Titans_fan

10/21 - Backcountry This film hit my radar a few years ago when I was searching for relatively unknown horror movies. It was Adam MacDonald's first film as director (he would go on to direct Pyewacket) and is a survival horror movie about a couple who gets lost backpacking and stumbles upon a black bear. The writing and acting do a good job of portraying the characters exactly how they wanted. It's got a little bit of a Jaws vibe with the anticipation of the attack with the sounds of the woods playing a bit part in building the tension. It's nowhere near the level of Jaws but it was mostly enjoyable. Plus, this song is in it, so that moves the needle up for me! 3.5/5

10/20 - Night Teeth (Netflix exclusive) This is about as much of a horror movie as Monster Squad in the fact it has horror character tropes (vampires) but isn't really scary. It's targeted toward a younger audience (TV-14 rating) and is more about the relationship between the main character and the two lead vampires. There are some police/crime undertones but it's just a popcorn flick and not much of a horror flick. 2/5

Interesting. It was directed by Andy Muschietti (the two recent It movies) and stars Jessica Chastain (Beverly in the second one) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones), so it has some nice parts both in front of and behind the camera.

10/19 - Mama I didn't know this was a Guillermo del Toro movie before I started it, but the creature design and movements have his fingerprints all over it. It's a story of loss, love, and family. It had some decent jump scares and I liked the pacing of it. I liked it more than I thought I would and found my self immersed in the story and trying to figure out how it was going to end. 3.75/5

10/17 - Saint Maud A British psychological horror movie about a nurse who takes on a terminal patient. There are themes of religion, rebellion, and hedonism and this is way too smart of a movie for me. I think it's a bit of descent into madness and religious fervor, but honestly not sure. I need to win the Wikipedia article to see if I just missed something, but it just wasn't for me. 2.5/5 10/18 - Caveat This is an Irish horror film that uses amnesia and flashbacks to tell a haunting story. If you plan on watching it, it's best to go in completely blind. It's a mind bender but pretty well sums everything up during the final third of the movie. It's not a popcorn flick by any means, but is very atmospheric and is an interesting watch. 3.25/5

10/15 - Halloween (2018) As I mentioned, I cheated a little tonight as I did see this when it came out in theaters three years ago. I remembered a good portion of it, but I still couldn't stop watching it. It brought the same tension and dread that the original had in spades and the use of silence was very good. This is my favorite horror series, so there may be some rose-colored glasses here but I think this is the best since the original. 4.25/5 10/16 - Halloween Kills I went into this with high hopes given how good the first of the trilogy was and was somewhat disappointed. It did it's job to set up the final film but it didn't have the same feel as the 2018 movie. I barely felt any sense of dread or the tension of an unstoppable killer coming after you. I won't go further into this to avoid spoilers, but this felt like a movie simply to move the story forward. 3/5

10/15 - Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel Watched the first one a few months ago then promptly forgot there were 2 sequels. I really enjoyed the first one and this one had some good moments but it fell short of the first for me. The found footage aspect is the best part of these movies and they interspersed the creepy footage with a news interview type show. It was necessary to the story, but took me out of the creepy stuff too much. 3/5 Going to cheat a little tonight and rewatch the 2018 Halloween as I'm going to Halloween Kills tomorrow and want to refresh my memory

10/13 - The Night House I remember seeing the trailer a while back and thinking it looked interesting then COVID took over and it stayed in theaters for, like, 15 minutes. It's more of a thriller than a pure horror, but it definitely had some horror moments. Couple of well-timed jump scares and some good camerawork in some tight spaces. As a movie, I thought it was very good but it's not a popcorn flick. You've got to watch this movie. It takes a bit of a ding in the horror category. 3.75/5

10/12 - The Amityville Moon Um, ok. This movie is pretty bad and not necessarily in a good way unless you're looking for am ultra-low-budget werewolf movie. The acting is very poor and the werewolf is a bit too obviously an actor in a suit. There is a transformation scene that isn't terrible, but the rest of the movie is a struggle to get through. I don't recommend tis unless you're punishing yourself for something (unless schlocky C-Horror is your thing). 1/5

10/11 - The Power This is almost like two movies in one. It shifts genres about halfway through and lost some steam for me. The first half is very atmospheric (long, dark hallways, minimal lighting, bumps in the night) and really captivated me. The shift from an atmospheric, tense movie into something totally different had me scratching my head, but it ends up explaining the shift by the end. The English accents weren't too strong, but there were a few times I know I missed some dialogue. Still a solid entry and would recommend. It's on Shudder. 4/5

Continuing on... 10/7 - There's Someone Inside Your House Teen slasher flick. The first 15-20 minutes really grabbed me then it fell off a bit. It did have a kill I don't think I've seen before, which was a nice surprise. It has a "whodunit" flair with a masked killer, but the mask choices were unique. It's not terrible, but it's also not great. 3/5 10/8 - Till Death I thought this was going to be eerily similar to "Gerald's Game" for the first 1/3 of the movie or so, but then it becomes a pretty entertaining cat-and-mouse game. More suspense than horror, but it's good to see Megan Fox back on the big screen and wearing minimal clothing. 3.5/5 10/9 - The Manor There's a couple of bigger names in this one (Barbara Hershey and Bruce Davison) and it centers around an older lady being placed in an assisted living facility, but all is not as it appears. I found myself mostly engrossed in the plot and the ending is worth getting to. One of my favorites so far. 4.25/5 10/10 - I Saw the Devil This came up under the horror genre, but it's really more of a revenge movie. It's a Korean flick and is a lot like "Oldboy" or "Audition" concerning the plot. There's plenty of gore and some minor horror elements, but it's a fringe horror movie at best. Still a good flick, but probably 20-30 minutes too long. 3.5/5 Got "The Power" queued up for tonight (set in 1970's London in a hospital during rolling blackouts and a nurse working the night shift scared of the dark). The poster and trailer caught my eye, so giving it a shot. More to come!

It was at the end of the credits. I *think* it was Raatman.

Currently at 161.3 with Hines (-10.2) and Parris Campbell (-5) that can still count. It would be nice if the cut stays under me after tonight.... 😟

10/5 - Never Hike in the Snow This is actually a short (30 minutes) and I didn't know that. It's not bad and does set up the other film. The first kill is incredible. 3.0/5.0 10/6 - V/H/S/94 The third in this series of films. It's in the found footage category and consists of a wraparound story and 4 "mini" films just like the others. I didn't like the format in the first two and this one didn't impress me either. Any anthology movie is going to have hits and misses and I liked 2 of the shorts and the other 2 were just OK. If you like the genre or the other films in the series, you'll probably enjoy this one. 2.5/5.0 Let's see if I can keep the streak going! If anyone cares, I'm attempting to watch horror movies I've not yet seen, so every review is based on my first time through.

So, I'm also 4 for 4 with "horror" movies in October as well. 10/1 - Malignant It's a B-Movie, but it knows it. It goes all out and for me was pretty enjoyable. I'd definitely recommend it if for nothing else to say you have seen it. I didn't see the twist coming, FWIW. 4.0/5.0 10/2 - No One Gets Out Alive This one is hard to describe. It's like a haunted house movie meets a monster movie. It was a bit hard to follow, but that might be because I had some distractions throughout, so take that for what it's worth. For horror fans, I think it's worth a watch, and I may watch it again to see if it makes more sense with full attention, but it was just OK for me. 3.0/5.0 10/3 - Candyman (2021) I'd seen the first 2 movies, but they didn't really stick with me other than Tony Todd is fantastic. While not absolutely necessary to rewatch them to understand the plot, it would probably help some if you don't remember much about them. For a reboot, I thought it was pretty good as it didn't retcon what happened in the earlier movies but expanded upon it. 3.5/5.0 10/4 - Werewolves Within This is a horror-comedy that is heavier on the comedy than the horror. It's apparently based on a video game, but I had never heard of it. Lily from the AT&T commercials plays the lead female. It's OK, but barely registers on the horror radar. 3.0/5.0 I think I'm going to watch Never Hike in the Snow tonight. It's free on YouTube and is a Friday the 13th fan film and a prequel to their other fan film entitled Never Hike Alone, which was quite enjoyable.