2025 Halloween Spooktacular begins. In which I watch a horror or Halloween themed movie every day. Doubling up today to catch up.
Will they be crap? Will they be classics? Will they be some dusty forgotten for a purpose slice of awfulness once believed gone from this world? You’ll have to wait and find out, as it’s not like I’ve made a list or owt. That’s effort. I will endeavour to remember how I’m watching it (beyond on my telly via the medium of my eyes).
Tonight’s Double Feature of Fear? From the DVD Shelf of Mild Trepidation, we have the 1988 remake of The Blob and 1974’s The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue
Check back later (or don’t) to see how I get on.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The Blob.
Now that is how you remake a B-Movie. Fantastic effects, but doesn’t pretend to be high brow. It takes what made the original a classic, and elevates it to something truly special.
The gore effective, but used quite sparingly so it never really loses its impact. Indeed, the Blob deals with its victims in a variety of ways. Lovely stuff!
Automatically Appended Next Post: The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue.
A superior example of Italian Zombie Flicks. Notably one with a clear, declared cause for the Undedening. It’s an experimental sonic radiation treatment for farmland, intended to kill parasites and insects in the soil.
Lovely slow staggering Zombies, and a cast that are game for the inherent silliness. Importantly, this has a superb atmosphere.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why Manchester? Probably so lazy comedy slags like myself can make lazy jokes about “and eventually all the shambolic, brain dead fiends are sent back to the grave, except for two that go on to offend music fans everywhere by becoming Oasis”.
For the third day of the 2025 Halloween Spooktacular, it’s the aptly named Halloween III, Season of the Witch
The Halloween film series was originally intended as an annual anthology. But the wild success of the original Halloween saw it instead focus on Michael Myers.
So this, the intended second film was bumped back a year, became the third, and the only entry not to feature Michael Myers.
Therefore it stands as a right mis-shape. In itself it’s really quite enjoyable, but in another world probably should’ve been released independent of the Halloween series.
Hair (dir. Forman, 1979) A film adaptation of the 1967 Musical. It isn't awful but it feels disjointed, but that is because the play was a bunch of loosely connected song and dance vignettes that were all aimed at protesting repressive social norms of the time and the Vietnam war draft. When they made the movie the filmmakers grafted an artificial narrative on to it so had to come up with ungainly transitions and fantasy sequences. The war and the draft were also over so it doesn't really hit the same. You can definitely see how the play would have had a huge impact on the cultural zeitgeist, though it is admittedly now more of a time capsule, the film a bit less than the play as the play was of its time whereas the movie is a decade past it. The film also holds back on elements of the play, such as the nudity and drug use, so is a kind of "We've got Hair at home" vibe. The songs that are memorable are memorable for a reason, though I find recordings not from the play/movie to be the better versions such as The Fifth Dimension's Age of Aquarius, though that could be attributed to familiarity and use in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Because of the added narrative structure many of the songs are truncated and rearranged as well.
In the play Claude is one of the members of the hippies and gets his draft card and in the movie they changed him to a Oklahoma farm boy coming to MEPS in New York where he encounters the hippies. In the play it makes more sense why he does what he does instead of the film where within hours of getting off the bus he is dosing, getting high, partying,, and getting lost in Central Park. In the play Claude decides to show up to MEPS and is shipped off to Vietnam where he is killed and in the film the leader of the hippies, Berger, sneaks on to the base and trades places with Claude so he can see the group one last time before being shipped out and while posing as Claude the unit is activated and he is the one sent of to Vietnam and dies.
It isn't awful but and the more familiar you are with the play the more problems you'll have with the film, most likely.
Edit: MEPS: Military Entrance Processing Station. I don't even know if they call it that anymore.
Kid_Kyoto wrote: This was Mrs Kyoto recommendation - Cells at Work (Netflix)
The main characters are a red and white blood cell, and they're in love and together they fight crime. And viruses. And leukemia.
There's also a 2 season anime and 6 volume manga.
