The Horror Movie Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

Harold is hiding out from his abusive bullying older brother, Billy, when he stumbles on an old abandoned farm with probably the creepiest scarecrow ever. Oddly, there's a cane piercing a crocheted heart inside the scarecrow. Harold removes the cane to use as a weapon as Billy closes in, but discovers that this has inadvertently brought the scarecrow to life and it's now after him.

Lydia Layne has achieved massive success, smashing every glass ceiling on her way to the top. However, the promotion of one of her male employees over her lover, Celia, has seemingly caused irreparable damage to the relationship. As they argue, a tragic accident occurs, killing Celia. As Lydia tries desperately to dispose of the body without anyone finding out, an earthquake occurs trapping her in the elevator with Celia's corpse.

Another pair of pretty good tales. The first being the best with excellent production design and FX on the scarecrow. I've always found scarecrows to be creepy and this one is near the top of the list. The second story is not quite as good or interesting, and there's a foreshadowing spoiler of sorts right in the title, so it ends up pretty much where you predict it will from about the midpoint of the story. There is one moment in the elevator that was jump-worthy, as Lydia tries to close Celia's open eyes.

 

[Malcolm R]

Unfortunately, where some shows seem to build and hit their stride after a few episodes, Creepshow seems to have put all their best stuff up front and we're now getting some pretty uneven episodes later in the season. This was an all zombie episode (perhaps part of my unenthusiastic response, as I've never really been a fan of zombies).

Mortuary owner "Whitey" (Bruce Davidson) has rescued Angela from a car accident, and healed her injuries. She's not exactly grateful, and wonders why he's kept her in his house rather than calling an ambulance and sending her to the hospital. Whitey tells the story of how he came into possession of a monkey's paw that will grant wishes, but they don't always work as intended and have dreadful consequences as payback.

Variation on the classic Monkey's Paw story that is pretty good and the highlight of this episode. The paw itself is amazingly creepy.

Something has happened in the town of Musky Holler, though we're not immediately told what. We open with what seem to be most of the town's authority figures locked in a jail cell (mayor, sheriff, priest). Through narration, we're told of an unknown apocalypse that has allowed an opportunity for these people to take over under the guise of protecting the populace, but that they really rule with an iron fist and deliver horrific consequences to anyone that opposes them. It's time for their comeuppance.

This must have been a "budget saver" story, as it's very short compared to other tales in the series and a good chunk of it is told through narration and animation, rather than action. There are few effects until the very abrupt finale that lasts only for seconds. Very disappointing and the low point of the series so far. The cast includes David Arquette in a pretty inconsequential role.

 

[Malcolm R]

Season One finale of Creepshow:

Dr. Sloan has seemingly found the magic cure for weight loss. Completely painless, nearly instantaneous results, and no side effects. He has tested extensively with multiple trials and has received FDA approval. Just as Sloan is preparing to go public with a demonstration of his technique on live TV, a complete solar eclipse occurs which apparently triggers . . . complications . . . with Sloan's miracle process.

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Young Rose still mourns her father, who died while pursuing his obsessive belief in "Champ", the cryptid reptilian creature that's rumored to live in Lake Champlain, a large body of water separating Vermont and New York. Even worse, after her father's passing her mother re-married Chet, an abusive war veteran, who she feels was only drawn into the family by her father's life insurance windfall (which is now gone). One foggy day, after a fight with Chet, Rose runs down to the lake shore and makes an amazing discovery. When Chet threatens to ruin this, as well, the "discovered" will make sure that Chet is no longer a problem, to anyone. Based on a story by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King).

Two pretty decent stories to finish off the first season. Lots of gross effects in Skincrawlers, though the triggering of events by a solar eclipse seemed random and forced. The Lake Champlain story was especially interesting to me, as I live in Vermont and have heard many stories of Champ (the local minor league baseball team is the "Lake Monsters" and their mascot is, of course, Champ). The odd thing here was how the characters often referred to the creature as "Champy". Never in my entire life have I heard anyone call it "Champy". It also seemed like an homage of sorts to The Fog, as the story begins with a radio-based narration (also by Adrienne Barbeau, who starred in Episode 1) and much of the story takes place in a thick fog along the lake shore.

