October Horror Movie Marathon

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

The scene where Laurie Strode chugs a full glass of wine so she can swap her empty glass for another full one makes me laugh every time. Probably my favourite film in the Halloween franchise

Then she's swigging copious amounts of vodka from the bottle.

No wonder she decapitates the wrong guy.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Then she's swigging copious amounts of vodka from the bottle.

No wonder she decapitates the wrong guy.

When you have drunk as much vodka as I have, you know that this is an easy error to make

[Frankie Teardrop]

METAMORPHOSIS: THE ALIEN FACTOR - In looks, feel and attitude, 'Metamorphosis' distils the essence of direct-to-video horror. Academy ratio, the big tell, fits this early nineties tale of alien-sends-science-lab-up-shit-creek like a glove. There was a time in my life when I would turn my nose up at endlessly repeated shots of tech facility corridors, but every other minute of 'Metamorphosis' had me thinking "that corridor looks great, and I bet after a while any number of bit-characters, and eventually the main protagonists themselves, will run down it, screaming, frequently." I was right. 'Metamorphosis' claims some connection with 'The Deadly Spawn'; its monster is basically a toothy phallus with a hump, so yeah. The set-up is basic in a way that wouldn't wash now - it's exactly what you imagine, there's a scientist who happens to be infected with alien DNA and blah blah blah, they're all locked in, now here's a couple of hitmen. The magic resides in the little things. Chunky outdated computers, the semi-parodic ballet of stilted deliveries, obnoxiously bad writing (one of the hitmen goes from bad guy to good guy to bad guy at the mercy of a script that must sacrifice the integrity of its characters just to make things move), and, there's a lot of this, the obvious eagerness of the makers to get mileage from their special effects. It's pretty gooey, you don't quite get the full-on gunk-o-rama of 'The Deadly Spawn' but it's obvious what 'Metamorphosis's main assets are. It's longer than I remembered, a little over the ninety-minute mark, and gets draggy in all the right ways.

[MrBarlow]

The Masque Of The Red Death 1964.

Classic Edgar Allen Poe adaptation by Roger Corman with Vincent Price as the evil tyrant Prince Prospero who uses his castle as a hideout from the red death with his guests. Right from the start with the old woman meeting "The Red Death" is chilling with the voice and how it makes it's way into the castle during the banquet. The mood of the film is so perfectly formed, with its eerie music and set design that the the colour throughout the film is shown in the quarters of the castle and the two tier layer of the great hall is shown magnificently that nothing is missed with the set and costumes.

MasqueOfTheRedDeath(1964film).jpg

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Satan's Little Helper (2004)

Jeff Lieberman's chilling tale of a boy who befriends a masked serial killer and knocks about with him on Halloween as he goes about terrorizing the neighbourhood.

Fun to begin with it becomes more sinister as it goes on and perhaps offers the idea that today's kids are so unsensitized to violence due to video games that they can't tell the difference between reality and what's on the tv screen in front of them. Either that or Doug, the kid in this, is the dumbest son of a bitch ever to (dis)grace a Halloween movie. It's definitely the latter. He's a f*cking moron. Katheryn Winnick looks sexy in her wench costume throughout and Amanda Plummer gives a typical Amanda Plummer turn until Satan get's hold of her and it all becomes ever so grim.

It's that grim tone that really takes over the second half of the film and it becomes a genuinely nasty viewing experience, not in a relentless Last House on the Left sort of way but in the way Lieberman gradually replaces the frothy lightness with a realistic sadism as Satan.

This has become a real favourite of mine over the years and this time was enhanced by the recent Blu-ray from Treasured Films which looks outstanding during the outdoor scenes.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Continuing the story of Michael Myers ten years later this is a fast paced and often thrilling movie. There's no 'Getting to know you' opening half hour without any shocks as Michael is in the film from the first scene.

Halloween 4 has a strong cast headed of course by Donald Pleasence whilst the largely unknown Ellie Cornell makes for an appealing heroine as Rachel who i think is one of the best 'final girls' from any slasher film. The fact the film also fully focuses on Pleasence's Dr. Loomis and Beau Starr's excellent Sheriff Meeker means it has a nice adult feel to it rather than simply being teen orientated and it feels quite refreshing.

There are some nicely realized kills and some great scenes of suspense and i'm sure more than a few flaws but it's all whizzes by at such a break neck speed i never notice them.

Gorier than the first film but not quite as chilling, few films are, this is arguably the best of the sequels and is a genuine highlight of the later floundering years of the slasher genre

[Justin101]

Haha yes he is a moron

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Justin101

Haha yes he is a moron

He doesn't learn anything. From befriending Satan to then believing God has turned up on the doorstep to help (in a Jesus mask) and when that all turns to shit he then invites bloody Maniac Cop into the house. Makes you want to scream doesn't it!

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Satan's Little Helper (2004)

It's that grim tone that really takes over the second half of the film and it becomes a genuinely nasty viewing experience, not in a relentless Last House on the Left sort of way but in the way Lieberman gradually replaces the frothy lightness with a realistic sadism as Satan

Yes, it is a nasty film. The strange thing is, I seem to remember this used to be regularly shown on one of the cable channel in a mid-afternoon slot !

[Frankie Teardrop]

THE OUTWATERS - A recent take on found footage that seems to have alienated and enthralled in equal measure. I tend towards the latter camp - FF isn't always my thing when it amounts to no more than running around the woods with a smartphone, but 'The Outwaters' is much more ambitious and constructs a layered, distorted reality that throbs with menace. Four friends, who have headed out to the desert to do a music video, become increasingly bewildered and panicked by their remote location. Some fateful fork in the path sends them down a dark spiral, and we sense a nightmarish presence closing in. Although it works mainly through suggestion and fragmentation, much of the later imagery offers genuinely disturbing glimpses of the otherworldly. Many have voiced their disgruntlement with it being too abstract and 'experimental', but if the last thing you want is a coherent story, you may like this - I did.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH - Alan Birkinshaw did some odd films. I'm trying to remember his other E A Poe 'adaption', but all that comes to mind is pink wallpaper, lots of antiques, and Donald Pleasance as a badly costumed cyborg. If that film exists only in my imagination, perhaps someone should do something about it. Anyway, 'The Masque Of The Red Death' continues Birkinshaw's quest for hideous decor at the service of oddly cast horror classics, and brings us a world that seems entirely set within the confines of an Ultravox video. "This means nothing to meeeee!", in which case get a load of Herbert Lom as a mad doctor and potential slasher, in fact get a load of everything, it's pretty wild even though nothing really happens apart from you waking up thinking you might've just dreamed it. But it's real, and it's only just beginning... PS also stars Frank Stallone as 'The Duke'.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

The first entry in Hammer's Karnstein trilogy based on Le Fanu's vampire novel Carmilla sees Ingrid Pitt play the lusty Mircalla who ends up living at George Cole's manor house and seducing his daughter as played by Madeline Smith.

Probably Hammer's most sensuous film and featuring lashings of now mild nudity and eroticism which at the time was considered especially daring for the studio. The production design is sumptuous and full of rich colours which look especially vibrant on Blu-ray.

Pitt is excellent as the vampire seductress with good turns from Smith and Kate O' Mara alongside her whilst Peter Cushing brings class to proceedings with what is basically an elongated cameo at the front and back of the film.

Terrific stuff.


Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Rather lacking in comparison to the fourth installment especially as we lose Ellie Cornell, who has now been written as a generic ditzy blonde rather than the classy heroine from part 4, in the first half an hour leaving us with Donald Pleasence's Loomis who now appears to be more deranged than Michael Myers.

More of a run of the mill slasher with a loony finale than the haunting menace originally created by John Carpenter. However one or two of the kills are good fun courtesy of KNB FX and it remains an enjoyable and undemanding 90 odd minutes but could someone please explain to me why each time we see the two cops we get goofy music accompanying them. It's really daft and doesn't work at all.