[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020 FIFTH EDITION

Dear Past-Mike,

So much has happened in the world since you wrote to me in mid-September! Suffice it to say that life is still overwhelming, and our limbic systems are overburdened. The effects of long-term exposure to stress can lead to real changes in brain functionality and behavior. People can exhibit bizarre behavior and may become more susceptible to addiction and depression. Lucky for us, we have been dealing with those issues successfully for quite a while!

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020 FOURTH EDITION, A ROUGH TRANSITION TO THE MODERN ERA

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This week’s edition of Shocktoberfest 2020 is about old world horrors under the modern world’s electric lights. A Bay of Blood, which I wrote about last week, is an apt milestone to delineate between the dignified, gloomy gothic horror films set in the past and the newer, present-day, violent, and gory horror films that began to push them aside. Viewers began to lose interest in watching movies set in the previous century and began to crave movies set in a more familiar world – the one they were living in now. 

[FANTASIA FEST REVIEW] ’12 HOUR SHIFT’ IS A GRUESOME COMEDY OF ERRORS

12 HOUR SHIFT (2020)

Directed & Written by Brea Grant
Stars: Angela Bettis, David Arquette, Chloe Farnworth, Mick Foley

Lucky you got family checks on you.

12 Hour Shift is a true gem of a movie! Writer-director Brea Grant’s ode to the fucked-up-ness of life in Arkansas in 1999, 12 Hour Shift (2020), was the movie I was most looking forward to watching at this year’s virtual Fantasia Fest. The acting, the story, the music, and the attention to fine detail made watching this long-anticipated movie a treat!. Like a master storyteller, Grant splays out her characters like a group of spinning quarters whirling around a tabletop. They ricochet off of each other in unpredictable ways, fall over or sail over the table’s edge.

[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020, THIRD EDITION

 

Dear Future-Mike,

I am writing this on September 18th, 2020 just after I found out that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead. For the first time, I am considering giving up and letting hopelessness take over. I keep thinking of a social media post about trauma survivors  who watch the same movies and shows over and over. It is because they find comfort in the familiarity of the experience. Revisiting favorite shows and movies is a powerful antidote against the unpredictability of life. Pattern recognition for humans, where we examine the data,  looking for the reassurances that we will survive the present.

[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020, SECOND EDITION

 

[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020, FIRST EDITION

This week I revisited a film that after 50 years still gives me nightmares. I was surprised to find some curious links between it, modern horror films, and today's news cycle. Like Ripley tells the xenomorph in Alien 3, "You've been in my life so long, I can't remember anything else,"  I can't remember my life before images from George Romero's Night of the Living Dead started making started making an impression.  In fact, it was so powerful that I first viewed it subconsciously during my nighttime slumbers years before I was able to actually watch it. The world also said goodbye to Diana Rigg this week. This was perfect reason to watch her and Vincent Price ham it up in Douglas Hickox's Theater of Blood, a thriller-chiller of Shakespearean proportions.

[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020, FIRST EDITION

 

[LISTS] SHOCKTOBERFEST 2020, FIRST EDITION

My first nightmare - Lon Chaney

Where did my love of horror come from? As near as I can tell, it is probably hard-coded into my DNA. I am certain that there is a specific gene sequence that is related to a passion for the macabre and ghastly. As a small child, maybe even as young as 5 or six, my dreams became populated with images that I would later recognize as monsters from movies. In the first dream I can remember, I was trapped in the dark, spooky side of our basement when a frightening creature lunged at me from behind the furnace. Later on, I would find a picture of that monster in a book on movies at the local public library. It was none other than the great Lon Chaney Sr. from London After Midnight that pursued me into the dark and damned spaces of imagination that I call home. In order to celebrate that first panic run into nightmare territory, here are the first week’s movies from my yearly Shocktoberfest! 

[REVIEW] THE BEACH HOUSE (2019)

In the midst of an extinction level event, The Beach House reminds us of how fragile human life really is.

THE BEACH HOUSE

Starring:  Liana Liberato, Noah Le Gros, Jake Weber, Maryann Nagel

Written & Directed by: Jeffery A. Brown

“You should be thankful you have all the time to do what you want” -Jane

Writer and director Jeffery A. Brown’s first feature film, The Beach House (2019) takes four characters in the midst of pivotal, personal journeys and exposes them to the cosmic horror of a deadly force from the primeval ocean floor. Two couples are brought together at the titular beach house by chance. While soon-to-graduate Emily (Liana Liberato) is pondering grad school programs, her boyfriend, Randall (Noah Le Gros), is pressuring her to join him on his quest for a life of “vacation all the time.” The go to Randall's family's beach house to discuss their future together. They discover they are sharing the house with Mitch (Jake Weber) and Jane (Maryann Nagel), an older, married couple with their own major issues. Jane is gravely ill, possibly dying, while Mitch struggles to care for her and is  drinking heavily. 

[REVIEW] ‘RELIC’ TRAPS VIEWERS IN A DARK MAZE OF A FAMILY’S DEEPEST FEARS

Natalie Erica James’ first feature film is a slow-burn, emotional drama about the horrors of ageing parents and hidden family histories.

RELIC (2020)

Starring: Bella Heathcote, Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin
Writers: Natalie Erika James, Christian White
Director: Natalie Erika James

A JOURNEY INTO THE DARK

Australian writer/director Natalie Erika James’ first feature film, Relic (2020), traps viewers in the terrifying, dark maze. Her inspiration began while she was visiting family in Japan. There she saw a sign outside a temple promising “the key to paradise” could be found inside. Following the signs led her to a basement labyrinth where she quickly got lost in the dark. After groping her way to freedom, James noted that the experience had changed her being, “Everything seemed brighter, sharper. I felt buoyed by my small, private achievement for the rest of the day.” (MovieMaker Magazine)

TEENAGE FURY

Brigette

Ginger Snaps (2000)
Director: John Fawcett
Writers: Karen Walton (written by and story), John Fawcett (story)
Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Kris Lemche

Hard Candy (2005)
Director: David Slade
Writer: Brian Nelson
Stars: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh

Jennifer's Body (2009)
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Diablo Cody
Stars: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody

Many modern, female-centered, coming-of-age horror movies share common roots with ancient Grecian dramas wherein individuals act as stand-ins for greater societal concepts. Coming-of-age stories feature an essential turning point that allows the protagonist to display their progress towards maturity. Needy, Haley, and Brigette, the protagonists of Jennifer’s Body, Hard Candy and Ginger Snaps, reach that point and beyond as they display characteristics similar to the stages of development the ancient Greeks went through on their evolution toward a legal system that was fair to all, as fifth century BC playwright Aeschylus illustrated in his play cycle The Oresteia. The three plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, symbolically tell the tale of Ancient Greece's coming-of-age via the conversion from lawlessness and vigilantism to a legal code that applied to all and was enforced by the government, not individuals. This progression is mirrored by the adolescent girls' transition from the chaotic powerlessness of childhood to the responsibility that comes with the agency of adulthood.

TWIN TALES OF TAGALOG TERROR, 2020 EDITION

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Kulay Dugo ang Gabi (1694 ) -  Released as The Blood Drinkers (USA) or The Vampire People (USA)

Staring: Ronald Remy, Amalia Fuentes, Eddie Fernandez, Eva Montes
Produced: Cirio H. Santiago, Premiere Studios in Manila, dist by Hemisphere Pictures in US
Written: Cesar Amigo (screenplay), Rico Bello Omagap (story)
Directed: Gerardo de Leon, Eddie Romero

Brides of Blood (1968)
Staring: Kent Taylor, Beverly Powers (as Beverly Hills), John Ashley,Eva Darren
Produced:Kane W. Lynn (Hemisphere Pictures)
Written: Cesar Amigo
Directed: Gerardo de Leon, Eddie Romero

I am grateful to have a group of friends who love unusual movies. We often have movie nights to watch some pretty far out films like Liquid Sky, I Drink Your Blood, and recently, we had an unplanned Russ Meyer double feature - Faster PussyCat and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. One of my favorite movie nights was a double bill of The Blood Drinkers (1964) and Brides of Blood (1969), two Filipino horror films we dubbed as TWIN TALES OF TAGALOG TERROR! These movies shown together tell a story about the influence of not just the political climate in the Philippine Island in the 1960s  but also how American filmmakers radically changed the industry in both countries. Together they represent the calm before a giant typhoon that would sweep back across the Pacific Ocean to the drive-ins and grindhouse theaters of The United States.

