October Horror Movie Marathon

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Terrifier 2 (2022)

I'm with Trebor and Nordy. Terrifier 2 is absolutely superb. For a film running well over two hours it never lets up, in fact i'd say it simply improves with each passing minute. Beginning like a continuation of Terrifier i thought this was going to be more of the same but it really isn't. It's not just brutality for brutality's sake there's a very enjoyable character driven story here too.

The characters are nicely written, in fact they are all excellent with strong performances all round. You don't hate anyone which means the brutality acted out on them by the brilliant Art the clown is all the stronger to stomach.

And what brutality. There's one kill on the hour mark, i could barely believe what i was seeing and i exclaimed out loud "F*ck me!" part way through it. It was like director / writer Damien Leone took all the sick shit from Fulci and classics like Maniac and then decided the viewer ain't seen nuthin' yet and ramped the violence up ten fold. There were stories that people in the US had to leave the cinema feeling ill and to be honest i can see why. Terrifier 2 is probably the most violent film that's ever played cinemas. What makes it palatable is the lack of sexual violence which is quite refreshing. Art isn't like that - well aside from repeatedly stabbing a guy in the balls then smearing the remains of his cock down a car window in which his terrified girlfriend screams - he just kills in ever more gruesome ways. There's certainly and artistry to Art.

There's humour here. Black twisted humour, even some genuine laugh out loud moments, but it's the way the story evolves that keeps the film enticing and involving.

Highly recommended. The best horror film in years and all done on a crowd funded budget of £250,000. Outstanding.

[Demoncrat]

Tonight's the night then methinks.

[Justin101]

I've not seen any of the Art the clown films so I'll have to get around to them at some point I doubt it'll be this week though.

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Terrifier 2 (2022)

I'm with Trebor and Nordy. Terrifier 2 is absolutely superb. For a film running well over two hours it never lets up, in fact i'd say it simply improves with each passing minute. Beginning like a continuation of Terrifier i thought this was going to be more of the same but it really isn't. It's not just brutality for brutality's sake there's a very enjoyable character driven story here too.

The characters are nicely written, in fact they are all excellent with strong performances all round. You don't hate anyone which means the brutality acted out on them by the brilliant Art the clown is all the stronger to stomach.

And what brutality. There's one kill on the hour mark, i could barely believe what i was seeing and i exclaimed out loud "F*ck me!" part way through it. It was like director / writer Damien Leone took all the sick shit from Fulci and classics like Maniac and then decided the viewer ain't seen nuthin' yet and ramped the violence up ten fold. There were stories that people in the US had to leave the cinema feeling ill and to be honest i can see why. Terrifier 2 is probably the most violent film that's ever played cinemas. What makes it palatable is the lack of sexual violence which is quite refreshing. Art isn't like that - well aside from repeatedly stabbing a guy in the balls then smearing the remains of his cock down a car window in which his terrified girlfriend screams - he just kills in ever more gruesome ways. There's certainly and artistry to Art.

There's humour here. Black twisted humour, even some genuine laugh out loud moments, but it's the way the story evolves that keeps the film enticing and involving.

Highly recommended. The best horror film in years and all done on a crowd funded budget of £250,000. Outstanding.

Just the tip

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE ABANDONED –Sister and brother reunite under the worst of circumstances, to wit, inside a haunted farmhouse in the middle of a forest whilst being menaced by their zombie doppelgangers. It’s a crap thing to happen when all they were trying to do was sort out an inheritance. ‘The Abandoned’ is quite an odd little film that makes up for in atmosphere what it lacks in narrative grace. It really goes in for ickiness and dereliction. The farmhouse, whose interior somehow holds the key to a foundational trauma linking sis and bro, looks impressively repulsive, every surface caked in mould or some other foul gunk and permanently bathed in a sickly green glow. It’s exactly the kind of film for anyone who delights in watching torchlight fall upon a squalid stairwell descending into nothingness. Perhaps inevitably for a movie that’s falling back on vibes rather than story, it counts on a viewer accepting of a certain dreamlike illogic, but you’ll have to give the makers the benefit of the doubt during moments of high clunk; for example, after being attacked by her zombie double for maybe the third time, the lead character goes “f*ck this, I’m getting out of here” (!) Anyway, I try to let that kind of thing bolster the unreality of it all rather than get in the way. The film splinters near the end and throws in some of the dubious time-slip stuff popular in its day (‘Time Crimes’, ‘Triangle’ etc), but at least takes care to spice up the incoherence with some vicious gore involving flesh ripping pigs and a bit of random nudity. I liked it; not quite as much as when I saw it fifteen years or so ago, but getting there. I don’t think it quite pulls off what it might be going for, but I’m a sucker for big, rotting houses. Staff include director Nacho Cerda, of ‘Aftermath’ and ‘Genesis’ infamy, cinematographer Karim Hussein (well known on the horror underground for mystical portmanteau pukefest ‘Subconscious Cruelty’) and non-transgressive UK TV face Anastasia Hille.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

A fiver at Asda. Fantastic!

£10 in Morrisons!

NOT fantastic!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

£10 in Morrisons!

NOT fantastic!!

No it's not. Were you going to buy it?

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

No it's not. Were you going to buy it?

I was considering it when I went into the shop, but I can't justify buying a DVD for that price at the moment

[MrBarlow]

Dog Soldiers. 2002.

A small group of soldiers on a routine exercise in the Scottish Highlands come under attack from a pack of werewolves.

Aside from An American Werewolf In London, The Howling and Wolfen, this is one of the best werewolf movies to come out in a long time, at the start we see two campers becoming a late night supper for the pack, Cooper being trained for a special op squad that backfires and then the team on a exercise. We end up waiting 15-20 minutes before anything picks up then thrown into a cottage for a battle ground. There isn't big special effects and a small change in the eyes but there is some laughs that doesn't spoil the film's tone. The 4K certainly worth buying.

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Up next The Devil Rides Out

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Bloody Birthday (1981)

Three children born on the same day during a solar eclipse begin committing murders on their tenth birthdays.

A classic slasher that's a little different to the norm, the kids seem homely and adorable but in their hearts it's pure evil as they go on a killing spree featuring all manner of shootings, stabbings, stranglings, beatings and other cruelties. Better acted than usual with final girl Lori Lethin very good as are the three child actors who go about the slayings. You can't take your eyes off them - I couldn't wait to see if they got their comeuppance.

All in all Bloody Birthday is an off-beat slasher film and a hugely entertaining one at that.