Spooky October • Posts Tagged ‘halloween’

Black Christmas (1974)

Uh oh, looks like Spooky October missed most of October. Hey, what can we say? We were too ambitious and real life things got in the way. But we’ve got a few more spooky reviews for you to cap this year - here’s one from what was scheduled to be our Psycho Killa week.

A: This is one of the first horror movies I watched at my mother’s suggestion. I was 12 or 13 at the time and I’m actually surprised that she allowed me to watch this movie because of all the filthy things that the caller says to the hot young girls on the phone.

I’ve always liked this movie. It’s subtle, creepy, and an exercise in good horror movie writing. It’s a slow and gradual burn. The sorority girls are celebrating Christmas together before they all go home for the holidays. During the party, they get a fucking weird phone call from a nut who says filthy things before saying that he wants to kill them. They hang up, nervous, but still calm because hey, it’s just some weirdo making an obscene phone call somewhere else. Little do they know that the killer is already in the attic. Ahh! He kills Clare who’s heading home for Christmas the next day without any of her housemates knowing. When her Dad comes and she can’t be found, they start to get worried and go to the police regarding these fucked up phone calls they keep getting. Meanwhile Jess (Olivia Hussey who is beautiful and a great actress and I love her) finds out that her boyfriend knocked her up and she wants to get an abortion. But he’s a little unbalanced and this doesn’t really go over well.

I know it sounds complicated, but trust me it works. The subplots merge seamlessly and lead to the crazy conclusion. It lets the scares build so that the audience can get to know the characters. These girls aren’t faceless bimbos. For example, Margot Kidder plays a drunk bitch and she’s amazing.

I also love how this movie, filmed in 1974, presents abortion as a reasonable and rational decision. Jess says that she has her whole life ahead of her and she doesn’t want a baby right now. When her boyfriend offers to marry her so she can still reach her goals, she declines because she doesn’t want to marry him. You would NEVER see that in a movie today and it helps make Black Christmas more modern and realistic, despite the dated wardrobe and production design.

This is a great film and one that helped establish the slasher movie genre (it came out 4 years before Halloween). It’s awesome to see women in a horror/slasher film as real people instead of sexualized victims. This is definitely one of my favourite horror films and I highly recommend it.

S: I had heard a lot about this movie, so imagine my surprise when it turned out everything everyone had told me was about the remake and didn’t really have anything to do with the original. I liked this movie, it’s got an old school/first time slasher vibe, and it’s SO Toronto. Not the murder stuff, but pretty much everything else - I’m positive I’ve walked by most of the buildings they used numerous times.

Aside from the old time kitsch factor (hullo, giant fur coat, I love you), there’s not much to tell you. It’s a straight up slasher flick with minimum rhyme or reason. The murderer prank calls a sorority house where he says some super filthy stuff (I was actually surprised), and then starts killing off house members. Olivia Hussey, who is fucking gorg, has an inkling it might be her crazy bananas boyfriend/baby daddy Peter. Well, I guess that’s the gist of it. It’s not confusing, it’s just not held together very well aside from “psycho in house”.

That said, it’s fun. It’s about Christmas (not my favourite holiday) and people being Halloween (my favourite holiday) style murdered. There’s a creepy attic, a drunk house mother, an awkward dad, a laughing detective. Oh, and a terrifying eyeball in door crack scene that gave me a bit of pause. But the highlights for me were definitely the dirty, dirty phone calls, Olivia Hussey’s face and Margot Kidder being a drunk bitch.

The Crazies (2010)

Wait, what happened to October? Looks like we fell behind in reviewing - but not for lack of scary festivities. Here’s a review from what would have been our Monsters line up.

A: I love, love, love this movie. It may or may not have something to do with the fact that I have a huge boner for Timothy Olyphant. I’m not biased, I swear!

Anyway, I haven’t seen this movie since it was in theatres, so I talked it up big. But as we were watching, S started pointing out all the plot holes and now I don’t know how to feel anymore. Very confusing.

Basically, everyone in the town starts to get infected with a mysterious virus that makes them kill people - everyone but the sexy sheriff and his wife. So they try and figure out what the fuck is going on and what the government has to do with it while trying to get the fuck outta dodge.

It’s fast paced, and the make-up and gore are great and interesting. The acting is better than most horror movies as well. There’s nothing here that’s revolutionary and it doesn’t make much sense if you sit and think about it for very long, but it’s a lot of fun. And Timothy Olyphant plays a law man. There ain’t nothing wrong here.

S: This is an okay movie. It’s kind of straddling the fence between really good and I-have-too-many-questions. It’s very fast paced, it’s fun in a frightening way because you will definitely jump a few times, and it has a great cast (aka Timothy Olyphant, who cares about the rest).

It’s gorey and graphic but not in a disgusting way - some cringe worthy scenes include when the second fella in town “snaps” and goes after his wife and son (as seen in the trailer) and when the sheriff and their ragtag crew make it back to their farmhouse to be attacked by some angry infected neighbours - oh, and there are many more, trust me.

I guess my confusion stemmed from the fact that it seemed as though literally everyone was infected - and those that weren’t infected didn’t really do much, aside from the sheriff - and the nature of the virus. I get that people went nuts and murdered e’ryone, but some of the victims were very bizarre and zombie-like, while others spoke and hunted together, and others seemed to have some kind of method to their madness. It was a little bit too inconsistent for me to fully comprehend the virus, and how it was spreading and affecting the town.

Also, for anyone who has seen the movie - when the sheriff goes in to the morgue and finds the priest, who is somehow still alive, and is then attacked by the mortician - does he save the priest after the encounter, or just leave the guy there to die since he’s had a rough go any way?

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Ghost Week at Spooky October, so we’re reviewing the third installment of the Paranormal Activity series - AKA the film that made us realize this could have been a part of Witch Week.

A: The third film in the Paranormal Activity series is a prequel to a prequel. I know, right? If you don’t already like the series (I really, really do), the fact that this movie goes back to when the girls were kids seems annoying. But I swear, it actually kind of works. Sort of.

Like I already said, this movie focuses on their girls when they were kids and tries to explain the mythology behind the series (i.e. why the hell they’re haunted by a demon in the first place). It seems like Katie and her mother Julie have the same “type” - Julie’s boyfriend Dennis is a wedding videographer and decides to start filming their lives ever waking minute because weird things start happening when Kristy’s invisible friend Toby comes around.

Same shit, different era - banging noises, sleepwalking, invisible shapes doing creepy things. This movie actually has some of the scariest sequences in the series. One involving something dressed up as a ghost in a sheet sneaking up on a babysitter while her back is turned. The other involves a not-so-innocent game of Bloody Mary in the girls’ bathroom. (Side note: did anyone ever play that game? I was always too much of a chicken shit.)

The only issue I have with this movie is that it makes even less fucking sense than Paranormal Activity 2. Remember the whole backstory of Katie’s house burning down in the first movie? Doesn’t happen. Also Julie and Dennis get murdered at the end and the girls were raised by their grandmother (who never appears in either of the other movies). Those are big fucking points to skip and a little too jarring to add so late in the game. Are we really supposed to believe that neither of the sisters can remember shit this important? Sure, you can argue that they’re under some witch’s spell and don’t remember anything, but that’s a bit of a stretch. I’m willing to accept a demon haunting a family in a horror movie, but once you introduce memory-erasing spells to explain huge errors in continuity, that’s when I call shenanigans.

But whatevs. I’m totally going to see Paranormal Activity 4 when it comes out this weekend. Holla!

S: This was my favourite of the Paranormal Activity series by far. It had a lot of new scare tactics, and I was definitely terrified. I’ve said it before and I will say it again - children make me a bit uncomfortable, so when kids are interacting with unseen forces, I am liable to freak the fuck out. I tried to play it cool, but I was terrified - my favourite scares include when there is a child-sized ghost figure standing behind the babysitter, and then WHOOSH there ain’t no child in that sheet. WHO WAS IT? There’s also a particularly spooky kitchen scene, but the best/worst part was when friend Randy decides to play Bloody Mary in the bathroom with Katie, and they get sufficiently terrified (as did I, Randy. As did I.) After this movie I was kind of like, I get it now. I get the hype.

Here’s what I don’t get. I loved this movie - but as a stand alone feature. As a part of the series it actually left me with more questions about the lives of Katie and Kristi and their non-friendly demon than it helped to answer. What did the grandmother obtain by her participation? What kind of demon was/is it? Was Katie actually possessed as a child? How did either of the kids grow up to be normal people? Where was the burning house part? Is the grandma still alive? When did Toby (the demon) stop being Kristi’s “friend” and start being an enemy? (I know some enmity was shown in this, but it wasn’t enough to convince me) I have a lot more to ask, but there weren’t any answers. It went from a loosely explained haunting experience as expressed in 1 & 2, and this plot failed to tie together anything for me.

ALSO if you read any blurbs about the movie it says that Kristi and Katie befriend the invisible entity, but I think that’s a complete lie. I pretty much thought Katie got the raw end of the deal and had the shit beat outta her the entire movie. Or maybe I am sensitive towards chubby, bossy, older kids because I totally am one. Either way, not nice.

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

It’s Ghost Week at Spooky October, and why not continue the Paranormal Activity trend with the prequel?

A: Like I said before, I lurve these movies. I saw Paranormal Activity 2 when it was released at a midnight screening. And of course it scared me.

There’s not a lot of information given in the first movie, so the screenwriters for the sequel had a lot of room to take the story anywhere they wanted. In this case, the sequel was actually a prequel; the events take place before the events of the first movie.

This film focuses on Katie’s younger sister, Kristy, who has just had a baby. Shortly after Hunter’s birth, weird things start happening around the house. It’s the same shit: shadows on the walls, things moving on their own, footsteps in the middle of the night, etc., etc. Kristy’s step-daughter figures out that they’re being haunted by a demon that Kristy’s great-grandmother may or may not have made a deal with for power in exchange for the first born male in their family (that would be Hunter). So they send the demon over to Katie and thus begins the series.

It makes sense and then it doesn’t make sense. Based on the first movie, we all know that they’re haunted by a demon. Sure, Katie’s distant relative MIGHT have made a deal with it for money and power in exchange for a son (why a demon would exchange power for a baby, I’ll never know), but it kind of negates all the exorcism stuff the first movie tried to set-up. Remember how another girl was haunted by the same demon and then died from the exorcism? That shit doesn’t make sense if the same demon has haunted one family for generations.

So there may be plot holes if you really think about it, but the scares are good and aren’t as repetitive as they seem. Like this once scene where all the cupboards in the kitchen slam open in the middle of the afternoon. It’s scary as fuck because we all know that demons get busy AFTER MIDNIGHT.

S: Again, this October is my first real exposure to the Paranormal Activity series, so this was all fresh and new for me. Except that Paranormal Activity 2 wasn’t. A lot of the old demon tricks are recycled for this film - doors opening slowly, sleep standing/walking, possession, body throwing and the good ol’ fly out the room move - which makes sense, but also became a bit dull after some time. I also wasn’t entirely convinced by the cast for this one - unlike Katie and Micah in Paranormal Activity who had me having heart palpitations. I found the father figure to be a bit wooden, and Kristi is portrayed by Donna from SOA, so the “real life” facade was lost for me within the first minute or two.

However - that said - I actually liked how this film worked in to the plot of the original, by kind of encircling the story to elaborate on the presence of the demon. There was still a lot of character stupidity - like when they realize that the demon is after baby Hunter because he is the first male born to that side of the family, so they try to pass off the curse on to Katie (enter the original film). How is that helping anything? Didn’t we just realize that it wants the male baby and not the older female? But hey - I guess I wouldn’t be making smart decisions if I was in their position (yes I would be) so I can’t judge (yes I can and do). What I’m trying to say is…without this particular ending, we wouldn’t have been able to make Paranormal Activity 4.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Ghost Week at Spooky October! Bring on the sisters.

A: I’ve wanted to watch this movie for a few years now, but there was no way I was going to watch it alone so thank god that I convinced S to watch it with me.

I have to say that Asian ghost films are the scariest of all ghost films. In a lot of American films, the ghosts come out all covered in blood and are disgusting, which is scary for about five seconds until it becomes funny. In A Tale of Two Sisters, the ghosts slink onto the screen. You’re not even sure that something is there, until you see a white hand and then the full ghost appears in front of you. Sometimes there’s a glimpse out of the corner of your eye or it’s there for a second and then it’s gone. So spooky!

I will say though, that the ending is hella confusing. I’m still not 100% sure who’s dead and who’s not and that takes the edge off a bit. It’s hard to be scared when you’re confused. For me anyway.

Still, I slept with the light on the night I watched this because ~~I’m a loser~~ I was still scared.

S: I was terrified to watch this movie before I even knew what it was all about - I knew it involved ghosts and children. NO THANKS. I don’t really like kids on good days, let alone in horror films.

I ended up not being terrified, but I will say I was at least mildly disturbed. It’s definitely twisted, but some of the horror was lost on me because I was confused at times (whatever - it is hard to read subtitles when hiding behind hands in case of a scary ghost). It’s actually not entirely ghost-ly either - there are only a few scenes with incidents, and the rest of the movie is spent building suspense or developing the plot. If you’re looking for something to watch that isn’t just continuous horror in your face, I’d say check this one out - UNLESS you prefer linear movies, in which case, you’re boring.

I will weigh in with this though: I am SO SICK of ghosts that crawl, even if they only do it for a short amount of time. I don’t like it at all.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

It’s Ghost Week at Spooky October, so we took a look at an old school flick about…ghosts.

A: Again, this is another film that I’d never even heard of before it was suggested to us as a good ghost film to review for Spooky October. So glad I watched it because I really love this movie.

Mary gets in a car accident with her friends in the opening scenes of the film and somehow manages to be the only survivor. Soon afterwards, she decides to move to another town to be an organist in a church (random, I know). While there, she starts to see a bunch of creepy ghouls and is drawn to an abandoned carnival. Oh, and she lives in a boarding house with another guy who keeps trying to weasel his way into her room and calls her a prude (basically, she lives with a potential rapist).

We watched the Criterion edition (so fancy) and the picture was sharp and the sound quality was decent. For an old-timey movie, the make-up and special effects hold up fairly well. The ghouls are scary and there a lot of sly moments with The Man (aka the Leader if the Ghouls) showing up in mirrors and windows when you least expect it.

It’s a great, creepy movie that’s highly sophisticated, considering the year it was made. I definitely recommend this film if you’re a fan of David Lynch, Night of the Living Dead, and psychological horror films - Carnival of Souls is the springboard for all of them. It’s the only film by Herk Harvey, which is too bad because this film is such a strong debut and clearly influenced some great/revolutionary directors.

Don’t watch this movie if you’re not a fan of films pre-1980 - this film is old as balls.

S: I don’t have too much to say. It’s obviously an old movie, and the story was a bit predictable. It was a bit hard to relate to the characters because it’s from a different time - I don’t know any organists myself, and the ol’ timey chaps made me a bit uncomfortable at times (was there such a thing as coming on too strong then? Or was she just supposed to be flattered by her weird, alcoholic, peeping tom housemate?). That being said, this is one of the few times that I am not going to give a speech about the movie failing to stand the test of time.

The “ghosts” or “souls” or whatever they are in this movie are just people with shabby makeup, and they do weird things and show up in inconvenient places. So what if it’s old and predictable - it still managed to spook me at least a little bit.

Poltergeist (1982)

Ghost Week at Spooky October, and we had to include this movie. In the clip, a ghost researcher hanging around the haunted house is Poltergeist-ed to the extreme and somewhat inexplicably tears off his face. So. Awesome.

A: I loved this movie when I was a kid. It was also one of the very first horror movies I watched - memories!

The movie isn’t very terrifying because it’s a movie that Spielberg probably directed for kids. It feel like a horror version of E.T. involving ghosts, but there are some definite spooky moments. There’s some shit involving a clown doll and a guy hallucinating ripping his face off.

There’s no real pacing aside from surprise!-we-have-ghosts to the-ghosts-stole-my-daughter in about five minutes. But it’s fun and retro and there are some sly jokes for us grown-up - like the parents smoking pot in their bedroom while their kids shit themselves over a scary thunderstorm. Just watch it for the nostalgia.

PS: Insidious totally ripped this movie off, except it sucked at it.

S: Poltergeist rates super excellent in my book of horror movies because it is, aside from exceedingly 80s, a brilliant example of “Well, that escalated quickly” horror. First the ghostly being(s) arrive via TV, and then they pull a few ol’ pranks in the kitchen which go from pulling out the chairs from the table to, seconds later, stacking them quite intricately. Then, after a day of simply causing items in the kitchen to slide around, the poltergeists abduct the son through his bedroom window via giant tree hands, and the daughter is sucked in to the closet and disappears in to an afterlife type place. Wait what? I thought we were stacking kitchen chairs!

There aren’t any terrifying moments in this flick, partially because the effects don’t carry well over the years, but A and I still managed to jump once or twice, so I will tip my hat to that. Also, I feel as though we have to pay this movie homage because it is one that will never be re-created (IMO) properly - as in, it will lose a lot of what makes it a great movie in the process of becoming updated (ahem, shitty Insidious).

Paranormal Activity (2007)

It’s Ghost Week at Spooky October, and demonic hauntings are included! In the clip above, the stupid idiot Micah decides to use a Ouija board to connect with the demon haunting his girlfriend. Because he’s a stupid idiot.

A: I saw Paranormal Activity when it was released in Toronto way back in 2009. I then had to walk home alone and sleep in my apartment by myself. I WAS TERRIFIED. This movie inspires Blair Witch style horror within me.

Katie and Michah decide to start filming the weird shit that happens around their house in the middle of the night. After finding out that Katie is being haunted by a demon, Micah decides that it’s a good idea to call it out even further, to challenge it and see if it’s real. Really bad stuff happens after that.

I know that this film is pretty divisive. Personally, I really like it. It’s a very effective horror movie. The scares build slowly - one night nothing happens except floorboards creaking, then a door moves slightly, then Katie starts sleepwalking. And then shit gets fucking real. The film is sparse enough to let you imagine the worst, but still shows enough for you to notice the progression and get scared just thinking about what’s going to happen next. When I saw it in theatres, people were screaming before anything happened because they were so terrified just waiting to actually see it. And even though I’ve seen the movie like three times now, I still felt my heart jumping during certain scenes.

Like most horror movies, Paranormal Activity relies on the characters doing what they’re not supposed to do to move the plot along. Like how Micah buys a Ouija board after Katie tells him not to, which is incredibly frustrating for someone like me who knows not to fuck around with that shit when a DEMON IS HANGING AROUND YOUR HOUSE (thanks for life lesson, The Exorcist).

If you like fast-paced horror movies with lots of action, blood, and gore, you’re probably not going to like this movie. I’d recommend this to people who like all that ghost/demon/haunting shit. I’d also recommend this to people who think they’re too good for horror because it just involves slashing and boobs. The spirit of horror relies on the terror of the unknown, of what you can’t see and can’t explain. If this movie doesn’t scare you, you’re probably a demon. Because I couldn’t sleep for a week after I first watched this and I’m like, so jaded when it comes to horror films.

S: I know that everyone and their dog has seen this movie, but I held out for a really long time. I was a little bit weary because of the hype surrounding it’s release, and I eventually just kind of forgot about it all together. Since I am the queen of spoilers, I did watch the end of the movie on Youtube a few years ago just so I could join in conversations about how scary it was - but watching a 5 minute end clip really does not do this flick any justice.

I surprised myself, because I love this movie. Love in a “I will never watch it again because I lost sleep” kind of way, of course. It’s the really minor things that scare the shit out of me - I don’t care about noises and footsteps in the night, really, and I wasn’t too freaked out about the whole photo in the attic/hallway drag business (spoiler alert? kinda?) - but I got very worked up over the sleep walking. So when haunted Katie gets out of bed at night and just stands for 2+ hours, or leaves the house to sit in the backyard, or near the end when she leaves the room and is screaming for Micah for unknown reasons, I was hoping I would melt in to the couch and disappear because OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING WHY IS THIS A THING.

Then I remembered it was a movie and got over it until I went to bed and envisioned myself doing the creepy sleepwalk stand, and then I couldn’t sleep.

Negatives: Micah is a moron, and Katie is really forgiving of his idiocy. Also, they do a lot of sleeping and going back to sleep for people living with a demon.

Sinister (2012)

Here’s a New Release review of Sinister for all of you. I got a free pass for the advanced screening, ‘cause I’ve got swag.

A: I fucking hate Ethan Hawke. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s his smug face. Anyway, I didn’t have a ton of interest in seeing this movie because I dislike him so much, but the trailer was decent and I’m not one to turn down a free pass, especially for a horror movie.

The story here is that Ethan Hawke’s character moves his family into the house where another family was murdered. He’s a former best-selling true crime author and needs to write a book about this crime to save his career (and pay his mortgages). On moving day, he finds a box of super 8 film reels in the attic and watches them. Each one displays the horrific murder of a different family, dating all the way back to the 1960s. He decides that the crimes are all linked and goes about trying to expose the killer. Meanwhile, spooky shit starts to happen in the murder house and the crimes may or may not be linked to an ancient demon.

This film was a lot better than I expected. It’s nicely shot, which is kind of a surprise for a newer horror film; they’re so disposable and there doesn’t seem to be much though put behind their technical aspects. In Sinister, almost all the scenes are framed so that you’re looking over the characters’ shoulders. It adds tension as you’re watching film - it forces the audience to check the corners and dark hallways to see if anything is lurking behind them.

Because of all the tension, there were a few parts that made me jump. But the film also doesn’t rely on boo!-aah! jump scares. It’s just legitimately creepy. The pulsing score comprised of remixed film/super 8 sounds, whispers, and screams adds to the spooky factor. Also the fact that you’re watching a bunch of families get murdered.

But the biggest issue with Sinister that hinders the quality of the movie is the characters. They’re so fucking stupid, even for a horror movie. Like, his wife doesn’t even know that they’ve moved into a murder house. She doesn’t find out until their kid paints a picture of a dead girl on the wall. Seriously? And her character literally does nothing in this movie. She doesn’t even have a job. She could be removed from the script and it wouldn’t make a difference. As you may have already noticed, I can’t even remember their names.

Sinister was really close to being great, but it fell short of it because the script is so thin. If the other characters had been fleshed out and had been a little brighter and a little more active, it would have been awesome. But it’s just okay. It’s worth a watch, but don’t expect to be blown away.

Season of the Witch (1971)

It’s Witch Week here at Spooky October, so how could we not review a movie based entirely on witches and witchcraft?

A: I’ve never heard of this movie, but I put it on the list for Spooky October because my boyfriend suggested it for our Week of Witches. Before we watched it, I asked him if he liked it. He said he’d never seen it. So I didn’t know anything about this film going into it because I’m lazy and rely on people to tell me things. I didn’t even know it was a George A. Romero film until the opening credits.

A bored 70s housewife decides to spice up her life by becoming a witch, instead of just having a regular affair like a normal person. No, she decides to become a witch and bang her daughter’s rude boyfriend. GROSS.

You would not believe how long it took S and I to figure the plot out. It’s Romero’s third film, but super low budget and since no one knows about it, they haven’t bothered to update the print or the sound quality for the DVD. It’s like the actors are talking with their hands over the mouths the sound is so muffled.

The idea is interesting, but it’s not scary and the acting is whatever. Romero apparently says he’d like to remake it and I hope he does because it could be really good. And I’m still looking for a film about witches that’s actually scary.

S: What…was this. I don’t know if it’s because it’s an older film, or because it’s so low-budget, or because it’s just a stupid movie, but I was not in to this at all. It took me at least half of the movie to understand what was going on, but even then all I could think was, “Why?”

In a nutshell, a bored housewife hears that her new neighbour is a witch and becomes interested in pursuing witchcraft. She casts a spell of sorts on her daughter’s boyfriend (who looks to be about 50) so that he’ll want to bone her, and then starts having bad dreams about a guy in a really lame mask coming after her. Eventually she kills her husband. “Accidentally”. Because, you know, that makes sense.

There are dream sequences that are nearly impossible to identify as dreams, because there’s no differentiation between them and the “normal” life. Her daughter goes missing or runs away, I’m not sure which, and no one really seems to care. Her husband slaps her for listening to her daughter have sex - not because it was a dirty thing to do, but because he wanted their college-aged daughter to stay a virgin (even comments on it to the daughter).

It’s just…a very “what?” movie. Oh, and not scary.