5th Annual N&G 31 Days* of Halloween (2023)

I've been watching things - just don't forum on my phone, so I need to get over to my PC sometime later today.
 
#12.

Never Hike Alone (2017) πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€ 🦴

Fan films have come a long way - this is even a large step up from some of those low budget independent movies. As far as a "Friday Film", it's even better than most of them.

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I own the blu ray and have contributed to the kickstarters of their next 2 installments, but they are all free to watch on YouTube.

 
#13.

Never Hike in the Snow (2020) πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€

A small deduction only because it's a lot shorter in runtime than the first movie. This also acts as a prequel / other story line that is happening concurrently with what happens in Never Hike Alone.

Jason killing in winter time is also fun to finally see.

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#14.

Never Hike Alone 2 (2023) πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€

Easily the best of the 3. Fills in the story line of the previous Hike movies....and it's nice to see Thom Mathews as Tommy Jarvis again.

Best "Friday" movie since probably part 4 - as I wasn't too big of a fan of 6 Jason Lives as it was just too tame for me.

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This was release this past Friday (the 13th), so if you know of the series but don't follow it closely or through Kickstarter you may not have known it was released.

 
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16. Totally Killer πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€.5
I was pleasantly surprised by this. It's a slasher that really doesn't take itself seriously, throw in some time travel, a bit of humor, and its a recipe for a good film!

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17. There's Someone Inside Your House πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€.5

Another slasher with less of a comedy angle than Totally Killer but an equally fun watch.

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18. Lake Placid πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€

This is a film I have been meaning to watch for years but never got around to it. A giant croc in a lake, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Pullman, Betty White....great stuff!

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19. Hush πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€

Really enjoyed this one. A slasher with a twist in that the victim is deaf and the killer has no qualms about letting her know who and where he his is.

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16. Totally Killer πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€.5
I was pleasantly surprised by this. It's a slasher that really doesn't take itself seriously, throw in some time travel, a bit of humor, and its a recipe for a good film!

I had planned to watch this over the past week, but just never hit play...maybe tonight.

19. Hush πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€

Really enjoyed this one. A slasher with a twist in that the victim is deaf and the killer has no qualms about letting her know who and where he his is.

It's been a while since I've watched it, but I remember it being real good, and shows Mike Flanagan was making good stuff prior to all his various Netflix shows.
 
I had planned to watch this over the past week, but just never hit play...maybe tonight.



It's been a while since I've watched it, but I remember it being real good, and shows Mike Flanagan was making good stuff prior to all his various Netflix shows.
With Totally Killer I had to find a film that my wife would watch as well, which narrowed down the list of horror films! Its a fun watch, a comedic edge, over the top.

Hush was really enjoyable, I will definitely be watching that again and will check out more of Mike Flanagan's work (I have seen the Haunting Of Hill House and halfway through The Fall Of The House Of Usher)
 
My 6-year-old's mom sent me a picture of him at his eye exam yesterday... with a little bit of zoom and crop, I think it's got potential for a good horror movie poster!

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The arm grip and the galoshes are sending me.

What would you title it?

I'm thinking Peripheral, Fear-Sighted, or Beyond the Veil.
 
The arm grip and the galoshes are sending me.

What would you title it?

I'm thinking Peripheral, Fear-Sighted, or Beyond the Veil.

The facial expression and the arm grip just didn't hit the same until I zoomed in, and then I had to screenshot it immediately!

I like Peripheral a lot. So far I've been batting around I Spy, 20/20 and Hindsight.
 
6. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
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First time watching this one somehow. I liked the overall atmosphere. Some of the plot was pretty contrived. On one hand, seems like a few improvements could have made this a classic. On the other hand, it could have been much, much worse.

7. Santa Sangre (1989)
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Completely jarring experience, even on my 4th or 5th playthrough of this one. Makes you uncomfortable in many different ways, somehow right on the borderline of too uncomfortable. The characters are out there but have identifiable qualities. Absolutely brilliant movie that’s definitely not for everyone (e.g., my wife πŸ˜‚).

8. The VVitch
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Pretty slow, but I like witchcraft stuff and the imagery is really great, if not entirely scary. I like the dedication to making it period-appropriate. Great acting, too, including the debut of my favorite current actor, Anya Taylor-Joy.
 
6. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
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First time watching this one somehow. I liked the overall atmosphere. Some of the plot was pretty contrived. On one hand, seems like a few improvements could have made this a classic. On the other hand, it could have been much, much worse.

7. Santa Sangre (1989)
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Completely jarring experience, even on my 4th or 5th playthrough of this one. Makes you uncomfortable in many different ways, somehow right on the borderline of too uncomfortable. The characters are out there but have identifiable qualities. Absolutely brilliant movie that’s definitely not for everyone (e.g., my wife πŸ˜‚).

8. The VVitch
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Pretty slow, but I like witchcraft stuff and the imagery is really great, if not entirely scary. I like the dedication to making it period-appropriate. Great acting, too, including the debut of my favorite current actor, Anya Taylor-Joy.
Santa Sangre is underrated in Jodorowsky's work, but it's one of the best.
 
My goal is actually to hit 31 this season... i'm a bit behind. So here I am catching up.

