Rate the Last Film You Watched

[Professor Irony]

The Dead (2010)

A super low budget zombie outing that follows an American air force engineer attempting to trek to safety across an unnamed country in rural West Africa, this is an overlong, but unpretentious and strangely endearing return to the genre basics, that makes some good use of its eerily beautiful setting. It's hard to ignore the politically uncomfortable imagery (particularly in seeing the white American killing mostly black zombies) that the filmmakers have surprisingly chosen not to engage with, but to its credit, it does genuinely feel as though they're trying to treat their hosts with welcome respect, avoiding any easy 'white saviour' pitfalls or opportunities to glorify the violence on display.

 

[HWR]

From 1st to 31st October, I’ll be watching a horror movie per day as I have done for a few years now. Curious if anyone else is doing the same! Haven’t got a final list yet but my horror backlog is very likely to fill the days easily.

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day I: Beyond the Door (1974, Ovidio G. Assonitis)


Starting off the month with a film that followed hot off the trails of The Exorcist and borrows some elements from said film but feels more like a take on Rosemary’s Baby as well. That being said, Beyond the Door is crafted to its own visual style and identity with some bizarre humour, a superb score and memorable setpieces. 3.5/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day II: Universal’s The Mummy sequel Marathon: The Mummy’s Hand (1940, Christy Cabanne), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942, Harold Young), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944, Reginald Le Borg), The Mummy’s Curse (1944, Leslie Goodwins).


It may seem like a lot of films to watch in one sitting but most of these only run for barely an hour each, so it was fairly easy to binge them.

Hand is a decent follow up to the acclaimed classic that sets up the Karras narrative whilst Tomb acts as a direct sequel to Hand - even spending ten minutes recapping - and is fairly uninspired. It does, however, introduce legendary actor Lon Chaney Jr. playing the Mummy for the first time, which he would do for the remaining sequels.

Ghost ended up being a bit of a rehash but had a solid ending whilst Curse is easily the weakest sequel, feeling the franchise was running out of steam. Overall though, these films are worth a watch once to see how the classic Universal Mummy franchise progressed. 3/5, 2.5/5, 2.5/5, 1.5/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day III: The Bloodthirsty Trilogy: The Vampire Doll (1970, Michio Yamamoto), Lake of Dracula (1971, Michio Yamamoto), Evil of Dracula (1974, Michio Yamamoto)



A trilogy of Japanese vampire movies from director Michio Yamamoto and Toho Studios that feature a fairly prominent western influence, especially from the iconic Hammer Horror films but also borrow elements and imagery from the likes of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films (something Kim Newman points out in his discussing of the trilogy for this release.)

Despite this, the films retain their own visual identity thanks to Yamamoto’s directing and some wonderfully campy performances. Doll isn’t really a vampire film but a solid supernatural story whilst Lake is the weakest one of the trilogy due to it feeling a bit drawn out in places and Evil is decent but not as effective as Doll. I’m grateful that Arrow brought these across to the UK. 3.5/5, 2.5/5, 3/5

 

[Professor Irony]

#Alive (2020)

A solid zombie film from Korea that sees an amiable young man trapped in his Seoul apartment while the zombified hordes spread around the streets below. It has a lot of good ideas which it doesn't really get all the mileage out of and its narrative feels slightly arbitrary, but it's well acted and makes for a solid evening's entertainment if you're in the mood for more undead.

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day IV: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995, Bill Condon)


The first sequel to the acclaimed Clive Barker horror film, this delves more into the tragic life of the titular Candyman himself and how they became a supernatural phenomenon.

Though it ups the gore factor, FTTF sadly isn’t as engaging as the original with the themes not being handled nearly as subtly but it does have its qualities like the Mardi Gras theming being utilised fairy well and Tony Todd’s performance. 3/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day V: Swamp Thing (1982, Wes Craven)


Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing is quite a lot of fun and has some decent makeup for the titular creature and Ray Wise (likely best known for his role as Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks) in his debut role. Craven does well from a directorial standpoint with an admittedly campy storyline, though this is distinctly different from the films he was making around this time. 3.5/5

 

[Captaaainuniverse]

Couldn't wait to see it anymore, didn't like the way the rental idea was set up but...

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul

I've actually wanted to see DotDS for a while, was quite disappointed when the current pandemic shut any chance of screenings down (not that i would have seen it in my town)

After watching it though, I can say for the most part it's exactly what I was waiting to see, I watched the dub but something was a bit weird there, I felt like all the characters instead of saying something about the curse of the abyss referred to "strains" little things like that changing the dialogue

I also felt however a few things were shoved to the latter half, I might be wrong about a talk with prushka and riko but I'm pretty sure prushka's back story was shown a little earlier in the manga, it certainly would have had a little more impact knowing more about her before close to the end of the film

I did get the sense the first half just wanted to make it through some content, like it was rushed but the film covers a single volume and pretty much everything is there, there's only two things I can think of that weren't there - a hypothesis about predators using one of bondrewd's devices, but i can get why thats left out as its something usually only white whistles end up being able to use and nanachi needing riko's glasses to avoid the 5th layer's curse, the glasses don't really come up at all in the film

As I've already said about the first half, much of that didn't have the impact I thought it would, perhaps because I already read volume 5, the volume the entire film covers, but the more shocking stuff in the second half, the true confrontation with bondrewd, hit right on the mark. I think people who know how I reacted to episode 13 of the series know what impacted me most

Bondrewd himself though, feels as though he becomes more and more creepy throughout the film as who he really is is slowly revealed. They could have easily made him into more of a moustache twirling villian who hates his adversaries, but thankfully they kept him much more like how he was in the manga, he is never angry at any attempts to foil him, it's all just a pleasant surprise, an unexpected result, something to take note of rather than anything he'll hold against the group. It's funny in a creepy sort of way.

Overall, the first half looks pretty much how you'd expect if you've seen volume 5, but the second half that has much of the action looks much better than Akihito's art at the same point which was hard to figure out what was going on, it was much more clear in the film

Serious rating: solid 8/10 for an addition to Made in Abyss

J/k rating: astounding/10

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day VI: The Prey (1983, Edwin Brown)


A lesser known slasher flick that despite coming out in mid 80s wherein they were all the craze was actually shot during 1979-80 and predates Friday the 13th.

Despite this, The Prey doesn’t really do anything special as the plot follows a trio of teen couples as they meander around the woods on a getaway before being stalked by an unknown killer. It’s pretty standard stuff and doesn’t really do much until the third act, wherein the killer is revealed and doesn’t look all that imposing. 2/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day VII: The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977, John Boorman)

One of the arguably more notorious horror sequels out there, The Heretic is a bizarre outing featuring a great cast thrown into a surreal storyline that feels very far removed from the original film outside of Linda Blair returning as Reagan and once again being possessed.

I think the key issue with the film is that it features some interesting ideas but feels uneven in execution. That being said, it is worth a watch though Legion is the true sequel that offers a better experience. 3/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day VIII: The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985, Wes Craven)

Another Wes Craven film for the month and another sequel too. This feels like a film made especially on the cheap, with numerous flashbacks to the original to fill time and a plot that sometimes feels more hokey than horror.

Having a blind central protagonist was handled pretty well though and lent to some suspenseful moments and the characters here had some likability. Overall, THHE P2 isn’t anything special but does have some appeal amongst the recapping and lacking storyline. 2.5/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day IX: Universal’s Frankenstein Sequel Marathon: Son of Frankenstein (1989, Rowland V. Lee), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942, Erle C. Kenton), Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man (1944, Roy William Neil)


Another Friday another series of Universal sequels - this time surrounding Frankenstein’s monster. Now The original and Bride are great films but Son of Frankenstein is too. The cast is first rate with the likes of Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi playing memorable roles - it’s one of the best Universal sequels I’ve seen.

