#salem horror fest

[greensparty]

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To in April

Welcome to the 2nd quarter of 2024! In addition to April Fools Day (April 1), Eid al-Fitr (April 9-10), Patriots Day / Marathon Monday (April 15 in MA), Tax Day (April 15), Earth Day (April 22), Passover (April 22-30), Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (April 24) and there's also a solar eclipse on April 8, here is what's on my radar this month:

Movies:

Coup de Chance

Not sure if I'm "looking forward to this", but I'm curious about Woody Allen's new one as he has hinted this would be his last. Whatever your opinion is of Woody Allen, as a filmmaker he has made some solid films. Opens 4/5.

Civil War 

Alex Garland has had a mixed bag as a writer/director with Ex Machina being his best so far. His new one has been creating quite a buzz about a dystopian not-so-far future where journalists try to make it to D.C. before rebels descend on the White House. No coincidence this is being released during an election year. Opens 4/12 (review to come).

Challengers

What got my attention about this tennis drama wasn't star Zendaya, director Luca Guadagnino or the score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It's the fact that it was filmed in Massachusetts and more specifically it filmed a little in Bedford, where I grew up. Opens 4/26 (review to come).

Music:

Pearl Jam Dark Matter

Pearl Jam's 12th studio album is finally year. The band's last album was 2020's Gigaton, which I noted was their best album since their 2006 self-titled album. I'm digging what I've heard so far and hopes are high for this one! Album drops 4/19. (Review to come).

Bruce Springsteen Best of Bruce Springsteen

The Boss has released a number of compilations over the years, his 1995 Greatest Hits being among my favorites. Now there's a new compilation with 18 hits ranging from 1973 to 2020. Album drops 4/19 (review to come).

St. Vincent All Born Screaming

St. Vincent is back with her 7th studio album. This one features appearances by numerous guests including Dave Grohl and Josh Freese of Foo Fighters. Album drops 4/26.

TV:

Curb Your Enthusiasm finale

I've been enjoying Season 12 of Larry David's social assassin. This is the final season (or so they say) and the season/series finale is set to air on HBO on 4/7. End of an era!

Conan O'Brien Must Go

I'm a huge fan of Conan O'Brien, going back to Late Night with Conan O'Brien (read my memories of attending his show here) and since then he's bounced back from the Tonight Show debacle with a great run on TBS and his fun podcast. Now he's back with a travel show meeting fans all over the world! Series premiere on 4/18 on Max!

Fake Holidays:

Record Store Day

The day we celebrate independently owned and operated record stores is one of my favorite holidays of the year! It's on 4/20 this year!

Independent Bookstore Day

Not to be outdone, independent bookstores get their day of celebration on 4/27.

Film Festivals:

Salem Horror Fest

I have been lucky enough to cover this genre film festival in Salem, MA since 2018. This year they are hitting some venues beyond Salem as well. Fest runs from 4/25 to 5/5!

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Salem Horror Fest 2024 Week 1, Day 4: Welcome Week: A College Horror Anthology (2024)

The last day of the Salem Horror Fest's first weekend had two movies. The second one is one that I really want to talk about... but I can't, because not only was it a secret screening, they also told us not to tell anyone that it was shown at the festival because they didn't want to put a potential distribution deal into jeopardy. This unfortunately leaves me with the first movie I saw that day...

Welcome Week: A College Horror Anthology (2024)

Not rated

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/05/salem-horror-fest-2024-week-1-day-4.html>

Score: 2 out of 5

It's kind of a shame that the first weekend of the Salem Horror Fest ended with this, because I was not impressed in the slightest. As the title suggests, it's an anthology horror film in which every segment is set in college during the first week there, and there were a few cool ideas buried here. The problem is, not only were the production values extremely low-budget aside from the gore, but only two of the segments worked at all, there was a bad case of whiplash when it came to the general tone of the different segments, and the wraparound ultimately brought the entire thing crashing down. It wasn't completely irredeemable, but this is not a movie I can readily recommend on any level.

The basic premise concerns a student named Andrew Cross whose four older siblings all died in their first week at college. His paranoid mother, believing the family to be cursed, tried to stop him from going to college at all, and only relented after he went to a "military boot camp" first. Sure enough, in his first week at school the campus is stalked by a woman in a mask and a trench coat killing people. As he and his roommate hide from both the killer and campus security after a misunderstanding sees him accused of being the killer, he recounts to his roommate the stories of what happened to all his siblings.

The film got off on the wrong foot the moment it showed me a clearly fake plastic knife, the kind of thing you'd buy at Spirit Halloween, being passed off as a real one in the scene where Andrew is packing his bags for school. At that moment, my expectations fell through the floor as I began to expect the kind of film that Brad Jones of the web series The Cinema Snob calls "shot on shitteo", a movie where the filmmakers clearly didn't have any sort of budget or ability to manage a film production. From the subpar acting to a look that was barely one step above a home movie, it was clear that this was made by student filmmakers in such a manner that it felt like I was watching the bad student film that Urban Legends: Final Cut opened with.

