Nothing brings a family together better than the holidays. Unless it is a deranged alien bent on destroying eveything. That will united even the most dysfunctional familys.

 

Read Time:2 Minute, 50 Second

Shocktoberfest 2021, Yuletide Edition

What do you do if you are into horror films but none of your family is, yet they insist you put together a list of holiday favorite movies because you are also the designated AV and IT guy? You can apply yourself to coming up with a bunch of family favorites guaranteed to warm their hearts or do such a terrible job that they will ask nothing of you ever again.

This situation does not warrant compromise. Either everyone will gather with cups of warm cocoa in their best Christmas sweaters and chuckle at the hijinks of whatever nightmarishly wholesome story of family bonding they settled on while you sit off to the side in your Nightmare on Elm Street —Dream Warriors hoodie, praying for a zombie apocalypse, or they glare with hatred at you as they pack up their still wrapped presents and leave.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 FINAL EDITION -SLASHTASTIC!

Jason and Me

How I caught air in the theater.

Slashers were once unwelcome companions on my horror movie journey. The stories about the deaths of obnoxious teenagers seemed more like pointless exercises in sadism than genuine horror. But they would do in a pinch. When I was a freshman in college, my girlfriend and I went to see Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. It was hard to keep my opinion quiet about how awful the movie was. Everything from the terrible choices the characters made to the predictable jump-scares were cause for complaint. Most irritating was the scene where Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) returns to the dark basement where she just witnessed Jason kill Rob (E. Erick Anderson). What was she thinking? Rob was dead and Jason was still lurking in the dark. When she turned to run back up the stairs, I whispered to my date, “Watch, he is going to grab her!”

Watching a good scary movie can be a real physical experience. Releasing intense emotions causes an equal release of energy. As my prediction came true and Jason grabbed Trish, my words were lost in the loud scream that came out instead and  I vaulted over the divider and onto my girlfriend’s lap.

Obviously, there was much to learn about the power slashers.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 - WEEK 3 - IT'S HENENLOTTER WEEK!

HENENLOTTER WEEK!

Everything Old is New Again

For the third edition of this year’s Shocktoberfest, I found a link between a contemporary film and a filmmaker rooted The Golden Age of Exploitation.

James Wan, a modern filmmaker whose hits include The Conjuring, Saw, and Insidious, heads in a new direction with his latest film, Malignant. The movie has been making waves in the horror community since its release. Stephen King himself extolled it in a tweet, heaping the highest praise on it. While looking forward, Wan's film rely's on the dirty DNA of Frank Henenlotter’s gory masterpiece, Basket Case.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 WEEK TWO, THE PIZZA RITUAL

 

The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show cast – Bob “Hoolihan” Wells, “Little” John Rinaldi, and “Big Chuck” Shodowski

Ever since I was old enough to stay up late and use the stove by myself, Friday nights were all about eating frozen pizzas and watching horror movies on TV. Before the Internet and VCRs, I was limited to the choices of whatever the local stations had on hand. Right after the nightly news, The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show would start its weekly program of movies, silly skits, and PSAs for activities in Cleveland. Eventually, my parents bought a VCR, and the local video stores expanded my access to horror movies.

Now, nearly four decades later, I celebrate my love of horror movies and frozen pizzas whenever I can. Here is the lineup from my latest Friday Night Pizza and Horror Movies ritual:

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021, WEEK ONE!

 

Let’s get this party started! Time for this year’s round of Shocktoberfest mini-reviews!

I believe that horror can save us. Horror makes sense of the chaotic, unpredictable modern world. It provides solace to our stressed and grieving hearts. Horror paints vibrant colors over darkened existences. Horror helps us discover the best in all of us.

The stories themselves bring these changes. Discovering the strange and unusual helps us to bond with others. It encourages trust-building, attachment, vulnerability, and empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand and even feel what another person is experiencing. To paraphrase The Prayer For Peace, also known as the Prayer of Saint Francis, it is better to understand than to be understood*. Embracing the unknown brings us knowledge.

Of course, in horror, everything becomes subverted and twisted. A wily serial killer may use empathy to get closer to their victim. In the first Shocktoberfest 2021 movie, failing to understand can be a lethal thing.

Have the lambs stopped screaming yet?

[Fantaspoa Fest] CEMETERY OF LOST SOULS IS A BLOODY, MYSTICAL HISTORY LESSON

Cipriano (Renato Chocair)

 CEMETERY OF LOST SOULS

Directed by Rodrigo Aragão
Written by Rodrigo Aragão
Starring Renato Chocair, Allana Lopes, Diego Garcias, Caio Macedo, Clarissa Pinhei

Evil can’t be controlled

Introduction

The present is formed by history and battles started hundreds of years ago are still waging on. Brazilian writer-director Rodrigo Aragão’s newest film, O Cemitério das Almas Perdidas (The Cemetery of Lost Souls, 2021) is an engrossing and dark fantasy that uses the fight between the shamanism of Brazil’s indigenous people and the staid, oppressive and exploitative Catholicism of the Portuguese colonists. The movie opens with a dedication to José Mojica Marins, Brazil’s most well-known horror icon: Zé de Caixão/Coffin Joe. AragãoIs is telling the audience to prepare themselves for a history lesson through the lens of horror.

