Horror-tober 7: Return to the House on Haunted Hill

I'm not afraid to admit that I like the remake of The House on Haunted Hill from 1999. But it is also no surprise that this sequel is not that great. Shortly after the suspicious death of her sister (Sarah, a survivor from the massacre at the mansion), Ariel, receives a mysterious journal of a Dr. Vannacut that speaks about a Baphomet idol with supernatural powers. An archaeology professor helps Ariel translate the journal and he ends up going to the mansion with some students in search of the idol. Some thugs that may be responsible for Sarah's death kidnap her and her boyfriend and they force them into helping find the idol. Anyhow, of course the house traps them in and kills off a bunch of people until only two are left behind. Honestly, the idol aspect for the existence of the ghosts was pretty hoaky. The acting was dull, although I was sort of excited to see Andrew Lee Potts from the UK TV Show Primeval in this but of course he is not one of our survivors. Really the best part about this movie was Jeffrey Combs returning as the ghost of the doctor. He didn't say a word but he was perfect. The rest of the movie sucked but provided some unrealistic but memorable and gruesome death scenes.

Yep, because this is what happens when you are pulled apart.

My rating:

Horror-tober 1: The Blackcoat's Daughter

At a boarding school before winter break, two young women are left behind to wait for their parents to arrive, if they ever will. However, they are not alone. A disturbing evil resides in the halls. Will they survive until their parents come? Or will they be overcome by the darkness inside?

So the in-laws were in town for the beginning of Horrotober this year. Luckily it was easy to convince them to watch a couple of movies with us. However, instead of wanting to watch my planned Lights Out ("too scary"), they chose this one. The Blackcoat's Daughter tells a story about two young women at the Bramford School for girls left to spend winter break at the school because their parents did not arrive to take them home. Katherine (Kat; Kiernan Shipka) has a disturbing dream where she stands by a dark figure she calls "daddy" looking at a smashed up car. Rose (Lucy Boynton) is an angsty teen that discovers she may be pregnant and when she talks to her boyfriend about it, he seems to reject her. Rose and Kat don't really get along but when Kat finds Rose in the boiler room talking to the furnace, she is scared for Kat, herself, and those who remain at the school. It is not clear if some evil or the devil possesses Kat, but something at Bramford is quite wrong. Oh and then throw Joan (Emma Roberts) into the mix, a young woman that appears down on her luck and hitches a ride with some strangers. What is Joan's story? Is it connected? Who are the strangers that she rides with? Will they arrive at Bramford and Joan will be trapped with Kat, Rose, and the evil at the school? (see below for spoilers to those answers) The film had a creepy atmosphere with some great sound editing and score, pretty good acting from all three of the leading ladies, and a fairly intriguing story written and directed by the son of Psycho (Anthony Perkins' son, Oz Perkins).

SPOILERS: Once some key information is supplied (the strangers are Rose's parents) it becomes clear that Joan is actually Kat escaped from some hospital. Kat was maybe possessed by the devil and killed Rose along with the two workers that stayed with the girls at the school. Later she is found with their severed heads in front of the furnace and is shot by an officer after she nonchalantly says,"Hail Satan." At a hospital, the head priest of the school attempts to exorcise the devil out of Kat and when the not so terrifying devil or bunny shadow disappears, Kat whispers, "Don't go." So back to Joan, now that we know she is Kat, she is travelling with Rose's parents and then kills them before they reach Bramford, severing their heads and stuffing them into a suitcase to then drag it back to the school. When she lays the heads in front of the furnace and sees that it is not on, and does not come on with her sacrifice, she realizes she is truly alone.

I liked that the movie was very atmospheric, a bit gruesome, and a little bit more of a psychological drama with Kat/Joan. Some dark force may have preyed on Kat when she had a premonition of her parents' deaths and felt alone but it is almost as if she became attached to that presence. She is sad when it leaves her and when she returns and brings the severed heads, she is hoping the presence returns. When it doesn't, she screams in agony because maybe the loss of her parents and the reality of the horrendous acts she has committed under the guise of the devil, finally hits her. However, some aspects of the film bothered me. Like, what really are the chances that she would encounter Rose's parents after she escaped the hospital? Did she plan it, and if she was trapped in the hospital how would she have known they would be on a certain route to Bramford to lay flowers on their daughter's grave? Or was it more of she really wanted to escape it all but upon learning they were Rose's parents the memories returned and motivated her to return to Bramford and bring back the devil? Or were they merely used in the plot to make it more mysterious and seem that Joan at first was a different character from Kat? Either way, the predictability of Kat/Joan and the use of Rose's parents cheapened an otherwise nearly perfect story for me and hence I gave it a lower rating.

Aimee's rating:

Michael's and Joey's rating:

My rating:

Five Years, Seriously?!

I've been doing this for five years?! And I still haven't finished a whole month of blogs? Well, maybe this year we will get through all the reviews. 

Anyway, I am pretty excited about this year as there are quite a few new releases I've been meaning to watch from the last few years and I intend to include most of them on the list. I have watched a few horror movies already this year (Shhhhh, it's our little secret) and may also include some of those as special features. Lately though, I've been thinking about changing up the categories a bit. Especially because we have lost a few greats in the world of horror this year (George A. Romero and Tobe Hopper among them) and I've been thinking of featuring more of their movies this year in honor but don't really want to try to "fit" them into some category. In all honesty, I am running out of zombie movies and there are only so many new schlocky ones I can take. If you have any suggestions, I am all ears. For now, same old categories below.

            Supernatural Sunday A day to fit ghosts, witches, vampires, and anything otherworldly 

            that doesn’t necessarily fall into any of the other categories.

            Zombday In a zombie apocalypse, these slow-shuffling, brain-loving undead take over the 

            world. In Horror-tober, they take over a day. BRAAAAAAINS!

            Transcontinental Tuesday Foreign films. Japan, Korea, Spain, even Canada – wherever 

            offers up a good old scary story for viewing pleasure.

            Wacky Wednesday The fun and lighthearted. The funny and dark. The campy. Or the 

            animated and weird. Just plain "wacky". 

            Throwback Thursday Those classics I love or new favorites I want to watch again.

            Creature-Feature Friday For all things monster and creepy-crawly. 

            Slasher Saturday Slashers, thrillers, home invasions, torture porn, body horror, et al.

Again, I did not finish last year’s posts. However, I kind of like doing these breakdowns of the ratings from the previous year now. It's nice to remind myself of all the great, OK, and terrible movies I subject myself to in the span of a single month. 
   

1 – Holidays – 2.5 skulls – Creepy vignettes about various holidays. Was mostly OK.

2 – We Are Still Here – 3 skulls – Good haunted house vibes and throwback to horror movies of the 70s.  

3 – Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – 1.5 skulls – Just too juvenile for my tastes. 

4 – Onibaba – 4 skulls – Superb storytelling and cinematography in this classic.

5 – Extraordinary Tales – 3 skulls – Different Poe stories animated in varying styles. Was decent. 

6 – The Babadook – 4 skulls – Psychological horror and family drama. Creepy as hell and good for a rewatch. BABA DOOK DOOK DOOOOOOK! 

7 – Grizzly – 3.5 skulls – Ridiculous prehistoric grizzly bear attacks and hunky men of the 70s. Worth it.

8 – Hush – 4 skulls – Definitely my favorite of the new ones for 2016. A nice twist on home invasion thrillers and well worth the watch. 

9 – Supernatural Shorts:

Foxes – 3.5 skulls – I love foxes, but they definitely have a blood-curdling scream.

Don't Move – 4 skulls – Delightfully gory and kind of funny. 

Teddy Bears are for Lovers – 4 skulls – Also delightfully funny. 

