halloween

Director : David Gordon Green – Cast Includes : Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak

David Gordon Green‘s Halloween back in 2018 finished with Michael Myers trapped in a burning basement in Laurie Strode’s house, HALLOWEEN KILLS follows on directly after those events… the gasps, the laughter and the uncomfortable silence is why this movie is a must watch on the big screen… Halloween Kills is a real chaotic, unforgiving, relentless and NASTY AS HELL horror movie that pays homage to Carpenter’s original by building on the Haddonfield ethos, creating this timely reminder of the consequence of a witch-hunt whilst also managing to keep the films tension bubbling to boiling point : unlike previous outings in the franchise out the window goes this subtle, stalking killing machine that lurked in the shadows, in Halloween Kills you can almost feel the anger, & pain behind his torn up mask as he uses someone’s back as a pin cushion plunging knife after knife into their flesh for the sheer joy of it, I just felt there was something different, more evil than I had seen previously… the writing was on point too with Green’s narrative not all about Laurie dealing with her demons but more of a collective with Tommy, Karen and Allyson more in the firing line… the return of Kyle Richards as Lindsey & Nancy Stephens as Marion is not only a great touch, bringing both actors back from the 78′ original but it also worked well in the overall storyline and my eye’s lit up like a Birthday morning when Jim Cummings came on screen playing officer Pete McCabe in an early well worked flashback : for me Halloween Kills is the best Michael Myers outing since 1978’s Halloween & it’s underrated sequel Halloween II, it’s a film that suits the big screen arena but BE WARNED this film is not for the squeamish, with each death the next is more fierce and it’s R rating is a true indication of it’s horror : BLOODY AWESOME ★★★★½

Director : Leigh Janiak – Cast Includes : Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira, Benjamin Flores Jr, Ryan Simpkins, Gillian Jacobs, Olivia Scott Welch, Ashley Zukerman, Maya Hawke

As you guys know I love my horror and especially the slasher genre, from the Italian Maestro’s Argento, Bava & Fulci to the American slice and dice Kings in Hitchcock, Carpenter, Craven & Cunningham, this blood lust is my movie jam, I love being scared so when over a week ago I sat down and watched the first in a trilogy of movies that was landing on Netflix based around the work of author R. L. Stine I was bubbling with excitement… for those in the dark Leigh Janiak is an american filmmaker, her only other feature film was 2014’s Honeymoon, she has also directed a few episode’s of Scream the TV series and the underrated Outcast… her latest is the trilogy of weekly movies titled FEAR STREET…

OMG !! firstly let me mention the cool freaking opening to Fear Street: Part One 1994 that took me back in time and kicked off this trilogy, Janiak obviously knows her shit, so the start & finish must rock your socks off right?… the setting is a bookshop in the Shadyside Mall where Heather is working late… the phone rings (the tone gives you chills like the one Casey Becker answers in Scream… you know… “You hang up on me again and I’ll gut you like a fish!”…. that one!!), the person on the end of the line hangs up and Heather continues to work until she notices books on the floor and then behind her a figure rushes past one of the book stands, Heather rounds the corner and… (well I’m not gona tell you what happened next, now am I?) Part One is all played out like a Wes Craven movie and this guy right here is lapping up every single insane minute of it… SHIT that bread slicer and that whole chaotic finale is soooo fucked up right !!

I was to discover that Part One was just the appertiser, what came next BLEW my mind and shook me to the core… in FEAR STREET: Part Two 1978 Leigh Janiak truly captures the essence of summer camp in a horror movie, that Friday the 13th vibe is everywhere, you can smell & taste that rule breaking teen, the thrills of sex and spills of guts as the body count rises, it’s killer 70s score and like the first it’s obvious nods to horror’s of yesteryear… so right from the offset we have a quick recap of what happened in Part One and then it’s over to Deena and Josh travelling to the Berman’s house in hope of finding more answers and tracking down the witches hand… I just love EVERYTHING about this movie, it’s like a big cake with so may layers and a creamy yummy centre… not only are the scares more unforgiving, the violence a darker shade of cruel but it’s story is devilishly good too, entwined with the first and contains a few twists along the road to it’s insane crescendo… and don’t get me started on the wickid young cast such as the magnificent Kiana Madiera as Deena, McCabe Slye as Tommy, Ryan Simpkins as Alice but my pick and scream queen for the day is the incredible Sadie Sink her role as Ziggy will become iconic, from those opening 10 minutes as she’s chased and bullied by some of the other kids to that breathtaking blood splattered show down with the killer, her performance is far removed from that of MAD-Max in Stranger Things, she’s tough, independent and don’t suffer fools gladly, she’s quite the revelation…

And then onto FEAR STREET: Part Three 1666 where the story takes us back to the original settlement before it became Shadyside, when the curse first struck the town folk at a time when it was common to hang or burn someone for being different… the pace of Part Three may be slower but it’s tone is as dark if not darker than than the other two with chilling moments of dread filling it’s narrative including that disturbing chapel scene, Sarah being chased in the tunnels that gave me the feeling of Jack in The Shining, I still can’t shake that moment with the baby pigs, the sight of the rotten food you can almost smell, the removal of body parts and that gut wrenching hanging… the star of Part Three is without question Kiana Madiera she’s like a magnet, sucking you into Fear Street’s conclusion, Sarah’s story is both harrowing yet beautiful, showing us her forbidden love and with the help of some familiar faces Kiana like a ribbon ties everything together…

Leigh Janiak‘s FEAR STREET is a love letter to all us horror fans… Leigh’s given us a trilogy of darkness that not only pays homage to the great’s of yesteryear but she’s also created her own blueprint on a genre that’s been in need of refreshing new material… it’s like an adults only Stranger Things I found myself overecome with nostalgia, I was unnerved by it’s brutality, in love with it’s characters and bewitched by it’s storyline… WOW !! ★★★★★

Here’s the trailer for HALLOWEEN KILLS… I’m a huge fan of Michael Myers and the film franchise that was started back in ’78 by Carpenter spawning numerous sequels and remakes, so the thought of visiting the cinema this October for another dose of Haddonfield has me all excited… I know what your thinking… you just can’t beat the originals and yep you would be right, but there was something fresh I took away from David Gordon Green’s Halloween back in 2018, I didn’t think it was as atmospheric as Carpenter’s masterpiece or as nasty as the Rob Zombie remake but I did love it’s story by Green & Mcbride, the film was well shot with it’s scares coming thick and fast and Myers was in devilishly good form, I really enjoyed the Judy Greer casting and of course seeing Jamie Lee return as Laurie Strode was the icing… so after you’ve watched the trailer for the sequel below why not (like I’m about to do) revisit the Halloween franchise, and see which ones are you favorite… Halloween Kills scares this October…

Number 4 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night, a young man escapes from a mental hospital and returns to Haddonfield to kill again : I’ve lost count how many times I’ve watched John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN : to me it’s the greatest slasher movie of them all, influenced no doubt in a small way by Bob Clark’s Black Christmas it just ooozes a tour de force in the horror genre that’s been emulated many times but never surpassed : Halloween was developed and put to film by Carpenter & Hill, on a shoe string budget of $300,000 and is the finest use of lightening, sound and music in the genre, with it’s eerie atmosphere, suspense that drips from each scene like the blood from Myers knife, Jamie Lee Curtis movie debut and an alluring, chilling score that cranks up the mood perfectly when required : from those early scenes of a young Michael Myers butchering his sister to it’s nerve jangling, exciting climax, there’s nothing quite like this slice of late 70s horror to get your heart pumping : John Carpenter’s Halloween is not gory or drenched in blood like many of the slashers that succeeded it but instead relies heavily on it’s suspense and effective story telling : it’s also the most immersive experience I’ve felt watching a horror movie in a theater, from it’s wide & open interiors to the creepy neighborhood shots capturing the street’s autumn look and the scene’s of Michael Myers masked figure stalking Laurie Strode at every turn, the photography combined with Carpenter’s score really does make you chew your nails frantically as the pace slowly builds to it’s terrifying crecendo : if like me you love your slasher movies then why not check out the newly remastered edition of this 1978 masterpiece, even after all these years it’s still the perfect slasher movie ★★★★★

