31 Days of Horror 2022 edition can't think of a catchy subtitle

[Newt Cox]

Cody has Lew Diabolique up

http://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.c...evils.html?m=1

Movie 4

TITLE Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2022
SOURCE Netflix

Yea figured yall would have to know I would review this one this October. The Chainsaw franchise has been a part of my life close to 45 years now. I heard sometime in 2021 that the newest TCM,which was filmed in Bulgaria in late summer 2020,was going straight to Netflix I was a bit worried. Before this entry the other two entries that got limited theatrical releases,Next Gen and Leatherface,are the two worst films in this franchise. But it is a chainsaw film and I must see every film in the series.

And a quick nitpick about this movie. How many fucking movies will we end up having in this franchise that are titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Sure I know the other two with a similar title do have the word THE at the front,and this one doesn't. But really who the hell calls the 1974 film THE Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Or the 2003 remake.

Somehow I lost track of what day of the week it was. I got up thinking it was a Thursday,headed out to the living room and boom there was the new TCM playing on the living room TV. I quickly exited the room. Ate a fast breakfast in the kitchen. Then went to my room armed with a drink and a bowl of popcorn to sit back and hopefully enjoy a new adventure with Leatherface.

I did somewhat enjoy it. But also until today I didn't bother watching it again. The only times this has happened before was once again with Next Gen and Leatherface. But with TCM 2022 I can say that it is better than both of those films. Just for all it gets right,there is enough flaws that take away from the good stuff.

The plot ...set in the modern day a group of Influencers buy a small Texas town. This town is where the Leatherface house is. And he ain't happy with all these annoying young people running around. Then Sally from the original film returns and her and 2 of the influencers fight off Leatherface.

See it doesn't sound that bad. Add in it has decent gore and it appears to be a good TCM film.

The flaws. The Leatherface mask in this film is horrible. I like how in most of the other films his mask looks like a patchwork flesh mask. In this film the mask appears to be one single piece of flesh. And it doesn't look like flesh. It looks like a latex or rubber mask.

Another flaw is this is suppose to be a direct sequel to the original film from 1974. Anyone that has seen the original knows the home of the Family is way way way far from any town. In this movie the family home is right there by the town???? Now sure maybe in the almost 50 years since the orignal happened a town might have grown in that area.

Then the biggest flaw. The two female leads,two of the influencers,plus the actress they got to play Sally are HORRIBLE. Yea I know Marylyn Burns has passed. But they could have gotten someone that can act to play Sally. The other two,I just didn't give a fuck about them. So about halfway through the film I was cheering on Leatherface to kill them.

The good stuff in the film is mostly the gore and FX. I'm betting lots of it was practical FX work mixed with some CGI. The actor they got to play Leatherface is pretty good. He is tall and massive. Which is two things an actor must have to be a good Leatherface.

Now my feelings on it might change after I watch it a few more times. But as of right now,after seeing it two times,I will put it above TCM part 4(next gen) and TCM Part 8 aka Leatherface. But belong every other TCM film.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) gets a C+

[Darcy Parker]

Ok, bonus movie last night for me, if it counts: Casper - Not bad for a family movie, it's fun.

Just threw on The Dead Pit, never watched it before.

[f.ramses]

10/3
Ghost Ship - Deep Rising kept making me think of this one so I figured why not; it's not great but it definitely has it's moments with its kills.

[BW Haggar]

#4
Hammer House of Horror: Growing Pains
(Francis Megahy, TV, 1980)

Fourth episode in this series, which I've been watching week-by-week, and I think this was the weakest one so far.

Gary Bond (the lead from 'Wake in Fright'!) is a borderline mad scientist creating artificial food stuffs to ease world hunger and testing them out on super-cute giant rabbits in his home laboratory. His wife (Barbara Kellerman from 'Satan's Slave') is some kind of philanthropist raising funds for assorted charities.

Pre-credits, their young son wanders into his dad's lab, eats some random stuff from a jar, freaks out, dies. So the couple adopt a weird, affectless kid with a bad attitude who either has telekinetic powers, is possessed by the ghost of their dead son, or some combination of the two (simple though the plot is, I didn't quite get what was supposed to be going on here).

The message seems to be that, whilst these rich, do-gooding parents are off solving the world's ills, they've forgotten to give their son the love & attention he needs, so thus they must suffer (as if their first son dying wasn't punishment enough).

It's all a rather glum business, full of dead rabbits and poisoned dogs (all fake, natch) which leaves a somewhat unpleasant taste in the mouth.

I fell asleep a bit towards the end, so I think I might have missed the gist of the surprise ending... will have to go back and check before I write it up for my weblog review.

C-

[JonesyTheCat]

Got off to a pretty good start this weekend:

10/1
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
I'm Dangerous Tonight
Deep Rising
The Raven (1963)
The Ape (1940)
Daughters of Darkness

10/2
La Novia Ensangrentada (The Blood Spattered Bride)
Vampyres (1974)
Fascination (1979)
Vampiros Lesbos
L'Amante del Vampiro (The Vampire and the Ballerina)
Livide


The low point was definitely Deep Rising as I couldn’t wait for it to end. The story was blah and the characters were terrible, one of them I absolutely could not stand and spent the whole movie hoping they would get killed off. The high point was probably Daughters of Darkness as it had been ages since I last saw it and I liked it quite a bit; it also set the theme for the rest of the weekend, non-Hammer European vampire movies. You can see that marathon run out of steam with Livide, a modern movie, but it was all I had since I just wasn’t in the mood for The Vampire’s Night Orgy. Regarding Livide, it was slightly better not going into it expecting another Inside but overall it was just OK at best. The Raven was also surprisingly fun, definitely a lot more enjoyable than when I saw it as a kid.

Oh man I loved DEEP RISING personally, lol. Great watchlist either way. Still need to get to Livide.

[Newt Cox]

Cody covers Vampyr today
http://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.c...-1932.html?m=1

And me well I wanted something I had seen before and knew was good.

TITLE-Night of the Demons



SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

It was early 91 as was normal back then I couldn't sleep. Flipped through the TV guide,who remembers those?,and saw at 2am Showtime was airing something called Night of the Demons. I mistaked this for the early 80s killer bigfoot movie,which I had heard about in horror mags and through older friends.

When the movie started and I saw it wasn' t the killer Bigfoot movie I almost turned it off. Then I saw in the credits that Linnea Quigley was in the cast. Yep I am gonna watch this. About 90s minutes later the film was over and I was already looking to see when it was airing again. So I could record it and keep a copy.

Made in 1987 and released in 1988 Night of the Demons was a fairly low budget horror film. That got a rolling theatrical release. Which means only a few prints were made and the film would play one geographical region for say a month then move to another. Seems that most people did like I did and discovered this film that started a cult franchise from either seeing it late at night on cable or renting the VHS from the video store.

This movie was a big enough hit that 2 sequels were made. Then in 2009 a remake got released. Pretty sure in previous editions of 31 Days of Horror I have covered the third film and the remake.

The plot is fairly simple. A pile of high school kids are invited to a party on Halloween night. The party is held at an abandoned funeral home on the outskirts of town.

At the start of the film,after some pretty good opening credits,we see an old man. Who has just bought a big bag of apples and a box of razor blades. Seems he is gonna stuff the apples with the razor blades and pass them out Halloween night. Then on the same street we meet our female lead Judy. She is dressed up as Alice,from Alice in Wonderland. And is going with her boyfriend,who refuses to wear a costume,and their friends. The friends are a couple the dude is dressed up like a doctor and the lady,who is played by Jill Terashita best known for playing Ahab in Sleepaway Camp 3,who I am guessing is suppose to be Peter Pan.

We then see what Angela and her best friend Suzanne are up to. SUzanne,played by Linna Quigley, is distracting the clerks in the gas station by bending over and showing her ass,while Angela is busy stealing beer and snacks. After Angela is out the door with a pillowcase stuffed full,Suzanne walks up to the cashier "Do you boys have sour balls?" she asks the two clerks. They reply with a loud yes. "Well I bet you don't get many blowjobs then!"