 

[Malcolm R]

Chad owns a video store dedicated to horror movies. He's breaking in a new employee and educating him on all the ins-and-outs of horror films and the standard tropes of each. However, things take a turn and he finds himself in a real-life horror film situation and hopes his knowledge of the rules will see him through to an escape.

A horror-comedy anthology of tales spoofing a number of common themes found in horror. Honestly, this didn't work for me. I know it's got some decent reviews, but I just really didn't buy into the premise and I don't think I laughed once. Pretty standard anthology structure with a bookend story that takes a turn into The Cabin in the Woods meta territory. Decent production values, lots of juicy practical gore effects, and a guest cameo by Joe Bob Briggs as himself, if that's enough to get you through. On Shudder.

 

[Malcolm R]

Joe loves horror movies and monsters, and counts them among his closest friends. Unfortunately he's not great with real life and his mother is fighting cancer. To help out, his aunt arrives along with her unemployed, alcoholic, abusive husband. After they become Joe's guardians on the passing of his mother, the abuse gets worse. Joe turns to his best friends to serve up a bit of monstrous payback.

The behind the scenes drama of an egotistical children's book club host and her attempt to oust a beloved painter from his time slot on Pittsburgh's local PBS station. It's all rather hum-drum until the host of The Appraiser's Road Trip begins reading from the Necronomicon, brought on set by none other than Ted Raimi. Release the Deadites!

Pretty strong pair of stories to open Season 2. It's always fun to see a bully get their comeuppance, which works as a theme really for both episodes. And it's also fun to get new Evil Dead-inspired material. Been going through withdrawal since the end of Ash vs. Evil Dead.

 

[Malcolm R]

No one else is watching anything? Saving it all for October?

In rural Australia, something is knocking down fences and killing livestock. There are rumors of a monstrous wild boar, the size of a rhino, but these stories often come from unreliable town drunks and are based on fleeting glimpses in the dark of night. However, as people who have gone out camping and hiking begin to go missing, it becomes harder to laugh off the wild tales.

Starts off as an above average creature feature, but then delves into the usual cliches where everyone makes bad decisions, people split up instead of stick together, the women are always screeching and sobbing and the men are always yelling and throwing things or banging things so the creature/killer easily knows exactly where you are. The practical effects are very good with lots of bloody carnage. Only limited CGI seems to have been used for wide shots of the boar in motion.

Definitely worth a watch, but just don't set your expectations too high based on a pretty good opening 30 minutes. On Shudder/Prime.

 

[TravisR]

No one else is watching anything? Saving it all for October?

With the little free time I have, I've been going through all the Pixar movies again so that's taking up my time. However, I've got Scream Factory's new He Knows You're Alone and Eyes Of A Stranger discs coming this week so I'll be watching those.

 

[EricSchulz]

Scare Campaign

Aussie horror movie with an interesting idea: a reality TV show that scares unsuspecting victims is losing ratings and interest due to a dark web series of real life killers. The show has to up the scares to get renewed, so they set up a guy who's going to be the groundskeeper at a shuttered asylum. But they didn't pick the right guy to scare and things get...interesting. I fully expected a "found footage" type movie, but thankfully it's just some POV TV camera shots. I thought I'd figured out the "twist" but I was wrong. Unfortunately, the twists get overused and by the end I actually was a bit bored and confused by it. However, there are some AWESOME kills and effects. This one had so much potential!

 

[Malcolm R]

Two siblings have inherited the house of their grandmother whom family history has self-proclaimed may have been the first known female serial killer, allegedly running a small inn and dispatching any guests who violated her very strict rules. They try and turn this into a true crime/haunted house style bed and breakfast but are failing to attract many guests since, despite the stories and alleged confession, no one ever found any bodies and the house has never achieved the same notoriety as the homes of Dahmer or Gacy. The siblings decide to invite a true crime blogger to the house to try and drum up some publicity. As this begins to backfire, the siblings become more and more desperate to put their house on the map as a major murder location.

