October 2015 Horror Movie a Day

[MrTorso]

10/3: No Movie.
10/4: Devils Rejects

Tonight (10/5): Eaten Alive.  The great British video label ARROW VIDEO has started releasing in the states. They just put out a nice Blu of Tobe Hooper's follow up after Chainsaw! Early Robert Englud for the win!

[SJP]

The Blob remake is excellent.  Done by the same guy who directed Nightmare on Elm Street III.  It's darker than you might think, and the effects still look pretty good (save for a few blue screen shots).  Saw it when I was WAY too young to watch it.  The second death of the movie is pure nightmare fuel, but that's all I'll say about it.

Day 5 listing coming soon...

[Johnny Unusual]

Friday the 13th

I remember liking the last act of this one more  I think I would like it more if the killer didn't resort to... uh... slapping.  Still, enjoyable and I like the ambiance, the mood and the setting.  Faint praise, I know but that stuff goes a long way to making the film very watchable.

Will watch the sequel tonight, but I doubt I'll like it too much.

[SJP]

Day 5: Dark was the Night

I was working with a very low bar following the crapfest that was last night's movie.  When I saw somebody actually trying to act, I nearly cried.

A small town sheriff and his new deputy are fast realizing that something is seriously wrong in their little burg when what seems like a simple case of horse thievery is only the beginning of the true horror of what lurks in the woods beyond.

As a creature feature, the movie is surprisingly thoughtful and mature, focusing less on the gore and monsters and more on the story of the townsfolk, which is actually a wise move.  The sheriff (who I originally thought was a washed up John Cusack but turned out to be the guy who played the angel Gabriel in Legion) is played very low-key and quiet, which works for the plot, and Lukas Haas (nice to see him working) emulates the same very well.  Nobody is played as a goofy comedy sidekick, which is nice, and the humor that is there (namely, the parent-teacher conference) is subtle and plays into the slow-burn horror nicely.

On the downside, the monster reveal is CG.  On the upside, it's actually not bad CG.  I was surprised at how much effort they put into it.  It's not onscreen for very long, but they did their damnedest to make it look passable as an effect.

But the real reason to see the movie is the night cinematography.  It is fantastic.  Every scene at night is incredibly dark, but only at the edges, to give the area a very claustrophobic feel.  All the action is itself well-lit (and sometimes creatively lit) and not one second of it leaves you wondering what is going on.

It may not be the greatest movie ever made, but the filmmakers and screenwriter definitely have talent...and it was good to see Gabriel can act when he's not smashing Paul Bettany in the face with his Godly Mace of the Whale.  I'd definitely be looking forward to their next project.

[Compound]

Killer bees/ Satsujinbachi - kirâ bî (2005)

While on a hike, Japanese college students are terrorized by a bee.

No, not a swarm of bees. A. Single. Bee. 

Okay, to be fair, about 2/3 of the way through the movie more bees show up, but until then it's one bee killing people. I'd say that maybe the Japanese don't know how bees work, but I suspect a different issue- translation. Japan has these ginormous hornets that do in fact kill people. But I'm not sure if the insects are supposed to actually be bees or hornets. I suspect the latter but...

Ugh. Why am I babbling here? Not a terribly good movie. The bees are CGi, and almost Birdemic Birds in quality. The cast, well , they're speaking Japanese so I guess they're acting well? But I never really progressed beyond "Oh. Someone who I never really got to know just died.Bummer, I guess." Give it a skip.

[Relaxing Dragon]

The Blob remake is excellent.  Done by the same guy who directed Nightmare on Elm Street III.  It's darker than you might think, and the effects still look pretty good (save for a few blue screen shots).  Saw it when I was WAY too young to watch it.  The second death of the movie is pure nightmare fuel, but that's all I'll say about it.

Day 5 listing coming soon...

The remake of The Blob is one of my favorite movies (horror or otherwise). Very well put together, great use of the characters (including some good protagonist fake-outs and unexpected demises), and the effects are generally outstanding. All the practical work holds up really well, to the point that a few of the deaths are genuinely, effectively horrifying. Gets my highest recommendations, that one does.

I don't much care for the original myself. Too overtly campy.

