Some recent films

Critters (1986)
Campfire Tales (1997)
Blood Beat (1982)
Ogroff (Mad Mutilator) (1982)

Critters is a great horror/monster movie. There’s the whole Sc-Fi space bounty hunter element I always forget about, but its basically a slasher film with multiple little monsters instead of one killer. Its essentially set in one house (except for the roving bounty hunter subplot), and involves a family defending themselves from the creatures. Its an enjoyable, humorous and rather strange film.

Campfire Tales is a 3 part horror anthology of common tropes/urban legends with time travel (I guess you would call it that?) elements. Its not bad, the stories, structure and ideas are interesting, but overall its a bit slow/dry. A product of its time, the Scream era.

Blood Beat is primo weird garbage. According to Wikipedia “The plot focuses on a young couple attending a family gathering for Christmas in a rural home when a spirit wearing samurai armor begins killing members of the family—two of whom have psychic abilities—and their neighbors.”, Around what might be a simple if boring horror film with psychic elements is a bizarre mix of disjointed scenes, weird dialogue and strange special effects. And that’s what makes it interesting, if you can put up with it for 86 minutes.

Ogroff is the movie version of a low quality death metal demo cassette. There’s probably a better quality version out there, but I don’t want to see it. I have no idea what is going on in this movie except random slayings. Its poorly filmed, its often too dark or muddy to make out what is happening, and just generally confusing. I don’t think there is any actual narrative here. The off kilter synth sound track is great. There is almost zero dialogue. Its strangely charming, I loved it.
Looks like someone released some/all of the soundtrack: https://specific.bandcamp.com/album/ogroff-aka-mad-mutilator

Films

The Vast of Night (2019)

What a great film.

The Vast of Night is a 2019 American science fiction mystery film directed by Andrew Patterson. The film is co-produced and written by Patterson (under the pseudonym James Montague) and Craig W. Sanger. Loosely based on the Kecksburg UFO incident and Foss Lake disappearances, the film is set in 1950s New Mexico, where Fay Crocker (Sierra McCormick), a young switchboard operator and Everett Sloan (Jake Horowitz), a radio disc jockey discover a mysterious audio frequency that could be extraterrestrial in origin. – Wikipedia

I honestly nearly turned it off 20 minutes in, it can be very very slow at times, but the film picks up some speed, the mystery starts to develop and holy heck the ending. I loved it. A fantastic film.

Films

Horrortober 2021 #31

The Alien Factor (1979)

The Alien Factor is a 1978 science fiction horror film written, edited, produced, and directed by Don Dohler. A spaceship crashes in a sparsely populated area of Earth and three horrific aliens survive the accident. The grotesque extraterrestrials soon begin to terrorize the local residents, until one intrepid soul chooses to fight back…says Wikipedia. From the great video covers below you cant tell this is going to be B-grade. The first two aliens encountered are standard men in costumes – one a rotten bug/knight? and the other a deformed sasquatch. The last of the 3 aliens – a chubby t-rex toy? – is projection or overlay effect. There is a fourth creature who dies shortly after being discovered and psychically transferring information into one of the main characters minds, an ape or zombie-ape with long white hair and wearing a addidas jumpsuit . The entire idea of the movie is pretty simple, as described above, and that’s what you get in between long conversations and footage of people walking around, lots. Its pretty standard stuff, but it has its charms. 2.5 stars.
Wikipedia

★★★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #29 & #30

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Carnival of Souls is a 1962 American independent horror film. A fun, creepy, interesting film. Its tempting to call it B-grade, particularly the awful colourised version, but its just old. A strange and enjoyable enough film. 2.5 stars.
Wikipedia

★★★

The Brain (1988)

The Brain is a 1988 Canadian science fiction horror film depicting a giant brain-like alien that terrorizes. Meh 1.5/5.
Wikipedia

Films

Horrortober 2021 #26 & #27 & 28

Yokai Monsters

Yokai Monsters is a trilogy of Japanese horror/fantasy films written by Tetsuro Yoshida and released in the late 1960s.
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (March 1968)
Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare (December 1968)
Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts (March 1969)

All three of these films are just bizarre, and fantastic, with crazy puppets, special effects and just generally being strange. Focusing on the antics of mythological yokai monsters. Its all about the insane monsters. The films fluctuate slightly but its 3 stars over all.
Wikipedia

★★★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #24 & #25

Hour of the Wolf (1968)

Hour of the Wolf is a 1968 Swedish psychological horror film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow. This is great, the story is interesting, its shot fantastically and so many scenes are composed beautifully . 3.5 stars.
Wikipedia

★★★★

Dead of Night (1974)

Deathdream (also known as Dead of Night) is a 1974 horror film. Snore-fest. Its an interesting idea and there are moments during the film that are interesting, its just so sparse and slow and overall uneventful and anti-climactic. The video covers are pretty excellent, though. One star.
Wikipedia

★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #22 & #23

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2017)

Haunted Asylum is a Korean fount footage horror film. Some Youtubers decide to go to a haunted asylum with a bunch of GoPros and stuff and spooks and scares ensue. It is what it is, and its pretty creepy partly because the footage is so digital and Youtube-y I think? 2 stars.
Wikipedia

★

Invasion from Inner Earth (1974)

Invasion from Inner Earth (1974) is an apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Bill Rebane (of The Giant Spider Invasion fame (Horrortober #4)). Nothing happens in this film, its incredible. 1 star.
Wikipedia

★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #20 & 21

The Prowler (1981)

EDIT: I watched this the year before as well, unsure if I referenced this error elsewhere on here or even noticed until just now in 2022.

The Prowler (also known as Rosemary’s Killer and The Pitchfork of Death internationally) is a 1981 American slasher film. The film follows a group of college students who are stalked and murdered during their graduation party by someone wearing a G.I. uniform. The killer is depicted as a war veteran from World War II, and responsible for killing his ex-girlfriend in 1945. In 1980, he goes on a killing spree at the anniversary of her death…says Wikipedia, and thats pretty much it. People run around and occasionally there is some rather intense kind of out of place gore. 2 stars.
Wikipedia

★★

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

The Serpent and the Rainbow is a 1988 American horror film directed by Wes Craven. The script is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis, wherein Davis recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with an herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie. I wish this had been just a bit more supernatural. Its more like a serious drama with the fact creating zombies via Voodoo is a real thing. 2 stars
Wikipedia

★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #18 & #19

Razorback (1984)

Razorback is a 1984 Australian natural horror film. The film revolves around the attacks of a gigantic wild boar terrorizing the Australian outback, killing and devouring people. Pretty much yeah. Straight away, even before the credits and title screen, A man is seen standing on his porch with a gun when a gigantic boar runs straight through his house killing a child. Some nosey wildlife reporter turns up to town for unrelated reasons and eventually the film (d)evolves into action and pig attacks. Its pretty good 80’s horror, the outback and its people are as expected for this type of film and time period. The pig is huge, angry and violent, more akin to a Rhinocerous. There are quite a few funny lines, particularly from the Aussie characters, a stand-out is when the reporter is trying to interview a pig hunter (the guy from the start whos grandson was killed) “There’s something about blasting the shit out of a razorback that brightens up my whole day,” Top stuff. Ticks all the right boxes and its not quite a 2.5, 3 out of 5 stars.
Wikipedia

★★★

Maniac Cop (1988)

Maniac Cop is a 1988 American action slasher film staring Robert Z’Dar as the maniac cop. A murderous ex-police officer returned from the dead, and seeks revenge on the people who wronged him. Typical cop behavior. Its meh to OK at best, nothing special happens, a generic slasher. 1.5 stars
Wikipedia

★★

Films

Horrortober 2021 #16 & #17

Demon Seed (1977)

Demon Seed is a 1977 American science fiction–horror film. The film was based on the 1973 novel of the same name by Dean Koontz. A scientist invents Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program, and it gets extremely out of hand. This film definitely goes places to say the least. Walking the line between almost satire and morality tale, and falling off on either side continuously. Worth a watch. 2.5 stars.
Wikipedia

★★★

Inseminoid (1981)

Inseminoid (titled Horror Planet in the United States) is a 1981 British science fiction horror film. This is some real weird trash. It looks like if the Blakes 7 sets and costume departments were tasked with making Alien. Theres a bit of gross gore, lots of running and looking at computer screens, a woman is impregnated by an alien, she then gets super powers and kills a bunch of people, gives birth to alien hybrid twins who kill more people…a rescue mission arrives but every one is dead, as it leaves the alien twins have stowed aboard, the end. I think thats basically it? 2 stars.
Wikipedia

★★