4th Annual N&G 31 Days* of Halloween (2022)

Happened across another movie that's long been on my watchlist (on a friendly little site that rhymes with bluegoob), so I couldn't pass up the chance to check off this Price, Cushing, and Lee joint (plus John Carradine and Sheila Keith!).

For a Pete Walker film, House of the Long Shadows sure bides its time getting to the gruesome glimpses one might expect. In doing so, it proves itself to be a rather charming and accessible horror comedy. For me, it's an instant favorite from among his already decent oeuvre.

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A ★★★½ review of House of the Long Shadows (1983)

When I found a way to finally check House of the Long Shadows off my watchlist, I couldn't help but make a late addition to my HoopTober 9 challenge. Its Christopher Lee feature happens to be just the ingress to this gold mine of a classic horror cast. Lee, Price, Cushing, Carradine, and...
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Went to the 40th anniversary showing of Poltergeist last night in the theaters. Its aged really well, was surprised at just how much I enjoyed seeing it on the big screen again and how much more the cinematography & lighting came through. Not to mention just how much an impact that Zelda Rubenstein's character has for such a short amount of screen time, perfect casting.

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Hemotep said:
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Cool costumes and set design can't carry two hours 😮‍💨 but I'm in the minority, so I submit to the will of hype and gap. I expect others will come and love it too. I die on my hill of hate alone, 😂
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I made the mistake of telling a friend it was better then the bad reviews and he's been shit talking me too ever since.. Even threw that porn joke at me and I couldn't disagree 💀 .. I honestly haven't seen many other people liking it much so i'm expecting more bad reviews. I will say though the whole decision to do "I got you Babe" was historically bad for this movie especially to have the confidence to release it on vinyl as well.

I also admittingly ate a few edibles for the first time in awhile before watching it so I was feeling pretty, pretty goooood 😶‍🌫️
 
Figured I'd knock out some contentious cult sequels before they drop off Tubi tomorrow.

SPOILER-FREE REACTION

The first Sleepaway Camp is a notable entry in summer camp slashers with an iconic and controversial twist. It's grim and violent but darkly fun at the same time, all while being deeply problematic on many levels outside of its murderous rampage. Nevertheless, it's a fascinating film to analyze and well worth discussion when it comes to its inciting themes and portrayals. But through this all, its motivations are clear: shock the viewer—and it succeeds.

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers takes place seven years after the events of the first. It's far more campy and comedic in nature—a shift that's accomplished by verbal exposition of events that happened in the years between that (still problematically) recontextualize certain recurring characters. It's a lot of fun though with a significantly more flippant approach to its kills—no twist needed.

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Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland sticks with the lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek slasher approach of #2, but its returns are diminishing. After the events of the previous year, the camp gets new ownership and a new "experimental" concept: a place for high- and low-class kids to mingle. Of course, our campers are all representative of the worst inclinations from every caste: privilege, racism, promiscuity, littering, etc. All things slasher villains love to punish.

If Sleepaway Camp IV was accessible to follow this up, it would be the ideal pick for my "worst-rated 90's horror sequel" challenge for HoopTober—sitting squarely at the bottom of the Letterboxd rankings for all 90s horror movies (sequels and not). I originally chose and watched From Dusk Till Dawn 2, but it honestly wasn't bad enough so I vowed myself to do worse.

Since SC4 is off the free table, I weighed my other options. Candyman 3 is unfortunately (or fortunately) only on premium streaming. And as a stickler for watching in release order, I don't think I could survive 5 Howling or Children of the Corn movies just to get through their worst 90s offerings (plus, many entries between aren't available outside of renting). I'd also simply rather not with any more Amityvilles.

Alas, Sometimes They Come Back 2 + 3 are both on Tubi, and I have no hope for either of those after already despising the first, so #3 will assuredly meet the criteria of my challenge. I take my suffering seriously.


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The end of the month often has me picking random movies marked as Leaving Soon on Tubi, often just for background viewing.

Clown (2014) is my latest of these picks, and I have to say it held my attention well.

This poster is misleading — Roth is a producer and a bit part. It's actually directed and co-written by Jon Watts (director of the latest Spider-Man trilogy).

While this movie struggles a bit in the tone department, volleying from darkly funny to dead seriousness, there's some really interesting ideas (and even some surprising mythologies) at play, strong cinematography, great make-up & effects, and some really dang great visual sequences.

Take the cursed costume element of The Mask, a dash of IT's toothy Pennywise, and some seemingly made-up "Icelandic/Nordic" monster lore—then throw an unlucky dad in the mix and watch as the unfortunate unfolds.

Suicide, Child Death, Animal Death


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Day 29.

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I liked this more the first time I saw it, but on rewatch I found myself wanting more character development. As a straight slasher it's an excellent addition to the genre and probably an instant classic, but because several of the characters seem interesting, but were left mostly undeveloped, West could have really built on the genre and pushed it further. I am very excited for Pearl because I think that will give me more of what I was wanting out of this viewing.
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The Faculty (1998)


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A lot of Nostalgia for me dripping from this one but I think it aged pretty damn well outside of just a couple scenes where major CGI was used. I remember at the time it was something a little different since so many Horror movies were Scream or I Know What You Did cashgrabs to end the 90's and that title sequence with Offspring's The Kids Aren't Alright was a flawless execution to start things off! Then it had a solid team with Robert Rodriguez as the Director, the Scream franchise writer Kevin Williamson and a super deep relevant cast with mostly everyone well written (Jon Stewart was super random seeing it now haha). It's def. a bit messy at times for sure but that isn't much of a downfall considering the entire movie is clearly going for an intentional campy feel with a lot of sci-fi throwbacks on top of the Horror aspects. Kind of like the clear "The Thing" blood test callback which supplied my most remembered quote from the movie "He’s tweaking you asshole! Let him fucking tweak!" 😂 . It's too bad Rodriguez didn't do more Horror as I really love his style and the way he shot this movie elevated it to another level from most other movies coming out around the same time imo.. It's pretty much my Breakfast Club as if you look at the main characters you could easily pin point the similarities even to how they start the movie and finish it. My only real issue with it is the ending which brought the overall movie down just a lillll bit for me but it's still rock solid!

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It's funny how seeing Ol' sexy ass Famke clearly having something going on with the student Hartnett at the end was the coolest thing ever when I saw it as a teenager but it was much more creepy and weird asf seeing it as I get older especially how they are so open with zero eff's about anyone seeing haha
 
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