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Horror Films

Hag of Black Howe Moor. Amazon Prime.

Very low budget. A film that is so low down the pecking order it doesn't have an IMDB entry.

The film has folk horror ambition running all the way through it. The story is an old fashioned spooky one with lonely moors, a history of witches and witch hunting, and someone (or something!!!) longing for revenge. That is the kind of premise that makes me sit down and watch a film.

I don't want to take anything away from a group of people who had the gumption to actually go out and make a film, but I did have to fight with the desire to turn if off: it was a reminder that acting is a really difficult job that most people can't do. Bad acting gets very much in the way of storytelling, and I think the film has a story to tell, not a wildly original story but that's not a problem for me. As a short story in a book, or in the hands of someone with more experience and access to real/better actors, I would have liked it very much.
 
Stir Of Echoes (1999): Some echoes of The Sixth Sense here, we have a young boy, Jake (Zachary David Cope) sees and hears dead people, he even tells them to shh. His father, Tom (Kevin Bacon), also gains this ability after he is hypnotized, seeing a teen girl who disappeared six months before. This lead's to the girl's family suspecting that Tom might have abducted her. Ten he starts to foretell deaths before they happen. Cope is quite good - "you''re awake now daddy" after Bacon gets his powers, quietly conversing with ghosts. Bacon becomes driven, searching for the missing girl, digging up the garden after a vision. Sudden appearances of the girl's ghost provides some jump shocks but it's more the dark brooding atmosphere and Tom's manic turn which provides the real frights. Good psychological/supernatural horror feature Written and Directed by David Koepp, based on the novel by Richard Matheson. 7/10.
 
ramonmercado said:
Stir Of Echoes (1999): Some echoes of The Sixth Sense here, we have a young boy, Jake (Zachary David Cope) sees and hears dead people, he even tells them to shh. His father, Tom (Kevin Bacon), also gains this ability after he is hypnotized, seeing a teen girl who disappeared six months before. This lead's to the girl's family suspecting that Tom might have abducted her. Ten he starts to foretell deaths before they happen. Cope is quite good - "you''re awake now daddy" after Bacon gets his powers, quietly conversing with ghosts. Bacon becomes driven, searching for the missing girl, digging up the garden after a vision. Sudden appearances of the girl's ghost provides some jump shocks but it's more the dark brooding atmosphere and Tom's manic turn which provides the real frights. Good psychological/supernatural horror feature Written and Directed by David Koepp, based on the novel by Richard Matheson. 7/10.
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One of my favourite horror films, although for some reason I can never remember the title. My brain has to go through the stages of "it's an "S", it's not "Skeleton Key", Kevin, Kevin something. S,ss, sstt, stir of echoes!!!" The commentary on the DVD is good, David Koepp talking through the writing and pointing out details. This film sits alongside The Devil's Advocate as a 90s horror movie that I can watch over and over.
 
The Cleaning Lady: Starts with a rather disgusting scene as the eponymous cleaner makes a mouse smoothie in a blender, Alice is a much sought after beautician but has problems, her affair with a married man is going nowhere, she attends a support group for sex addicts where some overshare. She employs Shelly as a cleaner, Shelly is lonely and her face is scarred from a childhood accident. Alice is friendly towards Shelly, inviting her to dinner, showing her how to apply make-up. Shelly soon becomes a stalker, using chloroform to knock out a sleeping Alice as she applies a mould to make a mask of Alice's face. BTW, Alice also keeps someone locked in a container and she feeds the mouse mousse to them. Largely psychological horror but some really disturbing sequences. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart. Directed/Co-Written by Jon Knautz. 7/10.
 
Gnaw: Sometimes things eat you up, Jennifer (Penelope Mitchell) is suffering, apparently from insect bites but it looks as if they are caused by tiny teeth. She can't sleep, it costs her a job. Things were already bad, she had moved to escape from an abusive relationship, a woman in her new apartment block is obviously a victim of domestic violence. There is Terry (Kyle Glass), a kind, lonely man in his 40's, always helpful, a handyman. He lets Jennifer take a curio box that was being thrown out, turns out it's cursed though, enough said about that. You get jump scares, some of the quotidian kind, others of a rather darker nature. the horror is mostly psychological though, crying voices, perceived presences in the dark. Domestic or Demonic abuse, which one is the worst? Written and Directed by Haylar Garcia. 7/10. Showing again on SyFy Channel. 9 pm Monday 22 June.
 
Apartment 1BR, or 1BR as it's also known: unexpectedly gripping horror about a woman who moves into a nice apartment block to find the residents are all members of a Scientology-type cult and are going to force her to join. Won't say any more, it's worth discovering not knowing much about it, but it taps into a real sense of injustice and outrage that keeps you watching with some interest.
 
ramonmercado said:
The Cleaning Lady: Starts with a rather disgusting scene as the eponymous cleaner makes a mouse smoothie in a blender, Alice is a much sought after beautician but has problems, her affair with a married man is going nowhere, she attends a support group for sex addicts where some overshare. She employs Shelly as a cleaner, Shelly is lonely and her face is scarred from a childhood accident. Alice is friendly towards Shelly, inviting her to dinner, showing her how to apply make-up. Shelly soon becomes a stalker, using chloroform to knock out a sleeping Alice as she applies a mould to make a mask of Alice's face. BTW, Alice also keeps someone locked in a container and she feeds the mouse mousse to them. Largely psychological horror but some really disturbing sequences. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart. Directed/Co-Written by Jon Knautz. 7/10.
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Where can we see this please?
 
Watched "Cruel Peter" (2019) last night on Netflix.

In some respects it was a bit formulaic - nasty person pushes their victims too far and gets their comeuppance - only to return from the grave and do even nastier things. There's the obligatory warning not to dabble in the occult and a hat-tip or two to The Exorcist.
The make-you-jump moments are well-delivered though and the beautiful Sicilian scenery provides plenty of eye-candy.
Worth a look 7/10.
 
From a House on Willow Street: A gang kidnap a heiress, Katherine, but something is off kilter, she's unwashed, wearing grubby clothes. Strange glyphs and runes are on a wall in her house. Back at the crooks' den Katherine warns them it would be better for them to let her go, otherwise they'll all die, but eventually co-operates in the making of a ransom video. Katherine seems to be able to control the electricity supply in the kidnappers hideout. Unable to contact Katherine's parents, two members of the gang go back to her house and make a sinister discovery. A dark tale of horror, mostly shot in dimly lit interiors. Apparitions appear, both in the kidnappers bolthole and at Katherine's home, blood stained figures from the gang members' past. Mostly not so much causing harm, rather making the crooks hurt themselves. Other wraith-like spirits are quite nifty at making physical contact. Plenty of gruesome scenes. A few plot twists which I can't reveal without spoiling things but this horror thriller while derivative is well worth watching. Written and Directed by Alastair Orr (Indigenous). 7/10. Showing again on the Horror Channel: Thursday 25th June at 10.50 PM.
 
Perhaps surprisingly, given how many people have a phobia about them, there haven't been a huge amount of horror films featuring spiders.
Itsy Bitsy (which I gather is American for Incy Wincy) isn't a bad effort, featuring a dysfunctional pill-dependent mum and her two stoic children, a retired archaeologist with a few sinister secrets in his closet, a creepy legend, hideous native rituals and the obligatory old dark house.
Good to see Star Trek's Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) as the sympathetic local sheriff too.
Some of the effects are a bit flaky, but overall, it kept me reasonably entertained for 90 minutes.
Available on Horror Channel (317 on Sky).
 
Yeah, Itsy Bitsy's perfectly fine, nice little atmosphere to it. I did start to wonder intermittently where a Yellow Polka Dot Bikini would enter into it, though.
 
I only found out, after Googling her age, that Denise Crosby is Bing Crosby's granddaughter.
 
Swifty said:
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Trying to identify a film about a woman who moves into an apartment in Brooklyn who discovers that one of the apartments is occupied by someone who spends their entire life (and is blind?) guarding a gate to hell. I think it was a book also.
 
Lb8535 said:
Yes it has a heck of a cast. I'll try it.
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Edgar Wright is a big fan because of how ludicrous it is, and of course how bad taste it is. I heard him interviewed by Mark Kermode about it and he was really embarrassed about how much he enjoyed it.

Not even (director) Michael Winner liked it that much, because he regretted using people with genuine deformities as the denizens of Hell (cheaper than makeup!). Still, birthday party for a cat...
 
Cruel Peter: Sicily 1908, Peter is a nasty little git, his rich English mother lets him get away with anything. He slashes a servant girl's face with a razor, tortures animals, buries the dog of tenant boys alive. An incipient serial killer but one of the boys strikes back and buries Peter alive. An Earthquake strikes Messina, thousands are dead, Peter is forgotten about. The present day, a widowed English archaeologist, Norman and his troubled teen daughter Liz arrive in the city. She has interest in occult, has a crystal ball., more like an ouija board and seeks to contact her mother. Norman is excavating a Gothic cemetery when he unearths a box with items belonging to Peter. Liz has visions of Peter, while she sleeps the crystal ball whirls of its own accord. Instead of her mum she summons up cruel peter! We get poltergeist effects, personality changes, hands emerging from a sink, ghosts, local peasant superstitions, a scary caretaker, witchcraft, necromancy. The Gothic cemetery is quite impressive, especially the creepy crypts.and great cinematography, mostly in dark or shadows.A slow paced and moody Gothic tale which doesn't quite achieve everything it apparently sets out to but certainly a passable horror film. 6/10. On Netflix
 
The Messengers (2007): A family move from Chicago to rural Montana, mom, pop, teen girl (Kristen Stewart) and toddler, going to live the dream. Obviously this "dream life" will be a nightmare for the teen. The farmhouse screams run: overgrown with vines and ivy, plenty of crows. We already know from a monochrome prelude that a family was massacred by an unseen force. The house is just as frightening in daylight as in the dark, another failure in the Ideal Homes stakes, Swiftly odd things happen, stains on the wall, the toddler sees dead people, creatures flit along the ceiling, poltergeist effects abound., There's also a creepy real estate agent who wants to buy the farm. Did I mention the crows? Positively malevolent. Stewart isn't just an angst ridden teen though, good acting from her pre-Twilight days. Some jump scares but imho opinion the best are provided by the beastly birds. An effective addition to the haunted/possessed house canon. Directed by the Pang Brothers (The Eye) from a screenplay/story by Mark Wheaton and Todd Farmer. 7/10. I saw it on the Horror Channel.
 
Trick (2019): 2015, a Halloween party, playing spin the knife, pumpkin head grabs the knife stabs others. The "quarterback" bleeds out on the "nurse", the "superhero" stabs the pumpkin head with a poker but five teens are dead. The killer is Patrick Weaver, "Trick",he escapes from hospital stabbing more, He's shot, falls out window, but he's gone, escapes into river, water is 32 Fahrenheit. Even Rasputin couldn't survive this. 2016, Halloween Trick is back, kills six. 2017 again! An obsessive cop believes it's the same killer but he's laughed at. More deaths follow. Decapitations, stabbings, even death by gravestone. Terror, murder, mayhem in a horror maze. We get Night Of The Living Dead Shown in an old church. The invincible Halloween Killer who returns from the grave is an old and well-worn trope but it;s handled competently here with a few new twists and plot surprises.. A disturbing, gory film, not for the squeamish. Directed/Co-Written by Patrick Lussler. 7/10. On Netflix.
 
