31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 5: All Soul's Day (2014)

 

Day 5 - All Souls Day (2014) Borrowed from OverDrive. 

“Alicia: Was eternal life worth it?

Diaz: I think so.”

Another horror star-studded film that I had not been aware of previously. This one stars horror alums Jeffery Combs (Reanimator), Ellie Cornell (Halloween 4 and 5), David Keith (Firestarter), Danny Trejo (Just… everything. He’s in everything), and then there’s that kid that makes out with his sister from Eurotrip. In a sleepy Mexico town, Diaz (Trejo) sells the souls of his people for eternal life. But each year he must sacrifice the soul of a Mexican girl to appease the restless dead, or else they rise from the grave and run rampant through the town slaughtering all they can find and looking for Diaz. We see an example of this when years later a husband (Combs) and wife (Cornell) stop in the town on a road trip with their son and daughter. The dead take the family with the exception of the son, and years later (again) the son has grown up to be the new town sheriff (Keith) when another group of people, this time teens stopover in the town and find themselves facing off against the hordes of the damned. This one is kind of crazy and has some pretty good kills, though not as many as you might expect. It’s a different take on a zombie flick as the walking dead in this one don’t infect you, but if you die by their hands, you do still become one of them. The make-up effects weren’t great on the zombies, but the special effects on the kills were pretty great. It was very strange that the visual effects would be so well done, but that the makeup effects really looked phoned in. The opening and time jumps are a little weird, and not much is ever really explained beyond the very basic elements of the plot. We learn about Diaz's deal and why he's after eternal life, how the curse works, etc. Why the kid from the first time jump decides to watch his family get slaughtered and stay on in the town is never explained apart from just the fact that he's an ass, I guess. The college kids in the second time jump don't really provide much explanation for why they are meeting up in this town either other than it's on the way to their destination (which is weird that a town like this would even be on a map to plan on visiting specifically, after all the first family we saw just happened to come across it by chance). Overall though, it’s a pretty fun film and something a bit different in the way that it approaches zombies, and the Latin flair. I would recommend checking this one out for a little variety to your horror movie repertoire.

 Movie Count:

Movie Count:

New Movies = 3

Total Movies = 5

OverDrive Breakdown: OverDrive is a digital platform that you can use to borrow ebooks, audiobooks, comics, graphic novels, and movies. Unlike Hoopla, you can't download videos. They must be streamed. Also, you don't have the casting option. But both Hoopla and OverDrive can be accessed via web browser so you can watch on your computers. Another drawback is that you don't have unlimited access to videos, so if someone else has it borrowed, you do have to place a hold and wait for them to either return the material or for their loan to time out. Plus sides are the ease of borrowing. You have a set number of titles of any format (book, audio, video, etc.) that you can borrow from at any point in time (my library is set at ten), but once you return a title, you get that borrow back. So, unlike Hoopla, you don't have to wait for the next month to start borrowing again. Also, even if you have to place a hold, the longest loan period on a video is seven days, and then most videos expire 48 hours after you start watching, so the turnaround time is very quick. OverDrive will also email you notifications when your hold is ready.

31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 4: Stonehearst Asylum (2014)

 

Day 4 - Stonehearst Asylum (2014) Borrowed from OverDrive. 

“And make a miserable man out of a perfectly happy horse.”

In this period piece starring Kate Beckinsale, Michael Caine, David Thewlis, and Ben Kingsley, Dr. Newgate has just been brought on as the newest addition to Stonehearst Asylum only to find out on his first day that the inmates have taken over. He spends the rest of the movie trying to find a way to escape with a patient that he’s fallen in love with, Eliza Graves (Beckinsale), without letting the new director of the asylum, Silas Lamb (Kingsley) figure out that he’s on to their scheme. This was an interesting one, and, like What We Do in the Shadows, another movie that was not as much of a horror piece as I had thought it would be. It plays more like a gothic thriller in the vein of Frankenstein, From Hell, or Dracula, but without the gore. It’s big on atmosphere and gives a very surreal vibe as you see the lunatics run free. From that perspective, it's a very effective film. It does a fantastic job of setting up the characters which are played wonderfully by some well-renowned actors. They don't wait long to let you in on the scheme and the secret that the staff are actually the patients, and the best parts of the film are in seeing Dr. Newgate trying to delicately navigate the lunatics. The asylum itself is a great setting with that victorian gothic motif. Overall, I would say it's a better asylum story than season two of American Horror Story. Definitely unsettling, but not necessarily spooky or scary. In addition to the lack of creep factor despite the setting, they also embrace the time period’s view of women being prone to mental illness due to their anatomy. This gets leaned into heavily with Eliza, and they don’t ever really dispel the issue. I won’t give away anything major (not that there’s much to give away) for any who choose to check it out. Despite some great acting and character development, I can’t give this one a recommend.

