October Horror Movie Marathon

[MuckyFunster]

18. The Outwaters

Rakuten. First time watch.

What did God do after he created alternating periods of light and darkness? He called it a day! (Ba dum - tiss).

Well, in the case of these filmmakers they called it ‘The Outwaters’. This found footage film starts out with a noisy incoherent call full of screaming to a 911 operator who’s pleasing to be told what is going on. In the background there are photographs of our characters with notes saying ‘not seen since 08/08/2017’. Notes on the screen then explain that all the footage to follow was found on memory cards. Sound effects then play (which sounds more like a cassette tape being loaded rather than an SD card being slotted in but whatever), and the film begins.

We meet some creative young people who are going out to the Mojave desert to film a music video. They’re seen smoking weed, coke is mentioned, and one of them makes a comment that if you take acid it is stored in your spinal fluid and if you’re then in an accident or something the release of this stores acid can cause a flashback. They’re all seen drinking some booze out of a round bottle with a floral pattern which I’m thinking was maybe supposed to resemble a peyote button or something, hinting to me that they’ve all now taken acid so might be at risk of a flashback. They then set out to the desert…

What follows is a lot of shoogly camera work and mad sound effects. A lot of it takes place in the pitch darkness with the only visible parts of the screen being a small circle of light from a flashlight which flys madly around the screen. It’s hard not to compare this to some recent ‘noise and vision’ type of film like “Skinamarink”, but this is almost trying to make some hybrid with “Blair Witch Project”.

If I’m watching a film alone I tend to watch it in the dark with headphones on. The shots of complete darkness to brilliant light had me frequently blinking or closing my eyes until my pupils adjusted and the mad sudden sound effects had me fidgeting with the headphone volume.

I’m not sure if I enjoyed this one, but I keep mulling it over so it’s definitely left an impression.

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[Dave Boy]

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CARRIE (1976)

This movie was on my Halloween list anyway, but the passing of Piper Laurie jumped up the list.
This movie is so bloody good. Everything about this movie from casting to music is spot on.
No matter how many times I have seen this movie, you can't help but be moved by Pino Donaggio's score as Carrie, so happy as Prom Queen makes her way to the stage.
Piper Laurie as Carrie's mother.. well what a performance.

[Frankie Teardrop]

PIGGY – Central to Carlota Pereda’s ‘Piggy’ is the unlikely connection between Sara, a girl who is teased because she’s overweight, and an unidentified drifter with murderous intentions. It’s set in a small Spanish village, where Sara is an object of derision, most obviously at the hands of her bitchy peers, but also her own family. When she decides to ignore her tormentors and go for a swim in the local pool, she stumbles across a murder scene that gets even more complicated when her teenage foes swarm in and start to harass her. They didn’t notice that white van and its shifty occupant… There’s a vague sense that ‘Piggy’ wrongfoots the viewer a little by appearing to set itself up as an exploitation romp, because before long it seems obvious that its heart is set on more contemplative matters. It ups the grime at little during its slaughterhouse-based final leg, but for most part ‘Piggy’ is more concerned with the fall-out from its opening kill and the disappearance of Sara’s bullies. There’s something really interesting about the link between Sara and the killer, who positions himself as a saviour-like character, almost to the point of personifying Sara’s vengeful feelings towards the world that abuses and shuns; it leaves us asking whether we’re seeing two people united by trauma and taking some kind of empathic solace in each other, or whether it’s a case of one person adopting another’s cause for their own sick ends. I might’ve appreciated more exploration of those themes, but ‘Piggy’ impresses on many levels, from the photography that captures the sinister stillness of sun parched days (I loved the bit in the pool where we see the killer’s head silhouetted against blinding sun and sparkling waters), to some of the dramatic scenes, where the humiliation meted out by the more truly pig-headed feels so much harsher than any of the graphic violence. Worth checking out.

[MrBarlow]

Blood Vessel. 2019.

A group of survivors in WWII adrift come across a Nazi vessel and board it unaware of what is lurking below deck.

Taking it slow for the first part of the survivors searching of the ship and quest to uncover why a ship such as the one they find themselves on is lacking any crew. The first viewing of the boat is something that you wouldn't even board and has the same tone of atmosphere as the 1980 film Death Ship. Then we get the bird's eye view of the boat and the swatstika and you know the castaways are in for a rough voyage.

This has plenty going for it, is the fact that its maker knows and loves practical special effects. Though a low budget feature and playing out as such, among a little confusing action scenes there are mildly satisfying 80's kind of gore and make-up galore. You do get a dread of atmosphere, claustrophobia and a oddball of different characters that can easily turn on each other and certainly places to run but can't easily hide. A fun entertaining movie.

