"31 Horrors of October"- Society

 

The initial time that I had heard about this film was in a video from coolduder on youtube. I think it was one of his really long ones from his earlier videos where he was talking about the goriest and the grossest movies he has in his movie collection. It sounded interesting even though I don't remember him saying too much about it in particular. Then I found a trailer for it. After watching that, I was more interested. And finally, after sifting through Cecil's older movie reviews on his Goodbadflicks website, he also had done a review of this film to perfection (as always). I had to get my hands on this movie and watch it. Someone on youtube actually posted the whole movie uncut, and I watched it on my phone. Hilarious. But Jesus Christ, the last 20 minutes or so of this flick is INSANE. I don't think anything I've ever seen before or since will ever top that shunting scene-and if you do see it, it's one of those things in life that you can't un-see. It still boggles my brain how Screaming Mad George came up with that shit. He has an endless, twisted imagination.

 

My favorite thing about this film is how right in your face it is about bashing the classes that we have here in America. It goes for the jugular and never lets go. Screaming Mad George's make up and special effects make every weird nook and cranny that much more... disgusting. And real. It's all in good breeding. Really.

 

"31 Horrors of October"- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Of all the sequels in the Texas Chainsaw franchise, the sequel Tobe Hooper did 12 years later has got to be the best. It really is quite the opposite of the first one as that's what Tobe wanted. He didn't even want to make a sequel or anything else that had to do with the Sawyer family because he just wanted to film the original and just leave it as a straight up piece of visceral terror that would be unmatched for years to come. But the fans wanted more, and Tobe obliged. Except, he gave us something that was more of a really heavy handed black comedy with some gore than what we really wanted-just a straight up continuation of what happened after Sally was whisked away in the back of a pick up and Leatherface commencing with the ever so infamous "chainsaw dance". The other sequels outright deny what happened in the original, so I guess none of us will really never know.

12 years after the original, Tobe Hooper brought the buzz back with a sequel he didn't even want to make. So he turned it on it's head and morphed it into a weird black comedy that parodied the original. He also introduced us to the now classic "Chop Top" character and I'm just mostly glad that this film is finally getting the fan base it deserves. 

 

"31 Horrors of October"- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

I truly don't think I can do justice to you guys and myself by trying to come up with any new way of trying to explain how important this film is and was to the horror scene. Namely, the slasher franchises we all know and love basically came from the dark and bizarre happenings that the Sawyer family and Leatherface himself manage to pull others into because they're hungry and they would rather eat people instead of the normal fare like beef or pork. If I made any sort of top 10, 20, 50, 100, whatever horror film list of all time, number 1 is and always will be Tobe Hooper's original from 1974. There's something deep, cerebral and just all around fucked up about the idea that in the way of psychology, this sort of family might actually exist somewhere. Maybe not in Texas per se, but just somewhere out there where everyone least suspects. And I think that's why this film is so heavy and it works so well. Because this sort of thing is physically possible. It's not some satanic bullshit, or a cult, or a ghost, or an alien or any of that nonsense (even though I really believe there have to be other living species out there besides us). It's possible that the family in the house next to you is like this and you would never know the difference. Time to buy a new house.

  (My notes are kind of a half ass-ed reprisal. Sorry.)

There really isn't anything about this movie I could possibly say that already hasn't been said. This film changed the world of horror forever and if Tobe Hooper never sought out to do this, horror might have died out a long time ago. Thank the gore gods for the Sawyer family and Leatherface.

"31 Horrors of October"- The Shining

The Shining is a horror film that needs no explanation and no introduction. It truly is a masterpiece of tension, insanity and terror that pulls you in right from the beginning and never lets go. It's been quite a while since I watched this, and I completely forgot that it was two hours and twenty minutes. So I had to watch it in two separate sittings because my work schedule is a bitch right now. But at least I was able to experience Jack's downfall again this year for Halloween.

  There's a reason why Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel, The Shining has been revered as one of the top horror staples of all time. Every scene is filmed to perfection and I don't think Stanley could've done it any better. He captured the idea of total isolation beautifully and the cast just did the rest. Superb horror epic. None better.

"31 Horrors of October"- Suspiria

The very first copy of Argento's Suspiria that I picked up was actually the vhs at a place in Danville, IL called Vintage Villains. I love that place. I've only been there one time, but it was completely worth it. I think Suspiria is also one of the first Italian horror flicks that I've ever really watched along with Fucli's Zombie and Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead among others. Suspiria is definitely one of my favorite Italian horror flicks as it's just so out there and surreal in it's content and execution. That's what makes it so great. The level of bizarre happenings here is pretty high and I personally don't think Argento ever out did himself with anything before or since.

This is classic Argento through and through. The lighting, cinematography, character building-it's all here and it's truly the way that Italian horror should be done. There's a sense of atmosphere and dread that you can only get from an Argento, and Suspiria is his best hands down.

"31 Horrors of October"- Curse 2: The Bite

Until earlier tonight, I had never seen this film. I never even knew this film existed until, once again, I saw a review of it from Cecil of GoodBadFlicks. I swear that he needs to be more well known. Anyway, his review of this movie was one of his earlier ones before he stepped into the world of Youtube. I'm kind of sad that he never put that review on his Youtube page. Anyway, fairly recently I found a double dvd that has Curse 1&2 on it, and I had to pick it up to at the very least watch Curse 2. It was well worth it.

  This film has a total cheesy, made for tv vibe to it. And the special effects were done by Screaming Mad George. That should tell you right there that this film is worth it-cheesy execution or not. Like I mentioned before, I never seen this before tonight and I loved it.

"31 Horrors of October"- Hellbound: Hellraiser 2

Out of all of the Hellraiser films, the sequel has always been my favorite. Probably because to me, it feels like a really solid follow up that I don't think could have been done any better. It picks up right after the original and is even more dark and disturbing because all of the main characters "go to hell" as it were. The addition of the doctor and all the mental patients just makes it all the more unsettling and I truly never thought the franchise ever topped itself with this film. I do love Hellraiser 3, but I just never thought it was as good as Hellbound. What can you do, right?

 Once again, with Hellraiser 2, the special effects are even darker, weirder and in your face than the original. You even get to see a little bit of how Pinhead became a Cenobite. Very cool continuation of Clive Barker's universe. Top notch.