The Month of Horror PART IV: dsheinem vs. noiseredux

[noiseredux]

^Elvira rules.


I decided to start playing Half-Life: Blue Shift. Leave it to me... I play the original Half-Life on DC, and then I play the episode intended to be a DC bonus feature on PC.

[dsheinem]

This one answers the question "what if a director took some of the premise of "The Screaming Skull" but made it interesting, stuffed it with great actors, replaced the skull with other body parts, and created a nice thriller/horror blend?" (A question no one has probably ever asked). This one had some great performances, with Bette Davis in particular being a standout. In truth, the performances hide what is sometimes a mediocre story, but the dialogue is often excellent and the directing is top tier. It is probably the best film I've watched this month so far, if not my favorite to this point (that'd probably be V/H/S still).

Oct 2013 Films
The Reef (2010)
V/H/S (2012)
The Thing (2011)
The Island of Lost Souls (1932)
The Screaming Skull (1958)
Rubber (2010)
Trollhunter (2010)
Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

[Ack]

The Descent is a very claustrophobic and dark film about six women who engage in the caving trip from Hell. The action is at times hard to follow, though this is a stylistic choice to emphasize the suffocating nature of the film's locale. It also has some very vivid usage of color, especially towards the end of the movie as two of the protagonists become opposed to each other in physical appearance but also technique and mentality. Beth becomes primeval and animalistic in her brutality as well as her appearance, while Juno stays relatively civilized. It is this oppositional relationship that is the core of the film, as two opposing friends ultimately switch positions over the course of Beth's accident, the year away, and then the cave expedition that goes horribly wrong.

As for the monsters, they're well-suited to the darkness and work effectively in low-light. They become less threatening as they are shown in more light, and as the steadily dwindling members of the expedition team become more accustomed to fighting them. The truth is, while they make a formidable enemy, they distract from the natural fear of the cave and still take a side seat to the main relationship of the film. They're good, but the scenes in low-light struggling to climb across a ceiling or tunneling through tight corridors were far more effective for me, and after the initial shock of them attacking the women in the dark wears off(which it does after Beth finds them feeding on...well...), they become bland and uninteresting. Toward the end of the film, I was actually hoping it would turn into one a slasher film between the rest of the women as the relationship between Beth and Juno rapidly deteriorated, but alas, it was not to be, and instead we end with the heartrending end of Beth in her madness.

But for those of you not interested in that sort of thing, the cave is scary and the women are hot. And Juno is really, really flexible. Enjoy!

Anguish
Demons
Creepshow
The Beyond
Zombi 2
From Beyond
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Screaming Skull
The Killer Shrews
The Tingler
Viy
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
Black Sunday
Children of the Corn
The Burning
The Descent
Trick r' Treat
The Innkeepers
Stake Land
The Evil Dead (remake)
The Lords of Salem
The Gate
Kuroneko

[dsheinem]

I quite like The Descent. Good pick!

[Damm64]

After playing about 5 minutes of demention (yeah literally 5) i cn tell you... this game must will be great. Is a bit hard to play on emulator but if i revind the keys it will be totally playable... but this game might be the one that make's me buy a Dsi (i want to play shantae too so...).

[prfsnl_gmr]

I quite like The Descent. Good pick!

Agreed. The Descent is very solid, and Ack is on a roll this month. Once I get this trial behind me, I should have a lot more time for horror films...but until then, I will have to live vicariously through the other esteemed mmbers of our forums.

[oxymoron]

Could anyone explain what this thread's about?

[prfsnl_gmr]

Could anyone explain what this thread's about?

It's about the fact that the month of October is fucking awesome.


.....

.....

It is also about the fact that all of us play horror games and watch horror movies all month long.

[Damm64]

Could anyone explain what this thread's about?

From page 1

So for the past few years noiseredux and I have been posting separate horror-themed threads during the month of October for chronicling the horror themed games and films forum members have enjoyed in the lead up to Halloween.

This year, these two horror icons (lulz) are joining forces/facing off against one another in a single thread, providing you with one of the most compelling crossovers since Frankenstein met the Wolf-Man.

[Michi]

This one just came out in August. So since it's so new (and there are some minor spoilers in there) I'm going to spoiler it in case it's on anyone else "To Watch" list.

Hatchet III

Hatchet III


And the trilogy is complete! (Maybe.)

Hatchet III begins exactly where Hatchet II left off, directly after SPOILER! Marybeth shoots Crowly in the freaking face. Of course, he’s not dead yet (if he was this would be the shortest sequel ever) and after he rises up, lacking previously mentioned face, Marybeth dispatches him for the second time and flees the swamp.

Obviously traumatized and not thinking clearly enough to just chalk the whole thing up as two of the worst nights of her f*&king life, Marybeth wanders into a police station. Because the police will undoubtedly be willing to help any shotgun wielding, scalp carrying, blood-soaked girl who walks in….


Sadly, she missed the sign outside that read: “Any crazy people covered in blood and carrying a weapon and/or body parts will be
shot on sight.”

Of course, no one believes her explanation of “The swamp ghost did it” and boatloads of police officers and paramedics are dispatched to the swamp to pick up the pieces of her story… the many, many pieces.

Of course, once nighttime rolls around the inevitable happens…


Drunken paramedic party?

Which causes a SWAT team to show up….


Still not enough.

And Marybeth ends up forced into a plan against her will to try to put Victor Crowly in the grave once and for all.


Damn it all. Can’t you people just leave me in my f*#king cell?

Like its predecessors Hatchet III is filled with gore and frights and copious amounts of blood. While the first one focused more on horror and setting up the story and the second one focused less on horror and more on overly exaggerated death sequences, Hatchet III is more of a melding of the two. There are some jump scares and some genuinely tense, drawn out moments, but it also has several death sequences that will probably satiate most gore hounds.



I will say though, that it is not as gory as the previous installment. In fact, after watching two movies where the camera lingered on the drawn out deaths, I was surprised to notice several instances where the deaths occurred off-screen. And while the body count may be bigger, a good chunk of them occur during a very rapid sequence that only lasts a couple of minutes.

The series previous self-referential humor is still here as well. Thankfully, for me, it was better implemented than Hatchet II. And Hatchet III is filled with just as many horror icons and familiar faces as the rest of the series.


Just how many brothers do you freaking have?

So basically, if you liked the other two films you’ll like Hatchet III. It probably won’t live up to the expectations that Hatchet II left behind. My only gripes with it were that Danielle Harris didn’t have enough a$$-kicking time and they left it with a bit of an ambiguous ending (those bastards). Other than that though, it’s not bad.

Moral of the story: Get stuck in the haunted swamp once? Shame on the clumsy tour boat driver. Go in a second time? Shame on that charlatan of a reverend. Go in a third ti-…You know what? Fudge it. You’re on your own.

2013 List
Hatchet
The Silent Scream
Hammer House of Horror: Charlie Boy (Hosted by Elvira)
Hatchet III