Racketboy Month of Horror 15: Whelp, That Happened

[Note]

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween! I've watched a few movies since my last post in the thread, including Blair Witch Project, Videodrome, Terrifier and Mute Witness. I enjoyed all of these movies! Mute Witness we just watched last night and it ended up being a bit different than we expected, but was still a fun watch.

Gaming wise, I finished the main game for Parasite Eve and started up Resident Evil 3 (PS1). I'm pretty far into RE3, and just reached the graveyard area. I'm really enjoying it so far, but Nemesis popping up randomly from time to time is a bit stressful! Lol.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Happy (Day After) Halloween!

We had a pretty good night. My children both dressed up and went trick ‘r treating with their friends. We ordered pizza for everyone, but they were too excited about (or too full of) candy to eat much. I dressed up and handed out candy. We didn’t get as many trick ‘r treaters as last year; so, we have a lot of leftover Starburst and Fun Dips…

My wife and I knocked out a few more movies to finish the month strong. Blood Red Sky is a German film about a vampire on a hijacked airplane, and it is way, way better than any movie about a vampire on an airplane has any right to be. Night Teeth is about beautiful club-hopping vampires in L.A. and…<yawn>…zzzzzzzzzzzz. Sorry. It’s just so boring. Not recommended. From Beyond is a bonkers, 1980s HP Lovecraft adaptation from director Stuart Gordon. It’s funny and gory and weird in all the right ways. Finally, the 2018 Halloween is a solid follow-up to the 1978 original. It’s not quite as good - Is anything? - and the ending is weak. Still, the rest of the movie is strong, especially the part where Michael Myers strolls around killing random people on Halloween night.

For video games, I’m still playing Faith: The Unholy Trilogy. It is rock-solid and very, very scary. It looks like a game for the Atari 5200 (or Atari 8-bit), but with creepy, toro-scoped cutscenes and amazingly tense gameplay. I’ve unlocked all the endings and notes for episodes 1 and 2, and I just started episode 3. I’ll probably finish it next week, and when I do, I’ll write a review in the “games beaten” thread.

prfsnl_gmr’s Series of TERROR!
1. Marianne (Netflix) -
2. Midnight Mass (Netflix) -
3. The Midnight Club (Netflix) -

prfsnl_gmr’s Movies of MADNESS!
1. Cottage Country (Prime Video) -
2. Kumari (Netflix) -
3. Grave Encounters (Kanopy) -
4. The Vourdelak (Kanopy) -
5. Before I Wake (Netflix) -
6. Edge of the Ax (Prime Video) -
7. Blood Feast (Kanopy) -
8. In Fabric (Prime Video) -
9. Alligator (Prime Video) -
10. Ghost Story (Prime Video) -
11. The Boogeyman (Prime Video) -
12. Skinamarink (Blu Disc) -
13. Blood Red Sky (Netflix) -
14. Night Teeth (Netflix) -
15. From Beyond (Kanopy) -
16. Halloween (Netflix) -

[Michi]

I hope everyone had an awesome holiday! I know I'm quite a bit late, but I wanted to put up the final movie write-ups for the month!



Scarecrows <---Helpful link to full thoughts



Some mercenaries steal a lot of money and kidnap a pilot and his daughter, forcing them to fly them out of the country. But when one of their own betrays them, and they wind up on a creepy, deserted farm surrounded by equally creepy scarecrows, it quickly becomes apparent that their biggest problem isn't going to simply be trying to track down their former teammate.

A very atmospheric little horror outing where the monsters are all....wait for it...scarecrows. Cool. We need more of those. And it even starts out pretty good, too, with a great location that feels really, mysteriously ominous. The acting is even pretty decent. And it even has some decent effects for a low-budget film like this. But the problems arise with the writing. The guy who runs off with the money clearly had no escape plan. Strike 1. The mercenaries start off all bloodthirsty and threatening, but once the pilot dies, they look at his daughter like "Gee, kid. We know we kept threatening to shoot the two of you and all, but gosh, we didn't mean for him to die and we feel really bad about orphaning you now and all." Strike 2. And THEN, when they finally realize that the money isn't worth their lives, and they're up against something beyond their control and need to leave, these idiots keep getting distracted by errant $20 bills laying around the farm 10 seconds later. Seriously, it's like "Shit! Screw the money! We need to get back to the plane and get out of her-... Oh, look! Money!" It's really, REALLY bad. So, Strike 3, movie. You're nice and moody and all, but I think I'd rather go watch Dark Night of the Scarecrow again instead.



Mirrors



An ex-detective takes a night job paroling an old, fire-damaged department store, and starts to suspect that the mirrors in the store are harboring a dark force.

