Halloween! Yay! Also, October 19-31. · 3:30am Nov 1st, 2017
It's Halloween! Yay! It's the bestest day of the year!
I'm going as... BronyWriter. Heh. Yeah, I didn't get to the costume shop in time, and my go-to costume is in a box in the garage somewhere. Darn. It's a good one, too.
That aside, if you're wondering what to watch today... I dunno, I have 12 movies here for you to possibly choose from. I know it's a bit late, but I've been on the go all day. Which means watching two horror movies in the theaters. What two horror films? Well, I'm glad you asked. We'll get to those at the end. For now...
October 19th: Trick R Treat
I really like this movie. I saw it a long time ago for some reason, but I liked it immediately. I thoroughly enjoy anthology films when I can find them. The cast here is exceptional (with Brian Cox and Oscar winner Anna Paquin as highlights) and the stories all tie together brilliantly. Usually when there are anthology films one or two of the stories aren't that great. We'll get to that soon. Here, though, they're all awesome. One of the other big bonuses? Well, can anybody guess who this is?
That's Macy, one of the characters from the middle story, I believe. One of them. Can anybody guess her face? What she's from? Well, let's see if this helps.
So there's that. If you want a good Halloween film, I'd highly suggest this one. This is one of the few pure Halloween films I've seen. One of the best. And it's getting a sequel at some point!
October 20th: V/H/S
This is the perfect example of my earlier point about anthologies being very hit and miss. There are some that are really creepy and well done (Amateur Night/10/31/98) and some not so good (Second Honeymoon). The story tying them all together isn't the best, but it's functional. I'd actually suggest it. It's fun, and none of them are atrociously bad. Just some are weak.
October 21st: V/H/S 2
This one was better than the first one, if for no other reason than the Safe Haven segment. Definitely the best segment of the series, though I did also really enjoy the tense, creepy Phase I Clinical Trials segment. A Ride in the Park was also really good. So it had more good segments than the last film. Even the ones that were kind of mediocre (Slumber Party Alien Abduction) weren't that bad. A superior film to the first one, but not amazing. I'd still suggest it. The underlying story isn't anything I remember that well, so that can't be a good sign.
October 22nd: V/H/S Viral.
Probably the most mediocre of the series, it's not bad, it just doesn't have any segments equal to Safe Haven, Phase I Clinical Trials and A Ride in the Park. It was still a lot of fun, even if the overarching story wasn't the best either. Bonestorm was pretty enjoyable. After the quality second film, this one was kind of lacking. I'd put it just under the first film, actually. I'd still suggest it especially if you want to complete the series. Not great, but not too bad either.
October 23rd: The ABCs of Death
Definitely one of the most uneven anthologies I've ever seen. The other one is the second film. Of course, that's much easier since there are 26 segments here, so there's more ways to mess up. But there are some excellent segments here, too. It has some truly awful segments, most notably the "F" segment, which is the worst segment in both films. I kind of got what they were going for, but... man they failed hard. Basically the premise here is that 26 directors were given a letter and had to make a short horror film based off of that letter. That's actually pretty neat. I think it's still on Netflix, so I'd suggest it. If you can get past some of the truly awful stuff. Very hit and miss. Speaking of hit and miss...
October 24th: The ABCs of Death 2
Like the first one, this one is pretty hit and miss. I really got a kick out of the opening segment, for example, but the last one was kind of weird. Creepy at the end, but weird. I'd still suggest watching this one because there are some good segments, but, like the last one, you have to wade through some not too great segments to get to the ones that are actually worth watching.
October 25th: Holidays
An obscure film I found on Netflix, like every anthology, it's pretty hit and miss. Basically each segment is based off of a different holiday, and not just the creepy ones. So we have St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Christmas and New Year's Eve. I liked the "Christmas" segment with Seth Green. Admittedly I don't remember it as well as I should, but it's at least worth a look. See for yourself. Should still be on Netflix.
October 26th: Creepshow
I didn't mean to just do anthology films, but here we are. I'll run out eventually. This is an older entry, I still remember this a lot more than some of the other ones. The standout segment is definitely the one with the cockroaches. That... *shudder* very well done. I didn't quite enjoy the plant one starring Stephen King, but it was fun watching him play a total hick. The final one with Leslie Nielson was cool, too. I know him best from Airplane! so watching him as a nasty killer was a neat performance. I'd definitely suggest this one. A bit more even than the other ones I've talked about.
October 27th: Stage Fright
Well, I was going to run out of anthologies at some point. Another one I found on Netflix, this is one of the more fun films on this list. It's a comedy musical slasher film. It technically wasn't that great, but darn it my wife and I enjoyed it quite a bit. As a theater nerd in high school I got a lot of enjoyment out of the things in the film. My wife and I found ourselves saying "yep, theater nerds totally do that" quite a few times throughout. And Meat Loaf hamming it up in the film was delightfully enjoyable. Give it a look. It's not good, per se, but it's fun.
October 28th: The Wicker Man.
Get all of your Nicholas Cage jokes out of the way now. 
Yes? We good? We can move on now? Good. This is one of my all time favorite movies. I've seen it several times and I'm sure I'll see it many more times. Unlike the crappy Cage remake, this one is actually tense with some interesting themes and incredible performances from Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. The end scene is one of the greatest in all of horror. Absolutely chilling. The contrast between the devoutly Christian Sgt. Howie and the pagan islanders is the main driving force of the film, and it's fascinating to watch. I'm not sure it's a good one to watch on Halloween, but if you do you're in for a treat. The songs are excellent as well. Yes, it's a horror musical (as was the last one) but it works to perfection. Definitely check this one out if you haven't seen it already.
October 29th: Single White Female
The main draw of this underrated film is definitely Jennifer Jason Leigh (whom most would know these days from The Hateful Eight) as the creepy roommate. It's not as "horror-y" as a lot of the other films on this list, and it can actually be tragic at times, but it has an undercurrent of unease throughout that makes the film work. Bridget Fonda is also really good in the film, but Jason Leigh totally steals it. You'll never want to room with a stranger again.
October 30th: Happy Death Day
Now we get to the movies I saw today, and this is the superior one. It's a mix of Scream, Mean Girls and Groundhog Day. It doesn't sound like that would work, but it absolutely does. It can be tense, it can be flat-out scary, or it can be hilarious. It balances all of its tone pretty well for what it was. It's not going for any Oscars, so it knows it can have fun with itself, which it totally does. The main actress carries the film and does an excellent job. It wouldn't work as well without her excellent performance. It's still in theaters so I'd suggest checking it out. The twists and turns combined with the semi-creative premise (or at least, they try to do new things with it) make it worthwhile.
October 31st: Jigsaw
And now we come to the final film for the month, which also wraps up Saw Week. So, how does this one compare to the other seven films? Well, it's better than 4,5,6, and 7, that's for sure. Especially 5 and 7. I'd put it around 2 and 3. Not great (again, there aren't any good Saw films, technically speaking) but not a waste of time. I think the critics have it right: it won't win any new fans over, but for people who already like the films, it checks off all of the boxes a Saw film needs to hit. The required twist is... not the best, which is too bad. I saw it coming from a mile away, which should never happen. Not even in a Saw film, it should just never happen. It's a lot more focused and contained than the previous few Saw films which really works to the film's benefit. If you're not a Saw fan I wouldn't suggest it, especially if you haven't seen the previous 7. If you like the series, though, don't miss it. It's got just enough Saw-ness to make it worthwhile.
So there you have it. One horror movie for each day of October. Happy Halloween everypony! I'll see you all in November. I'm going to go watch another horror movie or two now.
I ended up just watching my little sister and her friend. I trick or treated to 17, but after that it was way too much. 18 is legally an adult for most situations, so I haven't gone in years. Not that I need any more sugar.
I actually kinda like Saw 5,
it was bad in all the right ways for me to enjoy it and the main game's group of terrible people not realizing the big twist made me laugh. Anyway I've got a question about that last picture: Is Twilight in the shotgun collar from Saw 3?
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She is.
In terms of Saw V, it was just the dumbest one until 7. Not a bad twist, but... eh.
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Honestly I think Saw V was a little better than Saw 6 because in Saw 6 the police are proven infinitely more incompetent than they originally appeared in the previous movies and that's saying something when the SWAT Commander literally runs through doors that have proven fatal before in the series. I mean first they actually suspected the guy who had to shove a pen through his throat to survive a execution trap, then they reveal that they never actually investigated the dozens of Jigsaw recordings for any discrepancies in the voice, and even worse than that they blindly trust the Detective who was at the top of the suspect list because he survived a trap that literally fell apart (which should have been proof of his guilt because Jigsaw was a mechanical genius there's no way that any of his traps at that point in time could failed on such a level). Saw V was stupid but at least it didn't try to act like a good movie, all Saw 6 had going for it was the main game and even then it only had 2 traps that really felt like they deserved to be in the movie the rest were more like rejected traps from the 2nd and 4th movies.