Next we meet up with 3 more of their friends when they get to the funeral home. You got Stooge,the typical fat asshole jock like dude,who is dressed up like a pig. Roger,the scared dude,who is I am guessing a pirate and finally Helen. Also Judy's ex Sal shows up.

After the batteries in the radio die,which leads to Stooge bitching cause he just put the batteries in the radio that morning,Angela wants to have a seaunce. Helen sees what is actually a pretty well made demon puppet in this huge creepy mirror. This causes Helen to freak out. And the group splits up.

A spirit comes out and possess Angela and now the movie is going into 4th gear. You have Judy finding out her boyfriend only came to have sex. And Judy gets trapped in a room with a door that won't open. Roger and Helen say fuck this and go to leave. But now the giant wall that surrounded the property has no gate. Nothing but a solid wall. Stooge watches the possessed Angela dance,to what I think is an old Bahaus song. Jay pissed cause Judy refused to give him any ended up finding Suzanne in a room. Lipstick all over her face. And we get the scene that is the most remembered part of this film. Suzanne unbuttons her top. Exposes both her breasts then takes her lipstick and shoves it through her nipple into her breast.

Stooge is now also possessed and he wanders off. Finding Frannie and Max,Peter Pan and the doc,fucking in a coffin. Frannie is on top. Stooge grabs her head and twists it around backwards. Then with Max's arm hanging outside the casket Stooge starts slamming the lid down until the arm falls off.

THe FX work in most of the kills is pretty damn good. It is all practical FX work. And what surprised me is even now seeeing it on Blu Ray when Linnea as Suzanne shoved the lipstick thru her nipple into her breast it still looks real. I have seen Ms Quigley's breasts at least 50 times in various films. And the what has to be latex fake breasts in that scene look just like the real ones we have seen in films like Return of the Living Dead.

By the last act of the film the only people left alive are Roger,who has spent a pile of the film hiding in a car,and Judy. They figure out that if they can make it past midnight and get over the wall they will be over. Something about a underground river running around the property,which the wall is built over. And how the spirits of the dead can't cross running water. This leads to a gruesome scene near the end were Roger and Judy climb the wall . Using the barbed wire that is attached to it.

Anyways Roger and Judy survive. And since the two cars are on the other side of the wall they walk home. As they are getting close to Judy's home the old man from the start of the film is out there getting his newspaper. He makes a snide remark about Roger and Judy. Then he goes inside. HIs wife brings him a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. He takes 2 big bites out of the pie then asks her about it. Since there was so many apples left over,She mentions how they didn't have many trick or treaters,she got up early and made a pie out of the leftover apples. Then a quick cut to a close up of the old man's throat as a full razor blade cuts through his throat from the inside....!!!

This release is loaded with extras. You get two commenatarys. Some interviews. Plus as you can see at the top as is custom with Scream Factory releases you get two covers. The drawn cover is new art Scream Factory had created for this release and the other is the movies original poster art. I prefer the poster art.

Sure this film is a bit cheesy. And some of hte acting is pretty rough,Linnea has this odd way of saying some of her lines that just stands out in a bad way. But I have had vhs and dvd releases of the film and never seen it look or sound this good.

Night of the Demons gets a B.

[Darcy Parker]

Got off to a pretty good start this weekend:

10/1
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
I'm Dangerous Tonight
Deep Rising
The Raven (1963)
The Ape (1940)
Daughters of Darkness

10/2
La Novia Ensangrentada (The Blood Spattered Bride)
Vampyres (1974)
Fascination (1979)
Vampiros Lesbos
L'Amante del Vampiro (The Vampire and the Ballerina)
Livide


The low point was definitely Deep Rising as I couldn’t wait for it to end. The story was blah and the characters were terrible, one of them I absolutely could not stand and spent the whole movie hoping they would get killed off. The high point was probably Daughters of Darkness as it had been ages since I last saw it and I liked it quite a bit; it also set the theme for the rest of the weekend, non-Hammer European vampire movies. You can see that marathon run out of steam with Livide, a modern movie, but it was all I had since I just wasn’t in the mood for The Vampire’s Night Orgy. Regarding Livide, it was slightly better not going into it expecting another Inside but overall it was just OK at best. The Raven was also surprisingly fun, definitely a lot more enjoyable than when I saw it as a kid.

You have to admit, the elevator music gag in Deep Rising is funny.

Today was Morituris. Not something I dug.

[f.ramses]

Got off to a pretty good start this weekend:

10/1
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
I'm Dangerous Tonight
Deep Rising
The Raven (1963)
The Ape (1940)
Daughters of Darkness

10/2
La Novia Ensangrentada (The Blood Spattered Bride)
Vampyres (1974)
Fascination (1979)
Vampiros Lesbos
L'Amante del Vampiro (The Vampire and the Ballerina)
Livide


The low point was definitely Deep Rising as I couldn’t wait for it to end. The story was blah and the characters were terrible, one of them I absolutely could not stand and spent the whole movie hoping they would get killed off. The high point was probably Daughters of Darkness as it had been ages since I last saw it and I liked it quite a bit; it also set the theme for the rest of the weekend, non-Hammer European vampire movies. You can see that marathon run out of steam with Livide, a modern movie, but it was all I had since I just wasn’t in the mood for The Vampire’s Night Orgy. Regarding Livide, it was slightly better not going into it expecting another Inside but overall it was just OK at best. The Raven was also surprisingly fun, definitely a lot more enjoyable than when I saw it as a kid.

[Darcy Parker]

Last night was #3, Living Dead at Manchester Morgue - Not bad.

[Gary Banks]

OCTOBER 2022

001-Castle Of Blood ****
002-In Search Of Dracula **
003-Dawn Of The Dead(78) ****

[BW Haggar]

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but I wanted to comment on this. You can read all the trivia on IMDb to get a better idea of what happened during production, but it boils down to writer and producer Clive Turner being a dick and changing everything John Hough did. If you really want to see an atrocious Howling film, check out (or don't) Howling VII: New Moon Rising. That movie stars, was written produced and directed by Turner. It's a home movie about an aging, motorcycle-riding, country music lover with very little horror in it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095334...ef_=tt_trv_trv

Thank you for the clarification James - of course I should have checked out this background before posting my thoughts, but just went with my first impressions instead. Reading the IMDB page certainly offers some insight into precisely what (and who) went wrong though. IE, sounds as if poor old John Hough got absolutely shafted on this one.

Needless to say, Howling VII is not exactly high up my watch list at this point. In fact, even getting the copy of V I have lined up anywhere near the TV is going to be a tall order after the debacle of IV...

[James Reed]

[B]#1

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare
(John Hough, 1988)

John, Harry... what happened?

D-

Sorry to interrupt this thread, but I wanted to comment on this. You can read all the trivia on IMDb to get a better idea of what happened during production, but it boils down to writer and producer Clive Turner being a dick and changing everything John Hough did. If you really want to see an atrocious Howling film, check out (or don't) Howling VII: New Moon Rising. That movie stars, was written produced and directed by Turner. It's a home movie about an aging, motorcycle-riding, country music lover with very little horror in it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095334...ef_=tt_trv_trv

[JonesyTheCat]

02 - THE WOLFMAN 2010 unrated version.
A rewatch on a whim, my first since the theatrical release. Kind of fell in love with it, to be honest. Lighting, sets, the clench fisted seriousness...all worked for me big time this round.

03 - FROM BEYOND.
Straight up comfort food, absolutely delicious and satisfying.

04 - CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF Showed this to my younger film nut pal today, he loved every minutet of course.

05 - THE NIGHT STALKER
Ditto. First time view for my friend, who again, loved it.

[BW Haggar]

#3
The Curse of Frankenstein
(Terence Fisher, 1956)

So, amongst other things planned for this month, I thought it would be fun to revisit Hammer's Frankenstein series (or, the Fisher/Cushing installments, at least) in chronological order, given that I now have reasonable copies of them all, and my wife has never seen any of them.

I'm sure there's not much I can say about this one that hasn't been said before, but suffice to say, I'd forgotten what a great film it is; far less dated than I remembered, but still with some tremendous gothic visuals. Sangster's script is so sharp too, with a fantastic vein of black humour running through it - probably the best writing he ever did, and Cushing's performance really takes it to another level; his every gesture and facial expression here is just perfect.

Much as I love the 'Re-animator' series, everything in those films takes its cue from the relationship between Cushing and Robert Urquhart here (not least Frankenstein's hilarious "it's all YOUR fault" routine).

Our viewing on this occasion was paired with a couple of pints of milk stout, which seems like an appropriate choice. A great Sunday evening, all in all.

Turning to some A/V talk meanwhile, I recall being satisfied with the Icon/Lionsgate blu-ray when I bought it back in 2012, but then, I was probably still pretty dazzled by the idea of anything that looked remotely HD emerging from my TV at that point in time.

Revisiting it ten years later, the critics definitely had a point - it looks bloody awful to be honest. The decision to present the film in open matte 4:3 ratio seems totally inexplicable (there's way too much headroom in nearly every shot), and the colours are over-saturated whilst the detail is totally washed out, as if a restoration had been carried out on a badly faded theatrical print rather than original elements or whatever.

I'm assuming we'll be getting a new restoration sooner or later via Network, following the agreement they signed with Hammer earlier this year, so... bring it on please. I haven't checked out the Shout Factory disc, but on the basis of this viewing, I'm totally in for an upgrade.

A

[Newt Cox]

MOVIE 2
TITLE-Chinese Speaking Vampires



SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

Back last year in late September I was given this dvd. "Saw this and thought you might want to review it for you little Halloween horror movie reviews thing." I looked at the cover and title. Saw it was a fairly recent film and released by Echo Bridge and figured it would suck and stacked it into the "I might watch this one day pile".

Skip aheaad to today,there was nothing on DISH or the DVR. And I was uploading a video to one of my Youtube channels so I couldn't stream. Figured what the hell and threw in Chinese Speaking Vampires.

Davy Williams is our lead. He is a food delivery guy who is also a struggling actor. He goes to an audition but learns to get the role he needs to speak fluent Manderian. Knowing this movie might be his last chance to become a working actor he joins a local school to learn Manderian.

This school is ran by Sean Eden Yi,who you will remember from piles of movies and tv shows. Yi also helped plan the stunts in this movie. Yi teaches Manderian at a night class. After signing up for these classes Davy goes out to have a few drinks with 2 buddies. At this club they meet up with 2 ladies that are also in the Manderian class Davy is in.

Out of nowhere a bunch of CHINESE SPEAKING VAMPIRES invade the club. But thankfully a group of very Proud vampire killers,who are all mostly Boys enter the club.

Seems a Preacher knows that there is an invasion of Chinese Vampires and is trying to use his charisma to gather an army of vamprie hunters.

Over the next 30 minutes of the film Sean Eden Yi starts turning more and more of his students into Vampires. And one of the side effects of getting bitten by Yi is you can now speak fluent Manderian but also forget what ever langauge is your native tongue.

So your basic plot Yi's students vs the very PROUD and BOYish Vampire hunters.

Now the FX work goes from crappy CGI junk,like anytime a Vampire is stabbed with a wooden stake they become a PS1 era looking cloud of dust. But then there is a fight scene where our lead Davy punches one of the PROUD vampire hunters through the stomach and we get a legit well done practical FX work.

Acting wise the film is a mixed bag. Davy Williams is good as the lead,and he also produced and wrote the screen play. Daniella Brown on the other hand is wooden. She is Davy's romantic interest and is just bad. Sean Eden Yi is great as the teacher/leader of the Chinese Speaking Vampires. He has a odd sense of humor that just cracks me up. The surprise in the cast is June Lee. That is her on the cover in the plaid skirt. She manages to blend comedy and dram well. Appears to be having so much fun making the movie. Richard Gavigan is really great as Davy's buddy and the love interest of June Lee.

This DVD is bare bones. No extras at all. No subtitles no trailer no nothing but the film.

Chinese Speaking Vampires gets a C-

ANd Cody has Nosferatu
http://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.c...licks.html?m=1