Movie Count:

New Movies = 2

Total Movies = 4

OverDrive Breakdown: OverDrive is a digital platform that you can use to borrow ebooks, audiobooks, comics, graphic novels, and movies. Unlike Hoopla, you can't download videos. They must be streamed. Also, you don't have the casting option. But both Hoopla and OverDrive can be accessed via web browser so you can watch on your computers. Another drawback is that you don't have unlimited access to videos, so if someone else has it borrowed, you do have to place a hold and wait for them to either return the material or for their loan to time out. Plus sides are the ease of borrowing. You have a set number of titles of any format (book, audio, video, etc.) that you can borrow from at any point in time (my library is set at ten), but once you return a title, you get that borrow back. So, unlike Hoopla, you don't have to wait for the next month to start borrowing again. Also, even if you have to place a hold, the longest loan period on a video is seven days, and then most videos expire 48 hours after you start watching, so the turnaround time is very quick. OverDrive will also email you notifications when your hold is ready.

31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 3: Penny Dreadful

Today's selection I borrowed from the OverDrive app. OverDrive is another digital platform that you can use to borrow ebooks, audiobooks, comics, graphic novels, and movies. Unlike Hoopla, you can't download videos. They must be streamed. Also, you don't have the casting option. But both Hoopla and OverDrive can be accessed via web browser so you can watch on your computers. Another drawback is that you don't have unlimited access to videos, so if someone else has it borrowed, you do have to place a hold and wait for them to either return the material or for their loan to time out. Plus sides are the ease of borrowing. You have a set number of titles of any format (book, audio, video, etc.) that you can borrow from at any point in time (my library is set at ten), but once you return a title, you get that borrow back. So, unlike Hoopla, you don't have to wait for the next month to start borrowing again. Also, even if you have to place a hold, the longest loan period on a video is seven days, and then most videos expire 48 hours after you start watching, so the turnaround time is very quick. OverDrive will also email you notifications when your hold is ready. Now onto a review of one of my spooky season favorites!

Day 3 - Penny Dreadful (2012) Borrowed from Overdrive. 

“Let’s watch a movie!”

Penny Dreadful, a Frankenstein girl, is looking for love, and her two monster friends, a zombie, and a wolf-boy help her screen her date options by screening some horror movies. This anthology boasts some fun takes on some classic tropes. The terror trio in the framing story are classic monsters who live in an old movie theatre and spend their days watching horror movies, but they also tell a sweet little unrequited love story in these segments. Throughout these segments, Penny is using a dating app to find a special someone. Part of the test is that they must watch scary movies with her and her doll collection (which Penny discusses the movies with). The zombie usher has a crush on Penny and watches on as her dates don't (un?)live up to Penny's expectations. The rest of the anthology takes place as the films that Penny watches. The opening segment is a very brief, but gruesome, take on a cursed object story. There's not much to this one, but the effects are really well done. The middle feature, called “The Morning After”, is a vampire story done Hangover style. A woman wakes up unable to remember the previous night and retraces her steps to piece her memory back together. Along the way though, she discovers some unusual hangover symptoms. This was a fun take on a vampire creation story with an interesting dynamic among the young human couple and the immortal vampire couple, both of which have their own relationship problems. Penny’s second date has the pleasure of watching “The Slaughter House”. It’s the traditional tale of a group of hippies that are taken in by some backwoods hillbillies in an area where people have been reported to go missing. But that’s about where tradition ends (I’ll not give it away, but this twist is by far the best part of the film). Great effects and kills in this segment make it even more enjoyable, even if there are some odd CGI effects to some of the kills. This last segment also stars horror veterans Sig Haig and Jeffrey Combs. In addition to these great talents, Ohio grown pro-wrestler Al Snow turns in a fantastic performance, and delivers my favorite line of the film: "You wanna Pepsi?" The set up and delivery of this line actually make me bust out laughing every time. Add to this the fact that a friend of mine actually got to work on this segment, and "The Slaughter House" is by far my favorite part of this film. It alone would get this a recommend, but everything about this movie is worth watching.

31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 2: Bubba Ho-Tep

 

Day 2 - Bubba Hot-ep (2003) Borrowed from Hoopla. 

“Even a big bitch cockroach like you should know... never, but never, f*** with the King.”

