The Fourth Year of Haunting. Welcome to Horror-tober Fest!

It is almost that time of year, boys and ghouls, that haunting month… of Horror-tober!  I have already created the full list for this year, but some of it may change as I am sure there may be some snags here and there. Unlike last year, we will not be in the midst of moving so there should be loads of new films this year.

Categories haven’t changed, and as always here they are:

            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.

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

            Creature-Feature Friday For all things monster and creepy-crawly. This year seems like it 

            will be a mix of animals gone crazy.

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

As I also did not finish last year’s posts, I offer another list of the movies I watched and the ratings for each. Last year I also enjoyed quite a few days of horror shorts, and I’ll breakdown those ratings as well.   

1 – Shaun of the Dead 5 skulls – One of my favorites, love it and always fun to rewatch this one.

2 - Cursed 3 skulls – Werewolves. Wes Craven. Christina Ricci. Jesse Eisenberg before he was annoying, oh wait. Still like it.  

3 - Maniac - 2 skulls – Elijah Wood as a killer and filmed almost entirely from his perspective. Meh.

4 - Creep - 4 skulls – Found footage. Mark Duplass. Genuinely creepy. Loved it.

5 – Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead – 4.5 skulls – Sequel to one of the craziest, campiest, and goriest zombie movies ever. As good, if not better than the first in my opinion.

6 – Tormented (Rabbito Hora) – 2.5 skulls – Surreal with creepy life-size stuffed rabbit. Otherwise, meh.

7 - Zombeavers - 2.5 skulls – Super campy, zombie-wildlife romp. Zombie bear, humans with zombie beaver teeth and tails. Just OK.

8 - Scream - 3.5 skulls – Another Wes Craven. Classic and always will be on the top of my list for slashers.

9 - Shorts – First of the day of shorts:

There Are Monsters - 2.5 skulls – Canadian short about people becoming monsters or 

something. Decent scares.

Lights Out – 5 skulls – The kind of short that will keep you up at night. Perfect setup and 

masterfully executed.

The Little Witch – 3 skulls – Really, really short. But just the right length to make your skin 

crawl.

The Whistler – 4.5 skulls – Another one beautifully filmed and great set up. Beware if you 

hear a strange whistling outside you window at night.     

10 – More Shorts – Another day of shorts:

            Vienna Waits for You – 4 skulls – An apartment with a secret. One of the longer shorts but 

            entertaining none the less.

            Pictured – 3 skulls – From the director of Lights Out. Not as good, but still pretty creepy.

            2 AM: The Smiling Man – 4 skulls – Something as simple, friendly, and innocent as a mile 

            could be the stuff of nightmares.

            Tufty – 2.5 skulls – Not so much a horror, but an OK story.  

11 – Tales from the Darkside - 4 skulls – Horror anthology with some well-known actors. Fun good group of tales.

12 – Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead - 3.5 skulls – Australian zombie comedy. Fun, and pretty fun story.

13 – Archivo 253 – 2.5 skulls – Found footage of paranormal investigators in an abandoned insane asylum. Some good jumps but otherwise pretty lame.

14 – What We Do in the Shadows - 3.5 skulls – Vampire mockumentary with Jemaine Clement. Funny and loved the nods to all the classic vampire movies.

15 – Corpse Bride – 3.5 skulls – Tim Burton’s follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas. Colorful, musical, and still like it quite a bit.

16 - Tusk - 3 skulls – Kevin Smith delves into the horror genre with a disturbing and entertaining body horror flick. Pretty good!

17 – Curse of Chucky - 3 skulls – 6^th installment in the Child’s Play franchise. Chucky gets his revenge. It was decent.

18 - Honeymoon - 3 skulls – Cabin in the woods for a honeymoon. Aliens in the woods, maybe? Good build up to the end, creepy crawlies, and the possibly aliens!

19 – Zombie Shorts – Shorts, with zombies! :

            Waterborne – 3.5 skulls – Zombie kangaroos!

            Dark Times – 2.5 skulls – First-person beginning of the end of the world. OK.

            Bite Me – 2.5 skulls – Zombie web series, first episode was OK.

            Play Dead – 3.5 skulls – What happens to our pets when the zombie apocalypse hits? 

            Very enjoyable and weirdly heartwarming.  

            GWAR – not a short, just still excited that I saw GWAR in my lifetime.

20 – Foreign Shorts – Shorts from around the world:

            Gakko No Kaidan/Katasumi (In a Corner) - 3 skulls - Is actually part of a few shorts that 
            introduce the ghost from Ju-On and The Grudge. 
            Comedy - 2.5 skulls - Beautiful Japanese anime. Is the swordsman a ghost, a vampire, 
            the devil? Who knows. 
            The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow - 3 skulls - A picture is worth a thousand 
            words, or in the case of Mister Hollow, worth a creepy story. 
            No Way Out - 3.5 skulls - Dismal and pretty good special effects. 
            Mama - 3.5 skulls - Shouldn't you be happy mama is home? Not if she is some scary CGI 
            ghost-thing. 
            HI - 3 skulls - A young woman haunted by her past perhaps? Creepy and just right.
            Behind the Door - 2.5 skulls - I repeat, never invite them inside. 

21 – Wacky Shorts – Shorts that are funny and wacky! :

            The Cat with Hands – 4 skulls – Live action and stop-motion animation. Utterly bizarre 
            and I love it.
            Alma - 3 skulls - A semi-lighthearted animated tale about a creepy doll store. 
            Certified - 3.5 skulls - This one was pretty funny and unexpected. 
            Killer Kart - 3.5 skulls - Shopping kart gone mad. Pretty fun. 

22 – Re-Animator – 4.5 skulls – Always a fun rewatch.  

23 – Late Phases - 2 skulls – Werewolves harassing a quiet retirement community. I really want another good werewolf movie. Just OK.  

24 – Stage Fright - 2.5 skulls – Slasher at a theater camp. Musical and alright in the genre.  

25 – Banshee Chapter – 3.5 skulls – Lovecraft. Drugs and surreal (or real?) hallucinations. I enjoyed it but don’t remember too much.  

26 – The Lazarus Effect - 3 skulls – Another one with Mark Duplass. Team works on a cure for death, but things go wrong. Decent.   

27 – The Brainiac - 3 skulls – Man being executed vows he will return in 300 years to exact his revenge on those that tried him. Old-timey movie with hilarious special effects but enjoyable.

28 – Killer Klowns from Outerspace - 3 skulls – Have I mentioned I have a fear of clowns? This and It may have been the cause. But honestly, I enjoy the ridiculous 80’s camp of this one and it is a fun one to rewatch. 

29 – Scream 2 - 3 skulls – The second is not as good as the first but it is one of my favorites in the range of sequels for a slasher franchise.

30 – Scream 3 – 2.5 skulls – Same cannot be said about the third. This one just bores me.

31 – Scream 4 – 4 skulls – And this is a case where I feel the final is better than the first. I love this one for many reasons.  

That's all folks - time to get this started! 

Horror-tober 19: Zombie Shorts and GWAR!

Did another day of short horror movies, but had a good excuse for not watching a full-length feature this evening because... GWAR! More on that later, for now, zombie shorts! Unsurprisingly there are a lot of zombie short films.

Waterborne is a short from Australia about zombie kangaroos, or as I like to call them zombaroos. Animal zombie movies are not often executed in a serious way (Zombeavers). Well, neither is this one really, but it is done well enough that it honestly is a bit creepy. I remembered watching this one recently and felt like starting the shorts off with something familiar. It sets the tone well and even the zombaroo effects are pretty well done.

Dark Times 

Bite Me. Found out after I watched this one that it is actually a full web series. It even has more than one season. But I watched it by itself and have to judge it as such. I included the link to the first full season as well because maybe it is good, but the first episode didn't really draw me in like I wanted it to so I may or may not watch the season.

Play Dead

It has been a lifetime goal of mine to see GWAR perform live. Not a lofty one because they tour constantly, but it has been fulfilled. Although I really missed the GWAR of my teen years with Oderus Ungurus' (Dave Brockie) recent passing, the new lead Blothar fits into the role well and did a spectacular job.

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 17: Curse of Chucky

I know one of my really good friends that is also a horror movie fan (especially of the Child's Play franchise) said he was not thrilled with this one, but I wanted to give it shot nonetheless.

Curse of Chucky is the sixth installment (and I thought maybe final but looking online it looks like a seventh is in the works) of the Child's Play franchise. A woman and her paraplegic daughter, Nica (Fiona Dourif), receive a mysterious package. Turns out the package is an old Chucky doll, and the audience knows it to be a Chucky doll possessed by the spirit of the serial killer, Charles Lee Ray. That night Nica's mother supposedly kills herself, and her overbearing sister and family come to help with the funeral and house. Then Chucky has a whole family to slowly pick off.

This installment is not unlike the others, Chucky basically steals a little girl's innocence by brutally murdering her family and leaving the blame to someone else. I enjoyed that it had the practical effects of the puppets like the original and even subsequent films. There may have been some CGI here and there with the doll, but if there was they did it in a way as to not distract from the actual puppetry. Also some gruesome deaths that stays true to the slasher genre. Of course, Brad Dourif returns as the voice of Chucky but the surprise here was his daughter Fiona as the protagonist. She was really good in it and was a pretty tough character.

One reason I am upset to find out this won't be the final Chucky movie, is because I thought this one tied the whole franchise in really well together. Although the very end was a little hokey for me and I guess does set up for a seventh. Which all I will say is Jennifer Tilly shows up again. I like Tilly in Bride and Seed, but I guess I feel it would have been better if it had just ended differently. Not necessarily a happy ending, but just not with continuing Chucky and Tiffany's killing spree as is implied by the ending scenes. But, it still gets 3 skulls from me for the overall story up until that little bit.

My rating:

Joey's rating: 

Horror-tober 16: Tusk

Another that has been on my list for awhile but haven't gotten around to it until now. It seemed to do poorly in theaters but I thought it was pretty fun.

Tusk is a story about a podcaster, Wallace (Justin Long), and his search for a good story or really just his search for someone to make fun of on his podcast with his best friend, Teddy (Haley Joel Osment). When he travels to Manitoba to do an interview with a kid that cut his own leg off on video, he finds himself stuck there with no interview because the kid committed suicide before his arrival. Searching for a new story or just a weirdo Canadian he can exploit, he winds up in a bar where he finds an advertisement for a room for rent. The guy, Howard Howe (Michael Parks) as we find out, used to be a seaman and has many stories to tell. Wallace contacts him and arranges to meet him that same night. Howard gives off a strange vibe but regales Wallace with some crazy stories and then drugs him. The next day Wallace wakes up with a missing leg and soon discovers Howard wants more from him than to just share his stories of the sea. He wants a companion to fill the void of a walrus he knew, named Mr. Tusk.

Howard operating on Wallace

Directed by Kevin Smith, Tusk is a humorous and gruesome horror comedy. It is based on a story that Smith with friend Scott Mosier told on his own podcast, SModcast. I know it is not explicitly a creature-feature and sort of fits more into the "body horror" genre. But Wallace (almost sounds like walrus) is turned into and conditioned to behave like a creature, albeit a really messed up one. Johnny Depp also makes an appearance in this one as the detective from Quebec chasing an unknown serial killer that turns out to be our Mr. Howe. I enjoyed it because it was such a weird premise and Long played a great douchey guy that you honestly do not feel sorry for. Depp was also delightfully weird as the French Canadian detective although he seemed to lose his accent here and there. Tusk is the first installment of a triology of horror comedies Smith is making about the True North or Canada. I look forward to seeing what he does with the others since this one was quite entertaining.

Howard lamenting about the world with his new Mr. Tusk

My rating:

Joey's rating: 

Skyra's rating: 

Horror-tober 15: Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride is Tim Burton's claymation follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas. A young man by the name of Victor is betrothed to Victoria, a young lady that he has never met. Both Victor and Victoria's families believe they are entering their children into the arrangement so as to gain riches. When Victor first sees Victoria, is like love at first sight. He is no longer nervous about the arrangement but he bumbles all over the rehearsal. In an attempt to clear his head he runs off to the woods and practices his vows. He nails them, but he also mistakenly proposes to a corpse (Emily) and finds himself in the land of the dead.   

No surprise that Nightmare was a huge influence in my childhood as it was for many of my generation. Corpse Bride isn't nearly as good, but has great imagery, story, and characters. The realm of the living is drab and gray, whereas the realm of the dead is full of vibrant colors, music, and "life." Very much a typical aesthetic of Burton films. The music in Corpse Bride, in my opinion, is not as good as the music in Nightmare. But it jives well with the film and it isn't overdone. The character development is good and the overall story is pretty good too.

My rating:

Joey's rating: 

Horror-tober 14: What We Do in the Shadows

I have wanted to see this one for awhile. Even though there have been some pretty bad vampire movies and shows (I won't name names) I am still a big fan of the creatures.

What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary style comedy about vampires living in New Zealand. Four vampires live together, each of a different era of vampire (mostly related to film and folklore). Petyr is the vampyr-style of vampire familiar from the classic Nosferatu and the oldest of the four. Valdislav is the Hungarian, Vlad the Impaler, style vampire, but he is Valdistav the Poker. Viago is kind of the Anne Rice, pretty and lovelorn, vampire. And the youngest, Deacon, is the bad boy, the modern vampire akin to The Lost Boys (he even references it!) although much older than those bad boys. But like any household where four dudes reside together and share the rent and chores, they have their spats over who was supposed to do the dishes that week and food. Well, except that their food happens to be living human beings they pick up in the nightclubs in Wellington and as classic vampires they have a preference for virgins. All of them stuck in the past but when one of their meals, Nick, becomes a fellow vampire they learn to adapt to the modern world. Even "poking" people on Facebook, of which Vladislav seems particularly excited about. Of course, the "fresh blood," also brings lots of trouble to the vampire household.

The boys all together

I liked this film not only because of the fun it plays with the vampire subgenre of horror, but it was genuinely funny. I really love Jemaine Clement (Vladislav), I even liked him as the bad guy in the third installment of the MIB franchise even though the whole movie was pretty crappy. He has such a great, sort of dry humor that is also pretty clever. So no surprise that he and fellow kiwi, Taika Waititi (Viago), were the brains behind this movie. I was also happy to see Rhys Darby (Murray in Flight of the Conchords) to pop-up in this movie as the alpha werewolf. I didn't give this one a better rating though, just because it overplayed some of its jokes and *SPOILER* they killed off Petyr. He was the best, probably because he didn't say a word but it was just so perfectly played! After seeing it I did learn that it was based on a short film that Waititi and Clement originally made, so I will have to check that out sometime and see how it ties into this film. Overall, it still gets a pretty high rating of 3.5 skulls because I just enjoyed how subtly funny it was and the nostalgia of when I liked vampire movies.  

My rating:

Joey's rating: