6th Annual N&G 31 Days* of Halloween (2024)

[EvanBenner]

Work has me stacked this week, so my queue is going to be a middling mix of super low-stakes picks. (You've been warned!)

Kicked today off with Bloodsuckers From Outer Space, which is nowhere near as fun as it sounds. This regional fare (Texas, I believe) preceded Return of the Living Dead by a year. It's kinda similar in some regards but nowhere near as successful at selling its uneven concoction of horror & comedy. It wants to be tongue in cheek but the comedy comes off cheap.





Steered afterward into cryptid territory with Tahoe Joe. It's a rather typical/okay sasquatch seeker mockumentary. I plan on throwing the recent sequel on in the background too, eventually. For stronger examples of what this is going for, I'd actually redirect folks to Horror in the High Desert for the suspenseful found footage mockumentary aspect and (Bobcat Goldthwait's?!) Willow Creek for an actually unsettling squatch hunt.





Had a slew of notifications to work through to close out the day, so I finally decided to commit myself to the 2.5 hour runtime of Eyes of the Mothman, which is far less mothman-centric than one would hope. It's a multi-segment docu dump of local high strangeness around Point Pleasant, WV. I feel like I got a whole reality TV season's worth of "huh," but not much of a point to it all.

 

[EvanBenner]

Lol @EvanBenner too high of a score?

I couldn't even imagine, this movie is so far off my radar. Consider my as an "OMG, you watched that?"

 

[gaporter]

"OMG, you watched that?"

I imagine anyone who follows me on Letterboxd has this thought fairly regularly.

 

[Hemotep]

I missed the thread going live the other day, but I did start watching on Sunday so I'm posting what I've seen so far.

Started Sunday with a rewatch

1. A Quiet Place: Day One


I liked this one enough to watch it twice in two weeks. It has a very different vibe than the others in the franchise, and I liked the casting choices made in this one more. Although it probably says more about where I'm at mentally than the quality of the movie with why I enjoyed it so much. Taking that into account I knocked it down a bone.

2.) Something in the Water

I might actually watch this one again at some point when I can't think of anything else to put on. I was distracted just enough to miss pieces that did feel necessary to the plot and it wasn't bad to have on in the background tuning in and out. Easy to tell that it's not going to be a shark classic and not much left to do in the genre, but last year had that one about the shark in Paris which was better than this.

 

[LeeVing]

#1.

An American Werewolf In London (1981)




Starting off with something that I love watching. There are a lot of new horror comedies that I haven't gotten around to in the last few years, so I think I'll be catching up on a lot of them over the next 2 months. This is one of the best. I love the dark humor and the gore.

 

[EvanBenner]

Just updated the new release chart because The Coffee Table just went from VOD to Tubi. All I know is that it opens on a hell of a shocker and might be one of the most uncomfortable watches of the year. Can't wait to hit play on that later!

 

[EvanBenner]

Added a newer title coming to digital Sep. 20.

Invoking Yell is a Chilean black metal found footage movie. Caught this one at a fest last year. If you like found footage horror, give it a stream.

 

[EvanBenner]

Another day of background watches because I have two weeks worth of work to do in a four-day work week. I'm exhausted.

You probably know where this is going. Time for Tubi/Plex!

Kicked things off with Flesh Eater. Uncannily similar to my Bloodsuckers from Outer Space watch yesterday (i.e., not great.)





Followed that up with some non-horror, then The Fourth Victim, a perfectly decent Spanish "giallo." I only put quotes because it's far too coherent to live up to true Italian giallo expectations. Opens on a the death of a guy's third wife, leading to suspicions of insurance fraud.





Popped on over to Plex for a Jesus Franco blindspot with The Diabolical Dr. Z. That puts me 3/8 of the way through the Dr. Orlof/Orloff movies and 11% of Franco's catalogued library. Dude was too damn prolific. Dr. Z is a black & white horror with cozy Eyes Without a Face vibes.





Closing out the night with some Horrors of Spider Island, and not the MST3K version. In actuality my attention is on modding for drag queens on Twitch and attempting to draft an article for a side gig.

 

[Hemotep]

3.) Trap

 

[EvanBenner]

Promise I'll get to some notable releases soon enough, but this week is not that week, and next week looks to be even worse for my workload.

For now, more low-stakes background picks it is!

Started today with a more recent release that's nothing remarkable but certainly not as bad as most folks make it out to be. Bag of Lies (2024, on Prime) is a perfectly fine cursed object movie with decent stakes and decent psychological plays. I like the understated nature of its practical effects, which are smartly implemented.





Followed it up with Spirit Halloween: The Movie. It's pretty much everything you'd expect. Very "quaint after-school TV movie" and there's a welcome place for that in my book. Cute, fun, and youth-friendly. Christopher Lloyd was definitely having fun.





