#Octoberween 2024🎃

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #3

Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams marathoned a bunch of classic Universal monster movies, zombie flicks from Romero's lineage, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, 80's teen romantic comedies and the occasional slasher movie. And they passed it all through the turbomix filter of a stereotypical Hollywood vision of the 80s decade, in a vision fattened by nostalgia out of control, to give life to this creature.

In Lisa Frankenstein we have a protagonist dealing with trauma, an imbecilic/distant father, a repellent stepmother, a step-sister who turns out to be a good egg (hey, nice way to escape from a cliché), an unrequited romantic interest and some social commentary based on the perception issues of an adolescence labeled as problematic, the ever present danger of incelous “nice guys”, some subtext about gender identity, etc. And to this cocktail we add, by supernatural serendipity of destiny, a ghoul who loves our protagonist to homicidal levels, which will lead to a progressive escalation of violence, surprising gore, severed body parts, flying penises and other stuff until culminating in this movie being a bit like the nice first cousin of Nekromantic.

Somewhat irregular in its dance of tones, true, but charming and funny, and not without some heart. I suspect this will be a future cult classic.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #16

Oh fuck. Again.

In Terrifier 2 the strengths of its predecessor are maintained. Art is more defined as a character, he's still a genuinely funny asshole when he's not doing his thing. Or worse, when he's doing his thing.

The gore is still brutal, graphic and insane. One scene in particular, if you've seen the film you'll know which one I'm talking about. A death that is prolonged in a sadistic and bloody way and that becomes a perfect example of that sick dichotomy that I already mentioned in the first movie. Because the thing keeps going on and on and on, and the sadism crosses from sadistic to outright jackassery, achieving a strange squaring of the circle that causes the whole thing to start to become grotesquely hilarious. Like a cartoon with a very screwed up sensibility, the whole thing transcends into being like an episode of Itchy and Scratchy in real life before turning around again and reminding us just how truly fucked up the whole thing is. And Art, as always, having the time of his life.

But fortunately this time it's not all gore and clowning around. In general it's noticeable that there's a little more money, although it still has that touch of hardcore B-movie slasher. But that's not what's important... We have a plot! Ok, not a great plot but at least something better set up than in the first movie. A well-defined pair of sibling protagonists, with her being a final girl with something to tie her in with the supernatural elements that the movie has started to entangle around Art. And an ending credits scene that not only ties in with the first installment but promises something much more over-the-top for the third film.

My only serious complaint is that two and a quarter hours is perhaps too long for this type of film. There are a few moments that feel padded.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #9

Pregnancy as a source of terror. Mmmmmmmm, I wonder what has happened lately in the USA so that in this same year we have had a few movies with that as a central or semi-central element. This one, the one I'll review tomorrow, and one more that may be a spoiler... and I'm sure I'm missing some others.

I wonder, really. But let's get down to business.

Immaculate is a fun romp: sinister church, messianic stuff, unintended conceptions, bastard priests playing God, themes of abuse, disturbing at times, almost Italian exploitation feels, rape & revenge nun style, shamelessness and fan-disservice, and an ending that embraces bloodthirsty grossness without complexes and shows that the shadow of Rosemary's Baby is very, very long.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #23

Hellboy: The Crooked Man is a film that suffers. It suffers from a low budget and scarce means that weigh down visual ideas that can't be realized with the impact they require. CGI critters that look like they came out of the cheapest BBC workshop, a cinematography and visual style that works but at times has a touch of a TV pilot episode... It's not as bad as other reviews say, labeling this barely as a fanfilm, but there are moments that hurt to watch (ouch, that raccoon; ouch, that abuse of blurring the image to try to give the audience a sense of dread). It also doesn't help that the story, despite being generally well adapted, stumbles a bit in its final stretch when the additions to it cause the pace to falter in a more anticlimactic resolution than it should.

And yet, even with all this, I liked it. That's the thing about going in with low expectations.

Because yes, it is cheap and it shows. But you can also tell that with the little they had here there were people with affection for the character making an effort. Hell, I liked it better than the hypertrophied and sometimes unintentionally comical attempt of 2019. And Jack Kelsy has grown on me, he turns out to be a good, watchable HB. He doesn't have the charisma and presence of Perlman's version, but a more than decent makeup job and a look a lot closer to that of the comic books helps a lot. It's certainly a much more appropriate result, in my opinion, than the overloaded makeup they buried poor David Harbour under in his version.

