October Horror Movie Challenge 2018 – Round Up

Well, the Halloween season is done for another year, and with it, another one of my October Horror Movie Challenges.  This year I managed to get up to a new record of 49 movies!  Granted, I may have done a teeny bit of cheating in being a bit vague about what counted as "horror", but on the whole I'm still impressed with how many I got through, especially given my "stuff I found in charity shops" method of obtaining material.  My fundraiser for the challenge is still open, so if you have been following my Instagram posts on my progress, do please give what you can to Crisis, winter is a hard time for the homeless.  So, let's wrap up the whole thing with a look at various highs and lows amongst my movie viewing in Spoopy Season...

So, to start off, a quick recap of all the films I saw this year.  Unless specified, the films came from the big pile of DVDs...

1. Night School (1981)
2. Haunted
3. Venom (Cinema)
4. I Saw What You Did (Cinema)
5. The Mummy (2017)
6. Nightshooters (Cinema, at Raindance Film Festival)
7. Blue Blood
8. The Legacy
9. Open Water
10. The Ghost Downstairs (at the BFI Mediatheque)
11. Strait-Jacket (Cinema)
12. Tumbbad (Cinema, at the London Film Festival, #LFF)
13. Neither the Sea Nor the Sand
14. The Dead
15. Mandy (Cinema, at #LFF)
16. Return of the Living Dead Part II
17. The Nightshifter (Cinema, at #LFF)
18. The Reaping
19. The Guard Post
20. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation
21. Nightbreed: The Director's Cut (Rewatch, Cinema)
22. The Fog (Rewatch, Cinema, at #LFF))
23. Pathology
24. Scared to Death
25. Sweeney Todd (BBC)
26. Suspiria (2018) (Cinema, at #LFF)
27. The Cannibal Club
28. Vacancy
29. Sorority Row
30. May the Devil Take You (Cinema, at #LFF)
31. Son of Frankenstein (Rewatch, public screening)
32. In Fabric (Cinema, at #LFF)
33. Halloween (2018) (Cinema)
34. The Purge Election Year
35. Cam (Cinema, at #LFF)
36. The Prey (Cinema, at #LFF)
37. WΔZ
38. Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters
39. The Mutations
40. Ghostkeeper
41. Alien 2 On Earth
42. Craze
43. FunnyMan
44. Marebito
45. The Woman
46. Overlord (Cinema, a special preview at MCM Comic Con)
47. Priest
48. To Hell and Back - Shorts on Tap (Cinema)
49. Night of the Living Dead (1990) (Rewatch, private screening)

Now for the awards and "honours".  Let's get this out the way first...

Worst Film

Oh there is no debate about this one; FunnyMan.  From that absolute nadir of the British film industry the early 90s (well, it was a nadir unless you were Richard Curtis) comes this... thing.  It's obviously trying to make a new Freddy, but even Mr. Kruger in the worst of the Nightmare films (Part V by my reckoning; I actually kind of had fun with Freddy's Dead!) wasn't as painfully unfunny as the title character here.  He's like Jim Davidson, but with less charisma, if that's physically possible!  Not scary in the slightest, none of the gags land, hopelessly dated (there's a Jimmy Saville reference.  And that's the least of the film's problems!), and even the novelty of Christopher Lee having some scenes can't elevate it, as it seems like he's in a completely different movie we occasionally cut away to. It even has the gall, after a lot of wandering aimlessly around, to ask us to suddenly twenty minutes before the end care about one of the characters.  Christ, the editing in this is so bad, it makes it look like the main character is in about three different places at once at one stage, which I don't think was meant to be one of his powers. Annoyingly, there's one really cool image in here, a spiral staircase curling down impossibly far to a strange subterranean world, and I wish that had a far better movie to go with it.  This was truly one of the most painful things I have ever had to go through for this challenge.  Still, this does mean a lower bar has been set on all films I see after this.  Now I have a rule here, each film can only have one award, and I bring this up because if this film didn't feel like I was crying blood, it would have been a shoe in for...

The "What the Fuck am I Watching" Award
There's a lot about Funnyman that is just bizarre, but oddly the thing that most weirded me out wasn't any of the main character's antics.  Namely, it was the sight of one character, a psychic who discovers that evil is afoot, responding by injecting her hand with something that turns it into a gun, like she's a fleshy Auton. As that happened, I opened a book near me to check it had coherent words in, because it wouldn't have surprised me if I had started lucid dreaming.

But that film "won" a different award, so I'm giving this one to Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.  Now I don't just mean the sight of young Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger being in it, although that is odd. (BTW, their agents really don't like people bringing this up, so whatever you do, don't post about Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger being in Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation in an attempt to Googlebomb them, that would be naughty :wink:.)  Also, the extremely transphobic point of making Leatherface a full-on drag-queen isn't the full reason either.  No, it's those plus an ending that, after a lot of pissing around with the Sawyer family this time, that has a member of the Illuminanti show up to give the family a dressing down for not doing their horror right!  It's a bit like Martyrs or Cabin in the Woods, but early and... shit!  It's such a bizarre direction to take this story in. I have read some reviews stating it's some sort of statement about horror at the time; I'd believe that more if any of the preceding film was in any way competent.

I also have to give at least a nod to parts of Venom, in particular the instantly infamous "make-out" scene.  Some poor people had the job of carefully designing, animating, and rendering the CGI on a sexy lady version of Venom, with boobs, tonguing Tom Hardy.  It was a spectacularly stupid moment in 90s comics (one of oh so many) when that happened, I really couldn't believe that it turned up in the actual film.  Funny how men getting these symbiotes almost double in bodymass into 'roided out monsters, but women with symbiotes either look normal bar the odd tendril, or become fuel for Deviantart.  You know, from what I've read, a solo Venom movie has been producer Avi Arad's dream ever since he bought the Spider-Man film rights back in the day.  That's pretty sad when you think about it.  Even sadder that given the box-office, the gambit worked.

The Pale Imitation Award

You know I've been through a lot of bad ones this year if I'm having to make up new awards just so I can have a bit of a rant about them. Texas Chainsaw was quite a let down from an impressive original (and even some of the other sequels are far from terrible), but this is where I have make a special note for Return of the Living Dead Part 2. The original RotLD was a clever, fun blast of punk energy; there's none of that in this one.  Part 1 followed that important rule of horror comedies; play the horror aspect straight, let all the humour come from the characters (well, apart from maybe "Send more paramedics"); part 2 has scenes of zombies stumbling over while rising from the grave, and there's one dressed as Michael Jackson.  Part 1 had the guts to have a storyline where every logical move the characters took made the situation worse to the point of no-one getting out.  This one has a lot of utter illogic (why would the army treat things that lead to them nuking Kentucky like an UberEats delivery?) but it contrives a happy ending, which utterly ignores a tonne of loose ends.  This even has a pair of the same cast members as the first, going through the same plot arc, which not only isn't as effective as the original, it also doesn't quite fit the mechanics of how Trioxin works that the first established.  Although on that point, a sad little side-note; one of those two cast members was veteran actor James Karen, who passed away the other week aged 94.  Despite all the mean things I'm saying about the film, I don't want any to rub off on him at all, he did his best with what he had to work with, and needless to say he gets one of the best scenes in the original.  In fact, in his honour, I think I'll go rewatch the original sometime soon.  God bless ya James!  Even though I give this film this award, it's definitely in spite of, not because of you.

Oh, and for those that use that particular barometer for trashy 80s horror, no there isn't anything like part 1's ridiculous amount of nude Linnea Quigley in part 2.

The Blandest Film Award

Another new title for this year, this is for the film that pushed no envelopes, didn't exceed in any way, and firmly stood strong against the cause of being memorable. Now I was going to be a bit mean and give the nod for May the Devil Take You, as that one is just Evil Dead.  They may dress it up in different clothes, new backstory, different country etc., but it borrows huge amounts from the Sam Raimi playbook, both for original Evil Dead, and Drag Me To Hell. But it did have a bit of shocking imagery all of it's own, so I'll let it off.  I also considered The Dead, as really apart from the location shooting in Burkina Faso and Ghana, there's not a whole lot to separate this from any other post Romero zombie movie.  In fact, it kind of stepped into the same sort of beartrap Resident Evil 5 did, and be accidentally really racist, focusing on a white lead gunning down a lot of African natives, who we see engaging in acts of cannibalism- oh dear!  But it just won out because of the aforementioned pretty locations, and reiterating a mistake of the past isn't really the making of something bland.  So for this award, I'm giving it to Sorority Row, a movie that manages to look like almost every post Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer slasher at once, where not even Carrie Fisher turning up to wield a shotgun towards the end can save it from utter mediocrity.  I'd say more, but I genuinely am struggling to remember most of it.

The MSTie Award

Sort of getting more positive, as at least with this one I'm talking about things that are fun to watch.  This one is about which films of the batch would make the best material for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and I have a joint award for this one, as both, while having a few drawbacks, would still be strong contenders.  Firstly is Scared to Death, a bit of a unique title in that it has the only performance by Bela Lugosi in a colour film.  The crew of the S.O.L. have tackled Bela films before (The Corpse Vanishes, Bride of the Monster), and this has a lot for them to work with, from weird politics of the time, to "comedy" antics from the main comic relief character, to a nonsensical plot that's only really revealed to the audience right at the end.  It is a bit boring, but if they could work with Manos, this is a possibility.

The second one might not be eligible as I know they try to go a bit more family friendly with the films, but the recent Netflix series has shown they have ways around this point.  Alien 2 is amusing just from the fact the thing exists, but it has a whole lot of extra weirdness to make it fine riff-fodder, such as the stock-footage storm the film opens with, to the fascination with that bowling alley, and the way we never really see what the heck this alien actually is.  Plus I can just see the skits they can come up with just based around the film's non-ending.  Yeah, the gore might be a problem, but a lot of it isn't that well done.  Still, maybe this one would be more Rifftrax rather than MST3K...

Best Rewatch

Now we're fully into happier territory!  This time it's my favourite of the films I rewatched this time, and as you can see from the above list, those were a good selection.  Son of Frankenstein is one that has definitely grown on me over the years, to the point I consider it one of the best, and not as I just thought at first "where Young Frankenstein got a lot of gags from" (although I did giggle when we saw the doorknockers...).   The Fog is just the right thing for this time of year, down to the opening on the beach, framing the whole thing as an old campfire yarn, and the new 4k restoration and rerelease is great.  However for this one, I'm giving it to Nightbreed, which was playing at the Prince Charles Cinema.  Now I should mention that this is the director's cut, because famously this had a lot of behind the scenes issues with the studio, but we now thankfully have something far closer to what Clive Barker intended originally.  It's not perfect, the editing is still a bit choppy given they have to work with what they had, but it's still a fantastic experience; if the studio had confidence in it back in the day, it would have been a full fledged horror blockbuster.  The story is fascinating, with a fairly obvious subtext which never gets in the way of the fun, the monster designs and effects are great, David Cronenberg is wearing one of the scariest masks ever.  Oh, and that glorious final battle is a true sight to behold!  I wish this version was more readily available in the UK, I had to import my Blu Ray, as more people need to discover this one. It was great seeing it on the big screen with a few friends with me too, which leads me nicely too...

Best Film Experience

It's not just what you watch it; it's how you see it!  Now getting to see a film on a big screen with a good audience is always a fun experience, and London Film Festival gave a whole bunch of those, including a few with filmmaker Q&As and introductions.  The screening of Son of Frankenstein was at the Old Operating Theatre Museum near London Bridge, which added a tonne of novelty value.  Nightshooters was a lot of fun, as that stars a friend of mine Richard Sandling as the main villain, so catching up with him there was great, and it lead to a fun Q&A too.  Likewise, I got to see the short film showcase To Hell and Back with another acquaintance Stuart Ashen, who was there with his co-writer/co-star Dan Tomlinson and director Riyad Barmania with his short Another Game.  However, I am giving this one to the very last film I saw, Night of the Living Dead, as that was a private gathering hosted by the film's lead Patricia Tallman.  Pat often arranges small events with fans and such, and this was such a good fit for Halloween night.  I have said for a while that the Night remake is an often overlooked little gem (I'm not the only one), and it was great seeing it with people who mostly knew her from her SF work (she was a regular on Babylon 5 for several seasons) who hadn't seen it before genuinely shocked by some of the turns of the story.  BTW, Pat yearly runs a little charity campaign herself, Be A Santa, so now we're into the pre-Christmas season, please consider giving a bit this year!

Honourable Mentions

I want to highlight a couple of horror related things that don't count as movies, so not in the challenge, but I want to talk about them anyway.  Oddly both came out on the 28th of October on the BBC, and featured members of The League of Gentlemen.  Firstly was Radio 4's adaptation of the lost Nigel Kneale TV drama The Road.  This was adapted by Doctor Who fan extraordinaire Toby Hadoke, and a fine job he did too, only having to make a few nips and tucks to make it work in an audio medium.  Given it's a Nigel Kneale production and features a lot of fruity 18th century dialogue, of course Mark Gatiss, and he with the rest of the cast (including The VVitch's Ralph Ineson) bring it to life magnificently.  It's up on iPlayer until the 25th of November, definitely give this a listen if you like very clever ghost stories...

The second thing is of course Inside No. 9's Halloween special. Now if you didn't see it live, sorry but a lot of the effect is now lost, as how they pulled this one off was entirely linked to the circumstances of the broadcast. (I'm being very vague here just in case you're one of the few that haven't been spoiled as yet!)  However, even knowing the truth seeing it on iPlayer, it's still a damn good bit of telly, which pays homage to Ghostwatch magnificently.  Seriously, go watch it now if you haven't already, it will still be on iPlayer for several months.

The "Came Outta Nowhere" Award

I had heard vague, mixed things about The Woman before I found the Blu Ray in the Mind shop in Camden, so with a little bit of trepidation I picked it up, as I was fully aware that a concept like this could go very wrong.  However, this did turn out to be a very smart piece of work, acting as kind of an anti The Hills Have Eyes, having a tale of normal suburbanites against backwards cannibals, that makes it clear from the word go that it's the former who are the bad guys.  This is a very tough watch to the point where despite how much I got out the experience, I doubt I'll ever go back to watch it again.  However, that doesn't come from just a lot of gore (not that there isn't that too), it's from one of the most powerful statements about a toxic patriarchy I've seen in quite a long time.  It's a very timely piece of work, which I recommend strongly, but with a note of caution, it is a tough one.  BTW, another little surprise I discovered is that this is technically a sequel; the title character, played brilliantly Pollyanna McIntosh, first turned up in the Jack Ketchum adaptation Offspring (the original novel was a follow-up to one of his earlier books, Off Season).  Apparently McIntosh herself is working (writing, acting, and directing) a sequel of her own, Darlin', it will be interesting to see how that turns out.  There was however one other big surprise I had over the course of this challenge, but I'm giving that one the nod for...

Best Discovery

So I was sat in the BFI, needing to burn some time before my next film, Strait-Jacket, got started (that was a lot of fun too!), so I went into their Mediatheque facility, where you can view a lot of their archive videos.  Looking for something appropriate, I picked The Ghost Downstairs as it seemed interesting, and the few images I'd seen fascinated me.  It was an absolute treat, one that I wish they'd do a DVD release or something so more can see it.  This was a special that aired on BBC2 at Christmas 1982, a traditional time for ghost stories, but this one was meant for a more family audience.  Doing so doesn't mean anything is watered down though; this tale does cover some very dark areas, including regret and the changing nature of personal desires with age.  It's also based on a very solid idea; what if a lawyer, in doing a deal with the devil, tried to trick them via the small print, only to have this turn round to bite them even worse than it might have.  Also, the unique look, of live actors against hand drawn and animated backgrounds, is gorgeous to take in, it works so well here; wonder if it was a trial run for similar sequences in the Beeb's Narnia and Box of Delights serials?  Ghost stories for Christmas are always right up my street, and I am so glad to have finally tried this one.  Now BFI, DVD plz?

Best New Release/Preview Film

Speaking of the BFI, it should be no surprise that the London Film Festival provided some of the best new stuff this month.  Of the genre stuff I saw there, I will give a big nod to Cam, a Blumhouse production that's an incredibly rare thing; a horror movie that's sex positive!  It manages to tell a fascinating tale of online identity in the realm of exotic webcam performers, in a way that doesn't shame the characters, of be really exploitative.  I think Netflix have already picked it up, if you like Black Mirror, give that one a go on release.  Also, the remake of Suspiria is a great piece of work; it does seem to be dividing critics somewhat, but from my perspective it's a great remake, using the key components of the original's story in a new context, to make a different point.  I think that as more people see it on general release, the insane final act is going to be legendary amongst audiences very quickly!  However, if we're going with the genre piece I enjoyed the most, that's easy to answer; In Fabric.  Now this is very much on the periphery on horror, but it is very much the sort of tale I'd class as "uncanny"; a mash-up of ghost story for Christmas (well, Boxing Day sales), and Are You Being Served, in a style reminiscent of one of the Eurohorror experimentalists such as Jean Rollin. It's also one scientifically designed to get a reaction out of you in a particular way; writer/director Peter Strickland has said that he deliberately included elements of ASMR videos into the film, so if you are already susceptible to this sort of effect, it should be quite an experience.  It's a strange mash-up of genres, but it's one that I enjoyed immensely upon seeing, and I'm still pondering about parts of it for now, so it's my pick for this year; look out for it come March.

Final Thoughts
Well, another successful challenge, and I think it's safe to say that the genre is still in very rude health.  This month, Halloween has been a ridiculously huge box office success, making back in just the opening weekend over $90m worldwide on a $10m budget, and is likely to be one of the year's biggest successes.  I can see one major consequence of this already; between this and the success of Happy Death Day last year (which is getting a sequel in February), I think there's a good chance that a full blown slasher renaissance is on the way.  There are already plans afoot to get the Friday the 13th franchise up and running again... well, as soon as the legal quagmire that is the rights to the series has been sorted out (if it ever does).  I'll put even money on fresh news of an Elm Street relaunch before this month is out.

Beyond that, there have been big streaming successes on Netflix too, such at The Haunting of Hill House series which I need to catch up on as soon as I finally get my Netflix trial. On that note, director Mike Flanagan is now making what is currently my most looked forward to big horror project, an adaptation of Stephen King's Shining sequel Doctor Sleep, and it will be very interesting how it will reconcile the book's version of events with the Kubrick film (which thanks to Ready Player One a whole bunch more people have been reminded of/discovered).  There are more King adaptations to come too, like the new Pet Sematary which seems to be taking things in a folk horror-ish direction, which seems quite a good fit.  But also next year is IT Chapter Two, which will be interesting to see as it's with the present day material that the book gets very strange, so let's see how much of that (like the GodTurtle guiding the characters) ends up on screen.

On the whole then, horror is entrenched in the mainstream firmly, moreso than it has for a good long while.  It probably does have to do with us living through "interesting times", both reflecting this age, and acting as a sort of reassurance that as scary as things can get, we can fight back.  Which just means that I'll probably have plenty of material to get through next year. For now though, I've sorted out a few more light and fluffy things for the next few weeks to wash my palette after all of that, so until next year, please give to the fundraiser, and stay scared!