and there is only one jarring as hell scene that told me anything about the supernatural aspect of the narrative.

This might be the most lowkey possession movie that I've seen, ever. By the film's end, it plays around with the expectations that one might have with movies of it's ilk. There is no bombastic showdown between priest and the possessed. The relationship between the demon and it's victim is explored in a really fresh manner. While having a thread that felt contrived as all fuck, I thoroughly enjoyed the third act, due to the aforementioned.

Ultimately, I thought it was okay and had the potential to be great. It meanders in it's dark corners, and places more of an emphasis on it's scoring and sfx work than the showcasing of what should have been it's potentially strong characters, all the while under-utilizing it's camerawork. The blocking was on point throughout the entire run-time. Unfortunately, the best parts of the film come a little late and are attached to a far-fetched plot construct. I liked it well enough. I'd say that it's worth a watch for the third act. Your mileage may, and more than likely will, vary.

Spoilers for the third act and ending:

I was really impressed with how you see Joan in utter despair, during and after the exorcism. Not because it was painful, or because the demon was trying to break her neck, or because it was causing her to self harm. She was distraught, because she was alone in the world again and had nothing else. The demon didn't try (or couldn't) to fight the priest, but for a second, and just left her hanging. Then, when you get to the ending and see how that even when she kills the parents and completes the ritual, it never returns. Not only did she just kill two people of her own volition, but it didn't even work. Any hope that she had of seeing her captive and feeling a tangible presence in her life died 9 years before, when she killed those people under it's influence. Sad as fuck and miles away from being typical.

Shout-out to the cop for seeing that demonic fuckery and putting her down, when she started that silly ass "Hail Satan" chant. lmao. That guy is the fucking MVP and top 5 policeman in 3spooky situations.

Anyone seen Seoul Station here?
It's like Train to Busan: the Anime.
Thought it was great.

By Lupercal Go To PostAnyone seen Seoul Station here?
It's like Train to Busan: the Anime.
Thought it was great.

Didn't like it that much tbh.
The twist was pretty nice, but apart from that you had horrible animation at times and a generally fragmented feeling of everything not fitting together properly.

And I was enjoying doing this thread in the other place and all.

Was posting in the gaf thread this month. Haven't kept up with a move everyday but I've seen:
American Werewolf in London
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Rec 1 and 2
Evil Dead
Hellraiser
It Comes at Night

Currently going through Night of the Living Dead.

Welcome. Horror threads here are a slow moving. Hopefully, with more people joining, they will pick up.

Doubt I'll make 30, but I'm still chugging along.

I'm currently at 41, and was actually enjoying doing mini-reviews over in the GAF thread, so I'm quite miffed at getting it cut short with a while left in the month.

I was keeping up with the GAF thread but... we know how that ended up.
So far this month I've watched:
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original) 3.5/5 - positively eclipses the crappy remake I saw when I was younger. Acting is a bit off, but the dinner scene is thoroughly terrifying.
Raw 2.5/5 - a decent and original take on a coming of age story, but not nearly as disturbing, haunting, or unsettling as was billed by critics when it made the rounds at various film festivals
Happy Death Day 4/5 - a thoroughly entertaining horror-lite remake of Groundhog Day. Not terribly oroginal or particularly scary, but the lead actress plays her role with enough panache to elevate it above its concept.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe 3.5/5 - Competently acted and well shot, this bottle movie still provides some scares, even though you know where it's going from the beginning. Not for the squeamish, as the autopsy gets a bit grisly.
Lights Out 2/5 - Does nothing that the YouTube video had not already. The concept did not warrant a feature length film.
Hush 4/5 - A terrifying home invasion film from the perspective of a deaf woman. Thoroughly entertaining.

I've watched several more so far this month, and I'll keep updating this list as I watch more and remember the other films I've seen.

Awesome to see this here! Already missing reading the GAF thread. I'm way behind on my watch list, but hopefully I can make it up in the coming week.

By NoMoreTrolls Go To PostLights Out 2/5 - Does nothing that the YouTube video had not already. The concept did not warrant a feature length film.

Watched it today. It was serviceable. Some nice jump scares.

I'm sad to have lost the larger GAF thread, I discovered several horror movies from people's reviews.

I haven't managed to keep up with 1 movie a day, but my friend and I have been watching only horror movies this month. The past 2 nights:

Chillers (1987) - An anthology film from Troma which I found for 99c on PSN. It actually wasn't that terrible, despite the sub-par film/sound quality and really slow start. The ending was silly.

