October 2015 Horror Movie a Day

[JimJ]

Day 23: Big Ass Spider (2013) 3/5

Pretty fun creature feature with surprisingly decent CGI.  Good performance by Greg Grunberg (the cop from the original Heroes) in the lead role.  If you're into movies like this, you can do a lot worse than this one.

[Johnny Unusual]

Finally stayed awake through the Leopard Man last night.  Looks like my first instinct was correct.  It's not bad, but considering it's another psychological cat themed thriller from Val Lewton, Cat People comparisons are inevitable.  No supernatural stuff in this one though.  A showman in Mexico tries to have his girl show up a popular dancer by entering the same club with a leopard on a leash.  However, the dancer scares the big cat away with her castanets and later that night the leopard kills a woman.

The man and the woman both feel pangs of guilt but when the cat kills a second person, the man begins to suspect that this one (and the ones that follow) are not being done by an animal.  There are some creepy scenes, but they don't match up to Cat People and the psychological underpinning feels a little more tacked on.  While they didn't do all that they could with it, the climax where the criminal is tracked down to a parade of these... jeez, I forget what they are called, but they are basically religious types (who are penitent or something)  dressed in black KKK-style robes.  Anyway, it makes for a moody climax setting in a film that's a little bit dull.

Also, this film has some hilariously awful fake Mexican accents.

[JimJ]

Day 24: Mercy (2014) 1/5

Old lady is possessed by a ridiculous CGI demon, or something.  Anyway, this was forgettable garbage.  Chandler Riggs manages a worse performance than his worst Walking Dead episodes.

Day 24: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Make up for missing Day 21

No rating because I don't know how to rate movies like this.  It's not really a "good" movie but it's so goddamn fun and entertaining.  Not to mention that it was my first time seeing it in a theater and that adds another layer of confusion on how to rate it, because it was probably one of the most fun theater experiences I've ever had.

[SJP]

I've never seen Rocky Horror at the ol' theater show, but I felt the same way at the live "Room" screening at the local art theater.  The movie is terrible, but the experience of sitting in the theater was something else.  So, so many plastic spoons...

Anyway, I've been out of town on business, but I'll be back home tomorrow.  I have been keeping up with things, though, so I'll have my latest watches on hand...

[Compound]

Disciples (2014)
A group of Satanists must unite to fight a threat that might destroy the world.

There used to be a role playing game called In Nomine about Angels and demons on Earth in conflict with each other, but who would occasionally team up to fight terrors from beyond our reality. When I initially read the plot synopsis of this film, that's what it sounded like. Plus, hey, Tony Todd. Sadly, the divine presence in this is limited to a priest and nun who are killed by a main character midway through the film, leaving us with Satanist group 1 and Satanist group 2. And neither group is  particularly interesting. There's a prophecy about a pair of girls who if united could possibly bring about the end of humanity, and the heads of a group of Satanists are trying to find them because hey, they like it here. And there's a former priest (and a Satanist) whose daughter is one of those girls. And then we spend the next 90 minutes watching the internal politics of a Satanic coven, which is like watching a HOA, but with more naked women and more killing. It's a boring film. I cared nothing about these characters and the shocking revelation just left me uninterested. Give it a pass.

Carrie (2013)
A telekinetic teen is bullied by her classmates. Things go bad at the prom.

This is the third movie version of Carrie and probably the worst. Oh, it's not a bad film, just mediocre especially compared to the other two. The Spacek version is overall a better film and the 2002 version did a better version of humanizing White. This one's a little closer to the novel than the Spacek film, but that's not necessarily a good thing. If you don't have the other two versions available, I guess you could watch this one, but you should probably look for the other two instead.

The Snow Creature (1954)
A scientist on an expedition in Tibet stumbles across a Yeti and brings it back to the States. This proves to be a bad idea.