[Edward J Grug III]

Onibaba (Demon Hag) - 1964 Japanese film about two women who are forced to kill samurai and sell their belongings to survive when a war begins. They are mother-in-law/daughter-in-law and the son/husband is sent to war, so they are havign to fend for themselves.

The son's best friend comes back, and tells them the son died. The movie is a slow burn for sure, in fact for awhile I wondered if it really was a horror film as reported, but it really builds to something...

It's beautifully shot, and I was really impressed with the sound design (both the soundtrack, and the use of sound).

I highly recommend the film if you don't mind a slow, black and white, Japanese film. It's on Hulu.

[JimJ]

Day 6: Maggie (2015) 3/5

Not what I expected from a Schwarzenegger lead zombie film, but this was actually pretty decent.  Surprisingly good performance from Arnold and Abigail Breslin is quite good as the title character.  I don't know why they went with a PG-13 rating, as it never got a wide theatrical release.  I think it could have benefited from being a little more brutal.

and

The Purge (2013) 2/5

I've been wanting to see this for a while and have never got around to it.  It's a huge waste of a really cool premise.  It's basically a home invasion film and the "Purge" element hardly even matters.  And it's not a very good home invasion film either.  I still want to check out the sequel sometime, since it sounds like we get to see more of the Purge in that one and aren't stuck in a house the whole time.

[Edward J Grug III]

Day 6: Maggie (2015) 3/5

Not what I expected from a Schwarzenegger lead zombie film, but this was actually pretty decent.  Surprisingly good performance from Arnold and Abigail Breslin is quite good as the title character.  I don't know why they went with a PG-13 rating, as it never got a wide theatrical release.  I think it could have benefited from being a little more brutal.

I was trying to decide if I could be bothered with that one. My wife loves Arnie, but his only film I love is Predator.

[ScottotD]

Oh cool, I wondered where that went

[Johnny Unusual]

Friday the 13th Part 2

I wouldn't call it a good movie, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would.  A common theme seems to be: I'm watching a lot of movies that are enjoyable enough, but despite a myriad of weaknesses.  I think it helps that like the first film, the second film just looks good.  Also, w"hile the teens are a bit dull, they aren't nearly as annoying as I've come to expect from movies like this (yeah, it does have the "prank-playing" character and so on, but they aren't actively irritating.  It is basically a retread of the previous film except we finally have Jason.  It's interesting to see Jason before he became the Terminator by way of Michael Myers.  However, it also makes him seem kind of pathetic in a way that doesn't suit the character.  Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of a more vulnerable Jason, but he loses dignity for it, being temporarily subdued by a kick to the balls and wrestling on the floor with one of his victims.  The latter part bothers me since it feels like Jason doesn't seem any tougher a fighter than any one of the camp counselors he targets would be.

Any, it's a fun thing and thankfully not as campy as later films.  Will watch 3D (in 2d) tonight.

[Edward J Grug III]

I've never seen a Friday the 13th film.

Or a Nightmare on Elm Street film.

I have seen Freddy vs Jason.

[ScottotD]

They're mostly fun

[Edward J Grug III]

I can imagine enjoying Nightmare maybe, but doubt Friday the 13th is for me. And I don't really have any interest in either.

[SJP]

I just want Friday the 13th 3 in proper 3D.  None of this red and blue stuff.  And Jaws 3-D.  Why is that too much to ask?

Day 6: The City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel)
Well, good news: the Horror Hotel edition is apparently public domain (one of those 'import' ones where the name got changed, a few edits got made, and no one bothered to renew the copyright, sounds like).  Why bring this up?  Because while the movie is decent, it is prime riffing material.

Christopher Lee (who is so young in this he looks less like Lee and more like Nicolas Cage) teaches a course on the occult, which leads a young lady to investigate a small town that burned a witch in 1692.  Turns out that the weird people in town are actually...well, without giving too much away, weird.  Witchcraft related hijinks ensue.

A British production, but what's funny is it takes place in Massachusetts, and the British have a lot of trouble maintaining an American accent.  Lee does fine, as usual, and the movie is well-made for what it is, but it definitely has a dated-60s feel to it, and there are enough hammy moments to make this one to poke with a sharp stick (but gently, with good-natured ribbing).  My month appears to be going up a bit, as both the past two nights have been way better than the previous ones.