Harlan King is a self-confident exterminator lacking in most social graces. While he always has "the right drug for the right bug," he does not understand when he's overstepping his bounds and becomes indignant when others push back. One day he gets a call from a property developer who has a special job for him, of getting rid of some pests much larger than what he's used to. He wants to resist, but is offered a briefcase full of cash for one job. The unexpected result of this aborted attempt to follow through leads to what seems like a major mental break.

Kind of uneven stories here. I really liked the first one with the creepy old house set and somewhat surprising twist at the end. On the other hand, "Pesticide" was kind of vague about what it was going on. A number of decent effects scenes with giant pests, but it didn't lead to much. I guess it was an attempt at some social commentary, but I'm not really looking for that in a horror show.

 

[Malcolm R]

A pair of astronauts on a science station orbiting the earth are tagged to make first contact. They've been working on a device to control gravity, but a near miss with what was thought to be some kind of space junk or asteroid turned out to be a probe from an alien race. With specific instructions on how to initiate the meeting, insecurities and jealousy rise as Alex (Ryan Kwanten) takes offense that Ted (Breckin Meyer) is chosen to meet the aliens. Alex has always lived in the shadow of his father, who went down in history as the first man on Mars, and he's determined to get his name into the history books as more than a footnote to his famous father, no matter what it takes, but Ted is standing in his way.

Lola is convinced that her brother, Andrew, is trying to kill her. She tries to relay this to her school guidance counselor (Molly Ringwald), but ends up exasperating the woman instead with a story full of tangents, detours, and irrelevant commentary that never does result in any convincing evidence or realistic intent, so Lola is sent back to class. Later, at home, Andrew appears with an axe. He is trying to kill her after all, but it turns out she probably deserves it.

Another couple of decent stories with some great practical FX and makeup. "The Right Snuff" is probably the more interesting one here, with good performances from the leads and a decent twist ending, though it seems like they wrapped things very quickly as if they were more concerned with the timing of the episode rather than storytelling. It also possibly leaned more into the territory of The Twilight Zone than Creepshow, but it worked pretty well. It was also fun trying to figure out the time period in which this was set. Everything on the space station seemed quite modern, along with the fact that a man had already been put on Mars years earlier, but communications with mission control seemed to incorporate aspects more reflective of the 60's.

In "Sibling Rivalry," Maddie Nichols was excellent as Lola. She played the part so well, you can feel yourself getting exasperated along with Ringwald's Ms. Porter, as Lola's story goes round and round without ever seeming to get to the actual point. Some great makeup effects in this. However, this is another where it seems like after a great opening, it's wrapped up very fast at the end as if they were concerned with meeting a specific running time.

 

[Malcolm R]

A plumber with a less than stellar reputation (mostly due to his recently dead brother) is inspecting the plumbing in an old rundown slum building, and doing his best to deal with the uncaring racist landlady, when he discovers that the gunk clogging up the old pipes has become sentient. While that is alarming, the tenants of the building have even bigger problems and decide on a solution that seems to allow everyone to solve their issues.

Starting off with a young man in prison opening up to his new lawyer, we're then dropped into the middle of a crisis situation at a government research facility in the mountains. Evacuation alarms are going off and a recorded voice promises a helicopter rescue is on the way. Though more flashbacks we learn the team, that included the prisoner, was investigating all manner of paranormal subjects for the government. The senior researcher discovered a unique key that opens up doorways into other dimensions where the Old Ones wait.

A couple more pretty good tales. Pipe Screams features some good performances from the actors and a gross yet somehow adorable-in-its-own-way creature. "Walls of Madness" works as an homage to Lovecraft.

 

[Malcolm R]

Simon has invented a new virtual reality device (the Immersopod, which looks like a tanning bed) that can insert the user into any movie of their choice, where they can participate in the action and interact with the characters. His favorite film is The Horror Express with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. He also reveals he's always had a crush on the "Countess" since he was young. As he describes his triumph to his wife, Renee, his description of his motivations and potential uses for the device (allowing people to live out their fantasies and escape their boring, intolerable lives where they feel trapped) only serves to further alienate her and enhance her suspicions about the true state of her marriage. Her father always said Simon was just marrying Renee for her fortune. After discovering him using the device to schtup with the Countess, she uses the device herself to enter the film and confront the Countess, only to be nearly killed by the film's monster. This gives her an idea to end her marriage by trapping Simon in a different film and preventing him from escaping before meeting his end.

Pretty good and inventive episode for the season 2 finale. Just one story in this episode, twice the length of the usual tales. A bit confused about when Simon enters the films, he doesn't seem to go along with the "immersion" aspect, but plays more of a fanboy just observing his favorite actors ("That's Christopher Lee!" "I can't believe I'm talking to Peter Cushing!"), or revealing plot points to the characters. If the point of the device is to insert yourself in a film, it seems like you would play a character in that film not just act like a giggling fanboy who had viewed the story a dozen times. The finale is a bit predictable, though Renee's solution to trapping Simon caught me by surprise (and wasn't entirely convincing that it was guaranteed to work).

 

[Malcolm R]

Tyler and his fiancee are camping "off the grid" around Mount Saint Helens in Washington. Things are going well, and Tyler proposes as they're enjoying a waterfall and other natural splendor. That night, they start hearing odd knocks and noises outside their tent and something has tripped a wire with a bell Tyler had set up on the perimeter (he's ex-military). As Tyler investigates, something suddenly grabs the tent with his fiancee inside and drags her away without a trace. Tyler is in therapy for a year, but is eventually drawn back to the forest to discover the answer to what happened that night.

Fairly decent entry in the bigfoot subgenre, though that's a pretty low bar. The creature gets minimal screen time, which enhances the mystery and tension. The characters do suffer from many of the usual "stupid" antics in most horror films. Everyone makes plenty of noise and will never shut up. At one point, Tyler stumbles upon the creature feeding. He's only about 10 feet away and has his gun pointed directly at the creature, but instead of just shooting it he turns and runs away. The trap he sets for the creature in the finale ends up trapping him instead. Given his military training and events from earlier in the film, I don't know how he didn't foresee that. Not to mention the creature demonstrates super strength at several points, but is pretty evenly matched when going hand-to-hand with Tyler and neglects to deliver a killing blow even when given multiple opportunities.

Includes cameo appearances by Adrienne Barbeau and Lance Henricksen, who has made a regular career in recent years of appearing in bigfoot films (four since 2002). A sequel is promised as the credits roll, but no progress seems to have been reported on making the sequel (this film was released in 2018).

 

[Malcolm R]

Just as deputy sheriff John Marshall is nearing a breakdown from fighting his own personal demons on many other fronts (alcoholic, divorced, teenage daughter, ailing father), the most horrifying murder case in the history of the town of Snow Hollow drops on top of him. With every full moon, another young woman is found torn apart. As Marshall tries to solve the case, he's lashing out at everyone in his life, at home and at work. He also fights against his own staff and others in town to overcome the perception by witnesses and evidence that these crimes are the work of a werewolf. After all werewolves don't exist, ... do they?

I mostly enjoyed the film, though I found the performance by Cummings (who also wrote and directed the film) to be the weak link. He makes John so unlikable, that you end up hoping for the werewolf to take him down and remove a huge source of conflict from the lives of his family and the town. Practically every scene of the film with his character is him lashing out at someone. It's just tiring. It's also not believable that he'd still be employed by the town after physically assaulting co-workers and the county corner. GIven that he was also the director, I don't know if casting someone else as the character would have made any difference. He probably would have coached the same performance out of them.

 

[EricSchulz]

The Final

I think that horror and sci-fi movies suffer from missteps more than other genres. It has an interesting concept/great cast/great effects but falls apart on the pacing/writing/ending. This is a perfect example of that kind of movie. It's a decent revenge piece where the outcast high school kids exact revenge on the jocks/popular kids. It had SO much potential but wastes it. Some interesting "torture" sequences, but nothing as clever as Saw for example. These movies as so frustrating since they could have been SO effective with a little more effort.

 

[EricSchulz]

Hell Fest

There’s nothing original about the setup: a group of friends heads to the ultimate scare festival. There are scary rides, haunted houses, games, etc. And this place looks pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately the budget for the movie was blown on the sets. There is NOTHING remotely scary that happens. It’s not only WAY too talky but the conversations are inane and rambling. The cast is annoying as hell to the point you can’t wait for them to get knocked off. There are Grand Canyon sized plot holes. The ending is so far out of left field and unsatisfying you’ll be screaming “WHAT THE F#CK?”

Since I’ve seen way too many bad movies over the years I’ve started rating them on IMDB. The reviews for this are unbelievable! People giving it an 8, 9 or 10 and talking about how creepy and scary it is! I think their standards are FAR lower than mine!

 

[Malcolm R]

I saw The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It at the theater yesterday. My thoughts are in the thread for that film if anyone's interested. Capsule is that I liked the film, but didn't think it was quite up to the standard of the first two. Some of that is likely due to the loss of James Wan as director, some due to the structure of the film which made it hard to maintain the usual constantly increasing tension.

 

[ChristopherG]

I saw The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It at the theater yesterday. My thoughts are in the thread for that film if anyone's interested. Capsule is that I liked the film, but didn't think it was quite up to the standard of the first two. Some of that is likely due to the loss of James Wan as director, some due to the structure of the film which made it hard to maintain the usual constantly increasing tension.

I did not care for it at all. Seemed to be too long and frankly not at all scary.

 

[Malcolm R]

Two competing teams, one led by a cryptozoologist and the other by a big game hunter, find themselves getting in each other's way as they search for a large reptilian creature terrorizing work crews trying to build a pipeline in China.

Not an awful film, but the marketing was kind of misleading as some of the posters and subtitles (Tomb of the Dragon) seemed to indicate this might be a dragon film (see below), but it's not. It's more like an overgrown gecko with no resemblance to the poster below. Creature effects are decent though the CG bear in the prologue is kind of shaky, but the script and acting are borderline.

 

[Malcolm R]

A councilor is escorting a criminal suspect through the English countryside in a horse-drawn carriage. The suspect claims self-defense, and that he killed a hideous beast but once dead it became human once again. Law enforcement sees an open-and-shut case of murder. With their carriage driver insisting a storm is coming (though the weather seems perfectly fine), they seek shelter at a creepy old inn run by an odd brother/sister pair. As the night wears on, the travelers discover a plot to murder the inhabitants of the inn during the blood moon and use the bodies as an offering to the man-wolf beasts that live in the nearby woods.

This film wasn't really what I was expecting. Plus it's another case of where the poster artwork is selling a different movie than you actually get. Despite the pic above that appears set in the heart of London, the plot never gets anywhere near London or any urban setting. And contrast the picture of the wolf in the poster, above, with the reality of the film, below. Nothing on that headpiece moves, either. Not the jaws, not the eyes or brows or ears. Nothing.

A horror-comedy that has a few upsides in the early going (some of the early writing, some of the actors are game, overall production design isn't awful), but also makes some very left-field choices that really doom the film once the wolves show up (an extended scene of werewolf diarrhea, oddly performed creatures who stomp their feet as they walk and seem incredibly slow, weak, and uncoordinated for supernatural wolf beasts; not much adherence to any known werewolf lore). Also some ripoffs of The Evil Dead and The Addams Family, visually and musically.

Looks like they were trying for a 60's Hammer style, based on the production and stylized opening credits. I wouldn't spend much to see this. I think I paid $5-6 for the digital version on Amazon. But I did laugh a few times at some of the antics so I don't regret it ... too much.