Horror-tober 6: Black Night (Hak yae)

An international horror anthology with stories from three different countries. First was Next Door, a ghost story from China. A young girl returns to her former lover during the "ghost festival". The couple are haunted by something and discover that their neighbor, which the girl's lover was dating, drowned in her tub. A decent ghost story with some good hair-raising moments and jump scares.

After that tale came, Dark Hole, a monster/psychological thriller from Japan. Yuki has been suffering from nightmares which seem to be the ghosts of her past. She begins seeing a psychiatrist and tells the story of her "pet", some unknown creature, that she describes was responsible for some horrific accidents and deaths when she was a child. Her psychiatrist believes she has created this "pet" as a way to lock up the truth that she is a murderer. Will her fiance believe her or the psychiatrist? This one was a fun guessing game. Is she really a killer or not? Will she kill again since the psychiatrist has unlocked her secrets? Will her fiance confront her? Is the creature real? Definitely a bit of a roller coaster of a tale but slow build with a so-so plot.

Lastly was The Lost Memory, a ghost story from Thailand. A single mother is being followed by a shadowy figure.She appears to have amnesia or something and continues to get phone calls from a friend, telling her to remember the accident, to not blame herself, and asks for forgiveness. She begins to remember her friendship with this person and her supposedly ex-husband. But the memories become clearer and she is reminded that her son died in a car accident. She is haunted by her suppressed memories of the accident and the events leading up to it, but her ghostly son is not just a haunting memory. He wants to be with his mommy. I felt this one was a bit confusing early on but once it clicked what was happening, nobody acknowledged her son, the rest of it was predictable and forgettable.

All in all I liked the first story but the other two were not very interesting and pretty forgettable.

My rating:

Horror-tober 17: Southbound

Because I missed Supernatural Sunday with the Ghost concert and because I am kind of tired of zombie movies nowadays, I watched Southbound with Joey.

On a desolate stretch of highway, five people find themselves facing horrors and terrors straight out of hell, maybe.

This one actually came to me from a work friend so I figured I'd give it a shot. Another horror anthology for this year, but this one's stories interlock into one overarching story or theme of remorse and guilt. Although each tale had its own kind of horror element, none of them really stuck out to me as thrilling or particularly memorable, except one. The story of the man traveling home on this lone stretch of highway, hits a woman with his car and finds himself in a deserted hospital trying to help her survive while being coached by the 911 operators. This one was the most gruesome, but also the most interesting to me because it felt more real. Not really realistic but something that is particularly terrifying as a possibly real circumstance. It was bizarre and darkly funny and felt like the most cohesive story.

The creatures shown in the beginning and almost throughout the movie were a little confusing. Were they demons from hell? Were they a physical manifestation of guilt? Why do they attack the men? Why are they all tentacle-ally? One of those things where it showed them fleetingly at the very beginning and I liked it but the greater detail shown just made them hokey and mundane instead of scary. Otherwise, most of the stories were dull but had a pretty full offering of horror genres. From Satanic rituals, to home invasion. In that way it was a pretty good nod to the horror anthology.

SPOILERS: One thing with this movie, it seems like it is in loop. The beginning tale is revisited at the end where the film began, but it appears it is only supposed to have happened in one night. Which for some reason bugged me a little, but otherwise a pretty decent anthology.

Joey's rating:

My rating: