October Horror Challenge 2023 - DISCUSSION THREAD & RESULTS.

Black Water (2007)

A surprisingly effective and resourceful man vs. animal Australian horror movie. It is essentially just three characters being stalked by a crocodile. Takes place largely during daytime, uses no cgi as far as I could tell and minimal use of the actual crocodile. It works as well as it does by imagining yourself in this situation and trying to think of how you would survive. Not a totally realistic movie as I don't think a croc would behave quite like the movie portrays, but the characters I was definitely rooting for. It uses a neat location for the setting as well. Very well-paced and the crocodile is quite scary. Some of it is probably stock footage of real crocodiles, but some stuff I have no idea how they got some of the shots they got. There is one specific moment in the middle of the movie that took me by surprise. This is the best crocodile/alligator themed horror movie imo.

The Popes Exorcist...solid Russell Crowe flick. Nothing too new to see here but Crowe is solid as a somewhat lighthearted priest that specializes in exorcism. The wide mouth effect is pretty tired by now but I liked a lot of the visuals, especially the effects on the boys face as the movie goes on. 

Warm Bodies...a pretty fun zombie flick. I like giving us a perspective of a zombie and his thought process early...before he start becoming alive again. Its a pretty fun version of Romeo and Juliet that i didn't pick up on until late into the movie. The main actress gave me Kristen Stewart vibes in a good way, I liked her. 

I watched the sequel last year... It's about a group of Friends Cave Diving and well you can probably guess what next. I think it's on Tubi if you are interested.

Started off the Challenge with some 1950s sci-fi horror.

The Thing From Another World (1951) This is actually my very first time watching this. It was my understanding that the alien was largely unseen, but that turned out to be not true at all. You do get a good look at the creature, although it looks like a second rate Frankenstein monster. Overall still fairly good on its own terms. The fire sequence was amazing. 6/10

The Black Scorpion (1957) A volcanic eruption near a Mexican village releases a horde of mutant arachnids. The usual stuff, but some of the stop-motions effects were quite good, done by the same guy who did the effects for King Kong 1933. And we get close-ups of the scorpions' fanged, drooling mouths and even a bit of gore. 6/10

I'd recommend The Burning (1981) personally. It's a Friday the 13th clone, but I am of the view that it's actually a better film than most of the actual Friday the 13th films. Much creepier antagonist, beautiful cinematography and the characters are more fun to observe. 

No, two made for TV slashers, School's Out 1+2, and a creature feature with mutant wasps, Stung.

The Final Terror (1983)
A group of park rangers get together with their girlfriends for some backwoods fun, unaware they're being stalked by a maniac.

This is one I never bothered with when it was first released because by then I was sick of those formualic slashers after watching so many of them. But now I decided the time was ripe to give it a try for the Challenge. It certainly was of interest for early appearances by Daryl Hannah, Rachel Ward and Joe Pantoliano, all of whom went on to bigger and better things. It was also an early directorial effort by Andrew Davis who also went on to much greener pastures (Code of Silence, Under Siege, The Fugitive, etc.). But I'm not sure why Ronald Shusett was involved with this, he was already a top screenwriter having co-written Alien with Dan O'Bannon.

Anyway, The Final Terror turned out to be the same old thing done the same old way. All the usual, tired slasher clichés abound. Davis directed with little enthusiasm, bringing nothing new or original to the table; good thing he decided to stick with action movies. Pantoliano is usually a decent actor, but here he just hams it up shamelessly.

So all-in-all, a painfully slow-moving bore. However, there is one particular bright spot involving the way the killer is trapped, with some creative camera work. But it's not worth sitting through the whole movie to get to that part.

3/10


Popcorn (1991)
Film students and their professor put together an all-night film festival showing cheesy horror movies and staging all kinds of audience participation gimmickry.  Meanwhile, a deformed killer has other plans for the event.

Another horror movie I never bothered with, but now I wish I did. Highly entertaining with tongue planted firmly in cheek. There is a nice sense of nostalgia, by paying tribute to the grand old style theater and having some references to classic films. And the faux movies shown in the theater are a lot of fun. Some clever directorial touches, and the whole thing just comes together beautifully with a knockout finale.

7/10

Yeah George Kennedy classed it up a bit. Apparently, director Jeff Lieberman was trying to do more of a Deliverance ripoff but Friday the 13th came out while they were shooting and the money people made him slasherize it a bit more, which I think was sorta the best possible outcome. Instead of being a low end thriller it's sort of a higher end early slasher.

Glad you enjoyed it, happy to help!

Just re-watched Bone Tomahawk. Liked it a better this time around. An impressive horror western with some very good performances. What starts out as a basic western leads to pure terror and one of the most gruesome death scenes of all time.  

Strange seeing Sean Young pop up in a bit part.