Day 14 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Another one of my favourites.  Event Horizon.

When you take a cast that includes Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Joely Richardson, Sean Pertwee and Jason Isaacs then you know you are in for a treat.  This film is one of my all time favourites.  Its a sci-fi, horror set around Neptune.  The synopsis is 7 years before the main part of the film a space vessel (fully manned) disappears.  It then returns seven years later and no-one knows where it has been.  The man who created the Event Horizon accompanies a group of space explorers who are sent to find out what happened.  The Event Horizon was made to create a black hole in space but no one knows what is on the other side.  So the question is not just where has it been to, its a question of what has happened to the crew and what has the ship brought back with it?  Well worth a watch and an excellent story that, for me, is as good as the original Alien film.  I give this a resounding 9 out of 10.

Day 13 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Been done before but clever.  Fertile Ground

This starts with a usual synopsis.  Pregnant woman miscarries.  Wife and husband move to new house to begin a new life.

Where this one differs is that the house in question was once owned by the family of her husband.  After being told that she can no longer have children, she is surprised to find herself pregnant.  Soon ghostly apparitions and apparent accidents enter the film and we see that the house has a history and not a pleasant one.  Over the years people have been murdered and others disappeared.  As the situation gets worse the woman starts to see even more terrifying things.  As the film speeds to the climax the ending is clever and will leave you thinking.  This one is a 4 out of 10.

Day 12 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Not bad this one.  Skinwalkers

Once again we have a film that is supposed to show real footage of an incident, though this one is quite well done.  The title leaves a lot to be desired and only just has a bearing to the actual film content.

At the start of this film we see a ranch where a young boy disappears right in front of his parents eyes.  Is it trick photography or is it something more sinister.  A group of men and women are sent to investigate the ranch where the disappearance happened.  What follows is quite a good film that shows everything from moving objects, strange creatures, weird alien figures to ghostly apparitions, bright lights and cattle mutilation.  Its all well done but will leave you with a lot of questions.  I would give this a 5 out of 10.

Day 11 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Think you know what an angel is?  Think again. Legion

I have seen this film several times and its a great watch.  Legion is about a woman who is carrying a child that is to be humanities last hope.  Mostly set in a gas station/diner in the middle of nowhere it centres on a young pregnant woman name charly who is about to find out that she carrying no ordinary baby.  Lots of good, creepy special effects and quite gory in places.  The story goes that god is sick of his creations and has decided to wipe out humanity and start again.  He sends one of his trusted angels to kill the baby but the angel reneges and decides to save it instead.  The rest of the angels led by Gabriel stage an assault on the gas station with the sole intent of killing the baby.  Clever story, well written, well acted and definitely a good one for the horror fan.  If you think an angel is a cute creature with only good intentions, think again.  I would give this a solid 8 out of 10.

Day 10 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Thought this was more of a thriller than a horror but it came up under horror.  The House at the end of the street.

I have seen this one once before and whilst its down as a horror, most people would class it as a well paced clever thriller.  Its about a mother and daughter who move into a new neighbourhood where a couple were brutally murdered four years before by their daughter.  Even though the house is supposed to be empty, the son who was living away from the family when the tragedy happened, is now living in the house.  His sister was never caught for the murders and was believed to be drowned.  However the son is keeping the daughter locked up in the basement as she is bran damaged from an accident that happened when she was a child.  The son feels responsible and now thinks its his duty to look after his sister.  The new girl falls for the son and what looks like a romance is on the cards, but all is not as it seems.  Like I said its a well paced thriller with several good twists and turns.  Its been done before and probably better but this is definitely worth a watch.  Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot and Elizabeth Shue.  I would give it 6 out of 10.

Day 9 of my 31 day horror film binge.   Creepy, atmospheric, haunting.  Sinister

I have to admit that this is one of my favourites of the last twenty to thirty years.  I have seen it before but I will watch it again several times.  It has everything that makes a good horror film.  Recognisable actor (Ethan Hawke), supernatural moments galore, strange camera angles and ghostly appearances.  Its about a writer who moves his family into a house where a family was found hung from a tree and a little girl went missing.  He was a fiction writer but has taken to writing about real life killings.  I think what makes this even creepier is that he knows what happened in the house and yet doesn't tell his wife and kids.  He finds an old movie tape projector in the attic in a box with several films.  Upon watching the films he discovers more linked murders where children went missing.  Enough spoilers.  I will let you watch it and be creeped out, its worth it.  The story unfolds and gets darker by frame. Enjoy. I would give this a huge nine out of ten.  One of my all time favourites.

Day 8 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Definitely a strange one this time. Mr Jones

Well what can I say about this one?  Well I will start with bizarre, weird, strange and end with 'what the hell did I just watch'.  This is one of those films that is technically known as a 'mind fuck'.  Its a bizarre concept and even after the credits went up at the end, I still had no clue as to what it was about.

I have a creative mind and am always thinking outside the box, however when that box is in another box, that is in another box and so on...... even I draw a blank.

The idea is a young married couple have decided to up sticks and move to the country where they begin filming a documentary about life in the country.  Whilst there they soon find strange scarecrow like figures that appear to be connected to a mysterious figure known only as Mr Jones.  This figure apparently sent lots of these scarecrow things to various people across America for no reason that anyone can figure.

Being young and foolish they decide to dig deeper which is where the film spirals out of control.  I can honestly say you will probably enjoy this more smoking a joint, and maybe then you will be able to figure out what the hell is going on.  Camera flashes and lots of blurred and strangely coloured shots make this a definite no no for epileptics.  It made my head hurt.  I will give it 2 out of 10.

Day 7 of my 31 day horror film binge.  I thought I had already seen this one but when watching it nothing was familiar.  Outlander (2008)

This is a mixed genre film.  Mixing fantasy, sci-fi and horror.  Starring Jim Cavaziel, John Hurt and Sophia Myles, this film is surprisingly set in Viking times.  Cavaziel plays a man from the future/distant galaxy (not sure which) who crash lands on the Earth at the time of the Vikings.  When he realises that he has inadvertently also bought a creature from another planet, he sets out to find it.  He gets captured by a tribe of Vikings who at first, think he is responsible for the slaughter of one of their rivals villages.  Once they realise that it is far worse than they imagined they all decide to group together and hunt the monster themselves. What follows is a well paced film with just the right amount of horror.  The creature alone makes this a horror film and in places its quite gory and blood filled.  It is one of my favourites watched so far and I give it a score of 8 out of 10.

Day 6 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Kind of cheated a bit with this one as I have seen it before.  Its been that long though, that I had forgotten what it was about........lol.  The film is My Soul to Take.

There were a lot of this type of film made in the late 90's up until about 2012.  The idea behind them is to question whether the film is about something supernatural, or just a plain human killer.  This film synopsis centres around a group of seven children who were all born on the same day a killer, known as the ripper, is said to have been killed.  Sixteen years later all of the teenagers are now in high school and for some bizarre reason not only do they celebrate their birthdays each year, but they also have ripper day.  Which is basically a mock up of pretending that the spirit of the ripper comes out of a lake and each year one of the chosen seven has to kill it and banish it back to its watery grave,

This particular year things don't go according to plan and one by one the ripper seven start being brutally murdered.  Its then up to the watcher to decide if the rippers spirit is killing them, or something else.  Throw into this mix that one of them could be the rippers child and you get a pretty good horror film.  Blood is overdone (for effect) and unless you are new to this genre you will figure out what is going on.  I would give it 5 out of 10.  There are lots of these films and this is not one of the better ones.

Day 5 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Another disappointment I am sorry to say.  This one is called House of the Devil.

I had high hopes with this one especially as it was labelled 'The best horror film of the year'.  After watching it I would doubt it would even be best horror of the week, let alone year.  Its slow to the point of ennui.  Its on 96 minutes and the plot is about ten of those.  The first 70 minutes are so drab and pointless that I almost switched off.  I did not however, I saw it through to the bitter (pitiful??) end.  

The synopsis is a college student needs money for a house deposit and finds an advert on the student board asking for a babysitter.  She calls the number and about 30 minutes later she is one her way, being given a lift by her friend.  Once arriving at this house in the middle of nowhere its quite obvious that all is not as it seems.  The baby turns out to be the owners mother who needs watching in case of emergencies.  The next forty minutes is about her exploring the house, watching tv, listening to music and basically boring filler for the movie.  With twenty minutes to go the real plot emerges and we find out that the girl is needed for an occult experiment to bring the devils child into existence.  Throw in a couple of gruesome bits and that is the gist of the story.  Girl escapes, shoots herself point blank in the head, wakes up in hospital to find herself pregnant, end of movie.  I am forcing myself to give it 3 out of 10

Day 4 of  my 31 day horror film binge.  I knew it had to happen, its the risk you take when you watch new films.  This one was called Clawed - The Legend of Sasquatch.

Okay where do I start.  The acting was dreadful, the characters questionable, the special effects must have cost about $100 and the plot (if you can call it that was so thin it was practically see-through.  The synopsis is that there is a group of hunters who are poaching animals that the Sasquatch takes a dislike to.  Killing all but one (who is recued by some sort of Indian warden/ranger, I think?).  The town come to the conclusion that there is a grizzly bear gone rogue and a group of hunters, including the survivor, set out to kill it and to kill the warden as the survivor thinks its him who attacked him and killed his men.  Following so far.........

Add into this mix two students (male) who hate each other but are forced to work together on a project about endangered species.  They decide that they too are going to try and find this mysterious creature that is killing people.  They take neither gun or knife and instead rely on a video camera to take photos of said creature.  Of course they take two girls with them (one of them is the cousin of the one who hates the brainbox kid). It gets worse.  The hunters all die (including the survivor shooting one of his own people???).  The only survivors end up being the Indian warden and the four students and sasquatch disappears at the end of the film.  Cue credits...............

I am giving it 2 out of 10 and that is being generous :)

Day 3 of my 31 day horror film binge.  I have had this one for years on DVD and never watched it (it was still shrink wrapped).  World of the Dead (Zombie Diaries 2).

Set in the UK in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak this films is mostly shot from the viewpoint of an army photographer who wants to make a video diary to show people what is happening.  Its quite a good film that is not too gory and relies on a central story for most of it.  I would give it 7 out of 10.  The thing about watching this one is that it made a very real point.  For me it highlighted the fact that if there was a zombie outbreak, it would be much better to fear the humans that remained more than the zombies.  The zombies are only doing what is instinct, humans have a choice.  A very clever ending made this even more enjoyable.

 3rd October 2024

Day 2 of my 31 day horror film binge.  Its another Guillermo Del Toro film called Shiver.

Whilst this film is not as good as Pan's Labyrinth in some ways, its better in others.  Shiver is much more suspenseful and intriguing.  Its what I refer to as a 'something in the woods movie'.  Synopsis is a young man who has an aversion to sunlight (all the way through you are wondering if he is a vampire) and to avoid living in a city where there is too much exposure to sun light, he and his mother move to a village where they only get limited daylight hours.  Once he is there people start dying in gruesome ways and he becomes the main suspect.  Is he the killer or is there something else in the woods?

I would give this a 6 out of 10 for the story alone.  Its well acted and goes along at a reasonable pace.  The story is clever and because there are only six or seven characters in the film, it makes it easier to follow.  Worth watching if you like Guillermo or if you like a 'something in the woods film'  Not everyone will like this but its ok and I am glad I watched it.

2nd October 2024

Yesterday I started a 31 day horror movie binge.  I intend to watch at least one horror film per night and then rate them the next day.

First up is a film that I have had for a few years and never got round to watching until last night.  Its a Guillermo Del Toro Film called Pan's Labyrinth

PAN'S LABYRINTH

I must admit that this was not what I expected (but in a good way).  Its a strange surreal fantasy in which a young girl in 1944 goes, with her pregnant mother, to live with a Spanish Captain, to whom her mother is now married.  The girl lives in fairy tales and inadvertently becomes embroiled in a very dark one.

Whilst the main story is about the girl and the fairy tale, there is also a background story of a group of men who have refused to be ruled by the Spanish government and are hiding in some hills.  The Captain is a sadistic ruthless man whose main aim is to see that every man that is holed up in the mountains dies.

It is a Spanish film but the subtitles are well done and not rushed.

Its a good story, well written, well acted.  Its definitely an adult film as some of the scenes are quite graphic.

All in all a good start to my Horror Binge and I will give it 8 out of 10.  Definitely worth a watch :)