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

EvanBenner said:
Oof, well that was a gut puncher.

Kids at an isolated apartment complex begin to discover their own supernatural abilities and push the limits of how they put them to the test.

Won't say much else about this other than it's super heavy and commits to its premise. The Innocents is currently on Shudder.

💀💀💀💀

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Yeah, wow. Wife was a little pissed I put this one on.
 
Been wanting to hit play on Saloum ever since they announced it for Shudder, and finally got around to it tonight. It's a really solid production out of Senegal that kept me super engaged.

This movie is a stealthy bit of fun. We join a covert ops group performing a high-risk extraction, but their escape gets unexpectedly diverted through an act of subterfuge. At the remote outpost where they end up seeking refuge, they realize their biggest threat may not be the police force on their trail or even a double agent in their crew but something far more sinister.

The dialogue is super witty, and much of it even takes place in sign language!

💀 💀 💀 🦴

boxd.it

A ★★★½ review of Saloum (2021)

Took little detour into uncommon HoopTober territory with this recent release from Senegal on Shudder. Saloum kicks off with a covert military extraction that gets diverted to a remote outpost through an act of subterfuge. As they take up refuge, the mercenaries begin to suspect their biggest...
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MOVIE #48
Halloween Ends (2022)
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This seems to be provoking a very love it or hate it kind of response in people, so of course I ended up neither loving it or hating it, but mostly just feeling confused by it. I think this would have played a lot better if they weren't trying to sell it as the conclusion of a trilogy, because while I respect the attempt to take a risk and deviate from the formula, it doesn't work as a follow-up to Kills at all and should have just committed to being its own thing entirely. It might grow on me in the future, but I feel like it's going to be hard for me to look past some of the more questionable storytelling choices here.

Either way, it's a relief to finally be able to put an end to the Michael Myers Marathon™ - at least until the 50th anniversary in a couple of years, of course.

Rating: 💀💀🦴

boxd.it

A ★★½ review of Halloween Ends (2022)

Not so much bad as it is baffling. I've already seen multiple predictions that this will have a second life later down the line, where audiences will rediscover it and praise it for trying something new with its story, and honestly, those people are probably right. The narrative will likely be...
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It wasn't until after I already hit play on the Spanish-language Dracula that I realized this didn't quite fulfill my prompt of "Mexican Vampires" since Carlos Villarias was from Spain, but I've been meaning to check this classic Universal production for a while, and it's part of Criterion Channel's seasonal Vampire selection, so I wasn't going to hit pause.

This version is quite a bit longer than the Bela Lugosi version, and the shared sets remain impressive as ever.


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Queued up actual Mexican vampires with El Ataud del Vampiro (aka The Vampire's Coffin), which has been on my watchlist for a while but only seems to stream in Spanish without subs. Ended up tracking down a mildly grainy dub on the Internet Archive which sufficed.

Grave robbers unearth a coffin for unofficial medical research, accidentally unleashing a vampire on the town. Between the hospital, a waxwork/torture museum, and a live theater, we get some super fun set pieces, and the humor around the medical malpractice that started this all had me laughing quite a bit. This feels very akin to many of the gothic vampire classics, so I'm super pleased.

💀💀💀

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gaporter said:
MOVIE #48
Halloween Ends (2022)
This seems to be provoking a very love it or hate it kind of response in people, so of course I ended up neither loving it or hating it, but mostly just feeling confused by it. I think this would have played a lot better if they weren't trying to sell it as the conclusion of a trilogy, because while I respect the attempt to take a risk and deviate from the formula, it doesn't work as a follow-up to Kills at all and should have just committed to being its own thing entirely. It might grow on me in the future, but I feel like it's going to be hard for me to look past some of the more questionable storytelling choices here.

Either way, it's a relief to finally be able to put an end to the Michael Myers Marathon™ - at least until the 50th anniversary in a couple of years, of course.

Rating: 💀💀🦴
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I agree with a lot of what you said here. It did feel that this was the originally pitched movie (with some ending tweaks to fit into what they did with the prior 2 movies) - and then other people got involved and they made 2 other movies to milk the IP a bit.

I do see a lot of comparisons to Friday 13th Part 5 - the one where it isn't Jason - but that movie was bad all the way through and the surprise ending didn't change that. Finding out it wasn't Jason didn't make a good movie bad - it was already bad.

And I agree...I'm glad to be done with the series...13 movies is a bit much to get though when they really aren't that good. These last 3 are still a lot better than most of the sequels/remake, IMO.

I still feel that I loved it - and I'm probably gonna watch it again while I'm off for the next couple days.
 
Day 45.

Halloween Kills

💀💀💀💀🦴

I still think this is an incredibly fun movie. I watched it a couple times last year and still enjoyed every bit of it this time.

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and followed it up with

Halloween Ends

💀💀💀

I'll definitely watch this again closer to Halloween, but it's not nearly as fun as Kills. I think some of the other comments on here captured some of my feelings on it too. I'll elaborate after my rewatch.

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LeeVing said:
I agree with a lot of what you said here. It did feel that this was the originally pitched movie (with some ending tweaks to fit into what they did with the prior 2 movies) - and then other people got involved and they made 2 other movies to milk the IP a bit.

I do see a lot of comparisons to Friday 13th Part 5 - the one where it isn't Jason - but that movie was bad all the way through and the surprise ending didn't change that. Finding out it wasn't Jason didn't make a good movie bad - it was already bad.

And I agree...I'm glad to be done with the series...13 movies is a bit much to get though when they really aren't that good. These last 3 are still a lot better than most of the sequels/remake, IMO.

I still feel that I loved it - and I'm probably gonna watch it again while I'm off for the next couple days.
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Yeah, I might rate it higher on a rewatch, because I didn't think the main story was bad, it was just kind of messy and didn't seem like it gelled very well with all of the Laurie Strode stuff. I think it would have better if Kills had been the final confrontation between Michael and JLC so that this could have been allowed to go full Season of the Witch and do its own thing. I would have preferred a complete departure than them trying to fit both plots into one movie. I'm interested to see if they release an extended cut for it like they did with the last one.
 
18. The Vampire Doll (1970)
Rating: 💀💀💀🦴
Enjoyed this one! Really dug the gothic vibe / atmosphere setting in this one. Great story / setting. It's pretty short but I think it's the perfect length. I read that this is a trilogy series so, I'm interested in checking out the rest.
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19. Werewolf by Night (2022)
Rating: 💀💀💀🦴
A marvel project that doesn't feel like Marvel at all! Great characters / story. It's made to be like an old monster movie which is a cool stylistic choice.
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zomgbear said:
18. The Vampire Doll (1970)
Rating: 💀💀💀🦴
Enjoyed this one! Really dug the gothic vibe / atmosphere setting in this one. Great story / setting. It's pretty short but I think it's the perfect length. I read that this is a trilogy series so, I'm interested in checking out the rest.
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All three are a good time!
 
Old Man (2022)


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I saw this come out a few days ago and with all the recent talk in here about Don't Breathe I was all in for some more Stephen Lang craziness. It started out awesome, I was fully engaged in figuring out the mystery behind the "Old Man" and for the first half I had zero issues. Sadly, it dropped off a cliff and only got worse as the movie went on to the point where I ended up getting bored and just wanted to see how it officially ended and it tried to deliver a heavy message but failed pretty bad at it imo. Still not a bad movie at all but it was drug down to mediocrity when there was a clear awesome story hidden in there. The performance of Stephen Lang especially in the first half saves the movie though as he def. delivered.

💀 💀 💀​
 
Hideaway (1995)

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I was surprised when I seen this available as I don't remember ever hearing about it before. After watching it though I fully understand why! I like this made up plot synopsis better then the real one 🤯​
In this sequel to the movie Clueless, after Elton is rejected by Cher, he reverts to Satanism and becomes psychically connected to her father, bringing him closer to enact his revenge against the girl who broke his heart.​
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I really love some of Goldblum's movies but damn, he was pretty awful in this even though he was over shadowed by Alicia's cringe over acting it's like they both gave zero eff's about this movie and just wanted the paycheck. The effects have also aged horribly and then after a mediocre movie (cool idea, bad execution) I got hit with another horrible ending. It's probably best to let this one continue to "hideaway" 😀.

💀💀🦴
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Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss (2018)

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Last one to fully catch up! This was actually a pretty solid, fun movie. It probably would have been a much better short or even just an hour long as the idea gets a little overly exhausted by the end of it but as a late night "random throw on" i've done MUCH worse. It made me genuinely laugh a few times and I thought the premise was a pretty fun idea with a couple that gets a "great deal" on an apartment only to find out there bathtub is famously used to commit suicide by random cult members wandering into there place.

💀 💀 💀 🦷
Doesn't quite deserve 3 1/2 but is slightly better then average so went with a nice Molar instead ​
 
Ran about collecting the final pieces for my costume today, so that left me with time for just one movie.

My prompt for inspiration was home invasion, so I scrolled straight to one of my few remaining Flanaganverse blindspots: Hush. It's been on my Netflix watchlist for literal years, and I'm relieved it's another addition to Flanagan and Co.'s growing shelf of successes.

💀 💀 💀 💀


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I got behind posting some from the last couple days...

#34.

WNUF Halloween Special (2013) 💀 💀 💀

Watched this for the first time a few years ago, and thought it was pretty good. Found footage is pretty low on my list of horror genres, but there are some that I end up liking...like this one.

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Feel free to watch it on Internet Archive

 
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