The 31 Days of Horror, Day Twenty-One- The Walking Dead

Another Sunday, another new episode of The Walking Dead, and this week's episode was even better than the season premiere.

We're going to try to avoid specific spoilers of those of you who haven't seen the episode yet, but some of the words below will definitely be spoilerish, so read on at your own risk.

Is it just me, or has Rick gone a bit off the rails? He pretty much killed two people in a precautionary manner, one of them in a rather cruel way. When he looked at the one convict and said "run", I couldn't believe it.

Don't get me wrong, I loved when he took care of business this episode, and hope he keeps it up, but it just seems like the long hard winter (that happened off screen for us) made him a harder man.

We also found ourselves actually jumping when Laurie was trying to help Herschel... Does she know that the breathing part of CPR is pretty much irrelevant now? She got lucky.

Daryl and T-Dog had their small moments of awesomeness again, although we'd really like to see both of them get more screen time and lines. They be our faves.

T-Dog is everyone's bottom bitch..

We actually liked Carl a little bit this week too, which is unusual because he's usually an annoying little bitch. 

The preview for next week showed only Michonne and Andrea, so we're wondering if they're going to have their own episode and we wont see our prison gang until the following week... either way, it looks like The Governor and Merle finally show up in episode 3, so were sure it'll be fine by us.

The first two episodes of this season already feel for satisfying than the whole of season 2 did; there's not as much talking, whining, and sitting around being dramatic. It's pretty much been all action and incident.

Here's to hoping that this plot pacing keeps up all season long.

Man oh man is that gonna be cool...

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Twenty- Old and New Found Footage flicks

 
Found Footage; the sub-genre that both thrills and disappoints, is everywhere in today's horror scene. By that we mean everyone with a camcorder and a half-baked idea is out there shooting cheap, cinema verite excuses for horror films.

Some work. Most don't.

One of the first, and most likely the most famous Found Footage flicks is The Blair Witch Project. In 1999, this low budget hand held camera flick about 3 friends who head off into the woods to uncover the legend of the Blair Witch, took the world by storm, insofar as a movie can do. Its budget is said to be a small as $20,000, and as large as $750,000... let's just split the difference and call it $500k, for the sake of argument. That's a pretty small budget for a movie that went on to make around $250 million at the worldwide box office. Those are insane numbers.

Love it or hate it, the movie was a fresh and effective break from the horror norm; it was advertised and marketed as real, and it apparently felt real enough with audiences that it struck quite a chord with them. We personally loved it, though it was flawed. For us, we got sucked up into its story, and the minimalist approach to its scares had us freaked.

Not real, but it was fun to pretend it was.

Since then, many a horror flick has tried to recapture its magic, more often than not failing to do so. We've seen FF/POV flicks about aliens, dinosaurs, monsters, zombies, serial killers, and dozens upon dozens about hauntings/ghosts/and paranormal hi-jinks.

Many of these flicks end up falling short of TBWP, simply because the audience knows whats coming now. The ones that do manage to be good, tend to create an effective atmosphere, and offer us a fresh story with characters we like. The Troll Hunter is one of those good ones.

Trolljegeren is a Norwegian FF movie about a group of college students who set out to make a documentary about a guy that hunts bears, only to find that he actually hunts trolls. Trolls are apparently a big problem (and an even bigger secret) in Norway, and the Nord Government does everything they can to keep the beasts away from populated areas.

What makes this movie so great, aside from it's different premise and awesome monsters, is the minutiae; the trolls can smell the blood of Christians, UV rays turn them to stone, and sometimes they catch rabies... little plot elements like that keep this movie fun and interesting from start to finish.

Say cheese!

In contrast to Blair Witch, Troll Hunter cost $19 million or so to make, and has only made about $5 million at the box office. Of course a lot of that has to do with the fact that a Norwegian language film probably doesn't get the worldwide distribution that an English language film does, which is really criminal.

Troll Hunter is a great movie, and deserves to be a worldwide hit. Movies like that are exactly why we're here; people like us need to spread the word about good movies like this. If we loved it, there's now way that tons of other people wouldn't too, if only they knew it existed.

So, if you're looking for a new genre flick to entertain you, you don't subtitles, and you're a fan of the FF genre, then grab a copy of Trolljegeren on BLU or DVD. Both great flicks, but The Blair Witch already has enough of your money... so why not give the trolls a chance.

See that little tiny speck right there in front of the massive troll? That's the hero of the movie.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Nineteen- A Little Exorcism...

Tonight we took in  quick viewing of the Exorcist, and planned for our Halloween party.

We've reviewed it before, so here's a little snippet from that, because why re-write the same thing differently, when it gets our point across the way it is, right?

Plus, we're late with this one, and I want it posted now.

There will most likely never be another film like The Exorcist, that pushes boundaries and affects audiences the way that it did back in the early 70's. By today's standard's it's a slow, deliberately paced movie that takes its time to build to the payoff. Of course those very elements are the movies strengths and the reasons that it's so damned effective.

Still creepy after all of these years.

Many have tried to make a possession movie as effective as The Exorcist in the years since its release, and many have failed. No matter how good some possession movies have been over the years, none can seem to truly capture the magic that Friedkin did here. Most don't even come close. Not even The Exorcist's own sequels.

The thought I had tonight while watching this classic yet again, was that if it were made  today, in the exact same way, it might not be the classic that it was nearly 40 years ago. I think it might feel tame to modern audiences compared to what they've grown up with, and it definitely wouldnt have the same impact that it had being released in the 70's.

It couldn't. Things have changed to much since then, and it would just be received differently. Oh well, it will always be classic to us.

Pazuzu forever!

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Eighteen- PA triple feature!

Love them or hate them, the Paranormal Activity series delivers what few films these days seem to be able to; genuine scares.

The premise is brilliant, and it sells itself; ghosts run around the house while you're sleeping, and they're going to get you. Who hasn't been laying in bed in the dead of night, and heard an unexplainable noise? You freeze and hold your breath, listening for another noise to confirm your fears, or you jump up and search the house, turning every light on as you go, praying it was the cat or something.

Either way, it's unsettling, and that's why these movies work.

Paranormal Boob-tivity.

Paranormal Activity is one we loved way back when it first hit the scene, in 2007 if I'm remembering right. It played a few screenings and then sat on a shelf somewhere before it got an actual release two years later in 2009. It's a good old fashioned creep-fest, and we love it. Mostly

Watching it again, I had forgotten what a whiny, cock-sure doucher that Micah was. It was annoying having to sit through 80+ minutes of him acting all aloof and in control, when he was really just making things worse with his fratboy-like  actions. Did he expect to fist fight this demon into submission? I don't know.

Aside from that though, PA delivers some genuine terror and a ton of tension.

There are three endings to the first PA movie out there, and having seen them all, I have to say I like the one that isn't available to own. You can download it, I'm sure, but that'd be naughty, wouldn't it?
The third ending we're talking about is the one where the cops show up. It's our fave.

Worst babysitter ever.

Paranormal Activity 2 is a hell of a sequel. I don't get genuinely freaked out by movies much anymore, but when I was watching this one, I had to pause it and take a minute. Seriously. Maybe I was just overly susceptible that night or something, but it made me cry for my momma! Figuratively, not literally.

PA2 tells the story of Katie and her sister Kristi, and their ordeal with the demon from the first movie. It takes place before the first one does, chronologically, and so it kinda sets up the previous movie, while offering up all kinds of new scares.

This is our favorite of the trilogy, mainly because it creeped us out the most. The ending of PA2 basically sets up the events of the just released (TODAY!) PA4, which is the direct sequel. PA3 was more of a prequel. Ugh.

Aren't they frigging adorable?

PA3 was a fun one, and although the ending came out of nowhere and still has me asking myself if I liked the direction that it took, it was an admirable entry into this creepy series.

PA3 goes back in time and shows Katie and Kristi as little girls, and how the whole demon thing started. Aesthetically, it's pretty much the exact same thing as parts 1 & 2 were, but like those two, it's still effective.

There were a couple of moments in the movie that had us jumping out of our seats, my personal favorite being the gag with the sheet and the stuff in the kitchen. Pants were definitely shat.

A solid flick, but that ending though... I though it was interesting, but it felt almost forced, both on us and into the film itself. Like I said, I'm still really mixed on my feelings about the last few scenes, but it doesn't make the movie any less enjoyable for me.

If nothing else, the Paranormal Activity series has given us a couple of Hotties to admire. In the movies they're sisters, but in real life I like to pretend they're only step-sisters, that way if a tickle fight breaks out and leads to something more, it's not skeevy.

It always starts with a tickle fight, folks. Always.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Sixteen- Eau du Horreur!

My true introduction to the world of French Horror flicks came back in 2005, when a little flick called Haute Tension managed to get a limited theatrical release here in the U.S.
 
Horror pretty much became stale and uninspired for the most part in the 90's, and seemed like it was about to die off before Wes Craven came around with Scream, and made audiences remember how fun the genre was. After that we saw a glut of tween slasher flicks see release, all trying to capture the magic of Scream. Again, it became stale. Run of the mill.

Hell of an opening scene.

So when we saw the trailer for this crazy little french flick, it excited us. The U.S. horror market was bland and glossy, and Haute Tension looked nasty and anything but pretty. Aside from the twist ending that we could have done without, Haute Tension blew us away, and began our love affair with the new era of European Horror, particularly, French Horror.

Poor girl.

Insanely violent, visceral, gory, and disturbing, Haute Tension re-invigorated our love of horror, and pushed our focus to the darker side of fright flicks. The twisty storyline worked on every level for us. We aren't fans of twist endings at all, especially those that negate everything that precedes them (that's a bit vague, but we're trying not to spoil it for people who haven't seen it yet), but this one didn't bother us too much. The whole package was that good.

Never piss off a woman with a saw. Never!

From there we moved on to other French flicks like Calvaire, Sheitan, Baby Blood, The Horde, Them, Frontiere(s) and Martyrs; all good flicks in their own right, but none of them affected us on the same level as Haute Tension did, until we got to Inside.

A L'interieur is a movie that was... really tough to sit through. The subject matter of a crazy woman who wants another woman's baby, and the lengths she goes to as she tries to take it away from her, was so gripping and tense, that we found ourselves holding our breaths at time during our initial viewing.

Did we mention that the baby is still inside of the mother (hence the title), when the crazy chick tries to take it? Yeah It was that kind of disturbing.

Every bit a s bloody and graphic as Haute Tension (maybe even more so), Inside had a few of us say "That was amazing, but I feel dirty now, and I don't think I'll ever watch it again." Some of us never have.

That's got to smart.

The lesson here is that during the mid to late 2000's, France was churning out genre defining horror flicks that went places and showed us things that U.S. Filmmakers weren't, or simply couldn't.

If you want some eff'd up movies to enjoy this Halloween, then start here. Just don't say we didn't warn you about the tough road ahead... this is the pulse pounding, watch from between your fingers type of stuff. In other words, it's the good stuff.

Somewhere in this picture lies a joke about menstruation, but we digress. We do have class, after all.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Fifteen- 2 Modern Day Vamp classics!

Movie/TV Vampires these days seem to be watered down, whiny, Emo pansies, don't they? Moping around over girls, spending hours in the mirror getting their hair right, mean mugging and doing their best to look like anything other than an angry Abercrombie model. Twilight, Vampire Diaries, True Blood; they're nothing more than soap opera's for disillusioned girls who want to find a boyfriend.

It's a sad state of affairs for bloodsuckers, these days.

Not all hope is lost though. There have been some good vampire flicks in the past 10 years, and tonight we watched two of them.

30 Days of Night is one of our favorite movies of the Aughts. It's dark and bloody, and is based on some really great source material that translated to the screen fairly well, so it was right up our collective alleys. Some people call the ending cheesy, with Josh Hartnett basically "Hulking out" to save the day, but come on, it's a vampire flick. There's not much realism in the story to begin with.

Like this is realistic?

The idea of an isolated town that is cut off from the rest of humanity and has to live in complete darkness for a month is just creepy. Add vampires to the mix and you have one hell of a compelling book/comic/movie idea on your hands.

Along with Let the Right One In and Stake Land, 30 Days of Night is definitely one of the best vampire flicks of this century. For the record, saying "this century" feels really odd to us, but we're already 12 years in to a new millennium, so we'd better get used to saying it.It's still weird though.

She does not want to take her eternal dirt-nap.

Daybreakers was one that we never expected to like very much, but were happily surprised when we ended up loving it.

Turning the "Post-Apocalyptic" mythos on its head, Daybreakers shows us a world in which vampires rule society, and humans are in hiding to avoid becoming food. With the supply of humans running low, and vampires starting to get really hungry, they fervently look for a viable blood substitute to ensure their survival, and instead end up finding a cure...

He doesn't want a cure, he wants to eat.

Ethan Hawke was pretty good in this as the sympathetic vampire trying to save the human race, and Willem Dafoe with a crossbow can't possibly be a bad thing, and so we found ourselves really getting into this movie. We loved the world building aspect of the script, and thought it made for an interesting set of dynamics.

It's also pretty damned bloody too. Like, crazy bloody in parts.

"Not a bad thing? I'm Willem Motherfuking Dafoe; I am always an awesome thing!"

Both of these movies look great in Blu-ray, BTW, and that just makes us enjoy them all the more, especially since they cost us only $4.99 each at Best Buy this week.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Fourteen- The Walking Dead Season Premiere

The Walking Dead is back, and the season premiere was near perfect.

Aside from Laurie talking about her feelings, and someone stepping casually over a dead body without making sure it wasn't just a Walker at rest, everything in this way-too-short 60 minutes was great.

-Loved the opening scene; no dialogue, just some good old fashioned stealth zombie hunting/killing. Our crew of survivors have gotten pretty good at this since last we saw them.

-Love how Rick is keeping his pimp hand strong this season.
Ho- "Hey, can I talk to you?"
Rick- looks annoyed- "What the fuck you want, bitch. I'm doin' stuff."
Love it.

-Love Michonne so far; she's kinda like Foxy Brown, but more angry... and with a sword. Can't wait to see her go to town on anything that gets in her way.

-When it comes to Daryl, everyone else on this show is riding bitch.

I really did think the premiere would be, and should have been, a 2 hour affair. Waiting a week in between episodes is going to majorly suck if this season keeps delivering at the same pace. Even worse if it gets better.

A good start. Now, we just need more. Like, right now.

The 31 Days of Horror, Day Eleven- Re-Animator (1985)

"So what kind of medicine are you involved in?"
"Death."

After finding this one on Blu-ray last night at our local Best Buy (for only $9.99, mind you), we had to switch our original plan for last night's watching, and go with this classic instead.

As films based off of H.P. Lovecraft's books go, not many of them were ever good. Lovecraft had some grand ideas that were a bit... insane, and they've just seldom translated to the big screen well. Our personal favorite Lovecraft flick is Stuart Gordon's From Beyond; there's so much about that one that is just awesome, that we could talk about it for hours.

Running a close second though, is Re-Animator. Both films were directed by Stuart Gordon, both stared Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, and both movies we're just crazy good.

Classics, both actor and character.

Re-Animator is basically a twist on the Frankenstein story, involving a demented doctor trying to re-animate corpses, because he's a creep. Needless to say, thing do not go scientifically well at all, and all kinds of crazy shit goes down.

Some parts of this movie were funny, some parts were genuinely creepy, and the whole affair was drenched in 25 gallons of blood. Literally. Jeffrey Combs was just tongue-in-cheek brilliant as the unhinged doctor Herbert West, and of course Barbara Crampton was sexy as hell. The naked kind of sexy. David Gale was a hell of a bad guy too, playing Dr, Hill to perfection.

Head games.

What makes Re-Animator so good, and so fun to watch, is the fact that the movie does some crazy things, and just doesn't give a shit. For example, a re-animated corpse that has been beheaded picks up its head and goes down on the buck naked Barbara Crampton. Dead as a doornail and decapitated, and this guy's instinct is still to get him some of that yum-yum... wow.

Aside from being overtly gory, twisted and violent, the movie is just so oddly different that many of its parts seem brilliant. To we twisted horror fans, anyhow.

The old 'Cat in a fridge' trick.

Nearly 30 years later, this movie has itself a strong cult following, and rightly so; it's one of the best, freshest horror offerings to have come out of the 80's, and stands up well against flicks from any decade.

It's a true classic. Oh, and by the way, it looks pretty damned good on Blu-ray.

Damn censorship!

Barbara Crampton.