***Official 21st Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge 2020*** (1 Viewer)

[Michael Elliott]

Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971) **

Made-for-TV horror picture about people being murdered by someone using ESP and the investigator (Pat Hingle) who must find out who's doing it. This story has a lot of interesting elements but sadly the direction is rather lackluster and there's just no suspense to be found. Good performances though.

Coming Soon (1982) ***
Attack of the 50 Foot Monster Mania (1999) *** 1/2
Stephen King’s World of Horror (1986) ***
Scream Greats, Vol.2: Satanism and Witchcraft (1986) ***

I decided to think back on some VHS titles I had back in the day that will probably never be released again and came across these. COMING SOON was directed by John Landis and features Jamie Lee Curtis playing the host. It's a great tribute to the Universal monsters. There are a lot of trailers shown as well as promotional materials for films like PSYCHO. ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT MONSTER MANIA is a very well-made documentary about the various "giant" films that have been released over the years. Unlike documentaries made today, this one is well researched and features people who actually know what they're talking about. STEPHEN KING'S WORLD OF HORROR is an interesting documentary but one does wish that it focused more on King. We get segments on Tom Savini and others, which are nice but I'd much rather hear more from King himself.

SCREAM GREATS VOL. 2 is from Fangoria and it's one that I never could find as a kid. Volume one was about Tom Savini so I'm not sure why they decided to switch gears and do something on Satanism but we get some very good interviews and the subject matter was handled with care. Ed and Lorraine Warren are interviewed as well as Richard Donner whose words make it clear why he doesn't believe THE OMEN is a horror film.

 

[John Stell]

Rating - Out of a possible 4

100) 10/20/2020 The Mad Ghoul (1943)

Scientist-teacher poisons one of his students, creating variation of zombie. Now they must rob graves so the student doesn't completely die. Nifty B-picture from Universal is well-cast and suitably creepy.

101) 10/20/2020 The Ghost Ship (1943)

New Third Officer discovers his ship's captain is nuts. Sets out to prove him guilty of murder but no one will believe him. A terrific performance by Richard Dix as the psycho makes this Val Lewton production hum. A rather gory climax for a 1940's film too.

102) 10/21/2020 The Uninvited (1944)

Superior ghost story about siblings who buy haunted house. They try to discover its secrets hoping to release the troubled spirits. Beautifully rendered mystery thriller with at least one great jump scare and other eerie moments.

103) 10/21/2020 Voodoo Man (1944)

1/2

Goofy, entertaining (for the wrong reasons) Monogram horror with Bela Lugosi as scientist trying to revive his dead wife via a hodgepodge of voodoo and metaphysics. John Carradine plays idiot assistant. George Zucco speaks mumbo-jumbo with great enthusiasm. And Wanda McKay is awfully cute.

 

[Pete Battista]

Title: Suspiria: 2-Disc Special Edition

Year: 1977
Director: Dario Argento
Writer: Dario Argento (Writer), Daria Nicolodi (Writer)
Rating: NR
Length: 98 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, English: DTS ES: 6.1 (Discrete), English: DTS ES: 5.1 (Matrixed 6.1), Italian: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, French: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Jessica Harper as Susy Banyon
Stefania Casini as Sara
Flavio Bucci as Daniel
Miguel Bosé as Mark
Barbara Magnolfi as Olga
Susanna Javicoli as Sonia

Plot:
Jessica Harper (PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE) stars as Suzy Banyon, a young American ballet dancer who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy run by the mysterious Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett of DARK SHADOWS) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli of KILLER NUN). But when a series of bizarre incidents and horrific crimes (including what Entertainment Weekly calls “the most vicious murder scene ever filmed”) turn the school into a walking nightmare of the damned, Suzy must escape the academy’s unspeakable secret of supernatural evil.

Experience the most shocking and hallucinatory horror movie in history as you’ve never seen or heard it before, now featuring the fully remastered landmark score by Goblin and a heart-stopping new film transfer supervised by cinematographer Luciano Tovoli. This is the definitive version of Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA, an aria of terror beyond imagination and one of the most extraordinary horror films ever made.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Gallery
Production Notes
Music Videos
Interviews
Radio Spots

My Thoughts:
First time I watching this film. First thing I notice is lots of bright colors... lots of kills from the start and it isn't afraid to show the gore. Being an Italian film it has a different style then I am used to. But it has great atmosphere and imaginative kills. A must see for any horror fan.

My Rating:
Out of a Possible 5


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U- 4k UHD
B - Blu Ray Viewing
D - DVD Viewing
S - Streaming

Bold/Red = Denotes first ever viewing

Rating - Out of a possible 5

Night of the Demon - D - :
Nightmare Cinema - D -1/2
Invisible Man - U -
Lighthouse - S - 1/2
Vampires vs The Bronx - S - 1/2
The Lost Boys - B -
The Amityville Horror - B -
Fantasy Island - B - 1/2
Jeepers Creepers 2 - B -
Don't Knock Twice - B - 1/2
The Dead Don't Die - B -
Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend - B - 1/2
Damned By Dawn - B - 1/2
Christine - U -
Good Boy - S - 1/2
Resicent Evil: Damnation - B - 1/2
Hocus Pocus - B - 1/2
It - B -
It: Chapter 2 - B -
Pet Sematary (1989) - U -
Pet Sematary (2019) - U - 1/2
Pet Sematary 2 - D - 1/2
Walled In - B -
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula - S - 1/2
Tales from the Hood - D -
Tales from the Hood 2 - B - 1/2
Midsommar - B -
Hubie Halloween - S -
The Thing ('82) - B -
Thirteen Ghosts - D -
Suspiria - D -

Total Watched: 31

 

[whacky blacky]

October 21

49. Eden Burning (2020). FTV. Streamed. 1.5/5. Kids are lured out into the woods for a weekend of drug induced nightmares. They drag the sh** out this movie only for something to happen in the last 6 minutes.

 

[dpippel]

Title: Suspiria: 2-Disc Special Edition

Oh, you should see it and hear it on 4K UHD with Atmos!

 

[TravisR]

SCREAM GREATS VOL. 2 is from Fangoria and it's one that I never could find as a kid. Volume one was about Tom Savini so I'm not sure why they decided to switch gears and do something on Satanism but we get some very good interviews and the subject matter was handled with care. Ed and Lorraine Warren are interviewed as well as Richard Donner whose words make it clear why he doesn't believe THE OMEN is a horror film.

There was a commercial for that on the Friday The 13th Part VI- Jason Lives VHS and it is burned into my memory. The commercial had a clip of Rosemary's Baby ("This is no dream, this is really happening!") that, to the young me, was one of the scariest things I had ever seen.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

16. Orson Welles Great Mysteries - 1.2 "The Leather Funnel"

A little-known ITV anthology series from 1973-1974, featuring adaptations of classic horror and suspense stories, with a cigar-chomping Orson Welles hosting wraparound segments, and groovy theme music by John Barry. The stories themselves are basically filmed plays, as was common for British television in this period. The cast lists are uniformly impressive; this one has Simon Ward, Jane Seymour and the great Christopher Lee, in an expansion and updating of Arthur Conan Doyle's short story.

When a young man (Ward) makes a surprise visit to the Parisian estate of the woman (Seymour) he intends to marry, the woman's uncle (Lee) decides to warn the suitor off in a very peculiar way: through a dream...or more appropriately, a nightmare. The leather funnel of the title is an old torture device used on one of Seymour's ancestors, a convicted murderess. There's a ghostly possession subplot that doesn't exist in the story, but adds a welcome dramatic element at the finale. Lee is - no surprise - superb, and Seymour is stunningly beautiful - also no surprise to those who have seen her in the same time frame's Live and Let Die.

17. Lake Placid (1999) ***

There's a big man-eating crocodile hanging out in a lake in Maine, and a squabbling team, made up of a Fish and Game warden (Bill Pullman), a local sheriff (Brendan Gleeson), a prickly paleontologist from NYC (Bridget Fonda) and an eccentric, wealthy croc expert (Oliver Platt), sets out to capture it. Very well produced and shot giant monster flick has some really good suspense/action scenes, some neat Stan Winston special effects, and an interesting cast of characters. I'm a sucker for a killer croc movie and this one is a fun ride with a nicely brief runtime (82 minutes)...but there's a little too much emphasis on arch, sarcastic dialogue (perhaps due to the involvement of David E. Kelley as one of the producers) and not nearly enough croc munching for my tastes. Bridget Fonda's character is grating at first, but mellows out as the movie goes on.

 

[Michael Elliott]

There was a commercial for that on the Friday The 13th Part VI- Jason Lives VHS and it is burned into my memory. The commercial had a clip of Rosemary's Baby ("This is no dream, this is really happening!") that, to the young me, was one of the scariest things I had ever seen.

I never saw this video back in the day. I looked for it for years but never came across a store that had it. It's funny you mention ROSEMARY'S BABY because there's a woman here that claims it's 100% true and that the same thing happened to her!

 

[whacky blacky]

50. An English Haunting (2020). FTV. Streamed. 2/5.

 

[Pete Battista]

Title: The Toolbox Murders

Year: 1977
Director: Dennis Donnelly
Writer: Neva Friedenn (Screenwriter), Robert Easter (Screenwriter), Ann Kindberg (Screenwriter)
Rating: NR
Length: 94 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.66:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles:

Stars:
Cameron Mitchell (1918) as Kingsley
Pamelyn Ferdin as Laurie
Wesley Eure as Kent
Nicolas Beauvy as Joey
Tim Donnelly as Detective Jamison
Aneta Corsaut as Joanne Ballard

Plot:
In a quiet Los Angeles apartment complex, a deranged handyman goes on a killing spree, savagely murdering "immoral" women with the tools of his trade - claw-hammers, screwdrivers, power drills and even a deadly nail gun! But these gruesome massacres are just the beginning of this landmark epic of violence and depravity that was vilified by critics, banned by censors, and treasured by splatter fans worldwide! This is. . . THE TOOLBOX MURDERS!

Cameron Mitchell (BLOOD & BLACK LACE), Wesley Eure (Land of the Lost), Aneta Courseaut (The Andy Griffith Show), Marianne Walter (adult film star Kelly Nichols) and former child actor Pamelyn Ferdin star in this notorious sickie - one of the most shocking exploitation films of all time. Now experience THE TOOLBOX MURDERS at its bloody best - presented here uncut, uncensored, and fully restored from its original negative!

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Gallery
Production Notes
Interviews
Radio Spots

My Thoughts:
When it comes to 70s horror it is really hit or miss for me. For the 70s I tend to like the blockbusters or the TV movies. This one has a real 70s feel. And wow sometimes I had to wonder if they were making a horror film or a softcore porn. Not that it is a bad thing I am not a prude when it comes to sex and nudity, There is some decent kills but it is not as gory as it thinks it is. It will show a little blood but then leave the rest to your imagination. A good film but I definitely seen better.

My Rating:
Out of a Possible 5
1/2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U- 4k UHD
B - Blu Ray Viewing
D - DVD Viewing
S - Streaming

Bold/Red = Denotes first ever viewing

Rating - Out of a possible 5

Night of the Demon - D - :
Nightmare Cinema - D -1/2
Invisible Man - U -
Lighthouse - S - 1/2
Vampires vs The Bronx - S - 1/2
The Lost Boys - B -
The Amityville Horror - B -
Fantasy Island - B - 1/2
Jeepers Creepers 2 - B -
Don't Knock Twice - B - 1/2
The Dead Don't Die - B -
Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend - B - 1/2
Damned By Dawn - B - 1/2
Christine - U -
Good Boy - S - 1/2
Resicent Evil: Damnation - B - 1/2
Hocus Pocus - B - 1/2
It - B -
It: Chapter 2 - B -
Pet Sematary (1989) - U -
Pet Sematary (2019) - U - 1/2
Pet Sematary 2 - D - 1/2
Walled In - B -
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula - S - 1/2
Tales from the Hood - D -
Tales from the Hood 2 - B - 1/2
Midsommar - B -
Hubie Halloween - S -
The Thing ('82) - B -
Thirteen Ghosts - D -
Suspiria - D -
The Toolbox Murders - D - 1/2

Total Watched: 32

 

[Pete Battista]

Oh, you should see it and hear it on 4K UHD with Atmos!

I was thinking that while watching it. So want to upgrade it

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

October 21: Beetlejuice (1988) – 4.5 out of 5

Small town happy couple Barbara and Adam Maitland die unexpectedly when their car drives off a bridge and find themselves in the rather unfortunate position of being ghosts stuck in their old home. The manual for the recently deceased that appeared to them isn’t much help, and navigating the afterlife is a bit of a challenge. Things get complicated when a pretentious couple from the city buy their vacant-of-the-living house and begin to dismantle all the charm of their abode. Out of options, and despite having befriended the kind daughter of the new owners, they seek the help of the disreputable Beetlejuice to exorcise the living from their home.

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is a delightfully offbeat, imaginative, charming, and hilarious tale of the afterlife, the bureaucracy of being dead, and the unlimited rudeness and hilariously inappropriate antics of Beetlejuice played with boundless energy and hilarity by Michael Keaton. Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are great as the likeable, novice ghosts, and Winona Ryder memorable as the gothic daughter, but this film belongs to Keaton and his crude shenanigans.

Everything about this film is fun. The cheap effects, life-sized replicas of the small-scale model of the town, the giddy run of characters in the waiting room of the afterlife who all met bizarre ends, and Danny Elfman’s delightfully dark but bouncy score, conspire to create something that was an utter blast back in 1988, and doesn’t seem to have lost any of its luster. Good stuff.

 

[dana martin]

First Time Viewing

31. The Lighthouse 1/2

Others in this thread have already watched this and made their comments and explain the whole synopsis of the film. Pattinson And Dafoe Totally command the screen, in late 1890s New England dialect. The thematic presentations of isolation, alcoholism, mythology and psychoanalysis by the two protagonists against each other Makes this a great film to watch. Like a waking dream through a walking nightmare.

Wanted the to bring up more technical aspects, Eggert and by that Lionsgate make a very bold move by filming this in 1:19.1 And in black and white the DTS sound is dead on. With that I do notice some of the influences of early horror, and psychological twisting of using the storm and nature and isolation as a great antagonist pitting the two men against each other. Nautical mythology is used throughout the film such as sirens or mermaids they call sailors to their death. As a sophomore feature from the director, now I'm wondering if I need to purchase and view The VVitch.


next,,,,

 

[dpippel]

I was thinking that while watching it. So want to upgrade it

Totally worth it, especially over the DVD.

 

[Malcolm R]

Title: The Toolbox Murders

Year: 1977
Director: Dennis Donnelly

I've never seen this version, but I like the 2004 remake by Tobe Hooper. From your description, it sounds like he dropped all the sex and concentrates on the horror aspects.

 

[Malcolm R]

Season of the Witch (2011)

Two crusaders (Nic Cage, Ron Perlman) in the 14th century become disillusioned with their cause and begin to make their way back home. They come across a town afflicted with the plague, which the local priests blame on a young woman who they have arrested for being a witch. Having been discovered as deserters, the crusaders plea bargain and agree to help transport the suspected witch to a distant monastery where she will be given a fair trial. Once they arrive at the monastery, they find things are even more dire than they seemed.

This film was going pretty well until the last third or so where it takes an unnecessary, IMO, left turn and becomes something different, using a lot of sketchy CGI. There is an alternate ending included on the disc, which I presume was the original ending, but was then replaced because the producers decided they wanted something "bigger." I think they should have stuck with the original ending, which is more in character with the movie they were creating up until then.

Features a short cameo by Christopher Lee who is mostly unrecognizable under his plague makeup and prosthetics (there's also a deleted scene featuring Lee). But there's no mistaking that voice. Also includes some beautiful scenery of the location shooting in Austria and Hungary.

 

[sleroi]

10/21

24. The Wolfman (2010) - **1/2

I remember liking this when it first came out, so I recorded it when I saw it on one of the cable channels the other day.

I now understand the criticism. This hasnt aged well. The final battle is still a hoot, but the rest of the film feels really slow. And the CGI skies were kind of annoying. But mostly, Im a big Benicio Del Toro fan, and I dont know if it was his choice or the directors, but there was a severe lack of Del Toro-ness. He didnt bring or add anything to his role. He was just kind of a stock character.

On the positive side, I did really like the updated makeup. It looked really cool but was also similar enough to the original, complete with his clothes remaining intact. And I liked the way he ran on all fours.

I dont mind a slow movie if its layered, gives me something to think about, or has a payoff I didnt see coming. But the bulk of this film seemed like melodramatic filler just to get from point A to point B.

 

[Ruz-El]

EW.com's list of the best horror movies of 2020 (so far):

https://ew.com/movies/2020-best-horror-films/

Thanks for this, I may try to check the odd one out that I haven't seen. I forgot I had COLOR OUT OF SPACE, I may hit it tomorrow.

Got one more in last night and three today which isn't bad since It Chapter 2 is a billion hours long (not a complaint)

048 10/20 Dracula Exotica (1980) 2.5/5 Dracula is cursed to an eternity of non-sexual fulfilment after violating his one true love, only to find her reincarnated in modern day New York. This one is celebrated as one of the better adult versions of Dracula, but I found it a mixed bag. It starts off playing it pretty straight, but then they start to toss in gags that fall flat and don’t get me started on the secret agent subplot. It all adds up to being a bit of a mess and I believe that director Shawn Costello disowns it due to interference. It’s a shame as the cast is packed with Porno Chic era legends who do a great job and it is an ambitious production. I prefer DRACULA SUCKS as the superior Jamie Gillis Dracula picture.

049 10/21 The Hunger (1983) 3/5 Finally got in Tony Scott’s pervy, New Wave take on Vampires, and it’s probably more influential to the genre and cinema than I realized having not seen it. I really enjoyed this one. Bowie and Deneuve make for a hell of a sexy pair, and the idea of Vampirism as the ultimate anti-aging cure is interesting. It wanders a bit in the middle, but not enough to tank it and the visuals are a real treat.

050 10/21 Scarecrows (1988) 2/5 A payroll heist goes wrong when one of the team parachutes with the money into a field with SCARECROWS! This one doesn’t know what it wants to be. It tries to throw in some jokes like most late 80s slashers, and it doesn’t work with the other tone of hoo-rah military type deal that it mostly is. So while there’s some okay gore and what not, the whole thing is more annoying than actually good.

051 10/21 It Chapter Two (2019) 4/5 It’s 27 years later, IT is back and the band has to get back together to end it once and for all. The running time on this one was a turn off but they really nailed this one and it didn’t feel long at all. Well, maybe the SFX heavy ending gets to be a bit much, but it’s forgivable. There’s sort of some plot holes in the world building aspect, but nothing that kills the story or ruins the movie like those TRANSFORMERS franchise films. The adult version of the cast do as great a job as the kids did in the first one. The end result is while I was fine with the TV movie version with TIm Curry, this one did a great job updating the story to modern day while keeping the spirit of the book intact. I’d be down for the rumoured supercut.

 

[HawksFord]

14. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956) – We watched the original Japanese version of this movie, along with the extras on the recent Criterion release, fairly recently, but we hadn’t seen the American version in many years. While this version lacks some of the impact of the original, the commentary by David Kalat makes a strong argument for taking the reworked American version seriously as well.

 

[John Stell]

Rating - Out of a possible 4

104) 10/21/2020 Curse of the Cat People (1944)

1/2

Sequel to Cat People is moving story of lonely six year old girl (daughter of the now-married lovers from the first film) whose flights of fancy exasperate her father. When she claims her new "friend" is the late Irena, things get even worse. Ann Carter is exceptional in the role of little Amy, and the winter-set story is beautifully produced. A horror film about the loneliness of childhood (for the "odd" kids anyway) and how the desire to find a friend (echoes of Bride of Frankenstein) can sometimes put one in dangerous situations.

105) 10/21/2020 Weird Woman (1944)

Best entry in the Inner Sanctum series stars Lon Chaney as college professor and heartthrob whose new wife has a thing for spells. Soon after he destroys her protections, trouble plagues the couple. You just have to go with the fact that three beautiful women have a thing for Chaney's character, who isn't exactly the most pleasant person, at least for most of this film. But it's fun in a campy way and the cast is game. A superior remake Night of the Eagle (aka Burn, Witch, Burn!) was released in 1962.

106) 10/22/2020 The Monster Maker (1944)

J. Carrol Naish plays brilliant doctor who becomes infatuated with woman who looks very much like his late wife. But his attentions are not appreciated. So he injects the father of his obsession with a serum that gives him acromegaly. Pretty vicious shocker that even manages to throw a gorilla into the plot! Happy ending seems a cop out though.

107) 10/22/2020 The Return of the Ape Man (1944)

Bela Lugosi has returned a "notorious" tramp to life after keeping him in suspended animation for four months. He next goes in search of frozen Neanderthal, which he finds, and wants to put a better brain into his discovery's skull. Assistant John Carradine doesn't like this and meets his doom. Another goofy Monogram effort not without entertainment. Check out Bela casually walking down the street with a blowtorch looking for the caveman!

108) 10/22/2020 Jungle Woman (1944)

1/2

The nadir of Universal Horror. Drags at only an hour, and maybe 10% of that is footage from its predecessor, Captive Wild Woman. It turns out Cheela, aka Paula Dupree, the ape woman, is not dead. She now causes problems for the new owner of the sanitarium where she was created. Over her previous crush, she now has the hots for someone else who rejects her. Director Reginald Le Borg takes a Val Lewton approach, keeping the creature off screen until the last moments. But it's all for naught because, as much as it pains me to be this cruel, Aquanetta is just awful. She sounds like a robot ("Hello, my name is Paula."), and the film really suffers for it. J. Carrol Naish plays the doctor as a simpleton. Other characters are stock. Best summed up by the film's doomed idiot: "Aw, it's a gyp!"