Number 9 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : One year after the brutal murder of her mother, Sidney Prescott and her friends are terrorized by a new killer : Written by Kevin Williamson & directed by Wes Craven SCREAM is the BEST HORROR MOVIE in the last 25yrs : From that shiver inducing Dimension Film logo before the film starts, it’s smart edgy blood soaked script, the BEST opening to a Horror Movie of ALL TIME…. it’s like WTF just happened….. and the great Homages to scary movies of yesteryear Wes Craven’s film always delivers and to this day continues to blow my mind : Scream totally re-invented the genre from a director who already owned the scares in the 80s with his freaking great horror A Nightmare on Elm Street but unlike Elm Street Scream uses horror cliches and a whip smart script that’s incredibly funny yet utterly terrifying at times : The way Craven used horror films as the backdrop to Scream is a pure joy to watch, pictures such as Elm Street, Friday 13th, The Exorcist and of course Halloween get nods and even the great filmmaker makes a brief cameo as a school janitor dressed in that iconic Freddy Sweater, that small moment alone made me smile sooooooo much : Also let’s not forget the contribution it’s young exciting cast made, stars that were not household names such as Neve Campbell, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy & Skeet Ulrich all helped Craven’s blood lust come to life and create a new horror franchsise : The scene in the movie when Randy explains to his drunken friends about the Rules on How to Survive a Horror Movie whilst watching Halloween is one of my favorites, he pauses the film stands before the TV and tells his audience….. No.1 : Never have Sex…. No.2 : Don’t drink or do drugs…. and finally never ever ever say “I’ll be right back…” it’s sheer brilliance : I remember watching SCREAM in New York when it was released in the cinema, I didn’t know anything about the movie – I came out 2hrs later shouting, laughing and looking over my shoulder for the rest of the night : WHAT A BUZZ ★★★★★

Number 11 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : An unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters : the movie starts on a beach, a group of kids sat around a burning fire as an old fishing captain tells the story about a shipwrecked clipper boat named the Elizabeth Dane….. : after the success of his 1978 horror Halloween, and turning his back on filming a more lucrative sequel filmmaker John Carpenter turned to a story he had written after finding inspiration from a 50s movie The Trollenberg Terror and also by visiting the infamous and some say mystical Stonehenge : THE FOG is both riverting and utterly hair-raising and unlike many of it’s contemporaries it’s not violent or gory yet there’s something quite unsettling lurking deep down in the belly of this 80’s ghost story : from the chilling synth score that accompanies the whiteness of the fog drifting up the coast and into Antonio Bay sweeping across the horizon into churches, underneath doorways, shrouding everything that it comes into contact with, in a death cosuming way to it’s terrific cast that includes Jamie Lee’s drifter, Tom Atkins townie, the wonderful Hal Holbrook as Father Malone and the gorgeous Adrienne Barbeau as DJ Stevie Wayne who broadcasts a local radio show from the lighthouse on the coast (filmed at Point Reyes) : there’s many ingredients to a great movie but for me apart from it’s director the person responsible in how the film looks & feels to the viewer is the DP and they don’t come more impressive than Dean Cundey, I mean talk about LEGEND, from Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York to Romancing the Stone, Back to the Future and Jurassic Park here’s a guy who has managed to capture moment on film like no other and with John Carpenter’s The Fog Cundey creates this ghostly, chilling atmosphere one of dread and unpleasantness that resonates from the very start of the movie to it’s finish : If you’ve never seen John Carpenter’s THE FOG then your missing a trick, it’s the perfect antidote for those dark & rainy nights when a good old fashioned horror is required, a scary movie that will engulf, unnerve and creep you down to your bones ★★★★★

Number 14 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : After moving into an apartment with her husband, Rosemary begins to hear and dream strange things, and she starts to suspect her perculiar neighbors are up to no good : I’ve watched Rosemary’s Baby dozens of times down the years and I’m still as disturbed by it’s general foreboding as I was when I first watched it back in the late 80’s, with it’s narrative ranging from pregnancy, satanism to demonic rape it’s a movie that slowly and subtly builds, chipping away at your nerve ends until it’s shocking finale : there are times during the movie when William Fraker’s photography makes me feel slightly claustrophobic especially the early scenes in the lift and apartment block, the close-up scenes of the sensational Mia Farrow and work behind the camera throughout really adds to it’s feeling of nauseating unease : I love the suspense and sheer drama of the phone box scene (which I believe was done in one take) and the discovery at the film’s finale but there’s no question when Rosemary passes out after eating Minnie’s chocolate mousse only to wake find scratches on her body with her husband admitting to having sex with her whilst she was unconcious to be the most terrifying, pulse racing scene of all : so if your expecting a blood curdling, jump a minute horror film then think again, Rosemary’s Baby is a mess with your head, psychological masterpiece that will lure you in and unsettle even the most hardened of minds, it’s been 52yrs since it’s release and it still kick’s like a newborn ★★★★★

Number 15 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : A group of camp counselors are stalked by an unknown killer while trying to reopen a summer camp which was the site of a child’s drowning and a grisly double murder years before : Originally titled A Long Night at Camp Blood Sean S. Cunningham’s FRIDAY THE 13TH was shot for a measly $500,000 and was released in 1980, becoming a box office success and spawning numerous sequels : from Harry Manfredini scary Hitchcockian score that screams Psycho, the film’s inventive and cruel kills created by the special effect guru Tom Savini, especially Marcie’s axe to the head and Jack’s arrow through the neck are grizzly & quite realistic, the beautiful cast including Jeannine Taylor, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram & Kevin Bacon and their colorful raincoats to the late Barry Abrams atmospheric, close up camera work that creeps around the lake & captures each scream, each kill with chilling gratification : I know the movie inside out & love everything about it, from the iconic Camp Crystal Lake sign to the wonderful yet brief role of Annie Phillips, the cute & bubbly councelor who hitchhikes to the camp at the start of the movie but there’s no doubt my favorite moment in Friday the 13th comes in the last 20mins where Alice played by Adrienne King uncovers the killers identity and then a showdown takes place as she battles to stay alive : being a huge fan of the slasher genre and especially the “golden age” from around the mid-70s onwards Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic horror movies of the last 50 years, we not only get to witness the origin story of one of the most terrifying villains of all time but also get to meet his creator : two words HORROR CLASSIC ★★★★★

Number 23 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : Two American friends on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists : It’s impossible to quantify how much an effect AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON had on me whilst growing up, in love with the genre and especially the early days of Universal’s Horror Movies, such as The Wolf Man from the early 40s : From that opening pub scene when everybody just stops and stares at the two boys like their from another world, the pentagram hanging on the wall of the pub, Jenny Agutter’s Nurse Price (like many I crushed hard and still do) to Rick Baker’s ground breaking special effects An American Werewolf in London is quite simply Horror Perfection : my favorite scene in the movie (apart from when David changes of course) is the London Underground chase scene, it still freaks me out & scares me good & proper, and I do love the moments in the seedy adult cinema where Jack who’s slowly decaying introduces David his victims from the night before…. so good : with a budget of $6 Million An American Werewolf in London Won the Oscar for Best Makeup and became a box office success and has since become a Cult Classic, the film’s script from Landis is outstanding, so funny & cleverly dark at times, the film’s score including three tracks cut perfectly to their respectives scenes are bloody brilliant, these include Van Morrison’s Moondance, Bobby Vinton’s version of Blue Moon and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising : I always revisit this movie around Halloween and each & every time I applaud, scream and laugh my way through this horror gem from director John Landis ★★★★★

