October Movie Reviews: Quick Round Up

Round-up of a bunch of movies I saw over the last couple of weeks that I have not had the time for full write-ups on.  All of these are new views.

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Daughters of Satan (1972)
Tom Selleck is an art dealer who finds a bad painting of some witches being burned at the stake.  The center witch looks just like his wife.  His wife become possessed with the spirit of the dead witch and the other two show up.  Selleck is the reincarnation of the man that set them on fire.  Murder and mayhem ensues.  OR something like that.  I nearly fell asleep while watching.

The Uninvited (2009)
A pretty cool film about a girl that is sent to a mental hospital for 10 months following the accidental death of her mother.  The girl has blocks in her memory and is certain that her fathers new girl friend is some how to blame.  It is a remake of a 2003 Korean film.  While more psychological thriller than actual horror, it has all the trappings of a horror film.  I won't say more because I don't want to spoil the ending.

Sharktopus (2010)
Half shark, half octopus.  Yeah.   You know how sometimes a movie can be so bad it is actually good?  Of course you do.  Well this one went past that point to where it is just bad again.  I have this love-hate relationship with Roger Corman.  While he is only the Producer here (and has some screen time) this is clearly in his realm.  Sometimes Corman can be campy fun, other times you get, well Sharktopus.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
I also struggled with whether or not this was horror enough.  Yes there is a mystery and there are very horrific things going on in this movie.   I choose to include it because of those horrific elements (murder, torture, rapes, all multiple times) and because the movie was so good.  If you don't know the story yet, well you were not one of the millions of people that read the book.  Basically a man on his way to prison for perjury gets a case where he must investigate a missing woman from 40 years ago.  The case is very cold and all he has to go on is a few scribbled notes and a few old photos.  He gets help from a hacker Lisabeth (who also has issues of her own like being brutally raped by her guardian) who discovers the notes are bible references.  The case then explodes to something much larger than one missing girl.  Again, no spoilers.

The Others (2001)
I also have a love/hate relationship with Nicole Kidman.  She is a fantastic actress, but she can grate on my nerves.  And I am no fan of her (former? present?) goof-ball religion.
But the Others is a fantastic little ghost story set after WWI involving a woman and her children and their haunted house.  There is a mystery here of course, and mists.  It is in fact very much a Ravenloft-esque story. I also don't want to spoil the ending of this one either.  But I have to admit, I really liked this one; Very spooky and moody.

Don't know where this puts me on the roster yet.  23 by my quick count, or 24 if you let me count the BBC Count Dracula as two.  Puts me about 2 behind schedule.  I have two with me now.  So that should be good.