October Horror Movie Challenge: The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

Another one that has been on my list for a bit is 2016's The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Also, because of its director, this time André Øvredal, who gave us the wonderfully fun Trollhunter (2010).  This movie is often classified with other Body Horror movies, and I see why, but it is more of a supernatural horror movie.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

The nude body of an unidentified woman is found in the basement of a grisly crime scene and Sheriff Burke (Michael McElhatton of 'Game of Thrones') wants some answers. The body is taken to the father and son medical examiners Tommy (Brian Cox) and Austin Tilden. They are to discover the cause of death by morning.

The woman, Jane Doe (played with exceptional skill by Olwen Kelly, more on her in a bit) has no outward physical signs of death. Her body is slightly cooler than room temperature, her waist is usually small for her frame, and her limbs are still pliable. On close examinations though, things begin to make less and less sense. Her wrists and ankles are fractured, her eyes are milky white, her tongue has been cut out and she is missing a tooth. Again, with no outward signs like bruising.

As they proceed, the local radio station tells us about a huge storm coming (like last night's movie!), and the power goes on an off. Austin cancels his date with his girlfriend to help his dad, and things start getting really creepy.  He thinks he can see "Jane" in mirrors but turns, and she is not there. He hears things, and his dad's cat is found dead.

Moving on to the internal exam, they find her lungs are blackened like she had been burned, her tongue had been cut out, she has lacerations on her heart, poison flowers in her stomach, writing on the inside of her skin, and tearing inside her vagina; not trauma, but tearing. Someone had tortured this woman. They also find a bit of rolled parchment with "ritual" symbols on it and her missing tooth.  Later on, they also discover that her brain is still alive.

The power goes out due to the storm, and when they get it going again, they discover the other corpses are gone, and something is inside with them.  Thinking it was one of the corpses reanimated they kill it with an axe (same as last night!) only to discover it was actually Emma, Austin's girlfriend.

We discover by piecing together the clues that the ritual symbols and Roman numerals are a reference to Leviticus 20:27, and the "1693" is a reference to the Salem Witch trials. They figure she was tortured as a witch and left undying as a means to punish witches. Now she gets people around her to suffer the same pain as she does. So Tommy, to save his son, asks Jane to take him. His wrists and ankles break, he can't talk, and is breathing smoke. Tommy tries to cut out his own tongue but Austin kills him in a mercy. Soon after, he sees his dad's corpse behind him, and he falls to death.

In the morning, the Sheriff returns to three more bodies killed in a similar way as the ones from yesterday. He wants the body of Jane, now whole again, transferred out of his county. We also learn there have been no storms at all. 

We see the medical transport taking her away and as the film ends, her toe twitches.

--

This movie shares a number of common elements with last nights The Lighthouse. Both are from directors whose previous movies I enjoyed. Both feature minimal casts where the claustrophobia of the setting is as key as any of the supernatural elements. Both deal with death. 

Both also feature minimal, performances from their female costars with no dialog. Olwen Kelly as Jane Doe spends the entire movie laid out on an autopsy table nude and never says a word. She can't even emote, but there is a sense of both vulnerability in her performance and in the end, malice. She might have had the hardest job in the whole cast. 

I am not 100% happy with the ending. The witch angle is fun (and I can do a lot with it) it doesn't explain how or why all of these things were done to her. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 11
First Time Views: 5

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Lighthouse (2019)

 This one has been on my "to-watch" list for a while now. Figure with today being "Slow Burn," this would be a great night for it. Plus Robert Eggers (who gave us the amazing "The Witch") does this sort of tale well.

The Lighthouse (2019)

Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is sent to work as a "Wickie" on a remote lighthouse on the New England coast with Thomas Wake (William Dafoe). The movie starts out moody and even a little claustrophobic in Black & White and 4:3 aspect ratio. Plus, there is no talking until we are 7 mins into the film.

It is obvious from the start that Winslow and Wake will not get along. Wake has Winslow doing all the menial tasks while he saves the prestigious task of manning the light (often completely naked) for himself.

The tension between the two builds throughout Winslow's two-week stay. It builds to head when after two weeks of abuse (and maybe some hallucinations) Winslow finally has a drink with Wake.  There is a storm coming and things get worse between the two men. Winslow keeps seeing a mermaid (Valeriia Karaman), getting attacked by seagulls, and even seeing a large tentacle in the light room.

They also continue to drink and when the alcohol runs out, and the secret stash as well, they switch to drinking turpentine and honey. The last few days become a strange mix of paranoia and hallucination. We learn that Winslow's real name is Thomas Howard and that he let his former boss the real Ephraim Winslow, die.  

The weather and their attitudes worsen. Winslow/Howard finds the head of his predecessor in the lobster trap. He reads Wake's logbook and discovers that Wake has be saying it is Winslow who is abusive and wants to not pay him for the last two weeks. They run out of food.

Eventually, it all comes to a boiling point. Wake tries to kill Winslow/Howard with an axe, but he manages to kill Wake. He goes up to the light and opens the lens only scream in horror and fall down the steps.

We end with nearly dead Winslow/Howard lying on the rocks as seagulls pick at his insides.

