2016 Horror for 31 Days: The Brood (1979) - Day 04

David Cronenberg is a weirdo. This film is super creepy. Look, I'm tall, so short scary murdery things scares me.

Some super creepy stuff going on here.

2016 Horror for 31 Days: The Thing (2011) - Day 03

This movie is not amazing. It's both a prequel and remake of the John Carpenter The Thing.  The CGI has some horrible moments, which just highlight how great the creature effects were in Carpenter's version. I wish they would have incorporated less of the Carpenter film into this one, and let it be more of it's own thing. I'm also deducting points for not keeping Kristofer Hivju alive through the ending and into the beginning of Carpenter's Thing.

2016 Horror for 31 Days: The Thing (1982) - Day 02

This movie is amazing. Yet another masterpiece from John Carpenter.

2016 Horror for 31 Days: The Lazarus Effect - Day 01

I was looking for something easy and quick to start off the month. Spent the first couple of days working at this big music fest that takes over a lot of Austin.

I dig Olivia Wilde, and was happy to see a different side of her in this monster/scientist centric film. This one was on Netflix, so I jumped in. The movie has some jump scares, and a pretty solid cast. It really isn't doing anything new or special, but, sometimes that's what you need. Seems like a decent starting place for a month that I know will be tough to watch 31 films in (I'll be hanging in Branson on a gig later in the month).

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 31 Halloween & Halloween II

 So, I didn't make it through 31 days of Horror, but I did end the month with two of the best slasher movies.  I think a big part of the problem was the movies I picked...didn't really care for too many of them, plus I got busy and just ran out of time.

Not much to say about Halloween, everything about it is great.

Halloween II isn't as great, but Michael Myers continues to bring the terror.

Until next year...

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 26 Potential Failure

I think I failed...we'll see if I can get back up to speed...

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 25 Alien

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 24 Invaders From Mars

I hadn't realized that Dan O'Bannon wrote this until Nate mentioned it. I had already added it to my Netflix queue because I want to see more Tobe Hooper films, but the O'Bannon-factor moved it to the top of the list.

Pretty good. The creatures are great. Story is missing a couple beats.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 23 The Island of Dr Moreau

While it is based on the same H.G. Wells book as yesterday's Island of Lost Souls, this movie is quite different. And not in a good way.

The film's director Richard Stanley had developed a script for this film for 4 years and was removed from the project less than a week into shooting. A reason was never given, but it is probable that he was unable to rein in star Val Kilmer, which lead to his firing.  John Frankenheimer was brought in to salvage the film, and, I guess he did what he could.  Frankenheimer also had major problems with Kilmer and famously is quoted as saying  "There are two things I will never ever do in my whole life. The first is that I will never climb Mt. Everest. The second is that I will never work with Val Kilmer ever again."

This movie is a mess. 

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 22 The Island of Lost Souls

The Island of Lost Souls is a movie based on H.G. Wells book of the same name.  This is the first filmed version of the book, and most consider it the best retelling of the story, although allegedly Wells hated it.

The movie holds up surprisingly well for its age.  Charles Laughton is superb as the sadistic Dr. Moreau and Bela Lugosi is near unidentifiable as the hair-faced leader of the animal-people.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 21 The Quatermass Xperiment

Another of the Hammer Horror films, The Quatermass Xperiment is a bit more SciFi than horror.  The basis is taken from a BBC TV Serial of basically the same name.  This was one of Hammer's first hits, and helped them expand their reach.

Pretty solid film.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 20 The Curse of Frankenstein

While trying to pick a movie for today at Vulcan Video I noticed their Hammer Horror section, I know I haven't seen man of the Hammer films so I started going through what they had to offer. The box for The Curse of Frankenstein said 'This is where it started' which was enough to hook me.  Turns out this is one of the first of the Hammer Horror films, and set the standard for what they would produce after it.

The story of Frankenstein told in this film is more in line with the story from Mary Shelley's book.  Christopher Lee does a great job portraying a much scarier looking Creature than what Universal showed us and Peter Cushing is great as Doctor Frankenstein.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 19 Rabid

Been getting around to a lot of Cronenberg this month, as I haven't seen a lot of his work.  Rabid is his second non-student film, and the DVD copy I rented from Vulcan Video had a nice interview with him on it.  He explained that Rabid is when he truly started to understand the control of everything he had as a director.

With Shivers and Rabid Cronenberg is credited with starting the use of the horror within, where the terror comes from something inside the human body.  He continued to explore this concept with later films.

I enjoyed the film. Definitely going to keep checking out Cronenberg's work.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 18 Leprechaun

Amazon Prime also has Leprechaun, so I watched it over there, where the sync wasn't jacked up.

Decent film. Kinda ridiculous, but in an enjoyable way.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 17 Day of the Dead

Someone recommended I watch the Leprechaun films, so I was going to watch the first one, but the sync on Netflix was horrible.  So I ended up watching Day of the Dead instead.

I've seen Day many times. It's a great movie. I prefer Dawn over Day, mostly because some of the over the top performances in Day are a bit much, but I still love Day as well.

Bub getting to beat the bad guy to end the movie is so amazing.  And everyone you care about lives.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 16 House 2: The Second Story

House wasn't that bad, it wasn't very good, but...I feel like it was sort of a horror film.  House 2: The Second Story isn't a horror film, and it is bad.

The film barely shares anything with the first film other than it happens in a house with some sort of ability to travel to another dimension is. The characters aren't very good, and there are a bunch of subplots that don't fit.

There are 2 other House films, House 3 which is even less connected to the other House films, and House IV which apparently is the true sequel to House (or maybe House 2). I won't find out.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 15 House

Why doesn't every horror movie have an insane Richard Moll character? I can't think of one movie that wouldn't be better off with him being insane in it.

House is one of those comedy-horror hybrids. The story doesn't really hold up, and they gloss over some things, but overall it's a fun time.

Highlights other than Richard Moll include George Wendt.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 14 Shivers

I dug Scanners and decided I needed to watch more Cronenberg.

This one isn't as great, it's alright and has some decent moments, but, sort of falls apart a few different places.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 13 Monsters

Is this a horror movie? It's definitely a monster movie, but by being a monster movie is it automatically a horror film? I think that it isn't.  But that's just my opinion.

Monsters got a lot of publicity from the fact that Gareth Edwards did most of it on his own, and with almost no budget.  He did a great job making what looks like a big budget Hollywood film on the cheap, with quite a bit of CG that looks pretty decent.  He also goes the Hollywood route by having a barely there story and characters who don't really say or do all that much.

It was good enough to get him a gig directing the big budget Godzilla movie.  I didn't dislike it, but, I felt it didn't really do much, and wasn't a horror film.

31 Days of Horror - 2014: Day 12 Night of the Creeps

Sort of a mess, but still pretty good fun/funny zombie-esque horror.