Horror-tober 13: Archivo 253

Another one I chose because it was pretty short. As you can tell by my tardiness with posts, I don't have a lot of time to write these things up as you can tell since I keep posting these days after I have watched them.

Archivo 253 tells the story of four paranomal investigators breaking into an old insane asylum to discover why it was closed without an explanation years before. This film falls into the "found-footage" genre. These "investigators" find that there is some spirit or spirits in the building, but they haven't found the good solid evidence they crave for. So of course when they are getting a pretty good response, one of them sort of pesters it by asking if it is an evil spirit and asks it to show itself. Don't they know the old saying, "be careful what you wish for?" In their case, it awakens whatever evil spirit or demon is haunting the institution and it has no problem messing with them. 

The jump scares in this one really did make me jump a few times which I give it credit for, but I guess that is what I get for watching a movie on my laptop with headphones. It also had a pretty slow build which I enjoyed, too often movies like this jump right in and it just doesn't work well. Aside from that, I just wasn't super drawn into the story. I actually caught myself paying more attention to Joey playing the video game, The Last of Us, than the movie. But again, to its credit, it scared me at parts, some moments were pretty tense, and it had a nice build to when the shit really goes down. That and something really creepy with human hair that is just unnerving.   

Horror-tober 12: Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

This one kind of slipped under my radar, until NOW! I really couldn't pass up a movie with the tagline, "Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead."

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead takes place in Australia. It starts off with some survivors telling their stories of how they got to the present. One story is kind of amusing. Benny was with his brothers on a camping trip and woke up to find them gone. When he found one of his brothers he was changed and start coming after him. He just turned around and started walking away and they walked like that for awhile. Him just walking, and his brother just slowly following behind. The second story though launches into the main outbreak, and is a little more serious and sad. But after that it is a funny and gory romp through the rest of the film.

Benny being followed by his undead brother

I particularly liked this one because it took the zombie genre and then reinvented some of the tropes that really worked for the movie. First off, the zombies are slow, but only during the day. It turns out that in their decomposed state they are producing a foul fuel that they burn off during the day, but use at night to be a lot more quick and deadly. Basically, nocturnal gas-producing zombies. It works in the survivors favors as for some reason all fuel has become useless, and they discover they can use the zombies during the day to fuel their vehicles. Also, people appear to be infected just by breathing the air, but some are and some are not. It doesn't really explain why this is until later and doesn't totally make sense, but again, it works for main story.

Suit up

Also, we have a couple of main characters but in a way, the two primary characters are Barry and Brooke, brother and sister. Barry is looking for his sister after the apocalypse starts, but he is unaware that she has been abducted by some military looking guys and a psychopathic doctor. He is apparently doing some weird experiment where he takes zombie blood from some specimens he keeps chained up and injects it into survivors, like Brooke, that he also has chained in his weird and bloody little laboratory. Aside from the description stating that the doctor is the one who turned people into zombies, it is not really apparent how he was responsible, except for maybe something to do with a chemical he released in the air.

The mad doctor is in 

Brooke continues to survive after she has zombie blood injected into her many times, but, something in her brain reacts with that blood and allows her to control the zombies. It is a pretty silly premise, but again, it really works for the film. Also, was pretty cool to have a bad ass female lead even if it isn't till half the film is over that she obtains her power. It had really good kill scenes and as I said before was pretty funny and fun. I like that it has its own telling of how the zombies came to be, even if it still was a little unclear. But also that it has its own take on the zombie. It also had some striking visuals and indeed had some aesthetics in the design of the costumes and vehicles that felt like watching Mad Max or The Road Warrior with a zombie twist. Joey gives it 3.5 skulls because he wished that it had been even more ridiculous than it was, because he is silly like that.

My rating:

Joey's rating:

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 10: More shorts

So, I copped out and had to do shorts again today. But, honestly, these are kind of fun and also just goes to show you that you can create a scary little piece of film sometimes with a little more than a couple of minutes and without the big budgets.

First up for tonight was Vienna Waits for You. A young German girl moves to Vienna and finds a sweet apartment for a steal. Little does she know that the apartment is more than it seems. This one wasn't scary but was entertaining and also beautifully filmed. It is on Vimeo and featured on Short of the Week's horror channel. So I had to download it to share it and got the super low, mobile SD, version. So if you are going to spend the 24 or so minutes to watch this one, better to go to this link and watch the HD version.  

Pictured is by the same short director, David F. Sandberg, as Lights Out that was featured yesterday. I didn't like it as much but it was nice, and the same lady getting into the same kind of trouble with the creepy things that live in her apartment. I'm not a Doctor Who fan, but I've been told that it sort of is a reference to the "weeping angels." So if you are, a Who fan that is, you may like this one.

2 AM - The Smiling Man. I had a weird day and at some point Joey and I had talked about smiling (I am a smiler, even when I don't feel great) and I remembered that there was this short. So, I decided to watch it. Something as simple, friendly, and innocent as a smile could be the stuff of nightmares.

Tufty, another featured on Short of the Week's horror channel. I wanted to watch it because I thought that the cute bear was going to do scary things. He didn't. But it is still pretty good, and kind of a messed up story about children's toys. Got the trailer but not the full film this time, just check out the link if you want to watch it. 

Horror-tober 9: Shorts

I haven't done this in previous years, but have discovered that it is actually quite nice to do, especially when I do not have enough time to watch a full movie. Also, because they are shorts, I can post them on the blog and then everyone can watch them! 

First up was a Canadian short titled, There are Monsters. Didn't really know what to expect from this one. People start acting strangely and even though it had some pretty cheesy editing it had some good scares. There is also a full-length horror by the same name but do not think they are related. 

Lights Out is one of my favorite horror shorts. It is just so simply done and so creepy. Even though I have seen this one a few times in the past, I still check all the shadows and and corners before turning the lights off at night. 

The Little Witch is really, really short. But reminds me of this cartoon and each have just the perfect amount of creepiness. 

The cartoon I mentioned above.

Lastly there is The Whistler. Aside from Lights Out this one might be my favorite of the bunch. It is beautifully filmed and has a good scare. Beware if you hear a strange whistling outside your window at night.

Horror-tober 8: Scream

Another pick honoring the memory of the legend, Wes Craven, and one of my favorites. I have a feeling there will more than a few of his featured this year.

I feel like this one doesn't really need a synopsis because I assume most people have seen it, at least from my generation. Even those that aren't that into horror movies have, or at least have an idea of what it is about from the Scary Movie spoof franchise.

This one makes my top 10 horror list (I actually have never made one before, but I know that this one would be on it if I did along with Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street) because it is in itself an homage to the horror genre. It has some obvious references, like the killer tormenting his victims by asking them trivia questions about horror movies, the opening scene closely resembling When a Stranger Calls, and the "rules" of a scary movie. But it has other smaller references including cameos by some of the horror genre's well known faces (i.e. Linda Blair), a reference to directors Wes Craven and John Carpenter when Tatum (Rose McGowan) says the situation is like a Wes Carpenter film, and the janitor is wearing a sweater and hat like those worn by Freddy Kreuger in A Nightmare on Elm Street and is actually played by Wes himself. There are also many references to Halloween.

Scream has some great moments, and intelligent writing and directing. It is also funny and satirizes the horror genre cliches; example, as Randy (Jamie Kennedy) is watching Halloween and screaming, "Turn around Jamie!" at Jamie Lee Curtis all while the killer is creeping behind him, and Sydney (Neve Campbell) and the camera guy are watching it in the news van and screaming at him to turn around. So good. I recently also discovered a lot of Jamie Kennedy's and Matthew Lillard's (Stu) lines were ad-libbed. Even after watching after some 10 plus years, I still really like this one.

My rating:

Joey's rating:

Horror-tober 7: Zombeavers

The picks for Wacky Wednesday this year are mostly silly, funny ones. So not a surprise that I chose Zombeavers for this day. I kind of went into this one knowing absolutely nothing about it aside from the name, and of course expecting that there would be zombie beavers and it would probably be pretty ridiculous. Which is was.

Some numbskull dudes, are texting and driving when they hit a deer and unwittingly lose a barrel of toxic waste they were transporting. That barrel spills its toxic nastiness on a beaver dam quickly setting up the future zombeaver apocalypse. Three sorority sisters then head to that lake for the weekend primarily for one of them to forget about her cheating boyfriend. With no cell service at the cabin, they let loose and go for a swim, not knowing they are being watched by zombeavers! Later, the boyfriends, including the cheating boyfriend, show up and the next day they find themselves at the mercy of the zombeavers!

Zombeavers had its good moments, but also its bad moments. It was actually surprising how little beaver jokes there were in this one. A few expected ones, but it was not over the top with them which was good because it probably would have been un-beaver-able otherwise.

The acting isn't great, but honestly didn't expect it to be. I did like that not only do people turn into a zombie when bitten but turn into a full on zombeaver; buck teeth and some even get the sweet beaver tail. Even the bear that shows up toward the end of the movie has a set of zombeaver chompers. Effects were silly but decent for what you would expect from a movie with this kind of title. Spoiler ahead here folks: Thankfully the stupid cheating boyfriend gets his comeuppance in a scene reminded me of one of the most ridiculous and gory scenes in the movie Black Sheep which is still one of my tops in the "zombie animal" genre. *EDIT* I goofed and called this movie Australian but it is from New Zealand, I feel so ashamed. ** If you have seen it, you probably know the scene I am talking about; if not, go watch it. Now. Seriously, stop reading this and watch it right now.

All in all, Zombeavers is a fun little flick but not one to rave about. This one gets 2.5 skulls from me for that scene I mentioned above but mostly just for this little piece of dialogue: "They sound like babies." "Yeah, crazy fuckin' babies." Because beavers seriously do sound like crazy fuckin' babies. For real.

My rating: