October Horror Movie Challenge 2020 - Fundraising Begins

It's that time again!  Start the jingle!

"Two more months till Halloween!
"Halloween!
"Halloween!
"Two more months till Halloween!
"Silver Shamrock!"

#Blogtober 30 - Trailer of the Week - From Beyond the Grave

Since I've nearly finished Blogtober, the big day of Halloween is tomorrow, and the Justgiving page has been my most successful yet (BTW, please consider throwing a few pennies in).  Therefore, for today's trailer, I've picked something appropriate that I know I can have a lot of fun writing about.  Wasting no time on pre-trailer waffle (I'll just waste the time afterwards instead!), here's 1974's From Beyond the Grave...

#Blogtober 29 - Halloween Bloggery - Dr. Terror's Vault of Horrors

Remember the BBC's own horror host?  On Halloween night 1992, the same night that the legendary Ghostwatch aired, there was a horror night on BBC2.  It was hosted by Dr. Walpurgis, a character played by Guy Henry (who after being buried in make up for this role, would be buried in CGI for playing Tarkin in Rogue One), with dialogue written by horror author and film critic Kim Newman.  He was such a hit that, after being rebranded Dr. Terror, there would be several horror showings on BBC One hosted by him, across 1993 to 1996.  Recently, thanks to various bloggers, such as VHiStory, many of these have been put up on YouTube, including over an hour of the interview segments from the 1992 Halloween night, so I thought I'd share a bunch of ones I could find on here.  I've also arranged a YouTube playlist to have them in order.  Ah, we need more wisecracking demons to spice up film screenings.  Enjoy!

#Blogtober 27 - Book Review - Ghoster by Jason Arnopp

It's safe to say that a lot of horror creators have not adjusted well to the existence of mobile phones, often trying rather contrived ways of avoiding characters easily calling for help.  Now some more astute creators have simply worked out that being able to make a call might not be as much help in some situations.  For example, the show and film Ghost Stories has a great section where a character on a phone constantly doesn't harm the tension one little bit, not least for it giving us the classic line "Fucking O2!".  Others have realised that the ever presence of not just mobiles but social media connections can be in and of itself a source of terror.  There's actually a film out this weekend, Countdown, which is basically "What if Ring or Final Destination but with an app?".  For a more thoughtful take though, there's the recently released novel Ghoster, by Jason Arnopp.

#Blogtober 25 - Halloween Bloggery - No, not that one...

I've been thinking a bit about cases of films and shows having similar titles recently.  A while ago at a pubmeet, someone mentioned liking the show The Good Wife, which led me and a friend down a tangent of discussing Vyvyan's rant about The Good Life until we realised the mistake.  Well, with the horror genre, this could lead to some hilarious issues, as there are a few cases of kids films with very similar or identical names to fright films.  This almost certainly did lead to quite a few traumas for children when parents didn't have a close enough look at what the video store gave them back in ye olden tymes, or if they just click on the first thing that a streaming service suggests when they type in the word today.  So I thought I'd have a quick look at a few notable examples of this sort of thing; consider this perhaps a warning to look very carefully at exactly what categories Netflix lists a film under before you put something on for the kiddlywinks...

#Blogtober 22 - Halloween Bloggery - Apocalypse of the Blood Freak

It's a free film recommendation today, for a new indie low budget horror project.  And when I say low budget, I mean a £200 budget.  From a London based film collective, Tite90 productions, this takes a very experimental approach, with particular notice to horror tropes and cliches, not really making fun of them like Darkplace, more having a dialogue with these elements.  It's partially inspired by a pair of cult titles; Blood Freak and Troll 2.  For the first, it's in the way that even in many old exploitation horrors, there was a definite attempt to make a real heartfelt point.  From the second, it's from the way you'd sometimes have sequels that have no real connection to the originals.  Following its own  particular DIY Filmmaking manifesto, nicknamed DOGGO, this has a "decentralised" approach, with several members of the crew creating their own sections, within the resources available, and the whole thing linked together with careful editing. With inventive visuals, in a nightmare logic narrative, which goes all the way from pastiche to genuine mindfucks of the highest order, this is a real treat, and I'm not just saying this because a friend of mine made it and narrated it. So, for free on YouTube now, just in time for Halloween, enjoy Apocalypse of the Blood Freak!

