Horrortober 2022 #5 & #6

Hellraiser (2022)

I don’t want to be involved in these annoying peoples lives for 2 hours. The main character is an idiot, and it takes so long for the Cenobites to turn up. There’s no reason for her and the guy to instantly go straight to “we must investigate who owns the warehouse” etc… as a solution, rather than just throw the box away. Everything but the Cenobite costumes is stupid. Yelling “I dont know, I dont know” and “What the hell is going on” and being hysterical isn’t suspense. Everything about the characters and almost everything they do is pointless except for occasional out of place seemingly random choices needed to keep connecting the most basic “story” elements together. The twist that the BF is working for the box “owner” is brutal to experience after almost an hour, such a tired cliche. It takes so long to get to the Cenobites. Jesus it just wont fucking end. The only good parts are when the Cenobites are on screen, and even then they are too often wasted. This needs to be cut down, edited and re-released 100% focused on the Cenobites.

I guess its not really THAT bad, its just disappointing.

1.5/5

★★

Wikipedia
IMDB

Anatomia Extinction (1995)

The film starts with train station announcements and new presentations about overpopulation and city congestion, and murders. A businessman witnesses a murder and is then chased around by a strange mutant guy who “recruits” him to be an “Engineer” by infecting him with something (?). The businessman starts being wracked with pains and receiving hallucinations and messages telling him to “reduce the rats” and “be the engineer”. H meets the mutant guy again at a crime scene. The news on his TV is now overtly discussing murdering people as population control. He keeps having fits and freakouts, fighting the urges to kill? He has an altercation with the police shooting one of them and getting shot himself before killing the other with some kind of mutant weapon that his arm has turned into. He steals their car and goes on a killing rampage. Cops chase him to his home and there is a confrontation. He destroys them all, and when we see him next he is all fucked up and mutated. We then see scenes of other mutated Engineers around the city. We then suddenly see him and he is fully normal, walking in a crowd, he looks at his normal un-mutated hand and smiles. A voice announced “The Latest Congestion Update…” and the film ends.

A highly stylised film with almost zero dialogue. Its very low budget, but still visually nice. Different and very 90’s Japan. Remade as Tokyo Gore Police in 2008. 2/5

★★

IMDB

Films

Horrortober 2022 #3 & #4

Hider in the House (1989)

Gary Busey lives in the walls of someones house!

This is a psychological thriller (that counts as scary I guess) staring Gary Busey, Mimi Rodgers and Michael McKean. Jake Busey appears in scenes where Garys character is a child.

It sounds like it should be hilarious, but it isn’t.

Gary escapes from a mental institution and starts living in the attic of an unoccupied house. Then a family moves in. He spies on them, kills their dog, and starts interacting with the wife. Gary ends up trying to kill the family members and is killed by the cops. Its a TV movie and its not great. 1.5/5.

★★

IMDB
Wikipedia

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

The best of the Halloween sequels, and one of the best horror films ever.

I have seen this before but not for a long time. It isn’t directed by John Carpenter like 1 and 2 (Carpenter and Debra Hill produced, Carpenter also co-wrote the music), and there’s no Michael Myers. How is this even a sequel?

A toy company, Silver Shamrock, makes a Halloween mask that every child wants. Each mask contains a microchip with a piece of Stonehenge in it. Upon watching a special commercial to be aired on TV anyone wearing the masks will die and insects will escape their body killing anyone nearby. The masks creator wants to sacrifice children like ancient Celtic pagans did, presumably to gain powers!

Just insane stuff! 4/5

★★★★

IMDB
Wikipedia

Films

Horrortober 2022 #1 & #2

HauntedWeen (1991)

“Nobody knows it really happening – People are dying, and people are laughing.” – IMDB review

Some kid named Eddie Burber accidentally kills a girl in a Halloween haunted house run by his family and has to leave town. Skip to 20 years later, he is living in the woods with his mother who suddenly dies and he decides its time to return home. A fraternity in the town need to raise money to pay for fees and they decide to use the “Old Burber House” to host a Halloween haunted house event, the same house where Eddie killed the girl 20 years earlier. A stranger appears at the fraternity and says they should use the house and gives them a key.
During the Halloween event Eddie turns up in a mask and starts executing the fraternity members running and acting in the event, and none of the townsfolk attending know its real.
A surviving fraternity member eventually kills Eddie.

Its rather low budget, the generic characters and setting don’t require any fleshing out, the general idea is a good one, and it goes rather fast for 127mins. Its still only a 2/5 being generous.

★★

IMDB

Malignant (2021)

“In 1993, Dr. Florence Weaver and her colleagues Victor Fields and John Gregory treat a violent, disturbed patient named Gabriel at Simion Research Hospital. Gabriel is able to control electricity and broadcast his thoughts via speakers. He kills several staff members. Dr. Weaver determines that he is a lost cause and the “cancer“ must be removed.

27 years later…” – Wikipedia

Yeah there’s a weird and convoluted storyline. The important parts are all the weird WTF moments, the straight acting, the genre and style mashing, the style choices generally, the creepy shit, and the insane action scenes and horror. It feels kind of like a collage of genres and styles from different films, that meld and even overlap each other even in the same scenes. It feels ridiculous and that is in no way a bad thing.
Argento films, Homicide: Life on the Street, Possession, Blade, Exorcist 2? I have no idea…

It makes no sense to watch a film like this and rate it low for being this ridiculous, that’s not how the Horror genre works. And the more confusing and ridiculous it got the more I liked it.
Its a fucked up ride. 3.5/5.
(The “Where is my mind” musical stabs were the dumbest part)

★★★★

Wikipedia
IMDB

Event, Films

Horrortober 2022

As per previous years: Watching 31 Horror/Spooky/Scary type films from any genre during October.
31 total films, but not trying too hard for 1 per day, because that actually sucks to keep up.

Previous watch lists HERE

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

★