Category: Halloween Spooktacular

Day 25

The Collector (2009)

Directed by Marcus Dunstan

When down on his luck ex-con Arkin O’Brien needs money to pay off vicious loan sharks, he decides the only way to get the fast cash he needs is to rob the home of a wealthy family he’s doing construction work for. However, when he arrives that night, he finds that he wasn’t the first one to get there, and finds the house rigged with deadly booby-traps that put not only him at danger but also the family he thought had gone away for the weekend. A bit different from other slasher movies we’ll be covering this week, the booby-trap murder methods are what set The Collector apart from other slasher icons and if you always thought that Home Alone would be way better if it had a hard R-rating well then look no further! The sheer excess of violence in this movie is impressive, and the creativity and cruelty of many of these traps help establish a unique ultra-bleak tone that sets The Collector apart from other slashers.

What makes The Collector work for me is the simple but effective character-work and acting. Everyone feels like a real person with understandable wants and needs and it was such a smart decision to avoid the bad slasher trope of intentionally writing characters you want to see die. Sure, some people here are shitty, but they’re shitty in human ways that feel real and Arkin is one of the better horror protagonists I’ve seen in recent years. He’s made some bad decisions but wants to do the right thing and make up for his mistakes and he has a big heart, which is endearing but also gets him into trouble. It certainly sets him apart from The Collector, who is a great villain, a truly disgusting degenerate with a unique look and interesting end goal. It’s good that The Collector’s backstory isn’t over-explained and they actually manage to keep some mystique to him, which was smart. The Collector isn’t a movie for everyone, it certainly will not win any new converts to the slasher movie genre, but if you are up for something weird, bleak, violent, and fast-paced, The Collector may have what you’re looking for. Recommended.

Day 24

Tales From The Hood (1995)

Directed by Rusty Cundieff

When a group of drug dealers stop by a funeral home to pick up a package of illicit substances, they meet an odd funeral director, who weaves four tales of murder, pain, and vengeance for the hardened group. These tales cover a wide range of topics; police corruption, domestic violence, institutionalized racism, and gang violence are all covered, but what is interesting about all of these stories is how these topics don’t feel tacked on or cheesy, but like real topics that many people deal with on a daily basis. It helps that the stories themselves are each very different, the first is about a black rookie cop who sees something terrible on his first patrol, the second is about a teacher who notices alarming bruises on one of his students, the third is about a racist politician, and the final tale concerns a gang member forced to face his crimes against his own community. 

Like in all of these anthologies some stories are better than others, my personal favorite is the opening one about cops, all of these stories have aged pretty well but that one in particular is still so relevant right now. My least favorite is probably the one about gang violence, but I wouldn’t even say it’s because of the story, it’s more because of how tired I am of hearing the phrase, “But what about black on black crime?” whenever police violence gets brought up. It was definitely smart to have these two segments at the opposite ends of the anthology to try and avoid that direct comparison. They’re all solidly made shorts though, all with good acting, good visuals, and clear passion behind each story that elevates everything here. We’d definitely recommend this anthology and it is perfect for a Halloween viewing!   

Day 23

Spiral (2019)

Directed by Kurtis David Harder

When gay couple Malik and Aaron move to a small town with their daughter Kayla, they encounter an expectedly awkward welcoming party that seems well intentioned but not exactly politically correct. As the days pass, Malik begins noticing the neighbors participating in strange meetings after dark, meetings that seem to coincide with threatening events in their own home. Spiral seems heavily influenced by Get Out, which isn’t a bad thing, Get Out is a masterpiece that everyone should watch, but the thing about Get Out was how tricky it was to get that perfect balance of social commentary, true horror, and gripping characters that made it so special. Spiral doesn’t achieve that, but it does succeed in bringing together some quality actors to tell a story that will probably resonate with many people’s experiences, which is always a good thing. Speaking of the actors, the performances are the best part of this movie, particularly Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman whose emotional range and intensity are impressive and captivating, with the entire cast being at least good. Even when some characters’ actions don’t make much sense, the actors do their best to try and make things seem reasonable.

I don’t want to give spoilers for this movie, but I will say what kind of broke it for me was what I would consider an absurd sequence between two important characters where a main character is showing another a bunch of signs that things are not right here, and another character is comically dismissive of everything this person is saying. Without those scenes, or maybe if they were changed a little, I think I would like this movie more, but those sequences broke my immersion and nothing else could really get it back at that point. To be fair though, there is a lot of good character work, some impressive visuals considering the budget, and a neat story hidden beneath all these strange character interactions. There’s a stark gritty realism here that will also definitely be divisive, but I would still generally recommend this film so long as you know what you’re getting into. 

Day 22

Sugar Hill (1974)

Directed by Paul Maslansky

When Diana “Sugar” Hill’s fiancee, Langston, is murdered by a group of mafia thugs after refusing to sell his nightclub to them, she is desperate for revenge. In her grief, she calls on voodoo, and unleashes the fearsome power of Baron Semedi to get even. Admittedly more horror-adjacent than true horror, Sugar Hill is great fun with a ton of cool visuals and neat zombie effects. It’s an interesting twist having the zombie controller as the hero, and Sugar Hillis a cool, badass lead, played well by Marki Bey. Don Pedro Colley, as Baron Semedi, steals a lot of the scenes he’s in because he is clearly having a great time hamming it up.

There are some problems here but they mostly stem from the movie being a product of its time, we’d say. Because this is a ’70s Blaxploitation film the N-word is said. A lot. However much this bothers people does vary person to person, but just keep that in mind, should you want to watch this movie. Also if I could cut out the last minute of this film I definitely would, as it plays into a lot of unfortunate stereotypes about black men. Overall though, this is a fun atmospheric horror-flavored revenge tale with a lot of N’awlins charm. Recommended.

Day 21

The Perfection (2018)

Directed by Richard Shepard

Content Warning: This review of The Perfection contains discussions of sexual violence and minor spoilers.

When former cellist prodigy Charlotte reunites with her old teachers, she has an instant connection with their new protege, Lizzie. When Charlotte joins Lizzie on a trip to rural China, the two begin a dark journey that will leave both of them changed forever. A lot of the film is carried by the two leads, who are both fine actresses with great chemistry, which helps keep the movie grounded when the twists start. Like a lot of movies that describe themselves as ‘Twisty’ the twists range in believability, some are fun and wild, whereas others don’t make too much sense but generally the plot is okay. Some of the cinematography is also very nice and the last shot of the film is so brilliant they had to have thought of that first and then worked backwards to make a story around it.

So it sounds like I liked the movie and would recommend it, right? Wrong. At about the 1 hour mark the film is chugging along and building towards a big dark reveal that defines the story. What is that reveal, you ask? Rape. Child rape. A series of child rapes stretching back decades. I shouldn’t have to say why you should not write a series of child rapes into a silly twisty plot but I guess I will. Rape is not a fun twist. Once you include rape in your story it is now a feel bad story and that puts the last act of this movie so at odds with the rest of the film that the entire experience was ruined for us. The Perfection came so close to being a fun twisty dark story but it completely misunderstood what should go in a movie like this and destroys its own creation. Not recommended.

Day 20 

Bones (2001)

Directed by Ernest Dickerson

When a group of young folk decide to buy a decrepit abandoned building in the projects and turn it into a nightclub to launch their music career, they make a frightening discovery in the basement – the ghastly remains of an unfortunate murder victim. When they decide to press on with their plans regardless of what they find, the wrath of the angry dead comes back to haunt them in the form of the specter of the murdered man, who is played by Snoop Dogg. I’ll be upfront here, Bones is kind of a mess. There were so many ideas and horror concepts jammed into this movie that a lot of them don’t really have the payoff they need, and it is particularly weird that the movie switches from a haunted house type movie to a campy supernatural slasher at about the hour mark. But the strangest thing of all is I think I actually enjoyed this movie. 