Whist Ghost isn’t quite as good it has a sense of fun that makes it enjoyable and is fairly short too. FMTW is a good crossover which pitted two iconic horror characters against each other long before the likes of FvJ. There are two further films that feature the monster alongside some of the other Universal icons but I’ll save those for another time. 4/5, 3/5, 3.5/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day X: One Missed Call (2003, Takashi Miike)

One Missed Call is a film that has some cool ideas and a great director helming it but felt a bit drawn out in places and wasn’t as strong as some other J-horrors I’ve seen.

Miike’s directing is the film’s strongest element as it added some solid suspense and tension as the story progressed. There are two sequels for OMS which are packaged a trilogy release by Arrow Video but I’ll save those for another time. 3/5

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day XI: The House that Dripped Blood (1970, Peter Duffel)

A horror anthology from Amicus Films featuring horror icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing alongside a great cast that includes Jon Pertwee, Denholm Elliot, John Bennett and Ingrid Pitt.

Each of the four stories have plots that are tied together by the titular house in the film’s titles and the macabre situations that await its tenants. I found The Cloak to be my favourite of the stories due to Pertwee’s performance. 3.5/5

 

[Winkuru]

A trilogy of Japanese vampire movies from director Michio Yamamoto and Toho Studios that feature a fairly prominent western influence, especially from the iconic Hammer Horror films but also borrow elements and imagery from the likes of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films (something Kim Newman points out in his discussing of the trilogy for this release.)

Despite this, the films retain their own visual identity thanks to Yamamoto’s directing and some wonderfully campy performances. Doll isn’t really a vampire film but a solid supernatural story whilst Lake is the weakest one of the trilogy due to it feeling a bit drawn out in places and Evil is decent but not as effective as Doll. I’m grateful that Arrow brought these across to the UK. 3.5/5, 2.5/5, 3/5

Can you tell me how Vampire Doll ends. I tried to watch it today but it seems i got faulty disc because the movie keeps throwing me back to the menu around 1h mark. Can't even skip to the last chapter and rewind back. The sucky thing is that i bought this long time ago so arrow probably isn't going to replace the disc.

 

[HWR]

Can you tell me how Vampire Doll ends. I tried to watch it today but it seems i got faulty disc because the movie keeps throwing me back to the menu around 1h mark. Can't even skip to the last chapter and rewind back. The sucky thing is that i bought this long time ago so arrow probably isn't going to replace the disc.

I’d have to go back and watch it - been a busy time lately and I sadly can’t remember off the top of my head how this ends.

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day XII: The Evil Dead (1981, Sam Raimi)

With a small budget and cast featuring alongside with some superb effects, director Sam Raimi and co managed to craft a simple yet effective story that is raw in its horror elements and also created an icon out of its lead Bruce Campbell. The Evil Dead franchise in general is one of the greats and though 2 is my favourite, this remains a classic. 4/5

 

[Professor Irony]

Heavy Metal (1981)

An intrguing curio that melds pulp comic-book fantasy with rock music for a kind of proto MTV short film anthology, this would probably have felt quite revolutionary at the time, but now seems to hover been oddly quaint and downright dated. I think it holds up better than the likes of Fire & Ice, but there's an air of schoolboy bathroom graffiti horinness throughout it, that really begins to grate once we get past the first couple of segments and the jokes stop landing.

The final segment, Taara, did redeem the film a little bit for me though, making good use of Moebius's artwork and affording its hero slightly more agency than the other female characters in the film, but even it feels like a bit of a trifle really.

 

[HWR]

31 Days of Halloween!

Day XII: Mr. Vampire (1985, Ricky Lau)

Though a horror-comedy, this successful Hong Kong blockbuster manages to pack in some spookier and atmospheric moments to accompany the more comedic elements. I’d say this is another Eureka Entertainment release worth picking up. 3.5/5