It's cheap and with many problems, lacking on several fronts and biting off more than it can chew with some visual concepts and moments of clumsy action. But it's also much more focused than its predecessor, with a very well-crafted iteration of the character.

I don't know, it may not be a great movie but I think maybe it's not as bad as it's made out to be.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #24

Oh, what a pleasant surprise.

A potpourri of influences, a twisted Mr. Rogers with touches of Sesame Street and Don't Hug me I'm Scared, connecting in essence with, perhaps, Candyman for the element of a supernatural monster born of tragedy, and Nightmare on Elm Street for the fixation on children as victims, although with a differentiating nuance that places the titular Mr. Crocket in the antipodes of old Fred. He shares with him, however, sadism and foul humor trolling his victims.

The great merit of the film is how it manages to have its own flavor despite all the hodgepodge of influences. It's helped by Elvis Nolasco's excellent acting, endowing our ghost/demon/entity with enough charisma and nuance to make us want to keep seeing more of him.

Well-meaning acts that lead to hell, abusive father figures, mothers overcome by stress and loss making mistakes, missing children in their own particular purgatory, monsters and practical visual effects, VHS being once again the vehicle of evil (eh, another possible referential element), magic markers and a catchy little song.

It may not be perfect and it needs to polish some things, but I liked it.

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #28

I Saw The Tv Glow is a hypnotic story of friendship (and maybe more?), identity, loss, nostalgia and resignation. All very solid themes, giving strength to a whole that is perhaps a bit too navel-gazing.

But where it really hits the mark is in the conception of horror in the story. We can't talk about jump scares here, and there aren't many spooky moments either. Oh, yes, there are some creepy situations, but at the end of the day the real horror of the film is existential. The deprivation of self definition and the indifference of the world around you. The idea that you're living in a purgatory where you can't be who you really are, literally suffocating yourself, and the increasing anguish that comes with it until one day you have to explode.

In that respect, the film is devastating and very bitter in its final stretch.

And even with all that, there is a glimmer of hope. It's never too late to affirm who you really are. Never.

There is still time.

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #27

Cuckoo has been another surprise, somewhere between pleasant and unexpected.

Sci-fi, people. Weird, cryptic and wacky sci-fi, the kind where you don't know what the fuck is going on until the pieces fit together. And they do it faster than I expected, because what a party all the way to the end. The film leaves us with a very interesting story with experiments, monster movie/creature feature elements, family drama and the reassurance that filial love can overcome everything, including the barriers between blood and species.

Wrap all that up in a well shot and well put together package that helps make up for some inocoherencies between its first and second half, a dedicated cast (creepy Dan Stevens stealing the show, again) and some genuinely spooky moments. It says a lot and well that the ramifications of a certain story element are more terrifying the more you give them thought after finishing the film. Phenomenal.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #26

I don't want to say that Longlegs disappointed me, because “disappointment” is too strong a word and because it would be a bit of a lie.

Because at the end of the day the film is fucking great on so many fronts. It's shot beautifully, acted excellently with Maika Monroe and Nicolas Cage easily stealing the show, Osgood Perkins knows how to build an atmosphere of growing dread/horror and how to place and move the camera, the whole thing is peppered with interesting elements and the film has a distinct personality and style all its own.

The problem is that, as it progresses, the film loses its mystique for me.

The mystery, at the end of the day, is... Well, it is. Oh, the M.O. of the crimes is original, devious and disturbing, and there's a big twist in the plot. But the more I think about it, the more it falls apart. That and knowing the motivations and reasons for the crimes... well, the supernatural element is unnerving, I won't deny it. But Longlegs was scarier the less we knew about him and that gets a little lost as the plot unravels.

It's as if the film becomes a victim of its own hype in the final stretch.

I still liked it, though. It's just that something tells me I'm going to have to revisit it in the future to see how it definitely settles for me.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #22

Sting is not going to revolutionize anything.