It was certainly a slow burn with more happening in the last few hours of the story than the first two weeks. Eggers does a great job on building tension and suspense. Plus you are never exactly sure what is going on which is also quite effective.

Glad I finally took the time to watch it.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 10
First Time Views: 4

October Horror Movie Challenge: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

 I was talking to my wife about tonight's theme, Horror Comedy, and how I wasn't quite in the mood for that. I wanted to watch Pet Sematary again before the new Paramount channel series. Talking with my wife she asked if I had ever reviewed Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, a movie she knew I loved. As it turns out, Amazon Prime has it.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

This movie is an old one. So instead of going over it detail (I mean, everyone has seen this one right?) let's talk about what it has going on.

Béla Lugosi is back as Dracula, a role he has been playing at this point for 20 years. This was one of his last major roles before his alcohol and drug addiction made getting roles more difficult. He also was very typecast at this point. I always liked him in this role and I think this is one of the first depictions of Dracula as a mad scientist. Something that would become more prevalent later on.

Lon Chaney Jr. is also back as Lawrence Talbot / The Wolf Man. This role I think really was the first time it sold me on the idea of lycanthropy as a curse. This movie was also one of the many of the Frankenstein-Dracula-Wolfman crossovers of the last four or so years. Were these the origin of the Vampires vs. Werewolves in the movies? Maybe.  This was also the last appearance of the Wolf Man in the Universal Studios movies.

Lenore Aubert plays Sandra Mornay, our mad scientist. She is the one bringing Frankenstein's monster back to left and just needs Lou Costello's brain to do it. Fairly progressive for 1948.

This movie also has a special guest at the end, Vincent Price as the voice of the Invisible Man. A nice start to his career in horror.

The movie is fun. It was one of the first "monster movies" I can remember watching with my dad.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 9
First Time Views: 3

October Horror Movie Challenge: Night Teeth (2021)

Teen Angst. Yeah, that covers a lot of Horror Movies, but nothing I was in the mood for tonight. So I checked the Teen Horror Halloween movies and found this one. Looked fun.

The voiceover in the beginning informs us that humans and vampires have had a truce for years. 

We see 

Benny (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) is a driver...well, not really, he is subbing in for his brother Jay, and he is hired to drive around two young socialites, Blaire (former Disney kid Debby Ryan) and Zoe (Lucy Fry, playing her second Vampire).  The girls have a list of parties they want to hit and the last one has to be reached before morning.

Blaire and Zoe are vampires going on a killing spree, killing people against the truce.  Beeny discovers this and soon discovers that the cops are going to be no help to him. 

We learn they are working Victor (who also grabbed Jay's girlfriend in the beginning) killing everyone in Eva (Sydney Sweeney) and Grace (Megan Fox) network. Jay is a vampire hunter who was supposed to help them, but Jay wouldn't help.

The girls go through LA killing vampire bosses, dragging Benny with them. 

Jay confronts Victor to kill him, but Victor already had his girlfriend Maria killed. 

At the last stop Zoe is shot with a crossbow so they go to Victor's.  Knowing he is about to be killed Beeny crashes the car into the house, killing Zoe with sunlight. Jay tackles Victor but not before Benny is bitten.

Benny, dying is given some blood from Blaire. At first it looks like maybe Benny isn't a vampire, but when he is later picked up by Blaire you can see his fangs.

--

So not a bad flick really. Certainly, part of the modern Vampire mythos of vampires as the rich and powerful. Other recent examples include Day Shift (2022) and go back to the Blade and Underworld movies. Sure it has been part of Vampire myths for a while, with the prime example coming from the Anne Rice books.  This newest crop also features organized and funded (though not as well as the vampires) vampire hunters.

This one wasn't very "Teen" but still a fun flick. It was great seeing Debby Ryan in something other than a Disney series (I had little kids back then). 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 8
First Time Views: 3

October Horror Movie Challenge: The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

 This one has been on my mind a lot lately, and when I saw that today's movie was Anthology (and I rechecked!) I knew I was going to pull this one out. It has been years since I have seen this.

The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

Vampires, Witches! Psycho killers, Weird waxworks! Peter Cushing! Christopher Lee! Ingrid Pitt! and Jon Pertwee? Ok. What sort of alternate universe Hammer film has all of these Hammer Horror mainstays in it?  Well...it's not a Hammer film, but rather by Amicus Productions. Or the Hammer that Americans made while in England. I am not trying to dismiss Amicus, but that is a good way to describe them.  This might be one of their best in a genre they were pretty well known for.  

This is movie is a classic for many reasons. You can see it's DNA in everything from the Horror anthology shows of the 1980s, especially one like Friday the 13th the Series to the American Horror Story season Murder House. 

There are four stories of goings-on in the house, each leading to murder and death with the framing story of a missing actor Paul Henderson, played over the top by Jon "The Third Doctor" Pertwee either when he just got the Doctor Who role or just before it.

I could go over all four stories, but you can read about them anywhere, instead, I want to talk about the movie as a whole.

First off we do not get Cushing, Lee, and Pitt in the same scenes, which is a freaking crime, really. Each one is in their own tale.  

Secondly. The movie is worth watching just for this scene alone.

Robert Bloch wrote the movie screenplay, but the individual stories came from various Pulp-era magazines like Wierd Tales and Unknown. So if these feel like, say Creepshow the Movie or Tales from the Crypt there is good reason.

