Horrorfest 2022 Presents: Trick ‘r Treat (2007, Michael Dougherty)

Finally after years of watching my cheap DVD copy I got at maybe Best Buy or Barnes & Noble I was able to see Trick ‘r’ Treat on the big screen. The way God, cinema and mankind intended. Despite some obvious low budget or dated 2000s material this is a really good, fun and nicely creepy horror anthology from Michael Dougherty, who has gone on to bigger and arguably better things. My overall rating is an 8.5, yet I will rate and review each of the segments individually.

The Opening, or cold opening, is decent yet also sets up the rest of the movie. Leslie Bibb is a woman who finds out that her Halloween obsessed boyfriend is right that you should adhere to certain holiday traditions. There is some good gore in this one, however it’s a bit too short to have enough of an impact. I believe it is in this short opener that the location of the town the movie is set in is revealed: Warren Valley, Ohio, which does not exist I think. Or at least that’s what the movie tells us, ha ha…

Principal is a really good second tale, elevated by Dylan Baker as a man who has a dark hidden life. This one does a much better job than the first one at covering Halloween traditions, and it pays off very well in the end. If you don’t like kids, this is probably the tale for you. You also won’t ever look at jack-o’-lanterns the same way again.

The only reason I don’t give Halloween School Bus Massacre a full 10/10 is because I wanted it be longer. This is one they could have made into a longer movie, and it’s just wonderfully freaky and offers a nice twist. A group of kids trick a nice young girl named Rhonda (Samm Todd), into accompanying them to a local quarry. This is a chilling reminder that you should believe local legends. The kids find this out all too well in what is my favorite segment in this movie.

Sorry folks but I still think Surprise Party is the weakest one of the bunch. Too bad since it features the always great Anna Paquin, who makes this one at least passable. I would have been fine if they had cut this one from the movie. I will still refuse to give away the ending since I don’t do spoilers on principle, but let’s just say it’s pretty damn obvious from the get go. Lame. Also loses points for use of Manson song that was dated the minute it was featured in the movie.

Even though Sam is the best one of the bunch, earning that 10/10 rating, I doubt it would be as effective in longer form. Brian Cox unsurprisingly steals the movie as a cranky elderly neighbor who fails to give out candy on Halloween. Sam, the official Halloween mascot of this movie, shows up to force the curmudgeonly miser the error of his ways. I love how Sam uses his powers in so many different ways, and this story’s ending is just marvelous.

Now the actual Conclusion offers a nice wrap around to events, and ties up the movie very neatly. It also has a truly bone chilling moment, too, and offers one thing I really enjoy about this movie: the little clues to what is happening spread throughout the movie. Each story weaves into the other tales, and that’s why this a pretty good anthology movie. It would also be nice if we got more movies set on and or around Halloween that don’t require a certain William Shatner masked individual, although I enjoy those, too.

Cool, end credits!

Horrorfest 2022 Presents: The Giant Claw (1957, Fred F. Sears)

Based on the few movies I’ve seen from Fred Sears I’m starting to enjoy him as a director. His take on 1950s monster movies, The Giant Claw, is a fun one made on an obviously low budget that does the job well and gets out before becoming too routine. You can only show so many “Monster destroys stuff” scenes before people get a little numb to the whole thing. Also this one has a good cast and some well rounded moments as the actors pretend to be attacked by a giant fake creature flying up in the sky.

The Giant Claw is one ugly looking bird, too, and swoops down upon it’s prey with reckless abandon. The bird is always hungry, is thought to be from outer space and will destroy everything in it’s wake. Sears take on the monster genre perhaps lacks the more complex politics of the original Godzilla film and even the style and grace of the original King Kong, however I found it to be better than many of the other 1950s monster movies that came before and after.

The Giant Claw and Q The Winged Serpent would make for a quality double bill, that’s for sure. Cinema in the 1950s sure was tricky for horror movies in that they had to pretend to be only sci-fi so the public would go see them. We are blessed to live in an era where that is not the case although unfortunately we don’t get the opportunity to see a film such as The Giant Claw in a drive in on a late Friday night. Oh well.

Horrorfest 2017 Presents: Return of the Living Dead (1985, Dan O’Bannon)

In 2017 Best Buy still had a decently sized movie section that has since been gutted since everyone streams movies and physical media has taken considerable hits. I went there to find something for Halloween since I knew I didn’t have to work the day after and I would be able to stay up late viewing horror movies after work. They had a cool looking copy of Return of the Living Dead, which I hadn’t seen in years at the time and was due for a rewatch. I still own my copy and I love that movie because it is a punk zombie horror comedy that has plenty of bite and even some scary moments. I’m not sure if it is a great movie, however I’ve known plenty who could argue that it is and even convince myself. Return of the Living Dead is one of those films that could only have been conceived of and made in the 1980s-yes I’m going to be that guy-primarily since a lot of the styles and trends the movie features are very much out of date and now laughably retro. Also punk has been co-opted by Hot Topic and has unfortunately gone mainstream. Too bad.

One thing I enjoy about Dan O’Bannon’s cult classic is that the movie has some great comedy moments and also some really surprisingly creepy moments as well. Plus the flick works as an agreed to by O’Bannon and George A. Romero unofficial sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968) where in this universe that movie actually really happened and the government covered it up. I also dig how the movie shows actual dates onscreen, acting as an unofficial covering of what happens one July 4th (yey holiday movie horror!) weekend. Freddy and Frank are two bumbling medical supply warehouse employees who accidentally unleash a zombie plague upon their home city of Louisville, making their city famous for more than just basketball. A group of young punks, friends of Freddy, end up breaking into a cemetery in what turns out to be the worst mistake of their young lives.

The cast for this film is excellent: I mean you have James Karen and Clu Gulager as the major heavyweight veterans, with Thom Mathews and Linnea Quigley headlining the younger cast. Quigley ends up stealing the movie with a freaky performance both as a living person and as the undead! I still chuckle at the “Send more cops” line, and admire this movie for having brain eating zombies, fast moving zombies, and trap setting zombies. Although technically the cult flick Nightmare City had zombies that moved quickly and were capable of using objects as weapons before Return of the Living Dead, and I’m sure it helped inspire O’Bannon’s film as well.

Despite not finding this movie very scary I still love it anyways, and I’m holding on to my Blu-ray copy as long as it still works. Return of the Living Dead is one of those movies that every horror fan should see, and despite being dated 1980s wise a lot of the material holds up incredibly well. Besides who doesn’t wanna party? IT’S PARTY TIME!

Horrorfest 2018 Presents: Zombie Holocaust (1980, Marino Girolami)

The Italians sure had a sense of style and many of their 1970s and 1980s films were gory and fun to watch. Some of them featured Ian McCulloch, who has a good screen presence in the handful of horror films I have seen him in. Zombie Holocaust is one of those, and it also went by multiple names, which was normal for foreign horror cinema. I found this movie to be wonderfully campy, and not as brutal and unforgiving as a certain other, more famous movie I watched in October. I gave both the same rating, and each one achieves different goals, which is fine.

Donald O’Brian hams it up as the resident mad scientist, while Alexandra Delli Colli serves as the film’s screen queen. I chuckled at the “I am determinded to have your brain” line, and I thought the zombies looked delightfully nasty in this film. Oh and this film has cannibals, because it takes place mostly on an island in a horror movie and so that’s a basic requirement, it seems. Even though this is mostly for gorehounds such as myself, I think Zombie Holocaust is one of those midnight cult movies that is both entertaining and was shocking for the 1980s. I wish I could have seen this on the big screen.

Horrorfest 2017: Dead Can Dance!

Go Zombie Michael, Go!

Okay enough Friday the 13th homage titles. If you have not listened to the band Dead Can Dance, do so. Anyways its time for more horror films, as I have fallen into the old habit of viewing them every year. Plus writing reviews, which I plan to do much faster this time. My public library (three separate branches in town) has enough to get me started, and I am finally making the switch to Blu Ray after years of slumming it with DVD’s. So for my few readers, time to get scared…again.

PS: Long overdue reviews being written now. Also unfortunately this one was a rare bust due to life issues, lack of streaming, etc.

Public Library Edition Planned List (in alphabetical order):

1. Bite (2015, body horror)
2. The Black Torment (1964, gothic horror)
3. Blair Witch (2016, duh)
4. Blood For Dracula (1974, duh again)
5. Bram Stroker’s Dracula (1992, DUH)
6. The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, creature feature)
7. Crawlspace (1986, crazy people)
8. A Cure For Wellness (2016, crazy people)
9. Drag Me To Hell (2009, demons)
10. Flesh For Frankenstein (1973, creature feature)
11. Final Destination 2 (2003, DEATH)
12. Fright Night (2011, vampires)
13. The Girl With All The Gifts (2016, zombies)
14. Green Room (2016, crazy people)
15. The Horror Show (1989, evil spirit)
16. Krampus (2015, duh)
17. Legion (Exorcist III Director’s Cut, 1990, demonic)
18. Leviathan (1989, creature feature)
19. Lights Out (2016, evil spirits)
20. Little Shop of Horrors (1986, creature feature)
21. The Neon Demon (2016, crazy people)
22. Prison (1988, evil spirits)
23. The Quiet Ones (2013, evil spirits)
24. The Ring (2002, pissed off spirit)
25. The Tall Man (2012, urban legends)
26. Wrong Turn (2003, cannibals)
27. 31 (2016, seriously crazy people)

Other:

28. Night Monster (1942, creature feature)
29. Mother! (2017, crazy people)
30. The Manster (1959, creature feature)
31. Raw (2017, cannibals)
32. The Satanic Rights of Dracula (1974, yep)
33. Urban Legend (1998, slasher)
34. It (2017, Pennywise the Dancing Clown!)
35. Pieces (1982, giallo)
36. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976, giallo)

Halloween:

Rewatch: Return of the Living Dead (1985, zombies)

37. Jennifer’s Body (2009, demonic)
38. Salem’s Lot (1979, vampires)

Seek The Dragon (Manhunter, 1986)

Originally written for Horrorfest 2012:

Peering into the soul and heart of a monster often ends with the innocent doing the searching becoming the very thing they were hunting. So goes the warning, which Will keeps in mind as he desperately pursues a serial killer on the lose, a man who slaughters his victims without warning. This chase could not only cost Will his life, but also his soul, a fact that he keeps in mind despite not abandoning the chase or holding off even though his wife, his friend and colleague, and others warn him. Obsession is sometimes a dangerous and powerful motivator, despite the risks involved. Chasing someone who kills due to it being in their nature is the same as joining the locals on a safari hunt for a tiger that feeds on humans. The animal just might wrap its jaws around your neck and squeeze.

This feeling of paranoia, of searching for a madman is expertly showcased through well shot and lit scenes. The amazing use of color, the framing of shots, all underlying the mind and psyche of the film’s characters. The deliciously 80s soundtrack, lush and electronic, only further homes in that point, the rather bleak chase leading Will towards the so called “Tooth Fairy,” a man who views himself as more than just a human being consisting of flesh and blood. Hannibal Lecktor is present in this film, yet he serves as a mere vessel for the main killer, who looks to him as a master teacher in the art of inflicting pain upon others. One man only comes to realize too late that he is to be another example of how easy the task of human slaughter comes to certain people.

Buried within all of the chaos is a fine philosophical discussion, particularly in a scene between Hannibal and Will in which Hannibal imparts his so called “Words of Wisdom.” The survival of the human race feels at stake here, the battle for its very soul hanging in the balance, boiled down to a cop, a woman, and a killer. That essence drives Manhunter, makes it more than just a typical slasher movie, and is why it is the direct equal to the also excellent Silence of The Lambs. In fact, one could argue that this movie is the better of the two, diving into the bleak heart of human nature. Man is both darkness and light, the two of them coexisting within, and perhaps only in women lies salvation.