#Blogtober 21 - Halloween Bloggery - Commercial Break

Something a bit different today, with a help from a few friends, I decided to put together a little compilation of terrifying/creepy/grotesque adverts from our childhoods.  Let's start with the most obvious one; a while ago (geez, it was over a decade ago!), Channel 4 did their list of The 100 Greatest Scary Moments, and this little tribute to German Expressionism was one of the only commercials to make the list.  They actually went all in on this, using old-fashioned hand-cranked cameras to give it that uneven, unnatural movement silent films often had.  Beware the Judderman my dear, when the Moon is fat...

#Blogtober 19 - October Horror Movie Challenge - Canary Vs. The Halloween Franchise

Woo, it's all done!  I've finished the whole Halloween franchise for the Challenge this year!  I have a complete view of this series in entirety as a phenome- wait, sorry, what's that YouTube?

Oh.  Huh, more next year then.  Well, in the meantime, having gone through all of the films released so far, here's my ranking for the series, entry by entry.  I'll go favourite to least favourite, as I don't think number 1 is going to be any kind of surprise.

#Blogtober 18 - Halloween Bloggery - Scream, Misty, and The Thirteenth Floor!

Hey kids, COMICS!!!  Yeah, going a bit different today, talking about the funny books.  Now Rebellion, the current publishers of 2000 A.D. have been buying up the rights to a few older British titles in recent years, for republication after a long time in limbo.  Two major titles included in there are Misty and Scream.  Misty was an interesting one in that it was intended for girls, but had excellent stories of terror and the supernatural; full points to them for recognising that yes, people other than teenage boys liked horror way back in the seventies!  Scream was another anthology, from the mid-eighties, which had a more general mix of horror themed strips.  Rebellion have been releasing some collected trade editions of quite a few of the strips from these, but the last few years they've gone a step further, and produced some special edition comics for Halloween featuring all new stories!

#Blogtober 17 - Trailer(s) of the Week - Elm Street Oddities

Time for a little reel of extended trailers related to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, as discovered by The Duke Mitchell Film Club.  First of all, who here remembers the Freddy Krueger TV series?  Called Freddy's Nightmares, it ran for a couple of seasons, and was basically an anthology show.  There were a few episodes connected to the Nightmare on Elm Street storyline, including the pilot, but mostly they were unrelated horror stories, with Freddy acting as a greek chorus, basically being this show's Cryptkeeper (although the Tales from the Crypt TV series started after this began.  Hmm, I wonder...).  Now there isn't a full DVD boxset out there; there was only one, three episode DVD released in the UK yonks ago, but you can see a couple of episodes as they are bonus features on the Nightmare on Elm Street complete collection Blu Ray set.  But well before that though, a bunch of episodes got released on VHS in the UK; here's an advert from the time...

#Blogtober 14 - October Horror Movie Challenge - Canary vs. Twilight

Well, I did it.  I kept the promise made when I started my fundraiser this year, and have sat through all five Twilight films.  I am still recovering.  Before I take the discs along to Computer Exchange, let's have my final thoughts on the franchise, film by film followed by a general overview.  Now before I start, let's be clear that I am focusing on the films specifically, I haven't read the books (I'd need to have gotten a lot more in the fundraiser before I give up that much of my time to them!), but I know of one or two things that are different in the films, so I might make reference to those.  So let's get to it, in lots of spoilery detail; hang on tight spider monkeys!  (I can't believe I just typed that!)

#Blogtober 12 - Halloween Bloggery - Podcast Recommendations 2

Well, my first podcast recommendations episode went down well, so here's a few more favourites.  This was definitely the plan all along, and absolutely not at all because I realised I completely blanked on a few obvious titles, honest gov'!

#Blogtober 10 - Silly Movie Trailer of the Week - Bloodbath at the House of Death

I have strayed far from my roots, going for trailers that are far too respectable, we need something utterly ridiculous.  Help us out Kenny Everett!