That said, the low budget wasn't the real problem here. There are many no-budget films that managed to wring a dollar out of fifteen cents, even beyond just found-footage films that incorporate their low production values directly into their aesthetics, but this wasn't one of them, especially given that not only do its problems go well beyond just the production values, but one segment actually did manage to largely overcome them and accomplish something approaching genuinely good. No, the thing that stopped me from enjoying this was how incohesive it was. We start the film with two comedic segments, "Blood Stream" and "Sore Throat", the former taking the form of a YouTube livestream in which a guy suspects that his roommate is evil and the latter being focused on body horror, but they are then followed with "Freshers" and "Falling Into Place", two very dry and humorless segments that take their premises seriously. What's more, even within the segments we get character motivations that are frankly ridiculous, which worked when the film was trying to play the events for comedy but not when it was trying to establish actual drama and stakes. I was never able to buy into the "curse" surrounding Andrew's family, and given how many gags it made about it early on (for instance, Andrew wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying knives on him when heading to a party), I found myself wishing that this film just leaned straight into the humor and the farce instead of trying to get me to care about these characters, especially once the final twist goes straight into the most ridiculous soap opera territory in a way that was never foreshadowed and felt completely unearned.

Strange, then, that the one segment I did unequivocally like was also the most serious among them. "Falling Into Place", the fourth and final segment not counting the conclusion to the wraparound, was about a young woman grappling with the curse and losing her will to live in a way that felt deliberately evocative of The Ring, and it actually made for an interesting character study in its brief runtime. It felt like the makers of that segment, Katie Jordan and Cory McCullough, got a completely different assignment from the other filmmakers and went a lot more psychological, and it was enough to singlehandedly keep me from writing off the whole movie. I'll also give it props for some good gore effects in "Sore Throat", a short whose centerpiece is a man succumbing to a fast-acting virus that starts as a bad case of "frat flu" and gets even worse from there, and in the finale where Andrew confronts the villain. The effects were clearly done on a small budget, but they had energy to them, and it was in these moments where it felt like the movie the filmmakers were trying to make, a gleefully violent campus horror/comedy romp, came out to play.

The Bottom Line

I hate giving a low score like this to what were clearly passionate filmmakers who were kind enough to do a Q&A session after the screening, but even so, Welcome Week was a disappointment. Better luck next time, guys.

[spacely0]

HORROR MOVIE RECS

♦ top tier ★ all-time fave

slashers: ♦intruder friday the 13th part 2 sleepaway camp 2 stage fright scream ★♦cold prey (Fritt velt) 1 & 2 texas chainsaw massacre 1 & 2 wrong turn halloween 1 & 2 & H2O A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors 1987 Child's Play 1 & ♦2 ★♦Curse of Chucky Phantom of the paradise Popcorn 1991 Club Dread My Bloody Valentine 1981 ★♦Society 1989 ♦Psychopath AKA Der Poppen Murders The Funhouse 1981 Peeping Tom happy brithday to me 1981 black christmas ★♦Sceance Maniac (the one with elijah wood) hell fest ♦Just before dawn 1981 Maniac Cop

scifi horror: The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 ♦The Revenge of Frankenstein 1958 ★♦Bride of Frankenstein 1935 ★♦the stuff ★♦the fly 1958 ★♦invasion of the body snatchers 1978 ★♦the thing ♦the faculty ★♦from beyond ★♦re-animator 2 ★♦prince of darkness 1987 Quatermass and the Pit 1967 ♦Pandorum Dr jekyll and sister hyde ★♦the brood ★♦its alive 1974 & it lives again 1978 killer klowns from outer space 1988 Quaatermass and the Pit 1967

hauntings/curses: ★♦burnt offerings 1976 haunting in connecticuit conjuring 1 & 2 insidious 1 & 2 & 3 & 5 ★♦ evil dead 1 & 2 & 2013 final destination 1 & 2 & 5 house (hausu) 1977 Kairo (pulse) 2001 the grudge (japanese & american) ♦ dark water Night of the Demon 1957 ♦The changeling 1980 ★♦The Hole in the Ground 2019 Whispering Corridors

folk horror: midsomar ♦ Viy 1967 ♦ impetigore 2019 ★♦ the wickerman 1973 Burn Witch Burn the medium

catholic horror: ♦ The Devil Rides Out 1968 ★♦ the sentinel 1977 nun II ♦ exorcist III

weirdos: ♦basket case 1 & 2 ♦it follows A dark song ★♦The Perfection The Empty Man ★♦The Skull 1965 Beyond the Black Rainbow dead ringers i, madman 1989 messiah of evil 1973 ★♦The People under the Stairs 1991 ★♦The Reflecting Skin 1990 ★♦Carnival of Souls

zombies: ★♦the video dead dawn of the dead 1978 & 2004 dead and buried i walked with a zombie ♦plague of the zombies The Serpent and the Rainbow

monsters: ★♦Sweetheart 2019 The Gate 1987 The invisible Man 1933 ♦Wishmaster 1997 Warlock ♦the mummy's shroud 1967

vampires: Shadow of the Vampire 2000 ★♦ Martin ★♦Captain Kronos -vampire hunter The Brides of Dracula 1960 ★♦the night stalker & the night strangler salems lot 1 & 2 ★♦son of dracula 1943 subspecies 1 & 2 & 4 from dusk til dawn Vampire Hunter D 1985

werewolves: the howling 1981 ginger snaps the beast must die!

death traps: ★♦The Pit and the Pendulum 1961 saw escape room ★♦Theatre of Blood 1973 The Abominable Dr. Phibes 1971 haunt

found footage: ♦Host 2020 Unfriended 1 & 2 Cloverfield Final Prayer Gonjiam: haunted asylum grave encounters hellhouse LLC ★♦Willow Creek ★♦noroi the curse occult ★♦ghostwatch ♦V/H/S 1 & 2 & viral

★♦ ALL the Amicus horror anthologies are worth watching

[littlevampie222]

🎃 It’s October 🎃

That being said, I thought I would give you guys some Horror/Halloween recs that are streaming for FREE (with ads) on Tubi, Pluto TV, & Freevee right now! Most of these are horror movies, but there are a few kid friendly options on these lists!