Exists: Bigfoot found footage film. A group on a camping trip in East Texas knock down an animal, they can hear it's odd cries. The road ahead of them is blocked by a tree and they make their way to a dilapidated cabin. They come under siege from a Bigfoot! Doesn't do to run over their young. Some good scenes when the creature is clearly visible and even in the dark when it attacks the cabin and picks off the campers one by one. Uneven pacing though and feels overlong at 86 minutes, would have worked better as a 45 minute episode of an anthology series. Directed by Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project) from a screenplay by Jamie Nash. 5/10. On Horror Channel.
 
This looks to be fun:
“Judy [Siegel], the bassist of punk-rock band ‘DUH,’ dreams of traveling the world and becoming a full-time musician with her two friends, guitarist Max [Riddle] and drummer Mel [McCollister]. But when DUH’s van is repossessed hours before they’re set to embark on their first tour, desperation sets in, and Judy strikes an uneasy alliance with a redneck old-timer by the name of Peckerhead [Littleton], or ‘Peck,’ who offers to drive them in his van in exchange for food and gas. One night after their first show, Peck mysteriously goes missing. Desperate to get back on the road to make their next show, Judy volunteers to look for him. Regrettably, she finds Peck devouring the brains of the promoter who ripped them off earlier. The band quickly comes to realize their new roadie is a cursed, man-eating hillbilly and the ‘gig life’ they’ve always dreamed of is paved with nightmares and half-eaten bodies.”
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Watched Yellowbrickroad tonight.

I know it's a 10 year old movie, but has only just appeared on Amazon Prime and I must admit I hadn't heard of it before, despite it winning the New York City Horror film award.

No spoilers, but the basic premise surrounds an expedition to solve the mystery of why, in 1940, an entire rural US village upped sticks and headed into the wilderness to their ultimate doom.

The team of 7, equipped with maps, trail coordinates and a host of archive material, set out in good spirits, but things soon become decidedly nasty.

The overall feel of the movie is extremely Blair Witchy, but with a fair bit more gore.

Certainly worth a look but, as is par for the course with films of this genre, you may well feel a bit short-changed and be left scratching your head a bit at the end.
 
Just watched "Surviving Evil"

This 2009 UK/South African co-production has just made it onto Amazon Prime.
It features Billy Zane channelling his (Apocalypse Now era) Marlon Brando, leading a TV documentary team chasing a macabre legend on a remote island in the Philippines.
It's moderately creepy and entertaining until the exceedingly silly denouement, which features flying, zombie, vampire cannibals. In fact, I was surprised that the cast managed to keep a straight face.
Several beers made it just about watchable.
 
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blessmycottonsocks said:
Watched Yellowbrickroad tonight.

I know it's a 10 year old movie, but has only just appeared on Amazon Prime and I must admit I hadn't heard of it before, despite it winning the New York City Horror film award.

No spoilers, but the basic premise surrounds an expedition to solve the mystery of why, in 1940, an entire rural US village upped sticks and headed into the wilderness to their ultimate doom.

The team of 7, equipped with maps, trail coordinates and a host of archive material, set out in good spirits, but things soon become decidedly nasty.

The overall feel of the movie is extremely Blair Witchy, but with a fair bit more gore.

Certainly worth a look but, as is par for the course with films of this genre, you may well feel a bit short-changed and be left scratching your head a bit at the end.
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Just watched it on your rec and it was engaging. Quite well-made. In the vein of The Cube or Lost. I admit I couldn't really fathom it at all. For me it needed a more substantial goal to anchor the narrative. I missed the point. Might try again some time. Maybe.
 
Black Water (2007): Thought I should finally watch this seeing as a sequel is just out. A group are trapped in a mangrove swamp in Australia's N.T. after a crocodile overturns their boat and kills their guide. No ordinary croc though, not satisfied with one body it keeps on hunting. Jumping into the air to snap at people in trees, suddenly appearing. Some Jawsli-ke scenes when you realise they needed a bigger boat. Tension and terror is well maintained throughout it's 90 minute running time. Based on true events. Co-Directed and Co-Written by David Nerlich and Andrew Traucki. 7/10. On the Horror Channel.
 
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