#Blogtober 7 - Halloween Bloggery - Alien War

Short one today, as I have a few other things going on, I just want to share something very cool I found on YouTube.  So this weekend, amongst other things, I had a good time at the Namco Station arcade in London; nice evening, I won enough tickets to get a stuffed Pac-Man ghost, but that got me thinking about the fact that there just aren't a lot of good arcades anymore.  I know why, rise of online multiplayer games and such, but it's still a shame, video arcades were great social venues.  One I used to go to a lot was the top of the Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus, Funland.  As I'm writing this, I'm actually getting a bit nostalgic for a day when Street Fighter IV had just been launched; I remember the line for the arcade cabinets, the guys who had obviously already figured out all the combos and supermoves, and getting my arse handed to me first time I got on.  Good times, but it's not that exhibit at the Trocadero I want to talk about today.

#Blogtober 5 - Halloween Bloggery - Podcast Recommendations

Today I'd like to recommend a few horror related podcast series and/or episodes.  I've been getting very much into podcasts the last few years, they are especially good for doing the long walks that are my main form of exercise, and it's clear that their popularity is not weaning at all.  It does make the old-school radio fan in me happy that the audio medium is still going strong, just in a different form.  So let's have a good selection for Spoopy Season.

#Blogtober 3 - Trailer of the Week - Intruder

I was a bit hesitant about having this one, as the trailer is a bit spoilery, but it's been on my mind recently, so I want to have a chat about it.  What I'm going to do is have a 100% spoiler free first paragraph, recommending the film, and a deeper discussion, trying my best not to give the game away, after the page break.  So to start, if you want a fun retro slasher this Halloween season, I definitely recommend tracking down 1989's Intruder, it's available on pretty good blu rays from Synapse Films in the States and 88 Films in the UK.  It's got good acting, fun camerawork, pretty damn spectacular gore effects, and you get to see the future director of Spider-Man being murdered.  Plus it deviates from slasher cliches in some notable ways, including avoiding the sleazy, somewhat misogynistic areas that this sub-genre can fall into a little too often, and delivers a real gut punch of an ending.  Now that shock ending isn't given away in the trailer, but the identity of the mystery killer is (even though it's really not too hard to figure out in the film), so if you want to go in really fresh, just go find a copy and check it out!  (Heheh, check it out, it's set in a supermarket, it's fu- nevermind.).  Some more details and hints at spoilers after the video and page break.

#Blogtober 1 - Blogtober Begins and Creepy Puppetry

What's this?  Two crazy daily challenges this month?  Yes, in what I can only assume is some sort of cry for help, as well as my regular #octoberhorrormoviechallenge, I'm taking the #Blogtober challenge too.  The rules of this are very simple; post new blog content every day in October.  What will I be posting?  Well my main thoughts about the films I'm viewing for the OHMC I'll be putting on my Instagram feed, which will also show up on my Twitter and Tumblrs too, but I may have on here a few discussions about what I've been seeing on here too, if it's something special I have a lot to say about, and if it would count as a "Canary Duty" title.  There are a few other non-horror things I'll be seeing on regular release, and at the London Film Festival, too, so I'll have my thoughts on them here too. But mostly though, since it is Spoopy Season too, I'll be having on here some fun little Halloween and horror related links.  I've been tormenting anyone following me on the socials with them every year for a while now, complete with the Silver Shamrock jingle, so I might as well use them to bulk things out on here.  Right, one post a day for a month, let's see if I can commit to at least something regular on here for a change!

Halloween Bloggery - Another Game

Forty days left till All Hallowe's Eve, so it's time to start sharing random cool thematically appropriate stuffs.  This time it's a short film I saw on the big screen last year as part of a horror shorts showcase.  It's from the same team behind comedy feature film Ashens and the Quest for the Game Child (and the upcoming Ashens and the Polybius Heist), including star Dan Tomlinson, director Riyad Barmania, and internet funnyman himself Stuart Ashen.  It's a fun little creepy tale, all about the risks of gambling, and the "it'll never happen to me" fallacy.  I'll let the short, which is now officially available on YouTube, speak for itself, enjoy Another Game.

Please consider donating to my regular Halloween fundraiser for Crisis!