The Curse of Bridge Hollow - Jeff Wadlow - 2022

★★- Fun dumb kids movie. Nothing spectacular. Pretty forgettable. Sort of in that whole Goosebumps lane.

Gist is an evil old spirit named Stingy Jack brings Halloween decorations to life, which is a pretty cool premise. The protagonists are Brooklyn transplants, among them a dad (a teacher at the local high school) that hates Halloween, a mom who wants to start a vegan bakery but can't bake for shit, and their overachieving daughter who sort of hates her embarrassment of a father, forced save their small New England town.

People you'll recognize include Marlon Wayans as the dad, Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child fame as the vegan baker, John Michael Higgins as a harmless Satan worshipping principal, Lauren Lapkus who is most recognizable from her time as a guard on Orange Is the New Black and is always unhinged, Rob Riggle, and Helen Slayton-Hughes who just died the other day.

Halloween Ends - David Gordon Green - 2022

★★★-  Just going to get right into it. Great opening. Great ending though it’s cray. Not exactly what you’d call SOP. Everything else was trash. A huge swing, sure, but no where near to connecting. Michael Myers is barely in the movie and when he does pop up, he is a bitch.

Not a good sendoff for the character of The Shape. At one point I thought it was maybe the worst movie I’d ever seen but it got better from there. However, it was fun AF and I thought it was a crazy way to wrap it up. 

Gist is this kid Corey, whom we've never seen before, is canceled after he accidentally kills a kid. He ends up working at his dad’s junkyard instead of going off to college. Corey, this fucking guy, is bullied by the band kids (no way these token stereotypes would ever hang out in real life, by the by). He eventually finds and has a wrastlin' match with Michael Myers (who has been on loose, living in the sewers for years. The Myers mystique then starts rubbing off on him and things get cray. Needless to say, dude really should have got out of Haddonfield when he could have. The film is mostly his becoming a monster. 

Laurie Strode, remember her?, is even crazier somehow in this movie. She was a shut in when Michael Myers was locked away in an insane asylum for 40 years and now that he’s out of the lamb she’s living her best life and shit in fucking Haddonfield. Fucking insane. 

Also insane is the black sheriff in the cowboy hat who in Kills was the “law and fucking order” candidate. At the end of this movie when Laurie straps Michael Myers onto the top of her car to put him in a car crusher at the junkyard some cop is like “yeah, we don’t do that with dead bodies in an active murder investigation,“ and the sheriff is like, “tonight we do.“ Then Myers explodes in a car shipper. Spoiler. Wait, so that isn't standard operating procedure.

An extremely messy film. I feel like it shouldn’t have worked, but did to some extent. The ending, as insane as it was, was pretty satisfying. Had a great time (the picture of me and my buddy Levi was from opening night in New York at an Alamo Drafthouse, a phenomenal way to watch a movie. 

Overall, this is probably my fourth favorite Halloween movie. Maybe lower depending on the day. The original is a work of art. Season of the Witch is batshit fun. H2O, Halloween II, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, the Zombie films, and this movie are all on this next tier. Maybe a little flawed, but solid or at least a lot of fun and interesting. The rest range from really bad to fucking disastrous with Resurrection at the very, very bottom. 

Doctor Sleep - Mike Flanagan - 2019

★★★★★ - God, I love this movie. Liked the book a lot. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the movie. What an experience though. Jesus. Making this a sequel to both the book and the movie is just genius. Takes the best from The shining both in movie and book form. Flanagan makes peace with both groups, fans of the novel and fans of the movie, and completely knocks it out of the park. Grand fucking slam.

There were of course some things I liked in the book better, but overall, man, this movie. The last half hour when they are in the Overlook is just incredible. More on that later. I think it is as good as The Shining and Carrie. At worst, the very best Stephen King adaptation sense the early 80s. 

I love Wendy. Reminds me so much of my own mom especially in this movie. When I was growing up my mother was the spitting image of Shelley Duvall, much to her chagrin, but I always loved Shelley Duvall because of that. As an INFP, I relate to a lot of King’s protagonists. See a lot of myself in Danny Torrance for sure. At least when life was hard. 

