Salems Lot (2024) - A solid 6 out of 10, watchable but forgettable. Vampire moves into a small town turns the towns people into vampires and a small group discovers this and fights against it.
There's already been the two mini-series for this King story and the movie doesn't do too much different as far as I can recall. But this movie actually would have benefitted with an extra 30 minutes or so. They gave the main vampire a voice, but he barely has any speaking parts. You have zero sense of who he. I think additional time to flesh out the big bad would have helped. In addition, the characters who realize they are fighting against vampires make that connection quick - which was a bit odd. So, I think a little extra time spent to make that connection would have helped.
The one thing I loved about this movie was bringing back the glowing crosses. Such a nice effect. Wish they added some similar sorcery type effects to the stakes and holy water, which to my disappointment, never got used. But no, only the crosses got that treatment. Even how the vampires died was pretty low FX - with the stakes no FX at all.
So likely a small budget but seems like they did what they could.
Nearly finished S2 of From.
It's pretty good, with mystery on top of mystery, though I too worry if they can tie it together for a satisfying conclusion when the show finishes after however many series.
This has made me want to introduce Lost to my lad, nearly 14, I think he'll like it.
Started letting him join me for some light horror film viewing now. A Quiet Place 1 and 2 for example were a hit. That kind of thing. Any recommendations for similarly suitable showings for him? I have list in my head, there's a lot to choose from, but it'd be cool to gather some other thoughts. 
I’ve started watching Penny Dreadful again. The first season is so good. The downside of that show is you come away frustrated that Eva Green doesn’t star in more movies and TV series.
Nearly finished S2 of From.
It's pretty good, with mystery on top of mystery, though I too worry if they can tie it together for a satisfying conclusion when the show finishes after however many series.This has made me want to introduce Lost to my lad, nearly 14, I think he'll like it.
Started letting him join me for some light horror film viewing now. A Quiet Place 1 and 2 for example were a hit. That kind of thing. Any recommendations for similarly suitable showings for him? I have list in my head, there's a lot to choose from, but it'd be cool to gather some other thoughts.
I just finished S1 E3 of my rewatch. Still a fan. At my current pace, I'm still a bit away from S3.
Thinking of horror dramas, anyone watched Them, Prime Video? I've just watched the first episode, I think it fits in the horror genre. I would recommend it so far.
Prime Video description:
THEM is a limited anthology series that explores terror in America. The first season, 1950s-set COVENANT centers around a Black family who move from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood during the period known as The Great Migration. The family’s idyllic home becomes ground zero where malevolent forces, next door and otherworldly, threaten to taunt, ravage and destroy them.
I’ve started watching Penny Dreadful again. The first season is so good. The downside of that show is you come away frustrated that Eva Green doesn’t star in more movies and TV series.
I remember loving the first season and getting completely bored and frustrated with the second one. I don't know I even finished it... 
Higgledy wrote:I’ve started watching Penny Dreadful again. The first season is so good. The downside of that show is you come away frustrated that Eva Green doesn’t star in more movies and TV series.
I remember loving the first season and getting completely bored and frustrated with the second one. I don't know I even finished it... :(
I watched all three season but the following seasons weren’t up to the first’s quality. At least I can watch season one now and appreciate it for what it is.
Sometimes a writer has a season’s worth of astonishing ideas and concepts in them (that have been gestating over many, many years) and then, when they or others have to write more, trying to match what’s gone before within a specified schedule, it’s an impossible task.
Watched Strange Darling which was hyped up. Probably want to go in blind with this movie. I'm not sure if there is a twist. I think the title cards that say who is playing who kind of points things out. Maybe not.
I liked the movie. I didn't love it. The movie is told out of order which I usually don't like. Good acting.
hmmm, well who is Gary Gilmore? Wait is that the dad we rarely see in the Gilmore Girls? Oh it all make sense now. This is why safe words are needed.
Watched Terrorizer 2. I had heard that 1 was garbage but that 2 was decent so I just skipped to 2. I don't think I've ever been so bored watching a horror movie. The effects were so bad that the gore wasn't even effective. One good visual idea for a character isn't enough to make a movie watchable. How are there about to be four movies worth of this?