📺 Tubi: 📺

Interview With The Vampire

They Live

The Frighteners

The Return of the Living Dead

Sometimes They Come Back

Christine

The Witches of Eastwick’

Elvira Mistress of the Dark

Village of the Damned

From Hell

Once Bitten

Phantasm

Death Becomes Her

Brainscan

Cemetery Man

It Follows

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974 Original)

Poltergeist (Remake)

Fright Night (2011)

Insidious The Last Key

Rob Zombie's Halloween & Halloween II

3 From Hell

Donnie Darko

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

Slumber Party Massacre

Slumber Party Massacre II

Sleepaway Camp I-III

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (Remake)

Hellraiser

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Children Of The Corn

Creepshow 2

The Changeling

Demons

Prom Night

Prom Night 2: Hello Mary Lou

Prom Night (2008)

Season of the Witch

The Love Witch

Inferno

Maniac

Night Of The Demons

The Prowler

Pieces

Stagefright

The Addams Family (2019)

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Resident Evil

Planet Terror

Deathproof

Hell Night

Dark Night of the Scarecrow

The Mutilator

Madman

Curtains

The Howling III

The Stepfather II

The Blob (1958)

Basket Case

Day of The Dead

I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

The Hills Have Eyes 2 (1984)

The Hills Have Eyes (2006 Remake)

House On Haunted Hill (1959, in color)

House On Haunted Hill (1999)

The Exorcist III

Dead Silence

Rec

Rec 2

The Collector

The Collection

The Fog (2005)

Feast

V/H/S

V/H/S/2

All Hallows Eve (precursor to Terrifier)

Girl On The Third Floor

Terrifier

Haunt

Hell House LLC

Polaroid

Hatchet II

Hatchet III

Stitches

Spirit Halloween

Tales Of Halloween

The Mist

The Last House on the Left (2009)

Maniac Cop

Maniac Cop II

Puppet Master

Puppet Master II

The House On Sorority Row

Chopping Mall

Freaks (1932)

The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)

13 Ghosts (1960)

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Nosferatu (1922)

Night of the Living Dead (1968, In Color)

📺 Pluto TV: 📺

Practical Magic

Coraline

Evil Dead 2

28 Weeks Later

Jennifer's Body

Scary Movie

Scary Movie 2

The Crow

Jeepers Creepers 2

The Haunting (90s)

Oculus

Near Dark

Teen Witch

Carrie (19 )

The Rage: Carrie 2

Carrie (remake)

The Ring The Ring Two

Child’s Play

Pet Sematary (Remake)

The Woman In Black 1&2

Joyride

Crawl

The Faculty

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (19 )

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

The Wicker Man (1973)

Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Terrifier

Pumpkinhead

P2

Night of the Living Dead (Black and White)

The House on Sorority Row

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

The Babadook

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers ( remake)

The Changeling

The Monster Squad

Hellraiser

The Bye Bye Man

Stephen King’s Sometimes They Come Back

Wishmaster

Creepshow 2

Night of the Demons

Phantasm

C.H.U.D.

The Return of the Living Dead

Vampire's Kiss

The Howling II

Once Bitten

Mandy

Paranorman

Donnie Darko

Maniac

Tamara

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

Motel Hell

Elvira’s Haunted Hills

Slumber Party Massacre

Sleepaway Camp

Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers

31

Stagefright

Prom Night

Prom Night 2: Hello Mary Lou

The Collector

Pieces

Hell Fest

The Lord’s Of Salem

📺Freevee: 📺

(Free with ads if you have an Amazon Prime subscription)

Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1996 movie)

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (197 )

Black Friday

Elvira’s Haunted Hills

Tourist Trap

Nosferatu (1922 In Color)

The Hunt

Feast

Dont Hang uP

The First Purge

An American Werewolf In London

You’re Next

This is only a fraction of what these apps have to offer. I just did my homework and came up with some of the top options you can stream for free! Happy watching!

[juicyparsons]

Last night was so fucking fun!!

Being surrounded by horror nerds and watching a weird queer trans coming of age psychological villain movie was something I could’ve only experienced in my wildest dreams and last night it was real!!

Salem Horror Fest for the win!!! 🖤

[lowbudgetpersephone]

I hate living where I live but I thank the Goddess everyday that I live close enough to Salem that I can go to Salem Horror Fest this year 🖤

[lady-of-glass-and-bone]

Duck's Halloween Movie Picks!

I love Halloween and spooky season in general. So here's my list of many, many (but not all) horror movies to watch this October!

🧠 Zombies 🧠

Sometimes dead is better.

Night of the Living Dead (1968) & (1990)

Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Diary of the Dead (2007)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Overlord (2018)

Pet Semetary (1989)

Dead Snow (2009)

Dead Alive (1992)

#alive (2020)

Train to Busan (2016)

Little Monsters (2019)

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Zombie (1979)

Wonderfully Witchy

It isn't Halloween without a witch.

The Witch (2015)

The Craft (1996)

Practical Magic (not a horror movie but I don't care, I love it) (1998)

Hocus Pocus (a true classic) (1993)

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Don't Knock Twice (2016)

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Ghastly Ghouls

Ghosts, Demons, and Poltergeists oh my!

Includes but is not limited to: haunted houses and/or people, demons, cursed objects, beings from other dimensions, etc.

