October 2015 Horror Movie a Day

[SJP]

I do have some bad news for you.  David Cronenberg is in it, but he's not in the space portion of the film.  Although "David Cronenberg in Space" sounds like a great name for a movie.

EDIT: Day 16: Pontypool

Saw this on somebody's list from a previous year and figured I would watch it.
I originally had a long description and review, but it got erased because the forum signed me out and didn't inform me until it was too late.  So, in short, I liked it quite a bit, but it did have a little art house pretension, especially in the very last scene.  It doesn't stop me from recommending it, though.  Very much a low-budget-but-making-do-with-it-very-well kind of film.

[Relaxing Dragon]

I do have some bad news for you.  David Cronenberg is in it, but he's not in the space portion of the film.  Although "David Cronenberg in Space" sounds like a great name for a movie.

EDIT: Day 16: Pontypool

Saw this on somebody's list from a previous year and figured I would watch it.
I originally had a long description and review, but it got erased because the forum signed me out and didn't inform me until it was too late.  So, in short, I liked it quite a bit, but it did have a little art house pretension, especially in the very last scene.  It doesn't stop me from recommending it, though.  Very much a low-budget-but-making-do-with-it-very-well kind of film.

That person might have been me, because I tend to bring this movie up whenever I can when it comes to talking underseen horror (it's honestly one of my favorite movies). A great, creepy, genuinely unique little creeper of a kinda-sorta-not-really zombie picture. Helps that the fellow playing the lead was absolutely perfect for the role, and I'm always a sucker for single-location movies.

[JimJ]

Day 16: The Signal (2007) 2/5

Interesting concept but it failed to hold my attention in the darker segments.  The middle portion where it randomly turns into a horror comedy was pretty fun though.

Day 17: The Den (2013) 3/5

Apparently, someone made a Skype horror movie prior to Unfriended.  Actually, this is more of a Chatroulette horror movie.  Anyway, I liked it more than I thought I would.  I'd say it's about on par with Unfriended, though the characters aren't nearly as awful and the ending was much more interesting.

[Johnny Unusual]

To fill in some of the days I watched the Tourist Trap rifftrax and the Robot Monster MST3k (mostly because the version I saw is part of the MST3k Closed Caption project on Youtube, which is pretty cool even though they will be stuck in the first season for at least the next 6 months.

Anyway, last night I finally saw the infamous Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.  I like the idea of starting off your slasher movie with the slasher getting exploded by the FBI, but then it piles on a heap of nonsensical mythos that in no way jibes with any of the other movies.  So Jason's "true form" is a weird little monster that hops from body to body?  This feels like a script from an unrelated movie was taken and tried to turn a script from a low-rent Clive Barker into a Jason movie.  Here's the thing: apart from this movie, at least all the other ones have an idea of what the series is: an extension of the campfire stories where guys tell stories about maniacs.  Yeah, there's a bit of Jason mythos, but until here, it never implies that there's some sort of strange secret history of the Vorhees clan.  It's simply a crazy mom who kills teens and then her son comes back to avenge her.

Also, it sure takes a long time for Jason to actually go to Hell.

[Edward J Grug III]

King Kong - Sure it's not really a horror movie, but I think it's Halloween appropriate. It's amazing how many Kong movies have happened, and that the original 1933 version is still the best. People must have flipped out when they first saw this.

Diabolique (The Devils) - As much as I love classic, foreign cinema, I've not really got as in to French cinema as most. In fact I seem to find a lot of it very cold. However, I really love the films of Henri-Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear and The Murderer Lives at Number 21 are two more great films from him). This is one of his best, though I feel like it's best to watch it not knowing anything much about it. Discover the plot as you watch, if possible.

[Johnny Unusual]

I've always meant to see that one.  I love Wages of Fear.

[Edward J Grug III]

I've always meant to see that one.  I love Wages of Fear.

I have a really hard time picking a favourite between the two. Check it out for sure!

[Edward J Grug III]

I forgot on Friday night we watched:

The Thing - My favourite John Carpenter movie, and just one of my favourite movies ever. I really want to watch the original movie, but it isn't anywhere to see legally that I can find. :/

[SJP]