A few other points. "Sweets for the Sweet" is one with Christopher Lee and features the cutest little witch this side of Wendy the Witch. Reminded me a little of the Twilight Zone episode The Most Toys. 

Watching this and knowing Pertwee was in it I thought about Peter Cushing's role as "Dr. Who" and thought we really, really needed a movie with his Doctor and Christopher Lee as the Master. Typecasting? Maybe, but I would have loved it.

I am pretty sure I have seen this house in other movies.

Pertwee commented on Dracula and how he like Lugosi but not "the new guy" who of course was Lee.

The owner of the house was "A.J. Stoker" something that even Pertwee's character remarks on.

This was a fun flick. Not a scary one, but a foundational one for any horror buff.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 2

October Horror Movie Challenge: Drácula (1931)

Ok. So LAST night was supposed to be Foreign Language and tonight was supposed to be Twist. I got them reversed.

It works out because when I was planning on watching Spanish language movies, there was one that I knew I HAD to watch. The 1931 Universal Studios Spanish language Drácula.

Drácula (1931)

I watched this one all the way back in 2010. I wanted to rewatch it this time just listening to the Spanish. I have to admit, I was very, very pleased.

First, it flows better. Reading the English captions caused me to miss so much the first time.

Secondly, I am pleased with how my Spanish is progressing. 

Here is part of my original take on the movie, if anything, it is even more true now.

The differences are subtle but still noticeable.

This production for example seemed to learn from the mistakes of the previous day's shooting.  Also, because the censors didn't care about the Spanish version, they got away with more sex appeal.  For example, the dresses revealed more cleavage, and Lupita Tovar's performance as Eva (Mina) in general. There is a great documentary feature on the DVD with Tovar where she talks about how she liked her costumes more than the "conservative" American ones.

I am glad I finally got to see it. Carlos Villarias will never really get mentioned in the same breath as Bela Lugosi, save as a comparison, and his acting was not great.  But there is something about the roll that he also made his own; despite what looks and sounds like a Bela Lugosi impression. In Spanish.

I give Villarias some more credit now that I could actually understand what he was saying. But the set was just amazing.

Now I want a Dracula/Zorro crossover set in 1836 where Dracula decides to first go to Alta California before his trip to Victorian England.  "El Conde Drácula contra el Zorro!"

ETA: I guess this was a comic in the 1990s! Though this time Dracula and Zorro meet each other halfway in Spain. Makes sense to me.

Have to remember that tomorrow night is Anthology.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 2

October Horror Movie Challenge: Carnival of Souls (1962)

 Carnival of Souls from 1962 was always "that one movie" for me. That one I had heard so much about. That one I had always wanted to see. I finally got around to it sometime after 2000 when  The Criterion Collection released their 2-DVD set of it. I have to say that it lived up to all the hype for me. Rewatching it again 20+ years after that, it still holds up.

It is also a perfect move for tonight's "What a Twist" theme.

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Mary (Candace Hilligoss, who is haunting in this) is in a street race with her two friends against two other guys. The guys, in an attempt to win, nudge the girl's car and they fly off a bridge into a muddy river somewhere in Kansas.  Hours later Mary walks out of the river with no memory on how she survived.

We followed up with Mary as she moved to Salt Lake City to get a job as an organist in a church. She has some minor, rather mundane adventures, except she keeps seeing this ghoulish-looking man everywhere she goes. Mary thinks she is going crazy and no one else can see the man. She is also oddly interested in a run-down old building that used to house a carnival, a building she has been told never to enter.

Finally, she can't help herself and she goes to the building where she sees not just the Ghoulish man and other ghouls, but a ghoulish version of herself dancing with the man. She runs off and is chased by the ghouls.

What a Twist: The last scenes are back in Kansas where the car is finally pulled up from the river. Inside are all three girls, including Mary, dead.

The movie is slow, but it is a slow burn creeping horror. Sure there is plenty of evidence that Mary is dead from the start, but much like "Sixth Sense" you don't notice it until the end. Indeed this movie is the spiritual ancestor of The Sixth Sense.

The vibe of this movie is also just really creepy. Everything seems slightly off and nothing looks or feels exactly right. There is a solid Twilight Zone feel to it. The fact that it is in Black & White only enhances this feeling. 

Worth noting is the haunting organ soundtrack throughout the whole movie. It adds to this feeling.

This movie is a classic for good reason. It might not be the scariest movie I have seen, but it is a very satisfying one.  

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 5
First Time Views: 2

October Horror Movie Challenge: Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Tonight is an "Attack of Opportunity" Pluto now has a Godzilla channel and I love it.  I have seen this one many times, but since tonight is "Mother Nature Strikes Back" I thought it would be a great choice.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster this movie is what you get when the writers of Godzilla start to worry about pollution. Now Godzilla has always been social commentary, but this one seems a bet heavy-handed, and the monster...well Hedorah is just silly.  Still, I had good memories of this one as a kid and the battles for the most part hold up.

The teens in this one seem like some nihilist hippies. Thinking the world will end due to pollution (we will burn ourselves up first!) and deciding to have one last party on Mt. Fuji. Plus we get a rare spotting of Godzilla's ability to telepathically communicate with children. 

No, it is not good, even by cheesy late 1960s, early 1970s Toho standards. But it is still fun.

I still can't get that "Save the Earth" song out of my head from the English dubbed version. I watched the subbed version and it has the equally ear-wormy original version, "Return the Sun."

Mother Nature Strikes Back: All of the Godzilla movies are this at some level.  After all The Blue Öyster Cult sang "History shows again and again, How nature points out the folly of men." in their song "Godzilla." This movie turns that message up. Hedorah is like a polluted titan rising up to attack those who harmed its mother Gaia. Honestly, when reading over the list of themes this is the movie I thought of for today. So this works out well.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 4
First Time Views: 2

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Golem (1920, 2020)

It is not very often you can find two related movies that are 100 years apart. However, this is something that will become more and more common.  Today's Re-animated movies are the classic The Golem (Der Golem) and 2020's The Golem.

Both movie deal with the old Jewish legend of the Golem as a being made of clay and imbued with the word of Life/God to become a protector to the people. But if the Golem is kept around too long it also brings destruction to all those around it. 

The Golem: How He Came into the World (German: Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam) (1920)

This movie is a classic in every sense of the word. It is slow, black & white and silent, but worth watching. You can easily see some of the design choices that would later go into the Frankenstein movies from Universal Studios. 

In this one, the golem is created to protect the Jewish people of Prague. A warning is given that if the Golem is still animated when the planets enter the house of Uranus the evil spirit of Astaroth will take it over. 

There is a bit where the Rabbi who animated the Golem uses it to impress the Emperor and save all his people when his place collapses. As expected the Golem turns to evil and begins killing people. Well, he kills a knight of the Emperor who has been sleeping with a girl (Miriam) who the Rabbi's apprentice wants. In the end the Golem is "shut down" by a girl who removes the scroll from his chest (not mouth as in the legends).

The Golem (2018, 2020)

This is an English-language Israeli movie set during the Black Death. We see Hannah visiting a healer where we learn it was 7 years ago when her child had died. She sneaks off to listen to the Rabbi preach about the Kaballah (forbidden at the time). Her husband knows, but while not exactly understanding he is supportive. During her sister's wedding men from a nearby village bring in a plague-stricken girl. They blame the Jewish people and their sorceries for the plague. 

Hannah decides to use the book her husband smuggled for her to create a Golem to protect the village from these men.  We are given scenes where the Golem, in the form of her dead son, just beat the living shit out of these men; especially a group that attack Hannah alone and try to hang her.

In this we get the same story where the Golem protects, but after a bit it begins to turn on everyone. Int this case it seems to be connected to Hannah, who can feel it when the Golem-boy gets shot and sends it (unconsciously) to kill the woman she thinks her husband it having an affair with. 

The men leave when the daughter of their leader gets better, but come back to burn the village down after his daughter dies. The Golem wipes them all out and Hannah asks the golem to stop so she can remove the scroll from it's mouth. 

It is a good flick but only horror in the broad sense of the word. Hani Furstenberg as Hannah was rather great, to be honest, and the movie rides on her performances.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2023
Viewed: 3
First Time Views: 2

End of an Era: Heavy Metal Magazine

Recently I read on fred's HM fan blog that Heavy Metal magazine is no more.

I have often said that Heavy Metal (the music, the magazine, and the movie) was/were as much of an influence on my early 80s gaming style as were the likes of Dragon magazine, White Dwarf, and really, far more than most of the Appendix N books.

The news comes to us via Bleeding Cool and Multiversity Comics.

While I have not read HM in a long time, it was part of my D&D experience as much as anything. I even rank Taarna among the celebrated heroes of fantasy, right along with Conan, Elric, Frodo, Fafhrd, and the Gray Mouser.

This is not an age that is kind to the printed word, less kind even to the printed word on paper. I don't hold out any hope that HM will return in a new form any more than I hope that Dragon will.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Documentary Night

I do like to have at least one night of documentaries.

Understanding the Witch Trials (2018)

This was a good one. I found it on Kanopy and it is part of the Great Courses series. Not a lot of new data here but it was all very well represented. I will need to find the rest of this series.  

Aside: Kanopy is a great service. All you need is a public library or University library card to get access. 

War on Witches (2011)

Fairly obscure one. I only found it on Tubi. It covers England and Scotland's witch trials, arguably some of the most famous. It's fluffy and not a lot new material. 

Witches: Masters of Time and Space (2021)

Ok, this one does cover material I have seen before but it also covers stories and histories from other parts of the world that I have seen only a few times before. So quite good really.

The Witches of Hollywood (2020)

This one covers how witches are depicted in Hollywood (and before). It features commentary from Peg Aloi, Heather Green, Pam Grossman, Kristen J. Sollée, and Dianca London. I am familiar with most of them.

It covers a lot of history very quickly to focus on Hollywood. They start with Snow White and Wizard of Oz and moves on to The Witch.  We get some history on why Margaret Hamilton has green skin.  There are some interesting thoughts on the ruby slippers but totally ignores the fact they are silver in the book and red because that shows up better in Technicolor. Other movies covered are Carrie, Rosemary's Baby, I Married a Witch, and more. 

They cover television as well including one of my favorites, "Bewitched" and "Charmed." 

There is a lot of great commentaries also on witches vs. the Patriarchy which is great, to be honest. This documentary reminds me how much I like Peg Aloi's and Pam Grossman's work.  

I have a few more on my list but I am running out of juice here. So I am calling it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 48
First Time Views: 37

October Horror Movie Challenge: Witches of Blackwood (2020)

Is anyone up for Australian Witches? Sure, let's give it a go!

Witches of Blackwood (2020)

Originally released as The Unlit in Australia.  

Claire Nash (played by Cassandra Magrath) is having trouble. We know right away she is on leave for the police force and it has something to do with Luke and her fellow officers think she had something to do with it. Either way, she is depressed and feels guilty.

While she is under investigation she hears from her uncle that her father has died and she should return home to clear up his affairs. Leaving her boyfriend at home she drives to the idyllic town of Blackwood.  She begins to notice right away that the town seems empty. All she finds are listless, hollow-eyed women. No men. No children.

After talking to her uncle she goes to the local police station, but no one is there. She goes to the local bar and sees that there are only women there.  Walking out she meets up with an old high school friend who seems in a daze while pushing a baby stroller. They talk, but Claire notices that there is only a stick in the stroller. Her friend tells her that "She" took her son, but the trade was worth it.  There is a subtle hint that the "She" might be Claire's long-dead mother.

We get flashbacks to Claire's childhood. Her mother was likely a little crazy (something later confirmed by her uncle) and there were Pagan overtones to her upbringing.  She also has flashbacks to the time when she found Luke getting ready to kill himself.

Claire begins to see things in the woods, thinking it is her mother. There is some sort of meeting of all the women in town that she feels drawn too where the only cop left in town is sacrificed.

Her pasts and present all get mixed up. She ends up talking to her mother's ghost who appears all evil. Then to the ghost of Luke who is happy she "killed" him.   Though we see the scene where he does kill himself in flashbacks, it looks almost like Claire has him talked down and he is going to go back then a force possesses Clair making her look and sound all evil and demonic. She then convinces Luke that he should die and he has been asking for it for a while.

It is all rather slow going until the last 20 minutes when it really turns up the horrors. Claire's mom is alive, but has been hiding out. There is some sort of malevolent force and the only way to stop is for Claire's mom, the witch with the force in her, to kill herself by burning. This will stop it from going into Claire. 

We end six (or so) years later. Claire has a new daughter (no husband in sight) and it looks like she is free of the force, but we are not 100% sure her daughter is.

So not a bad movie really. A bit of folk horror and a southern (WAY southern) gothic feel to it all. 

It's not a scare-fest, but certainly a slow burn. So slow though that I almost gave up on it a couple of times, but it did pay off in the end. 

This is another pick from my list of "movies with a pentagram on the cover" though I will admit the original poster is much cooler.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 28
First Time Views: 21

October Horror Movie Challenge: Return to the Witchouse

I already covered Witchouse* and it was...well not great. I went into Witchouse 2 with low expectations.  Did it live down to them? What about the hard-to-find Witchouse 3? 

Witchouse 2: Blood Coven (2000)

So this one has a couple of things working for it. Ariauna Albright is back as Lilith, this time in the flesh, not just a voice. Horror mainstay (and frequent Trek actor) Andrew Prine stars as both Sheriff Jake Harmon and Angus Westmore (it makes sense in the movie) and is easily the best actor in this lot. Yet I never felt like he was "Slumming it" he gave this one the same level of professionalism I see in all his movies.

The plot is simple. A university professor and her grad students are sent to this old house where bodies are discovered. The city wants to tear down the old house to make way for a new shopping mall and the city can't wait. So when the bodies are found and deemed to be too old for a cold case they bring in the archeologist and her students. 

Right away you can see the effect The Blair Witch Files had on this movie with all of the "first person video" shots. It is not effective here.

The bodies are dug up and soon the professor is processed by the ghost of Lilith and so are her students with the ghosts of her coven. Only the willing sacrifice of an innocent can stop Lilith, but Andrew Prine goes along as well after being wounded.

Good bits: For an RPG guy and former grad student like me the good bits are showing all the different avenues of research the students go though to get all their data information. 

Bad bits: most of the acting is not great. The "interviews" with the locals (while likely fun to make) was dull and rather pointless. 

*I noticed I had watched Witchouse (1999) back in 2015 and completely forgot it. Since I counted it this year as an "FTV" I am going to count this one as a rewatch, even though it is new to me to balance my tally.

Witchouse 3: Demon Fire

Annie (Tanya Dempsey) is in an abusive relationship with Burke (Paul Darrigo). Three minutes in and I already want the guy dead. She goes to see her friends Stevie (Debbie Rochon) and Rose (Tina Krause) and stays at their place. Stevie and Rose are filming a witchcraft ritual when she comes in. They tell her she can stay with them as long as she likes.  

Stevie has a grant to film a witchcraft documentary. Which they have to discuss in the hot tub of course. After a night of drinking Stevie convinces them to try one of the rituals she found curiously enough in an antique store in Covington County, MA, the location of the other movies. 

They start the ritual and summon Lilith LeFey. But it turns out the book was something that Stevie got at gag shop and all the pages are blank. She made up the ritual on the fly. 

The next day they all wake up hung-over, except for Stevie who is excited about filming some wiccan at a festival. Soon they all begin to see things in the house. It is Lilith, this time played by horror icon Brinke Stevens.

Annie and Rose are all freaked out about the video. Stevie tells them they are overreacting. Soon even Stevie is seeing things. Soon Lilith is talking to both Stevie and Rose, but doesn't let them see her.

Stevie runs into Burke and he tells her Stevie is crazy. He never hit her and she was the one writing "Witches Burn" on her mirror. We later see Burke in a car watching the house and someone, presumably Lilith, films him while his car fills with exhaust fumes. Coming home Rose and Annie see a "Play Me" sign on the TV and watch it.

Rose and Annie run out, but Rose goes back into the house and is attacked by an unseen assailant. Annie returns to the house to see Stevie crying over Rose's bloody body.  

There is a video of Rose getting killed. Stevie and Annie watch it and it revealed that Annie was the killer all along (shocked I know), BUT she actually WAS possessed by Lilith.  Turns out Annie wanted revenge because Rose and Stevie both slept with Burke. 

Angry at the death of Rose, Stevie does the most un-horror movie thing I have seen in a while. She beats the living shit out of Annie.  Lilith is impressed and offers her a deal.

Not sure what happened but Stevie is no long worried about getting caught for Burke and Rose (assuming she is leaving Annie to take the fall) and now she is in league with Lilith.

Ok. The acting is not great here, but it is better and this is a much better movie. Debbie Rochon had some good moments. While it was no shock that the killer was Annie, the procession by Lilith was a good switch-up.

For use in NIGHT SHIFT and War of the Witch Queens

Now, more than ever I need to work on an adventure where one of the evil witches from the War of the Witch Queens comes back to plague the characters of NIGHT SHIFT.

Just gotta figure out who and how.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 27
First Time Views: 20

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022

Today is the last day of September and that means tomorrow is the first day of Halloween, er...October.

And you know what that means here! Yes, the start of the October Horror Movie Challenge!

I have been doing the October Horror Movie Challenge for years now.  I am not doing anything wildly different than in previous years, and I am largely following the rules as set out by Krell Laboratories.

You have 31 days, October 1st to October 31st, to watch 31 Horror movies. At least 20 of these need to be first-time views.  

I am largely going themeless this year. I have a few I want to hit, a few brand new ones, and a few leftovers from last year.  If I have a theme so far it is "movies that have a pentagram on the cover."

I have learned over the years that if there is a movie you want to watch and it is on a streaming service you need to watch it right away.   So yeah, I have a lot of "witch" movies. 

Again I am hoping to have content for NIGHT SHIFT, my Monstrous Mondays, and more. 

If you want to join me here is a banner image to use.

Let the Spooky Season begin!

#AtoZChallenge2022: J is for JFK

The A to Z of Conspiracy Theories: J is for JFK

Can't talk about conspiracy theories and not talk about JFK.

Though I am not talking about the 35th President, but rather the 1991 Oliver Stone movie.  Anyone that has even a passing interest in conspiracy theories needs to check this movie out.  It is a master class on conspiracies, but not in the way Oliver Stone wanted it to be.

The premise of the movie (and the conspiracy theories) was that Kennedy was killed by multiple gunmen. 

Kevin Costner gives a fantastic performance as Jim Garrison the District Attorney obsessed with finding multiple killers.  The film and most of the conspiracy theories fail on two main points.   1. A great man like Kennedy could not have been killed by a nobody like Lee Harvey Oswald.  2. The importance of "back and to the left."  Kennedy was shot from behind but his head snapped "back and to the left" this was taken as "proof" of a shooter in front, say from the Grassy Knoll.  

The problems with these ideas are pretty simple to point out.  1. Great men are killed by nobodies all the time, flying in the face of the Great Man Theory.  2. Ballistics testing, even from people like Penn & Teller, shows that shots with this type of rifle (an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle) do exactly this. Even an untrained marksman like Teller (who does have experience with stage guns) can fire off as many shots as Oswald did.

Many conspiracy theories fall apart once some real testing is done.

For NIGHT SHIFT

I honestly would recommend watching JFK over such movies as "Angels & Demons" or "Da Vinci Code."  The reason is that there is the underlying assumption that everything portrayed could have happened that way AND you can see how it could have happened that way.   Obviously, the realization of the underlying fallacies pulls the rug from under the whole thing.

Otherwise, it is a great step-by-step process on how to create a conspiracy theory investigation.  Oliver Stone may be obsessed, but he knows how to tell a good tale. Plus Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant in this. If you set your game in the "Paranoid 90s" then this is a must-see.

There is an old joke about time travel and Kennedy's assassination that there were so many time travelers on the Grassy Knoll when Kennedy was killed that there was no room for another gunman.  This got me thinking about a potential time travel story with Kennedy.  The Umbrella Academy did it. Quantum Leap did it. I think there was even a Star Trek episode planned, but never filmed that wanted to do it.   Just not 100% sure I would want to do it.

The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Unnamable (1988)

I started watching 1988's The Unnamable tonight thinking for sure I had seen it.  Started it, couldn't remember it, then realized I had seen it.

The Unnamable (1988)

So there must be an unwritten rule that all modern adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft must take place in or around Miskatonic University and/or Arkham. After all, it makes good sense and if I were a filmmaker it is what I would do as well.  Of course, it doesn't mean you always have to do it.

Case in point there is almost more about M.U. here than there is about the titular monster/character here.  We get glimpses into the undergraduate life, the student body (and bodies), even people majoring in things other than medicine and the dark arts.  But all of this is just fluff for the main story.  Again a common problem, how to make a full-length movie out of a short story.

This one features Lovecraft's reoccurring protagonist Randolph Carter (this time played by Mark Kinsey Stephenson).

It is typical late 80s fare. Lots of gore. Lots of implied sexual antics.  

In this second viewing (or third, who knows) I can help but think Randolph Carter here is kind of a jerk. By the time he comes around to helping anyone half the cast is dead. Yeah, it's a horror flick people are going to die, but his laissez-faire attitude borders on sociopathic negligence rather than a cool distance.

I wanted to also watch The Unnamable II but I can't find it anywhere.  This is also a problem I am having with other Lovecraft-based flicks.

October 2021
Viewed: 11
First Time Views: 4.5

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Thing on the Doorstep (2014)

Ok. I can already tell that a Lovecraft film-fest is going to be rough.  Lovecraft's writings rarely translate well to the screen, this one is no exception.

The Thing on the Doorstep (2014)

This one looks like it was a student film, except everyone looks too old to be a student. 

The story sort of follows the Lovecraft short story, updated to modern times.

The cast is all unknowns. For most of them, this is their only film credit.  

The filming has an odd sepia tone to it that I thought was more than a little annoying. It certainly gave it a solid straight-to-video vibe about it. 

Again this video commits the worst sin a horror movie can; it was boring. I made it halfway through and ended up fast-forwarding to the end.  I am sure I missed nothing.   But given that I can only give myself half a point.  

October 2021
Viewed: 10
First Time Views: 4.5

October Horror Movie Challenge: From Beyond (1986) & Banshee Chapter (2013)

From Beyond (1986) might have been the very first Lovecraft-based movie I ever saw.  I remember having the poster of it hanging in my room until I went off to college and then my brother had it in his room.  I was pleased to also find a new movie based on the same Lovecraft short story and this film.

From Beyond (1986)

I have been re-watching Star Trek: Enterprise, so I have been getting a fairly constant dose of Jeffrey Combs, but he looks so damn young here.  Incidentally, the doors in the psych ward make the same noise as the doors on classic Trek. 

This movie reunites Combs with Barbara Crampton, director Stuart Gordon, and producer Brian Yuzna.  Gordon wanted a core set of actors he could work with to do a bunch of Lovecraft's stories.  It's didn't quite turn out that way, which is too bad really.  Crampton and Combs have great on-screen chemistry; especially considering they have no scenes where they are "romantically" linked.  This is also the best of the batch of the Lovecraft movies.  Having Barbara Crampton as Dr. Katherine McMichaels, a strong woman as a Lovecraft protagonist is fantastic.   Combs does a great job as Tillinghast and you never once think of him as West from Re-Animator.  Ted Sorel was also fantastic as the mad Dr. Edward Pretorius. 

The movie holds up really well. The only things that seem "dated" in it are the hairstyles and technology.   Even many of the special effects are still great. 

I think I would have rather had a sequel to this one more so than Re-Animator.

Banshee Chapter (2013)

I sort of got the sequel in Banshee Chapter.  This one combines the Lovecraft tale with the CIA's MK-ULTRA program. It features Katia Winter (who I adored in Sleepy Hollow), Ted Levine (from Silence of the Lambs and more recently The Alienist), and Michael McMillian (formerly of True Blood).

This features some "found footage" material, used to great effect in Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity and I think it works well here too.    In this movie, the dimensional shifting abilities are from a chemical created by the CIA, and some short-wave radio broadcasts over Number Stations.  I will tell you this, if you don't like jump scares, avoid this movie.  

The mixing of Lovecraft's base story, secret CIA programs, weapons-grade hallucinogens, and creepy urban legends makes for an attractive mix.

Katia Winter plays Anne Roland, a journalist searching for her missing friend James Hirsch (McMillian) who filmed himself taking some of MK-ULTRA's super-LSD (DMT-19) and has now disappeared.   She investigates the mystery and stumbles upon a recording of her friend picked up by a short-wave radio hobbyist who also happened to have worked for the NSA.

Ted Levin brilliantly plays Thomas Blackburn, a Hunter S. Thompson-like character.   This is getting better all the time.

Anne views some CIA footage on the effects of the drugs. She watches one of the patients/test subjects get attacked by some creature in the dark.  She also learns that DMT-19 is extracted directly from dead human pineal glands. 

Anne finally gets in contact with Blackburn and they do some DMT-19 created by Blackburn's friend Callie (Jenny Gabrielle).  Callie, who took some DMT-19 earlier, begins to show the same behavior that James did on the tape.  They see creatures that they normally could not see.  Much like how the Resonator does in From Beyond.  At one point we see Callie, all white-skinned and black eyes, vomiting up a ton of blood. It's a lot of fun.  