The Exorcist (1973)

Insidious (2010)

The Conjuring (2013)

The Nun (2018)

Poltergeist (1982)

Verónica (2017)

Hellraiser (1987) & (2022)

Candyman (1992) & (2021)

Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

The Shining (1980)

Evil Dead (1981)

The Fog (1980)

Paranormal Activity (2007)

House on Haunted Hill (1959) & (1999)

The Frighteners (1996)

House (1985)

Hell House LLC (2015)

Pumpkinhead (1988)

Gonjian: Haunted Asylum (2018)

Possession (1981)

Carnival of Souls (1962)

Ringu (1998)

The Entity (1982)

Vicious Vampires

Because they're bloody sexy.

Nosferatu (1922)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1999) plus all the other million dracula movies

Interview with a Vampire (1994)

30 Days of Night (2007)

Boys From County Hell (2020)

Underworld (2003)

Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)

Near Dark (1988)

Salems Lot (1979)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Fright Night (1985) & (2011)

Stakeland (2010)

The Black Water Vampire (2014)

Werewolves

Fluffy and vicious, the perfect combo.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Night of the Wolf: Late Phases (2014)

Ginger Snaps (2001)

The Wolf Man (1941) & (2010)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Cursed (2005)

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)

Howl (2015)

The Howling (1981)

Silver Bullet (1985)

Wer (2014)

Bad Moon (1996)

The Beast Must Die (1974)

Miscellaneous Monsters

All monsters need love, not just the classics.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)

The Mummy (1999)

Frankenstein

Wishmaster (1997)

Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Feast (2007)

IT (1990) & (2017)

The Descent (2005)

Jaws (1975)

Jeepers Creepers 1 + 2 (2001) & (2003)

Horror Express (1972)

Cold Ground (2017)

Devil's Pass (2013)

The Ruins (2008)

Cabin in the Woods (2011)

The Monster Squad (1987)

Under Wraps (1997)

The Babadook (2014)

Slashers

Because people are scary too.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Friday the 13th (1980)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Halloween (1978)

The Collector (2009)

House of Wax (2005)

The Strangers (2008)

The Crazies (1973) & (2010)

SAW (2004)

Scream (1996)

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) & (2006)

The Burning (1981)

The People Under The Stairs (1991)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Terror Train (1980)

Stage Fright (2014)

You Might Be The Killer (2018)

The Toolbox Murders (1978)

Hell Fest (2018)

Revenge (2018)

The Invitation (2016)

Audition (1999)

It Came From Space!

As if space isn't scary enough on it's own.

Includes: anything sci-fi related, not just space stuff.

The Thing (1982)

Alien (1979)

Predator (1987)

AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Event Horizon (1997)

DOOM (2005)

Monsters (2010)

Re-Animator (1985)

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)

Pandorum (2009)

Chopping Mall (1986)

The McPherson Tape (1989)

Extraterrestrial (2014)

Always Anthology

The more the scarier!

Creepshow (1982)

Creepshow 2 (1987)

Tales from the Hood (1995)

V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S: 2 (2013)

V/H/S: 94 (2021)

V/H/S: 99 (2022)

Body Bags (1993)

Asylum (1972)

Trick 'r Treat (2015)

All Hallows' Eve (2019)

Holiday Specials

We can't leave out these holidays during spooky season!

My Bloody Valentine (1981) & (2009)

Prom Night (1980)

April Fool's Day (1986)

Black Christmas (1974)

[fearsmagazine]

PURGATORY JACK | Official Trailer, Poster & Images

Black Mandala presents a neo-noir mystery thriller, "PURGATORY JACK", directed by The Butler Brothers (Brett Butler, Jason Butler) ; an intriguing story that mixes comedy, film noir and colorful characters, in a universe where there are body part collectors, outlaws and a tough detective very much in the vein of Tarantino.

Purgatory is a dangerous, destitute landscape ruled by outlaws and outcasts. Former musician turned grizzled private detective Jack Marlin has a new case and is helping newcomer Viv Vacious, an overdosed pop punk star, find her mother who committed suicide twenty years earlier. By outwitting the outlaws, these two musicians from conflicting eras will unlock a murderous conspiracy and discover why blood is more than a drug.

After a successful festival run at great festivals such as "Macabro", "Santiago Horror", "Razor Reel Flanders", "Panic Fest Sin City Horror Fest", "Bogota Horror Film", "Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Fest", "Bay of Blood", "Cinefest Sudbury Edmonton", "Indie Horror Junkie Film Fest", "MEGACON Fogfest Horror", "Salem Horror Fest", "Horror Hound", "Moscow International Horror Film Fest", "Julien Dubuque International Film Fest"; and winning of many awards such as Best Feature in "Indie Horror Junkie Film Festival" at MEGACON, and Best Feature in "Bay of Blood Film Festival.”

PURGATORY JACK will screen August 3rd, 2024 at 3 pm as part of the The Valley Film Festival at the Laemmle NoHo 7 and Hennessey Studios in North Hollywood.

[aeiouwhy]

It's the "day late" May Monthly Media Recap featuring some wonderful films from the second half of Salem Horror Fest.

Even if you don't hit the blog link (I hope you will), please look up the insanity that is The People's Joker!

[personal-reporter]

Le migliori destinazioni per una vacanza da brivido a Halloween

Halloween è una festa che si celebra in tutto il mondo, ma alcune destinazioni sono particolarmente adatte per una vacanza da brivido. Se siete alla ricerca di un'esperienza spaventosa, ecco alcune delle migliori mete da visitare durante la notte delle streghe. 1. Salem, Massachusetts Salem è una città storica situata nel Massachusetts, famosa per i suoi processi alle streghe del 1692. Ogni anno, durante il periodo di Halloween, la città ospita una serie di eventi e attrazioni a tema horror, tra cui il Salem Haunted Happenings, un festival che dura un mese e include tour spettrali, spettacoli teatrali e mostre. 2. New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans è una città ricca di storia e cultura, ma è anche conosciuta per il suo lato dark e misterioso. Durante Halloween, la città ospita una serie di eventi e feste a tema, tra cui il Voodoo Music Experience, un festival di musica elettronica e dark rock, e il Halloween on Bourbon Street, una festa di strada che dura tutta la notte. 3. Los Angeles, California Los Angeles è una città che offre qualcosa per tutti, anche per gli amanti del brivido. Durante Halloween, la città ospita una serie di eventi e attrazioni a tema, tra cui il Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights, un festival di paura che si svolge all'interno del parco divertimenti Universal Studios Hollywood, e il Knott's Scary Farm, un festival di Halloween che si svolge all'interno del parco divertimenti Knott's Berry Farm. 4. New York City, New York New York City è una città che non dorme mai, nemmeno durante Halloween. La città ospita una serie di eventi e attrazioni a tema, tra cui il The Haunted Maze at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, un labirinto di paura situato nel Brooklyn Navy Yard, e il The Village Halloween Parade, una parata di Halloween che si svolge nel Greenwich Village. 5. Londra, Inghilterra Londra è una città ricca di storia e cultura, ma è anche conosciuta per il suo lato dark e gotico. Durante Halloween, la città ospita una serie di eventi e attrazioni a tema, tra cui il London Dungeon, un museo delle torture e dei delitti, e il Halloween Festival at Hampton Court Palace, un festival di Halloween che si svolge all'interno del Hampton Court Palace. Altre destinazioni da non perdere Oltre alle destinazioni sopra menzionate, ci sono molte altre città e paesi che offrono esperienze da brivido durante Halloween. Ecco alcuni suggerimenti: Europa: Edimburgo, Scozia; Praga, Repubblica Ceca; Parigi, Francia; Barcellona, Spagna; Lisbona, Portogallo Nord America: Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Toronto, Canada; Montréal, Canada; Austin, Texas Sud America: Rio de Janeiro, Brasile; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Lima, Perù; Santiago del Cile; Bogotá, Colombia Asia: Tokyo, Giappone; Seoul, Corea del Sud; Hong Kong, Cina; Bangkok, Thailandia; Singapore Consigli per una vacanza da brivido a Halloween Se state programmando una vacanza da brivido a Halloween, ecco alcuni consigli: Prenotate in anticipo: molte destinazioni sono molto popolari durante questo periodo, quindi è importante prenotare con largo anticipo. Indossate scarpe comode: camminare per le strade di una città piena di gente può essere stancante, quindi è importante indossare scarpe comode. Portate con voi una bottiglia d'acqua: stare in piedi per ore può disidratare, quindi è importante portare con voi una bottiglia d'acqua. State attenti ai vostri effetti personali: durante le feste di Halloween, è importante stare attenti ai propri effetti personali. Buona paura! Read the full article

[suchananewsblog]

Salem Horror Fest Demands 'LGBTQIA2S+' Entries from Florida, Texas

Diversity demands are all the rage in Hollywood. Next year, any studio hoping to snag a Best Picture Oscar better meet the Academy’s new, extensive list of diversity requirements … or else. Here’s one example, straight from Oscar, Inc:  The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s). Women Racial or ethnic group LGBTQ+ People with cognitive or…

[greensparty]

2023 Salem Horror Fest - Dispatch #5

I’m psyched to be covering the 2023 Salem Horror Fest (which I have covered since 2018). What better place to have a celebration of horror and genre films than in Salem, MA? Here is my 5th Dispatch!

movie poster

Screening on Sat. 4/29 at Cinema Salem is the animated The Weird Kidz. A group of teens go camping with one of their older brothers and girlfriend and scary things begin happening while camping. What got my attention was that the older brother is the voice of actor Ellar Coltrane of Boyhood. Of all the films I saw at this year’s SHF, this was my favorite! Storywise it was reminiscent of Monster Squad, Evil Dead and any number of horror movies about camping. But told through hand-drawn animation, there was an underground vibe and a sense of fun to it.

For info on the 2023 SHF:  https://www.salemhorror.com/

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Salem Horror Fest 2024 Week 1, Day 3: Cat People (1942), Burned at the Stake (1981), Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered (2024), and Faceless After Dark (2023)

The third night of the Salem Horror Fest had another theme to it, especially once I got past the retro films they showed earlier in the day. If the second night was Found Footage Night, then this was Hollywood Night, with both of the evening's films revolving around fame, especially that of actresses.

First up, though, comes the older films...

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/04/salem-horror-fest-2024-week-1-day-3-cat.html>

Cat People (1942)

Approved by the Production Code Administration of the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America

Score: 4 out of 5

Cat People is one of the most famous horror movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood to not have come from Universal Pictures, instead being produced by Val Lewton at RKO Radio Pictures. RKO's horror unit, which Lewton spearheaded, was an extremely low-budget affair, and that unfortunately shows through when it comes time to actually show the monster in this movie, in scenes that often sucked all the tension out of the room thanks to the dodgy, primitive special effects on display. It speaks to everything else about it that this movie manages to overcome its extremely low-budget effects work and emerge as a near-masterpiece of classic horror, one that feels like a prototype for a lot of more modern "tortured vampire" stories (only with a woman who transforms into a killer cat) that was notably made back when Universal's Dracula was still a "modern" horror movie. Director Jacques Tourneur was a master at building tension out of very little, and the subtext in the story, ranging from immigrant experiences to lesbianism to proto-feminism, feels like it's pushing against the boundaries of the Hays Code in every way it can. There's a good reason this movie still gets talked about more than eighty years later as one of the unsung classics of its era, and it's still worth a watch today.