Directed by Don Coscarelli, the man who brought you the insanity that is Phantasm now brings you the classic tale of Elvis Pressley and President John F. Kennedy defending their nursing home from a cowboy mummy. Yes, that is indeed the plot of this insanely fun film. Elvis (Bruce Campbell) is alive and well in a nursing home after swapping identities with one of his impersonators. When an ancient Egyptian mummy unexpectedly finds himself waking up in East Texas, he realizes that he can drain the souls of the Shady Rest nursing home residents with no one noticing to nourish his immortality. Not on the King's watch, baby. Elvis teams up with President John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis), now disguised as a black man to keep him from coming forward about what happened that day in Texas, to take down this Bubba Ho-tep and save the residents of Shady Rest. This is a wonderful twist on a classic movie monster. The cowboy mummy looks fantastic, even if his scarab minions might make Jim Henson cringe. Bruce Campbell plays Elvis to perfection, and while the concept sounds completely ridiculous it actually plays out as a credible horror film. What I found most interesting about this, was that many of the moments of horror come from the fact that the victims are elderly and lack the strength, mobility, and vitality of their youth, putting them in greater danger against these forces. You can really feel the tension and suspense for these characters who are in their twilight years. There's a lot of drama in this as well as Elvis struggles with his fall from Graceland to wind up in a run-down nursing home. Laughs, horror, absurdity, fun characters played by great actors; this one is a definite recommend.

I'll be including the rundown on the services below each of the reviews so that if you have already read those items, you can just enjoy the review and then move on.

Hoopla Breakdown: Hoopla is a digital borrowing service that many Ohio Libraries offer that allows patrons to borrow digital books, audiobooks, graphic novels, single issues of comic books, movies, and episodes of TV shows. You are provided with a set number of borrows each month. The amount varies by the library system. There are some limits on how many borrows that branch allows across its patrons each day, so it's better to try to get your borrows in early the morning of than it is the night before you plan to use them. This can also be an issue if you are looking to check out a TV Series because you have to borrow each episode individually. However, unlike other services, the items are always available. There is no hold system, waiting for other patrons to return their material before you get the title, or waiting for it to be delivered to your local branch for pick up. If you can find it, you can borrow it. Other benefits to this program are that you can stream directly over your data connection or wi-fi, or if you are concerned about saving data, you can download the material for offline access. The Hoopla app also has a casting feature so you can stream the title from your device to a larger screen using devices like Chromecast. Now on to the review!

31 Days of Halloween October Horror Movie Challenge - Day 1: What We Do in the Shadows

Welcome to the kick-off of my 31 Days of Halloween Horror Movie Challenge!

To start with, let me tell you a little about the platform I used to borrow this title. As I stated in my list posting, I am going to be using completely free services from my local library for all of this year's entries. These same services are available from just about any library (at least in the state of Ohio). Everyone has access to this free public service. All you have to do is stop in and sign up (many you can even get an ecard online to access the digital services I'll be discussing). Then just log in and start borrowing. Your library doesn't have what you're looking for? You can always do an interlibrary loan, or just sign up with another library system. You can get an ecard for any library in the state of Ohio if you are an Ohio resident.

My first selection is from Hoopla. Hoopla is a digital borrowing service that many Ohio Libraries offer that allows patrons to borrow digital books, audiobooks, graphic novels, single issues of comic books, movies, and episodes of TV shows. You are provided with a set number of borrows each month. The amount varies by the library system. There are some limits on how many borrows that branch allows across its patrons each day, so it's better to try to get your borrows in early the morning of than it is the night before you plan to use them. This can also be an issue if you are looking to check out a TV Series because you have to borrow each episode individually. However, unlike other services, the items are always available. There is no hold system, waiting for other patrons to return their material before you get the title, or waiting for it to be delivered to your local branch for pick up. If you can find it, you can borrow it. Other benefits to this program are that you can stream directly over your data connection or wi-fi, or if you are concerned about saving data, you can download the material for offline access. The Hoopla app also has a casting feature so you can stream the title from your device to a larger screen using devices like Chromecast. Now on to the review!

Day 1: What We Do in the Shadows (2015) - Borrowed from Hoopla. 

"I really hope that those guys don't kill those police, because it will mean more police will come. Possibly even Christians, which is totally the last thing we need in this house."

A group of ancient vampires deals with unlife in the modern world, sharing a flat in New Zealand, and preparing for the Unholy Masquerade in this documentary-style film in the spirit of The Office and Modern Family. This is a film that I’ve had on my radar for a number of years, and this challenge was an excellent opportunity to finally make it happen. It wasn’t quite the horror movie I had hoped it would be. I knew going in that it was a comedy, but I had expected it to be a little more along the lines of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Cabin the Woods, or Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. I was expecting it to have some great laugh outloud moments for sure, but I really thought there would be more horror. Like over the top horror kills. It’s actually much more in the vein of Young Frankenstein or Dracula: Dead and Loving it. There's a lot more playing off of the idea of being a vampire in the modern world than there is about any kind of satire on horror itself. That being said, it was still a lot of fun, and I loved the way they played with vampire lore, even bringing in a Nosferatu-style character. The inclusion of the werewolves was a great touch and fun to see the dynamic of the modern werewolves against the modern vampires. It's got me intrigued in the series to see what other tropes they pull in to riff. Even though it wasn’t the horror film I thought I’d be kicking the season off with, it’s still a great vampire film. Definitely a recommend.

31 Days of Halloween Horror Movie Challenge Announcement

I've settled on my movie list for this year's 31 Days of Halloween Horror Movie Challenge. I like to add a certain twist to my film choices -- last year I did all Werewolf films -- and this year I've got a fun concept that plays close to my heart. All of my selections this year will be borrowed via free services from my local library. I'll be using three services: 1) physical films that I request or find on the shelf, 2) streaming borrows via the OverDrive app, and 3) digital downloads from Hoopla. I'll explain each of the services as I discuss the films borrowed in that format. Here's my list of this year's films (subject to change depending on availability):

New to me:

1. What We Do in the Shadows
2. Return to Horror High
3. Summer of 84
4. Beyond Reanimator
5. Blood and Chocolate
6. Vampire Diary
7. Monsters
8. The Howling Reborn
9. Frozen
10. The Devil's Rain
11. Stonehearst Asylum
12. All Souls Day
13. Altitude
14. Horror House
15. Spooks Run Wild
16. The Conjuring 3
17. Woman in Black 2
18. Down a Dark Hall
19. Dark Shadows
20. ParaNorman
21. Monster House

Halloween Favorites

1. Poltergeist
2. Insidious
3. Insidious Chapter 2
4. Insidious Chapter 3
5. Insidious The Last Key
6. The Fog
7. Bubba Ho-Tep
8. Penny Dreadful
9. From the Dark
10. The House of the Devil

Spooky Saturday - Stephen King Review: Carrie

Every other Saturday, I'll be posting something from the spooky side of life (or unlife) that I've been working on. Today's submission goes back to a very involved endeavor that's going to keep me engaged for quite some time. A while back I decided to read every work of Stephen King in order of publication. I've made significant progress on that journey. Some of my Spooky Saturday posts will be of my reviews of King's works. I'm aware that this is not groundbreaking, and I'm sure I'm not going to stumble across any insights that haven't been discussed before, but for those who enjoy my writing and my takes on the material, here you go.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao-tzu

Here we are. The first in a long line of Stephen King book reviews to come! I have to say, Carrie was a good start to this whole experiment. It read really quickly and I can see a lot of King tropes right from the outset of his work. The first being the trope of the mentally powered main character. I know that we have many more of those in store for us as we move through these books, and it's interesting that Carrie seems to have pretty much all the mental powers. She's mostly thought of as a telekinetic (moves things with her mind), but in the book, she also seems to display some telepathy (mental communication/thought reading), pyrokinesis (starting fires with a thought), and psychometry (learning information about people or items through touch). Another common King-trope that I love starts here in this book as well: king interrupting the flow of thoughts with parentheses that interject some other perspective. This convention is so effective for demonstrating those fleeting thoughts that jump into our heads. It's a trait of his writing that I've always found very impactful and that just screams of King. Lastly, though not revered so much in this reviewer's eyes, are the concept of the greaser villains. This same motif comes up time and again, but I just can't think of the idea of a greaser as being all that threatening. Blame it on Westside Story and Grease. This is especially the case here in Carrie where a person dressed as and acting like a greaser would have been incredibly out of date in the '70s. Fun thought though: John Travolta, who set my expectations for what a greaser was also played the first of Stephen King's greaser villains, Billy Nolan in the Bryan Depalma film based on this book. Although Depalma's Billy is no greaser, the odd connection remains. 

Interestingly, Carrie is not exactly a horror book per se, though it has its moments. Carrie reads more like a teen drama, almost a romance for the most part. It is interesting to see though how King used an epistolary structure with this book, that is being told through letters, articles, interviews, journals, etc. That's a style I most associate with Bram Stoker's Dracula which brings up another interesting connection for me since King's next work, 'Salem's Lot, was Stephen King's attempt to tell the story of Dracula coming to America in, what was then, modern times. Even so, the horrific elements really only seem to come once Carrie has her breakdown at the prom. The rest of the book tends to focus on the development of the various relationships through the text and the development of Carrie's powers. There is one other element that really sticks out to me here. There is a lot of detail that is paid to describe Billy Nolan's car throughout the book, and during her rampage, Carrie wrecks the car with Christine Hargensen in it. I'm wondering if this might be the origin for Christine when I get there. Or at least, if this isn't where that idea started for King. 

Overall, the book was a great read and an awesome starting point for getting into Stephen King.  Now on to 'Salem's Lot.