The True Knot is insanely terrifying. Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) is an incredible villain. Type of chick I’ve always done well with and found super attractive. A hippie/gypsy type of gal. She’s trouble though. An evil Rachel (my female companion). A top King big bad. The actress that plays her gives a performance that is not to be forgotten. Hard to outshine Ewan McGregor. This whole cast is crazy good but she is on another level.

Good old fashion high octane Stephen King horror. The shit with the little kid Brad is fucked. It is hard to watch that as anything on Dahmer. I feel most kids are terrible actors but that one was really moving. And as he is dying and Danny’s chalkboard cracks and he says “REDRUM” in the mirror. Incredible filmmaking. The main girl is GREAT too. 

Random note: When I go, I want a sweet, beautiful cat to comfort me and lead me to the other side. 

Minimizing Crow Daddy was a good call. Just seeing his name made me grown in the book. 

The scene where she tries to ambush Abra is incredible. Especially when Rose gets trapped and then is thrown back into her body.

The last half hour of the movie is unreal. It’s what separates the book from the movie and what makes the movie just an incredible watch. Going back to the overlook is more than I could’ve ever hoped for from a movie pretty much. All builds to this reunion. Once they hit that gas station that Dick Halloran was at it is fucking on. You see it, recognize it, then the music kicks on, and we get the drone footage except at night. Incredible. It does not disappoint. Some hottest take territory stuff, but I might like it more than The Shining.

V/H/S 99 - Flying Lotus, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Johannes Roberts, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter - 2022

★★ - Little behind here posting my watches. Counted this for the new release for the Nightmare on Film Street Halloween challenge. 

Got to see the new anthology flick V/H/S 99 a little early at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival last week. Some of the segments were better than others, but the last one, “To Hell and Back” was great. Overall, not great. 

Shudder put the film fest on and I got to see some of those like-minded horror teevee machine people milling about. Even saw Shudder curator Sam Zimmerman, who I know is not someone most people are going to geek out over but he impresses me.

Rosemary’s Baby - Roman Polanski - 1968

★★★★ - From hell night for the Nightmare on Film Street challenge. 

My first ever watch of this believe it or not. My dad was just telling me that he saw it at the drive-in with his parents when he was like eight years old or some thing and it scared the shit out of him. Watched it on the plane on the way to New York. Liked it enough that I went and checked out the building it was filmed that.

Never gets better than early on in the weird orgy scene where Mia Farrow’s husband rapes her in the best case scenario. Dreamlike and fucking crazy, getting crazier. Then she realizes it isn’t a dream. “Oh my god! This is real!” Really fucked and terrifying. 

Ultimate mother terror as excitement about being pregnant gives way to terror. 

Lot of solid talent in this movie. Mia Farrow is cute AF, by the by. Maude from Harold and Maude. Husband’s an asshole. Gives Mia Farrow shit about her hair, for example. She has had a pretty rough in her day. 

Not an all-time favorite, but I really appreciated it for its influences down the line. Hereditary, for example. A Horror 101 movie.

Castle Freak - Stuart Gordon - 1995

★★ - Real bummer of a movie. Son dies and daughter is blinded when Jeffrey Combs’s character gets hammered and crashes with them in the car. He then inherits a castle, which he hopes will reignite his and Barbara Crampton’s sex life. But, alas, the castle comes with a freak. 

Metaphor horror. Freak’s dick is cut off. Jeffrey Combs, who moves into the castle with the freak, isn’t having sex (until he brings home a prostitute that the freak kills). They're lives are parallel. JK. This movie is just nuts. 

Really not fun scene towards the end when the naked, penisless freak gets rapey with the blind girl who looks to be a child. I don't want to see that shit. Not my favorite.

The Munsters - Rob Zombie - 2022

★★ - This movie is so fucking insane. I didn’t hate it, but there is no way Rob Zombie ever works again. Find his films pretty hit or miss. Wanted to like this so bad but it’s a miss. 

I love Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon. Sweet vegan people. Go team. I know a guy that was a guitar tech for him-and a bunch of other people-and he says they are the kindest people. And have I mentioned they’re vegan?

However, I have no idea who the audience for this movie is. I feel like maybe me, but hell, I don’t know. Sort of for kids but no way they’re going to get 50s references thrown at them a mile a minute.

Nick at Nite was big when I was a kid. I watched this in the Addams family all the time. I remember debating with my friends on which one was better. I’m still not sure which way I go. I fucking love both of them. Gateway into horror shit. 

That said, sigh. This movie makes some odd choices.

Rockstar/standup comedian Herman Munster is anti-funny. He’s over the top but wasn’t the worst either. For the record, Hurley from Lost is the worst. 

Sheri Moon Zombie I think is underrated as an actress. She plays Lily. People think she is terrible, but I think she is more than fine. The grandpa guy was solidish, too.

Thought that Lily was going to be pregnant at the end and that was gonna lead into a sequel, but that didn’t happen. One of those movies I was sort of into but had no idea what was happening. Think I’ll forget about it entirely in a year.

Ghost Stories - Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman - 2017

★★★ - From anthology night for the Nightmare on Film Street movie challenge.

Through most of it I thought it was great. One of the most consistent anthology movies I’ve seen, me thought. The first one was all right, the second one was low-key and dope because of the actor, and the third one is just a holy shit kind of tale. Connecting story is even more what the fuck. Seems pretty normal at first but just goes to fucking what the fuck, shit your pants territory.

The end, though, is so cliché that it fucking ruins the movie. I’m tempted to spoil it it was so fucking stupid. Some throwback you can’t do this anymore without pissing off your audience shit. If this was an ending to a story you wrote in high school you would fail.

Star is this guy Andy Nyman. Looks familiar and he should because I've seen him in roughly 30 things. However, I don't really remember him from any of them.

Martin Freeman is the big draw. He never disappoints. This Alex Lawther kid steals the show though. Might recognise him as the lead in The End of the F***ing World or an especially disturbing Blackmirror. I confuse him with the kid from Sex Education, Asa Butterfield. They are, in fact, not the same person though.

Drag Me to Hell - Sam Raimi - 2009

★★★★ - My underrated movie for the Nightmare on Film Street challenge. My third watching since coming out. Still dig it.

What’s not to love? Humor, gypsy curses, falling anvil, Deadites, talking goats, so forth. Plus literal draggings to Hell.

Stars  Alison Lohman, Justin Long, and Bonnie Aarons as the old woman. 

I’m gonna watch anything that Sam Raimi does. It is my opinion he has not made a bad movie. I’ll put this one in the middle for him but still pretty great.

Most people probably know this but Raimi features “The Classic,” a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that he supposedly lost his virginity in, in nearly all of his films. It was Ashy Slashy’s car in the Evil Dead movies, for example. The gypsy drives it in this flick.

So, liked it. But I can not abide by a movie where they killed the cat.

Fresh - Mimi Cave - 2022

★★★★★ - Comedy/horror night for the Nightmare on Film Street movie challenge. From some time back.

Probably the longest start of the movie to opening credits I’ve ever seen. Follows the girl from Where the Crawdads Sing, Daisy Edgar-Jones, who meets handsome and seemingly sweet Sebastian Stan. They go on a few dates and decide to take a trip together. Shit really hits the fan then. 

This is a trigger of a movie. According to my partner, this is what everyone woman is warned about and fears. Really made me empathize with her and everything women go through. Not really what I was expecting from a random horror movie. 

Totally loved it. It is crazy intense and disturbing. It’s gonna make you think about stuff you don’t really want to think about. But, again, great.

Dead Man’s Shoes - Shane Meadows - 2004

★★★★★ - Revenge flick. Not quite horror, but it is horrific. Great, great film. Super fucked up.

David Fincher/Christopher Nolan-esque. Black and white when in the past. Mind-blowing twists. Definite influences.

Pretty ingenious. Guy escalates his “pranks” on a group of assholes as we see what they did to his handicapped brother. As that stuff gets more fucked up so does his revenge plot.

There is a scene where they go to this woman’s house who they forced to have sex with the handicapped kid where all of them are in this tiny car. We’re talking six dudes in a smart car type of shit. A literal clown car pretty much. They are the type of guys that when having someone come at them, they choose to drink their ass’s off and do cocaine and weed to prep. I might want to be clearheaded in that situation, but what do I know. 

Gets progressively way more fucked up as the movie goes on. Illustrates that revenge fantasies aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be. Though I am an atheist, I’ll say this guy NEEDS Jesus. I don’t have that in me, I don’t think. “I am the monster.“ Maybe if I was in a situation like that but who knows. Warning, this is not an easy watch. I cannot stress this enough. Incredible film though.

