I love good horror films! So this was my third year participating in the #31HorrorFilms31Days Twitter challenge. This year I decided to watch only films I hadn’t seen before, though I bent the rules for GOTHIC, the Ken Russell film I hadn’t seen since the 1980’s, and was too young to understand. Also, it turns out I had seen NIGHTMARE CITY under another title (CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD), but that was almost 30 years ago!
I saw quite a variety of great classics and contemporary independent films, and mediocre-to-terrible films from the USA, Japan, Italy, England, Canada, and Ireland.
1. CANDYMAN. All these years I assumed it was a cheap slasher, not this little gem with a Phillip Glass soundtrack.
2. WILLOW CREEK= Blair Witch Bigfoot. Not bad, but nothing you haven't seen before. Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait?!!!
3. THE MUMMY (1959) Glorious Hammer reboot pits a creepy, muddy rag-wrapped Lee against Cushing's noble imperialist.
4. PEEPING TOM. Beautiful visually as any Michael Powell film, but far more disturbing. This guy really likes to watch.
5. ANTIVIRAL. Cronenberg Jr. directed take of biotech body horror set in a celebrity worship dystopia.
6. KISS OF THE DAMNED. Jess leaves Stars Hollow to hang out with glampires in this faux-giallo.
7. GOTHIC. Guy has manic episode at a narcissistic friend's house, grieving lady has a weird vision of the tragic future.
8. BARON BLOOD. Witch curse creates a mysterious murderer, blah blah. Joseph Cotten deserved better. I deserved better.
9. SHIVERS. Infested with disgusting parasites, residents of an isolated condo complex become oversexed and murderous.
10. HOUSE. I think I had a nightmare that Sam Rami and Sophia Coppola collaborated on a horror satire set in Japan.
11.GHOST OF YOTSUYA. A wicked ronin gets his comeuppance by the vengeful ghost of his murdered wife.
12. THE BATTERY. Enjoyable mumblecore zombie flick that is oddly also one of the best films I've seen about baseball.
13. THE BEYOND. A woman inherits a hotel built above the gates to hell. Eyeballs pop, all hell literally breaks loose.
14. HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Babysitter gets tricked into satanic shenanigans. It's a well-made, but forgettable pastiche.
15.THE SACRAMENT. Awful exploitation of real tragedy for the sake of expanding a media company's brand.Done with TiWest.
16. THE AWAKENING. Ghost buster investigates a haunted school in an atmospheric 1920's England. Everyone has PTSD.
17. 5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON. Hipsters chill on an island getaway. In a meat freezer, wrapped in plastic.
18.WE ARE WHAT WE ARE. Being a teen is rough enough. Dressing like Wisconsin Death Trip to eat long pig is even worse.
19. DARK TOUCH. A possessed girl becomes a danger to her grey little Irish town. Quieter and more subtle than expected.
20.VANISHING ON 7TH STREET. Strangers listen to a hot bar jukebox while an unseen force abducts people in the darkness.
21.THE ROOST. Trapped in a farm by killer bats/zombies? Some fun stuff in here, but it's a little slow for my taste.
22.13 SINS. A nice guy accepts a series of 13 challenges for big money. But of course, the game escalates into terror.
23. KILL BABY KILL. A ghostly girl appears to residents of a creepy village, death results soooo slowly. Soooo slowly.
24. NIGHTMARE CITY. Yes, the radioactive zombies look terrible, but I found this Italian charmer thrilling.
25. PRETTY DEAD. Young woman slowly turns into a zombie over the course of months,and eats medical waste along the way.
26. I WAS A TEENAGE ZOMBIE. Silly teensploitation parody with a hot new wave soundtrack.
27. BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974). This is just one of the many reasons I never wanted to join a sorority.
28. THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN. Homage to the postwar police procedural (especially Naked City) meets 70's slashers.
29. DEAD WEIGHT. A clingy boyfriend will do anything to find his girlfriend during a low-budget zombie apocalypse.
30.SWEENEY TODD (1982).Grand Guignol, Sondheim style. My mom wouldn't let me watch this as a kid. Also, Angela Lansbury is always best evil!
31.DIABOLIQUE. Two women scheme to dispose of a corpse that will not disappear. It gets creepy. Challenge complete!
My Top Picks: CANDYMAN, THE BATTERY, BLACK CHRISTMAS, NIGHTMARE CITY.
Honorable Mentions: THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, 13 SINS, HOUSE, GOTHIC, ANTIVIRAL, PEEPING TOM, VANISHING ON 7TH STREET, DIABOLIQUE, PRETTY DEAD
Creepiest Elements: The final 10 minutes or so of DIABOLIQUE, the protagonist’s medical waste diet of PRETTY DEAD, Christopher Lee’s MUMMY slowly breaking into a window, the almost word-for word cribbage of Jim Jones’ final speech in the feature-length Vice Magazine advertisement that is THE SACRAMENT.