Geist – 3.5 skulls – Animated ghost story that was kind of heartbreaking.
             Red Girl – 2.5 skulls – Really short, OK. 
             Daddy – 2 skulls – Don't remember too much but that it was OK.
             Abandoned – 2.5 skulls – I gave this one an extra .5 skull compared to Daddy because I                was not expecting the ending. Otherwise OK.
             Coffer – 3.5 skulls – From the same director of the Lights Out short from last year. Good,              but not as good. 
             The Wicked – 2.5 skulls – Liked the single frame shot throughout, but meh.
             The Pride of Strathmoor – 3 skulls – Animated, decent but fairly disturbing.    

10 – Maggie – 3 skulls – Arnold zombie drama. Not too bad.

11 – Witching and Bitching – 3.5 skulls – Raucous and ridiculous and loved it. 

12 – The Voices – 3 skulls – Ryan Reynolds shines as a weirdo hearing voices (his pets talk to him, but not really. Because voices).
The Neon Dead – 1.5 skulls – Was the one I had originally planned to watch this night but it was so bad I had to fast forward and then watched The Voices.

13 – 2001 Maniacs – 3 skulls – Robert Englund. Cannibalistic, redneck/hillbilly/confederate ghosts? Need I say more? 

14 – Hobgoblins – 1.5 skulls – Best scene was the band playing at the bar. Literally almost 6 minutes (I could be exaggerating) of just the band playing and people dancing. 

15 – Special 4 Movie Feature at Hollywood Theatre – 4 movies. 1 night. Friends. Beer. Coffee. Rad.
             Race with the Devil – 2.5 skulls – Peter Fonda. You can't escape the Satanists, no matter              how long or far you run (or drive)! It was OK, a bit weird and somewhat comical. 
             Psycho II – 4 skulls – The best of the night. A sequel made over 20 years after the                          original. Most definitely an "underrated sequel". Was fun and pretty dang good. 
             The Funhouse – 3.5 skulls – Maybe a lesser well known Tobe Hooper scare. The only of                the 4 I had previously seen and I still enjoyed it. 
             Burial Ground – 3 skulls – "Bat shit crazy Italian gutmuncher" is an appropriate descriptor              for this movie. This was insane. And being the last of the 4 made it even that much more                  insane (because watching it at around 4am after sitting through 3 other movies).    

16 – Ghost concert – After 4 movies in one night, took a break to see one of my favorite bands! 

17 – Southbound – 2.5 skulls – Another anthology film with the stories all tied together in some way. Really enjoyed a couple of the stories but overall was nothing to get that excited about. 

18 – The Psychic – 3.5 skulls – Watched based on recommendation from a friend. Was not disappointed. 

19 – He Never Died – 3.5 skulls – Henry Rollins. 'Nough said.

20 – Special Presentation of "new" Rocky Horror Picture Show on FOX – 1.5 skulls – I had to give it a shot but I just, I don't even know why I watched the whole thing. I do love Laverne Cox and even was happy to see Tim Curry stepping into the role of the Criminologist/Narrator. But it just, no. Bad. No more words for how much I did not like this.  

21 – The Corpse Grinders – 2 skulls – Cat food made with corpses! I fell asleep, tried to watch again and fell asleep again. Not worth it. 

22 – Open Grave – 2 skulls – I wanted to like it because I love Sharlto Copley but it just wasn't very good.   

23 – Stake Land – 3 skulls – Decent vampire fare. Saw recently that there is a sequel, might give that one a try this year. 

24 – Monsters – 3.5 skulls – A good science-fiction/monster flick. Some good subtle social commentary in it as well.     

25 – Baskin – 3.5 skulls – I still feel fucked up after watching this movie. I liked it, but damn. Just writing this snippet about it is fucking with me. And it really wasn't terribly more shocking than other movies I've watched, but it just got to me in a fucked up way.   

26 – Goosebumps – 2 skulls – As an avid Goosebumps reader in my younger days, I had to watch this. It was OK.   