Worth a watch.
Saw this last month. It's fun by itself, but it's more fun if you're already read the manga series and seen the TV anime. The manga are used in medical schools in Japan, because the science is so good.
Downton Abbey, The Grand Finale
Time bimbles on to 1930 for the world-wide popular saga of British toffs and their servants getting dragged into the 20th century. The formula is unchanged; superb locations, props and costumes inhabited by a talented cast delivering somewhat cheesy lines. If you loved the TV series and the previous films you should definitely watch this. Otherwise stick to the 2002 production of The Forsyte Saga.
2025 Halloween Spooktacular Day 4 - All Hallow’s Eve
Streaming on Shudder. This is a horror anthology movie. Framing sequences are based on a kid being given a mysterious VHS tape in his trick or treat bag.
This is also where Art The Clown and the Terrifier film series began. Normally I’m an absolute sucker for this sort of thing.
This isn’t great, but isn’t without its charm. Leans too much into gore without working on its atmosphere for my preferences. But….the effects are practical, and it’s clearly people trying their best. Just sadly? Their best isn’t terribly good.
A stone cold classic. Exceptional performances, solid story, phenomenal VFX.
If you’ve ever been curious about David Cronenberg’s work, this is the place to start. It’s not as wacky as his other offerings but does give you a solid idea of the competent weirdness he’s known for.
Predator 2
Alien v Predator
Aliens v Predator: Requiem
Predators
Alien: Romulus
Strangely, Requiem reminded me of all the things wrong with Alien: Earth... namely the lack of horror replaced with hack and slash monsters.
I watched all these as the director of Alien: Romulus has hinted at doing his own AvP film, and I enjoyed Romulus (even if it doesn't fit into the Alien: Earth timeline, unless Science Officer Rook is lying about when the Company first encountered the Xenomorph.)
Alien Earth very much seems to have decided to wander off and do its own thing with regards to what history there was established before. Like saying that corporations run everything and there aren't national (or supranational to be more accurate) governments anymore.
Meanwhile in Aliens you have the United States Colonial Marine Corps, the main military arm of the United Americas, who had the authority to literally nuke a Weyland Yutani colony if they felt it was necessary. And the highest ranking officer on that mission was a Lieutenant.
In the tabletop RPG, curated from the disparate lore of the movies, the comics, the books, the video games etc., you have 3 main power players in the Alien universe, the United Americas, the Three World Empire, and the Union of Progressive Peoples. These formed towards the end of the 21st century, and reclaimed some of the power that megacorps like WY had managed to collect by advancing extra-solar colonisation as private enterprises, though obviously corps still had major economic, and thus political, power. Alien Earth is set in 2120, so these governments should be established by that point.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: In the years between Alien Earth and Aliens, it’s possible there was a societal shift back toward some semblance of democracy, hence USMC.
Except for the fact that the USMC exists in Alien Romulus, so you've got an even shorter window.
And in Alien and Alien Earth both the Maginot and the Nostromo have "United States" in their ship registry.
Andy's video game has a soldier with a pulse rifle shooting bugs.
[Andy tosses him a rifle]
Tyler: Right, this is an F44AA pulse rifle. It's rotating breech, electronic pulse action. It's what the Colonial Marines used. AA stands for Aiming Assist. So, right, you put that under your arm. That's it. Right, this hand here. All right. Aim it towards Andy. Pull the trigger halfway. Don't worry, the safety's on. See? Aiming assistance. If that thing comes towards you, you point it in it's general direction, you'll never miss.
Rain: Where'd you learn all this?
Tyler: Uh... Games and magazines. You've just got one mag. That's it. 450 rounds.
Like how the British East India Company once had a huuuuuge private army, which was latterly absorbed into the British Army.
Since Alien Earth exists in a parallel timeliness unrelated to the other films in the series (Prometheus, Covenant, Romulus), we don't have to worry about how it changes the Canon.
