A New Nightmare - The Rolling Horror Thread 2016 Reborn

So far I have watched (not all horror, some just generally Halloween-y) -

The Blair Witch Project
Blair Witch 2 Book Of Shadows
Final Girls
Urban Legend
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Monster House
Kill List
The Witch
An American Werewolf In London
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
A Nightmare On Elm Street
Evil Dead 2
The Lost Boys
The Monster Squad
It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
What We Do In The Shadows
Beetlejuice
Ghostbusters (2016)
Poultrygeist
Only Lovers Left Alive
Slither
Demons

Got some catching up to do this weekend!

Off to see halloween on the big screen tonight, have never seen it on the bg screen :slight_smile:

Totally agree with AllOfThemWitches, that is a really nice list. Plan on re-watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre soon myself, as I got the sequel on Blu-Ray earlier this year and am only just getting round to watching it. Never seen it before - I know it’s supposed to be very different, but I’m definitely up for it…

Is the second Blair Witch as bad as its reputation?

American werewolf in London is a great shout, man that fucking terrified me when I was young

How about some more foreign films that might actually scare you? Rec, Martyrs, Reincarnation, Suspiria, Bedevilled, Audition, Naboer, Hausu or Uzumaki? Or classics like In the Mouth of Madness, From Beyond or Braindead. Or newer stuff like The Canal, Southbound or Deathgasm? Any of my favourite films basically. :smirk:

I re-watched The Addams Family last weekend when I was in bed, proper hungover. Raul Julia is proper hammy, but he’s obviously having the best time ever as Gomez - fucking brilliant. Such a talent, shame he’s no longer with us.

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I love basically everything in that film :+1:

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Raul Julia as Gomez Addams is one of my absolute favourite performances ever, he’s having an absolute riot and is so much fun! :slight_smile:
Cara Mia

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Tish! That’s French!

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Watched at the weekend…

Doghouse - not necessarily a film I would have gone out of my way to watch, but it was on The Horror Channel at 9pm and therefore won by default. A British zombie flick trying to ride the coat tails of Shaun Of The Dead’s success, this features a surprisingly decent cast - Stephen Graham, Noel Clarke, Neil Maskell, Danny Dyer (!). To put a new spin in the zombie genre the twist is that only women are affected by the virus, which leads to some ‘amusing’ female stereotype zombie creations and some ‘hilarious’ lad banter of the nature of:

‘What kind of virus only affects women?’ ‘Bird flu?’
‘Now is not the time to stop objectifying women’

And so on. The set up is actually ok, but the ending is very weak and there are too many characters in the group of lads to really care about, plus it is borderline misogynistic at times. 4/10

Lights Out - a full length version of the genuinely creepy short film from a couple of years back, this feels as though it had to pad the story quite considerably even to go to its 80 minute runtime. That said, the basic premise of playing on our fear of the dark makes for some fairly scary set pieces (although come on guys - you never go in the basement). Plus Maria Bello is in this, and she’s been criminally underused in films recently for some reason. 6/10

If you’ve not seen the short film, it’s definitely worth two minutes of your time:

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Watched the 4th Phantasm film last night, in preparation for going to see the new one tomorrow. At this point, my excitement levels are coronary-incident high. Totally expecting to be disappointed but
from what I’ve heard, if you’re a fan of the series, it’s a good send-off. Am probably being naïve in expecting any real resolution to all the dangling plot-threads from the other films, but hopefully there’ll be some sense offinality to it all.

In other news, have been making my way through a ‘Monster of Frankenstein’ comic collection that Marvel put out a while back. Been reading these with my son, and we’ve both been blown away by just how ridiculous some of the stories are. If you’re a fan of 70s monster comics, this is well worth checking out. Highlights include a multi-part story in which various people’s brains get switched back and forth between bodies, resulting at one point in an installment in which the monster roams the streets of New York with a mouse’s brain. Yes, you read that right – body of a monster, brain of a mouse; another story in which the monster teams up with a young woman to prevent a presidential assassination on a train and yesterday’s installment which featured Frankie teaming up with Jack Russell aka Werewolf by Night, to defeat a Satanic cult. Just fantastic…

So, got to see the new Phantasm film last night, along with the remastered original. It was very cool to see the original on the big-screen – it’s a film I’ve seen a lot, but never before in a cinema. TBH, the remastered nature of proceedings pretty much passed me by, although the sound did sound incredible being blasted through a proper set-up. As for the new one… I pretty much loved it. Sure, if you want to be picky, I guess you could find plenty to fault, but it’s clearly intended for fans of the series, and I think most of what it does works really well. For the fifth installment in a franchise, this strikes an oddly poignant note – you get the sense that everyone involved knew that it was likely to be the last part of the series, and the themes of the film largely reflect that. Given Angus Scrimm’s passing earlier this year, it’s unlikely that there will be a part 6 and there really doesn’t need to be. Did I get any of the answers I was hoping for? Did I fuck, but I should’ve remembered that answers are the last thing you come to watch a Phantasm film for. If you’ve never seen any of the other films, or if you’re only a casual fan of the series, you can probably pass on this, but if you’ve seen the previous 4, you owe it to yourself to check this one out…

Other upcoming Halloween viewing: King Kong with my son on Friday, Under the Shadow at the cinema on Saturday, Texas Chainsaw Massacre at home on Sunday, Frankenweenie on Monday with my son again, and hopefully A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night with my horror-hating wife some time next week… Bring it on…

Hey gang!

Went to a horror film festival last weekend. Didn’t watch lots of stuff as I was obvs busy getting drunk as well, but did manage to see a few films of course. Here are those that I can remember off the top of my head:

  • Train to Busan: Sentimental zombie flick where the zombies are more of an aside, kind of like in World War Z. Pretty sentimental too. Well made and produced though.
  • Howl: New British werewolf film, also set on a train – and we bloody watched it on an actual train as well! That was the coolest part about it though, fairly forgettable film overall.
  • The Windmill Massacre: A Dutch slasher film, which you don’t see very often! It was fine but nothing more. Features Vargo Hoat from GoT.
  • The Greasy Strangler: Literally the most absurd film I have ever seen in my entire life, which is really saying a lot. The less you know about this before watching it the better, but to make sure you watch it! Newest production from Elijah Wood’s Specter Vision.
  • The Autopsy of Jane Doe: Norwegian director <3 One of my definite favourites, super creepy and extremely well executed jump scares imo. Also digs into some themes that I’m a real sucker for, but can’t say what here because spoilers.
  • Under the Shadow: Set in Iran after the revolution, builds off of the social and cultural unease and takes it into fairly unexpected territory. As with Jane Doe above, manages to combine an ever present feeling of dread with some top class jump scares. Bonus for being non-Western.
  • The Untamed: Kind of misplaced at a horror film festival, but then again where the fuck else would it be screened. Thriller with some supernatural elements and more social commentary, from Mexico.
  • Pet: Starring Dominic Monaghan (you know, one of the hobbits) as a socially awkward loner (hello, dis) who runs into a girl from school and starts following her around. Then some stuff happens. Pretty creepy in a “omg I can’t believe they just did that” kind of way, and with more than one decent twist along the way. Good fun in places too, without ever going full comedy.
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Meanwhile, I would like to watch some more horror or horror-esque shows. Loved the first seasons of AHS, liked Salem, loved Scream, penny Dreadful, etc etc. Have probably watched more that I just can’t remember right now, and really want some more recommendations please!

I don’t watch a lot of series, always feel I could be watching more films!
Ash Vs Evil Dead of course, the hubcap kill in s2e3 was one of my favourite kills of all time, just wow.
Didn’t like Lucifer, gave up after 3 episodes. Preacher is good, need to carry on with that. The Strain is one I fancy, Bates Motel and Hannibal have good reps. Inside Number 9 has some great episodes but each one is a stand alone program. Used to enjoy Being Human. That’s all I’ve got, sure you know about Stranger Things and Mr. Robot which are terrific.

I’m hoping to try this over the next week or so, looking forward to it. Though not strictly speaking a horror show, you should give The Twilight Zone a try if you haven’t already.

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I ended up giving it a pretty poor review… Let me know what you think of it after you’ve seen it!

Anybody off to see anything over Halloween? Was hoping my local cinema would do a live score to a silent film like they did last year but no joy. Heading to the Lexi in Kensal Rise to see Under the Shadow on Monday instead.

Student film club is screening The Shining on actual Halloween, and my film club is screening The Exorcist the day after <3 So all classics for me this year!

Oh nice! I saw The Exorcist on the big screen a couple of years ago, still genuinely terrifying. Think the first time I watched it was on a tiny TV from a fuzzy video.