[Review] WITNESS INFECTION (2021) SERVES UP A FRESH DISH FROM CINEMATIC LEFTOVERS

Director: Andy Palmer
Writers: Carlos Alazraqui, Jill-Michele Melean (as Jill-Michele Meleán)
Stars: Robert Belushi, Jill-Michele Melean, Vince Donvito, Errin Hayes, Bret Ernst, Monique Coleman

“Always leave one in the head!”

 -- Serrelli Family Motto

“It smells like death in here.”

Witness Infection (2021) is like a delicious repast made from leftovers. While the ingredients are familiar, mobster movies, rom-coms, zombie invasion films, they get mixed together into a unique dish. Occasionally the meal devolves  into an overcooked, tasteless mess by relying on overused stereotypes, this liberally spiced gangster-zombie-romcom is saved by a quick witted, funny script and over-the top gore. There are plenty laughs, thrills and even a little pathos to balance it all out. Some viewers may left hungry  for more substance, over all, it is a fun meal to feast on. 

When Clemenza schools Michael on the art of cooking for 20 in The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola forever linked together Italian families and food in cinema. Director Andy Palmer and co-writers Carlos Alazraqui and Jill-Michele Melean continue that tradition with a skilled cast of veteran comedy actors to create a movie about food, family, and the intestines that tie them together.

BATHED IN BLOOD

A Legacy of Brutality

Many fans of the horror genre are curious about the bizarre, the violent, and above all, the bloody and frightening. The prospect of a journey into the abject, that terrifying place where there are no boundaries and everything is hostile and alien, is an irresistible draw to us.   History is one of many resources available to help satisfy that curiosity.  Its frightful stories of monstrous men and women captivate our imaginations. One such pair who have left an indelible mark on public consciousness appeared in Eastern Europe along the bridge of the 15th and 16th centuries and their impact is strongly felt today!

[REVIEW] LUCKY (2020): A DARK AND HORRIFYING REFLECTION OF OUR OWN WORLD

 LUCKY (2020)

Director: Natasha Kermani
Writer: Brea Grant 
Stars: Brea Grant, Hunter C. Smith, Kausar Mohammed, Dhruv Uday Singh, Yasmine Al-Bustami

“ I am not lucky I just work really really hard”

The Brea Grant Appreciation Society will come to order

People who are obsessed with horror movies are also obsessed with the people that make them. Many horror fans keep lists of favorite personalities such as Stephen King,  John Carpenter and George Romero to name a few. After watching the excellent 12 Hour Shift, I added the name Brea Grant to my list. Ms Grant is a thought-provoking writer and innovative director. In addition to writing and directing, she is also an exceptional actress, having appeared in several notable films and TV series. The year 2021 is starting out to be a big year for her as well. March of this year will feature the release of two new projects that she has been intimately involved with; she stars in Jill Gevargizian’s The Stylist, and she wrote and starred in director Natasha Kermani’s Lucky (2020).

[REVIEW]FRIG YOU, GOLDEN GLOBES! IT’S PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020)

PSYCHO GOREMAN

Director: Steven Kostanski
Writer: Steven Kostanski
Stars: Steven Vlahos, Matthew Ninaber, Kristen MacCulloch, Nita-Josee Hanna, Owen Myre, Alexis Kara Hancey, Timothy Paul McCarthy

Psycho Goreman: The horrors you have just witnessed cannot be unseen. Your young minds will carry this until it consumes you in a miserable death.
Mimi: Cool.

On February 3rd, 2021, the Hollywood Foreign Press announced their nominees for the 78th Golden Globe awards, to spotlight excellence in film and television. I would like to address what I consider to be a grievous error of omission on their part. Their failure to nominate Stephen Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman (2020) as Best Intergalactic Feature is an unbelievable oversight and needs to be addressed!

[REVIEW] 'HUNTER HUNTER' GOES AFTER THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME

 Starring: Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa, Nick Stahl
Director: Shawn Linden
Writer: Shawn Linden

“We bring our problems to them, they bring their problems to us.” - Joseph

---

THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

Shawn Linden's (The Good Lie) third film, Hunter Hunter (2020) presents the viewer with a complex roadmap to navigate towards a shocking conclusion which firmly places it in the subgenre of Canuxploitation.  Linden takes his time to flense the skin and fat from his story to expose the bones and sinew before laying out the beating heart of  his thriller. The main characters, the Mersault family,  journey through many types of conflicts which drive the rising action and leads to a shocking climax and bloody resolution.

 

The Mersault family struggles with many different types of conflict as they live in their chosen setting, a cabin deep in the woods with minimal human contact. Joseph (Devon Sawa, Final Destination, Idle Hands), Anne (Camille Sullivan, A Dog's Way Home), and their tweener daughter, Renee (Summer H. Howell, Cult of Chucky), live off the grid. They make a simple, bare bones life as hunters and trappers. Their primitive existence is initially upset the return of a wolf that eats their traps the discovery that there is not enough money to buy supplies for the coming winter.