31 Nights of Halloween Horror

We have made it to the end.  Here is a list of the all the movies we have watched for the month of October.  Of these I have only seen 8 of these films before, and they were all blu ray upgrades.  Which makes 22 new flicks I have not seen before, not too bad for a month where most people just watch the same old things over and over again.  Unfortunately none of these movies were outstanding, usually I seem to find at least one movie that really impresses me and I need to let everyone know.  But this year I did not come across such a film, ah well, that's 2020 for you. 1. The Outing (fun 80s campy horror) 2. Black Water:Abyss (killer crocs from down under) 3. The Godsend (killer kids) 4. 28 Days Later (welcome to 2020) 5. The Fearless Vampire Killers (one of the best vampire movies ever) 6. The Binding (new Italian horror) 7. From Beyond the Grave (Amicus anthology) 8. The Hole in the Ground (more killer kids) 9. #Alive (more 2020) 10. Haxxan (witches, bitches) 1...

The Hunchback of the Morgue 87 mins. Dir. Javier Agguire 1973/Spain When it comes to Paul Naschy movies, there are a lot of greats to choose from and The Hunchback of the Morgue has to be near the top of that list.  It has everything you could want in a movie featuring a hunchback in a morgue and more. This time around Paul Naschy plays Gotho, a lonely simple hunchback who everyone makes fun of and ridicules at every chance they get.  They tell him how ugly his face is, which I could never really understand because other then a small scar above his eye, there is little make-up on Naschy and he looks normal.  Gotho works at the morgue in the local hospital, he has one friend who he crushes on who has been nice to him his whole life, but she is dying or an incurable illness.  Gotho goes to see her everyday until her death and bring her flowers.  When his love's body winds up in the morgue two doctors, after ridiculing Gotho, get ready to perform an autopsy.  ...

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made 95 mins. Dir. David Amito & Michael Laicini 2018/USA Would you watch a movie that is supposedly cursed and could harm or possibly even kill you upon viewing?  That is what you will be doing if you subject yourself to a viewing of Antrum.  There is even a warning before the film begins. Antrum is split into two parts, the first is a documentary giving a brief history of what little is known about the film Antrum, a lost movie from the 70s, that has only been seen a few times by a handful of people, each of them meeting their demise.  There have only been two public screenings of the film, both having ended in tragedy to the theatre and the patrons.  Finally a copy of the film has been unearthed, though it seems to have been tampered with by an unknown third party and is revealed here for the first time for the general public to view.  Though there is a Legal Notice stating that you are aware of what you are getting yoursel...

The Unseen  89 mins. Dir. Danny Steinmann 1980/USA With a good cast, good director, good special effects person, based on a story by good people, how is this movie not better.  It all starts off with good and builds up tension and then it loses its momentum with the reveal and tries to pick up that momentum again at the end but it is a little too late. Three reporters, one being Barbara Bach (Black Belly of the Tarantula, Short Night of Glass Dolls, The Great Alligator, The Spy Who Loved Me & Ringo Starr's wife) are off to do some reporting on some festival when their hotel reservations get screwed up and they find themselves with no place to stay.  They meet sweet old Ernest played by great character actor Syndney Lassick (Carrie, Alligator) who convinces them to stay at his big old farmhouse with his wife, Virginia,  just outside of town.  However as the girls soon find out, Ernest and his wife have a little secret in their basement.  It is rather obv...

Howl 92 mins. Dir. Paul Hyett 2015/UK The backwoods of England definitely have a werewolf problem.  Howl is a no frills, in your face, no place for humor straight up werewolf movie.  It's not trying to be anything more then it is and doesn't really break much new ground.  They change up the looks of the werewolf a little, but this a barebones horror movie from beginning to end. Joe is a train conductor, he was just passed up for a promotion and is now forced to work a red eye from London to Eastborourgh.  A few miles out from its destination the train hits a big deer or elk or something which gets caught underneath the train and causes it to come to a screeching halt.  In the middle of nowhere.   In the rain.  In the middle of the night.  On a full moon.  The engineer gets out to survey the damage and is attacked.  The very few passengers on the train cry mutiny against Joe for them to get off and walk the few miles to the last...

Z 83 mins. Dir. Brandon Christensen 2019/Canada Chalk another one up in the almost so good department, it is frustrating with where it falters.  There are some great scares in this film, but some illogical story points and very little background given to explain the reason why anything is happening.  But read on to make up your own mind if you want to give this flick a whirl. Joshua has loving parents.  One day he gets an imaginary friend he calls Z.  All seems cute in the beginning, then Joshua start misbehaving in school and being defiant.  So much so that he gets suspended indefinitely.  Dad knew about the troubles, but chalked it up as kids being kids and kept it from mom.  So what do the loving parents do when a kid gets kicked out of school?  Instead of punishing him they take him to Play Zone.  While Joshua is playing and Mom is watching, she thinks she actually catches a glimpse of Z, which seems to be some kind of hulking monster typ...

