Friday, October 31, 2014

#31HorrorFilms31Days Challenge Roundup

As you may know, I took part in Daniel Kraus's #31HorrorFilms31Days challenge on Twitter this year. (Sidenote: Have you read Daniel Kraus's books? Because if you like horror, they are right up your alley! Scowler is a favorite of mine.) It was really fun, and I decided to post a roundup of my tweets, with some extra thoughts, for those of you who aren't on Twitter but are still interested. Happy Halloween!

31 SE7EN: The serial killer that takes some sins way too seriously. I mean, laziness doesn’t seem THAT bad to me.

30 BENEATH: aka, "What the hell is going on?" Or maybe that's just bc I was working out while watching it. Oh, and it's the BENEATH with miners trapped underground, not the BENEATH with Ruthie Camden on a boat.

29 HATCHET III: This girl Marybeth is having the worst 2? 3? days ever. Like whoa.

28 EVIL DEAD (2013): Remake of the 80s classic & one of my favorite movies ever!

27 THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN: Totally bonkers found footage, but at least it was entertaining.

26 HATCHET II: Danielle Harris takes over hunting Victor Crowley. Not really my thing, but I appreciated Harris' presence.

25 FROZEN: Kids stuck on a ski lift all week. Very different from the Disney version.

24 TUCKER&DALE VS EVIL: Kind rednecks mistaken for serial killers by some college kids. Even better than I remembered! Choice quote: "That's college kid blood!"

23 THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (2014): Meta remake/sequel of the original. Sadly, I wasn't that into it, aside from liking Addison Timlin. Kind of dull, to be honest, but it was watchable.

22 THINNER: The creepiest way to transfer a curse is definitely by sensually rubbing someone's cheek.

21 SINISTER: Crime writer finds *sinister* snuff films in his attic. Fun and creepy ghost story with a killer soundtrack.

20 SCREAM 2: Ghost Face Goes to College.

19 THE RUINS: Americans make the worst tourists, as usual. I love this movie.

18 TRICK 'R TREAT: Fantastic as always. Should be mandatory viewing for horror fans.

17 CREEPSHOW: I liked the visuals, but... a little too goofy for me. I did LOVE Ed Harris' dancing, tho.

16 DELIVER US FROM EVIL (2014): Cop possession movie that got bad reviews, but I liked it! Dark and gritty. Granted, the stuff with The Doors music was kind of random.

15 THE PURGE ANARCHY: A little all over the place&not really horror IMO, but exciting enough.

14 HALLOWEEN 6 THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS: Ha, Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle. Not great.

13 LIFE AFTER BETH: Liked the first half of this zombie horror comedy, but it lost direction midway thru.

12 PROM NIGHT: Pretty self explanatory, just add serial killer.

11 DELIVERY: Another found footage (I knowww) about demon possession. More realistic than others, but less scary.

10 HORNS: Daniel Radcliffe grows horns and tries to figure out who murdered his gf. I REALLY liked it.

9 THE TUNNEL: Australian found footage that failed to impress. Sorry, not sold on the use of the format in most films.

8 THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES: Unsettling found footage film that isn't terrible. A tiny bit hokey at the end, tho.

7 HAUNT: Slow and depressing haunted house story. Ione Sky is a very tolerant parent.

6 LAKE MUNGO: One of the best horror movies ever to address grief. Also, seriously creepy.

5 ABANDONED MINE: It doesn't even matter if the mine is haunted or not bc these kids would definitely die regardless.

4 CARRIE (2013): Totally unnecessary remake, but Julianne Moore&Portia Doubleday are fantastic.

3 AT THE DEVIL'S DOOR: Waking up 8 months pregnant - basically my worst nightmare, even without the possession part.

2 THE GHOST OF GOODNIGHT LANE: Umm it's about ghosts? And bad doors. I only watched it bc I love Danielle Harris. Choice quote: "Why is she doing this? Why does she hate these doors?!"

1 AMERICAN MARY: Katherine Isabelle as an "unconventional" surgeon. How do I not own this movie yet?

Thoughts

Found footage. ...Continues to haunt me. I watched five found footage films, and if you can't tell, I didn't like the majority of them. (Why I keep trying, I honestly don't know. I guess because a large portion of new horror movies are found footage, so if I want to see something new, it's kind of inevitably going to come up.) LAKE MUNGO is an old favorite of mine, so I knew I'd like that. Other than that, THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN had a great moment at the end, but other than that, I'm not sure it was worth seeing. The rest (THE POUGHKEEPSIE TAPES, THE TUNNEL, DELIVERY) were totally blah to me.

So bad they're good. THE GHOST OF GOODNIGHT LANE and THINNER are two that I love purely because they are so terrible and ridiculous - but in a really fun way.

So bad they're just bad. I only really hated a few movies, and they were: ABANDONED MINE (wow, there was nothing there, not even a plot), HALLOWEEN 6 (Druids... 'nuff said), HAUNT (slow and dull), and BENEATH (it's possible I just wasn't paying enough attention to this one, but it didn't grab me at all).

New faves. Well, only one new fave this year, which is kind of sad, but oh well: HORNS was super weird and super fantastic. Definitely a winner for the ages.

Oldies but goodies. I rewatched some of my old favorites, of course (many of which are on my Accelerated Horror Movie Challenge list), including: AMERICAN MARY, LAKE MUNGO, TRICK 'R TREAT (the best!), THE RUINS, SINISTER, FROZEN (2013), EVIL DEAD (2013), SE7EN, TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, and one of the SCREAM movies.

Meh. The rest were somewhere between horrendous and sublime. AT THE DEVIL'S DOOR had some seriously creepy parts, but the three-part structure didn't really work for me as I spent 2/3 of the movie pining for the actress from the first part to come back. LIFE AFTER BETH was a very middling zom-rom-com in a world over-saturated with middling zom-rom-coms. CARRIE is, as I said, a completely unnecessary remake, without any of the inherent chills of the original (the only thing I liked better about this version was Portia Doubleday as Chris). THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN was a disappointment for me; just not very exciting or original. I definitely liked THE PURGE: ANARCHY and DELIVER US FROM EVIL as single-watches, but I doubt I'll be revisiting them. And the HATCHET movies were fun, but I personally didn't connect with them on the nostalgic level I think they were aiming for.

So that's it! Did you participate in the challenge this year? What did you watch - or wish you'd watched, if you didn't participate? And again, happy Halloween, everyone!

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