Racketboy Month of Horror 11: The Pandemic Edition

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome reviews, DSH and Michi! I’ll need to watch The Scream of Fear, which looks right up my alley, and Michi already knows I adore The Love Witch. (Also, DSH, the British version of The Ladykillers demolishes the tepid Coen Brothers remake. You should definitely seek it out.)

.....

My wife and I continue our Halloween movie marathon!

First, we watched The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976). Whereas the (really good) 2014 meta-remake/sequel is a more traditional slasher film, the original version of The Town that Dreaded Sundown is more of a police procedural interspersed with very good slasher movie sequences (and, occasionally, some good, if discordant, comedy sequences). It’s a really unique film, especially for its era, and it reminded me, a bit, of David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007). That is, it is more about trying to solve inherently random, nearly unsolvable murders than it is about the murders themselves.

Next, we watched The City of the Dead a/k/a Horror Hotel (1960). It is a British film, set in Massachusetts, about a young woman conducting a research project on witches. In pursuit of her research, she heads to a remote Massachusetts town that was the site of a notorious witch burning. The town is super-duper creepy, with: (1) a gas station attendant who warns of going there; (2) run-down, antiquated buildings; (3) crooked headstones; (4) mysterious residents; (5) creepy noises; (6) a blind, paranoid clergymen; and (7) a fog machine that runs 24 hours a day. Everything is beautifully filmed in inky black-and-white, and it features a mostly great cast, including a young Christopher Lee in one of his first horror movie roles. It features a shocking mid-film twist, and it quickly became one of my favorite British horror films and one of my favorite horror films of the 1960s. Highly recommended.

Last night, my wife and I finally watched Hereditary (2018). At the time of its release it was considered one of the scariest movies ever made. It isn’t. It is still a very well-acted, well-directed horror film, however, with stupendous sound design. Other than wishing it had lived up to the hype a bit more, I really liked it, and it is essential viewing for horror movie fans.

prfsnl_gmr’s Halloween Movie List 2020 - Outbreak Edition
Slither (2006) -
The Creeping Flesh (1973) -
Man-Made Monster (1941) -
Doctor X (1932) -
Audition (1999) -
The Vanishing (1988) -
The Return of Doctor X (1939) -
REC (2007) -
The Devil Doll (1936) -
Captive Wild Woman (1943) -
The Shout (1978) -
Phenomena (1985) -
Squirm (1976) -
Lake Mungo (2008) -
The Burrowers (2008) -
Psychomania (1972) -
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) -
Possum (2018) -
Final Exam (1981) -
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) -
The City of the Dead (1970) -
Hereditary (2018) -

[dsheinem]

stupendous sound design

I don't know if you are including Colin Stetson's score in this comment, but anyone who isn't familiar with his work and liked the score to this film absolutely owes it to themselves to check out his oeuvre. I own pretty much all his stuff on vinyl, and it was his connection to the film that made me have any interest in Hereditary in the first place. In addition to a lot of great solo work (and a sweet collab record with Sarah Neufeld), he's also in the awesome metal band Ex Eye. He's also done the score for a lot of other things in the past five years or so (including Color Out of Space), is one of the most fascinating saxophonists around, and immensely talented.

[PretentiousHipster]

I've seen Colin live 3 times. He lived 2 hours away from me so he came to my city frequently.

[prfsnl_gmr]

stupendous sound design

I don't know if you are including Colin Stetson's score in this comment, but anyone who isn't familiar with his work and liked the score to this film absolutely owes it to themselves to check out his oeuvre. I own pretty much all his stuff on vinyl, and it was his connection to the film that made me have any interest in Hereditary in the first place. In addition to a lot of great solo work (and a sweet collab record with Sarah Neufeld), he's also in the awesome metal band Ex Eye. He's also done the score for a lot of other things in the past five years or so (including Color Out of Space), is one of the most fascinating saxophonists around, and immensely talented.

