October Horror Movie Marathon

[Justin101]

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)



I didn't really like this at all. It's one of those 'nothing happens for an hour then everything happens in the last 20 minutes' film. But like that first hour was so boring, and the last 20 minutes was slightly less boring!

Disappointing, this one had been on my radar for a long time. Oh well you can't win them all!

(what's with all the 4 & 5 star reviews on Letterboxd, did we watch the same film?)

[MrBarlow]

Kingdom Of The Spiders. 1977.

A farming town in Arizona is over run by killer tarantulas, a vet and a doctor of toxicology try to stop the infestation.

70s cheesy fun flick with William Shatner and his cool hair piece as the harden vet while Tiffany Bolling who got the part not due to acting but was able to pick up a spider as the toxicologist. How did the makers make it real, they used real spiders that weren't enlarged by the camera just normal size creepy crawlies. Still entertaining even though it may seem daft and the prolonged sequel looks like it is still in development hell.

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[MrBarlow]

Silver Bullet. 1985.

In a small town, a paraplegic boy tries to convince his sister and uncle that the rural killings that are happening is caused by a werewolf.

Based on the novella by Stephen King and his take on the werewolf genre which is a lot of fun to watch as Carey Haim plays the paraplegic Marty who seems to be a burden on his sister Jane (who does a voice over narration) played by Megan Follows. Uncle Red played by Gary Busey is slowly drawn into the world of a child's fantasy to reality with some good one liners and believes that Reverend Lowe (Everett McGill) is actually a werewolf. There is some good suspenseful moments and some tense situations, even though the costume was rushed and not at it's best, it still does work with the transformation.

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[Nordicdusk]

30 Days Of Unseen Horror

Day 23

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A plastic surgeon is on the run with his two assistants after destroying a patients face beyond repair. The trio head to the French countryside to start a new. While stopping for directions from a young girl who's father is the owner of a struggling circus and this would be the perfect cover for the doctor to carry out his operations while realising a childhood dream of running away with the circus. The plan is to build the circus full of people he has carried out work on to guarantee their silence in protecting his behind the scenes work. When the stars of the show gradually want to leave the life and settle down they all fall prey to random accidents while performing proving that going under the knife is signing a deal with the devil.

Jam packed with beautiful woman and a Donald Pleasance with hair Circus of Horrors is a great film full of great performances especially the evil Dr. Schuler who will leave nothing or no one stand in his way of becoming a medical wonder with his skills of cosmetic surgery. Its a pretty dark tale really a man preying of vulnerable women he find scarred and with the promise of restoring their beauty he can now control them to perform in his circus and force his sexual desires upon them without protest with the risk of him exposing them for what they looked like before he transformed them.





8/10

[nosferatu42]

Jam packed with beautiful woman and a Donald Pleasance with hair...SOLD.

[Nordicdusk]

30 Days Of Unseen Horror

Day 24

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Count Karnstein invites a historian to come and stay with him in order to investigate his family history and the curse that he believes is starting to come true when members of the extended Karnstein start dying. His daughter Laura a beautiful young woman is part of a ritual that has brought the spirit of an ancestor into her that placed the curse upon the family and Laura fights against it trying to stop herself killing her very own family.

This is a beautiful film so rich in atmosphere and imagery. The castle is spooky hiding so many hidden passages and hallways. The gardens are rich with plants and trees beautiful by day but cold and windswept by night making for some fantastic scenes. During the day a friendship is growing between Laura and Ljuba frolicking in the gardens and that one scene while they are about to elope and they are running through the woods when the wind blowing their long nightgowns is shot so beautifully no talking just their movements making you feel the scene.

The atmosphere really grabs hold of you and keeps you glued right until the end and enhancing that even further is a very eerie soundtrack. Chistopher Lees amazing silk dressing gown almost steals the show it really is a sight to behold of amazing stitch work and breathtaking design

7/10

[Justin101]

Wishmaster (1997)



This was an interesting one. Very clearly directed by a special effects guy, the gore and nastiness front and centre and plenty to go around. I also really enjoyed the multiple horror cameos, in fact Ted Raimi being crushed by a falling crate in the first 10 minutes was hilarious. The character designs etc, all very 'late 90s' and reminded me of Buffy which is not a bad thing, that whole era had a look and I liked it.

However, it's not all great. It was severely let down by a tedious performance of Alexandra by Tammy Lauren. At first I quite enjoyed the immediately 'at 11' craziness but then that reaction seemed to be the only thing she could do and for the next 60 minutes I dreaded her being on the screen, the film was 10 times better when she wasn't!

That all being said, I liked this. Interesting story, cool special effects, amusing cameo performances and the 90s aesthetic! I might save the sequels for next October though...

[Frankie Teardrop]

GEEK MAGGOT BINGO – An earlyish film from NYC underground doyen Nick Zedd. Viewer alienation plus or minus basically having a party with your mates in front of a Bolex were both possible directorial goals. After opening with Zacherle doing his thing for a bit, it plays like a post-Kuchar homage to old bad horror from the forties and fifties, with an over-ripe mad scientist type waxing megalomaniacal over sets that look like a playgroup’s reconstruction of The History Of Expressionism In Early Cinema. These sets are also populated by various NY counterculturalists from the time (early eighties), not least Richard Hell, here playing a rootin’ tootin’ cowboy adventurer. He’s the best thing in it, though maybe I’m only saying that cos I’m a Richard Hell fan. Then again, I’m supposedly a Nick Zedd fan. Otherwise, the performances are as tow-curlingly awful as they’re contrived to be, although Donna Death has a bit of presence as a stern looking Vampira-type (she doesn’t have any lines). It’s utterly incoherent and, considering it’s played for laughs, isn’t much of one most of the time; the Hallowe’en gang-show larking-about thing only carries so far for the audience, although it looks like it was probably quite fun to be there. Having said all this, ‘Geek Maggot Bingo’ does work on other levels beyond simply being part of the filmography of an artiste, and the whole trashy aesthetic is quite attractive; it feels like it was held together by Sellotape, and in some scenes that’s probably literally true. It’s full of wonky edits, bats on string, big time cheapskating (they play a record by Chrome on low in the background for part of the soundtrack!) and ad libs, including the bit where Richard Hell asks “Nick, can we have some direction, please?” All this is aided along by bits of gore and fx from a young Ed French, and some of the prosthetics look really nice – the Formaldehyde Man, a twisted head etc. Old Fangoria editor Bob Martin crops up. It depends on how you play it really, but if you can get past a certain level of disconnect then ‘Geek Maggot Bingo’ offers… an experience.

[Nordicdusk]

30 Days Of Unseen Horror

Day 25

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An elderly man and the bodies are six young woman are found in a motel room but the scene is very bizarre with object stuck to the walls. While the paramedics are moving the mans body a force of energy shoots out from his hands cracking the ceiling. He is laid to rest in a local mausoleum and after the service his daughter gets a visit from a writer on the occult who has studied her fathers works of telekinesis.

Meanwhile a teen who desperately wants to get into a club called the sisters is sent to stay in the mausoleum for the night as her final initiation but the sisters won't make it easy on her planning to return during the night to scare her forcing her to fail but they get more than they bargained for when their prank back fires on them.


Although not much happens for the first hour the build up kept me involved the whole time. Its well acted and even if the whole initiation thing has been done many times the other story running alongside it is interesting and gives it a little something different. The only thing is Adam West is hard to take serious in his role because when you hear his voice its just batman talking and i keep waiting for Robin to burst in with some stupid Holy scary mausoleum Batman.

Once things kick into gear in the mausoleum its great things get creepy real fast with the noises and things getting thrown around the place and it kick it up yet another gear once the undead start to rise up. The make up looks great and just the way the float around the place gives a little extra spooky feel to them. Well worth a watch im going to pick up the Blu Ray when i can.

7/10

[MrBarlow]

Strange things happen at sundown. 2003.

A group of people turned into vampires feel the craving for blood while a mob boss is trying to move in on other territory's.

At the running time of two hours 5 minutes and the plot did seem decent to watch, this was a load of bollocks, very amateurish with a camcorder and a microphone that just about blew my ear drums. We get a vampire that's like Eric Draven and wrestler Sting who can walk during the daylight and is able to have a toilet (never seen a vampire do that), we have a somewhat dark cloaked figure wearing multi coloured socks very 90s. After nearly a hour I had to switch it off, avoid completely.