31 Days of Horror X: 2024 Edition

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Just finished In a Violent Nature. Damn good. Love the kills. Like the look. Feels a lot like if one of the Paramount era Jason films got out totally uncut and unrated.

Am I the only one that thinks the Killer's mask makes him look like a Sleestak from Land of the Lost?

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

41 and 42 from today

Ernest Scared Stupid-I fucking love Jim Varney. And I see this movie at least 2 times a year every year. Big umb fun with a decent cast.

In a Violent Nature-Holy fuck. I heard of this heard it's gimmick and thought it wouldn't work well. Even watching it in three segments,between laundry and other stuff,it is worth seeing.

Slasher that has a gimmick and the gimmick works.

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Day 29: Halloween (2018). As we head into the home stretch, I'm finishing off the month, and this franchise as a whole, by doing the Blumhouse Halloween trilogy, starting with the 2018 reboot. I saw that, as well as the entire trilogy, in the theater and I absolutely loved it back then. However, while I do still enjoy it, the more I've watched it, the more flaws that have become apparent to me.

https://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.com/

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

41 and 42 from today

Ernest Scared Stupid-I fucking love Jim Varney. And I see this movie at least 2 times a year every year. Big umb fun with a decent cast.

In a Violent Nature-Holy fuck. I heard of this heard it's gimmick and thought it wouldn't work well. Even watching it in three segments,between laundry and other stuff,it is worth seeing.

Slasher that has a gimmick and the gimmick works.

Two posts in a row about the same film. Teach me to have 4 tabs open and not look at which one i post to.....

[Gary Banks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gary Banks]

Ratings: ack (honks on bobo) to 10. In bold 1st time viiewing, 1st time in ten years or I forgot when it was last viewed.

001-Die Sister, Die 4
002-The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals 1.5
003-Devil's Express 0.5
004-Dungeon of Horror 2.5
005-Lurkers ack!
006-In Search of Dracula 4
007-Dear Dead Delilah 6.5
008-Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism 9
009-Lifechanger 6.5
010-ABCs of Death 2 1.5
011-Xtro 3 Watch The Skies 4
012-God Told Me To 10
013-Strangler of Blackmoor Castle 10
014-Endgame 4
015-Asylum (1972) 6
016-The Beast Within 6.5
017-Almost Human (2014) 4.5
018-Wrong Turn 3 Left For Dead 4
019-We Are What We Are 3
020-A Ghost Waits 10
021-Curse of the Stone Hand 4
022-the Mad Monster 3
023-Beyond The Door 3
024-The Legacy (1978) 7
025-Spirits of the Dead 5
026-The Mask (1961) 7
027-Crypt of the Vampire 6
028-Late Night With The Devil 6
029-Blue Monkey (Insect!) 4
030-Doctor X 7.5
031-The Beach Girls and the Monster 1
032-Shock (aka Beyond the Door II) 3.5
033-The Crazies (2010) 8
034-The Catman of Paris 4.5
035-Xtro 6
036-The Slayer (82) 5
037-Legend of the Witches 4
038-The Black Abbot (1963) 10
039-Superbeast 6
040-The Witches Mountain 2
041-Castle of Blood (US cut) 10
042-Creepshow (82) 8
043-Scarecrow County 2
044-She Killed In Ecstacy 4
045-City of the Dead 10
046-Chilling Visions 3
047-The Veil (2016) 5.5
048-Monster Zero 4
049-Werewolf of London 7
050-Lake of the Dead 8.5
051-Warriors of the Wasteland ack!
052-Rabid (2019) 4
053-X The Unknown 7
054-Night of the Demon (1983) 6
055-The Curse of Frankenstein 10
056-I Walked With a Zombie 10
057-Found Footage 1
058-Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy 7
059-Village of the Damned (1960) 10

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

#33
In Search of Dracula
(Calvin Floyd, 1974)

Thought I would mix things up a bit this evening by watching this meandering, factually suspect documentary, spun off from the ‘70s non-fiction book of the same name.

Whilst it’s no match for the wonderfully eccentric BBC documentary ‘The Dracula Business’ from the same year, it nonetheless covers some of the same territory (quite literary, re: all the footage of Romanian folk customs etc) in a slightly more straight-laced, po-faced kind of fashion, and proved to be just as much of a quality mood piece as I had hoped - like the contents of a mouldy old ‘70s occult paperback transfigured into celluloid.

Christopher Lee narrates throughout, and also appears - sporting a mighty ‘tache - as both Dracula and Vlad Tepes, in a series of fictional vignettes / ‘historical reconstructions’; which I think might technically make this the last feature film in which Lee played Dracula, but don’t quote me on that.

In addition, we get plentiful clips from ‘Dracula Has Risen From The Grave’, from Al Adamson’s ‘Dracula vs Frankenstein’ (Sam Sherman executive produced this doc for release by Independent International), ‘Nosferatu’, Theda Bara in ‘The She Devil’ and, rather tenuously, about five minutes of footage from early Bela Lugosi-starring silent ‘The Midnight Girl’.

More substantive however is a huge quantity of genuinely evocative and very well shot travelogue footage taken in Romania and Hungary, hitting all of the tourist trail locations we’ve come to expect (Bran Castle, the Borgo Pass, the Nosferatu castle, Vienna etc), as well as some less familiar but equally picturesque sights. (Presumably all of this good stuff comes straight from the original Swedish TV film which was padded out to create the feature length, English language version of the doc.)

One particularly striking and well-shot ‘reconstruction’ sees a naked woman being led around a beautifully delapidated riverside cemetery on horseback by a pair of black-hooded monks, in order to demonstrate an alleged folkloric method of identifying vampires’ graves. Prety remarkable stuff, which, again, I'd assuming must be the work of the Swedish filmmakers.

Though no one with the slightest knowledge of horror or pop culture is liable to learn much from the well-trodden ground covered in Lee’s narration and the film’s rather vague narrative, it’s great to hear him enunciate his way through it all nonetheless, and this all certainly proved a great palette cleanser / mood-setter for the days ahead.

Oh, one fun new fact I did learn though - apparently, according to certain branches of Romanian folkore, a vampire is able to father children, but his offspring will be born “without bones”. Imagine that!

B+

[James Reed Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close James Reed]

#33
In Search of Dracula
(Calvin Floyd, 1974)

Christopher Lee narrates throughout, and also appears - sporting a mighty ‘tache - as both Dracula and Vlad Tepes, in a series of fictional vignettes / ‘historical reconstructions’; which I think might technically make this the last feature film in which Lee played Dracula, but don’t quote me on that.

Oh, one fun new fact I did learn though - apparently, according to certain branches of Romanian folklore, a vampire is able to father children, but his offspring will be born “without bones”. Imagine that!

B+

At the risk of pissing you off by quoting you, there is the 1976 French comedy Dracula and Son.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

https://doubletsblogofreviews.blogsp...30-im.html?m=0

Day 30 I'm dangerous tonight

Madchen Amick finds a piece of cloth in a trunk. It is evil and whoever wears it is super desiable to the opposite sex.

Goofy and a bit cheap. But not a turd from the great Tobe Hooper. Not the best film he directed. I would say it is better than Poltergeist,but come on Hooper really didn't direct that film.

[f.ramses Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close f.ramses]

10/29
102 - Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers
103 - The Screaming Skull
104 - The Haunting of Rosalind

When Loomis goes to the police station in Halloween 4 it really seems like they're setting up the fairly standard cops not believing and/or working in opposition of the protagonist thing, which I almost always find tiresome, but then, all of a sudden, the sheriff is on board. A somewhat minor detail that I really like about this one. The next two were from the recent The Classic Ghosts set from Kino Cult. As soon as The Screaming Skull started I noticed it had a soap opera-like feel that reminded me of Strange Paradise a bit. These are a bit talky but overall they're not bad and they've got a cool look to them despite the less than desirable source material. So far a good purchase and I'm thinking about checking out some of the extras which is very rare for me.

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

At the risk of pissing you off by quoting you, there is the 1976 French comedy Dracula and Son.

Thanks James - yes, I knew there would probably be something like that, but that what I get for posting these reviews when I'm too tired to fact-check...

[Vincent Dawn Jr Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Vincent Dawn Jr]

41 and 42 from today

Ernest Scared Stupid-I fucking love Jim Varney. And I see this movie at least 2 times a year every year. Big umb fun with a decent cast.

In a Violent Nature-Holy fuck. I heard of this heard it's gimmick and thought it wouldn't work well. Even watching it in three segments,between laundry and other stuff,it is worth seeing.

Slasher that has a gimmick and the gimmick works.

I don't remember which Ernest film it comes from (saw it when I was a young kid) but I've been quoting this line for what seems like an eternity: at some point either Ernest, or one of his buds is working at like a power plant or something, and he comes upon a sign that says "DO NOT ENTER." He reads it and says, "Donut entry? Well I sure could go for a donut right about now," and proceeds to open the door as alarms start going off. It got burned into my brain so that every time I see that sign I say that line, ha ha ha.

[Vincent Dawn Jr Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Vincent Dawn Jr]

Night #29 - Open 24 Hours

Pretty good modern slasher film from 2018 about a paranoid schizophrenic young woman that goes to work at a gas station on the graveyard shift. The young lady had an abusive ex-boyfriend that roped her into his crime spree and she did a little prison time, but she's since been released and is trying to straighten out her life. Problem is, the boyfriend may have escaped from prison and might be stalking her...or is it all part of her delusional thinking?

With a good premise, and a fair amount of gore, this is a fun watch. Unfortunately, they ran out of steam at the very end. It's like they weren't quite sure how to rap it all up, but it's still worth checking out.

Rating: 6/10

[Gary Banks Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gary Banks]

Ratings: ack (honks on bobo) to 10. In bold 1st time viiewing, 1st time in ten years or I forgot when it was last viewed.

001-Die Sister, Die 4
002-The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals 1.5
003-Devil's Express 0.5
004-Dungeon of Horror 2.5
005-Lurkers ack!
006-In Search of Dracula 4
007-Dear Dead Delilah 6.5
008-Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism 9
009-Lifechanger 6.5
010-ABCs of Death 2 1.5
011-Xtro 3 Watch The Skies 4
012-God Told Me To 10
013-Strangler of Blackmoor Castle 10
014-Endgame 4
015-Asylum (1972) 6
016-The Beast Within 6.5
017-Almost Human (2014) 4.5
018-Wrong Turn 3 Left For Dead 4
019-We Are What We Are 3
020-A Ghost Waits 10
021-Curse of the Stone Hand 4
022-the Mad Monster 3
023-Beyond The Door 3
024-The Legacy (1978) 7
025-Spirits of the Dead 5
026-The Mask (1961) 7
027-Crypt of the Vampire 6
028-Late Night With The Devil 6
029-Blue Monkey (Insect!) 4
030-Doctor X 7.5
031-The Beach Girls and the Monster 1
032-Shock (aka Beyond the Door II) 3.5
033-The Crazies (2010) 8
034-The Catman of Paris 4.5
035-Xtro 6
036-The Slayer (82) 5
037-Legend of the Witches 4
038-The Black Abbot (1963) 10
039-Superbeast 6
040-The Witches Mountain 2
041-Castle of Blood (US cut) 10
042-Creepshow (82) 8
043-Scarecrow County 2
044-She Killed In Ecstacy 4
045-City of the Dead 10
046-Chilling Visions 3
047-The Veil (2016) 5.5
048-Monster Zero 4
049-Werewolf of London 7
050-Lake of the Dead 8.5 #16
051-Warriors of the Wasteland ack!
052-Rabid (2019) 4
053-X The Unknown 7
054-Night of the Demon (1983) 6
055-The Curse of Frankenstein 10
056-I Walked With a Zombie 10
057-Found Footage 3D 1
058-Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy 7
059-Village of the Damned (1960) 10
060-Mom & Dad 3.5
061-Here Comes The Devil 6

[Cody Layne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cody Layne]

Day 30: Halloween Kills. Despite the oft-repeated mantra, evil does anything but die tonight here. While this movie is definitely entertaining for those who want to see Michael Myers fucking people up for almost two hours, and the kills themselves are indeed awesome, the rest of it falls flat due to dumb characters doing dumb things (even for a slasher movie, the amount of it is egregious), Laurie Strode being side-lined for the duration, overwritten, philosophical dialogue, and an attempt at social commentary that is far too heavy-handed.

https://codysfilmandtvblog.blogspot.com/

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

#34
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave
(Freddie Francis, 1968)

A few years back, I put together a post on my blog counting down Hammer’s vampire films from best to worst, in which I was very uncharitable about a number of the earlier Dracula movies.

As I’ve revisited them all subsequently though, I keep wanting to revise my opinions and push them all up the list. In fact, at this point I’d say the only one I still don’t like is ‘Scars..’; the others all have a lot to recommend them, assuming you can overlook some moments of silliness, and ‘..Risen From The Grave’, which I’d previously written off as a bit of a mediocre effort, is no exception.

True, there are various absurdities baked into John Elder/Tony Hinds’ script, some shoddy budgetary corner-cutting here and there, and a lot of repetitive farting about during the middle act… but, these issues are more than made up for by great production design, lurid, gel-heavy photography and some startlingly powerful pop-gothic imagery - Freddie Francis on top form, back in the days when he still cared.

Rupert Davies, Barry Andrews, Barbara Ewing and (of course) Michael Ripper all help breathe life into some fairly diverting human drama whilst the count is AWOL, and when he does show up, well - as much as Lee might have belly-ached about it afterwards, he still does fine work here, ensuring Dracula remains a menacing, implacable threat throughout, and delivering some satisfyingly frenzied eroticism as he gets stuck into the necks of Ewing and Veronica Carlson.

Throw in an absolutely banging James Bernard score, and you’d be hard pressed to argue that this is anything other than classic Hammer business, despite its flaws.

A-