Yet another movie that starts off really well with some awesome atmosphere and nice imagery, and then just...falls apart by the middle and then annoy you by the end. I think it was supposed to be an adaptation of the Korean film, Into the Mirror, but it got mostly rewritten and lost a lot in translation. Because I just do not understand the internal story logic in this one at all. You have this evil force, which SPOILER turns out to be a demon END SPOILER. It's trapped in the mirrors. And you THINK it's only trapped in the mirrors at the store, because clearly it wants out. But then you find out that it can go into ANY mirror and kill people whenever it wants. It just needs a reflective surface. Yet it's end goal is to possess this one gal that got away from it? Why? It was doing fine. It was killing lots of people and growing stronger with each death and shit, just how it wanted. Possessing the mirrors was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to it. But it's obsessed with this one chick? I don't get it. Then by the end it turns into this weird action thing, and people are getting thrown several feet through the air, yet still getting back up. It kinda feels like you suddenly switched movies. And then there's this twist at the end that I'm sure is supposed to make you go "oh no!", but all it did was add more questions and made me continue to question the film's logic. Oh well. At least most of it looked nice.



And here's my pumpkin, for those interested:



It is Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000, with a pumpkin head. Or, if you like, Pumpkinhead Tom Servo.


And I know (I think it was) Ziggy, mention Halloween decorations earlier. Yes, I do decorate, but mostly inside this year. I typically like to put up some lights outside, but the hurricanes this year kinda put a kibosh on that, so we didn't bother. Hopefully we'll be able to do it next year. There is one guy on the street that REALLY likes to decorate though, with a bunch of lights and blow-ups and other knick·knack. He's got a small yard, but he fills it to the brink with over a dozen different things. And he's quick, too. He's already gotten it all down and put up all his Christmas decorations in their place already. That dude is dedicated

But here's my tiny little internal display, if you care to know:






Anyway, thanks everyone for participating! I really enjoy reading everyone's thoughts on movies/games/what-have-you and looking at any pictures you chose to share. It's probably one of my favorite things.

Hope to see you all next year!

[Golgo 14]

Fun Dips…

Finally, the 2018 Halloween is a solid follow-up to the 1978 original. It’s not quite as good - Is anything? - and the ending is weak. Still, the rest of the movie is strong, especially the part where Michael Myers strolls around killing random people on Halloween night.

I like it too. Probably my second favorite of the series, though it and the rest of Blumhouse's output doesn''t seem to be very popular with horror fans. The two follow-ups are skippable. They planned the trilogy when they got Jamie Lee Curtis to come back, but almost all the good stuff is in the first one.

[Note]

Awesome Halloween display Michi! Also, another impressive carved pumpkin.

My girlfriend and I watched In A Violent Nature over the weekend. Thanks for the recommendation on that one, Ack. We both really liked it, and I think fans of slasher movies will enjoy it. The movie is shot in the perspective of the villain as opposed to the victims, which I thought was a unique approach.

[Raging Justice]

So the Halloween/Ash vs Evil Dead game disappointed me but this looks fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGrXrVH2dE

[REPO Man]

If you like PSX-style survival horror games, it is.

[Ziggy]

So even though it bled into November, I was able to finish Resident Evil 4. Twice, actually. I always wanted to try the new game plus mode, but never felt like playing it twice in a row. Well this time I did, and I just plowed through it the second time. I saved up and bought the infinite rocket launcher, which made some areas (mostly bosses) much easier and faster. As well as being able to fully upgrade the rest of my weapons. I'd like to play through it even a third time now, just to experiment with different weapons since I have so much cash now.

But instead I tried some of the extra game modes, which frustrate me with how hard they are. The one with Ada where you have to collect 5 samples is pretty challenging. On my first play through, I got up to a point with a locked door and then you're pinned in a tight spot with 5 enemies coming up on you fast. 4 of those guys with those stupid wooden shields, and 1 mini gun guy that's like a bullet sponge. I decided I just didn't have enough ammo and health restore stuff to progress past that point, so I turned it off. I tired it again, but then found the first mini gun guy encounter to be challenging, and I got frustrated and turned it off LOL. I played Separate Ways once on the PC port, but didn't finish it because there was a spot that I couldn't get past. I might try it again on the PS4. We'll see. I'm actually kind of pumped to try some other RE games now. I've played through RE4 about 4 times now, but for some reason never tried any other games in the series.

Anyway, in terms of Halloween and spooky/horror content, I don't know what the other games in the series are like but RE4 has some super creepy moments. Like, the atmosphere and music just nailed horror in a few spots.

And I know (I think it was) Ziggy, mention Halloween decorations earlier. Yes, I do decorate [...] But here's my tiny little internal display, if you care to know:

Yep, that was me talking about decorating. Looks good! Thanks for posting that.