Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand, creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize the neighborhood… hee hee! (crotch grab, moonwalk). What else stalks the night over the Halloween season, other than memories of when the King Of Pop was black? Outposters, that’s what. Like BlastofsilenceJJ, who has been watching the requisite horror content in preparation for the spooky season.
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Here is BlastofsilenceJJ and his first spooky submission.
31 Chills Of Halloween – 1 to 5
Fall season is here and I’m on a journey to watch 31 spooky-themed films/shows/media. This is my log… in case I disappear. It will be an eclectic mix of random choices. Play along at home and comment below. I’ll try to keep it interesting.
1. Halloween (1978) – Director: John Carpenter
Yeah, I went straight chalk on this one. Although I’m not a huge fan, from the moment that theme music kicks in, all my critiques for this film fade away. A seemingly unkillable boogeyman stalks his victims as Dr. Loomis tries to convince the locals of Haddonfield, Illinois, what a dangerous monster they are dealing with. The cast is excellent. This set the tone for so many in the genre. Catch it on AMC.
2. The House of the Devil (2009) – Director: Ti West
I have to admit, I like this guy’s chops. Ti West is a good filmmaker. I don’t think he has ever made a great film but he has made some uneven good ones. The old-school look of this almost fools you. It has some good shots in it but this is a bit of a miss.
Samantha is a broke college student who accepts a babysitting job from a weird family for a too-good-to-be-true amount of money. Nothing much happens in the first half as it’s mostly just a slow setup for the inevitable. See the title of the movie. Jocelin Donahue is a good actress, not the worst person to spend this leisurely time with. Not a lot of meat on the bone here though. Stream it on Prime or Tubi.
3. X-Files S5 Ep.5 “The Post-Modern Prometheus” (1997) – Director: Chris Carter
The black and white one! Based loosely on Frankenstein and directed with style to spare by series creator Chris Carter himself. This is one of the more surreal episodes of the series. It has Mr. Peterman (John O’Hurley) of Seinfeld, four Cher songs on the soundtrack, and even Jerry Springer even makes an appearance.
Mulder and Scully investigate claims that a monster is sedating and impregnating local women. Packed with humor, The Post-Modern Prometheus still manages to bring the creepy and the heart. Outstanding. I have a fine German Blu-ray box set I found on Amazon for a great price. It is also streaming on Hulu.
4. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) – Director: John McNaughton
This one is raw fellas! It’s a better-made film than I was expecting, well acted too. Michael Rooker brings the creepy as he coldly stalks his victims. The normalcy of his everyday life makes his actions that much more hard to watch. What shocks me is that even though Henry and his roommate Otis are scum you almost get comfortable taking this ride with them.
That is until they get their hands on a camcorder and up the ante. Let me off this ride! It takes most of the fun out of the slasher genre and replaces it with brutal realism. Stream it on Prime or Tubi.
5. Green Room (2015) – Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Outposters are no strangers to this one. Horror film? I’m stretching, but it does have a monster in it and some gruesome animal attacks. A punk band plays a gig for a group of skinheads and ends up seeing something they shouldn’t have.
What follows is a fight for their lives to get out. Saulnier makes my kind of films, gritty, offbeat thrillers. If you haven’t yet, jump on this one this Halloween. I watched the Blu-ray but the UK boutique label Second Sight has a beautiful 4k disc on their website.
