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

Realizing the task I've set for myself today may be a bit of a damper on the spooky season cheer this thread aims to evoke.

I promise my middling reviews come from a place of processing hopeful expectations for the genre.

Not going to give this one a rating, but will share both its positives and negatives.

I was drawn to The Wasteland by a recent glimpse at a trailer from its promise of atmospheric folk horror. And on visual style, it definitely delivers.

The folk wrappings however feel like window dressing on the far more allegorical horror it sets up from the very start.

For an allegorical horror story, it's rather terse to start. Maybe it comes down to translation, but the dialogue feels too pointed/stilted. I started feeling like the story had run its course about midway, but it did find a way to re-escalate in an appealing way.

The director wanted to make a story that "could be loved by all audiences," and in a way it does feel like succeeds in providing a decent gateway to horror. But for a story that seems built around the son, I think the mother got more substance.


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Someone, call a script doctor!

It's a damn shame how messy the plot of Inhuman Kiss is, given the underrepresentation of Krasue and similar regional spirits in cinema. This movie's got a lot of great building blocks and several unnecessary ones, but they're all jumbled together—rushing to earn a bloated climax.

Would love to see this pared down to something akin to a reversed Beauty & the Beast, where Sai's is allowed a personal struggle with her emerging form before realization and fear takes hold of the village. There's simply no reason the hunting party should be involved as early as they are, placing Sai in a crosshair before she's even a threat. The whole Noi & Sai dynamic is excellent, though. It can totally still be tragic but without all the overcompensation.

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EvanBenner said:
(Screambox has proven a valuable platform for its price—one of the more affordable of the bunch. They're raising their fees on Oct. 2 to $6.99 per month or $59.99 for the year, so now's a great time to join before the hike. As a sponsor of the seasonal HoopTober challenge over on Letterboxd, they've got an active free month trial/promo for new subs available. There's plenty of new content slated for both Sept. and October including a RoboCop docuseries.)
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Hemotep said:
Well fudge, I tried to sub for the free month and accidentally did the year, lol
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EvanBenner said:
Hopefully there's enough to justify the sub for you. It's a rather eclectic selection and growing quite rapidly (something that gives me hope since Shudder has been slowing on content since the AMC cuts). There's even a handful of under-the-radar foreign remakes of classic franchises (Scream, Fright Night, and The Eye) that I've been eyeing.
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I think I subbed to Screambox back when Terrifier 2 was an exclusive last Halloween and just stuck with it. They seem to get enough exclusive movies that I want to watch that the sub fee seems worth it.

I don't think it's as good as Shudder in terms of the number of better movies, but it's not a bad alternative - and having more Horror specific streaming is always a good thing.
 
There are a few higher rated options for Korean Horror on Netflix, but I like to save goodies for when my roommate can join us, so I opted for something with more mid-tier reviews.

Svaha: The Sixth Finger is like a cult-busting version of X Files meets a (slightly) more cheerful Broadchurch.

Pastor Park has made a business out of exposing dangerous and exploitative cults. He finds his next big break when the latest target of his investigations becomes tied to the murder of a young schoolgirl. What follows is a delve into mysticisms, crises of faith, and gruesome consequences of unbridled fervor.

I'm always down for religious horror, and this one balances the religiosity with investigative police procedural pretty well. You can bet I'd watch more of these if they ever decide to serialize Pastor Park's dark yet humorous exploits, deciphering dangerous fringe prophesies all the while.

💀💀💀 🦴

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2. Demonic 💀💀
OK so I forgot I also watched this really recently too - so it counts. I had it on my list for a while. I put off seeing it because of all the bad reviews but I love Blomkamp so I had to eventually see it. The first half of the movie is interesting and actually pretty well done. The vibe is very different from regular Blomkamp and I would say the only thing that carries his style is the futuristic tech that's in it - which was pretty cool. The characters are kinda meh but they have a decent back story. Something derailed towards the end and the story became really dumb - and not in a good way. I'm talking like Priest mercenaries hunting demons with automatic rifles level dumb. Overall, I wouldn't watch this as a fan of Blomkamp.