Monique Candelaria also appears as "Patient 14," one of the CIA test subjects.  She would later make another contribution to Lovecraft media in "Lovecraft Country."

Maybe it is my ears, but I found it helpful to have the Closed Captions turned on.

We learn after some scares and a run in with Callie that Blackburn never gave Anne the drug. Though she can hear and see the creatures.  We also find out the drug can be transmitted via touch and Blackburn was a subject of the CIA experiments when he was a teen.

Pretty good flick, but it sort of fell apart at the end.  I read the director ran out of time for filming and you can kind of tell.  But still, it was fun.  They even name drop Lovecraft in it.

October 2021
Viewed: 9
First Time Views: 4

October Horror Movie Challenge: Re-Animator (1985, 1991, 2003)

I can't do a Lovecraft film fest and NOT do the Re-Animator series.  Yeah, it is so loosely based on Lovecraft's Herbert West, but it left a long shadow, for good or ill, on all future Lovecraft film adaptions.

Re-Animator (1985)

The first thing I notice about this is how freaking young Jeffery Combs is.  Secondly how much gratuitous nudity there is in this.  Third, re-animated humans are SUPER STRONG!

The scene where they reanimated Rufus the cat has stuck with me for years. Pretty much everyone in this is a little forgettable, save for Jeffery Combs as Herbert West and David Gale as Dr. Carl Hill.  Yes, Barbara Crampton is in it as Meg doing what she does best, screaming and getting naked. 

The version I just watched on the Midnight Pulp did not have the infamous "head giving head" scene, nor did it have the scene where West is injecting some of the reagent into himself like heroin. That might be in the sequel.  Which is for later tonight.  Though this one ends fairly definitively with West, Hill and Meg all dying in the end.  Yeah...I know the title of the movie here.

I have seen this movie, I don't know now, maybe three dozen times.  Never fails to amuse and entertain.  Though it has been a few years since I last saw it and I am surprised which parts seemed to new to me.

I might need to get one of the newer Blu-Ray releases of it.  Though that could just be my tired brain talking.

Bride of Re-Animator (1991)

Taking place after what is being called the Miskatonic Medical School Massacre, Herbert West and Dan Cain are still working on perfecting the re-animation process.   

This movie, along with the first, completes the Lovecraft short story, more or less. 

This one is also less campy than the first, which is interesting since the camp was one of the main features of the first one.  Although West seems a little more unhinged in this movie.  Almost out of character really. 

There is also far less gratuitous nudity and blood in this one. Of it's there, just not the same as the thirst movie.  I am getting the feeling the director and writers were trying to make a more serious horror movie.  The scenes where the "Bride" is reanimated are very reminiscent of the Bride of Frankenstein with Else Lancaster. The lightning and the rain in the scene helps that feeling. 

David Gale is back as Dr. Carl Hill, a fantastic bad guy to have really.  This also marks one of his last roles before dying due to complications from open-heart surgery.  Hill as a bat-winged flying head is really one of the joys of the film.  

The ending though is pretty campy and crazy.

Beyond Re-Animator (2003)

Oh, I am going to be dragging in the morning.  I knew of this movie but did not recall it until I went looking for Bride of Re-Animator on my streaming services.  I found it and figured, let's make a night of it! Plus I need a new watch for this challenge.

This one is different from the other two even if it is supposed to be a direct sequel.  We begin with the last night of the last movie. Young Howard Philips (hehe) is camping out in a tent with a friend when they hear someone go into their house.  They investigate only to find his older sister, but they are quickly attacked by a zombie that kills his sister Emily.  Wandering out of his house he sees the police take Herbert West into custody. West drops one of his re-agents and Howard picks it up.

It's13 years after those events and Herbert West is in prison experimenting on rats. Dr. Howard Philips has joined the prison hospital as the new doctor.  

The movie was made in Spain and sadly has a less than polished feel about it.  I was not surprised to hear it was direct to SciFi production, though I guess it was in some theatres overseas.  The presentation is SD, not HD.

They try for a "Silence of the Lambs" feel to the prison, Arkham State Prison.

Elsa Pataky, aka Liam Hemsworth's wife, appears as Laura Olney a journalist who starts an affair with Dr. Philips.

Philips and West set up a lab space in secret to continue their experiments.  Meanwhile, Laura keeps investigating West's background. The use of the original music for the research/investigation scenes is a nice touch.

West has discovered that the reagent is only half the solution, there is also this "Nano-Plasmic Energy" that jump starts all the cells.  They try it on a pet rat and it comes back to life and 100% fine...well almost.

Laura goes to interview the prisoner that West revived, but is discovered by the Warden. Who promptly gets his ear ripped off. Laura refuses the advances of the Warden and he kills her too.  They bring Laura back to life and use the Warden's NPE to make her normal, but it has some weird side-effects, like making her homicidal.   West also brings back the Warden, but he manages to escape and steal the reagent.  He starts killing prisoners and guards to bring them back to experience death over and over.

A prison riot breaks out and prisoners and the reanimated are all locked in together. 

SWAT teams rush in to stop the rioters. We also learn what happens when a living person injects the pure reagent.  Spoiler, it's messy.

This one ends with Herbert West walking out of the prison into the night.

It wasn't great, but it was fun.

October 2021
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 3