Bad Moon (1996) - A semi-decent werewolf movie, which was surprisingly violent and featured a german shepherd in a leading role. The transformation sequence - usually a highlight of any werewolf movie - was really disappointing. It was some dodgy looking half-assed CG "morphing" between transitional makeups.

Realized I've only watched Kill List so far this October...need to rectify that shit immediately. Also used the old thread for recommendations. Film/TV discussion was one of the reasons I read GAF.

6. The Babysitter

Cole's creepy as fuck, predator of a Babysitter invites some friends over when he goes to bed. He stays up past his bedtime to see if she gets into an orgy, instead he finds some satanic bullshit going on in his house.

All that you need to know, is that Cole is in the top 5 when it comes to dealing with unwanted guests, and he's got a top 3 kill in a horror movie. It's very lit, go watch it.



7. Don't Kill It (real life image of my face watching this)

Demon hunter Dolph Lundgren tracks a body jumping evil to a small Mississippi town, where he has to capture it with the help of his plucky sidekick, special agent should-have-been-the-main-character-of-the-film. In order to sort the hellish menace, they have to trap it, because killing the person possessed by the spirit causes it to take over you...the person that killed the possessed. Oh, and it's taken a special liking to agent Evelyn Pierce.

Honestly, this had the makings of a high fuckery classic, even with the low budget. It takes the easiest road imaginable (not in a good way), and it's a fucking shame. When the demon interacts with Evelyn it touches her, thinks for a split second, and immediately gets her to try and kill it. Anyone else would have died immediately. It never tries to manipulate any situation to get her to pull the trigger, even though we're told that he really, really, really wants her. It's a broken as fuck force of evil that doesn't do shit but yell a lot at the screen and throw limbs everywhere. I was fucking dieing every time it showed up, because it was just screaming in the key of demons. Don't Kill It is more concerned with showing how badass this fresh out of the 80's try hard millennial edition action hero (now equipped with a vape pen) fuck up is. His best moment came in the beginning when he beat the shit out of an overly aggressive sexual assaulting knob-end, which quickly turned typical in the very next shot. Terrible (not due to the aforementioned), because he was there to right his own mistakes and he was prepared to die doing it. There were flashes of there being more to him, even if they were microscopic.

The only thing horrific about this was Dolph zombie walking through the scenes. I really liked the premise, damnit. :(




8. Prevenge

I recall enjoying Sightseers a fair amount, so when I saw Alice Lowe was behind this, I was all aboard. Read the synopsis: a woman hears her unborn child telling her to kill a lot of people, so she goes on a murder spree, and thought that shit was nuts. Even with me finding the themes and explorations of how pregnant women are treated in the workplace, and the inner dealings of this woman's depression and grief, to be fascinating...this movie bored the fuck out of me. I'm not adverse to dark humor or European humor in general, but it felt long and the pacing was stretched to it's limits. I got my laughs here and there and it did have it's moments, but it wasn't enough for me to walk away with any sort of real feeling towards it...



9. Amityville: The Awakening

The single fact that this movie has the audacity to go out of it's way to shit on horror movie remakes (more specifically, the 2005 film), when it's as by the number as it is...is hilarious and reeks of ego inflation. It's yet another haunted house film that has good ideas and lays the groundwork for something creative, and plays it absolutely safe. It's cool that in this film, horror movies have been made about the house itself. I like the fact that the house is taking advantage of their barely living brother, and exploiting the mother's grief. The plot twist was dope af. Good ideas alone didn't save this from it's own mediocrity. I dislike using how scary a film is as a barometer for it's overall effectiveness in the genre, but this didn't even make me flinch. It doesn't do shit with the side characters. It barely utilizes the younger sister. The connection the older sister had with her brother feels almost non-existant. The atmosphere was sabotaged by the performances and I don't remember a thing about the sound design. I know this has been in distribution hell for a while, but man. The 5 minutes that The Conjuring 2 spent on that evil house was more effective at everything this attempted to do, in it's entire run-time. I really like parts of this script too. :(

So, I'm not sure of what to see next: The Witch, The Visit, It Comes at Night or The Devil's Candy?

By vastag Go To PostSo, I'm not sure of what to see next: The Witch, The Visit, It Comes at Night or The Devil's Candy?

The Witch is a classic, imo. If you have to prioritize, I'd put it at the top of the list.