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3. Demon Knight 💀💀💀 🦴
Working on watching both Tales From the Crypt movies on Peacock. I enjoyed it, it was cheesy but in a good way. One of Billy Zane's wackiest roles - where he's almost cartoonish. Jada Pinkett does the whole covered in blood thing before The Descent (maybe Carrie had that first actually).
 
LeeVing said:
#2.

Vertigo (1958) 💀💀💀💀💀

I usually say Vertigo is my favorite Hitchcock - but I'll admit that it can change between it and Rear Window and Psycho.

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Also my favorite Hitchcock. I still remember the first time I watched it and the big reveal happened. Then the piecing of the clues. Masterfully done.

Hemotep said:
Great to see Booty Hole
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I've never seen this movie but WHAT lol
 
Only watched The Exorcist II: The Heretic so I can finally get around to seeing The Exorcist III with its infamous hospital jump scare. This one's quite the mess.

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Also threw on The Meg for some low stakes marine horror, and it still failed to justify its existence in a world where Deep Blue Sea, Piranha, and Jaws exist.

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14. Against the Night (2017)

💀🦴

This wasn't scary, and the actors were annoying but they weren't bad actors. What drew me to it is that it's based in a prison that one of my former professors did research on. It wasn't as bad as the IMDb score led me to believe, but it's not one I'd rewatch.
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15. The Crazies (1973)
💀💀💀

Good to revisit this one. It's not the best Romero, but it has a serious tone and elevates the genre by relying heavily on the acting and dialogue in a way that contemporary films have really shied away from. I probably need to explain what I mean by that better, but hopefully it makes enough sense to those who've seen this.

I enjoyed the remake in 2010 too, despite it's flaws. Saw it a few times at the theater.
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Evil Dead Rise is so dang fun! Lee Cronin does a great job of capturing the wild levity of Raimi's original trilogy and the brutality of Fede Alvarez's reboot, setting the franchise up for plenty of horrifying possibilities to come.

EDR melds demonic possession with supremely physical horror in a way that never feels cheap or hokey. I think that's where my dissatisfaction with a lot of the Wan-led films of late and much of Raimi's mid-career work lies. I'm much more invested in horror that aims for fear over shallow scares.

Of particular note, whereas other movies overcompensate with their scores to jolt viewers, EDR's score is smart and restrained. Its audible stings are an accent—a quick and fleeting strum of strings instead of a painful burst of cymbals, horns and percussion.

I don't spend a lot of time rewatching things I've seen before, but I could easily make this a regular spooky season screening.

💀💀💀💀

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EvanBenner said:
Of particular note, whereas other movies overcompensate with their scores to jolt viewers, EDR's score is smart and restrained. Its audible stings are an accent—a quick and fleeting strum of strings instead of a painful burst of cymbals, horns and percussion.
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I concur - the score is very good. I just gave this a listen on Monday. The movie is on my list to watch this year - I watched about the first 10 minutes or so but had to stop and never went back to it. I'll have to make it part of a Evil Dead marathon - Maybe a 1/2/Reboot/Rise kind of thing (Army Of Darkness really doesn't fit)

Stephen McKeon – Evil Dead Rise (Music From The Motion Picture)
Waxwork Records – WW177, 2023

Cut by Bobbi Giel at Welcome To 1979
Pressed at Waxwork Records

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My mission to ditch Max is going to have me checking off several seemingly mediocre Conjuringverse entries. I think I enjoyed Conjuring 3 more than Conjuring 2, but it's still heavier on startles than it is on scares, and it lacks tension. Such a shame considering how great Wilson and Farmiga are as the Warrens. The opening exorcism sequence was great though.

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The worst is still ahead, as I've yet to check off The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona. I'll probably save Annabelle Comes Home for last since it's got a decent reputation.

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