Racketboy Month of Horror 16: Weaponization

[marurun]

What about the Underworld and Twilight series?

[bmoc]

I'll be getting supplies for my annual Ghostbusters marathon with my daughter this weekend. We make homemade Ecto Cooler and buy some product placement snacks like Twinkies. We always watch the original movie and one other (probably Afterlife this year).

Beyond that, I've been thinking about rewatching Stranger Things in preparation for the final season.

[Note]

The Ghostbusters marathon sounds awesome. How do you all make the homemade Ecto Cooler?

My girlfriend and I recently rewatched Stranger Things in preparation for the upcoming final season. Such a great show. I kind of want to watch the finale of Season 4 again, might have to set aside some time to do that in late November a week or two before Season 5 is released.

[bmoc]

The Ghostbusters marathon sounds awesome. How do you all make the homemade Ecto Cooler?

This recipe but less sugar. It calls for way too much. https://ghostbustersnews.com/2021/05/16 ... er-recipe/

[prfsnl_gmr]

Getting up some reviews so I don’t forget about all these movies!

In The Beast Must Die (1974), an eccentric British millionaire invites a group of distinguished guests to his country estate, convinced that one of them is a werewolf. He’s right. One of them IS a werewolf and starts dispatching the other guests one by one. It is, at its core, a locked room mystery with horror elements, and since I love both horror and mysteries, I should have loved it. Unfortunately, it’s pretty poorly paced and scripted, and it’s really corny. The more recent Werewolves Within executes this concept much, much better, and I can’t really recommend The Beast Must Die as anything other than a curiosity.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020) is an excellent horror comedy about a small-town sheriff’s deputy investigating a string of gruesome murders that re very obviously the work of a werewolf. There are wolf prints at the crime scenes; there are wolf hairs on the victims; the murders occur during the full moon; all the townsfolk say it’s a werewolf. Still, the deputy insists it’s the work of a man. Mostly, though, he spend the movie a ball of simmering rage and resentment ready at any moment to fall back off the wagon and give in to his extreme anger management issues. (It’s a little ambiguous who’s really the “wolf” of Snow Hollow…). The movie doesn’t shy away from horror and gore, but it definitely leans into the comedy. Regardless, it’s immensely entertaining, and I really can’t recommend it highly enough.

Wolf-Man (2025) is a recent Universal horror film about a man, struggling in his marriage, who drives his family from the city to rural Oregon to clean out his domineering father’s home. On the way there, they get attacked by some sort of lycanthrope, and the poor man is bitten. He becomes increasingly ill as the night progresses, and his body undergoes some major changes. The whole thing is probably about anger or resentment or inter generational trauma or something. I don’t know. What I do know, though, is that the werewolf-transformation-as-body-horror plays really well, and the movie, in addition to having a rad transformation, has some genuine scares and disturbing gore. While it’s by no means my favorite werewolf film, the movie’s not nearly as bad as its reputation would suggest, and I recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting take on a pretty tired genre.

In the Tall Grass (2019) is a Netflix adaptation of a novella by a Stephen King and Joe Hill. In it, a brother and sister are lured into a field of tall grass by a cry for help, and they find themselves unable to escape. Everything gets all Lovecraftian and, as Doctor Who l would say, timey-wimey. It never really gets very scary, though, and while it’s OK, it’s really forgettable. (I actually forgot about it completely until I started writing these reviews!) If you have “a horror movie where the monster is grass” on your bingo card, though, you can use this movie to check it off.

Werewolf by Night (2023) is a fun little MCU diversion based on an obscure 1970s comic book that pays tribute to Universal horror films (while still staying consistent with the MCU house style). In it, a group of monster hunters are summoned to a mansion to hunt a beast. Whoever slays it will claim the bloodstone, a monster hunting relic of immense power. All of the characters, with one exception, are D-list Marvel comics heroes and villains. (The exception is C-list at most.). It’s fun, and it lasts about an hour. Despite a few comically severed limbs, it’s probably a pretty good “family” Halloween movie, and I enjoyed it for what it is.

Aaaaaaaa-oooooooo! Werewolf of London (1936) is the first werewolf movie, preceding Lon Chaney’s The Wolf Man by five years. (Both movies were made by Universal. They just ruled horror back then!) In it, a British botanist travels to Nepal to retrieve a rare blossom that blooms only under the light of the full moon. Unfortunately, it’s guarded by…A WEREWOLF! He gets bitten and returns to London, where good civilized, English-speaking people don’t believe such silly superstitions. The excellent Doctor Yogami (played by a Swedish actor because…you know…1936) thinks otherwise, though, and is hopeful he can help our botanist find an antidote before he must kill. (“The werewolf instinctively seeks to kill that which it loves best!”) The rest of the movie is all glorious black and white photography and scenes of people in amazing dresses and tuxedos and lavish dinner parties. (They loved that stuff during the Great Depression!) It’s all very entertaining, and it ends up being just a great, breezy, classic horror film. Highly recommended.

