***Official 22nd Annual HTF October Scary Movie Challenge 2021*** (1 Viewer)

[Michael Elliott]

I always enjoy watching these early "sound" films where they took silents and just added a talking track to scenes in them. THE LAST PERFORMANCE had this done but I only have the silent version. Hopefully Kino will release this as part of their deal with Universal and include both versions.

 

[Ruz-El]

Redford is so imprinted as a "good guy" it would have sold the heel turn for sure. Though we wasn't at maximum stardom in 1968 I think he mostly played romantic leads so it would be a good sell.

 

[John Stell]

I think my problem with Cassavetes is the same problem Stephen King has with Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING.

Right from the start you can just tell that Cassavetes is a no good POS. There's just something about him that you immediately don't trust and that makes me feel that he is out against the wife. With Redford, I think he would have been able to play it a bit more sensitive and perhaps we would have believed that the husband was at least on her side.

Cassavetes gives a great performance but just small things bothered me with the actual role I guess.

Well, Rosemary's husband is a POS right from the beginning. He's supposed to be. He's vain, arrogant, and the stereotypical self-involved artist. He has to be so you will believe he does what he does. He's not a nice guy at any point in the film. Cassavetes has so many great moments; my favorite is probably when Rosemary wants him to touch her pregnant belly and he laughs nervously and avoids contact.

I'm in the camp that thinks this is a great film. The cast is outstanding; the growing sense of paranoia palpable; the ending chillingly believable. The poor woman can't trust anybody. The film works on several levels, and in fact, save for those "eye" scenes, could have worked as an "it's all in your head" film. I think it's a terrific companion piece to Psycho, which showed that horror lurks everywhere, even in the motel you might stop at during a trip. Here, you can't trust your neighbors or even the seemingly friendly doctor. I rank it among the very best of the 1960s, along with the aforementioned Psycho and Night of the Living Dead.

 

[dpippel]

OCTOBER 24:

44) It Came From Outer Space (1953) (Blu-ray Disc) 4/5 stars - An alien "invasion" film that I've always loved simply because it goes against the formula of most similar productions from this era, It Came From Outer Space is just great. The cast, lead by genre stalwart Richard Carlson, is excellent, and the story is intelligent. When Carlson and his girlfriend Ellen (Barbara Rush) witness a meteor crash into the desert near their home, they investigate. After climbing into the crater, Carlson discovers that it's actually an alien spacecraft. It gets buried when the unstable crater collapses, and of course, none of the rustic folk from the nearby (fictional) town of Sand Rock, Arizona believe him. Pretty soon strange things start to happen, and some of the townspeople begin acting strangely. Eventually, we get another cautionary tale, so common to this era of SciFi filmmaking, but the movie offers a unique resolution. The Bu-ray looks very nice indeed in 2D, but WAIT, there's MORE! HTF member and classic 3D film expert Bob Furmanek worked on this release getting the 3D version restored. It's fantastic!

 

[JohnRice]

A Darren Aronofsky double feature

16) Black Swan (2010) - 4/5
If it isn't one thing, it's your mother.

So, it only makes sense to follow up with...

17) mother! (2017) - 4/5
This Earth was a wonderful place to live, until all those damn humans showed up and ruined it.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

October 25: Critters Attack! (2019) – 1.5 out of 5 – First Time Viewing

The Critters return to earth to wreak havoc and ruin the night of a babysitter, her younger brother, and the two kids she’s being paid to sit for the night. The discovery of a new kind of Critter may hold the key.

Oof, this was a slog and proof that a love of the 1986 original (which was a lot of fun) isn’t enough of a reason to let people work on a cheap, direct to video follow up with precious little understanding of what made the first film (and even the second to a degree) work so well. The premise is straightforward enough, and there’s some character backstories set up that are a nice touch, but besides the fun puppet work and a few fun moments with the round, furry, teeth-filled alien creatures, everything about this film feels empty. Performances are uniformly weak, and I suspect that’s not so much the actors but the script that’s stretched thin and filled with nonsense to get characters to act stupidly, randomly pause for dialogue in the middle of a dash to escape for their lives, and bizarrely inserted melodrama that’s supposed to double as character development.

I’d only seen the first two Critters before this one, and there’s apparently a handful of other sequels out there, but if they are anything like this one, I don’t see the point in tracking them down.

 

[Malcolm R]

October 25: Critters Attack! (2019) – 1.5 out of 5 – First Time Viewing

That was fun as a throwback nostalgia watch, but that's about it. It's been years since I've watched the other sequels, but as I recall it's really only the first two that are kind of fun. I was meaning to revisit them this year, but won't have time.

Critters 2 has my favorite critters joke:

 

[Malcolm R]

Looks like an "animals attack" day on TCM Tuesday, Oct 26:

6:30 am Razorback
8:30 am The Swarm
11:15 am The Pack
1:00 pm Rattlers
2:45 pm Night of the Lepus
6:15 pm The Killer Shrews

 

[sleroi]

32. Midsommar (2019) - - Maybe my expectations were too high after all of the praise for this movie during last year's challenge, but I just didnt care for this. It was just bizarre, and not in a fun way.

Florence Pugh experiences a preposterous, unexplained tragedy, wich causes her wimpy boyfriend to forego breaking up with her. And then she winds up tagging along to Sweden with said boyfriend and 3 of his friends to attend a midsummer festival at the commune where one of the friends grew up.

The commune is more of a cult and it becomes obviously quickly (to the viewer, not the characters) that the outsiders are beimg used as pawns by the cult, but it takes forever to play out.

The relationship between Pugh and her boyfriend is dull. The conflict between the friends that arises feels forced and is uninteresting. The movie seems to be about Pugh overcoming tragedy, only to have more and more heaped on. I like a good dark ending as much as anyone, but this movie was depressing from the get go.

And then there's that final shot. It really confused me. I googled an explanation and it seems Pugh and the director had completely different reasonings for it, and neither one makes any sense for the character and the journey shes been through.

The film does look stunning though in 4k.

 

[HawksFord]

22. House of Usher (1960) – There’s a lot to love here. Vincent Price is great as the doomed Roderick Usher, the film is beautifully shot with an oppressive Gothic atmosphere, and the story is well constructed. For my money, though, everything I love about this film was done just a little better the next year with The Pit and Pendulum. As important as House of Usher is, it’s not one I come back to regularly.

 

[Michael Elliott]

Welcome to Horrorwood (1991) ***

Documentary that talks with Forrest J. Ackerman as he discusses his collection as well as his thoughts on certain movies and stars. For the most part this was entertaining but I wish it had focused more on his collection and less about his thoughts on movies. Being able to hear the stories about how he got certain items in his collection is a lot more interesting plus it's just amazing to see what all he gathered over the years.

One Frightened Night (1935) ***

A millionaire offers five people a million dollars each... but that's when his long lost grand daughter shows up so he now wants to give her all the money. Soon a murderer is going through everyone. The "old dark house" sub-genre was so busy during this era that it's hard to find an actual good film but here it is. There was a nice masked killer, a basement with a mummy (sorry, it doesn't come to life) as well as the various other trapping. A nice cast and a very fast pace.

The Vault of Horror (1973) ***

Amicus anthology offers up five tales of terror. I'd argue there was only one story that wasn't good and that was the fourth one. Outside of that I really enjoyed this one and especially the "shock" bit of violence that usually ended the stories. I really loved the final shot of the first story as well as the second story dealing with a neat freak husband. The uncut version is certainly the way to go.

Tales from the Crypt (1972) ***

Here's a good example of the anthology film where every story works. The first story with Joan Collins being chased by a killer Santa is perfect entertainment for children and it's a lot of fun. The third story with Peter Cushing is probably the most popular and it's easy to see why because Cushing is just so damn great as the poor old man being abused by his rich neighbor. That finale is perfect as well. The fifth story is also very good with the blind rising up against their superintendent. The second story is probably the weakest here but it's still mildly entertaining. The fourth is a version of The Monkey's Paw with a nice little twist.

 

[dpippel]

OCTOBER 25:

45) The Night House* (2020) (Blu-ray Disc) 3.5/5 stars - A "ghost story" with some originality and a great performance from Rebecca Hall, The Night House is an entertaining film. It starts off slowly and a little shakily, but manages to pull things together and get pretty creepy. The Blu-ray presentation is disappointing, however, with elevated black levels that render most night scenes (the majority of the film) grayish-brown instead of inky black. Still, a worthy effort from all involved.

46) The Valley of Gwangi (1969) (Blu-ray Disc) 4/5 stars - Featuring my absolute favorite Ray Harryhausen animation work, The Valley of Gwangi never fails to entertain me. Buoyed by James Franciscus' bombastic performance as Tuck Kirby, the traveling western show promoter/huckster, it's probably the only film in existence that features cowboys AND dinosaurs together. Harryhausen's stop-motion allosaurus is the real star of the movie though. He imbues it with so much personality it actually seems to be alive. This is A+++ Saturday afternoon matinee stuff! The Warner Archive Blu-ray is superb.

 

[Ruz-El]

Got in two last night:

072 10/25 Psycho Sisters (1994) 3.5/5 A pair of sisters go psycho after escaping an assault that resulted in their other sister being killed, and start luring men to strangle as a way to get even in this WAVE Video adjacent oddity. Going in you know you're in for a shot on tape deal, and what makes this one work is they don’t try to be anything above that zero-budget pay grade and make the most of what they have. The girls are fun in this and while the plot is goofy they play it as straight as they can instead of trying to camp it up. It maybe runs a little long but compared to some other shot on tape horrors I’ve seen it plays better than most. A little more explicit sleaze and gore (not that this one is missing sleaze and gore with it’s never ending strangulations) could have sent this one over the top. As it is, it's a fun little slasher passion project.

073 10/25 The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) 2/5 The main similarity between the classic Universal monsters mummy cycle and this Hammer one is that the first film in each series is the best one with the sequels seemingly getting worse as it goes on. Anyway, this one has more Brits rummaging about a tomb with no care for the locals and getting a pissed off Mummy on their asses, guided by a fanatic and an old lady clairvoyant who uses a crystal ball like a television. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was the usual dumb stuff but it takes forever to get going with actors you never really care for, and worse of all the mummy has possibly the worst design yet, with charcoal smears on it’s face wrappings that look like someone tried to highlight it’s cheek bones. What makes this one so frustrating is this dumb mummy has an all time great mummy-destruction scene. If only the rest of the film was as good. No rating change from my last watch.

 

[JasonRoer]

That was fun as a throwback nostalgia watch, but that's about it. It's been years since I've watched the other sequels, but as I recall it's really only the first two that are kind of fun. I was meaning to revisit them this year, but won't have time.

Critters 2 has my favorite critters joke:

I actually started watching the original Critters today on my way into work. I'll finish it tonight. I've never seen the sequels. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm not so sure I even saw this first one. I thought I had.

 

[JasonRoer]

32. Midsommar (2019) - - Maybe my expectations were too high after all of the praise for this movie during last year's challenge, but I just didnt care for this. It was just bizarre, and not in a fun way.

Florence Pugh experiences a preposterous, unexplained tragedy, wich causes her wimpy boyfriend to forego breaking up with her. And then she winds up tagging along to Sweden with said boyfriend and 3 of his friends to attend a midsummer festival at the commune where one of the friends grew up.

The commune is more of a cult and it becomes obviously quickly (to the viewer, not the characters) that the outsiders are beimg used as pawns by the cult, but it takes forever to play out.

The relationship between Pugh and her boyfriend is dull. The conflict between the friends that arises feels forced and is uninteresting. The movie seems to be about Pugh overcoming tragedy, only to have more and more heaped on. I like a good dark ending as much as anyone, but this movie was depressing from the get go.

And then there's that final shot. It really confused me. I googled an explanation and it seems Pugh and the director had completely different reasonings for it, and neither one makes any sense for the character and the journey shes been through.

The film does look stunning though in 4k.

I felt the same way. I'd heard such fantastic things about it, and yet I found it completely boring. I was so annoyed that when there was only a few minutes left, I didn't even want to put in those minutes of my life. I felt like I'd wasted enough already.

 

[Ruz-El]

I track all my movie watching on letterboxd and watching all these Hammer films has actor Michael Ripper tied for third place most wathched this year, right beside Peter Cushing. Will either of them beat Mel Blanc or Robert L. Ripley)?

 

[Malcolm R]

I actually started watching the original Critters today on my way into work. I'll finish it tonight. I've never seen the sequels. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm not so sure I even saw this first one. I thought I had.

In addition to the four movie sequels, there was also a series on Shudder a couple years back consisting of eight 10-minute episodes (basically the length of another movie). I haven't seen it, but it got mixed reviews (like most of the franchise).

 

[BobO'Link]

October 25th
110. King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲
I first saw this one about 10 years ago when I purchased the DVD. I recalled it being better than I'd expected so upgraded to a BR copy this month.

Eric Carter, a reporter for the United Nations, reports on a submarine which collides with an iceberg and frees Godzilla. The news of this soon leads to Mr. Tako, the chairman of a pharmaceutical company, to seek a monster of his own to generate publicity. He sends out an expedition to Farou Island where they discover the god of the island in the form of King Kong. The giant ape is capture and returned to Japan, upon which it escapes and heads off on a collision course straight towards Godzilla. The two rivals soon clash in a giant climatic battle.

This has absolutely the worst man-in-a-gorilla suit that I've ever seen. Not even close to being convincing. Add an obvious man-in-a-suit Godzilla and it just goes even further downhill. I really don't know why I first thought it "wasn't that bad" because it is. Maybe it that it's quite comical watching King Kong and Godzilla fight - the quick movements and ninja like stances coupled with the overall silliness of the plot. The best part is the giant octopus - which looks like they used a real one. The dubbing is mostly good (yes, it's the US version so no original Japanese w/subs here) and some of the visual effects are fairly well done. Otherwise, it's mostly a forgettable "Saturday morning cartoon brought to life" type affair.

111. Bride of Re-Animator (1990) ▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲
Just like Bride of Frankenstein, we have the Bride of Re-Animator.

Eight months after the so-called Miskatonic Massacre, Dr. Herbert West and Dr. Dan Cain return from Peru to take up their internships at the Miskatonic Hospital. Herbert amuses himself by reanimating disembodied body parts. Cain wants nothing of this until Herbert finds his late girlfriend Megan’s heart and convinces him that they could build a body for her and bring it to life.

For all practical purposes it's a reworking of the first film yet somewhat of a continuation. Herbert is seemingly obsessed with reanimating various body parts independently and Dan thinks it's a bad idea. Yet they come together to create a reanimated woman using the head of a terminal patient Dan seemingly desired and Megan's heart, which Herbert found in a storage closet, along with various other scavenged body parts (more echoing Bride of Frankenstein than the first did). The main reason to watch this is all the fun little animated body parts and bickering between Herbert and Dan that ultimately leads to the "Bride" coming to life.

 

[Bryan^H]

I track all my movie watching on letterboxd and watching all these Hammer films has actor Michael Ripper tied for third place most wathched this year, right beside Peter Cushing. Will either of them beat Mel Blanc or Robert L. Ripley)?

View attachment 117182

Fantastic in "The Reptile" he was.

Tintorera Tiger Shark (1977)

An American named Steve (Hugo Stiglitz) goes to a tropical Island and has one thing on his mind. Girls. There he meets an Italian stud named Miguel that seems to be getting a bit more action than Steve. With a "if you can't beat em join em" attitude, logically the two become friends and bed attractive ladies together. Yup that is pretty much the movie. There is slight threat of a Tiger shark killing a couple people, but it plays in the background up until the end. The killing of real sharks (at least 5, maybe more) including a mid size Great White on camera for that "so real, its real" effect made me feel sleazy watching this. Not cool. Great transfer, just unfortunate that the film is so slimy.

Grade - D

The Vampire (1957) FTV

I'm used to my vampires in old castles, or rising out of coffins ready for a stake in the heart. This is not that type of film. Plays mostly during daylight hours, and is about a suburban doctor that accidentally takes a vampire pill created by a recently deceased Scientist up on the hill. His behavior, and actions start to change, and people start dying. This plays more like an anti drug film rather than a horror movie. Eventually it shows the transformation from man to monster, and the results are cross between an Igor, and the Wolf Man. The actress that plays the doctor's nurse is jaw drop beautiful, and the film contains one eerie scene (at night) where she is stalked by the monster. If I could have 60% more of that in this film, I would have loved it.

Grade - C+

Actress Coleen Gray

 

[BobO'Link]

073 10/25 The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) 2/5 The main similarity between the classic Universal monsters mummy cycle and this Hammer one is that the first film in each series is the best one with the sequels seemingly getting worse as it goes on.

What makes it somewhat ironic that Hammer's The Mummy is better than Universal's sequels is that it's primarily a reworking of two of Universal's Mummy films, The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb, which are, essentially, parts 1 & 2 of a story, with the climax borrowed directly from The Mummy's Ghost. Hammer was able to tell a better story with the same material.