Day 17: ABCs of Death 2
An anthology of short films, usually gross, involving death in some way.  Most are comedic, some are not, and some are just...off.
As tends to be the case in an anthology film where every one is done by a different director, some are good, some not so good.  Most end up as half-baked ideas with little to recommend them, though the most successful do very well with the limited time they have.  While the first one has its memorable moments, so does this one.  This one also seems to have a slightly more international flavor than the last one (though there were plenty of worldwide entries in that one, too, it just feels like more).  Spoilered list of reviews of each one below:
A: A hitman's big score turns out to be less fun than it seemed in his head.  Probably one of the better stories in the whole thing, it is gross, funny, and tells a complete tale (and proves John McClane had it lucky, as you will see).
B: A wildlife filmmaker meets his match.  Funny, but really goes nowhere.
C: A man is put on trial by the townsfolk for a crime he may not have committed.  This moral tale is undone by its slapstick ending.
D: A stop-motion pile of weird.  Looks interesting and creepy, but again, really leads nowhere.
E: Tensions rise between two guys stranded on a desert island when a lady shows up.  Mildly amusing, but sort of out of place in here.
F: An Israeli soldier is stuck in a tree by a parachute, and meets up with a young insurgent.  More realistic terror, and story is OK.
G: A young man and his grandfather spend an evening together...and gramps is a little weird.  Starts funny, then gets "Huh?" worthy.  Ending is bizarre.
H: Hey, good to see Bill Plympton still working!  Enjoyable, but sort of a retread of his famous 'Kissing' cartoon.
I: A family wants its inheritance from its matriarch, but she has to die first...and nothing seems to be working to bump her off.  Cute and offbeat.
J: A gay man is tortured by two men trying to "save his soul."  Like C, the ending sort of undoes the whole point of the story, but the violence is properly unnerving.
K: A young woman sees a strange shape in the sky, followed by horrifying events in the building next door.  Story itself ends poorly, but might be the most terrifying premise of the whole collection.  Great atmosphere in this one.
L: A monster is summoned to fight a rival African village.  This one sucked.  Bad special effects and bad monster makeup add up to very little.
M: A slow motion trip of a man down a street...why he is doing what he's doing is explained in the end.  Joke story, but well-filmed.
N: A husband and wife go to meet up dressed as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.  Not great, especially because you know what's going to happen halfway through.
O: A woman is put on trial for murder, but the twist is who the victims are and why.  Easily one of the best stories, if not the best.  Absolute show-stealer.
P: Three 1940s-style crooks walk through the dark and meet a strange man and his friend.  First of all, the title is a cheat.  Secondly, it's really stupid.
Q: Sometimes answering questions correctly is a bad idea.  Decent enough.
R: Three people play Russian Roulette in a basement...but why?  Less gore, more tension, and has a good ending.
S: A man talks with his wife on the phone when a home invader breaks in.  Very brutal, but the twist at the end works.
T: A photo shoot gets uncomfortable.  Short and dumb, not worth it, in my opinion.
U: A man is on the run in a fashion heavy world.  Spoiler: It's the Cliff's Notes of Logan's Run.  Visually interesting, but not enough development.
V: A guy calls his wife on Skype, and she sees what he and his friend are up to.  Very similar to S, but not as well done.
W: The world's worst He-Man rip-off toy commercial goes terribly wrong.  More graphic than expected, and really bizarre, but it's kind of funny until the ending, which is another "Huh?" type thing.
X: A babysitter gets a little tired of a small child playing the xylophone.  Gory little number, and short enough to not wear out its welcome.
Y: A girl fantasizes about what she would love to see happen to her parents.  Another good entry, mostly due to Japan's proclivity for the weird and outlandish.  Between this and O, Japan wins the gold medal for this movie.
Z: A pregnant woman's husband leaves her behind, but refuses to have the baby until he gets back.  And, well...ick, I guess.  Not a great story in and of itself, but it is certainly grotesque, and a memorable way to end the movie.

Day 18: The Beast of X Moor
Also called X Moor.  A couple go off into the woods with a hunter to seek out a supposed panther, but it turns out there's killings afoot, and a much more human monster is involved.
Oy.  This one isn't particularly badly acted, or incompetently filmed.  But it just sucks.  Remember Lambert from Alien?  Yeah, the two leads act like her for half the running time.  Most of the movie is filmed in the woods at night, but unlike Dark Was the Night, you can't tell what the hell is happening for most of it.  The twists and turns are silly, and I can honestly say I've never seen a less likeable rescued victim than Vanya.  Never have I rooted for a killer to finish the job more than this brainless twit who no less than three times tries to kill or maim her rescuers...when she knows full well they are on her side.
And yes, she gets what's coming to her.  She's an absolute creep.
And what better way to finish your movie about a serial killer?
The killer bumps himself off by accident.  No, really.  And to make it worse, that's pretty much the only way to have the movie end on a high note, since the daughter would've been traumatized if the heroine had done the job herself.
Avoid.  It's probably a better movie than Knock Knock, but it's not a good movie by any stretch.

[Compound]

Okay, let's catch up on some posts:

Deadly Blessing-
After leaving the Hittite faith, a farmer returns to his family farm with his new wife. The other Hittites refer to her as an Incubus and scream at her. Then there's a bunch of mysterious deaths. And a twist ending. And then a nonsensical twist ending.

A Wes Craven film, but not one of his good ones. Also with Sharon Stone and Earnest Borgnine, being all Hittitey. Not a very good film though. The ending's pretty incoherent. Oh, and if you're wondering "Um, why are they yelling Incubus at a girl? Those are male spirits." Like I said. Incoherent.


Navy vs. the Night Monsters
After finding some strange trees in Antarctica, they are then planted on an island. This proves to be a bad idea.

Carnivorous trees threaten the Navy! Not a bad little monster film and the little podlings of the trees are kinda creepy. But a decent example of a monster film. And it's solved by the Navy napalming the hell out of things, which is actually  a pretty realistic response.

Gamera-
An ancient flying turtle is found frozen in the arctic.