Horror in the High Desert (2021) is a mockumenrary/found footage horror film about a hiker who goes missing in northeastern Nevada loosely based on a true story. It’s very realistically presented, and the amateur actors and shoestring budget make it all seem more “real” than most found footage films (much like The Blair Witch Project). The first 2/3 of the movie are interviews and set up, and the film may be too slow for some. The last 1/3, however, is just insanely terrifying, and it’s easily the scariest film I’ve watched this year. (One very effective scar causes me almost to jump out of my skin, and I was breathless until it resolved.) There are a few sequels, and I’ve read that they’re good too. I may have to check both of them out later in the month.

The Cursed (2021) is a British period horror about a landowner who’s cursed after massacring a group of Roma people with a claim to his land. (The massacre is the movie’s most horrific moments, and the landowner really earned that curse.) What comes after are haunting dreams, animate scarecrows, beasts (that are kind of like werewolves..), vines, brooding atmosphere, creepy fog, women wearing white nightgowns walking down spooky corridors while holding a fully lit candelabra, etc. There are some really awesome, practical creature effects, and the whole movie is just a good(?) time. If you like movies like Sleepy Hollow, The Woman in Black, or Crimson Peak, this will be right up your alley.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Using my usual review system, here’s this year’s….

PRFSNL_GMR’S SPOOKY HORROR MOVIES LIST: ORIGINS

The Beast Must Die -
The Wolf of Snow Hollow -
Wolf-Man -
In the Tall Grass -
Werewolf by Night -
Werewolf of London -
Horror in the High Desert -
The Cursed -

[Note]

Watched the movie Firestarter (1984) last night. Some of the writing and acting leaves a lot to be desired, but overall I thought it was a fun watch. Cool to see the influence it had on Stranger Things, a few themes from the movie are prominent in the show as well.

[prfsnl_gmr]

On Saturday, my wife and I watched Presence (2025). It is a Steven Soderbergh film about a family that moves into a new home. The house is haunted, however, and the film is viewed entirely from the perspective of the ghost as it floats through the hallways, moves objects, breaks things, etc. It’s an interesting concept, and it’s generally well-acted. The story’s kind of ho-hum, however, and it’s not scary at all. Accordingly, and unfortunately, it’s not much of a horror film, and it’s kind of a weak outing for one of my favorite directors.

Tonight, we watched The Blackening (2023). It is a horror-comedy about a group of African-American friends that rent a cabin for Juneteenth. They are soon stalked by a murderer who quizzes them on black history. The movie is very, very funny and definitely more of a comedy than a horror movie. Still, it IS a horror movie, and despite how funny it is, it’s a pretty effective and entertaining slasher film. I enjoyed it tremendously, and if you have a sense of humor, you probably will too.

PRFSNL_GMR’S SPOOKY HORROR MOVIES LIST: ORIGINS

The Beast Must Die -
The Wolf of Snow Hollow -
Wolf-Man -
In the Tall Grass -
Werewolf by Night -
Werewolf of London -
Horror in the High Desert -
The Cursed -
Presence -
The Blackening -

[Ack]

Presence sounds interesting, at least from a conceptual point of view.

And I have put together a list of 50 films that I will be pulling from in October. It has been some years, but I think it's time to return to the 31 horror movie marathon. I don't have any particular theme for this one, so it will be a mix of topics, decades, countries, and so forth. I'm looking forward to it, it's been some time.

[Ack]

So it begins...



1. Pulse

This is a Japanese horror film from 2001, when the United States was starting to notice the J-Horror market (and subsequently East Asian horror cinema). The film had an impact, with its focus on atmosphere and shot composition over gore and jump scares, and people heavily in the genre now consider it a major classic of it's generation. I hadn't seen it yet, so I figured it was time.

The story ostensibly follows two different paths as people start to interact with ghosts via the Internet. Both sides lose folks steadily to madness and suicide, until eventually the two main characters link up and decide to run as far as they can. But the world is collapsing around them, leading to questions about human survival, loneliness in death, and whether it's worth knowing people and continuing on.

And I loved it. I saw the film less as a ghost story and more as an examination of loneliness in the digital age, as our ability to interact with fellow people face to face is minimized via our obsession with screens. The two stories reflect on friendships and potential romantic entanglements as these fall apart. Depression is also deeply entrenched in the tech users. Proximity to the Internet is the driving factor here, but the extensive use of televisions, telephones and cellphones, even video games in the movie emphasizes the impact. Also, the ghosts are mainly dark silhouettes or grainy video; they don't do extensive theatrical makeup, but these actors widen their eyes in ways that make their faces unnerving despite the lack of effects. It's marvelous.

Pulse was a great way for me to get started. I'm energized for this year's marathon!

1/31

1. Pulse