Ghostwatch - Lesley Manning - 1992

★ - Found footage night for the Nightmare on Film Street movie challenge. This is actually a mockumentary. Not streaming anywhere. Had to run down to Vulture Video, a local rental place that carries obscure, avant-garde films, to get it. Physical media, y’all! 

Gist is a bunch of BBC television personalities/broadcasters investigate a haunting that they present as live television. Gets progressively crazier until shit goes down, sort of. When it originally aired there was a short disclaimer at the beginning saying it was fake, but they obviously knew what they were doing. People lost their minds and called the number on the screen which supposedly said again that it was fake but over 1 million people called and no one got through. It’s never been rerun in the UK.

Found it to be pretty meh. However, the mother at the house they are investigating keeps talking about her ex-husband’s “gloryhole.” “I’m sorry, did you just say gloryhole?” It’s what he called his dark room. Things didn’t work out between you, you say. 😒

Who Invited Them - Duncan Birmingham - 2022

★★- Watch a lotta Shudder’s new stuff. Every once in a while you get a Mandy or Revenge. Mostly you get shit like this, though. Sort of entertaining but forgettable garbage movies. 

This one is about a couple who host a party at their new house they got a deal on because of murders that happened there decades before. When the party is over they discover a couple neither one of them invited who claim to be their neighbors. Things go well, but they won’t leave. Hijinx ensue. 

Stars Ryan Hansen from Party Down fame, Melissa Tang, Timothy Granaderos, and Perry Mattfeld. People that look familiar but you can't quite place. 

There were times when it was really engaging. Then there were things that happened that didn’t really go anywhere or add to the movie. Not great, but the performances were solid.

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight - Ernest R. Dickerson - 1995

★★★★- Darkness dweller night for the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge. Went with this old favorite. 

Billy Zane and his lower-level demons go after William Sadler, an immortal demon warrior, I guess, to steal a key that contains the blood of Christ. All the stars literally aline and he goes to a shit hotel to find his replacement. The tack on the crypt keeper stuff at the beginning and the end. Forgot how much I loved the show back in the day. 

Really cool mythology in the flick. This is definitely one of those movies that critics hated but us amateur folk love. Really appreciate the run Ernest Dickerson had in the 90s. Was Spike Lee’s cinematographer from Malcolm X (among others) before directing Juice, Surviving the Game, this movie, and Bulletproof. 

Really solid cast. Zane and Sadler. Jada Pinkett Smith. CCH Pounder. Dick Miller. Thomas Haden Church. He’s pretty funny, too, because he is so dumb. The Who Framed Roger Rabbit guy. 

Like that he plays the “good guy with the gun” who is actually a perv gun-nut who was planning a mass-shooting. He’s a disgruntled postal worker which was “funny” in the 90s for some reason. 

Child actor is super terrible. The way he utters, “he got my parents,” is maybe the worst delivery in any movie I’ve seen. Explodes at the end of the movie though. 

Bought a lot of Billy Zane stock in 1995 after seeing this for the first time. Super funny. Cool. Charismatic. Punches through people’s heads. 

Just noticed that when Billy Zane offers the old woman her arm back, it’s the wrong arm. There’s also a scene where he’s obviously dragging around a manikin that is supposed to be a Jada Pinkett Smith.

Autopsy of Jane Doe - André Øvredal - 2016

★★★★- I am doing the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge. October 1 was “first time watch.” Got my list squared away. Most are actually first time watches. 

Started off the month with a good one. Total bear bones horror hat manages to be legit scary. Could’ve been a play as Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch (both of them give pretty great performances) barely leave the autopsy room. 

The duo play a father and son team of coroners. They have to conduct a mysterious autopsy and determine cause of death when the body of a young woman shows up at a gruesome murder scene. As they conduct their work, supernatural shenanigans start going down and things go cray, as they do. Ending is weak and a total bummer but everything up to the last 10 minutes is fantastic. Also a movie that kills the cat. Will always make me like your movie less. 

If anyone else is interested, I am linking to the site which also has an explanation:   https://nofspodcast.com/horrorchallenge.