It's Gamera. What surprised me when rewatching it was that the first film was trying really, really hard to be a serious film. When we switch over to the Americans, they're arguing serious issues. They're really trying hard to not be a children's film, which the later films fully embraced.

The Miliptas Monster-
After decades of garbage is dumped in a dump, a monster arrives and ravages a California town.

This film is... odd. It feels like a slightly better made Manos. No, seriously. It feels like someone went to a small town's city council and said "Hey, let us make a horror film to promote your town" and they said "sure." I don't think anyone is this film is a real actor, except for Paul Frees, who was just the announcer. Every other role has that feel of "random person asked to act"  to it. The sound quality's lousy. The lighting is all dark. The monster isn't bad looking.  It's like Manos, but more competently made.  Looking it up, it looks like the whole thing was written and acted by high school students, and, well, I guess it's impressive for that. But it's not a very good movie.

[JimJ]

Lots of updating to do.

Day 18: Crimson Peak (2015) 4/5

Some friends were going so I decided to meet up with them and see it again.  Stands up well to a 2nd viewing.

and

Goosebumps (2015) 3/5

A decent kids horror adventure film, with a fun performance by Jack Black.

Day 19: Hotel Transylvania (2012) 2/5

My cousin wanted me to take her and her son to the sequel so, being anal about not watching films out of sequence, I had to watch the original first.  It's not very good but it's probably a bit better than I was expecting.  And, I know it's not really a horror film at all, but I'm counting it because of the obvious horror theme.

Day 20: Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) 3/5

I liked this quite a bit more than the first and I'm not 100% sure why.  Still nothing amazing but I had some fun with it.

[Edward J Grug III]

I think the Hotel Transylvania films aren't bad. The direction and animation are excellent. The jokes are often weak (I suspect anywhere Sandler exerted his vision)

[SJP]

Horror themes are perfectly acceptable, even if the movie itself isn't particularly 'scary.'  Heck, between Crimson Peak, Goosebumps, and Hotel Transylvania 2, the horror pickings at the theater are really slim this year, and nobody is going to see Crimson Peak despite decent enough reviews.

Day 19: Dario Argento's Dracula
It's the Dracula story, as told by one of Italy's renowned masters of Italian exploitation fare.  Originally released in 3D, but a 3D version was not available when I watched it.
I have mixed feelings on this one.  I found my attention wandering during it, since there are long passages where nothing at all happens and it drags.  But when it gets all Mondo Trasho, it's pure dumb garbage that is just fun to watch.
High points:
-The Keanu Reeves-alike hired to play Jonathan Harker...And his surprise death.  Way to change the story, Dario!
-Rutger Hauer.  Never has a man's expression changed so little in a movie, and yet still convey more emotion than half the cast.
-Dracula.  He was pretty good.
-The sex scene at the beginning where the two people never even come close to each other.  I know it's all in shadow, but the two of them are literally a foot apart and not doing a good job of fooling anyone.
-And, finally, we all know Dracula can turn into a wolf and a bat through the years of lore, but this transformation takes the cake...
Warning!  Somewhat bloody scene. Do not watch at work.  May also cause uncontrollable laughter.
Is it any good?  Not really.  But it's exactly the best kind of terrible.  The CG is garbage, the acting fluctuates depending on if the actor is dubbed or not, many gratuitous liberties are taken with the story, and some of it just really makes no sense.  But unlike X Moor, it all comes together in a delightful sandwich of guilty pleasures.

Day 20: The Lost Skeleton Returns Again
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra Returns...Again...to torment the good twin brother of the evil scientist of the last movie.  Meanwhile, 90% of the original cast also returns, whether as the original characters or as twin brothers of the ones who died, all searching for a radioactive rock that may hold a terrible secret.
Technically, like the original Cat People movie and its sequel, this sequel is not truly a horror film, but more of a throwback parody of adventure films of a bygone era (and one the wife was willing to watch with me).  However, the skeleton still does try to murder people about as horribly as the cast (intentionally and ingeniously so) murders the English language.  I nearly died laughing at the monologue Larry Blamire gives about bitterness and the jungle in a way I never remembered as he just goes on and on in a rambling sea of nonsense ("The jungle is every place for bitterness. It sows and reaps it like so much cane sugar. The jungle gets into your blood and builds tiny little houses of pain and you don't wanna be there when the rent's due because the anaconda, funny thing, they don't know how to read a lease.").  If you've never seen a Blamire & Company Production, do yourself a favor.  Your mileage may vary on how much you love heavily tortured dialogue, but you can tell these are done simply because of how much fun they are to do.  Shame Trail of the Screaming Forehead isn't readily available...I heard it wasn't as good as the other films, but it seems like it'd be one to watch this month regardless.  I highly recommend (along with Dark & Stormy Night, which I watched last year...the "embers on his eyebrows like small, flaming children" line still makes me laugh).

[Johnny Unusual]

Jason X

Why wasn't this called Spason?  Certainly better than the last one but not terribly good.  Has some fun moments though.

I missed yesterday, as I feel asleep through the Leopard Man.  I'll give it another try when I have a day off.

[ScottotD]

The VR Crystal Lake scene is amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing