Tag: October Challenge

A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

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For todays movie I’m hitting the sequel to one of the movies from last years October challenge. That is A Quiet Place Part II from 2020. Released in the middle of the pandemic this one sort of slipped by without the hype that followed the first, reactions to it were only lukewarm, but the film still holds a decent IMDB score of 7.2. The first film I had issues with but gave it a decent score because of how well it did the tension and the how good the monsters looked.

The sequel reunites Emily Blunt As hardened survivor “Evelyn”, Millicent Simmonds as her deaf daughter “Regan”, Noah Jupe as her son “Noah”, and John Krasinski briefly as their father, but mostly in assuming his role as Director. They are joined by Cillian Murphy as “Emmett” a previously unseen family friend who reluctantly finds himself slotting into Krasinski’s role. Fun fact between Krasinski and Murphy you have the most common fan casting for Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. Don’t hold your breath on that one.

October Review Challenge – Day 12

Anyway, the movie starts off with some flashbacks to remind us of the premise, to give a glimpse of Day 1 of the arrival of the monsters and of course to give Krasinksi a bit of screen time since he’s going to be around anyway (Spoiler for the first movie – He died). We’re then lead into what seems like not especially long after the events of the first film where the family are searching for a new place to live. Noah is injured by a bear trap, but the group stumble across an Emmett at a steel mill who helps them out.

In the mill they discover a signal on the radio which Regan thinks is a sign of survivors and also thinks they can use the radio tower to broadcast the high frequency signal she discovered can incapacitate the monsters so that other survivors can use it (Assuming they have a radio, it’s tuned to that station and they figure out the purpose of the signal). The rest of the group think this is a bad idea so she goes out on her own. Emmett ends up following her where they do indeed discover some other survivors. It’s never that easy though and the monsters naturally show up to ruin everyone’s day.

Plot Armour and Squishy Heads.

The monsters look great. Perhaps better than in the first movie. However the tension of the first movie is diminished a little here. The fact that we already know the monsters have a weakness and also that you can basically just shoot them in the head, lowers the tension somewhat and the fact that they basically have to orchestrate through stupidity ways for the characters to attract the monsters doesn’t help. At one point Regan kills one by pushing a metal bar into it’s head. If a child can kill these creatures in such a way, I don’t really feel like they are at global extinction level for threat status.

This is one of the biggest problems with the film, while the monsters look good they feel less of a threat. Partially because of the things learned in the first, but also because this film seems to have activated plot armour on some of the characters. Especially true of Regan who really, let’s be honest as a deaf child in a world were monsters with great hearing home in on the slightest sound is not going to be a great survivor. This movie even has her go off on her own and while she did almost get killed she survived long enough that Emmett turns up to save her at the last possible moment.

Make Some Noise.

What I did like is that at least one member of the group saw the value in finding a way to broadcast the signal. My biggest criticism of the first film was that it took a complete fluke for anyone fighting these monsters to figure out that creatures that have insanely good hearing may be sensitive to sound. Seemed kind of obvious, but having discovered that had the group not looed to use it on a larger scale I would have been really disappointed.

Unfortunately only Regan seems to see the value in this as Evelyn is too busy protecting her three kids and Emmett has largely just given up. That’s not a flaw as such, given the situation not everyone is going to be thinking of the big picture. I’ve got to say though, if Regan’s plan was just to broadcast the feedback it seems to make a wild assumption that random survivors are going to figure out they can now use radios as weapons.

Dumbass Raiders.

At one point in the movie a group of raider types try and kidnap Regan and it seems unnecessary contrived. For a start the group is much larger than any group of survivors we’ve seen. They seem to have a technique to trick people so they can attack them and that plan seems to entirely rely on the idea that their victims would rather have their possessions taken, their children kidnaped and basically be left for dead instead of risk making a noise and attracting the monsters.

On top of that they seem to rely on the kidnapped children also remaining quite. Something that seems unlikely. Obviously it doesn’t work and they all get themselves killed. Dumbasses. It’s worth noting at this point while this is going on, Evelyn is picking through an abundance of supplies at a local pharmacy, even finding extra oxygen tanks for the contraption she uses to soundproof her baby. This is not a world where everyone is fighting for a few resources.

Plot Contrivances.

As far as I can tell the group exists just to facilitate how a monster got to the island sanctuary and to set up the drama at the end. Which they wouldn’t need to do had they not decided to put the radio tower on an island with a group of survivors that are free from the monsters. The pair are barely there for a moment before things go to hell and they end up in a desperate chase to the radio tower, which makes the entire Island thing pointless. Had they been after a tower on the mainland they wouldn’t need the dumbass raiders.

While all this is going on the story also throws in a tense situation with the rest of the family which is basically entirely set up by Marcus being stupid and ruining the safety of their steel mill hideout. Their entire sub story felt unnecessary and put in just so these characters had something to do. I can’t help but feel Emily Blunt is wasted in this one.

Conclusion

Ultimately I feel like this is a sequel that wasn’t needed and adds nothing to the story. At the end of the first film, they’ve found a way to fight and lost two family members along the way. This film, the family loses nothing and they take the next logical step in using what they learned in the first. It’s not a story that needs telling or really impacts anything. The only person with a character journey in this is Emmett, who was introduced for this film and his story isn’t exactly good since it’s pretty much done just through dialogue. With all that in mind, I can’t really give it higher than 5/10 and that is only for the strength of some of the individual scene involving the monsters. The story is weak and the novelty has well and truly worn off here.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

The Beast Must Die (1974)

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Tonight’s movie is the British Werewolf film “The Beast Must Die” from 1974. Directed by Paul Annett (Who usually sticks to directing for TV, but made a handful of films in his career too). The film stars Calvin Lockhart (Who you may recognise as “King Willie” from Predator 2), as millionaire and obsessed hunter “Tom Newcliffe”. This is an ensemble film though so he is supported by the likes of Peter Cushing, Charles Grey, Michael Gambon, Tom Chadbon, Anton Diffring and Marlene Clark.

October Review Challenge – Day 11

This movie isn’t just a Werewolf movie, it is also a “Strangers in a Room” movie and unfortunately a gimmick movie. The gimmick here is as the narrator tells you at the start that you have to pay close attention to all the clues and figure out who the Werewolf is. This is sort of pointless as you’d be doing that anyway, but this comes up again about twenty minutes before the end when there is a “Werewolf break” for you to debate and decide who the beast is. Honestly the movie could have done without that.

Anyway, the story effectively follows the rich and determined hunter Tom Newcliffe (Lockhart) as he pursues his greatest quarry, a Werewolf. To do this he has drawn together a small group of individuals which he suspect of possibly carrying the curse. He has done this on the eve of a Full Moon, with the plan to draw the beast out and take it down. The story then progresses over three nights of the full moon as Lockhart begins his pursuit, but the Wolf is no fool and the question remains who is hunting who? Meanwhile the guests all start to question if Lockhart is telling the truth and if one of them is the beast. Accusations fly, tempers flair but ultimately the Werewolf will be revealed

Funky Disco Wolf

One thing I think is worth pointing out is the music. While liked it in isolation, it didn’t fit even remotely with the film. Instead it makes the film seem like a spy action/thriller. The music features lots of horn stabs and wah peddle guitar playing, which is very 1970’s but not what you would expect to hear on a Horror film (even in the 70’s). To be fair some elements of the soundtrack such as the bass does work (and similar basslines can be heard in the great Goblin soundtracks of Dario Argento films), but the rest didn’t and while there are moments of more fitting music the tensions is constantly broken by the sexy action hero theme.

The Price of Knowledge

Between the music and the gimmick I can see why this has a low (though not abysmal) rating on IMDB. But if you can look past that there is actually a lot to like about the movie. The plot isn’t without holes, but it is serviceable and this is a good selection of actors, especially of course including horror legend Peter Cushing. Cushing’s character Dr. Christopher Lundgren doesn’t have a lot to do in the movie action wise but has a good portion of dialogue which is his strength anyway.

The films lead Calvin Lockhart plays the obsessed Tom Newcliffe well. The character is not at all concerned at how people see him or if they like him, he has a singular purpose to hunt and kill a Werewolf. Calvin does intense well (as those that remember him in Predator 2 will attest to). He is a little hampered by the outfits they get him to wear (Again very 70’s) but the performance shines through the costumes. The lengths he goes to track and hunt the werewolf allows the film to stand out from the crowd as a Werewolf film. It is an interesting approach, if not the most compelling.

Werewolf Mafia

The setup of “Find the werewolf” combined with the “Strangers in a room” format works well, but given that is basically the setup of the game “Werewolf” otherwise known as Mafia that is no surprise. It is one of the angles of Werewolf movies that while heavily done in the modern day was virtually untouched when this film was made. It’s not a case that these movies and games based on the “Mafia/Werewolf” premise wouldn’t exist without this movie. I would guess most of the creators of those projects never heard about it. It is however probably the first. So it gets points for that.

Conclusion

Ultimately this is much better than you would probably expect and a refreshingly different approach to the genre. It is hampered however by gimmickry and being unable to escape the sheer 70’s-ness of it’s production. Overall though I think I will be generous and give it a 6/10. I can see myself watching this again sometime (Even though a re-watch makes the “Guess the Werewolf” gimmick even more pointless).

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Vacancy (2007)

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For today’s movie I’m watching Screen Gem’s motel horror “Vacancy” from 2007. Helmed by “Predators” director Nimbrod Antal and penned by “Overlord” writer Mark L. Smith. The film stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as married couple on the verge of divorce “Amy” & “David Fox”, with support from Frank Whaley as “Mason” the creepy Motel landlord. This is a short horror clocking in at only one hour and twenty five minutes.

October Review Challenge – Day 10

The story begins with David and Amy somewhat lost travelling back from a family event. The pair are not on good terms and it seems a divorce is likely in their future. They end up a bit lost and seek assistance from a mechanic who points them in the supposed right direction and takes care of a problem with the car. However, the car then breaks down fully and the couple are forced to take shelter in a nearby motel.

Once in the motel they soon discover something is up. The video players in the room they are in seems to be full of horror films, but on closer examination these footage is from the hotel room they are in and they are snuff films. The movie then becomes a cat and mouse story as the couple try and survive the night.

A to B

That’s possibly the shortest synopsis I’ve written for a while and for good reason. This is one of the most straight forward horrors I’ve seen for a while. Motel/Hotel horrors are pretty much a horror sub genre these days with films such as Psycho, The Shining, 1408, Identity, Hostel, The Innkeepers, Motel Hell, Devils Rejects, Eaten Alive, and Bad Times at the El Royale (Which isn’t really a horror but does involve torture and bloodshed so close enough). Indeed just in this October Challenge it’s my second motel based horror after Psycho II (My 1st of October review).

Likewise there is just as long a list of movies about snuff films stretching from the more thriller based “Cold in July” to the outright nope of “A Serbian Film” (If you know, you know). So it was probably long overdue for these concepts to be combined into one (I had a brief hunt to see if there were any other examples but I couldn’t find any).

Regardless of if it’s the first time a horror has been made about a Motel that secretly makes snuff films, the concept certainly doesn’t feel original or even like an interesting novelty. The angle of camera footage isn’t really put to good use of outside of one scene where the snuff film playing on the TV cuts in and out with the rooms power to a decently scary effect. Nor does the motel provide for a particularly interesting backdrop aside from being in the middle of nowhere and largely abandoned.

The Characters

The film has a very small cast and only three of them feel like real characters and even then only barely. There is more of a backstory woven into the couples dispute but it’s not really done in a way that it matters. It’s just there to let us know the pair aren’t on good terms and so when forced to fight for their lives start to realise how much they mean to each other. It’s reasonable character development but it’s also pretty generic and not enough to make the film interesting. Mason however is basically just a creepy dude. That is all we ever really get to know about him. He’s a bad person. Also somewhat stupid considering his gaffs in dealing with the couple (and one in particular when fighting Amy at the end).

Plot Holes

The movie is actually full of horrendous plot holes. When a cop is called out to the area and then killed, none of the psycho’s seem to acknowledge that they can’t possible continue with their motel snuff show scheme after this. I mean a cop goes to investigate the motel and then disappears, that will be logged, the police will thoroughly check the place out.

The motel is full to the brim of hidden surveillance cameras, snuff movies filmed in the motel in every room, a room full of camera equipment and monitors of those cameras and a huge library of snuff movies. Not to mention the secret tunnels and the damage and blood stains. There’s simply no way they can cover it up and keep working but no one acknowledges this. They should be making plans to evacuate and go on the run while still trying to kill the couple.

It’s also odd the police never send out someone else to investigate after their first officer doesn’t check in. Bad enough they sent a lone cop to deal with a “They’re going to kill us” call, but then when they are phoned a second time they respond to news that the cop was killed by saying “We’ll send another officer out”. Like they are just going to keep sending one officer out at a time to the motel until they are all dead.

Conclusion

The actors performances are pretty good however. But then Beckinsale, Wislon and Whaley are all good actors. They also are quite clever in pushing the terror without really showing anything that hardcore. Those positives don’t unfortunately outweigh the fact that the script is weak and the premise is generic. Ultimately the movie is all packaging and no content. Well made, but really a nothing of a movie. As such I don’t recommend this one and so I’m giving it the highest rating I can for a movie that isn’t worth your time, that is a 4.5/10.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

Freaked (1992)

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October Challenge – Day 9

Tonight’s movie is the absolutely ridiculous “Freaked” from 1992. Ever wondered what Alex Winter did after Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey? Well, the answer is this bizarre piece of horror comedy. The movie has an all star cast including Keanue Reeves, William Sadler, Randy Quad, Megan Ward, Brooke Shields, Bobcat Goldthwait and Mr. T. This is also Alex Winter’s directorial debut, teaming up with fellow “Idiot Box” alumni Tom Stern.

This film has a freaky history. It sort of originated from “The Idiot Box”, a shorted lived sketch show on MTV staring Winter and was originally supposed to be a low budget horror staring the members of the band “The Butthole Surfers”. Somehow the film ended up being produced as a feature movie by 20th Century Fox, without the Butthole Surfers and with Winter and co-writer Stern directing (Despite neither of them having any directing experience) Fox. The studio invested $12m (Equivalent of $25m today), had a novelisation ordered, a comic book and even made action figures. Unfortunately for them though the test screenings were so bad Fox pulled it from theatres, killing it’s box office and essentially relegating it to a direct to video release.

Freak Land

Our story starts out with a framing device of the lead character, “Ricky Coogin” (Winter) being interviewed, where he tells his story. Ricky is an actor and an “American Sweetheart”, but a bit of a douche in real life. He takes an endorsement deal from a shady corporation to promote a toxic fertilizer in South America. It’s pretty clear this is a bad thing, but he doesn’t want to say no to the $5m he is offered to do it. He and his friend “Ernie” (Michael Stoyanov) fly to South America where they meet environmental activist “Julie “(Megan Ward) who they offer to give a ride to (So she can get to a protest). On the way they opt to go to see a Freak Show and this is where the story really starts.

The show is run by “Elijah C. Skuggs” who has been using this toxic fertilizer to transform people into various freaks. He captures the group and transforms them with Julie and Ernie merged together into one two headed freak and Ricky turned into an especially grotesque half freak (with the other half apparently to come when Skuggs’ get’s more of the chemical). They are then taken to where the other freaks are held captive and like the other captives forced to perform at shows. Eventually Ricky learns to like and respect the other freaks and teams up with them to escape and defeat Skuggs and the evil corporation that hired him in the first place, who were in on Skuggs’ evil deeds all along.

Freak Out

I skipped over a lot there, but none of it is really that important. The plot is fairly generic, with what makes the film unique being it’s general weirdness and of course that is never more present than in the specifics of each freak. You have a human worm, you have a wolf man (Keanue Reeves), you have a cow man (also dressed as a cowboy), you have a French diver… I mean literally just seems to be a French man in a diving suit, a man that farts fire, a human toad, eyeballs with machine guns (used as guards), Mr. T as a bearded lady (Yes, you read that right) and my personal favourite a human sock puppet, who it turns out (minor spoiler) is actually a man whose head was turned into hand, which he then wears a sock on. He is played by Bobcat Goldthwait and honestly, no one else could play him. This is the movies strength, just the absolute absurdity of it.

The film is absolute B-Movie material, but with frankly unnecessary polish. It is absolutely ludicrous and just gets sillier as it goes on. The problem is it’s only really funny on occasion and usually the humour comes from the absurdity, meaning it wears thing quickly, while the rest of the story brings little to the table and the characters have little to them outside their freak gimmick. As for the effects, well, it would be generous to describe them as cartoon like. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve effectively seen the film or at least the bits worth seeing.

Freak In

I can’t help but feel this movie actually suffered from being raised to a feature with a higher production budget. On screen the only way it really benefited was in improving the cast, but these are not roles that needed top actors and given Keanu’s relationship with Alex he would have probably done his small role anyway (Remember this is way before The Matrix moved him up to A-List status) and the other names could have been swapped out for no name actors with little problem.

Ironically a couple of years after this came out MTV started making it’s own movies and with Winter and Stern having ties with MTV I have no doubt they could have made it with them closer to their original vision (Which would have had a darker tone with more graphic violence). But alas, that didn’t happen and instead it pretty much killed off Winter’s career. Probably lucky for Keanu that his role was uncredited, indeed if not for the IMDB I wouldn’t have known it was him.

Freak Off

This is a tricky one to rate. It’s not good, but as someone that occasionally enjoys bad movies I can’t say I hated it either. It is wonderfully bizarre, it just didn’t quite work for me. Your mileage may vary with this and I can absolutely see some people getting a real kick of the movie and others saying it’s the worst thing they’ve ever seen. Anyway for me it is a 4.5/10 and falls into the category of “curiosity viewing”.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

Hatching (2022)

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Tonight I’m watching the recently released Finnish Body Horror movie “Hatching”, directed by Hanna Bergholm in her feature film debut and written by Ilja Rautsi. The film stars Siiri Solalinna as Tinja the daughter of a Finnish family. Solalinna will be doing double duty on this film as both Tinja and the movies monster, a demanding role for the young actress.

Lovely Everyday Life

The movie starts out with our host family presenting their apparently perfect, lovely life for the mother’s blog. It’s pretty clear though things aren’t completely perfect. This isn’t a classic horror dark secret kind of thing though, just that the mother is clearly more focused on image than emotional well being and is determined to push her daughter as hard as possible so as to achieve success in gymnastics. The family’s son seems to have picked up some of her mothers personality and is needy and demanding, while the father is aloof, more interested in his guitars than his family, likely explaining why his wife is almost openly cheating on him (That is the daughter knows and he it seems doesn’t want to).

The Bad Egg

The mother has a cruel streak to her as is demonstrated early on when she kills a stray bird that comes into the house instead of releasing it outside. This sets up our theme as later that day Tinja comes across a dying bird in the woods by her house and gives it a mercy killing, only to discover a nearby bird egg which she takes home. This is where the horror bit starts. The egg of course hatches and what comes out of it isn’t a regular bird. It is about the size of young Tinja and seems to have some intelligence, quickly bonding with the girl who decides to look after it and names it Alli (A name I feel that is a clue to the films meaning).

Things start to go off pretty quickly as our Hatchling kills the neighbours dog and drops it’s mutilated corpse on the pillow next to Tinja is a bit of a reversal of the classic dog “present”. Things obviously escalate and it is clear their is something more to the connection TInja has with the hatchling, the two are bonded mentally and physically, so much so Alli is starting to look like Tinja. Since this is a recent movie I’m not going to reveal much more but this is a body horror so expect violence and a bit of grossness.

Be Careful Which Wolf (Or Bird) you Feed

There is a deeper level to all this though. This is a metaphor for self loathing. Tinja’s mother’s quest to present the perfect life to her blog video viewers and the pressure she puts on her daughter to achieve in gymnastics has lead to Tinja being angry with herself for her failures, to be disgusted with herself and see herself as a monster. The story is really about a young girls fragile psyche and the importance to nurture more than a sense of shame. It’s important to note, the victims of the Hatchling are not people that have abused her, but her rivals. The monster is not protecting her, but enacting her darkest desires in her own drive to be considered special in the eyes of her mother. Eventually the child’s innocence is lost and she becomes a twisted version of her formers self. It is a darkness that as Tinja says in the final act “I hatched it”

I mentioned earlier I thought the name “Alli” was significant and it is a double whammy. It happens to be the brand name of a weight loss drug (relevant because some of the scenes in the film are heavily hinting at Bulimia) but also is a name of Greek and French origin that effectively means “Keeping ones chin up”. There is no way that is a coincidence give the mother’s attitude and the Tinja’s internal struggle between her natural good nature and the part of her that is turning into her own mother. Well played Hanna, well played.

Assessment

I liked the metaphor. It came through clearly, but it doesn’t hit you over the head with it like a lot of films do. It is also done very effectively through the horror. This is a very good bit of intelligent horror story telling. That said, I didn’t find any of the particular scenes stood out visually, nor did I find the hatchling itself particularly scary. For me though the story is more important than all that. The actors seemed pretty good, though I always find it hard to judge when I’m busy reading subtitles instead of looking at the actors. Siiri Solalinna though I’m sure has a bright future.

I also liked the haunting soundtrack, which was fairly minimalistic but effective and the physical creature effects were actually done pretty well. I thought the closeups looked a bit fake, but at a mid distance it looked really good. They transition from puppet to Solalinna about half way through and before anything too complicated is called for, which was probably for the best.

For tonight's movie I watched the Finnish Body Horror Movie Hatching.

Conclusion

This came out of a fairly simple idea of Rautsi’s about a boy bringing home an egg that hatched his doppelganger. A doppelganger story is not in itself especially original or compelling, it’s what you do with it that makes or breaks it and they did well here. While the film didn’t blow me away, I definitely came out with a healthy respect for it and it’s makers. This is a high 6.5/10

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

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October Challenge – Day 4

For today’s movie I’m hitting up 1989’s western horror comedy Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. I didn’t even know this movie existed until fairly recently so I’m going in without preconceptions. This is directed by Anthony Hickox (Hellraiser III, Waxwork) and stars David Carradine, Bruce Campbell, John Ireland, Maxwell Caulfield, Morgan Brittany, Deborah Foreman and a good number of other recognisable actors.

What We Do In The Sunlight.

Out story is set in the town of Purgatory, not to be found on any modern map since the inhabitants don’t want to be found. This is a town of vampires, lead by the ancient Count Mardulak (Carradine), but these vampires on the whole are trying to adapt to the modern world and find a way to live side by side with humans. As such they have developed a machine that creates artificial blood, a problem with that machine has required them to call in it’s inventor a human called David Harrison. Harrison is visiting the town with his family as a working holiday hoping it will be a restful break.

Dead and Not Particularly Loving it.

While most of the town are trying to change their ways they are not completely beyond killing as an incident early on reveals where a rude motorist by has his head knocked off by a grumpy vampire manning the local gas station. Worse than this though a sub faction within the town lead by Ethan Jefferson (Played by John Ireland) and a young vampire named Shane (Maxwell Caulfield) is scheming to wipe out the others and return to the old ways.

The Clueless Vampire Killer

Thrown into the mix a Van Helsing descendent (Played by Campbell) has arrived at the town determined to wipe out each and every vampire. Unsurprisingly Campbell provides the comic relief and isn’t particularly effective. Fortunately for him Sandy, a young vampire woman has fallen for him and doesn’t want him to wind up dead. Well, fully dead, she’s okay with undead.

The Lost Ploys.

There’s actually a lot of additional sub plots in all this and it has a large ensemble cast of big personalities so I’m not going to cover it all. Things get more serious when the rebels make their move. Being mostly younger vampires they can’t fight the older vampires hand to hand so they develop wooden tipped bullets so they can use firearms to even the playing field. Eventually this leads to an epic shootout final battle.

Bite Night.

This is a pretty entertaining film, though it definitely lands very much in the middle of the various genres is straddles. It’s not especially funny, especially horrific or overly like a Western but it does just enough of each genre to justify the label. It is very 80’s though (Which I consider a positive). There is a lot going on, everything is frantic and the characters are as colourful as possible. It has a lot of charm to it and the story moves quickly enough that it maintains a sense of adventure the whole time. This is a vampire film though, so naturally it isn’t without a good amount of blood.

Fangs for the Memory.

Because of the cast size and pace none of the characters or actors really get enough screen time to fully shine. I felt Bruce Campbell was largely wasted and it would have been nice to see a bit more of David Carradine and John Ireland too. But this wasn’t a film with any particular focus. Those three performed their roles well (As you would expect) and the rest of the cast, featuring many familiar faces did a good job of supporting. There was no real weak links in that regard, even the children did a passable job. The music my Richard Stone was perhaps a bit too obvious in what it was going for (Generic Western soundtrack) but ultimately did what it needed to.

Conclusion

Overall, I had fun with this movie. It’s not anything astounding but if you want a comparatively light-hearted Halloween romp you won’t be disappointed with this. This is a strong 6/10 (Perhaps a fang short of a 6.5).

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Super Dark Times (2017)

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October Challenge – Day 3

Tonight’s movie is an independent release called “Super Dark Times”. Helmed by debuting director Kevin Phillips and staring Owen Campbell (Boardwalk Empire, The Americans), Charlie Tahan (Gotham, Ozark) as best friends Josh and Zach

Living in the 90’s

We start of with a bit of shock factor, with a dead animal in a school, which is of no real importance to the plot, but it is a nice opener. Quickly we switch to a group of college friends chatting about stuff and messing around. Pretty standard stuff. I’m not really sure how old they are meant to be. They react to a bag of marijuana like younger teenagers, but Owen Campbell was 23 when this came out and he looks clearly in his early 20’s. I guess we’ll say “Teen” and move on.

End of Innocence.

Things quickly go pear shaped when a stupid fight between the kids ends up with one of them being killed in circumstances that would be hard to explain and so the kids do the whole “Vow of Silence” thing. That never works out well. At this point it’s clear that Zach is coping somewhat better with the events than Josh. Though by “coping” I mean he’s having nightmares and anxiety, which is fairly normal for having gone through trauma. Josh however is clearly withdrawing into himself. Skipping school and sort of moping around. Since they are hitting all the school shooter tropes, I’m surprised he didn’t buy himself a trench coat.

Coming of Rage (Spoilers).

Ultimately Josh goes full psycho. It doesn’t really feel natural because the film follows Zach and not Josh. I can’t help but feel the movie would have been more interesting following Josh as he loses his mind. Instead we just see things from Zech’s perspective, and Zach is a fairly bland character and it doesn’t really feel like the pair are genuinely that close. Either Josh has had a complete change in personality almost overnight or Zach just didn’t know him that well to begin with.

Assessment.

This is more of a drama than a psychological thriller or horror. The violence in the movie, while minimal is actually portrayed in a realistic fashion: spontaneous and clumsy. There isn’t a huge amount of suspense and no real sense of terror to really justify it as a thriller or horror. A few scenes had moments of promise, the odd camera shot, a bit of nice editing but it never really delivered on that promise. Outside of the solid (if irrelevant) opening scene. the films offers little in the way of visuals to talk about. The soundtrack is minimal and transparent, possibly deliberately to push the realism. The actors performances are passable and average.

Conclusion

It’s worth noting this was pretty well loved by critics and my guess is because it is a coming of age film and a trauma survival film in one, but for me I didn’t find the journey from trauma to conclusion that enlightening or entertaining. Maybe the problem was I wasn’t really after a drama. I’m going to have to give this one a 5/10 and mark it down simply as “Not for me”.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

The Munsters (2022)

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October Challenge – Day 2

I’m going horror adjacent with todays October review. There is definitely horror here, just more for the viewer than the characters. This is a difficult franchise to do in the modern day, but with Rob Zombie helming it, most had already written this off and assumed it was just going to be a self indulgent mess that mostly existed to showcase his wife Sherri Moon-Zombie. When the cast was announced and Sherri was as expected playing Lilly Munster, I think most horror fans knew what way it the wind was blowing.

Still, I decided to give the film a chance. In the 1980’s in the UK a lot of 60’s shows were regularly being re-run at around 5/6pm. The timing was about right for schoolkids like myself as the regular kids programming ended around 5pm and we always wanted more to watch (We were the MTV generation after all, we did a lot of TV). Amongst those shows was The Munsters, so I am well acquainted with the eccentricities and humour style of the TV.

Dead and Kicking.

To me it’s clear that Rob Zombie was trying to reproduce that style as true to the original as possible, but the fact is it doesn’t really work in the present day. Perhaps had he gone all the way and made the film in black and white it may have felt more authentic and perhaps some of the cheesier moments may have felt more charming than cheap. As it is, the style doesn’t really work. Anyone that hasn’t grown up watching The Munsters probably won’t even get what they are going for and just mark the entire movie down as just cheap and amateur.

Part of that problem may be due to the fact that many of the actors just aren’t that good. While they may be trying to act like characters performing for a sit com in front of a live audience, they always feel like they are trying a bit too hard. Over acting is abundant and while it’s clear that is meant to be part of the joke, it is also clear Rob Zombie doesn’t have the skills necessary to stop his actors slipping from soundstage sitcom and going full on pantomime.

Well, they got one thing right at least.

Memoirs of an Invisible Plot

The second huge problem is the plot. Specifically, that there isn’t one. The entire film is basically set up as a prequel to The Munsters as we know them. Most of the film is set in a comedy version of Transylvania with them only arriving in America in the last twenty minutes. There is no real antagonist, just a vague plot involving a Lester, a Werewolf cousin and his debts to a loan shark Gypsy. Neither Lester nor the Gypsy are in the movie for probably more than 5 minutes and exist only to facilitate the move to the US in a way that is about as smooth as a truck drivers gear shift.

The film focuses on the romance between Lilly and Herman. Because this is a prequel, the kids have not even been born yet so the “Family” is literally just them and Grandpa. Daniel Roebuck incidentally is the highlight of the film in the role of Grandpa, but is a long way from being good enough to salvage this mess. At the least though, I respect the casting on that one. I also didn’t mind Sylvester McCoy as Igor. His tendency for over acting meant the former Doctor Who fit this movie like a glove.

Goofy fun, except without the fun..

Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun

Unsurprisingly the focus is on Sherri Moon-Zombie as Lilly, and her performance is probably the weakest of the film. Yvonne De Carlo is no doubt turning in her grave [Insert Vampire Joke Here]. Honestly though it’s hard to say if the problem is her acting or her husbands directing. There are fleeting moments of charm but not enough to make the performance passable. The romance between Herman and Lilly is not at all interesting or romantic and the whole time through I was just waiting for them to get past that bit and move on to the actual movie. But they never did.

The entire film feels like a first act, when they move to America it feels like we are entering the second act and the film is about to really get going. But then you realise we only have 20 minutes left. Enough time for a Cassandra Peterson cameo (Though not as Elvira) and not much else. After waiting the entire film for them to get to their iconic home, we are treated to about 10 seconds of the Munsters theme before the credits roll and switch to a new song, presumably written by Zombie. That’s it.

Don’t be fooled, it takes the entire film to get to this couch.

Conclusion (or possibly Concussion)

I don’t really understand who this film is for. Fans of the series will feel cheated by the prequel nature of it (I know I did) while people that aren’t fans will write it off as cheap, badly acted garbage. As far as I can tell the only audience for this film is Rob Zombie and Sherri Moon Zombie. I don’t know if The Munsters can still work in the modern day in live action, but it definitely can’t work with Rob Zombie directing. This film is a waste of time. I’m giving it a very generous 4/10. The movie tries hard but fails miserably.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

Psycho II (1982)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Well, October has rolled around again. Last October I decided to do the October Horror Challenge and watch a Horror movie a day for the month. I went further, not just in that I watched two horrors on the 30th and three on Halloween, but also that I reviewed a horror a day as well (I didn’t review my triple bill, so it totalled 31 reviews). I didn’t start my blog until the following month largely after positive feedback from the reviews, which I had posted to Facebook and Minds. So this year these are going straight to the blog.

Because I’m going to have to do these much faster than my regular reviews I’m keeping each comparatively short, with the length largely dependent on the time I have to do it. Last year I only did movies I’ve not seen before, this year I may be a bit more flexible but I’ll figure that out as I go. Anyway, enough with the explanations, it’s October 1st 2022, time for my first horror review….

Psycho 2 was released in 1982, twenty three years after the original These days that’s nothing but I imagine in 1982 people thought a sequel to Psycho was (appropriately enough), utter madness. I have seen this before, but i barely remembered it so I’m giving it another shot.

On the Back of Giants

We start out with the infamous shower scene from the original before switching to the present day. The first thing of note is right in the credits: Music by Gerry Goldsmith. Gerry is a talented and underrated composer who is all over the soundtracks of the 80’s and 90’s. The original film was scored though by one of the biggest legends of film scores Bernard Herrmann. Sadly Bernard passed in the 1970’s so they had no choice but to look elsewhere. Goldsmith somewhat impersonates the original films score and throws in the odd motif from it, but in general the music sounds smoother, lighter and perhaps a little laid back. The tone isn’t quite right in places, but it’s still a good score.

Someone who had more difficult shoes to fill however is “Blue Lagoon” director Richard Franklin, stepping in for Hitchcock who had also passed before this movie was made. He does a competent job but that’s about it. The movie is also a bit more graphic than the original and perhaps the most obvious change is it is in colour.

Homecoming

The story follows Norman after his release from the sanatorium. He appears a lot more stable, but is being victimised by some unknown entity posing as his Mother. Obviously it’s not his dead Mother, but the question remains is someone messing with him or is it all in his mind. Even if someone is messing with him, there is obviously a danger of him relapsing because of it. As the story progresses however it becomes clear Norman is at the mercy of more than one outside agenda.

Norman is of course played by Anthony Perkins who is easily the highlight of the movie. He plays a character just on the edge of sanity with perfection. Meg Tilly played Mary, a waitress at the dinner where Norman works after his release from the asylum. Mary has an ulterior motive for befriending Norman, but becomes conflicted as he gets to know Norman. Her performance is perhaps a little underplayed but believable.

Conclusion (Spoilers)

The final act involves a twist that comes pretty much from nowhere and somewhat devalues the plot of the rest of the film. Turns out Norman has another Mother, a character that doesn’t turn up as a real character (Instead of a shadowy figure killing people) until the very end of the film. From a character perspective at least things end appropriately enough. Norman has gone full circle. Meanwhile Mary and her mother suffer the price for playing with fire. Mary remains conflicted for the whole movie until that conflict leads to her own demise.

Overall a fairly decent horror that unfortunately can’t escape harsh comparisons with original film. The plot is a little messy, but the characters, especially Norman help to salvage that. It’s just about a 6/10. Not a bad start to my October Horrorthon.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

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For October I decided to watch a horror (or Halloween related) movie every day and review it in the build up to Halloween. The plan was to use that as an opportunity to catch up with all the movies I haven’t gotten around to watching yet. I initially started just casually posting these to Facebook and then to my Minds account, but after completing the month and writing more and more about each movie I was inspired to start this blog. I am retrospectively posting these reviews here when I have time (some of the earlier ones were short so I will have to update them before posting). This was my first.

Trick

First up for October 1st was “Trick’r’Treat” from 2007. Directed by Michael Dougherty (Godzilla: King of Monsters) and staring amongst other Brian Cox (Hannibal Lecter from “Manhunter”) and Anna Paquin (Sookie from True Blood). It’s a linked anthology horror featuring several vaguely intertwined stories all set on Halloween night in one town. The key linking figure is “Sam”, a mysterious figure that appears at first to be a child trick-or-treater in a burlap pajama costume, but is actually a kind of personification of Halloween. Sam has his own story at the end of the anthology is always fund lurking around the other stories (often being treated like a regular trick-or-treater).

There are four main stories, the first features the local school principal who tricks and murders an unruly child in a fairly comedic horror tale mostly involving his struggles to hide the body. The second tale is a pretty classic story of kids daring each other to go somewhere scary, telling a scary tale and then playing a prank to freak out the “weird” kid. This goes exactly as you would expect when the story of the Halloween School Bus Massacre turns out to have more truth to it than they expected. The third story is actually alluded to with some hot out of town girls hooking up with dates for a big party. The apparent lack of any standards for this hook up of course hints that things are not quite as they seem and really it’s best not to trust Sookie Stackhouse offering you the night of your life, lol. The final tale is Sam’s own and also where we get Brian Cox’s full involvement as Sam terrorizes the angry old man in his own house until he learns the true meaning of Halloween.

Treat

There have been a lot of linked horror anthologies over the years and this isn’t the first with a Halloween theme. One of big decisions when making an anthology horror is how many stories you put into the movie. The choice of four here is about perfect as each had enough time to tell its story but none of them felt like they were dominating the others (Compared to something like the “ABC’s of death” with 26 stories or “Books of Blood” where one main story takes up the bulk of the time).  The linking between the stories was done particularly well and this was one of the highlights for me especially between the Principle and Sam stories at either end of the anthology. 

Personally I felt “Tales of Halloween” from 2015 did a better job of the Halloween theme, though that had the benefit of multiple writers and directors to add variety. None of the tales provided anything outside the twists and turns I expected but they were all well executed (as were several of the townsfolk). The actors all put in a solid performance, though Brian Cox was the stand out here. Overall this was a solid horror fest, did a good job of pacing and left me satisfied by the end. One of the better anthologies out there.

Rating: 6 out of 10.