Number 24 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : When five friends arrive at a remote cabin in the woods for a little vacation, little do they expect the horrors that await them : I have rewatched Drew Goddard’s THE CABIN IN THE WOODS several times since the big screen back in 2011 and each & every time I have found something new to smile about : from Goddard & Whedon’s FRESH, FUNNY & ORIGINAL script to that bizzare feeling your watching two movies wrapped up in one it’s almost like an R rated Twilight Zone episode, it just keeps getting better and better, so much so that it recently made My Top 20 Movies of the Decade : The Cabin in the Woods is so far removed from their work together on Buffy the Vampire Slayer it’s actually insane to think it’s from the same team, but when it sinks in and you’ve watched it a few time the penny drops and you realise HELL YEAH this has their stamp it’s just on a different level, a more sadistic, crueler and blood splattered level : The Cabin in the Woods has so many horror layers and each time you peel one away the next is scarier, first you get the old garage attendent who’s creepy as fuck and at this point I would have turned for home, then it’s the cabin with it’s remote location, double sided mirrors and a goddam cellar and then the monsters start to come out to play, one by one each scarier and more violent than the next… well you get the picture….. it’s brilliant : the film is just everything you’d want from a horror movie, it’s scary, sexy and relentless, I mean watching Jules make out with the wolf is just…..wtf just happened have I been smoking some of Marty’s drugs or what?, the pair of Amy Acker & Fran Kranz add so much greatness and nostalgia to each scene their part of, the way the story arc twists and turns like a Rubik Cube is utterly bonkers and not since Wes Craven gave us Scream have I seen a better horror lead than Kristen Connolly, she’s fearless, gorgeous, takes no shit and she just owns her character : WHAT A MOVIE !! ★★★★★

Number 25 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : A caving trip goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators : The way Neil Marshall sets up this horror movie in the first 20mins is excellent, it not only contains a pretty shocking start to proceedings but also allows the story and it’s characters to quickly develop so you feel their love but also a certain amount of tension between the friends as they set off on the caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains : 2005’s THE DESCENT is a horror film that shook me to the bone, it’s a claustrophobic, knuckle clenching, nerve ending survival film that’s tense, bloody and contains a cruel turn during it’s final quarter : the all female cast are excellent especially the superb Natalie Mendoza who plays Juno the badass athlete of the group and Shauna Macdonald who’s lead character Sarah is clever, gutsy & will do anything to survive : I really loved the way the cave system was cleverly lit by the neon cave lights the girls carried, this added a terrific atmosphere to these scenes which in turn also allowed the pale skin of the crawlers to look even more menacing (by the way according to Neil Marshall all the Crawlers in the movie were played by actors and not stunt people or dancers) : one of my favorite moments in The Descent was Juno’s fight with one of the crawlers, the caos & confusion was interupted by the now infamous pickaxe scene involving Beth, and did I say the film contains blood and lot’s of it : so if your looking for some Horror inspiration and haven’t yet watched The Descent then I’d highly recommend you do so, it’s a terrific blood bath of a monster movie that will make you scream out loud in genuine fear : I LOVED IT ★★★★½

Number 27 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : Whilst at the local zoo an American man falls for a Serbian illustrator, who fears that she will turn into a cat person if they are intimate together : Scary movies come in all guises and Jacques Tourneur’s RKO masterpiece CAT PEOPLE is one of the many examples, that you don’t necessarily have to see the horror coming to be petrified of it’s existence : I’ve always be a huge fan of producer Val Lewton and his stable of great horror movies for RKO pictures, films such as I Walked with a Zombie, Ghost Ship, Isle of the Dead, The Leopard Man and of course Cat People and it’s sequel The Curse of the Cat People made use of great light, shadows and rolling fog combined with the Golden Age maestro Roy Webb and his unbeatable spine-chilling scores : Cat People was filmed in 18 Days and for me is the finest example of that era, a terrific horror with some unsettling scenes to drool over, or in my case hide from : two such scenes involve the wonderful Jane Randolph and her character Alice, the first sees her leaving a cafe and being followed by Simone Simon‘s Irena, the sound of both of their footsteps and the sparsely lit pavement that Alice follows sets the scene in RKO atmospheric tradition, she’s panicking & constantly looking over her shoulder and then she then starts to run as if something is chasing her, terrified, out of breathe…. this moment in the film is giddy perfection, suspense of the highest order and so typical of it’s time that I will never get bored of watching : in the second scene we find a Alice alone in her hotel complex going for a swim in the basement’s pool when she’s startled by a young cat and a scary shadowy outline that overhangs the stairwell, before we know it Alice is alone and in the centre of the swimming pool, the camera-work is sensational during this scene circling the pool as the shadows illuminate & drip off the walls on all sides as the sound of a wild cat echoes around the pool, then Alice starts to scream…. for me it’s the movies highlight and it’s most unsettling moment too and executed with heart stopping precision : I loved revisiting Cat People on the restored Criterion edition, it truly is a horror masterpiece ★★★★½

Number 28 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further : the second movie on my list directed by James Wan and originally titled The Further Insidious is like the twisted twin sister of Poltergeist a film that has supernatural & astral dimension elements thrown together with a scary looking psychic played by horror veteran Lin Shaye, and a delightful pair of paranormal investigators who come together to help the Lambert family in their hour of need : Insidious was written by Leigh Whannell who also stars as Specs in the movie and took just over three weeks to film, the budget was an incredible $1.5 million and has since spawned a franchise including two further movies making a shit load of dollars in the process : Insidious is my favorite James Wan horror movie, the last quarter of which is haunting and unforgettable, we get to see Patrick Wilson’s Josh travelling into the Astral Plane to look for his son and hopefully bring him home, it’s pace slowly builds as Josh is seen creeping around the house inspecting the ghostly figures around him, some of which are quite distubing, then without warning and to a deafening screaching crescendo the film picks up pace and literally all hell breaks loose : the sound in the movie is unusual and quite eerie and the lighting helps give the film it’s atmosphere, there’s also the wonderful gift of Barbra Hershey in a small yet pivotal role (I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of Barbara later on my list) : overall Insidious is genius story-telling, a legitimate horror gem that has a great twist during it’s final act and will scare you half to death: you may want to stay around after the credits too ★★★★½

Number 29 of My Top 31 Horror Movies : After Amelia looses her husband she and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when a creepy children’s book titled “Mister Babadook” manifests in their home : Aussie Jennifer Kent wrote and directed THE BABADOOK after securing it’s budget of $2.5 million via Kickstarter : I must confess after seeing the movie for the first time I was terrified and struggled sleeping for days after, the imagery and the darkness that consumed the screen throughout the movie tugged deep into my soul and I couldn’t stop thinking of this poor family desimated by the loss of a father & husband, the mum then having to cope by herself with her imaginative & energetic young son was scary in itself, let alone this hideous, life sucking creature that invades their world : Essie Davis & Noah Wiseman give the film it’s heart, their chemistry playing mother & son is downnright believable, the old house in the movie was specifically built for the film and it’s fair to say that Jennifer Kent was influenced by the style of old horror movies and maybe even the Lon Chaney era whilst filming : along with the possession and what follows, one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when the Amelia visits the local police station to report being terrorised by someone or something, watching Essie’s performance in this scene her head swimming with fear and paranoia is quite special, like a character from an old Hitchcock movie : The Babadook is not only one of the finest horror movies I’ve seen, with one of the scariest adversary‘s but it’s also a draining experience, a hard watch that concerns the welfare of a young child, the evil that lurkes and the battle of a family torn apart by with what life has dealt them : interestingly Babadook is an anagram of A bad book ★★★★½