Yes. I am referring to that. It was stupendous.

....

Tonight, my wife and I watched Head Count (2019). It’s a new, old-fashioned horror film about a group of good looking college students drinking and partying at Joshua Tree National Park who accidentally summon a malicious entity when one of them reads a random creepypasta out loud. (Whoops!) i went into the film mostly blind, having read only about the brilliant “never have I ever” scene, and describing the film much more might detract from someone else’s enjoyment of it. I’ll just say that it is well-made, genuinely creepy, and a lot of fun, and I recommend it to anyone interested enough in horror to be reading this thread. Like just about everything I’ve watched this year, Head Count is available for streaming on Prime Video.

prfsnl_gmr’s Halloween Movie List 2020 - Outbreak Edition
Slither (2006) -
The Creeping Flesh (1973) -
Man-Made Monster (1941) -
Doctor X (1932) -
Audition (1999) -
The Vanishing (1988) -
The Return of Doctor X (1939) -
REC (2007) -
The Devil Doll (1936) -
Captive Wild Woman (1943) -
The Shout (1978) -
Phenomena (1985) -
Squirm (1976) -
Lake Mungo (2008) -
The Burrowers (2008) -
Psychomania (1972) -
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) -
Possum (2018) -
Final Exam (1981) -
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) -
The City of the Dead (1970) -
Hereditary (2018) -
Head Count (2019) -

[opa]

I want to recommend the old anime Lily C.A.T. It is an 80s title originally dubbed and released by Streamline. It’s a sci-fi horror tale in the vein of Alien that’s well animated and actually decently dubbed. It’s also on Amazon Prime.

The plot is that there’s a survey ship headed out for a distant planet. There are some oddities among the crew, but whatever, right? So the crew goes into stasis, but while the crew sleeps the ship is remotely directed to intercept some kind of comet-like anomaly and collect some material from it. From there, you can probably guess how the movie proceeds. But it actually does a neat job presenting the crew members (before most are killed off), including the non-standard members. For an anime it is pretty western-friendly. Recommended as Halloween watching.

Thank you for this post. We watched it last night. I thought it was great however...

once we got to the cat being ground up my wife didn't like it all that much after that point.

[marurun]

I want to recommend the old anime Lily C.A.T. It is an 80s title originally dubbed and released by Streamline. It’s a sci-fi horror tale in the vein of Alien that’s well animated and actually decently dubbed. It’s also on Amazon Prime.

Thank you for this post. We watched it last night. I thought it was great however...

once we got to the cat being ground up my wife didn't like it all that much after that point.

That wasn't my favorite part, either, so I sympathize with your wife. But sometimes you gotta make a mess to make a horror movie.

So spoiler tags and quote tags create weird issues.

[PretentiousHipster]

I watched Stay Alive with my partner last night. A gaming horror film from the mid 2000s that I saw in theatres when I was 14-15, and holy hell it is almost so bad it's good potential. I'm a big believer of suspension of disbelief and even I had to complain about this. I'm convinced the only reason I loved it as a teen was hormones because of how attractive the two women were in the film.

I'll only need to say these two points for you to get an idea of this film:

- The goth chick's name is October
- There's a scene where the lead is cleaning dishes. He's cleaning those red plastic cups

[Ack]

But is it better or worse than the Hellraiser video game movie?

[PretentiousHipster]

I was actually planning to see that soon lol.

Hellraiser Hellworld is rated R so that will probably already make it better. Stay Alive is a PG-13 supernatural slasher... so a slasher that doesn't really show any of the slashing...

[Michi]

Happy Halloween ya'll!

Hope everyone is enjoying cheesy horror movies and copious amounts of candy due to the lack of trick or treaters

Here's my pumpkin carving for the year. I couldn't think of what to carve this year, and then my mom pointed out I hadn't done a Star Wars pumpkin yet. So I carved her a festive Baby Yoda: