October/Halloween/Horror Recommendations

gmisk · 23-10-2021 6:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118063398#Comment_118063398

It is terrific it's on Amazon prime.

Not for everyone though not a straight up horror film...but definitely horrifying in parts!

briany · 23-10-2021 6:53pm

Forget about your latest horror releases and take it back a few years - Hammer House of Horror, if you haven't already seen it, is more than worth a watch for the season that's in it. If you cast your mind back to random things you saw on BBC or ITV or Channel 4 as a child which scared the absolute sh*t out of you, I think this series encapsulates that feeling a few times through it's run. 13 episodes at, I think, an hour each.

In a similar vein, but a fair bit more obscure and a bit more artsy is The Forbidden Files (Les Documents Interdits), which is a series of short 5 minute mockumentaries on different paranormal happenings. If you like your horror austere and psychological, this is outstanding.

mrcheez · 23-10-2021 10:18pm

Shudder US has the Hammer House of Horror series up there now

Homelander · 24-10-2021 12:29am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118063398#Comment_118063398

Yes, it's excellent, incredible under the skin psychological horror but probably not one to watch if you're looking for a conventional scary movie.

Man Vs ManUre · 24-10-2021 4:01pm

Interview with the vampire on bbc tonight. Maybe not the scariest film but a modern day classic and one of TC best ever performance.

degsie · 26-10-2021 4:44pm

Would this be considered a good Halloween movie?

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_night_house

Anybody seen it? Need a good one for family scary movie night :)

Need a Username · 26-10-2021 7:35pm

Is there another series as spooky as Haunting of Hill House?

I have been watching Bly Manor but with the exception of the last 10/15 minutes of the first episode it hasn’t been remotely spooky.

Terror: Infamy has been a disappointment too. No scares at all.

Man Vs ManUre · 26-10-2021 8:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118076634#Comment_118076634

American Horror Story. Seasons 1 and 2 are really good. It drops a lot in 3, and improves then in 4. Season 5 is poor enough. Then season 6 Roanoke is great again. From 7 onwards it’s fairly sh1te.

Need a Username · 26-10-2021 11:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118076976#Comment_118076976

I watch the first three episodes of it when first came out years ago. Didn’t like it. Gave it another shoot on Netflix (or Prime) about two years ago.

I would have interested in the Roanoke season but I found out it isn’t set in the period - or the slasher season but you don’t recommend that.

I really liked Salem which is why if it had been about the colony I would have watched.

Is Them on Prime scary? Or Midnight Mass?

I just watch Fear Street Part One - fun but not scary at all and no jump moments.

briany · 27-10-2021 12:23am

Have to recommend this, because I've just watched it and found it quite haunting - an old TV series called Dead of Night, and its first episode The Exorcism. Brilliant old kitchen sink British horror. If you like stuff like The Stone Tape and The House that Bled to Death, this'll be right up your street. Thoroughly recommended 👍👍👍

https://youtu.be/VQFXTNvBLKI

Need a Username · 27-10-2021 1:15am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118077955#Comment_118077955

I have heard of this.

BBC broadcast it at Christmas in the early 70s and most episodes are missing.

where did you see the others?

Need a Username · 27-10-2021 5:29am

I watched Dark Water last night - the original Japanese film.

Very disappointed - it wasn’t remotely scarey and obvious from very early on what had happened.

Not a patch on Ringu.

should have tried Sinister or Under the Shadow instead - or gone to bed early and wouldn’t be too tired to see Dune :p

briany · 27-10-2021 10:32am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118078038#Comment_118078038

The surviving episodes are all available on Youtube. I don't think there is a chance of ever seeing those ones which went missing (BBC probably recorded over them or something).

El Duda · 27-10-2021 1:27pm

It's time for a Friday the 13th Franchise review (the first 8 films) There will be some spoilers in these reviews.

Friday the 13th – 5/10 (Bluray boxset)

It’s the late 70’s and some plagiarising hack decided to merge together Halloween and Jaws, thus spawning an iconic horror franchise with no end of sequels. They looked at Halloween and loved the way it made the camera look like it was stalking the victims (POV), so why not just shoot the entire film like that!?

Friday the 13th is saved by the ending. Had it not been for the ending and the Jason mythology, this would just be unremarkable cheap horror trash. I’m pleased to report that the moment when Jason jumps out of the water still packs a punch; the Mrs jumped out of her skin. The way it lures you in with a false sense of calm and tranquility before the jump scare is just **Chef’s kiss**

Best Kill: Kevin Bacon takes a knife through the throat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwyE2P6g71I&ab_channel=TheHorrorChamber

Friday 13th: Part 2 – 4/10

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I knew these films were cheap, but recycling footage from the end of part 1 as the opener for part 2? That’s just absurdly lazy. Imagine if Scream had done that?

This sequel offers almost nothing. The kills are super lame compared to part 1. I thought sequels were meant to up the gore, not lessen it?! One thing they did try and amp up was the sex and nudity. That is until they realised that actress Marta Kober was only 16 years old, which led to any nudity being edited out and film reels being destroyed.

Despite all the problems, I think I can see why these films have so much appeal. The cheap, grainy atmospheric tone is what makes Camp Crystal Lake iconic. You just wouldn’t be able to recreate it now, things have gotten far too glossy.

No sign of Jason’s Hockey mask.

Best Kill: Slim pickings but machete thrown into the face of disabled guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn8PvUELShA&ab_channel=Cultsploitation

Tony EH · 27-10-2021 1:39pm

I quite like the first movie. It's junk but entertaining junk. Never held much regard for any of the sequels though.

BTW, the hockey mask appears in No.3 which was even worst that Part 2.

Fysh · 27-10-2021 2:00pm

Tbh of the Friday 13th sequels I think Part 6 (Jason Lives) is the only worthwhile one, in that it's a solid slasher film that also has a bit of a sense of humour, including a neat visual gag based on a different and very recognisable film franchise.

As with most horror franchises, though, the story and general film quality across the Friday 13th series doesn't really amount to a hill of beans. At least Carpenter's original Halloween is a properly good film in its own right - F13 is shlock at best from the start and only deteriorates from there.

Potatoeman · 27-10-2021 2:06pm

The void - 2016, some Lovecraftian body horror.

Tony EH · 27-10-2021 2:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118080143#Comment_118080143

Very true. But there's a certain beer'n'pizza feel to the first film.

TBH, I can't even remember much from any of the sequels, except that 'Jason Takes Manhattan' was woeful and Corey Feldman is in a couple of them.

El Duda · 27-10-2021 3:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118080143#Comment_118080143

Might be Stockholdm Syndrome kicking in but I have enjoyed them more as I've progressed through them.

4 & 6 are the best

Fysh · 27-10-2021 4:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118080448#Comment_118080448

Yeah, I do know what you mean (I probably still own a copy of it on DVD). But as someone who likes good horror films, I've always been a bit confused by the degree of appreciation some horror franchises like F13 get, because mostly I just see mediocre-to-outright-bad film-making and stories that are a bit crap - not so much for the "immortal serial killer" aspect as everything else...

There was a reasonably decent feature-length fanfilm called Never Hike Alone a couple of years back:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7K_wkQSM8xM

Tony EH · 27-10-2021 5:08pm

Oh jesus I know. It never fails to astonish me when fans gush over some of these films when they're, as you say, "mediocre-to-outright-bad" so much of the time. The guff from some people over on the Blu Ray.com forums about 'Halloween Kills' is just gas. Half the time I'm thinking are these people blind?

But, you know, if people like something, they like it, so they should go for it. But I often think that too many people gush because they feel better doing so rather than looking at something through critical eyes. It's especially the case with some Americans, I find, where praise for an often bad or average film can border on a eulogy.

Fysh · 27-10-2021 5:37pm

These days I try and note the difference between "I think this film is good" and "I like this film". My opinion about whether something is good or not shouldn't make a blind bit of difference to whether someone else likes it.

Case in point, I have a soft spot for Don Coscarelli's Phantasm series. There's something weird about the mood of them, particularly the first one and the fourth one, that seems to just work for me. I'd never argue that they're particularly good films (the third in particular is a bit of a nadir), but I think they are interesting as a horror film series that had the same director from start to finish and so have a rare sense of consistency about them. If there was ever a series that could benefit from some enterprising faneditor taking all the available material and crafting a trilogy out of it, I'd say Phantasm is it.

Tony EH · 27-10-2021 6:53pm

The first Phantasm film is great. I came to that pretty late even though I had known about it for donkey's years. Unfortunately, the rest of them just didn't grab me. I absolutely hated that they switched actor for Mike in the second film too and then brought him back for number three. But they just got cheaper and cheaper as they went on and kinda lost me completely toward the end. I think the last two were straight to video.

The whole idea is just batshit crazy, though, and that mad ball that flies around a redirects its victim's blood supply is ridiculous and brilliant at the same time. It doesn't make a lick of sense. But it doesn't matter.

I'll have to give it another spin sometime.

GLaDOS · 28-10-2021 10:34am

Every year me and the missus spend a Saturday around Halloween drinking beer, eating rubbish and watching horror movies all day. Usually try to aim for ones we haven't seen before.

This years choices are :

The Descent 2005

Sinister 2012

The Ritual 2017

The Autopsy of Jane Doe 2016

Oculus 2014

Fysh · 28-10-2021 10:48am

Autopsy of Jane Doe is a cracking film, as is The Ritual.

Oculus and Sinister I am not so keen on. There are some lovely bits of Oculus, particularly towards the end, but it didn't work as a film and the central conceit comes off as one big cheat, basically. Sinister has nice production values and a good cast, but the script has a lot of generic tropes and unimaginative "dark room, loud noise" jump scares, which I just find boring at this point.

mrcheez · 28-10-2021 11:07am

was actually just about to post exactly what Fysh said about The Ritual and Jane Doe

I'd recommend putting Jane Doe last on the list as it's a scary one to finish on and a perfect one to get you thinking as you head up the dark stairs to bed

I'm determined to see Kairo sometime / somehow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYs87-kDXwg

mrcheez · 28-10-2021 12:16pm

Well damn... Kairo (also called Pulse) was recently added to Shudder (Ireland) a week or so ago!

That's me sorted tonight!

Homelander · 28-10-2021 1:23pm

I think the list the guy posted for a day of beers and movies is a great list with decent variety, there are definitely no bad or even weak movies there in my opinion and for a list of five movies, they're all quite distinct from one another.

Personally I would rate Sinister and Oculus above Jane Doe, which I found average enough outside of an interesting premise, and I definitely didn't find it overly creepy or thought provoking - but that's just me, people will all have different tastes and interpretations.

The Ritual is fairly solid and The Descent is a classic.

pixelburp · 28-10-2021 1:34pm

Which version of The Descent is available these days? IIRC there was a different ending shot for the American, more upbeat and (again IIRC) the ending from which the sequel was based.

Neil Marshall never really topped that film; was very much a feature best watched without any prior knowledge going on. His career otherwise kinda puttered around, directing B Movies or occasional episodes of Game of Thrones.

El Duda · 28-10-2021 1:41pm

The Descent, The Ritual and Jane Doe are all really good choices.

Some more Friday reviews...

Friday the 13th: Part 3 – 6/10

Ok, so this film again lazily uses footage from the end of part 2 as the opener. At least the start of part 2 is was supposed to be a dream/flashback. Hacks!

I’m not sure if this is just because I now have my expectation levels set at “zero”, by this is my favourite of the three so far. They don't try anything too fancy and there is a nice rhythm to the frequency of the deaths.

That said, this does contain the worst character of the franchise so far in Shelly. It’s like they used the annoying disabled guy from Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a template and dialled up the annoyingness.

The attempt at subverting the ending of part 1 didn’t work too well, though I did find the ‘waking nightmare’ image of Jason looking through the window to be very creepy.

There’s some glaring mistakes; reflections of boom mics, hairs on the lens etc.. and some laughable 3D shots, but all in all I enjoyed this.

Bit disappointed that there’s no real set up or reason for him donning the hockey mask. He just finds it and puts it on.

Best kill: Harpoon gun through the eye.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=friday+the+13th+3+harpoon

Friday the 13th IV: The Final Chapter – 6.5/10

The 4th instalment sees a sprinkling of star talent thrown into the mix, with Crispin Glover and Corey Feldman both featuring. Sadly, other than a hilarious dance scene with Crispin, both are wasted due to shoddy direction. This was a pre Gremlins/Goonies Feldman severely lacking in charm and by all accounts he was a bit of a brat on set and continually clashed with the director.

Tom Savini returns for the first time since part 1 and adds a bit of spice to the gory kills. More importantly, they’ve upped the nudity and sexual shenanigans. I thought that ‘Shelly’ from part 3 would be about as annoying a character as we were likely to see but the ‘Dead ****’ guy here is on another level. Insufferable.

It took me a while to figure out why Feldman decided to suddenly shave all his hair off.

Best Kill: Bolted its load early with the head twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej1lqvtmcMg&ab_channel=Movieclips

October/Halloween/Horror Recommendations

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