Pivoted to an older selection with some Philippines-based horror in Superbeast. This one's got nothing on the seemingly better-known Eddie Romero and Gerardo de Leon offerings that play in a similar jungle-monster sandbox.

 

[EvanBenner]

Still no specific day, but it looks like it's for sure happening this October (finally)!

 

[EvanBenner]

Phew. I survive this week. Next week was shaping up to be even worse, but I'm feeling better after renegotiating some timelines. Still going to be a week filled with low rent background picks, but I'll try to fit something of veritable quality in to break it all up this weekend.

Anyways, here are more low-stakes picks from my background watches yesterday. In an effort to clear more of my nonsensical watch lists, most of these picks were based on their ~75-minute length.

The Creeping Terror is really, really bad, but I like seeing the giant leechy aliens gobbling up the locals. There is an MST3K version, but I opted for the base movie. Tubi's auto-captioning struggled hard with the poor audio quality, so the interpretive errors were my comedic enhancement. It looks and sounds terrible, has terrible narration, and is an all around mess. Attack of the Giant Leeches preceded this by several years, and while that one's not great either, it at least had more redeemable qualities. (I may prefer the monster design in this one though.)





My best watch of the day was A Reflection of Fear, directed by the cinematographer behind Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. The dreamlike visuals were great, the story kinda messy, the psychosexual themes somewhat problematic, and decently suspenseful.





Followed that up with Beyond the Seventh Door which is not in the least supernaturally driven as the poster style might have you believe. This is really a barebones production where a thief and his girl attempt to rob a millionaire only to have to work their way through a bland series of trapped rooms. If you like watching certain movies specifically because their acting is downright terrible, this one's for you.





There's no masking the intent behind why my last watch of the day was made. Alpha Delta Zatan is a nonsensical fraternity slasher with a story that serves mostly to parade a series of thirst-trappy men across screen. Somewhat David DeCoteau-like in many ways. The cast is comprised of entirely buff men, and almost every one gets a shower scene. I think this could have actually been a little more fun with a few more set pieces (especially away from the frat house), some additional script oversight, and a healthier dose of camp, but I appreciate how transparently this was made for a gay male gaze.

 

[Melt Face Molly Drop]

Been trying to knock out my 80s blindspots this weekend. Two just happened to have Dan O’Bannon’s hand in them.

Lifeforce:

Steve Railsback hams it up and Mathilda May might be the most attractive woman I’ve ever seen. Patrick Stewart has always looked the same age in an otherwise forgettable space saga. Surprised to see it scored by the London Symphony Orchestra. 10 years later, Species would be released and feel very similar.

From Beyond:

Stuart Gordon’s efforts and love of the macabre are on full display here, but ultimately not as exciting/interesting as his previous year’s effort, Re-Animator. Also attractive: Barbara Crampton.

The Return of the Living Dead:

Excellent balance of dark comedy and zombie gore. This one is just good fun and would be the most likely candidate for a rewatch. Soundtrack also great, so I bought it last night and looking forward to spinning Trash’s Theme.

 

[Hemotep]

4.) Halloween (2018)


I really love this one. Gets better with each rewatch.

 

[Hemotep]

5.) All My Friends Are Dead

About what I expected going into it.

 

[LeeVing]

#2. Happy Death Day (2017)




#3. Happy Death Day 2U (2019)




Both movies were a bit light on both horror and comedy. PG-13 horror comedies just usually miss too much of both, IMO.

They were fine for what they are - I'd probably watch them again at some point as background viewing. I am a fan of sequels that start off right where the previous one ends, so these have that going for it.


I also have Freaky on my list to watch, so we'll see what the director can do with an R rating.

 

[Hemotep]

#2. Happy Death Day (2017)


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#3. Happy Death Day 2U (2019)


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Both movies were a bit light on both horror and comedy. PG-13 horror comedies just usually miss too much of both, IMO.

They were fine for what they are - I'd probably watch them again at some point as background viewing. I am a fan of sequels that start off right where the previous one ends, so these have that going for it.


I also have Freaky on my list to watch, so we'll see what the director can do with an R rating.

One of my coworkers daughters was an extra in Freaky. Don't remember it very well though.

 

[Hemotep]

6.) Oddity



Surprisingly decent. While some of the plot was highly predictable, the way the story was told had some unique aspects.

 

[Hemotep]

7.) Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

 

[LeeVing]

#4.

Freaky (2020)




The R rating works a lot better here. I'm not usually a Vince Vaughn fan, but he did a decent job.

May as well watch another Christopher Landon movie while I'm at it. I'm kinda glad he stepped away from Scream 7, as I wouldn't want this kind mix of horror comedy to be in a Scream movie....and I don't know if this guy can make a straight horror movie that also has some funny bits without making it too funny and losing some of the horror/scares/tension.