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[Demoncrat]

A Monstrous Corpse (1980)

Korean version of The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue
An oddity all right
The cops are ... somewhat keen on solving this particular case
I had to, didn't I? VS need to put this one out cough.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Witch (2015)

Robert Egger's modern masterpiece of 17th century lore. It's performed with brilliant and authentic use of olde-English language and terrific sound design as well as natural light throughout with the buildings lit inside only by candles. There's also an often lingering camera technique and these aspects all come together to create the most unnerving, bordering on genuinely frightening, horror film of the 21st century.

Eight years in a row now for this film and i'm still discovering new marvels in it's chilling clutches. I'm surprised that it still holds what feels like a malevolent eerie power over me during it's entire second half. Last night it dawned on me how deliciously creepy the two youngest children, Jonas and Mercy, actually are. The way they run round the farm chanting satanic verse is genuinely weird and something their puritanical parents never seem to notice. Scary little f*ckers.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

30 Days of Unseen Horror

Day 18

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A doctor working in an insane asylum is left the entire estate of a patient he cared for after he does but things won't go so smoothly with rumours of how the previous owners family died hauntings and a lost fortune that many of the locals are mad to get their hands on . Which will get them first greed or the spirits of the dead ?

Dark Places is a great film full of intrigue and suspense it also boasts a fantastic cast which all do an amazing job. Usually when Christopher Lee is onboard he steals the show unless Peter Cushing is around of course but here it's Joan Collins she is absolutely stunningly beautiful here and you can't take your eyes off her. She plays that bitchy sultry role so so well. The house looks amazing inside once it's restored to its former glory which is a great setting for some ghostly shenanigans.

One of my favourite scenes was when the doctor is staying in another house across a few fields and he notices the lights coming on in the child's old playroom it's just a fantastic scene with the fogg and the eerie house standing proud through the murky night.

Enjoyed this one alot and who doesn't love the creepy voices of dead children playing up stairs in a creepy house

Sold Sir. Thoroughly sold!

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[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Devil Rides Out (1968)

Not simply the best Occult film bar none for me. Based on Dennis Wheatley's best selling novel, The Devil Rides Out is one of the best British horror films of all time.

On closer inspection The Devil Rides Out is possibly more akin to a period James Bond film than it is to a typical Hammer Gothic horror melodrama. Terence Fisher directs with consummate ease as the story positively zips along under the spell of James Bernard's terrific looming and booming score powering various action sequences along the way. Christopher Lee makes Wheatley's Duc de Richleau character his own with a performance of power and heroism. In fact the whole cast, from Charles Gray's devilish Mocata to Sarah Lawson's seemingly put upon wife who wins through in the end, are uniformly excellent.

The film sports set pieces to kill for and images that have gone down through the generations as classics of horror, from the magnificent Angel of Death to the pièce de résistance, which comes half way through the film as we witness at a terrifying Occult ceremony the Goat of Mendes, (Baphomet), the Devil himself, take form and watch over proceedings. It's a stunning piece of cinema and my favourite version of the Devil put on film to date.

[Demoncrat]

Hell Has No Boundary (1982, Chuan Yang)

More HK, possession caper.

Lawdy. A young police officer finds more than she bargained for during an investigation. And how. This one needs the upgrade, as tis just what the demon ordered
You think you've got the gist of it, but the last 30 minutes are just that special brand of lunacy that they specialized in.

[MuckyFunster]

19. Sea Fever

Disney+ - first time watch.

This Irish film stars Dougray Scott as Gerard, the skipper of a fishing trawler on board which a PhD student takes a trip to study deep sea faunal behaviour patterns. Gerard receives a warning from the coast guard that he is due to sail through an exclusion zone owing to the presence of whales. Gerard ignores this warning as his sonar equipment tells him there is a big shoal of fish in the exclusion zone and he is in desperate need of the money a successful catch will bring him and his crew. Once in the exclusion zone the boat is attacked by what they believe is possibly a giant squid. The PhD student suspects otherwise and quickly realises that the crew are all at risk of an unknown parasite.

I really enjoyed this movie. Consider it something like “The Thing”, but onboard a boat. This is the film I wish “The Abyss” would have been. Exciting and scary. Great performances from all the cast.
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20. Killer under the bed

Disney+ - first time watch.

A high school age girl moving to a new town following the death of her father immediately has problems with bullies at the new school, on top of the family stresses. She find a voodoo doll in the shed, left by the previous homeowner. Initially sceptical she vents some anger by testing the dolls powers, and once she realises it actually works, the power goes to her head and she’s dishing out curses trying to help her own situation and that of her family members. As the story goes - you don’t always get what you wish for and eventually she’s trying to backtrack it all out.

Stupid lightweight film with a distinctly ‘made for tv’ feel, complete with hammy performances from all the cast and those sudden breaks in the music at exactly the point where an advert break would usually be. The doll doesn’t ever actually kill anyone either, so it’s not really a ‘killer’ under her bed.

Nevertheless I did enjoy it, and couldn’t help but think that if the film had been made in 1988 instead of 2018 Arrow would probably release it in a special edition and we’d all go daft for it.
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