Hawley:
“I think we’re telling a parallel story,” he said. “I’m not actively engaging with the films themselves in terms of who’s on the other end of the phone or that idea. So I’m not looking to connect it to those movies literally. I think it’s more taking the elements of original films and expanding them for my own purposes. And it’s sort of remarkable how little mythology there is to a franchise that’s six movies deep. … All we really know about the way humanity is organized is that it’s built around a corporation, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. And so I just expanded that to more of a corporate power struggle.”
Hawley:
“I think that for me, other than the shark in ‘Jaws,’ this is the most iconic monster in all of film history. And I lived for whatever, 28 years of my life believing that this creature was the perfect organism that had evolved over millions of years,” he said. “And then Ridley made ‘Prometheus’ and engaged with another idea in terms of the origin of these creatures, that it wasn’t part of my DNA of what these movies were to me. And so I chose not to engage with that part of the story and to just sort of speak to the alien that I had encoded
That's not what that means, they're saying they're telling a story alongside what has already been made and touching on parts they want to include without the overarching "X must align with Z and Y must not be present".
Not really a film, just a collection of 6 short animated films with horror or Horrorific elements.
You can really tell this is Russian/East European, because Dystopian societies seem the norm and feel really lived in and well understood in these. I believe Metra Films is Russian animators but I could be wrong.
This Dystopian element made it a bit more impactful. I particularly enjoyed the Cyberpunk and the Final Dystopian film.
Dystopian? This won Film of the Year at the Eastern European Academy of Joy. It swept the Russian Sunshine Smile-Time Awards’ Most Optimistic and Best Outlook categories.
Werewolves (2024)- Have you ever wanted to watch a werewolf movie where everyone becomes a werewolf if they see the moon, the werewolves have no special immunities, and they only turn for one night once a year or so under a supermoon?
This is the purge, if it traded it's light social commentary for a bunch of werewolf suits. Everything happens in one night. It's okay, but not nearly as werewolfy as I expected in a movie called 'Werewolves'.I do very much enjoy that all the main werewolves get one piece of signature clothing or armor that expands when they become a werewolf so you can keep track of them.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Dystopian? This won Film of the Year at the Eastern European Academy of Joy. It swept the Russian Sunshine Smile-Time Awards’ Most Optimistic and Best Outlook categories.
I thought all Russian films were happy and joyful.
This is fine. Good fun, but not quite as fun as you feel it should be. Possibly the last time Eddie Murphy was charming rather than irritating?
Nah, that would be Dolemite Is My Name from 2019, where he is playing Rudy Ray Moore.
Great film about one of the real characters of blaxploitation movies. Fans of Red Letter Media will likely be familiar as they did a whole best of the worst spotlight on one of his films, Petey Wheatstraw.
Eddie just gets the character, this carny hustler trying every way he can to grind his way to the top be it in music, comedy, and then, finally, movies.
I’ll take your word for it, but there’s little argument he went from Hot Stuff to Barely Tepid across his career.
On to…
The Conjuring 4, Last Rites
I’ve seen the others, so figured I might as well see this one.
The whole series is kinda Upper Mediocrity. I’ve seen worse, but I’ve also seen a lot better. The main thing is I know I’m in for a largely enjoyable time.
If something like Bring Her Back or Weapons to name two recent excellent ones are a Steak Dinner, cooked perfectly medium rare with all the trimmings by your favourite Granny? The Conjuring films are Burger King. A good bit more effort than most long running series, but still junk food at the end of the day. And thanks to the fresh chunky veggies in the Whopper, somewhat better for you than a McDonalds.
OK. I was exceptionally sceptical of this one. Not only were the first three written by masters, but one does not simply replace Leslie Nielsen.
But you can. If it’s Liam Neeson. He’s got the delivery pitch perfect. It’s not quite deadpan. It’s not quite farce. It’s…..well I guess it’s just Police Squad! Playing it straight with a very slightly exaggeration and knowingness. The silliness clear to see, but never really acknowledged in-universe.
The background gags are subtle, and not something we’re smashed over the head with. The word play too is just taken in everyone’s stride.
I happened to watched The Naked Gun last night, and I'm pretty positive about it as well. I can't say I had any concerns beforehand. Liam Neeson is above doubt, after all.
Stars Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. So of course it’s a horror. But also kinda sci-fi.
It’s an odd film, as it has an almost Pulp Fiction structure, with three threads initially separate eventually coming together. So not one for background watching, you need to give it your full attention. If you do, you will be rewarded with something really quite original.
Not quite as scary as it could’ve been, it’s still very much worth a watch. Which you can do on Prime.
Uhhh... ever seen a movie that tries really hard to be quirky and just ends up being really fething dumb?
I just finished The Menu. A movie where people just accept the fact that they are going to be murdered, and seem generally okay with it, and just hang out until the end of the movie.
Anna Taylor-Joy was mediocre at best, and I do not wish this film on anyone.
Feels like an ancient tale that would take a few minutes to tell a round a campfire but has been stretched out to make a movie.
Possibly written to be half-watched out of the corner of one’s eye. I watched it while cuddling the cat.
Where do they keep getting the horses from? Why if wearing cheap sunglasses protects you from magic don’t the evil Church wear some form of less easily removed eye protection all the time? Why are those guys digging a giant pit outside the only human city? How did your horses get across the chasm?
Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff star in this comedy horror.
Price is Waldo Trumbull, drunkard and failing Funeral Director. To drum up business, he turns to murder and recycling the firms only coffin.
Opening scene involves a corpse being unceremoniously tipped out of the coffin into the grave to the sound of a Swanee Whistle, then speeded up film as Trumbull and his assistant fill in the grave, dust off the coffin and leave the scene. Which means we’re off to a truly terrific start.
Price is on top form here, delivering venomous lines to his unloved wife with glee and panache.
Available on Prime, and very very much worth your time, even if just for Price’s excellent delivery alone. Every cast member is having a ball, delivering performances suited to the finest stage.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Definitely lives up to its name with a barrage of some of the smartest dumb jokes I've seen in years.
Transformers: One
Been meaning to catch this one for a while and its definitely an underrated gem. I'm not super thrilled with the voice acting which definitely steers it more as a kids film but the story is extremely satisfying. Definitely worth checking out for fans of any era of this toy brand.
Extremely atmospheric and well done haunting story. Available on Shudder, I’d call it essential viewing.
V/H/S Halloween
The now long running, low budget, somewhat experimental anthology horror film series continues.
It’s rarely short on inventiveness, which keeps me coming back. However? Results can vary wildly. Because inventive doesn’t always mean good. Or necessarily interesting.
But when a segment is good? It tends to be very, very good. And most are just on the right side of entertaining silliness.
Kinda like 2000ad. The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic is the proving ground for up and coming UK comic writers, inkers and artists. A given prog will have four or five ongoing strips. Sometimes every single strip is right up your alley. Other times, for me anyway, it’s really just Judge Dredd I’m enjoying. But the important thing is it’s forever an outlet for new talent, and damn proud of it.
Yeah, anthologies aren't easy. I recently watched Satanic Hispanics, a 2022 horror anthology. Two out of four segments didn't work for me. I couldn't even say what the point of one of them was. But the other two were an absolute blast and well worth the time.
And now for something completely different. I was subjected to The Langoliers the other day. I saw a small part of it back in the day but only got to see the whole thing now. Better late than never, right? Well, maybe not. It's decent enough, if noticeably slow. And I know it's unfair to say something like this about a 1995 movie likely shot on a made for TV budget, but the CGI... well, The Asylum has better effects than that. I wasn't caught by surprise since I actually saw the eponymous critters back in the day, and I don't think I was impressed back then either. But it's definitely something that has not aged well and provoked unrestrained laughter throughout that sequence. Kind of unfortunate because whatever atmosphere the movie managed to build up to that point went straight out of the window and made the comparatively brief wrap up feel exceptionally slow and drawn out. I was just done at that point.