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16. Haunted Mansion (2023) πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ¦΄
I forgot this was a remake until this very minute when I googled for this image. It has a stellar cast but somehow is kinda still boring? the beginning was decent building then when it got towards the middle where they're all gathered, it falls a bit flat. My favorite in this is Tiffany Haddish - she's hilarious in this.

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17. The Fall of the House Of Usher πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ’€
It's almost been an annual tradition for me to watch the new Mike Flanagan show during this time so that usually ate up a lot of my last week's watching time. While it was a good watch overall, I'd say probably my least favorite show he's done. At this point, his reuse of the cast every time is pretty well known but in this show, it felt kinda distracting especially towards the beginning because most of his kids felt miscast to me. Also the first few episodes turned me off a bit because it felt kinda cheesy. When it picked up towards the middle, and the story started developing, it got a lot better but a bit predictable and the ending just felt dragged on because of that. People seem to love it though so maybe my opinion is wacked - or maybe everyone else loves edgar allen poe - but i'm not familiar with the source material so that might be why.

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18. Mr Vampire 3 πŸ’€πŸ’€πŸ¦΄
Continuing this series - this one reminds me of the first a bit in terms of the setting but it's missing a lot. It's as wacky as both the prior entries but this one felt a bit dragged on because the villains weren't really that great. Still there were a few decent sequences but did not enjoy this overall.
 
Whew, busy week! Time for a roundup of things I've had on.

I missed my shot at the second feature block of my virtual film festival pass from this past weekend, but that may actually be for the better. Reached out to the filmmakers to see if they had any other fests planned and may have got the ball rolling on something local to me quite soon! TBD.

In the meantime, I'm keeping the questionable choices going with my background viewing.

On Monday, my Spooky Season challenge was young adult horror, so I finally got around to finishing the Fear Street trilogy with Fear Street Part 3 1666. While Part 2 remains my favorite of the bunch, this one did a good job of bridging the origin of the murderous local curse and its period setting with the modern day resolution spurred by the survivors of Part 1.

πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€ 🦴

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10 Rillington Place recounts chilling and tragic events of a true English serial murderer and an unjustly convicted neighbor. Really great performances in this one. This fulfilled Tuesday's Spooky Season challenge of a 1970's movie.

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Randomly threw on Lady in White which had some interesting ideas and a painful execution. A kid digs into a ghostly local legend and uncovers the dark truth behind the haunting. Every scene is so comically choreographed and composed. It kind of made me think of Paperhouse for some reason, but mostly as its cinematic antithesis.

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My Wednesday theme called for zombies, so I doubled up on some long awaited watchlist items. First was Nina Forever about a late girlfriend whose mangled body reconstitutes every time her surviving boyfriend gets spicy in the bedroom as a means to move on from his grief. Kinda. (There's more to it, which makes it engaging and funny.)

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On a more typical side of zombie things, I followed up with Wyrmwood: Apocalypse, a (seemingly standalone) sequel to Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead. This Aussie franchise blends Mad Max dystopianism with plenty of graphic undead action. I had a lot of fun with the first, and there's a lot about its heightened stylization that carries through in Apocalypse, but I did find this one to feel a lot smaller in geographical scope with its isolated story about a trapper, an underground research lab, and a zombie hybrid on the run that could be the key to a cure.

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Thursday's challenge called for horror comedy, so I queued up Auntie Lee's Meat Pies expecting some good laughs, but Auntie Lee is certainly no Ms. Lovett. Instead of Sweeney Todd, this one's Sleepy Todd. Karen Black as the titular cook is wholly committed and a perpetual delight, but everyone else is so listless and the direction is so flat. The script is also chock full of groan-worthy punchlines.

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Good thing I saved up an actually funny horror for sharing with the roommate while working on costumes later. Totally Killer had me chortling up a storm. This ended up being more of what I wanted/expected from Freaky that we didn't ultimately get.

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With our focuses honing on costume construction I scrolled around for something/anything to throw on quick and landed on Mermaid: The Lake of the Dead. First, it's seemingly not about mermaids, rather a ghost/water nymph? Second, it was pretty eh.

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I knew our last costume construction push for the night called for something reliably bad in the background, so we checked off The Haunting in Connecticut (just to say we finally did). Glad we've got plenty of better Kyle Gallner movies to appreciate now.

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19. The Lost Boys πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€ 🦴
More vampires! Enjoyed this! I think this must be the earliest movie I've seen Kiefer Sutherland in. He's so young here. It has that 80's cheese feel to it but I think it's part of it's charm. Love the story and esthetics - so very 80s especially that saxophone guy.

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19. The Lost Boys πŸ’€ πŸ’€ πŸ’€ 🦴
More vampires! Enjoyed this! I think this must be the earliest movie I've seen Kiefer Sutherland in. He's so young here. It has that 80's cheese feel to it but I think it's part of it's charm. Love the story and esthetics - so very 80s especially that saxophone guy.

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Jack Bauer sure had an experimental coming of age...

Loving the long tail this movie seems to have.

I feel like Tim Capello (saxophonist) has regained a lot of solo recognition lately. Noticed him popping up at conventions, touring, and collabing more extensively with Gunship.

 
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