I have been catching up on some of the more recent horror releases that I missed, both the good kind and the terrible kind. Keep in mind that with most pop cultural facets, my personal concept of "recent" may be incredibly distorted from reality. I'm usually at least five years behind the times. Here's what I've watched over the past few nights to get in the October mood:
[REC] 2
I really enjoyed the first [REC], a Spanish-made first person point of view, found footage style zombie virus movie. The found footage subgenre has its highs and its lows for sure, but [REC] does a really good job creating a creepy vibe in an enclosed area and keeps the camera work steady enough to not take you out of the situation, which has been a flaw of these types of movies in the past. The ending was genuinely creepy.
If you don't want spoilers, you can skip over this paragraph . . . ok? . . . The sequel kind of picks up where the first one ended. After the revelations of the first movie's finale, we are now dealing with demons and not just your average zombies. It was refreshing to see the filmmakers vary from the formula that was so successful the first time around. Although it is set in the same apartment building as the previous film and it still has its POV camera style, this is its own movie and not just a retreading exercise. That said, I enjoyed the first one more but still recommend checking this one out. Since we as viewers already have most of our explanations for what's going on, I didn't find this one as suspenseful as the first.
Night of the Demons
This 2009 remake of the 80s cult classic isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. It was pretty fun. I like the original better but this has some merits of its own. It's got Eddie Furlong and the girl from Freddy vs Jason trapped in an old mansion being stalked by demons. Most of the gore is old school but there is a fare share of CG shenanigans. Fans of the original will be treated to a brief but funny cameo by Linnea Quigly wearing the same pink tutu she had on 20 years ago and a variation of the original's infamous lipstick scene. And kudos to whoever made the poster for keeping in the same style as the old movie and not having all the actors photoshopped together in front of a spooky fog or something.
Day of the Dead
The 2008 "remake" of George Romero's third zombie tale is so far detached from the source material that it would have been better off with a different name. I know they were trying to cash in on the successful Dawn of the Dead remake's momentum, but this movie was so far off the mark that linking it with Romero's Day of the Dead probably turned more people off than it attracted. Horror fans are generally a loyal bunch and one must be careful when dealing with the icons of the genre's past. After seeing the trailer when it came out I had no interest. It looked worse than horrible. After watching it tonight, it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I'm not saying it was good, but I have certainly seen worse low budget zombie movies. These zombies run and scream and climb up walls and ceilings, just so you know ahead of time. I know that drives some fans nuts so I'll warn you. The only things this has in common with the original are the character names (though most if not all of the characters' other traits have changed), there are corpses trying to eat people, and there are soldiers present. Overall it was pretty stupid. It would fit in better with those Bulgarian Return of the Living Dead sequels they were making awhile back. Also, the poster lies. This movie has nothing to do with zombies who vomit like Garbage Pail Kids.
Trick r Treat
I re-watched Trick r Treat as I think I will every Halloween season from now on. It's an anthology style horror movie that nails the aesthetic of Halloween night so perfectly that you can practically smell the dead leaves and pumpkins. Since it first came out it has been an instant Halloween classic in my house. I'm sure I'll watch it again before October 31st.
Masters of Horror: The Black Cat
This episode of the Showtime series is directed by Stuart Gordon and teams him up with his Re-Animator star Jeffrey Combs as Edgar Allan Poe. While it is basically a telling of the Poe story The Black Cat, it has a twist in that they have Poe himself as the lead character and interweave elements of his own life into it. Combs is really good here although his prosthetic nose is a little distracting in a few scenes. Some might find it surprisingly gory, but I'm sure fans of Stuart Gordon's other work will be quite pleased.
Into the Mouth of Madness
This one's not a recent movie even by my out of touch standards, but I hadn't seen it in years. Sam Neil is great as an insurance investigator who gets sucked into a maddening mystery surrounding a missing author who is a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King. It's a lot of fun. It's a pretty weird movie even for John Carpenter but well worth the watch.
Well, I'm off to bed with visions of pumpkins, ghost, and skeletons dancing in my head. Plenty of time for more movies before the season is through (or even started, for that matter).