Shock Waves 85 mins. Dir. Ken Wiederhorn 1977/USA When it comes to Nazi zombies, few films deliver the goods like Shock Waves.  Zero gore, but high on the creep factor, add in John Carradine  and Peter Cushing and you have a bonafide classic on your hands. A group of tourists take the budget cruise with salty ole Carradine as the captain.  While they are out on their three hour tour the sun flares up which immediately makes everyone think something is wrong.  The ships engine is having trouble, the navigation doesn't work and at night a large ghost ship comes out of nowhere and sideswipes Carradine's boat.  The next day Carradine is missing, because his 5 day shooting schedule was up, and the boat is taking on water.  With no other choice, the group piles into a small dingy and rows towards a remote island.  While on the island they discover an abandoned hotel and encounter Nazi Commander Peter Cushing, who will also disappear after 5 days of shooting....

The Mortuary Collection 108 mins. Dir. Ryan Spindell 2019/USA The horror anthology, probably the most difficult sub-genre to tackle.  Few are great, some are good, most are forgettable.  The Mortuary Collection falls somewhere in the middle.  This is no Creepshow, but an ok new flick to watch this Halloween. Like most anthologies, the wrap around story can sometimes be the most interesting part.  This definitely holds true to this movie and they spend more time than usual building upon it.  The wraparound here obviously takes place in an old creep mortuary run by Clancy Brown, who steals the show in every scene he is in.  There is a help wanted sign out front, and a young girl applies.  As he gives her a tour of the house he shares some stories with her.  The first is a short tale, teaching you to mind your own business.  The second is a kind of tables-turned be careful what you wish for, which I felt was the weakest of the four.  The th...

Pulse aka Kairo 119 mins. Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa 2001/Japan I don't even know where to begin with this one, it is two separate stories that intertwine at the end.  It's a very heavy handed movie, it is not scary in the sense of jump scares, but more of a depressing sense of dread.  A bit too long, just shy of two hours, filled with symbolism and non-linear ideas of death and ghosts, you are not going to walk away from this one unaffected. Trying to explain this movie in a couple paragraphs or sum up the true essence of the feeling it is getting across is impossible.  I will try to break it down to it's most basics.  In the first story line, some friends work in a greenhouse and another co-worker/friend is working on a computer program for something.  The project is due tomorrow and no one has heard from this person in a week.  So Michi decides to go to his place and see what's up.  She finds him there, he is pretty aloof and quiet.  He tells her th...

Hubie Halloween 102 mins. Dir. Steve Brill 2020/USA Taking another break from all the horror, I had to take a look at Adam Sandler's Hubie Halloween.  Not the world's biggest Adam Sandler fan, he was funny in the beginning, but the same joke wears thin over and over again.  But with that being said, you throw Halloween into the mix and I'm in.   To put it bluntly Hubie Halloween is a Waterboy halloween special, sadly without Fairuza Balk.  Sandler play Hubie another man child of a character with a stupid voice and low I.Q.  This time he is living in Salem, Massachusetts and is the self proclaimed Halloween safety police of the town.  Wether they want it or not, and seems like most people don't want it.  Kids make fun of him, adults make fun of him, he gets things thrown at him as he rides down the street.  Everything from eggs, to dog feces, to toilets and firecrackers.  But Hubie dodges them all.  Hubie loves Halloween, which is ir...

Laid to Rest 90 mins. Dir. Robert Hall 2009/USA This will probably be the shortest review of the month, since basically this movie has no plot and no purpose other than to show off some gore effects.  So if you like blood, read on.  If you like story, see you tomorrow. Girl wakes up in a coffin, she breaks out and finds herself stalked by a guy wearing a chrome skull mask.  She flees the funeral parlor, gets picked up by a nice man who only has enough gas to get to his home, that has no phone.  Chromeskull of course finds her, because serial killers in movies have GPS trackers built in to all their victims.  Chromeskull kills the guys wife, they escape, more people are killed, they drive, even though they have no gas, to the next house.  Roach from People Under the Stairs lives there, who also has no phone.  But he has a commodore 64, so they call 911 through the computer.  Next they drive to the police station, but Chromeskull beats them to it an...

The Night Stalker 74 mins. Dir. John Llewellyn Moxey 1972/USA You see kids, back in the day they actually made movies specifically for TV.  Not only that, but sometimes they made horror movies for TV and they were actually quite good.  Faced with more of a challenge by standards and practices these movies needed to be more creative when they couldn't splash the red stuff.  This caused us to get some really great films, Don't be Afraid of the Dark, the terrifying Salem's Lot and in this case The Night Stalker, which was the most popular highest rated TV movie at its time and spawned a sequel and a TV series afterwards. Darren McGavin, who if you don't know from this, you will remember as the father in A Christmas Story plays a Carl Kolchak, a reporter who has been fired from numerous papers throughout the country for his outlandish brackish stories.  He winds up in Las Vegas writing for a small paper with a boss who fights him on every article he hands in.  One d...

Lucifer's Women 91 mins. Dir. Paul Aratow 1974/USA It's the 70s and Satanism is in!  Another film to jump on the occult band wagon in the 70s is this somewhat softcore, Satanic, previously lost, mess of a film called Lucifer's Women.  Bare with me as I try to explain this convoluted plot, as this one took a few attempts to sit through. Larry Hankin, (you would know him if you saw him, guy has been in countless TV shows and movies, mostly comedic stuff.  Though here he plays it straight.) is an illusionist who just wrote a book about re-incarnation and also believes he is the re-incarnation of Svengali.  His skeevy publisher is like, hey I am re-incarnated too.  I'm a High Priest in a Satanic Coven called the Society of the Bleeding Rose.  We should team up to replenish our psychic energy with a human sacrifice.  So Svengali goes to the local burlesque club to use his hypnotic powers to lure Trilby into the coven.  Here is how it works, Trilby will...

Deathdream 88 mins. Dir. Bob Clark 1974/USA Bob Clark, the genius who brought us Black Christmas, Porky's, A Christmas Story and Baby Geniuses, first did his follow up to the greatest horror film of all time, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, with Deathdream aka Dead of Night. Some of the Children crew are back, mainly Alan Ormsby who wrote this one and did effects, his then wife Anya, who plays the daughter, as well as Jeff Gillen and Jane Daly in a bit part, plus most of the crew.  Deathdream is a take on the Monkey's Paw, be careful what you wish for story.  Andy is killed in Vietnam, his family is given the death notification, but Andy's mother is in complete denial and believes he will still come home.  Eventually Andy does come home surprisingly, even though his family informs him they were told he was dead.  To which Andy simply replies, he was.  And they all have a good laugh.  But as we know, things that come back from the dead generally ar...

The Wretched 95 mins. Dir. The Pierce Brothers 2019/USA We are over half through the month and we have watched stuff with genies, crocodiles, killer kids, infected people, vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches, witches and tonight, more witches, as we take a look at The Wretched. 35 years ago, a girl enters a house to babysit, she doesn't find anyone home and wanders down into the basement.  There she finds the mother feasting on the daughter, she turns to run back up the stairs and the father closes the door on her.  On the back of the door is a triangle type symbol carved in.  Cut to 5 days ago.  Not to sure what purpose the whole prologue serves other to let us know this child eating witch creature has been around for at least 35 years and presumably much longer. Anyway, cut to 5 days ago, which is really all that matters for our story.  Ben is a 17-year-old  going to spend the summer with his dad who lives in some remote place except for one other hous...

Followed 96 mins. Dir. Antoine Le 2018/USA Found footage movies, the easiest cheapest way to make a film.  In today's social media world, these type of flicks are more relevant than ever.  But it also makes them harder to stand out from each other and offer something new.  Followed, while filmed two years ago, just got released in drive-ins and VOD this year along with another relative found footage film Host.   In Followed, DroptheMike is a vlogger, who shares videos of heinous killers, victims and death.  He gets an offer from Haute Gothic, basically Hot Topic, that if he can reach 50,000 subscribers they will give him $250,000, which he desperately needs, because he is a lazy person with no job and has a pregnant girlfriend at home.  In order to do this he decides to up the ante and spend a night at the notorious Lennox hotel in downtown LA on Halloween.  The Lennox hotel is reportedly haunted and is home to some grisly unsolved murders, includ...

Carnival of Souls 78 mins. Dir. Herk Harvey 1962/USA Another classic that has influenced many.  Haunting and eerie, the Criterion Blu Ray is so crisp and clear it is like watching the movie again for the first time.  And in case this is your first time... Mary and two of her friends are driving in a car when two guys pull up and challenge them to a drag race.  It seems like a good idea until they go over a narrow bridge and the girl's car is run off the edge, plummeting into the river below.  The river is dredged, but they find nothing.  A little later Mary miraculously comes walking out of the river.  She feels she has had enough of dull Kansas and takes a job as a church organist in the exciting state of Utah.  While driving out she passes an old run-down pavilion that she seems drawn to.  She keeps seeing ghostly figures in her car window, on the road, in her boarding house, etc.   Eventually she feels like she is starting to blink ou...

The Beast Must Die 93 mins. Dir. Paul Annett 1974/UK Our second Amicus and werewolf feature this month is a mystery in which you are the detective.  That's right, it is interactive fun tonight in the vein of William Castle as as take a look at Amicus' last production and only full-length entry in the werewolf genre. Calvin Lockhart (king Willie from Predator 2) is an eccentric millionaire big game hunter.  He invites six people over to his mansion for the weekend to reveal that one of them is a suspected werewolf.  The standouts of our six suspected lycanthropes include horror actor supreme, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark (Ganja and Hess & Switchblade Sisters), Charles Gray (The Narrator from the Rocky Horror Picture Show), Michael Gabon (a bunch of Harry Potter movies), Ciaram Madden and Tom Chadbon (who has mostly just done TV).  The surrounding grounds of the house are monitored by video cameras and microphones by Anton Diffring (Jess Franco's Love Letters of a ...