It's a textbook creature feature, harmless and bland, immensely indebted in intentions and form to many other predecessor films. It's a B-movie that relies on a fairly decent digital arachnid considering how cheap this thing has been, the occasional humorous moment (the opening credits, and holy crap, the parrot thing) and a semi-competent cast giving life to a bunch of colorful characters.

The problem is that the film limps tonally. It seems indecisive about what to be. It doesn't seem to be clear if it wants to focus on pure horror, or if it wants us to be swept up more in the family drama that they put in to try to give substance to the story, which in the end just comes off as a strange pamphlet in favor of the figure of stepfathers.

Weird.

But anyway, it's watchable. It's only about 90 minutes long, the third act works surprisingly well for how generic it all is, and there's a badass alien spider doing its thing.

It's not going to leave a lasting impression, but as I said, sometimes you feel like eating light.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #21

MaXXXine has a very important problem. It is not Pearl.

I keep it as a slasher, but with reservations. The truth is that the film plays at being many things. Crime thriller, murder mystery... even droplets of giallo are noticeable in the shapes of its narrative. None of this is bad per se, but the taste is no longer the same as in its predecessors and it can be a bit off-putting if you were expecting something different (to which the misleading marketing also contributed a little).

And the other thing, of course, is that Maxine Minx isn't a third as interesting as Pearl was, no matter how much Mia Goth continues to go all out leading this story.

A story that I wish I had liked and hooked me more, because it does not lack points of interest. Sins of the past, the shit hidden under the tinsel of Hollywood, private detectives of repugnant morals, homicidal schemes, satanic panic, ritualistic serial killings, the psychosis of televangelism, the always perennial puritanical hypocrisy, etc. The problem is that the story tries to cover too many fronts and it all unravels a bit. It never manages to be as focused as its predecessors in the trilogy, it plays with possible narrative threads that come to nothing or are misleading and the story as a whole suffers, and that is noticeable.

The final result, however, remains well afloat. It's supported by a kick-ass cast, a final act that surrenders to the carnage and an unabashed embrace of the nice message that you can fulfill your dreams, but there's going to be a lot of dead people along the way.

Ouch.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #19

Twenty years ago, in 2004, before any of us were born…

Fuck. Thank you movie for making me feel like a fossil and reminding me of the inexorable and relentless passage of time.

Killer Body Count is a textbook slasher movie that plays a bit with satire. No meta-elements here, save for one or two (somewhat clunky) bits of dialogue, nope. The thing has more to do with poking fun at and trying to turn the tables on the conservatism and puritanism inherent in the genre in its more conventional vein. Therein lies the film's strength, the queer protagonist forced to stay in a Christian “rehabilitation camp”, the fanservice and objectification clichés falling more on male characters (female gaze ahoy), the hypocrisies of fundamentalist authority figures, the emphasis on sex as something that should not be subject to homicidal punishment, etc.

The purely slasher part, very campy, is the one that kinda saves the day. Few deaths, but effective and with well-measured doses of gore, much more graphic than I initially expected (although the visual effects are not as handcrafted as I would like). The problem is that the movie goes a bit overboard. It's not that the satire element is half-baked... it's that they hammer on it too much with a lack of subtlety that ends up weighing things down.

It's a film that feels oddly stretched out but at the same time feels like it needs more time to breathe, especially with a final section of twists and revelations that seems oddly rushed and that derails the whole thing a bit.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #18

Remake this same movie but with Jason Voorhees and we had here the perfect regeneration for his saga. Too bad it will never be.

In terms of plot and characters, In A Violent Nature is like a list of clichés of the slasher genre in general and of the wanderings of our hockey-masked buddy in particular. Johnny is basically a Jason 2.0. Swap mommy issues for daddy issues. We have teen/young adult protagonists sticking their noses where they don't belong. Even a scene of narrating his backstory around the campfire. You can't be more obvious in your references.

So where is the fun in that? Well, in the design: Focusing the vast majority of the story around the idea of following the killer as he walks around looking for his target... and walks, and walks, and walks, and walks... Basically, the film shows us what happens in those dead spots of other slashers when the psychopath on duty isn't killing his victims if we're not following the antics of the rest of the cast.

And the result is a slow, meditative, contemplative film... almost melancholic at times. There is something sad in seeing Johnny advancing parsimoniously through a forest, ignoring the singing of the birds around him as his undead and rotten mind is obsessed with a single goal. And all this leisurely, almost pictorial pacing is occasionally interrupted and punctuated by outbursts of graphic homicidal violence, some of which are genuinely memorable.

I don't know, people. It worked for me. It's true that maybe it could be polished a bit better here and there, especially in that ending that gets a little heavy-handed in terms of text and subtext. Although I think I understand the point they're trying to sell us: if the monster is in his place, don't go poking him or his stuff.

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #17

Okay, I'll keep this one short...

Sweetmonkeyjesus.

Damien Leone, who hurt you?

It's just that the levels of gore in this installment are... Okay, shards of sharp glass shouldn't be used for certain things. And Art, that's no way to treat Santa Claus, although Kudos for the use of liquid nitrogen, which I don't think I've seen in this genre since Jason X. And maybe no scene will reach the level of prolonged nastiness of the bedroom scene in the previous movie, but the shower scene has the potential, and I think the rat thing is going to be with me for a long, long time.

Overall, a third installment very consistent with what was established in the second film but with everything a little more polished: brutal gore, antagonist already entering the status of established icon, heroine of great strength... It follows in the same line of what we have already seen, keeping the same strong points but correcting some little details, such as the length and pace that I found much better handled in this one. It is the most well-rounded of the three.

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #15

Oh fuck.

This is supposed to be the tamest of the trilogy. I'm screwed.

I usually cope well with gore and other such stuff, but either I'm getting more sensitive with age or this film has managed to hit a key that few others have hit.

There's a brutal combo of the most hardcore slasher and the most crude torture porn aspects in the adventures of Art the Clown shown in Terrifier. I think that sadism contributes to the harshness of some of the murders and the onscreen carnage. The fucked up thing is that fucking Art is... he's charismatic, the bastard. And he's enjoying it to the point where at times his enthusiasm is infectious. That causes a mind-blowing dissonance between the brutality of what's going on and how it makes you laugh at times, like the selfie scene. Or because your brain, perhaps in self-defense, starts to see the whole thing as a real-life episode of Happy Tree Friends. I don't know.

The character (who already suggests a future icon) and the craftsmanship when it comes to elaborate and show gore on screen are the two great assets that support a film that limps a little in its narrative. Which is a kind way of saying that it is almost non-existent. Points for subverting (in a very cruel way) the concept of the final girl, I guess.

The ending promises future treats. I hope my stomach can handle it.

[kraken17]

🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #13

Well...

I don't have much to say.

Dominion is pretty much the same movie as Exorcist: The Beginning.

It changes the tone and focus of the story, some characters and situations, but the basic skeleton is the same. If Harlin's was the “action version” this is the presumably introverted/serious one. There is more interest in doing a bit of a character study of Merrin, his trauma, his loss of faith, touching on themes of Catholic guilt and self-martyrdom, etc. The themes of culture clash, colonialism and religious confrontation were already in the other version, but in this one they are a little more incisive, the focus is more on them, trying to avoid falling into easy gimmicks and jump scares.

The problem is that the result is a dull bore that looks too much at its own navel.

I liked the way the exorcism was handled and the final resolution a little better, though. Less of an attempt to make a Regan 2.0 with exaggerated CGI in this one, it's appreciated. Even if it's just swapping her out for a demonic Mr. Clean.

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🎃Octoberween 2024🎃 #10

HOLY SHITBALLS.

FUCK.

THAT FUCKING HAND SCENE!

...

The First Omen goes unexpectedly hard.

You might think that being a very late prequel to one of the most influential horror films of the last century might work against it, but no. Nope. The film comes out ahead because of the cojonazos they put into it, for daring to play with the established lore and twist it as it best suits them. Because if you thought that having seen the original movie you would already know where all the shots would go with this one... ha, well, you don't. It turns out that the little we knew about Damien's conception in that one, as disturbing as it was, wasn't even the tip of the iceberg of how fucked up the whole thing was. Ungodly conceptions, monstrous incestuous rapes, unnaturally express pregnancies, the Catholic Church in scumbag mode (ok, this is normal)... A strong cocktail of Christian perversity.

Also, so nice to hear again the Ave Satani in its proper context.