Watched Strange Darling which was hyped up. Probably want to go in blind with this movie. I'm not sure if there is a twist. I think the title cards that say who is playing who kind of points things out. Maybe not.
I liked the movie. I didn't love it. The movie is told out of order which I usually don't like. Good acting.
hmmm, well who is Gary Gilmore? Wait is that the dad we rarely see in the Gilmore Girls? Oh it all make sense now. This is why safe words are needed.
I definitely want to see Strange Darling. I have a good feeling about it from what folks are saying. I’m trying not to learn too much.
[quote="Higgledy"]
Higgledy wrote:I’ve started watching Penny Dreadful again. The first season is so good. The downside of that show is you come away frustrated that Eva Green doesn’t star in more movies and TV series.
Sometimes a writer has a season’s worth of astonishing ideas and concepts in them (that have been gestating over many, many years) and then, when they or others have to write more, trying to match what’s gone before within a specified schedule, it’s an impossible task.
I couldn't agree more! 
After the disappointment that was Terrifier 2, I watched Slumber Party Massacre. Much better than Terrifier 2. Still not good, just a Halloween rip-off but still better than that thing.
Not sure this is horror, but I watched The Wasp which is basically a 2 women show in pretty much a single location. I don't think I should say anything more than an old friend comes up with a proposition. At one point I
kinda figured out how it was going to end but that didn't detract from the experience. Good acting by both leads.
The Speak No Evil remake was pretty much the original with Hollywood wish fulfilment at the end. Not bad, just doesn't hit as hard as the original.
The weekend's movies:
The Masque of the Red Death - Possibly Roger Corman's most well-known Poe adaptation? Prince Prospero and his hangers-on are partying it up while the horrible red death stalks the countryside. Since the original story was a couple of pages, here he kidnaps a young girl to seduce into the joys of debauchery and worshipping Satan, and brings her father and fiancee along to torture. There's also a subplot that throws in an adaptation of the Hop-Frog story.
While it's not scary in the slightest, it's hard not to enjoy Vincent Price hamming things up as the most depraved man in the world.
Malum - A rookie cop's first day is the last shift in a station that's about to be decommissioned. It was also the station where her father took a shotgun to a couple of co-workers before he turned it on himself, after a run in with a local cult that worships the Low God.
The lead's fine, and there's some neat gore effects, but it didn't work for me. It lays out the ground rules early: the cult and the malevolent forces at the station will f*ck with her, you can't trust anything you see, so what the f*ck does anything matter. She's nice and well meaning, so it's not like there's some purgatorial thing happening. She just gets stamped with DOOMED in the opening act, and the rest is twiddling thumbs until we get to the end.
After the disappointment that was Terrifier 2, I watched Slumber Party Massacre. Much better than Terrifier 2. Still not good, just a Halloween rip-off but still better than that thing.
Terrifier 3 out this week.
Today's viewing was Suitable Flesh, an adaptation of Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep. And having been developed by Stuart Gordon before he died, it's much in the vein of From Beyond and Re-Animator: horny and goopy.
Heather Graham is a psychiatrist who gets fascinated by a patient that is convinced his father is trying to take over his body. Too late she realizes that the apparent multiple personality disorder is actually another mind taking over. And now it wants her body. She's having such a blast playing all the different people occupying her body during the movie. Hell, everyone's pretty much game and dialed in, which it makes it's a real fun watch. The only real knock I have against it is how cheap it looks. And yeah, it's obviously a low-budget movie, but so was Re-Animator.
Also, Barbara Crampton: still a smokeshow at 65. Damn.
From Beyond
Just watched this yesterday. It was as expected for a Stuart Gordon movie.
Watched The Platform 2 which is bad. The first movie is good. If you do watch 2 make sure to watch the first one first.
That’s too bad! I assumed they would have been able to build off the first one.
I watched Fascination. Because I'd never seen a Jean Rollin movie before, and with an 80 minute runtime, it didn't seem like that big an investment.
Sometimes 80 minutes can be a very long time.
To be fair to the movie, for cheap eurosleaze, it can at times look quite good and create a mood, but so little happens. A gang of thieves have a falling out, one of them takes refuge in a chateau which just has two women in it, and they're very intent on him not leaving before night falls and their other friends show up. Oops they're all vampires. The end. In between there's boobs and one of the women summarily dispatches the gang hunting their chosen victim with a scythe. I like boobs a much as the next person, but that's not enough.
I watched the most recent VHS movie on Shudder: [b]VHS Beyond[/b(the stories in most of the VHS anthology movies are fun or at least interesting. VHS Viral being a low point.) Most of the short stories in this one were just ok but the last one, despite a less than promising start, was brilliant.
Reasons why. I won’t go into detail:
It doesn’t rely on aliens as abductors or monsters. Instead the protagonists fate is a result of alien technology being a little too helpful.
No idea if it's been talked about since we have no functioning search, but I watched The Belko Experiment, which was mildly amusing but didn't really bring much in the way of clever new ideas to the table. It's Battle Royale inside a corporate office, and it hints at surprise and intrigue but mostly delivers the obvious. But John C. McGinley in an office Battle Royale going exactly how you'd expect was enough.
Watched Out of Darkness, where I love the setup but it didn't quite deliver. It takes place 45k years ago with early man. A small group fled their homeland to start a new life across the sea in a place they expected to be lush with life. But turns out this paradise is barren and lifeless and strange. Plus, something is hunting them.
Unfortunately, it's kinda slow moving where the thing hunting them is not really seen till near the end. Most of the film is the group in the dark, by a campfire hearing noises. These guys were also not great hunters and I have to believe 45k years ago hunters were bad asses and tough as hell. So it was a bit of a letdown they made them scared and a bit weak.
I did like the reveal at the end. But anything anthropological I'm almost always going to enjoy it. I'll even overlook the fantastic haircuts each of them had for 43k BC.
I watched this tonight, after reading your post, and enjoyed it for going in a different direction. I think the whole scared, weak part was very intentional as they were in new land, undermanned, starving, and dealing with an unknown predator. The movie art does say "The Birth of Fear" after all! Although, these were the same people that had been dealing with gigantic predators, for ages, so that could be disputed.
There were some hard to believe moments but I did also like the reveal at the end. I wish more directors would take shots at non traditional horror settings. The closest ones I can think of were The Ritual and Prey which were both great.
Watched VHS Beyond and liked it. The way they did the wrap around was odd. They could have connected it to all the segments but it was completely its own thing except in the overall them. I wonder if the person that did the wrap around even knew what the other segments would be.
There were a couple of segments I really didn't like until the very end which made me love them. It was fun seeing a youtube game reporter/reviewer in one segment. They had some good original ideas in this one.
Watched Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, a no-budget Australian zombie apocalypse flick. (Shot over four years on weekends levels of no-budget.) It's a lot of fun! A lot of DIY energy, some novel twists on the genre, and the change in setting all help it feel pretty fresh.
Saw that The Blob (1988) was on Paramount+. This is kinda a forgotten remake of the original. But I love it. Some fun sequences and situations. The effects are nicely done for the time. And you got Kevin Dillion as the town rebel who has one of the best looking mullets of that era.
It's a bit rare for it to be on streaming services. A few years ago it was on Criterion service then vanished until now. I had gotten sick of waiting and rented it last year - worth it.
But yeah check it out for some fun 80's sci-fi, small-town, horror.
The Blob is great, and the practical effects are a masterclass.
And today's movie was House. Or Hausu.
I know I'm not contributing anything new here, but what a weird f*cking movie.
I remember The Blob remake as being extremely good. Actually that’d be a good one for horror movie nights after the Omen movies.
The Blob remake is a hard, HARD R. I had to forget some of those kills.
Watched Deadstream, a found footage horror comedy about an asshole streamer that's making a comeback six months after one of his stunts went really wrong. Said comeback is staying overnight at a haunted house that turns out to be haunted for real.
Some of the apparitions/zombies look pretty rubbery, but it works with the tone, it's satisfying to the protagonist suffer while he simultaneously manages to not be totally insufferable, and the reveal about why the house is haunted is pretty funny. A pretty good time!
I remember really enjoying The Blob (1988) not least because if Shawnee Smith.
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