Bones is strongest when it’s focusing on two things, the cast and the, at times, pretty creepy visuals. The group of friends all seem like real friends, which helps a lot to make them likeable and sympathetic, and Pam Grier is great as usual, but the show gets stolen by Michael T. Weiss who plays a dirty cop and delivers a creepy, disgusting, and memorable performance. Visually, Bones is at its best when it sticks to the haunted house, which has a cool urban gothic feel to it, and the practical horror effects work quite well. When the typical early 2000s bad CGI shows up everything goes a bit downhill, but there is still enough here that is enjoyable. Bones isn’t for everyone but if you’re looking for a campy and fun horror movie you could certainly do worse and if that sounds like you then I would recommend this film.

Day 19

The Hunger (1983)

Directed by Tony Scott

The Hunger is a stylized vampire film concerning a complex love-web involving two vampires, Miriam and John Blaylock, played by Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, and Dr. Sarah Roberts, a gerontologist played by Susan Sarandon, and her husband. After speaking with John regarding some issues he’s been having with vampiric life, Sarah meets with Miriam, a woman she has an instant connection with. As their relationship grows and becomes more intense, the fallout from this changes both women’s lives forever. It’s slightly difficult to describe this plot because it is so character driven and character focused, but it is mainly about the relationship between Miriam Blaylock and Sarah Roberts, and how Miriam being a vampire complicates this. There’s a lot of neat takes on vampirism in this movie and I won’t spoil them, but John in particular is in an interesting position that isn’t normally seen in vampire movies which does add a bit of drama to the story. Most of what makes this movie good though isn’t the story, but the excellent visual style.

The Hunger’s visual style, particularly in the opening and during a sex scene between Deneuve and Roberts (which is all the contemporary critics cared about), is what sets it apart and makes it worthwhile viewing. However much you will get out of this movie depends precisely on that, and even though critics at the time widely panned the movie I think that if this were released today, maybe under the A24 banner, it would have received a much more positive response. The visual effects are great, the opening and ending sequences are fantastic, and it is always a treat to see David Bowie in a weird movie. There’s even a cameo by Willem Dafoe that caught me off guard! I would definitely recommend this movie, but only to people who like films driven by characters and visuals where the story isn’t always the main concern. If you’re looking for a strong and deep narrative, perhaps look elsewhere.

Day 18

Ganja & Hess (1973)

Directed by Bill Gunn

Ganja & Hess is the story of an anthropologist, Dr. Hess Green, who finds himself dealing with being turned into a vampire after his assistant stabs him with an ancient cursed dagger. Eventually, Dr. Hess meets and falls in love with his assistant’s wife, Ganja, who learns of Hess’ secret. The story of Ganja & Hess isn’t told in the most straightforward way because this film is a kind of surreal experimental take on vampire fiction, which will make or break the movie for a lot of people. In fact, I think this will be one of the shorter reviews for this month because I can sum up my thoughts with just about one phrase which is, “I don’t get it.” I just recently talked about Hausu, which is a surreal horror-comedy that used experimental imagery as a way to convey horror and comedy while keeping the narrative structure intact, but Ganja & Hess seems to do the opposite, using understandable imagery but setting up an experimental narrative structure. I often had no idea what was supposed to be happening or what purpose it had in the plot, and when I knew what was going on I wasn’t always a huge fan.

What kept me from enjoying the film, apart from the experimental nature of the structure, was that I had no love for any of the characters we met. Everyone felt arm’s length away, emotionally, and even though the acting was good, Duane Jones of Night of the Living Dead fame stars as Dr. Hess and Marlene Clark as Ganja, it wasn’t easy to connect with anyone present. It almost seemed intentional, like, yeah, of course people who are vampires would be unlikable assholes and of course, gender relations are super screwed up so there’s a weird power imbalance going on through the whole thing. There’s a lot happening, and some neat visuals, but however much you’ll get out of Ganja & Hess depends on you being the kind of person who wants to see this kind of movie. I was told this was a great Black Vampire movie and while those elements are present, I wasn’t exactly warned of the unique structure or nature of the narrative or visuals, and I probably wouldn’t have watched it had I been. If you’re really interested in the history of black horror cinema I’d still recommend checking this out, or you have a love for experimental fiction this is something to look at. For everyone else, maybe skip this one. 

Day 17

Fright Night (1985)

Directed by Tom Holland

Fright Night is the story of a young man, Charley Brewster, obsessed with cheesy horror movies. After a new neighbor moves in, Charley quickly begins suspecting that this neighbor may be a vampire, so he contacts the now down on his luck host of one of his favorite horror programs to help him fight this vampire. The two eventually team up to take down the vampiric neighbor, Jerry, who certainly isn’t going to go down without a fight. Where this eventually ends up is a lot of fun, as Fright Night is unafraid to mess with vampiric lore and play around with ideas from all sorts of vampire fiction. There’s this feeling that the people involved with this movie loved horror movies and wanted to have fun with the tropes of the genre but not make fun of the genre, which is good and helps to kind of take seriously what has to be taken seriously while allowing the lighter bits to be more amusing.

The problems I have with Fright Night mainly come from one thing, which is that everything I liked about the movie, the bits where the battle between wanna be vampire hunters and an actual real-life vampire happen and are absurd and awesome, happens in the last 30 or 40 minutes of the movie. You have to get through nearly a full hour of, “I know that my neighbor is a vampire but no one will believe me!” wacky comedy hijinks before the fun stuff starts happening and that was way too long for me. Sure, the last act is amazing and I loved it and I think I would recommend the movie based on the strength of its ending alone, but it was a slog getting there. It doesn’t really help that there’s a super uncomfortable sub-plot about this ageless vampire hypnotizing and seducing Charley’s girlfriend who even though the actress was 27, is still playing a 17 year old. That’s weird and gross but I would accept it in a regular vampire film, those are horror films after all so I want weird and gross things to happen, but it felt a little out of place here. This is one of the more difficult movies I’ve covered here because I keep going back and forth on whether or not I enjoyed it enough to recommend it. But I need to acknowledge that the ending was great, and that third of the movie is good enough to warrant sitting through the rest of it. If you’re into 80s horror and love 80s comedy then you might get more out of this than I did.

Day 15 

Dave Made A Maze (2017)

Directed by Bill Waterson

Dave Made A Maze is the story of a guy named Dave…who makes a maze. To elaborate slightly, Dave is a frustrated artist who, while his girlfriend Annie is away on business, decides to make a cardboard maze in the living room of their apartment. Dave becomes trapped in this maze, which is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and when Annie returns home to find this, she leads a group of quirky characters into the maze, who are all surprised to find the maze full of deadly traps and a deadlier minotaur. While we’re on the topic of the maze itself let’s start with the best part of the movie, the maze itself. This maze is pure creative joy, a series of sets crafted almost entirely from cardboard that give this movie a hyper-distinct look and whimsical feel, even when the maze’s deadly traps are killing people. Cleverly, even the gore in this movie is arts and craftsy, with red yarn and confetti taking the place of blood and guts, which works both to keep the tone, and is also a smart way to avoid expensive realistic gore effects.

Visually, this movie is a real treat, and the story is barebones but works, a simple rescue quest to justify diving into this death trap. Where I think the problems start for me is where the characters are concerned. Dave in particular is a character I have trouble with. Dave is a frustrated artist who can’t finish anything, has accomplished nothing in life, and has invested all of his energy into a project that is pointless and harmful. Not to get too psychological but I see all the parts of myself I dislike in this character and that made a lot of his scenes kind of frustrating. I get that this was the point, it’s a movie about being creative and the failures that come with that, but it’s a stark contrast from the whimsy of the maze that I really liked. Back to the actual movie, it’s quick, mostly fast-paced, and has some unique and incredibly memorable sequences. I would recommend Dave Made A Maze to people looking for a weird, quirky, and visually inventive horror-comedy, even if the characters left me wanting.