Available on Prime, and very very much worth your time, even if just for Price’s excellent delivery alone. Every cast member is having a ball, delivering performances suited to the finest stage.
Yeah, that one was really good fun.
I think I once watched half a VHS film, but decided it wasn't for me.
Langoliers the miniseries is a so-bad-it’s-good classic thanks to the dynamic duo of Bronson Pinchot and cocaine. So many of his scenes are gold it’s hard to list them all. The line of the movie is, of course, this:
Edit: oh hey, someone made the Pinchot/Toomey cut:
Check out his business table delusion with Stephen King near the end. Classic.
It is what it looks like, and that makes it a fun time. A perfectly schlocky Scifi original kind of movie with better production values and a fair bit of fun watching soldiers get eaten by Dinosaurs. Honestly it's a lot like Legendary's King Kong but I'd argue is actually a better movie? Not like, because it's 'better' but simply because it's more proud of being a schlocky excuse to watch monsters eat guys and guys to shoot guns.
Tron: Ares wasn't as bad as the box office makes it out to be and while certainly not great it is fine. Leto isn't awful, just miscast, and the movie is full of things that make you think how if they had done things a little different here and there it could have been quite good. The devil is in the details and they seemed to have skipped over a lot of things. For instance programs look like their programmer or user, so why does Ares look like Leto? There is no one else in the film at any point that remotely resembles and the villain initially his user is Evan Peters who looks nothing like Leto.
Still the sound and visual design are great and really spark the imagination. If you can see it on a full IMAX or big dolby screen with full chair shaking sound system it is worth the ride, but if it is a normal theater I don't think it will be much different than seeing it on a decent home set up.
Spoiler:
There was a good line when one of the bad programs, Athena, kills Gillian Anderson in the real world and tells her "We've died thousands of times for The Grid, you only have to do it once."
1981 Anthology Horror, in which some Naughty Men steal a VHS tape from a shop, and upon watching it find its short horror films.
A US/UK collab, this is honestly pretty good. Not as gory as horror would become, but effective enough. Not quite on a par with my beloved Amicus Portmanteaus, this is still a solid effort.
Middle segment was apparently translated into a full feature starring Charisma Carpenter.
Available to view on Amazon Prime.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Any my slasher film collection has now expanded to 58 volumes.
Currently screening The Town That Dreaded Sundown, with Uncle Sam for afters.
I’ve also picked up Prey (no, not that one) and Bad Channels.
So that’s me sorted to the end of the week.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The Town That Dreaded Sundown really, really needs to pick a theme.
The attacks are pretty straight up slasher. Not especially graphic, but not “just off screen”.
Then we cut to the Police and Texas Ranger trying to catch the killer, where it’s all a bit tongue in cheek, portraying silliness akin the Sheriff in Porkies, nearly verging on Police Squad.
Easy E wrote: I assume this is not the newer version of The Town That Dreaded Sundown?
Is this the movie with the trombone kill?
No it’s not.
Yes it is.
In that order.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Uncle Sam
90’s slasher, in which an Undead Veteran, killed by friendly fire terrorises his hometown when his remains are flown home for burial.
Isaac Hayes stars as one of our protagonists.
Much better than The Town That Dreaded Sundown, and reminiscent in style and substance of Maniac Cop (which I really need to watch again soon. Got it and its sequel on DVD). Which, a cursory google reveals is probably down to being made by the same creative team.
In the best slasher tradition, he goes around offing people that don’t meet his moral standards. Only he’s a psychotic wrong’un that abused his sister and nephew.
There’s also an underlying, unfortunately underplayed anti-war theme here. It’s not preachy as such and is in its own way measured. But it doesn’t really commit to it. For instance, it’s revealed Uncle Sam, the killer, was always a psychotic wrong’un. So it’s not trying to portray how the military can turn pretty normal people into veterans that struggle to adapt to civvy street.
I’d honestly be interested in what an actual Vet makes of its tone and message.