Some deeper cuts:

Long Weekend (1978)


Make sure you watch the original rather than the insipid shit for shot remake. Has that excellent sweaty, boozy bogan '70s ozsploitation atmosphere and is basically a what-if of australian wildlife being as hostile as americans think.

The Stone Tape (1972)


Techno-fear version of a haunted house story. By the dude who did Quatermass. His other show Beasts is good for some youtubing later also.

The Living Dead At Manchester Morgue (1974)


By far the best NOTLD cash in movie of the 70s.

The Borderlands (2013)


One of the few found footage movies that is good in spite of the format.

Angst (1983)


A home invasion psycho movie with the good fortune to be made by Zbigniew Rybczynski.

The Others
My friend decided we should watch this (rather well known) movie instead of the usual 80s or 90s b-movie gorefests we usually stick to.
It was a good change of pace, and I only realised at the end that this movie was spoiled for me years ago. I conveniently forgot!

By vastag Go To PostSo, I'm not sure of what to see next: The Witch, The Visit, It Comes at Night or The Devil's Candy?

I've only seen the first two but:

The Witch is a real slow-burn with some tense atmosphere and some fine, fine acting. The ending is divisive but I liked it well enough.
The Visit is a fun, creepy, tight little film with a twist (because of course) that I actually didn't see coming.

Some more -

The Blob (1988)


One of the few good horror remakes (as one of the IMDB reviews says - this, the thing/from another world, and the fly are all from the same era with similar distances between them). The effects maybe aren't all as good as The Thing, but most of them hold up, and it's surprisingly effective as a plain old horror considering how close it sticks to the 50s cheese.

Rigor Mortis (2013)


Hong Kong ghost folklore/kung fu movie, almost like a stealth hopping vampire reboot. The deep bench of monsters and characters in this just makes me wish a Hopping vampire cinematic universe was a thing.

The Taint (2010)

There is essentially no part of this movie worth showing that is not also NSFW, so -

https://i.imgur.com/xXFypOg.gif

Holy shit the soundtrack. And holy shit all the dicks in this.

Mientras Duermes / Sleep Tight (2011)

Borderline between a thriller and a horror movie, a seriously creepy superintendent manipulates his tenants. But what really makes this is, it's all shot sympathetically from the point of view of the villain, so all the usual shots of your thriller where the girl is hiding from her stalker, are instead of the stalker creeping around trying to gaslight his tenants.

Next Of Kin (1982)


Please put up with a slightly slow burn first 1/2 - 2/3rds. A real tragedy that this never found an audience at the time. Incredible cinematography in this also.

I appreciate this thread.

Been watching lots of horror with my girlfriend this month. I'm also playing through The Evil Within 2.

I'll post my movies and some thoughts a bit later.

Being someone that subjects myself to this all year long I might as well throw out a few recommendations. Why not?

- John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, if you want something of his that isn’t the usual and is a) creepy and b) friggin’ weird as hell.
- Videodrome, can’t go wrong with vintage Cronenberg body horror. Long live the New Flesh!
- The Beyond if you don’t mind nightmare logic and gore for the hell of it.
- Henry: Portait of a Siller Killer, just so you’ll lose sleep for a few days and definitely never look at Michael Rooker the same way again.
- Ghostwatch, orginally a live BBC broadcast
that presented a “real” investigation of a haunted house. Pay close attention for extra spoops. ;)

Studio Canal's UK bluray release of this gem on the way from amazon :D

By You Are All Doomed Go To PostBeing someone that subjects myself to this all year long I might as well throw out a few recommendations. Why not?

- John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, if you want something of his that isn’t the usual and is a) creepy and b) friggin’ weird as hell.

This is one of my favorite Carpenter films, really underrated but as you said, the creep factor is very high.

For my recommendations I would suggest High Tension, Hard Candy, The Descent and for a bit of humor Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

By Scottify Go To PostThis is one of my favorite Carpenter films, really underrated but as you said, the creep factor is very high.

For my recommendations I would suggest High Tension, Hard Candy, The Descent and for a bit of humor Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.

Yup. The dream stuff in particular. GREAT score.

Your recs are all good picks. Hard Candy is something else man, skin-crawling fucked at times.

I enjoyed High Tension, a fair amount, but I still can go either way with the third act. lol

By EldritchTrapStar Go To PostI enjoyed High Tension, a fair amount, but I still can go either way with the third act. lol

I had almost this exact same scene (only less meta) trying to explain why I didn't like it -

https://youtu.be/UWTErr-91BE

Is there a reason why Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1931 isn't more well known like the Universal Monsters? Dude even won a best actor Oscar for it, but you never see it mentioned today.

It's fucking great.

some more:

The Dead (2010)

One of the straightest straight up romero formula Dead movies ever made, only with a fantastic set of locations.

The Keep (1983)

A big mess of a movie but all the individual components of it are pretty great. This was insanely hard to get hold of for many years so there's a cohort of horror fans / michael mann fans you cannot shit talk this movie in front of at all.

Taxidermia (2006)

I can't even begin to imagine how to cold sell someone on this movie, it's like a kind of demented truffle hog seeking out stuff you didn't know you could be disgusted by.

Marebito (2004)

Part of why I like this so much is, I think, because I had no idea at all what this would be (other than "by the dude who did Ju On", which this is nothing like anyway). Recommend going in blind also.

Omnibus: Whistle and I'll Come To You (1968)

Another BBC TV treasure, on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjtxHHjZ00

By Fox Mulder Go To PostIs there a reason why Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from 1931 isn't more well known like the Universal Monsters? Dude even won a best actor Oscar for it, but you never see it mentioned today.

It's fucking great.

Second this! Have you ever seen Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman's one? It's also really good!

Has anyone seen 1922 on Netflix? Thomas Jane was pretty good in it. Overall though, it was just kinda ok.

Just watched "It Follows" for the second time, pretty good movie. I'm thinking about checking out "The Babadook" tonight or tomorrow night, how is it horror Slaent?

By angelgrievous Go To PostJust watched "It Follows" for the second time, pretty good movie. I'm thinking about checking out "The Babadook" tonight or tomorrow night, how is it horror Slaent?

I found the Babadook enjoyable, but I think it gets a pretty mixed reception. Then again I went in with no expectations, had no idea what it was at the time.
It Follows is great, I need to watch it again.

I've been thinking about which movies i wanna watch on the halloweens. It will be trick r treat as usual along with some other shit.

By Kapryov Go To PostI found the Babadook enjoyable, but I think it gets a pretty mixed reception. Then again I went in with no expectations, had no idea what it was at the time.
It Follows is great, I need to watch it again.

It's one of those movies where you will very clearly find out who likes psychological horror and who demands a steady stream of violent deaths from a horror movie to consider it good at all. I really liked it.

There was a really good run of movies around then from I think, You're Next, Babadook, The Guest, It Follows, in fairly short order.

I just watched Train To Busan today. Thought it was incredible. I really cared for those characters, much more than pretty much any other horror film.

Watched Don't Breathe.

I loved the new Evil Dead and this was pretty tense. My shitbag cousin used to break into homes and steal shit and he got fucked up with a baseball bat one day. Guess he got off lucky.

Some more suggestions:

They Look Like People (2015)

$ to atmosphere ratio is pretty great in this.

Razorback (1984)

Jaws with a pig, and about a billion times better made than you would expect going in.

The Hole (2001)

Kind of the other way around than Razorback - could have been a much better film, but kind of kack-handed into being a bit more ordinary to watch than it needed to be. Still worthwhile though.

Deathdream (1974)

The best Monkey's Paw. Great cast also.

Society (1989)

They Live by way of Fright Night. This is good fun.

The Crazies (1973)

Missing from the OP Romero list! This is a much better movie than the 2010 remake, which just decided 28 Days Later was a good movie to rip off. This is less zombie-like and more just a plague of madness movie.


Spider Baby (1967)

Demented southern gothic horror comedy, that superficially resembles Addams and the Munsters, but I think there's something about it any sam raimi / coen bros fans will come to like also.

DeepStar 6 (1989)

Quaint underwater alien-ripoff with some decent enough character actors, miniatures, and creature effects. The otherone to Leviathan (1989).



Black Water (2007)

The otherone to Rogue (2007), both Jaws-with-a-crocodile, but Blackwater is the slower paced and (slightly) smarter one of the two.

Horrors of Malformed Men (1969)

Agreeably insane sort-of-kind-of Japanese Island of Dr Moreau.

I've been interested in spider baby for awhile, should have picked up the bluray by now.

By Fox Mulder Go To PostI've been interested in spider baby for awhile, should have picked up the bluray by now.

It's good! It's not one of those "forbidden" movies that really only has some legal problems going for it. It's seriously a good movie even outside of being a genre film.