As in previous years, I'm doing this sponsored for Crisis, so please donate what you can. I am likely to turn my brain inside out going through the discards gained from Oxfam shops, lets have at least something good come from the experience. Also, as in previous years, I have a few recommendations of some recent/upcoming releases that you might want to try if you'd like to try the challenge yourself. One good source of films I can recommend right now is Shudder, a very good streaming site with a great selection of horror titles I checked out earlier this year. If you already have Amazon prime channels, you can access it there too. Let's take a look then at some films to get you started with your own journey into fear this year, starting with something coming out on DVD tomorrow...
The Gatehouse
Folk horror has been making a sort of a comeback in recent years, and if you'd like to introduce a younger audience to the subgenre, here's a good place to start. A great British production, with a fine mystery storyline, truly unique sights, great performances, and fun characters. I should stress that I'm not just saying this because writer/director Martin Gooch is a friend of mine, this film is genuinely an excellent piece of work.
Found Footage 3D (on Shudder)
Going for kind of the Scream of found footage movies, and succeeding pretty well. It delivers a lot of laughs, has fun taking the whole FF concept inside out, and delivers a few pretty good scares too. Hell, it even uses the 3D pretty well, using it to give a better sense of distance between the characters and the force hunting them.
Noroi: The Curse (on Shudder)
I've talked at length about this one before; suffice to say it's a very effective take on less found footage, more a mockumentary. It's a shame it hasn't been well marketed and/or distributed in English markets before now, as if it had been so in 2005 when it was made, it would have gone down a storm.
Cold Hell (on Shudder)
Here's one I saw thanks to The Duke Mitchell Film Club at Frightfest, a German/Austrian co-production, that's like a modern take on Brian De Palma at his best. It's also a pretty timely piece of work, with a lot to say about race relations, and one of the best female protagonists these films have had in quite a while.
Occupants
I saw this at last year's Sci-Fi-London film festival, and it was one of my highlights. Another found footage, but one with a quite clever storyline, which immediately separates itself from it's kin by going in a more SF direction, with good character work, and truly chilling moments. Bonus points for Star Trek veteran and one time werewolf Robert Picardo.
Hell House LLC (on Shudder)
My brother recently posted about this one, which got it on my radar; all I can really add is "what he said". Apparently there is a sequel out now, no idea what's it's like yet, but it looks a little too standard found footage so far.
The William Castle Collection
Indicator, a great UK distribution label bringing quite a few lost treasures out of the vaults, are doing a special Blu Ray release of some films from the great William Castle in October, which really are the best thing for Halloween. They naturally can't replicate some of the gimmicks like wiring the seats with buzzers for home viewing, but these films are still great old hokey fun. Also, they're releasing a special edition of one of my all time faves, Night of the Demon, definitely don't miss that one!
The Human Race
Another Sci-Fi-London discovery, I have to give extra points for that pun of a title. This is another of the old standard of a battle royale, but with a twist that it doesn't have to be the characters directly fighting each other that would determine the winner. Of course, human nature being what it is… Original, uses a teeny budget to the maximum, and it gives disabled characters and actors better roles than they often do in these sort of films.
The Chucky Franchise
The Chucky series has recently had a great return to form with 2013's Curse of Chucky, and last year's Cult of Chucky, with that latter being perhaps the best one since the original Child's Play. With a remake of the original being threatened, thanks to that old bane the rights issue, now's a good time to catch up with Brad Dourif's pint-sized alta-ego. It's actually remarkable that now the little psycho has probably the most consistently fun series out of all the 80s slashers... speaking of!
Never Hike Alone (Full film on YouTube!)
A Friday the 13th fan film which manages to be better than most of the actual Jason films. OK, that doesn't sound like much of an achievement... in fact, it kind of isn't, but it's still pretty damn good, and you don't need to know the series to have fun with us (apart from getting one reference towards the end). It makes for a nice demonstration that you don't have to go through the full slasher formula to get a good story from the character and location.
Egomaniac (Full film for free on YouTube!)
A very dark comedy take on being a woman in the Boys' Club that is the low budget horror movie scene. What makes this one extra comic/tragic is that you know a lot of the more out there points, like a producer living out of a car, or suggesting adding a talking dog to a zombie movie, are more than likely based on fact!
XX
A very neat little portmanteau from an all-female team of directors. Anthology films are great for this sort of marathon, because you get a full selection of different kinds of stories in smaller chunks, and this is no exception. Wrapped up with some lovely stop motion animation you get a truly unsettling psychological tale, an utterly pitch-black comedy, a well made monster run-around, and a clever sort-of unofficial alternative sequel to a horror classic.
Absentia
Mike Flanagan is currently one of the big names in horror at the moment, with a string of great titles under his belt, and big things on the way. This is the horror feature that really got people interested, it's a great piece of work, which is at its most powerful the less you know going in. Just go with the incredible places this tale takes you, it shows what a talent he's been from the word go. In fact, while I'm here, I'll recommend that you watch just anything he's done. He even managed to make the prequel to Ouija truly awesome, that's quite the achievement!
Ghost Burger
To end, let's have some claymation ridiculousness from Lee Hardcastle, who gave the world Thingu. This is a sequel to his ABCs of Death short T is for Toilet, and is a real tonne of fun, with superb clay gore. He's currently working on a full portmanteau project, Spook Train, so it's worth keeping an eye on his channel for more news on that.
That's a good little selection of things to get you started. So, follow my Tumblr, Twitter, and/or Instagram for my progress through the challenge, and please consider donating. Thanks!
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