TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2021

Halloween (2018)



Totally ignoring everything that happened after the first film, this sequel deals with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) spending her last 40 years after that fateful Halloween preparing for a showdown with Michael Myers. And of course, Michael is able to escape during a prison transfer and he works his way back to Haddonfield slaughtering all who gets in his way.

Halloween Kills (2021)



Picking up right after the first film, this one covers what happens Haddonfield discovers Michael Myers killing spree and decide to form a mob to stop him once and for all. Some brutal kills in this one and cool little homage to the "killer" masks from Halloween III.

"The Fog" (1980)

A small seaside town is plagued by a mysterious fog, which hides the pissed-off victims of a century old shipwreck bent on vengeance. John Carpenter's creepy-cool supernatural classic is dripping with spooky atmosphere and features an amazing cast (Adrienne Barbeau, Tom "Halloween III" Atkins, Hal Holbrook, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman). I hadn't seen "The Fog" in a long time and I'm pleased to report that it's aged well.

"The Curse of Humpty Dumpty" (2021)

Two sisters move their mother, who's suffering from dementia, back into her old childhood home. When a creepy, antique "Humpty Dumpty" doll mysteriously arrives at their door, it begins to spark Mom's long-repressed memories of a particularly dark bit of family history.
From the trailer and cover art I was expecting this to be a cheap "Child's Play" ripoff, or a riff on Full Moon Studios' "Demonic Toys" or "Puppet Master" brand of stop-motion schlock, but this British horror flick is more of a slow burning psychological thriller. The "Humpty" doll is hard to take seriously because it looks absolutely ridiculous.
The first quarter of the movie was pretty legit creepy and seemed to be setting up a big payoff, but then the movie started to fall apart, going in circles for a while before ending with a too-little-too-late twist (that most viewers will see coming from a mile away).

Overall, pretty average stuff. Skip it unless you simply have to see every movie with a supernatural doll in it.

Like you I haven't seen The Fog in forever. I remember being mildly disappointed in it when I did see it.

So we took the kids to "Trunk or Treat" last night. Its at the local drive in where the kids go trick or treating before they show a couple of movies. Last night's first feature was Addams Family 2.



In this sequel, Gomez and Morticia, worried over their children growing and the family breaking apart, decide to go on a cross country vacation. Meanwhile, it would appear that Wednesday is not really an Addams, being switched at birth and she since she has been feeling as if she doesn't fit in with them, she decides to see what her real family is like. Not too bad of a movie, but more for the kids, who did enjoy it. The other feature shown was Beetlejuice, but since we saw that numerous times, and it was getting cold, we left.

tohostudios wrote:

Like you I haven't seen The Fog in forever.  I remember being mildly disappointed in it when I did see it.

I could listen to Adrienne Barbeau's radio-DJ voice all night though.

Fear The Walking Dead

007 wrote:

So we took the kids to "Trunk or Treat" last night. Its at the local drive in where the kids go trick or treating before they show a couple of movies. Last night's first feature was Addams Family 2.



In this sequel, Gomez and Morticia, worried over their children growing and the family breaking apart, decide to go on a cross country vacation. Meanwhile, it would appear that Wednesday is not really an Addams, being switched at birth and she since she has been feeling as if she doesn't fit in with them, she decides to see what her real family is like. Not too bad of a movie, but more for the kids, who did enjoy it. The other feature shown was Beetlejuice, but since we saw that numerous times, and it was getting cold, we left.

Was "Flo" in it? At least the Addams Family RV was insured.

tohostudios wrote:

007 wrote:

So we took the kids to "Trunk or Treat" last night. Its at the local drive in where the kids go trick or treating before they show a couple of movies. Last night's first feature was Addams Family 2.



In this sequel, Gomez and Morticia, worried over their children growing and the family breaking apart, decide to go on a cross country vacation. Meanwhile, it would appear that Wednesday is not really an Addams, being switched at birth and she since she has been feeling as if she doesn't fit in with them, she decides to see what her real family is like. Not too bad of a movie, but more for the kids, who did enjoy it. The other feature shown was Beetlejuice, but since we saw that numerous times, and it was getting cold, we left.

Was "Flo" in it?  At least the Addams Family RV was insured.

At one point in the film, they crash through a Progressive billboard with her on it, but that's it.

Man they show that commercial a TON! It's sort of weird because I'm not sure I've even seen a "proper" trailer for the movie on TV but I sure have seen that crossover Progressive commercial a lot.

Schlock-tober is in full effect with a double shot of Euro-horror sleaze, yo!

"The Grim Reaper" (aka "The Savage Island," aka "Anthropophagus," 1980)

A tour group arrives on a remote Greek island and find it totally deserted -- because the residents have all been killed and eaten by a hulking, insane, murderous cannibal, and now the tourists are next on the menu. Hilarity ensues.
This semi-legendary "video nasty" from Italian sleaze kingpin Joe D'Amato is pretty dull for most of its length - essentially, the tourists walk around exploring deserted building and going "Hello? Is anyone here?" for the first hour -- but the money shots come in the last quarter with some truly sick gore scenes that almost make up for sitting through the previous hour of poorly dubbed, woodenly acted B.S.  
Worth a look for sleaze/gore completists, utterly useless to anyone else.

"Nightmare City" (aka "City of the Walking Dead," aka "Nightmare in the Contaminated City," 1980)

A radioactive spill turns city dwellers into homicidal, blood drinking mutants, and a crusading TV reporter (Hugo Stiglitz) and his wife fight their way through the hordes to find safety.
This totally absurd Spanish/Italian "Dawn of the Dead" knock off (directed by Umberto Lenzi of "Cannibal Ferox" fame) is one of my favorite Euro-trash movies. It doesn't make a lick of sense but it's so fast moving and action packed that it doesn't matter. I've lost count of how many times I've sat through this sh*t show. Don't get me wrong, it sucks, but it sucks in a totally awesome kind of way.

Isn't "The Grim Reaper" aka "Anthropophagus" (or something like that?). I have that on DVD somewhere and I don't remember anything really gory about it. Maybe I've got an edited version? Or I just don't remember it very well which still isn't a good sign.

tohostudios wrote:

Isn't "The Grim Reaper" aka "Anthropophagus" (or something like that?).  I have that on DVD somewhere and I don't remember anything really gory about it.  Maybe I've got an edited version?  Or I just don't remember it very well which still isn't a good sign.

Yep, that's the one. It's got about a half dozen different titles depending on where you are in the world, and almost as many cuts/versions. The 'Grim Reaper" version released in the U.S. apparently cut out all the extreme gore.

It's most notorious for a scene where the psycho strangles a pregnant lady, then rips the fetus out of her and takes a big ol' bite out of it. He also munches on his own guts when the good guys disembowel him at the end.

The version I watched on Tubi last night was called "The Grim Reaper" in their on-screen menu, but the title on the film itself was "The Savage Island," which is one of its many European names. The fetus and gut munching scenes were in it, so I guess it was an uncut copy.

I must have an uncut copy because now that you mention it I remember the fetus part. I also remember thinking "I sat through all the boring crap for that?"

tohostudios wrote:

I must have an uncut copy because now that you mention it I remember the fetus part.  I also remember thinking "I sat through all the boring crap for that?"

Hah, I felt the same way. Not much happens in that movie for the first hour, then all the crazy ultra-violence happens in the last reel.

[quote="tohostudios"]That Deep Rising sounds interesting, never heard of it.  Unfortunately I've seen "Shocker".[/quote]

Deep Rising was enjoyable.  The cast was solid, and it was paced pretty well.  Certainly not groundbreaking, but it's definitely worth the 90 - 120 minutes :D been years since I saw it... might look that up on the weekend :lol:

Last night I finished:

Squid Game Season 1 (I wouldn't mind a season 2 :)  )

and I started Season 1 of:

Kingdom

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon(2007)-a film crew follows around an inspiring serial killer who takes influences from popular slasher films.  He has plans to massacre of a group of friends who are having a party, with the crew filming all of it as it happens.  An offbeat film that combines a mockumentary with a standard film, this film had some buzz around it when it came out several years ago.  It has some good things going for it like a smart script and plenty of black humor.  However, while I found the film solid, I also found it only decently entertaining.  Worth a watch, but I'll probably never revisit it. 2/5

John Carpenter's The Thing

I got the first two seasons of the AMC series, "Eli Roth's History of Horror," on DVD from the library over the weekend. I couldn't decide on a movie to watch last night, so I watched the first couple of episodes from Season 1 ("Zombies," "Slashers," and "The Demons Inside") instead.

It's been pretty cool stuff so far, with lots of gory clips from tons of classic horror films and commentary by Roth and a parade of horror stars and directors that includes Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Rob Zombie, Stephen King, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sean Cunningham, Linda Blair, and more. Looking forward to checking out the rest of the episodes.

Dave Chappelle "The Closer" His latest stand up on Netflix. Not his greatest work but still a good watch.

Deadly Manor (1990)



A group of teenagers on their way to a lake for a getaway get lost and pick up a hitchhiker (in reality an escaped convict) who claims to know how to get to the lake, They end up off the beaten path and discover a run down supposedly empty mansion in the middle of nowhere. Naturally, they decide to spend the night there, where they get picked off , one by one. A slow moving,poorly acted and rather bloodless slasher film.

Paranormal Caught On Camera

Schlock-tober continues...

"Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" (1988)

The slinky horror hostess inherits a creepy old house in a quaint Massachusetts town. She just wants to sell the place quick to finance her move to Vegas, but soon she's mixed up with a supernatural super villain and a horde of little old ladies lookin' to do a little old-fashioned witch burning.  
This cult favorite horror comedy is corny in all the right ways and of course, Elvira's always fun to watch. Followed by a disappointing, years-too-late sequel ("Elvira's Haunted Hills").

"House" (1986)

A writer (William "Greatest American Hero" Katt) moves back into his old family home in order to complete his latest book. A combination of his lingering Vietnam flashbacks and some spooky/monstrous happenings around the house complicate his efforts.
Produced by Sean "Friday the 13th" Cunningham, full of cool/cheap looking monsters and featuring a great cast that includes George "Cheers" Wendt and Richard "Night Court" Moll. This goofy, tongue extremely-in-cheek horror comedy was a surprise hit in '86 and was followed by several sequels.

Porndemic. A documentary about an actor giving HIV to 5 female performers in the late 90's.

"Tales of Halloween" (2015)

A cool anthology film featuring ten spooky stories that all take place on Halloween in the same town. Segments include a demon with a sweet tooth, a kidnapping that goes horribly wrong, a Jason-style serial killer who meets his match, and jack o lanterns with a taste for humans. Not every story is a winner (there are a couple of clunkers in the middle) but overall this is a fun collection of comic horror tales, with numerous in-joke nods to classic flicks and cameos from horror royalty like Adrienne "The Fog" Barbeau, Barry "Rocky Horror" Bostwick, John Landis, Joe Dante, and more. This one has become an October perennial for me.