31 Days of Halloween Day 10: 'WNUF Halloween Special' Captures the Spirit of the 80s and Halloween

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

This one flew under my radar when it was originally released, but it caught my eye while scrolling through the content available on Shudder. The conceit behind the WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL is that it’s a local TV newscast from Halloween night 1987 that someone recorded on a VHS tape, commercials at all.

 

The film feels authentic, even if the commercials for made up TV shows, movies, and products occasionally spoil the illusion. Not that they don’t feel believable, mind you, it’s just that anyone who knows the era knows the commercials aren’t for real things that actually existed. Younger viewers might not know that, though.

 

Halloween Rocks 2021 Day 8: Phoebe Bridgers "Halloween"

A little more introspective than what I've posted so far, but still pretty dark. And hell, the song is called "Halloween", so that's enough, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

31 Days of Halloween Day 7: A Reenvisioned Classic Comes Off as Cartoonish in 'Night of the Animated Dead'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

When George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was released in 1968, the distributors inadvertently released it without a copyright notice. This allowed the movie to slip into the public domain. The most obvious ramifications of this situation are that basically anyone can release a copy of the film on home video. But beyond that, it allows for various remakes and spinoffs to use the film’s plot and title, very rarely with satisfying results.

 

The latest film to appropriate Romero’s classic is the aptly titled NIGHT OF THE ANIMATED DEAD, a nearly line for line, shot for shot cartoon version of John Russo’s script directed by Jason Axinn. And honestly, it isn’t a completely horrible idea. As much of a classic as the original is, and as much as I love it, there are aspects that could be improved. Notably, the cast ranges from excellent (Duane Jones in the lead role of Ben) to… not so excellent (Judith Ridley as Judy). And while I personally like the black and white cinematography and minimalist gore and effects, having more modern looking zombies and more blood and gore isn’t necessarily a bad idea.

31 Days of Halloween Day 6: It's Revenge of the Mushroom People in 'Gaia' and 'In The Earth'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

Louie Schwarzberg’s 2019 documentary FANTASTIC FUNGI walked (or perhaps more accurately, blurred) the line between science and new age woo in its exploration of earth’s fungal lifeforms, and the theory that they may have some sort of interconnected intelligence. Similarly, the late Terrence McKenna wrote several books on his belief that mushrooms and other plant-based hallucinogens were a way to communicate with a metaphysical intelligence he referred to as “the other”.

 

Perhaps that same intelligence reached out to filmmakers Ben Wheatley and Jaco Bouwer, who independently of one another made IN THE EARTH (Wheatley) and GAIA (Bouwer, from a screenplay by Tertius Kapp). Both films deal with the fungal kingdom interacting with humans. But rather than benevolent enlightenment, the protagonists wind up taking decidedly bad trips more akin to Ishiro Honda’s MATANGO, known to American aficionados of psychotronic cinema as ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE.

31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 5: The Rural Horrors of 'Honeydew'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

The setup for HONEYDEW is so familiar, one almost can’t help but feel its main characters deserve whatever horrors befall them. Like, haven’t you guys ever watched THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE? Writer/director Devereux Milburn obviously has.

 

A young metropolitan couple – actor/waiter Sam (Sawyer Spielberg, yes, son of that Spielberg and Kate Capshaw) and botanist Rylie (Malin Barr) – are so busy showing us how much they shouldn’t be together that they miss all the obvious red flags letting them know they’ve stumbled into a hicksploitation horror film.

31 Days of Halloween 2021 Day 4: The Unedited Horror of 'Censor'

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. Might throw in the odd horror related book, comic, or music review as well. I've done this the last few years here and on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. Last year I completely failed and didn't do it at all. I'm optimistic about this year.]

 

CENSOR

 

For British horror fans in the 1980s, it was the best and worst of times. That’s when home video companies took advantage of loopholes in the law to release previously banned or heavily censored horror movies in uncut form on home video.

 

At least for a while.

 

Once the British tabloid press realized what was going on, they bestowed the mantle of “Video Nasties” on these lurid films. And of course, they tried to blame all manner of real life crimes on their influence. All without any evidence. But when has that ever got in the way of a good moral panic?

Back From the Grave for Halloween

Has it really been a year since I last posted anything on this blog? Yes. Yes it has. You would think with the pandemic and all keeping me at home more than usual I'd be more inclined to write, not less, but that seems not to have been the case. In part, I've been spending more time with ebay related stuff. But the main reason is I just haven't felt like writing. That was so much the case this time last year that I didn't even do a 31 Days of Halloween blogathon.

 

Well, I'm not about to let that happen again this year. I don't know if I'll be back to regular posting once October is behind us, but at least for now I feel like writing some horror reviews.

 

I'll mainly be reviewing movies, but I'll toss in the occasional horror related book, comic, series, or music review if I feel so inclined. And while I'll be focusing on newer stuff I haven't seen or read or listened to before, I'm not ruling out the possibility of writing about something older that catches my fancy.

 

That's about all I've got to say at the moment, but starting tomorrow I'll be blathering on about my opinions at much greater length for the next month.  Hopefully you'll feel inclined to read.

 

31 Days of Halloween 2019: Incident in a Ghostland

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can pull it off this year.] 

 

Review by Bob Ignizio

In 2008, Pascal Laugier wrote and directed MARTYRS, a visually stunning, thought provoking, and transgressive horror classic. Laugier was hailed as a new icon of horror cinema. There was an English language remake of MARTYRS, and there was talk that Laugier would helm a remake of his own, of Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER. But the MARTYRS remake fared poorly, and due to disputes with the producers, Laugier left the HELLRAISER remake.

Instead, for his first English language film he made the stylish but disappointing thriller THE TALL MAN in 2012, which deservedly went straight to video. Still, I was hoping INCIDENT IN A GHOSTLAND might be a return to form.

31 Days of Halloween 2019: Tigers Are Not Afraid

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can pull it off this year.] 

Review by Bob Ignizio

Okay, enough with the walking dead. Real life has more than enough horror, anyway. At least that’s the case in TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID, in which a group of Mexican orphans are being pursued by violent gangsters who want something the kids have. And if they have to kill the kids to get it, that’s just how it goes.

That probably doesn’t sound like the premise for a horror movie, but when you bring in elements of the fantastic and supernatural, as TIGERS does, it starts to make sense why streaming horror service Shudder picked this one up as an exclusive.

31 Days of Halloween 2019: The Dead Don't Die

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded. Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can pull it off this year.] 

Review by Bob Ignizio

It’s too slow. That’s the common refrain I keep hearing from those who don’t enjoy the new Jim Jarmusch zombie film THE DEAD DON’T DIE. And yes, the film is as slow moving as a classic Romero zombie. It also has an extremely deadpan sense of humor, a tendency to go off on pointless tangents, and a sense of self awareness that is sure to grate on many viewers. So if you go into this movie hoping for anything close to a typical undead romp, there’s a high probability you will be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you’re a fan of Jarmusch’s quirky sensibilities, or are in general open to unusual, idiosyncratic cinema, this may be just the thing for your Halloween viewing pleasure.

31 Days of Halloween 2018: Michael Meyers Is Back Yet Again In 'Halloween' (2018)

[Once again I'm going to attempt to do a horror(ish) movie review a day for the entire month of October. I've done this the last few years on The Cleveland Movie Blog. Most of the time I succeeded (usually with the help of a few other writers). Other times I didn't. We'll see if I can pull it off this year.] 

This is a longer review than usual because this is a film that warrants it.

I have no doubt that writer/director David Gordon Green is a fan of the horror genre in general and John Carpenter’s 1978  HALLOWEEN in particular. The director of both notable indie films like GEORGE WASHINGTON, and stupid but fun stoner comedies like PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, Green has expressed interest in making a horror film for a while. In fact, he had been attached to direct a remake of SUSPIRIA and had evidently spent some time developing it. However, that fell through. Instead Green, along with his writing partners Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley, wound up making HALLOWEEN, a higher profile project that comes with both greater risks and greater potential rewards.

Off the bat, it’s fair to say that HALLOWEEN is not some half-assed quickie cash-in. Whatever criticisms one might level against it (and I will be leveling some shortly), it treats John Carpenter’s original and its fans with respect. It also treats the film’s sequels, which range in quality from mediocre to downright awful, with no respect, acting as if none of them ever happened. So if nothing else, I appreciate HALLOWEEN for that.