Irena Dubrovna is a Serbian immigrant and fashion illustrator who meets a handsome man named Oliver Reed at the zoo while she's sketching some of the big cats they have there. They hit it off and eventually marry... but Irena is afraid that, if they consummate their marriage, her dark secret will come out. You see, back in Serbia, legend tells of people in her former village who, in response to their oppression by the Mameluks, turned to witchcraft and gained the ability to transform into cats, one that has been passed down to her. Oliver dismisses this as superstitious nonsense and sends her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Louis Judd, who tries to convince her as much, but before long, Oliver and his assistant (and potential romantic foil) Alice Moore start to notice strange things happening around them that line up with what Irena told him.

Tourneur knew he didn't have the budget to actually shoot a monster for very long, so for much of this film's runtime, he keeps the cat person in the shadows and lets those shadows do the talking. A lot is mined out of those shadows, too, perhaps best illustrated in a scene where Alice is being stalked by Irena in which we never actually see a monster, but we know full well that there's something lurking in the darkness just outside the reach of the streetlamps, Irena's transformation into a cat depicted by simply having the sound of her footsteps go dead silent -- and ending on what's still one of the all-time great jump scares. Irena herself makes for a great anti-villain, one who's clearly troubled over what she is and fears that she might get the man she loves killed because of it, but still ultimately gives in to what is in her nature. At a time when the original Universal monster movies were still being made, Irena's portrayal feels downright subversive, predicting all the more anti-heroic and morally cloudy takes on vampires and other monsters that have become the standard for urban fantasy stories in modern times, especially with this film's rejection of the period settings characteristic of Universal horror in favor of a contemporary time and themes.

This film has its problems, to be sure. Some of the dialogue is stilted, with a scene of Oliver telling Irena that she's safe now in America getting some outright laughs out of the audience I was with, even if it did do the job of highlighting how clueless Oliver actually was. French actress Simone Simon makes for a very compelling presence, but at the same time, it's clear that English is not her first language, which does lend to the feeling of Irena as an outsider but also means that, when she's speaking, her English-language performance is pretty flat. Most importantly, when the film does have to finally show the monster at the end, it's clear that they just filmed a black housecat and hid it in enough shadows and perspective shots to try to make it look like a big, scary panther, and didn't quite pull it off. Team America: World Police spoiled me years ago on that by doing something very similar as part of a gag, and it took me right out of it towards the end. The film ended on a high note, but there are still a lot of rough spots here.

The Bottom Line

All that said, Cat People remains a very interesting movie, one where even some of its flaws (barring its bad special effects) lend to its appeal. If you're a fan of classic horror from the Universal days and wanna see something from outside the Universal wheelhouse, I'd say give it a go.

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Afterwards, I caught a "secret screening" that turned out to be a long-forgotten bit of '80s schlock filmed in Salem, presented by James Branscome of the podcast Cinematic Void in a manner evocative of late-night basic cable from the '90s, complete with ad breaks thrown in where they showed period commercials from that time. That experience was undoubtedly the most interesting thing about the film and did a lot to liven up the affair, because otherwise...

Burned at the Stake (aka The Coming) (1981)

Not rated

Score: 1 out of 5 (the movie itself), 3 out of 5 (the broader experience at the screening)

Yeah, this wasn't good. Cinematic Void perhaps recaptured the '90s late night cable experience a little too well, complete with the fact that it looks like the screener they used was burned from an old, worn-out VHS copy of the film, because, as the host explained at the start of the show, this is a film that was only ever released on VHS and hasn't come out in newer formats. Specifically, it was one of the later films of Bert I. Gordon, a filmmaker best known for cheesy giant monster movies that have often been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and in this one, he didn't have the trademark special effects that earned him the nickname "Mr. B.I.G." It's a film that's only watchable today as a cheesy relic of a bygone era of bad movies, which helped with the experience that Branscome put together but did little to help the film itself. I wouldn't bother seeking it out.

Opening in 1692 with a brief history of the Salem witch trials (butchered, of course), the film then fast-forwards to modern-day Salem in 1981, where a young girl who's descended from Ann Putnam, one of the primary accusers in the trials, winds up possessed by the spirit of her ancestor, who it turns out was influenced by the Devil himself to corrupt the town in a wave of paranoia and false accusations of witchcraft. At the same time, the father of one of the accused in 1692 finds himself mysteriously transported to the present day, and must work to stop the evil that has reemerged. It was all very dumb, put together with the production values of an afterschool special and only really notable because they shot it on location in Salem, Massachusetts (perhaps the reason why the Salem Horror Fest and Cinematic Void picked it for the program). It was an interesting historical artifact of '80s Salem, watching the film and seeing what had changed or remained the same compared to the city I saw outside the Peabody Essex Museum's auditorium, but beyond that, I had to put up with a lot of terrible production values, awful lighting, bad acting, and everything else you could imagine showing up in a bottom-of-the-barrel straight-to-video VHS quickie from the early '80s. There were apparently some bits that were based on real-life folklore concerning witchcraft, including working with actual witches who lived in Salem as consultants, but it barely came through in the film itself, especially when it was tough to even make out what was happening on screen. One kill that was supposed to involve a giant spider coming out of somebody's back instead looked like he was being mauled to death by a possessed dog, to the point of creating plot holes.

The Bottom Line

Burned at the Stake is an extremely deep cut that I'm not surprised hasn't gotten rereleased since, even with Gordon's schlockmeister legacy. Cinematic Void's presentation was honestly the big reason it was watchable at all, not unlike how many of Gordon's other movies have been immortalized by MST3K, and that's not what I'm reviewing here (though do give them a listen). This one was rough.

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The evening was when this turned into Hollywood Night, with the first of two very good slasher-adjacent horror movies about being a film actress.

Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered (2024)

Not rated

Score: 4 out of 5

Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered is a film that's very, very good at both building tension to a head and then denying you any sort of payoff. It's a slasher movie without the slashing, one in which the real terror comes in the paranoia as we watch a young woman navigate a world where, off in the background, there's a serial killer operating and it's increasingly clear that he's set his sights on her. It ended on a note that at once felt both anticlimatic and entirely appropriate, one that took the undercurrent of Hollywood satire running through the film and drove it home by indicating that our protagonist's failure to "make it" in the industry may have very well saved her life. This is one for horror fans who are interested in a film that may not have a lot of big thrills and frights, but instead serves up a ceaseless parade of little ones that slowly build up and never let up.

Our protagonist is a twentysomething woman named Stacy who's moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles to become an actress, and is struggling to get parts even as her friends in the city, all fellow actresses themselves, are finding ways to get parts and succeed in the industry. What's more, some of them are turning up dead, slaughtered by a serial killer who films it and then posts the deeds online. Initially, the murder is something that happens in the background, alluded to in the opening scene but something that we're mostly encountering through Stacy's eyes, hearing from her friends "hey, did you know that Chloe, that girl from our acting class, was found brutally murdered?" or something like that, as just one of many things that's on her mind. It's a slasher movie that, by taking a perspective that's initially far away from the killing, puts us in the shoes of somebody who doesn't initially seem like she's in danger. We know she is, of course, because this is a horror movie and she's the main character, but it's easy to see how she could miss the warning signs, especially because the film never actually shows the kills, only the impact they have on Stacy and her circle of friends. Not showing the kills denies you the instant fright, but instead feeds the slow burn of the film's drama, keeping the viewer squarely in Stacy's mindset as she starts to slowly, but not entirely, realize that something's wrong. It's honestly a pretty creative way of explaining how a character in a horror movie keeps making dumb decisions -- because she doesn't know she's in one, even if we do.

Samantha Carroll has to carry the entire movie as Stacy, and she does a very capable job. Her life is not the glamorous one she wanted -- she may be beautiful, but she's living in a dingy apartment, she's struggling to make ends meet, and she's increasingly wondering if this is worth it. It's easy to understand how somebody in her position brushes off all the growing warning signs around her as her friends drop dead one by one, especially as their deaths give her hope that she might have a shot at their roles. It's clear that she's the kind of self-centered person who often comes to Hollywood with stars in their eyes, but she's still somebody we sympathize with. The film is beautifully shot, at once making Hollywood feel both gorgeous and bleak while also hiding a dark side that increasingly starts to weigh down on both the viewer and Stacy as it goes on. The killer's identity is never explicitly stated but is otherwise very heavily implied, and when Stacy and the killer meet, it is one of the scariest scenes in the film as alarm bells started going off in my head telling her to get out of there. That scene in particular marks something of a turning point in the film where what had once been lurking in the background increasingly comes out in the open to the point that even Stacy is starting to feel it, even if it feels to her like just one more thing weighing on her mind.

The Bottom Line

An offbeat, minimalist take on the slasher genre that's powered by creeping dread, Young Blondes, Stalked and Murdered isn't for everyone, but if you're keyed into its style, it's an extremely effective slow-burn chiller.

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And finally, we end the night with a film that feels as though its star and co-writer Jenna Kanell was working out some stuff -- but fortunately, it produced a very solid closer.

Faceless After Dark (2023)

Not rated

Score: 4 out of 5

In Faceless After Dark, Jenna Kanell, the film's co-writer who's best known as one of the stars of the 2016 slasher Terrifier, plays a scream queen who's best known for a movie about a killer clown in which she played the final girl. It's not hard to figure out that at least some of this film may be autobiographical. If it were entirely so, I might have some thoughts about Kanell's mental state, but fortunately, this is otherwise a very fun, darkly comic film that reminded me in no small part of American Psycho and Falling Down, a story about somebody pushed to the edge by work, the internet, society, and mental illness who goes off the deep end. It was a highlight of the third night of the Salem Horror Fest, and one I'd love to see succeed.

Our protagonist Bowie is an actress who's recently shot to fame as the heroine of a bloody slasher flick, which on one hand has made her rich but on the other has made her a public figure under constant scrutiny by her fans, some of whom can get downright obsessive. One night, with her girlfriend away shooting a movie, one particularly deranged fan breaks into her home while dressed as the killer clown villain of her most famous film in an attempt to scare her. Already withering under the pressure, Bowie finally snaps as a result of this encounter, and starts to head down a very dark path as she fights back.

I really don't want to say much more than that. This movie has a lot of surprises up its sleeve that the trailer did a good job of hiding, and which only really come out during the second act. Kanell is the star of the show here, playing a character who's pretty obviously based on herself and doing it well, with Bowie initially serving as somebody who plays a kick-ass horror heroine on screen being pushed into that role for real but her cool demeanor slowly but surely warping as the film goes on into a sick, deranged parody thereof. There's a lot of style on display here, especially with a series of gory kills inflicted on some very loathsome people written in such a way as to make you wonder whether or not they deserve what happens to them. And through it all, there's a sense of sick righteousness as the victims increasingly start to resemble the people you normally find online if you read the comments for more than five seconds -- gross fetishists, moral scolds, pedophiles, and everybody in between, all against the backdrop of a world that feels like it's getting worse with every passing day.

The Bottom Line

Faceless After Dark is a damn good movie filled with gory kills, a mean streak a mile wide, and a great performance by Kanell, and one that I'm looking forward to seeing again when it hits video, even if I can't really say much more without giving away all the best parts.

[mxliv-oftheendless]

Thank you, Alessia!!!

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery: Murder mysteries have been my favorite genre since I was a pre-teen, so naturally I love this movie!! You can tell Rian Johnson is an Agatha Christie fanatic, because he captures the fun and adventure of her stories! There’s so much packed into the movie and I’m always spotting something new every time I watch it. It’s a wonderful movie!

The Door Into Summer: A Japanese movie based on the sci-fi book by Robert Heinlein. It’s a rather simple plot involving time travel, but that’s what I like, that it’s not too convoluted. It’s a really sweet movie that I watch whenever I feel sad. It’s on Netflix if you want to watch it!

Ninokuni: Another Japanese movie, also on Netflix, and actually with the same actor as the guy who plays the protagonist of Door Into Summer, Kento Yamazaki. It’s based off the series of video games, which I have never played, but I still really like the movie! It’s a fun little adventure movie with cool fantasy elements and an interesting plot.

My Neighbor Totoro: Another Japanese movie lmao but I fucking love this movie. It’s the first Studio Ghibli movie I ever watched and it’s held a special place in my heart ever since. It’s just a really sweet movie~ I got to see it in a movie theater in March and my mom can confirm that I was on Cloud 9 the entire fucking time~

Ponyo: Yet another Ghibli movie lol but it’s so adorable!! Ponyo and Sosuke’s friendship is so sweet and the whole movie is just very comforting.

The Little Rascals (1994): I actually haven’t watched this movie in years, but I’m including it anyway because of my many good memories of watching this movie. My brother and I watched it so much that my mom got sick of it and banned it for a while lol Whenever I think of this movie, I feel really happy, because it was a favorite of kid!me and actually a movie my family still references sometimes.

Young Frankenstein: An absolute fucking riot of a movie. When I was younger, Mom and I would watch it so many times. There’s a movie theater a little ways from my house that shows old movies, and we used to go every October to see Young Frankenstein! Mom and I reference it ALL THE TIME.

House on Haunted Hill: A classic Vincent Price movie! I’ve watched it a lot lately, and normally I get really scared of horror movies, but this one isn’t too bad. It’s more of a creepy ghost movie than one big gore fest.

The Bat: Another old Vincent Price movie. But the play that this film is based off of paved the way for many tropes used in murder mysteries and horror movies today! And it also inspired Batman! Both these movies are free on YouTube if you wanna watch them!

Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost: Without a doubt my favorite Scooby Doo movie of all time. It’s the perfect Halloween movie, and I try to watch it every Halloween! It’s a whole adventure from start to finish, and I’m not certain, but it’s probably one reason why I’m so fascinated with the Salem witch trials today. Also Tim Curry is in this movie and he’s fucking FANTASTIC.

Thanks again! I tag @ladyshandioftheendless @starfishes-and-watercolors @its-all-ineffable @misty-doodles @smokeandmirrorz @starry-eyed-never-satisfied @jewishgenderqueer @weirdlittlecorner

thank you so much @fedalgaard for tagging me 🥺❤️

Rules: post 10 of your favorite comfort movies then tag 10 people.

frozen: it's just relatable to me and everyone calls me Elsa so I just accepted it

tangled: no words, it's just a comfort movie and I love every detail

10 things I hate about you: it's just one of those films that you can watch anytime and not get bored, it's cute, comforting and heath ledger is in it

home alone 1 and 2: (I know this is kinda cheating because they're two movies) they play it on tv every year in December and I've watched it every single year since I can remember, it brings me warm memories because I used to watch with my grandpa (they should've stopped filming them after home alone 2 because it all just went downhill from there) ((but the kid from home alone 3 is super adorable though))

the help: I could watch that film anytime, I don't have much to say about it because I just love everything

the devil wears prada: absolutely iconic and I hope we can all agree that Miranda wasn't the real villain, it was Andy's boyfriend and her friends 💅 fuck em

oceans 8: ✨women✨ that's all

bridget jones's diary: it's funny and hugh grant is in it, it reminds me of winter, my favorite season. I love to crawl under a fluffy blanket and make myself some hot chocolate and then put on bridget jones <3 can't wait

bohemian rhapsody: I know Hollywood is overdoing it with these biopics ever since bohemian rhapsody did so well at the Oscars, but this one really holds a special place in my heart and I love watching it whenever I can

shrek: it's a masterpiece, I don't make the rules 🤷🏼‍♀️

i tag: @emometalhead @awrestlinggirlwholoves80sbands @day-trippin-dreamer @ephyjeva @stars-kiss-the-sky and everyone else who wants to do it! 🩷 (no pressure guys)

[bearnakedbaker]

Gotta Finish

[juicyparsons]

I hate living where I live but I thank the Goddess everyday that I live close enough to Salem that I can go to Salem Horror Fest this year 🖤