YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... So here it is! Halloween! And the last night of this blog series. It's been a bit of a challenge watching and writing up thoughts on one movie every single day but overall it's been a lot of fun. I've seen some really good stuff (What We Do In The Shadows, Silhouette), had some undemanding fun with others (Black Room, Countdown), finally watched some classics (Dracula) and experienced some real abominations (I, Frankenstein, VHS Viral). On Hal
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Dealing with grief can be a potent subject for horror movies. Losing a loved one – especially a child – is something that has been explored in a number of genre films down the years, most recently in Ari Aster's Hereditary (and Midsommar to a lesser extent). Sure, exploring grief doesn't usually make for a 'fun' viewing experience but it can be so harrowing and oppressive that there's little wonder that more film-makers use it as a basis for t
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Horror has always played on the fears of society. From nuclear holocaust to religious extremism to mistrust in Government (all of these are still as relevant as ever by the way). Technology is another subject that can excite and terrify in equal measure. Iphones, fitbits and Netflix are all cool for sure but where does it all end? Errr, hello! Skynet! Films such as 'Unfriended' and 'Friend Request' may have explored the horror of social media
Last night’s episode of the Walking Dead felt like an opportunity for the show to focus on some of the B-story threads that are simmering away in the background. Inc event weeks, conflict between the colonists and the Whisperers has taken centre stage, along with some backstory to Alpha and Beta. The two groups seem on the verge of all out war again and it’s really just a matter of when not if a full scale conflict rages again. However, sometimes you just need an episode to breathe and to gather your thoughts and that’s what we got in episode four. There are a lot of characters in The Waking Dead, despite the numbers lost when Alpha had a load of their heads stuck on sticks. For some of th
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I decided to try something a little different tonight. Instead of watching a feature film I opted to binge watch a few episodes of a Netflix series that I have heard very mixed reviews on over the course of the last year or so. Haunted, which premiered on the streaming service at the back end of last year has currently finished it's second season. It's caused quite a bit of controversy too with some viewing the docudrama as a chilling retellin
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I've always loved slasher movies. Halloween and Scream remain two of my favourite horror movies of all time to this day and in fact it was the latter that really got me properly into the genre, when I first saw it aged 12. I loved that film so much that I promptly bought the scream mask and found great joy in hiding in wardrobes and behind doors and jumping out on my little sister, who was far from impressed, as you'd imagine. There's somethin
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... It seems as if every month there is a Stephen King adaptation being released. On the site we shared the trailer for the new TV series 'The Outsider', based on one of King's most recent efforts and news also broke recently that Lisey's Story is being adapted into a feature film. On top of that we had the IT sequel released a few months back and Doctor Sleep hits theatres next week too. King has co-written several novellas with his son, author a
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I'm one of those people who likes to think that he always tries to find the good in something. Actually, that's not true – I'm not a big fan of most people in general. But if I were to visit an animal rehoming centre and was on the lookout for a new dog, I'd most likely pick the one that looked most sorry for itself and dejected. The one that no one else wanted. I'm a bit like that with movies too. If I see a movie is getting pelted then I'll
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... The other day I watched a film (Wolves at the Door) that had garnered a lot of animosity since its release. I’m a sucker for going against the grain so I thought I’d try another one that has, generally speaking, been written off as an abject failure. As mentioned in previous posts I have always had a soft spot for found footage horror and quite liked VHS and VHS 2 - two anthology FF films that whilst a bit uneven, contained some effectively un
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Now there’s a title to fire up the imagination of the average genre fan. “The Man Who” (we’ll keep it shortened to keep our carbon footprint small) is one of those films that scored plenty of attention and acclaim at film festivals but is little known beyond that. That’s even with that fantastic title and the fact that it stars the great Sam Elliott and the Brit star of the BBC “Poldark” revival as the eponymous hero. It was written/directed/p
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... There have been a lot of films about Charles Manson and his cult of loony followers over the years. Helter Skelter, Manson are a couple – and more recently we've had The Haunting of Sharon Tate and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. We have also had a TV show too (Aquarius, starring David Duchovny). The Family were undoubtedly one of the kost famous and intriguing cults that have ever existed within North America and it seems t
After last week's exploration of the relationship between Alpha and Beta, we switched our attention back to the good guys. The opening montage shows us that they're having to deal with wave after wave of walker attacks. They assume that it's the work of The Whisperer's (although Lydia disagrees). The colonists fight what seems like a neverending battle – but it's not a battle they can realistically keep fighting. The battle rages for the best part of two days and the Alexandrians are close to complete exhaustion when news arrives, in the form of Gamma. Alpha wants to meet at the border. You know, that fun place with all the spikes that used to have people's heads on? After a little village m
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Here’s a movie that looked like it might have been a sleeper hit last Halloween in the States, with a strong female cast, production by Gale Anne Hurd, and a pretty good central concept… except it wasn’t. Very mixed reviews and a lacklustre box-office meant it never even opened in UK cinemas on its intended release date, and it slinked quietly onto home media after a while. It was directed by Gregory Plotkin, who also made the VERY disappointi
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... If there is an American equivalent of the UK’s beloved zombie romp-com “Shaun of the Dead”, then it probably has to be 2009’s “Zombieland”. A breakneck feel-good pastiche on the undead apocalypse, it was the biggest grossing zombie film in the states until “World War Z” released waves of CGI snapping corpses in 2013. The secret to its success was the top-notch cast (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin), along with
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... Ok so after all the sleazy fun I had with 'Art of the Dead' I thought that I might try something a little more serious, a little more horrific. I didn't seek out anything torture porny (honest) but that's what I ended up with. In part, because it was one of my Cinema Paradiso rentals and I need to play catch up with them a bit. The film in question, House with 100 Eyes, was one that I had added to my list several years ago and when it arrived
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... A lot of horror films take themselves pretty seriously nowadays. Which is good. Horror isn't really meant to be funny or 'light' but there's always been a place for over-the-top, trashy fun within the genre. B movies obviously filled that hole in the 70's and 80's and I guess the modern equivalent of that is the ridiculously disposable junk that the SyFy channel are responsible for. You know the ones; Sharknado, Piranhaconda, Mansquito or any
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... When you think of the most iconic villains of modern times, we as horror fans tend to think of characters like Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees etc. However if you spread the net a little wider you have big guns like Darth Vader, Hans Gruber and Hans Landa (what's with the name Hans?!). Another one to add to the list is Batman's arch nemesis, The Joker. It's a role that has been played by several actors over the years but most famou
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... I've seen a few shoddy movies during my '31 Days; efforts so far but this one is up there with the worst. The most disappointing thing is that I really liked the first Urban Legend movie. Released as part of a clutch of slasher movie off the back of the success of Wes Craven's 'Scream', it had a great cast, didn't take itself too seriously and was just a lot of fun. Most people don't agree with that viewpoint, but hey, who cares. The second Ur
YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE... My 31 Days of Halloween picks are a mixture of dads that I have owned but not seen yet, titles from streaming services such as Netflix and Prime) and also good old fashioned DVD rentals (from Cinema Paradiso). For the latter, I get two discs at a time and one of these was I, Frankenstein - which was as crap as I had feared it would be. The second title I have been holding off watching due to the fact I wasn’t sure if I could count it as a ‘hor
As much as I respected this evening's episode, I could have lived quite happily without it to be honest. I understand that there was a desire amongst many fans to know a bit more about the backstory of Beta and Alpha and their origins but I'm one of those people that likes a bit of mystery. It makes them infinitely more intriguing and sinister. I don't need to know how they met or how their bond is forged. It's one of the reasons that despite the fact the wisecracking and shithousery of Negan can be a bit much sometimes, the show has still not fully explained his backstory or who he was before the apocalypse – and I like that. Still, everyone loves an origin story nowadays don't they and epi
