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 #3

Strange Behavior (1981)

Strange Behavior (also known as Dead Kids) is a 1981 slasher film. “The film is considered a seminal work of New Zealand cinema, being the first horror film produced in the country”. This is also a Section 3 Video Nasty (under the name Dead Kids). Soundtrack is by Tangerine Dream but the song Shivers by The Birthday Party (still The Boys Next Door at the time) appears at 26:23min.
Its “small, original and offbeat” like many Aus and NZ films from around that period, it has an interesting, suspenseful story line that builds in strangeness and is deeper than you initially expect, what slasher moments there are are decent, and the mad science is creepy.
It is essentially a Sci Fi/mad scientist and suspense film with some slasher elements. I give it 2.5/5 because yes it is good, it is worth watching, though it is unfortunately a bit sparse and slow at times.
Wikipedia

★★★

Films

Horrortober #1 & #2

1) Werewolves on Wheels (1971)

This is pretty much a road trip biker movie of its time with a supernatural and werewolf twist. Bikers come across a satanic cult who turn one of the bikers girlfriends into a werewolf, she turns her boyfriend into a werewolf, and as the group continue to travel the werewolf couple slowly pick off the other bikers. Eventually they transform in front of the remaining bikers who kill them. And then there is a very strange ending. Great film.
Wikipedia

★★★★

2) The Hidden (1987)

The Hidden is a 1987 SciFi/Horror film staring Kyle MacLachlan.
“A cop and an FBI agent race for answers after law abiding people suddenly become violent criminals.” IT WAS ALIENS!
This was OK, it didn’t suck, but it wasn’t a 2.5/5 or a 3.
Wikipedia

★★

Films

V.N.W.L. #3

The Burning (1981)
Cannibal Ferox (also known as Make Them Die Slowly)
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Contamination (1980)

The Burning stars Jason Alexander (George from Seinfeld), that’s about it. Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust are pretty standard “Cannibal…” type films, though Holocaust is far more bizarre and extreme. Contamination is slow and pretty boring and there is not enough of the weird-ass alien or action.

Films

V.N.W.L. #2

The Beyond (1981, original title: E Tu Vivrai Nel Terrore ‒ L’Aldilà, also known as Seven Doors of Death)
The Bogey Man (1980, also known as The Boogeyman)
Blood Feast (1963)
Bloody Moon (1981, original title: Die Säge des Todes)

The Beyond is Lucio Fulci, enough said. The Bogey Man is a supernatural slasher with a few strange ideas. Blood Feast, “the first splatter film”, is a dodgy weird old classic. Bloody Moon is slow and uneventful.

Films

Halloween Horror Films #9

#9 – The Dark Half

Two! Because I may not do one Friday night…

The Dark Half is a film adaption of a Steven King book, which are usually very hit or miss (usually miss), directed by George A Romero which is hopefully a positive. IMDB says…

When Thad Beaumont was a child, he had an operation to remove a tumour from his brain. during the operation, it was discovered that far from being a tumor, the growth was a twin brother of Thad’s that never developed. Years later, Thad is a successful author, writing his serious books under his own name, and his pulp money-makers under the pseudonum “George Stark”. When blackmailed by someone who has discovered his secret, Thad publically “buries” George Stark. From that point on, Thad increasingly becomes the prime suspect in a series of gruesome murders.

Always a joy to see Michael Rooker. This film is 2 hours long though? Steven King film adaptions are, as mentioned above, not always great, this though was pretty good. For the length it didn’t feel oppressively long or slow paced for the most, maybe that’s Romero directing, who knows (Langoliers is 180mins, feels like 3 days). Its a thriller, a cop drama, and kind of a horror. There’s weird scenes and circumstances throughout that keep this film strange and creepy to the end. The “twist”, the killer, is just nonsense.
2.5 STARS. Its enjoyable enough.

★★★

Films

Halloween Horror Films #4

#4 – Hellmaster (1992)

Hellmaster aka Soulstealer, is a 1992 horror film about a crazy college professor (John Saxon) who uses his students as guinea pigs turning them into crazed killers, according to Wikipedia. I had to watch this on a site called TubiTV because it wasn’t available for free anywhere else. LINK

Its exactly what it says on the box, its messed up, has some humour (intentional or not), some gore, a standard but confused slasher-fest with a few cool moments. It loses itself often. Hard to say if the writers even new or achieved what they were going for.

2 Stars, because weird and I didn’t hate it?

★★