27 – Poltergeist - 2.5 skulls – I try my darndest to give remakes a shot and some are actually decent (Rob Zombie's Halloween for one, honestly). But I just wasn't feeling this one.

28 – Stung - 3 skulls –The only note I have on this one is that I gave it 3 skulls because of the practical effects. Seriously, a good way to win me over is the use of practical effects. Especially for "newer" films to use practical effects over CGI (or a combination of the two). 

29 – We Are What We Are – 3.5 skulls – A cannibalistic family drama. Decent. 

30 – The Houses October Built – 2 skulls – Haunted houses, the kind you go to to be scared, that are a little more "serious". I liked the premise, but poor execution.

31 – Ghostbusters – 3.5 skulls – Despite what the critics and even die hard original Ghostbusters fans have said about this movie, I really liked this. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was better than the original, but honestly having four female leads, and three in scientific fields, was pretty dang great. Yay for progress, I guess, yay! I also just fucking LOVED Kate McKinnon as Holtzmann. (I admit I have an Abby Yates Funko Pop! toy on my desk at work but every time I look at it I wish it was Holtzmann. Shhhh, don't tell Abby).  

Welp that's it for last year's movies. We've got about a week until the feast-ivities begin. AGGGGGHHHH! I can't wait!    

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 18: Honeymoon

I was expecting something a little different from this one, but it was fairly decent. 

A newlywed couple go to a secluded cabin in the woods (cue horror movie cliche, but one I like) for their honeymoon.  We learn it actually belongs to Bea's (Rose Leslie, Game of Thrones) family that she often went to as a kid. Everything seems so perfect, until Bea runs into an old acquaintance in the town and he and his wife are behaving strangely.  Then Bea starts acting strangely after she is found one night naked in the woods.  

It did a pretty good job of making the movie very eerie and atmospheric. But honestly, I thought it was going to be about a haunted cabin and ghosts or something, but nope. Aliens.  Don't think that really ruins anything for anyone, it is pretty apparent within the first 20 minutes of the film.  It was never too hokey as, for me, a lot of alien/alien abduction movies can be.  There are a couple of scenes that really spooked me, and also were cringe-worthy.  However, it was never too clear what the motives of the aliens were, which sometimes is ok, but really was just frustrating.  Do they want to kill off the men in this little town?  Do they need the ladies for breeding?  Are the squirmy, wormy things like a Body Snatchers thing?  Well the answer to that one I feel is "kind of," but again not too clear.  But decently creepy so it gets 3 skulls.    

Horror-tober 11: Tales from the Darkside

I thought I had seen this one in my childhood, but the more I looked at it the less it was familiar to me. So, we gave it a go for this Supernatural Sunday. (I did say we, because not only did Joey join in for this one, but so did ma bestie Skyra! Her first Horror-tober with me!)

Tales from the Darkside, like some others (namely Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt) is a movie based off of a television series, in particular the American horror anthology television series of the same name. It has an over-arching story of a young boy, about to be prepped for some suburban housewife's dinner party. As she (portrayed by Deborah Harry!) is preparing her "tools", he tries to distract her from that task by telling her stories from the "Tales from the Darkside" book; kind of similar to Arabian Nights in a way, except for the cannibalism. The three stories are actually quite entertaining too.

Blondie is unamused by your ramblings kid.

The first is a story about a nerdy, collegiate-type that obtains a mummy and discovers it has a scroll that allows him to control it. Great appearances by young Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and Christian Slater in this one. It is based off a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story and was gruesome but also fun and funny.

Buscemi reads from the scroll

The second tale is about a rich man that is haunted by a devil cat and hires a hitman to take care of it. This one is based off of a Stephen King story, which when you see it, is not that surprising. I particularly liked this one because it had some very strange visuals. And once you see a cat crawl into a man through his mouth, you will never be able to unsee it.

Is that a cat in your mouth, or....am I just really high right now? 

Lastly, was a tale about an artist down on his luck. One night he witnesses his friend get murdered by a living gargoyle that makes him promise he will never tell anyone about what he saw. No surprise that he later tells someone, but the surprise is, who he tells. This one was delightfully weird and a bit creepy. It also had some dialogue that made us all laugh out loud, particularly, "You mean when you thought he was going to push you up against the wall and rape you," from a 10 year-old kid. Gargoyle effects on this one were pretty classic early 90s special effects which was also nice to see.

How could you pretend to forget a face like that? 

All in all, we all thought this one was good fun, and worth a watch. Mostly for the cat story.    

My rating:

Joey's rating:

Skyra's rating:

Horror-tober 4: Creep

Last night it was actually a choice between Maniac and Creep. Since Maniac was disappointing I broke my schedule of days and chose to watch this one instead. And boy did I make the right choice.

Aaron (Patrick Brice) is a videographer called for a job to record a stranger's life for one day for a $1000. The stranger, Josef (Mark Duplass), is a little strange off the bat, but mostly just in a fun-loving and weird way. At least at first. As a videographer the film is shot in the "found footage" or handheld style. This style of horror movies has become sort of tedious over the years, but this one executes it so spectacularly. Written by both Brice and Duplass and directorial debut for Brice, this film has a good blend of weird and funny, but also has plenty of scenes that make you squirm in your seat. At least I did for a few parts.

Whereas with Maniac I could not believe Elijah Wood's portrayal of a maniac, Duplass is super believable. He is also very quirky and makes you believe he is lonely and just trying to reach out and make a friend, although in a completely, socially unacceptable way. It also, has the creepiest wolf mask in any movie ever. This film really had great moments and a super cohesive narrative that keeps you interested and engaged during the whole thing. Although, Aaron made some really dumb choices. Seriously dumb choices. Even dumber than most people in horror movies. But it was still really good.

Peachfuzz. Just a big old NOPE.

I really liked this movie and give it 4 skulls. Joey liked it so much he gave it 4.5 skulls. 4.5. From Joey. From the guy who "hates" horror movies. *Mind blown*

Joey's rating:

My rating:

The Woman in Black

Supernatural Sunday is kicked off with a good old ghost story. Technically it should have been on Tuesday since it is a British film, but I make exceptions when something has been on my list for more than year.

This film is a story about a young, widowed lawyer, Arthur Kipps. He travels to a sleepy coastal English town to examine papers of the Eel Marsh house his firm is arranging to have sold. It is sort of your standard ghost story, a town is cursed by a spirit seeking revenge for the death of her child. When she is seen at the house or near the property she "takes" children in the town, by making them commit suicide. So it is no surprise the town's people don't want Kipps around the house.

Creepy house

The house in the film was designed like your standard haunted house with creepy family portraits on the stairs, cobwebs everywhere, creepy taxidermic animals (particularly creepy "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys) and creepy children's toys, some of which looked like taxidermic animals made into music boxes. The perfect recipe for terrifying your viewers.

I really don't know what could possibly be giving my son nightmares.

Really. What could it be?

That, and a ghost woman wearing all black with a veil covering her face and when she appears, she often screams in your face! AAAAGGGGHHH! It had some good tense moments that made me jump and although it is pretty predictable, it is a fun flick.

Boo!

On another note, Daniel Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kipps and as much as I tried not to associate him with Harry Potter, at some moments, I couldn't stop from seeing scenes as if he was Harry.

Arthur Kipps at the train station - platform 9 3/4. 

Train going through the English countryside at night - train to Hogwarts. 

Daniel walking out of a room beneath the staircase - Harry's oh so cozy room at the Dursley's house. 

However, he was really good in it and once I disconnected from seeing him as Harry, I saw him more as the character he was portraying. I also chose this one for Sunday in anticipation of him starring in the film adaptation of Joe Hill's novel Horns hitting theaters on Halloween this year.

Wait, he's parseltongue in this too? Now, you're just giving them to me.

It was a decent and moody ghost story so it gets 3 skulls.