A bit of advice- If you're a scientist in the Himalayas being lead around by a group of Sherpas and one of those Sherpas tells you that his wife has been kidnapped by a Yeti, the proper response is not "No, don't go looking for your wife. This botany expedition is far more important!" Surprisingly only the two idiot Westerners, this approach leads to the Sherpas hijacking the expedition and chasing the Yeti instead. They eventually find it and the scientist and his photo buddy capture the Yeti and regain their guns and head back into town. I think we're supposed to be cheering these two, but dude, you told a guy that his wife disappearing was no big deal. You kinda deserved to be pistol whipped. Anyway, the scientist takes the "Snow Beast" back to the US, where it promptly escapes. You'd think a creature that lives in the Himalayas wouldn't really do well in hot Los Angeles, but hey, it does. At that point, it turns into generic 50s horror film, with a rather rushed ending fight. But it's an okay film other than that. Not spectacular, but watchable.

[Darth Geek]

The Snow Creature (1954)
A scientist on an expedition in Tibet stumbles across a Yeti and brings it back to the States. This proves to be a bad idea.

A bit of advice- If you're a scientist in the Himalayas being lead around by a group of Sherpas and one of those Sherpas tells you that his wife has been kidnapped by a Yeti, the proper response is not "No, don't go looking for your wife. This botany expedition is far more important!" Surprisingly only the two idiot Westerners, this approach leads to the Sherpas hijacking the expedition and chasing the Yeti instead. They eventually find it and the scientist and his photo buddy capture the Yeti and regain their guns and head back into town. I think we're supposed to be cheering these two, but dude, you told a guy that his wife disappearing was no big deal. You kinda deserved to be pistol whipped. Anyway, the scientist takes the "Snow Beast" back to the US, where it promptly escapes. You'd think a creature that lives in the Himalayas wouldn't really do well in hot Los Angeles, but hey, it does. At that point, it turns into generic 50s horror film, with a rather rushed ending fight. But it's an okay film other than that. Not spectacular, but watchable.

Did you watch the movie on it's own or with the Turkey Shoot riff? The riff is fantastic!

[Compound]

The Snow Creature (1954)
A scientist on an expedition in Tibet stumbles across a Yeti and brings it back to the States. This proves to be a bad idea.

Did you watch the movie on it's own or with the Turkey Shoot riff? The riff is fantastic!

On its own. I try to keep the riffed films down to one or two a year, and usually on the last day or two. Besides, the version on Prime is unriffed.

[Compound]

Hollow's Grove (2014)

A team of ghost hunters investigates a haunted orphanage. It doesn't go well.

Gosh. That plot seems familiar. How many of these am I up to now? Let's see- Grave Encounters and Ghostwatch back in 2012, Alien Valley from last week, Reality Horror Night from last year, Innkeepers (kinda), the episodes of Supernatural and probably another few that I'm forgetting. People like to make movies about the paranormal types actually finding spooky critters and then usually getting killed by them.

Anyway, while it takes a while to get there, it eventually gets rather creepy. On the downside, the ghost hunters tend to be rather unlikable until the weird stuff starts happening. Plus while they act rather well when panicking, while they're supposedly shooting the "reality" part of the footage, which would presumably air later, their performance is so bad that you'd question why folks are watching it in the first place. Still overall, I kinda liked it. It ended up working for me. Oh, and Lance Henrikson's in it. I'm wondering if they filmed his scenes in one day or two. (it's not a big role.)

[Edward J Grug III]

Eyes Without a Face - Finished it the next night after I was falling asleep. Liked it a lot, even though it felt quite B-movie-ish. It was clearly made by a great director. A talented surgeon's daughter is in a terrible car accident that leaves her basically faceless. The doctor starts kidnapping women and attempting to transplant a face onto her. It's on Hulu and well worth a watch.

Club Dread - I know it's dumb. But I love it.

[Johnny Unusual]

The Howling - This had the misfortune as appearing the same year as the far superior An American Werewolf in London.  There's some good stuff (I like the new way of thinking Vs. the traditional way for werewolves is a bit interesting and Partick Mcnee and John Carradine have interesting characters) but overall, it's just OK.  I do like the live TV climax though (though the last werewolf looks a little too... cute).

[Darth Geek]

Eyes Without a Face - Finished it the next night after I was falling asleep. Liked it a lot, even though it felt quite B-movie-ish. It was clearly made by a great director. A talented surgeon's daughter is in a terrible car accident that leaves her basically faceless. The doctor starts kidnapping women and attempting to transplant a face onto her. It's on Hulu and well worth a watch.

Wait, so this is basically the same as The Brain That Wouldn't Die?

The Howling - This had the misfortune as appearing the same year as the far superior An American Werewolf in London.  There's some good stuff (I like the new way of thinking Vs. the traditional way for werewolves is a bit interesting and Partick Mcnee and John Carradine have interesting characters) but overall, it's just OK.  I do like the live TV climax though (though the last werewolf looks a little too... cute).

As much as I love Joe Dante, I have to agree with you on this one. American Werewolf In London is much better.

[SJP]

I can agree that Howling isn't quite as good as London, but they're good in their own way.  The effects in London might be slightly better, but I think the monsters in Howling are creepier in general.  But speaking of creature features...

Day 22: Storage 24
A group of people are locked in a storage facility in England overnight, but discover something else is locked in there with them.

The monster in this looks decent, but the best thing about this is that Mickey from the Doctor Who revival is in it.  In Doctor Who, he's dumped by his girlfriend who goes off with a dashing alien hero.  In this, he's dumped by his girlfriend and he takes out his frustrations on an alien being.  Some people are just born to play certain parts.  Anyway, it's not bad, but the romantic triangle subplot is really unnecessary and there's nothing really new to see here.

Day 23: Late Phases
A blind Vietnam vet moves into a retirement home community and looks forward to ending his own life, but finds new purpose when a werewolf terrorizes his new community.
That wrap-up makes it sound like a comedy, but it really isn't.  The blind angle is interesting, and the movie is well-enough acted, but the effect of the mystery (who is killing everybody is revealed halfway through the film) gets undermined when Netflix shows the villain turning into the monster ON THE PREVIEW PAGE.  In most respects, though, it is very similar to Silver Bullet, but this feels like it's the better movie at times, Corey Haim and Everett McGill aside.  Although it shames me to say the monster, when finally visible, looks more a like Were-Hobgoblin or the weird monster from Big Trouble in Little China.  And the final fistfight where the guy is body slamming the werewolf does look a little silly.  Still, though, Ethan Embry and Tom Noonan are in it, which is a plus.

Day 24: MST3K - Giant Spider Invasion
Spiders come through a rip in space time to conquer Wisconsin.  Also, Packers win the Super Bowl.
Another "watched with the wife" movie.  She enjoyed it.  But even so, as dumb as the movie is, I do agree that making it for $300k was actually quite the feat.  It can't be easy to make a monster movie where you have something bigger than a guy in a rubber suit on a low budget like that.

Day 25: Student Bodies
A parody of slasher films of the late 70s and (very) early 80s, where a heavy-breathing (and very talkative) killer is taking out the Prom Queens.
This was sort of a panic grab...I had just gotten home from a driving trip and was looking for something to put on, and I figured, why not?  I've seen it once before and remembered it was just OK.  I felt about the same now, but knowing how it ends made it a little easier to swallow.  That, and the late comedian The Stick ("Malvert sometimes pees red!") and the Killer ("So many stairs!  I hope I don't die first!") just keep things light.  It's very wildly inconsistent in its humor, but when it works it gets downright hilarious.

[Pak-Man]

Eyes Without a Face - Finished it the next night after I was falling asleep. Liked it a lot, even though it felt quite B-movie-ish. It was clearly made by a great director. A talented surgeon's daughter is in a terrible car accident that leaves her basically faceless. The doctor starts kidnapping women and attempting to transplant a face onto her. It's on Hulu and well worth a watch.

Wait, so this is basically the same as The Brain That Wouldn't Die?

Soooo... Not a faithful adaptation of the Billy Idol song?

Sounds kind of like the opposite of the Brain That Wouldn't Die. In that one, the dude had the face, but no body...

[Edward J Grug III]

Also it was made by a competent director.

[Johnny Unusual]

I Saw the Devil - Some places listed this as horror, but I don't think it is, really.  It gets a bit close to Silence of the Lambs territory, but I think of it more as a Grand Giugnol revenge movie in the vein of Oldboy.  It's... good.  It's quite gory but it's smart enough to not ALWAYS show all the other stuff.  The premise is that a intelligence agent catches his wife's killer... and let's him go, so he can keep catching him and making him suffer.  It's an interesting premise, but I feel like it was supposed to go somewhere more interesting.  I do like that the revenge plot wasn't super-convoluted and worked perfectly.  Overall, though, it's just a competent thriller with some good martial arts.