Horror-tober 9: Supernatural Shorts

Foxes focuses on a couple in a strange community in Ireland. They seem to be the only people within the community and obviously there is some tension between the two. The wife begins to discover that there may not be other people around but there are many foxes and she finds her self fascinated, following and taking pictures of the foxes around their home. This one was pretty spooky, especially because foxes in real life are a bit scary. I mean the screaming noises they make. *shivers

Don't Move was one I found through Imgur and really only knew the back story before watching it. Some friends apparently summoned a demon that kills you if you move. It delves write into the action from the start and proves to be an interesting short with stunning special effects and gore.

Teddy Bears are for Lovers, a horror comedy about stuffed animals that come to life to exact their revenge for the exes of some player. The animatroinc animals in this were great and it was a good chuckle.

Geist is an animated haunting tale. A man finds himself on a beach in a storm and makes his was to a house where it seems some spirits are actively haunting it. Well animated and actually pretty heart wrenching tale.

Red Girl is a very short, short. A woman goes to sleep but something is inside the hose with her. I was mostly confused why she only had the picture on the wall and no other furniture in that room of her house. Huh. Strange but decent.

Daddy was also a short one. A man seems to be ignoring his daughter. I liked it a little less than the last one, It seemed to lag a little and was predictable. Meh.

Abandoned a B-movie in the short horror film genre. Pretty laughable in how cheesy it was too. There was some pretty epic "I'm lost and need to run and find a way out" music. Then our mystery teenager finds an abandoned house in the woods. After the beginning I actually enjoyed this one a bit, the music was more atmospheric and the house pretty creepy. And the end just totally was unpredictable and goofy. So it worked in an exploration with film and filters on iMovie kind of way.

Coffer is another from the minds that brought us "Lights Out" and "Pictured" which I featured last year. This time, our lady is hearing a strange noise in a chest inside her apartment. Even knowing the scares were coming, I still jumped watching this one. These two know how to make our skin crawl and how to make sure we sleep with the lights on at night.

The Wicked is the kind of short that uses the single frame shor to get the story across and make the scares. This one relies pretty heavily on the jump scare, and am a little ashamed to admit that it got me.

The Pride of Strathmoor. I kind of didn't want to end the shorts on the last one for whatever reason. But byy this point I probably should have just watched a full-length movie, whatever. It is nice to see different depictions of horror and terror from many different creators.

Decided to do another animation one. It had some pretty disturbing imagery and story. The animation was also interesting.

Horror-tober 4: Onibaba

Onibaba comes from Japan and literally translates to "demon hag". A drama/horror about civil unrest and war in feudal Japan and how it shapes the lives of those affected. An old woman and her daughter-in-law kill soldiers to sell their gear for food and other supplies for survival. They dispose of the bodies in a mysterious hole in the field of tall grass in which they live in a hut. A friend of the old woman's son returns and informs the two women that her son is dead. Seduction, jealousy, and dark schemes develop as the film progresses. When left alone the old woman encounters a samurai wearing a demon mask and everything in the world of these three people is changed.

A friend recommended this to me on Halloween last year, and it was definitely worth a watch and made up for watching Scouts the day before. From the beautiful setting and superb cinematography to the haunting and odd musical score, Onibaba provides a lot to excite filmmakers and film lovers alike.

A little less of a horror but terrifying all the same, this film was a delight in so many ways. Nobuko Otowa's performance as the old woman was a joy to watch. She not only had a sinister look because of the awesome makeup (those eyebrows!) but because of her perfectly timed facial expressions. The downward stare depicted in the poster, the slight smirk as she lures a soldier to his death. Pure perfection. Kei Sato as Hachi, was also perfectly cast. The story was compelling and although seems slow to build at times, was actually very well done for development of the three main characters and to add tension between them. All in all a great little piece of film and I think I will surely add Kaneto Shindo, the director's film Kuroneko to next year's fest.

Joey and I agree on a rating for this one as well:

Event Horizon

Science-fiction horror for a Throwback Thursday.

There is nothing I like more than a good Sci-Fi horror movie. To this day, the Aliens series is by far one of my favorites. But it could be said that many horror films have some element of science fiction, zombies created by a virus, futuristic and apocalyptic worlds where cannibals run rampant are a few examples. But often many don't actually take place in space or on another planet. Event Horizon is one of those that I haven't seen in a long time, but I can recall almost every little detail. It is a sign of a good film, especially for a horror film. One of Paul W.S. Anderson's (Resident Evil franchise) first feature length films (aside from Mortal Kombat), and it doesn't let you down on suspense or gore.

The "core" or engine of the ship

The Event Horizon is revealed to be a ship capable of folding space, like creating a wormhole, to travel to worlds yet unexplored. On its first test, it disappeared without a trace and after being lost for seven years it has reappeared. A team is unknowingly sent, with the scientist who created the Event Horizon, to recover it and its crew. When they arrive at the ship and go aboard they quickly find that there are no survivors among the crew. In fact one of the crew members is found to be a "corpsicle" as one of the characters calls it. Corpsicle. Ha. Anyway, stuff goes down when the core is reactivated and our team find themselves trapped on a terrifying ship. There is a solid cast in the film as well, with Laurence Fishburne as the captain and Sam Neill as the scientist. The effects are hauntingly disturbing and pretty well done and the set is very aesthetically appealing as well.

Inside the ship

A few notes about some scenes. Originally the doctor, played by Jason Isaacs, identified the transmission they had received as "liberate me" or save me in Latin. However, when s*** starts going down he reexamines it and realizes it is actually "Liberate tutame ex inferis," save yourself from Hell. I'm not a Latin expert and looking at discussions online, it is apparently incorrect. But for setting the mood of the movie, it works. Did the Event Horizon travel beyond into a sort of Hell for those seven years? Or did the ship itself become something else?

A scene of Hellish gore

Another one I somehow convinced Joey to watch with me, and he had this to say about it, "Not quite as good as I remember it, but it's got a nice slow build." He gives it 3.5 skulls and I give it 4.5. Maybe I am rating it so highly because I have such a fondness for it as a part of the formative years in my life for horror movies, but I don't care! It is still a solid horror film in my book, but the transition to the electronic music at the credits is a little laughable.

My rating:

Joey's rating: 

Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead terrified me as a child, and of all of those featured on Throwback Thursday to date, is the one that has been the longest since I first saw it.

Pumpkinhead was the directorial debut for special-effects guru, Stan Winston (Jurassic Park). The story takes place in some small backwoods town. It shows a farmer and market owner Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) and his son. One day at the shop, some young city folk show up with their motorcycles and fancy sports car as they are heading to a cabin in the woods for some weekend fun. Tragedy strikes and the young boy is killed in a reckless motorcycle accident, and the one responsible flees the scene leaving the others to try to find help. Grieving for his son, Ed seeks the aid of a witch. It is beyond her power to bring the child back, but she provides him another solution. She suggests calling forth the legendary revenge demon, Pumpkinhead, to exact his revenge on those responsible for the senseless death of his son. Pumpkinhead is released and begins taking out the youths, one by one. Ed is somehow connected to the demon and through its eyes witnesses their deaths - which forces him to doubt his rash decision. He tries to call the demon back, but it is too late. The other towns folk won't help because they know if they interfere, the demon will come for them too. But Ed knows he has to do something to try to save the others before their fate is also sealed by Pumpkinhead. 

The stuff of my childhood nightmares

A grieving father

The witch helps invoke Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead's revenge befalls one of the teens

Winston has a good eye for visuals in this movie, and of course the creature design for Pumpkinhead is outstanding. He also has some good character development, although the small town hick people are a little trite. When the movie gets really disturbing for me is when the demon begins to take on the face of Lance Henriksen. Of all of the scares, this time around, that is the one that will stick with me in my now adult life. Otherwise, I can say that I am over my childhood fear of Pumpkinhead. 

Pumpkinhead-Henriksen hybrid face *shutter*

Overall, I enjoyed the re-watch and the re-visit to a childhood nightmare. For the nostalgia and because, in my opinion, it holds up pretty well for effects, creature design and story, I give it a 3.5-skull rating.

My rating:

Jennifer's Body

Apparently I had a theme for the past two days without realizing it. High school dances, gone wrong. For this Wacky Wednesday I chose Jennifer's Body. 

Another one that slipped through the cracks for me. I don't care for Megan Fox all that much but I was intrigued by it for the sake of it being written by Oscar-winning Diablo Cody. There is a lot of hate going around on this film, but I thought it was decent. Think of it as Mean Girls meets Carrie, sort of. Yes, it is all about Jennifer's body - I didn't really go into this movie thinking I wasn't going to see some of Megan Fox's curvy (or lack thereof) features. But, that's just it, aside from her being scantily clad here and there, there are no boob or butt shots - for the better. Some of the reviewers say that it is anti-feminist, showing her body as an object or some b.s. but I felt Cody and the director did a great job of incorporating the sexiness and allure of the character without being raunchy. I liked Juno but thought the writing was a little pretentious, but I did like the dialogue in this flick. I think it felt a little more realistic and less snide.

Jennifer and Anita "Needy" have been friends since childhood. Now in their teenage years, they are still best friends but are very different from one another. They live in a small town called Devil's Kettle because of the waterfalls that appear to lead deep into the Earth. One night, Jennifer decides they are going to go see this band from the big city at the only bar in town. It was the night that changed everything. Jennifer becomes possessed by a demon and uses her wiles to feed on the young men of the town, and Needy is the only one that knows and can stop her best friend from destroying the town. Megan Fox plays the character as, all I can assume, is herself since she has never really played any character that is too complex, but she plays it well. Amanda Seyfried as Needy is pretty cute and endearing. It reminded me of Ginger Snaps a bit, which I am a big fan of, so it gets some cred from me for that.

Demon Fox

All in all, it was entertaining. The extended cut is, I assume, better than the theatrical cut since many people complained how the development of the story didn't really make sense, but it seemed to make perfect sense to me. It was quirky and funny, as expected, and had some good gross out moments. I only wish Amy Sedaris had been in it more though and Lance Henriksen for that matter - he only had a small cameo at the very end...sigh.

My rating: