October Challenge: Sleepy Hollow

Looking for a change of pace I stumbled on this little gem last night. I think Tim Burton is fantastic.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

The story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman is one of the great American Horror stories.  The film versions though have to compete with the Disney classic version. This one is a worthy version.  Yes it takes a number of liberties with the story.  Yes it is exits in some weird Tim Burton alternate reality where all the leading men are played by Johnny Depp and all leading women are played by Helena Bonham Carter-er I mean Christina Ricci.
Ok so Depp's Ichabod is a detective for the NYPD in 1799.  He is sent to the village of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a murder.  His Ichabod is still a bit of coward and has a weak stomach, which I am glad they preserved, but is quite smart.  And apparently his mother was some sort of witch.
Christina Ricci is here and I'll be honest.  I think she is great, I love her in just about everything she does, but all her characters sound exactly the same.  Granted, I have not seen a lot of "Monster" but nearly everything else.
We get cameos and co-stars of some of the highest quality and number are (or will be) Burton alums.
I was particularly pleased to see Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Martin Landau, and Michael Gambon.  Of course the award for biggest surprise casting goes to Christopher Waken as the Headless Horseman.
The actors are first rate and script is good too.
The effects looked a bit dated in some cases, even though it is only 10 years old, but still good enough.

I enjoyed the story in all it's supernatural spookiness. I think I was thinking that it was going to be a more mundane killer than a supernatural one, but instead we got both and that was kind of cool.

Tally 23 movies, 20 new.

October Challenge: The Amityville Horror (1979)

Amityville Horror is one of those classic horror films. Tons of sequels, a remake, and a sub-genre of haunted house movies.  But how does the original stand up?

The Amityville Horror (1979)

It has been years and years since I have seen this movie.  So long in fact that I had forgotten most of it. Watching it now with more modern eyes the film seems a bit slow and even a bit anti-climatic.
So what do we have.  There is a great build up here to a creepy story. The actors are great, and this is back when Margot Kidder was still really good. Rod Steiger of course was fantastic and Josh Brolin's descent into madness is great.  The haunting itself is a bit lame.  The flies are kinda cool, the red room is neat and the house still looks creepy as all heck.

Though watching this makes really want to see Poltergeist again.

Tally 22 movies, 19 new (but I kind of forgot it...)

October Challenge: Dracula's Curse (2002)

Last year I did a big run of Dracula movies, but obviously I missed a few.

Dracula's Curse (2002)

This one was an Italian TV movie.
The story is fairly close to the book with some odd bits.  It takes place in modern times in Budapest.  All the characters are there, but some of the nationalities are switched around, but everyone is recognizable.
The is an odd bit where we see young Dracula before old Dracula and then young Dracula again. Other than that it is again really close to the book.
So close in fact that it makes it difficult judge this one.  The trouble with this one it is a bit boring.  You don't get the same dynamic between Lucy and Mina or even what makes Mina so important to the Dracula story.  In truth too the horror is missing to make this really one of the most, uhm..., anemic Dracula's I have ever seen.  They lost all of the depth and essence of what made Dracula, the book, so special.  Mina and Lucy were both very shallow and lacked anything that made them special.
I did like the Renfield character, interesting twist.
The actors were fine and the actor for Dracula looks like what you would expect from the description in the book and he is not a bad actor either.
The ending is different than the book.

Tally 21 movies, 19 new.

October Challenge: Succubus Hell Bent

I like succubi. But you might all know that by now. [1][2] And I love movies of succubi and Lilith.  So this was one I was really looking forward too.  Man, am striking out everywhere.

Succubus: Hell Bent (2007)

So simple story here.  Stupid rich kid with stupid best friend go on spring break to hook up with some girls. The rich kid, Adam (see what they did there?) meets a really hot woman, Lilith, and they go back to his hotel for sex.  She demands to be on top and then claws him up during sex. Then there is the whole gowing eyes deal.  It was kind of like watching a metal video from the 80s.
Anyway stupid rich boy goes back to LA.  And Lilith tracks him down.  She then goes about screwing him and killing all his friends.
We get a Lamas cameo and even Gary Busey makes a brief appearance as Sentinel  the Demon Hunter for Hire (who should get his own movie where he does nothing but talk to his sword).
Stupid kid finally manages to kill Lilith and then goes to jail for her murder.

I really wanted to like this one.  But the the plot is to weak and the editing was done by a blind guy I think.  There is a certain charm about this flick though.  Natalie Sperl is good as Lilith and plays the role with enough creepy-stalkerness and humor to make you root for her instead of stupid kid.  Plus she is easy on the eyes, which is never a bad thing.
The special effects are not too bad really.  I did like Lilith's demonic form.
Though we all know Lilith is a red head.

Here are a couple of links with longer reviews.  Both are good sites.
http://www.succubus.net/wiki/Succubus_Hell_Bent
http://www.1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewsn-z/succubushellbent.htm

Still searching for a really good succubus movie.

Tally 20 movies, 18 new.

Game content:  Gary MOTHEREFFING Busey as a demonhunter for hire?  Hell yes!

Trouble is we get so little of him that it is hard to know what any of his stats should be.  He is older, maybe washed up.  Has connections to the church and has a magical sword named Lucille.

October Challenge: Red Riding Hood

I'll admit it. I am a sucker for dark fairy tales.  I mean fair tales in their original, un-Disney form are pretty freaking dark.  But any time you can bring one of those back and put them on the screen then that is aces in my book.  If you can do it and get Gary Oldman in to be in the cast then even better.

But despite all of that good stuff we get something like Red Riding Hood.

Red Riding Hood (2011)

I was very excited for this one when it came out.  Then all the bad reviews came in and well I truthfully kind of forgot about it. Since a few others were also covering this one for the Challenge I figured I give it a go.
To begin with, RRH is not a bad movie, it is just not a good one either.  Amanda Seyfried is very attractive, but dull in the titular role.  I didn't get the sense that she was ever afraid or actually in love with this guy she was supposed to be in love with.  Or anything really.
Gary Oldman though was at his scene chewing best as the creepy Father Solomon. Honestly the man can play anything.

Of course there is a werwolf in this one; seems to be the thing to do these days, make the "big bad wolf" into a werewolf.  Makes me wonder what they would do with the "Three Little Pigs"?  I know.  A movie about three cops, one played by Harvey Keitel and maybe the other by Omar Epps. That are chasing a perp when the moon rises and now the cops are being chased by the Big Bad Werewolf. Have not worked out how the houses of Straw, Sticks or Bricks work into it yet.  I know!  That is their last names.  Keitel is Lt. Brickson, Epps is Det. Sticks (or something).  Hey. It is not the dumbest thing I have come up with this week. We need a comic relief guy for Straw.  Maybe James Franco.  Anyway.......

So in the movie they actually made in Hollywood. We do get get a hunt, an old witch (maybe) and creepy father/daughter relationship.  Again, there was a lot of potential here. I can't say wasted, just never fully realized.

It could be I was expecting something like Tanith Lee's "Red as Blood", a book that I always thought about when seeing the poster for this movie.

As expected the Tanith Lee story is much better.

Tally: 19 movies, 17 new.

Game Material: In a classic D&D adventure the PCs come a small village on the edge of a "haunted" forest. They are constantly attacked by wolves, till the PCs show up, and then the deaths start.  Will they discover to true wolf before they are burned at the stake.  Afterall it can't be the kind little girl or her old weak grandmother.

October Challenge: The Naked Witch (1961)

**If you are here looking for Naked Witches then please go here.**

Well, this one was out there...taunting me.

The Naked Witch (1961)

This thing makes Manos look like Citizen Kane.  The first 10 or so minutes is an overview of witchcraft as told by an insane Sunday School teacher.  Then we get a narration about this German area of Texas (Luchenbach, Waylon, Willie and the boys are no where to be seen) and a montage of images that look like they stolen form some tourism board film or a demented version of Sound of Music.

Aside:: This might be the most mind numbing movie I have seen this entire challenge.
Aside2: It is a universal truth.  Being evil makes you hotter.

Now in reviews they tell you the college student digs up the witch and she comes back to life.  Well that doesn't happen till half way through the movie.
So yeah there is a witch and she is naked, sort of, but frankly I would have been better off watching an episode of "Charmed" or "The Secret Circle".  The acting and the script would have been a hell of a lot better that's for sure.
Honestly if you want a story about a witch coming back from the dead and walking around naked the whole time then watch Rob Zombie's American Witch.

My wife nearly banned me from the TV because of this one.

Tally 18 movies, 16 new

October Challenge: Teeth

There are plenty of horrors out there in the land of myth of legend. Some are more popular than others. The Vampire and werewolf obviously take the lion's share of stories, there are others.  Some of these are so unique that when a movie about them comes along I have to check them out.

Teeth (2007)

Teeth is fun little movie.  The premise is simple really.  Dawn is a high school student and a bit naive.  She is a member of a teen abstinence group and is generally afraid of sex.  This is a good thing really since Dawn has an odd "adaptation".  Maybe it has something to do with living near a nuclear power plant her whole life. Dawn has a problem.  She has an extra set of teeth in her vagina. This turns out to be very useful when she is sexually assaulted by a fellow student from her group.
Dawn tries to find out what is wrong with her.  She  goes to see a gynecologist to discover what is wrong.  When he gets a bit improper with her she reacts by biting off four of his fingers.
Distraught, she heads home only to find her mother collapsed on the floor while her brother ignores her cries.
Dawn discovers that the police are looking for the first boy she was with and she decides to turn herself in.
She ends up at another guy's place who liked her.
Distraught and newly loaded with sleeping pills she ends up having sex.  Everything seems to be going fine, she even has sex again, till she discovers that she was part of a bet.  One quick chomp and she leaves.
Her mother died the night before so Dawn returns home to take her revenge on her step-brother.  She goes to his room to have sex with him, something he has wanted for a long time, and she puts the bite on him.
She tosses out the left overs and his dog promptly eats it.
Dawn, hitchhiking is picked up by an old man that tries to make advances at her.  She refuses at first and then gets a grin on her face and turns to the old perv.

The interesting thing about this flick is that is does take an old myth, one not many people may be familiar with, and turns it into a "monster" movie.  Dawn is a sympathetic monster to be sure, but she kills at least one guy and maims three, potentially four, others.  Still though it is hard to blame her for what she does.

Some images from movies are iconic.  Bela Lugosi descending those stairs, Count Orlock standing in the doorway for some of the older ones, Freddie with his razor blade gloves.
The iconic image here though is not what you think it might be.  It is Dawn's home, an idyllic single story ranch with the nuclear power plant cooling towers in the background.

If you get a chance, please check it out.  It is a fun one.

Tally: 17 movies, 15 new.

Game Uses
Well, I can think of dozens really.  But are they good for a game??
For an adult game (or more to the point an older adolescent game) this could be a good "fix" to that One Guy that always is looking to score with whatever female humanoid he sees.
I am tempted though to say this is the way the various Hag races are.  Like Dawn they can control it so the can get what they want (offspring) and then when done they bite off the male's penis (great way to do a lot of HP in damage).
Defiantly hags and not say Succubi since the Hag is supposed to be a perversion of the female ideal.

October Challenge: Let The Right One In (2008)

The other day I reviewed "Let Me In", today I want to talk about the "original" movie version, based on the book.  And let me say this.  Movies like this give me hope for the vampire movie.

Let The Right One In (2008)

A lot about what I said for Let Me In holds true for this movie. Oskar seems less bullied than Owen was and there is certainly something more "off" about Eli than Abby (this is made clearer in the book).
I felt the gore was less and there were next to no "vampire" effects.  But the story is still fantastic and I think more that any other vampire movie in years (maybe even decades) the really shows the horror of these creatures and the loneliness.

Oddly enough this movie is "brighter" in terms of cinematography.  The 2010 Hammer version was very dark in terms of lighting.  I think that is part of the reason why, despite nearly an identical script, that Owen comes off as more fragile than Oskar.  Owen and Oskar are both "damaged goods" but Owen is more victim here, Oskar seems more like a killer in training.

The performances are fantastic though.  It would be unfair of me to compare the actors to each other.  I don't understand Swedish to be able to truly compare them.

I have to admit while watching this I kept thinking back to two other Scandinavian imports I have seen recently, Trollhunter and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Girl in particular since it is also due for a big American remake.

In the end both movies are great and like my friend Jason Vey says they are everything Twilight is not.  Abby/Eli does not sparkle.  Nor though is she a rabid killer.  She kills because she has too, because she has forgotten everything else.

Tally: 16 movies, 14 new.

Game stats.  Since I did Abby for Ghosts of Albion, I thought maybe Eli would work well in Witch Girls Adventures.

Witch Girls Adventures

Eli, Vampire
Rank: 3

Body: d6 Mind: d6 Senses: d6
Will: d6 Social: d6 Magic: d8

Life Points: 14 Reflex: 9
Resist Magic: 11 Zap Points: 16

Skills: Athletics +4, Basics +1, Fighting +3, Games (Puzzles) +5, Hear +2, Hiding +2, Look +1, Mundane Etiquette +3, Mysticism +1, Mythology +2, Scare +1, Streetwise +3, Urchin +4

Abilities: Devious, Tough
Heritage: Vampire
Common Vampire Abilities

October Challenge: House on Haunted Hill

Been on a Haunted House kick lately.  So I figured I'd watch this one as well.  I had seen it years ago and I was always confusing this one with other movies.  This one is the unique one of the bunch since all the "ghosts" were fake in the movie.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

What do you need to know about this film?  Well it is wonderfully campy.  It almost plays as a parody of haunted house movies.  Vincent Price is campy, creepy and suave all at the same time.  There are lines of dialogue that frankly I just can't  anyone else pulling off.  He managed to be scary and funny in the same breath.
The elements here are familiar,  people come to a haunted house to stay, if they survive they get money.  Only this time it is a "game of murder" and that game is Price's character vs his 5th wife.  They are trying to off each other and hopefully use the guests as patsies/witnesses/alabi's.

The plot doesn't really work so well, but it is grand fun in almost a Scooby Doo way.  I half expected Velma to come out and demonstrate how the walking skeleton worked with Scooby dancing with it.

Of course I have seen this one before, but given the fun with Hell House and the Haunting, I could not resist it.

Tally: 15 movies, 12 new.

October Challenge: The Haunting

You have to love a good haunted house movie and this is a good haunted house movie, maybe even the best.

Again, my big surprise is I had never seen this one before.  I did see the 1999 remake back when it was new.

The Haunting (1963)

A great, moody, creepy movie that works on many levels.  Is Nel crazy or is the house haunted? Or both?  I think both.   There is a lot to like about this movie. Here are a couple of things I noticed watching it in 2011.  Amber Tamblyn today looks a lot like her dad did in this movie.  Secondly this movie accomplishes more with less than the 1999 remake.

This movie is almost cliche by today's standards; four people, staying in a haunted house investigating hauntings.  Classic stuff really.  This movie does it without gore, without any special effects to speak off and all with tone and mood.  Honestly I think this movie needs to be required viewing of all haunted house movie directors.
Nel's character is a bit whinny at times and we hear far too many of her thoughts that could have been better relayed through dialog.  Plus I would have liked to seen more psychic power from Theo.

Though now thanks to this movie and The Legend of Hell House and the House on the Haunted Hill (coming up soon I hope, though that one I saw years ago) I think I know exactly what to do if ever I change careers and become one of those guys investigates haunted houses.

Tally: 13 movies, 11 new.

Game material: Fantastic haunted house scenario.  I love how all the doors are off-center so the close an open all the time and how there are no right angles in the entire house.  Plus the history of house can be used as well.

October Challenge: The Witch's Sabbath (2005)

When you don't expect much from a movie and get nothing you are only mildly disappointed. When you expect nothing from a movie and get comedy of this sort then that is something else.  Witch's Sabbath is that kind of movie.

The Witch's Sabbath (2005)

The premise here is simple, even one I could use in a game.  Coven of witches, pretending to be strippers to get 666 victims for their dark lord. The 666 number seems a bit large, the cops would notice at 6 really (even less) and the strip club is the smallest, dingiest hole in the wall I have ever seen. But this little flick has some charm.   The actors don't seem to take themselves very serious, which is good since the acting is terrible.  The special effects are crappy, but fun.  If you like your gore plenty and often then this is a fun little flick.  Plus the film has Ron Jeremy in it. How can that be bad?
This is not a good movie and I am not pretending it is.  But is a stupid kind of fun.

It is worth sitting through for the witches' dark lord at the end.

Tally 12 movies, 10 new.

Game wise this is a perfect set up.  Strip-club or night-club where some mysterious goings on are well, going on, it's cliche, but still a classic.

October Challenge: Flesh, TX

At some point the defacto home for strange goings on changed from dark castles and moors to the American countryside. "Good Evening" was replaced by "Where you goin' city folk?" as the phrase to send chills down your spine. That was what the creators of Flesh, TX must have thought. Too bad that is all they thought.

Flesh, TX (2009)

So what do we have here? Murder, cannibalism, incest.  It opens well with a mindless random killing, always fun in a slasher flick.
The sad thing here is that there could have been something good here. The elements are in place, but the execution was terrible.  The actors for the most part are terrible (with a notable exception), the script is not great and the audio is terrible.  The direction seems non-existent.
I guess the biggest issue is that the movie is just simply bad.

It could have been good and that is the real shame here.
I would like to see the actors in something else and see if they are actually bad or if movie was even worse than I thought it was.

I did get a chance to see Kathleen Benner in "Running on Empty Dreams" and she was much better in that.

Tally, 11 movies, 9 new.

October Challenge: House of Wax (1953)

I have always felt that in the shadow cast by Cushing and Lee one of the truly greats gets forgotten, even by me. That great is Vincent Price. For a while Price meant horror to me and to the entire world. Even when he was reduced to playing "Vincent Van Ghoul" for the most anemic of all the Scooby Doo series. But not in this masterpiece, and it was Vincent Price that introduced movie going audiences to 3D.

But don't blame him for that.

House of Wax (1953)

In what must be the spiritual decedent of the Phantom of the Opera and the demented God Father of Price's later Dr. Phibes, Prof. Harry Jarrod is a demented, twisted, scarred man with a vision.  His vision is make the best wax museum in the world even if he has to cover his victims in wax to preserve them forever.  Its a crazy vision, but a vision all the same.
House of Wax though does suffer through some silly 3D gimmicks and suffers through some 50s steroetypes, but I can ignore these or be amused.
Really we have Price here at his best, a subtle mix of his more serious tone and his hammy best.
This movie also featured a young Charles Bronson as the mute Igor.  It was also a remake of the 1933 "Mystery of the Wax Museum" and was remade in 2005.  Of that movie we will not speak of.

Like most of the classics, I saw this one years and years ago.

Tally 10 movies, 8 new.

October Challenge: Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned

And just when I thought nothing could beat yesterday's movie I found this little gem. And by gem I mean turd.

Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned (2009)

Let's say you took "The Hangover" and mixed it with "28 Days Later" and touch of "Dusk till Dawn".  You wold not get this movie, even if that's what it looks like the crew tried to do.
I can't even get into this one and I kept fast forwarding.
It was just too dumb.

Tally so far: 8 movies seen, 8 new.  Several SAN points lost.

BTW: The girl on the cover of this video is never seen in the movie.

October Challenge: Black Ribbon

Wow. That is really all have to say about this one.

Black Ribbon (2007)
I am not even sure where to start with this one.

The premise was very cool.  Writer moves out to country to work on new book.  Buys a possessed typewriter, then rape, murder and satanism ensue.
But the movie is so bad I can't even be sure that was what supposed to happen or like the book in the movie it just sort of got away from the writers.
A plot summary here is pointless really.  There is so much wasted effort here that alone should remove this movie from consideration.  No what makes this a true masterpiece of the awful is the terrible, terrible acting, terrible cinematography and just overall cheapness of everything.  It's hard to even enjoy it for camp value.
But like the proverbial train wreck I could not turn away and watched it to the end. But I will say my expectation were already really low, and it still managed not even to rise to that level.
Oh well.  Don't watch if you are easily offended by graphic nudity, implied incest, making fun of the mentally disabled, or satanism.

Tally: 7 movies, 7 new.

So what can I use here for my games?  Well easy I think.  Set up a game with a cursed object an old typewriter is a great choice.  Play in a modern system (like Unissytem) and then switch to the time when the typewriter was new (say Cthulhu by Gaslight) and have the same players play the characters that the first group is reading/writing about.  Go back and forth like this till no one knows which reality is real and which one isn't.  Course I could take a further cue from this flick and resolve it in third system at the very end.

October Challenge: Horror Hotel

Here is a movie with a creepy set, nice black & white photography, a coven of witches and Christopher Lee! The only thing I don't like about this movie is the title.

Horror Hotel / City of the Dead (1960)
Well the American title anyway.  "City of the Dead" is kind of cool.

A British film, set in America with British actors doing American accents.  Brilliant.

The movie starts with the burning of a witch back in the 17th century.  Fast forward to where Christopher Lee is a professor talking about the same burning now in the present.  BTW what do I have to do to get Christopher Lee as a professor of anything?  Anyway he send one of his students out to the town in the story for more research.  She uncovers a creepy town full of creepy people that look just like the people from the flashback.
College girls discovers all sorts of creepy things and is killed half way through the movie by the evil undead coven.  Her brother and boyfriend come to find her.  Rescue another girl and kill all the witches, Lee included, and the main witch dies when she can't complete her sacrifice to Satan.  Maybe she needed a school for girls instead.

This film is most familiar for the opening lines of Rob Zombie's "Dragula" for Christopher Lee's line "Fear, superstition and jealousy".  I didn't know that (and I should have really, there goes another hit to my street cred) and I laughed when I heard it.  I also can't help but wonder if this movie was just a little influence on his song and video "The American Witch".

In truth this film is slow, but a lot a of fun and still creepy 50 years later. The witch stuff is your typical witch = Satanist fare from that time, but it was still fun.  Christopher Lee was great and I didn't even realize the others were all British using American accents.
Patricia Jessel was great as the witch Elizabeth Selwyn and the modern version, Mrs. Newliss (Nywles; get it). If the film were redone today of course Selwyn would be portrayed as more sympathetic and Patrica Russel (the second girl and native to the town) would have her own magic from the "good" side of witchcraft.

Tally: 6 watched, 6 new

So to expand on yesterday's game idea.  The Salem School for Girls is for the best and brightest of America's young witches and it located in the town of Whitewood, MA.  While the school has had troubles in the past and the occasional rumor pops up about Satanism, that is all in the past.  Really. It is.
Guests can stay at the Raven Inn.

October Challenge: Satan's School For Girls

Two things jumped out at me right away about this movie. 1. I am surprised I have never seen this. I swear I had, but I didn't remember a bit of it and the movie I thought I was remembering as SSfG must be something else. 2. 25 year old Kate Jackson was HOT.

Satan's School for Girls (1973)

Ok despite being an Aaron Spelling made for TV movie, this was better than some of the others I have seen so far.  Martha's sister Elizabeth has killed herself and now she wants to find out why.  She enrolls under an assumed name at the same school Elizabeth had been at, the Salem School for Girls (unkown if it is the same Salem School mentioned in the Harry Potter books, but let's say yes for fun).  She is greeted by fellow students and future Charlie's Angels Cheryl Lass and Kate Jackson.  They meet the headmistress and a few of the teachers.  Ok only two.  And the creepy mystery unfolds.  Seems another girl had killed herself recently and Martha begins to look into why.  Plenty of very obvious clues are left lying around.  The art teacher and his subjective reality and the psych teacher and his rats. A few more suicides and Martha is thinking this not the best place to be.
Long story short, the art teacher is Satan and he is recruiting 8 (odd number) girls to replace the 9 he lost years ago.  The school burns down but "Satan" gets the last laugh and fades out while smoking a cigarette.
There is no obvious use of magic here.The girls could be in his thrall due to a psych experiment or any number of mundane explanations.  I kinda wish there had been more though.  Kate Jack's character, Debbie, mentions having Power (yes with a capital P) but nothing ever comes from that.

There is a remake in 2000 with Kate Jackson as the headmistress and fellow Spelling alum and TV witch Shannon Doherty, but I have not seen that one either.  At least the drop the witches down to a more respectable 5.

Not a great movie, but a good one to chill out too.

Tally 5 movies, 5 new (to my surprise)

Of course given this, the remake and fun connection to Harry Potter I HAVE to use this in my games someway.  The Salem School for Girls would be a great Witch Girls Adventures location.

October Challenge: The Rite

When it comes to religious-themed horror there really are only two movies worth talking about, "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby". Of the two the Exorcist has left the deepest scars in the American psyche. So no surprise then that every so often we get new exorcism movies. One of the latest is "The Rite".

The Rite (2011)

Anytime you see the words "based on a true story" you know you are either in for a good time or a really bad one.  This movie also stars Sir Anthony Hopkins, so we should, by the numbers have a good flick here.
Sad thing is we don't.  Oh, it is not bad but it fails to live up to all it's potential.
Hopkins is good of course, but not great.  Rutger Hauer is a tad underused as is Ciarán Hinds. I mean these are decent names. Again, names I usually associate with better fare.  Now in all fairness Marta Gastini did a great job as possessed pregnant girl Rosaria.
The Rite's biggest sin was not that it was bad, it was boring.  I didn't care about the main character at all really or his crisis of faith.
It might have been a better movie if they had focused on Hopkins' character more and running into dozens of fake possessions till we got to one that was the real deal.
The final possession could have been creepier, could have been more dramatic and could have been scarier.  This was a movie of could have beens.

Tally: 4 movies. 4 new.

So not to ignore my gaming folks, but what can The Rite bring to your games?  Well it seems odd that we have a game full of demons (we even have Pazuzu!) and yet no great rules for possession. And really no good reason why demons would want too.  I think I am going to have to fix that.

October Movie Challenge: Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla

Last night I was really busy so I popped in something I had laying around. My oldest son is a big Godzilla fan and I remember the old Godzilla movies scaring the crap out of me as a kid so I watched one.

Godzilla vs. Space Godzillia (1994)

In truth I have never seen this one before.  I had seen bits an pieces of it here and there.  My son loves to watch it when he is at home sick.  He even curls up on the couch with his stuffed Space Godzillia and we even used his Space Godzilla figure in D&D once as a huge demon.  But the movie itself?  Never watched it all the way through.

First off it was not as bad as the net would have you believe.  But it is not very good either.

I almost hesitate to call this one horror.   There are a lot of horror elements here, but in truth it is more Sci-Fi or even Fantasy.
True, two giant monsters fighting (well three and half, Mothera and Baby Godzilla. Four if you count Mecha Godzilla/MOGUERA) is scary.  But is it horror?

Plot, in a nutshell, Godzilla cells get sent into space where a new monster is formed, aka Space Godzilla.  Then what happens is the same for most G movies.  Godzilla and monster fight a few times.  New Monsters seems to be kicking Godzilla's ass.  Godzilla comes back in the end to destroy new Monster.  The only people that loose anything are the poor people of Tokyo who get to watch their city trampled again.  This throws in Mothera, a new Mecha Godzilla like robot/mecha and the ever annoying Baby Godzilla.

In the end this movie just seemed to have too much going on.  Maybe it is because it has been translated or maybe I am outside of the demographic now.

My wife wants to watch a classic monster movie now.  Something with a vampire or werewolf.  I think that is where I'll go next.

Tally so far: 3 movies, 3 New.

October Movie Challenge: The Fallen Ones

I am not doing so hot with my movies so far. I watched this one last night after trying to get some work done. I would have been better in all cased if I had just went to bed.

The Fallen Ones (2005)
Another SyFy Channel special I am sure.  This one appealed to me since it was about the Nephilim and I was working on some Fallen Angel stuff for Eldritch Witchery.  Frankly if anything in this movie makes into something I have written (other than this course) then you know I have used up every idea I ever have or will have.

This movie is terrible.  We have the evil Angel Ammon who has decide that the only way for his big dumb son (he is a giant and can't act) to survive the coming flood is to kill him and mummify him.  Solid logic there champ.  Fast forward 5000 years and he is discovered by an archaeologist and Richie Cunningham's dad (sadly this was one of his last movies ever).

What we have now is part mystery, part giant monster movie and part religious murder/slasher film.  The saddest part is there are some actual names attached to this.  Not great names by any stretch, but names I usually associate with better movies.

This movie was so bad I am sure I fell asleep a couple of times while it was on.  It certainly didn't help or hurt the plot any.