MONSTROUS FEMALE FEAR : THE POWER OF SADY BOYLE'S 'DEAD BLONDES' AND DAVID CRONENBERG'S 'RABID'

I am a horror film fanatic. I love how they are both exciting and thought-provoking, as well as their capacity to be so weird! Having spent so much of my life watching, enjoying, analyzing, and discussing horror films, my worldview has been undeniably influenced by them. Last year, I set myself to the task of reading more, not only to broaden my understanding of the world I live in, but also to seek understanding of the world through the eyes of others. So, when the Faculty of Horror podcast recommended Sady Doyle’s Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power, my interest was piqued.

VINEGAR SYNDROME’S BLOOD MANIA AND POINT OF TERROR SET RIPS THE SCREAMS RIGHT OUT OF YOUR THROAT!

Maria De Aragon

VINEGAR SYNDROME’S BLOOD MANIA AND POINT OF TERROR SET RIPS THE SCREAMS RIGHT OUT OF YOUR THROAT!

BLOOD MANIA / POINT OF TERROR

Blood Mania

Starring: Peter Carpenter, Maria De Aragon, Vicki Peters, Alex Rocco, Leslie Simms
Written by: Peter Carpenter, Tony Crechales, Toby Sacher
Directed by: Robert Vincent O’Neil

Point of Terror

Starring: Peter Carpenter, Dyanne Thorne, Lory Hansen, Leslie Simms, Joel Martson
Written by: Peter Carpenter, Ernest A. Charles, Tony Crechales, Chris Marconi
Directed by: Alex Nicol

“We’re very young souls. Very young and evil.”
“Yes, very evil…You’ll probably live to be a hundred and ten.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?”
“Only the good die young.”

Currently, going to the movies is a single-film event but it was not always that way. My dad told me that when he was a kid during the Depression (I am that old), going to a picture show meant featurettes, a newsreel, and two movies, sometimes even singing, all for a dime! When I was a child in the 1960s and 1970s, that sort of thing was long gone. But drive-ins will always have double bills where a current feature is coupled with the return of something from last year or the year before, that were thematically linked (Stallone/Schwarzenegger pairing of Raw Deal and Cobra in 1986 taught me everything I needed to know about being a man.). Sometimes they were odd pairings, such as the Mel Brooks comedy Young Frankenstein and psychological slasher Toolbox Murders double feature that I convinced a friend from church to get his dad to take us to see. Mr. D. lasted about 7 minutes into the The Toolbox Murders before pulling the plug on the evening.

Sometime during the mid 1970s, a horror triple feature of Blood Mania (1970), Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972), and the 1974 Vincent Price meta-horror film Madhouse made the drive-in rounds. I was around ten or 11 at that time, so there was no way to see it. But the TV spot was filled with enough weirdness to fuel my imagination for decades. Replete with the most brain bending bizarre images: undead monks crawling from graves, frightening monsters gathered in a living room, and all the distorted shadows and shapes that can be derived from descending a spiral staircase in the dark, I felt a need to go to those places and explore their environments. While Tombs of the Blind Dead and Madhouse are better known, it was Blood Mania that packed the most punch.

VOLITION(2019) ASKS HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO CHANGE THE FUTURE?

VOLITION (2019)

Director: Tony Dean Smith
Writers: Tony Dean Smith, Ryan W. Smith
Stars: Adrian Glynn McMorran, Magda Apanowicz, John Cassini,Frank Cassini, Aleks Paunovic, Bill Marchant
"Our choices don't matter, life happens beyond our control."
Volition-the faculty or power of using one's will.

I give most of my movie attention to films that fall under the “blood soaked orgy of terror” category. But I love a well written, fast paced story with great characters and plenty of action plus interesting ideas to play with. The trailer for director and writers siblings Tony Dean Smith and Ryan W. Smith, aka The Smith Brothers, for Volition(2020) promised all that and I had to check it out.

BLACK CHRISTMAS (2019) RUINS CHRISTMAS IN JUST THE RIGHT WAY

BLACK CHRISTMAS (2019) RUINS CHRISTMAS IN JUST THE RIGHT WAY

Starring: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Lily Donoghue, Brittany O’Grady, Caleb Eberhardt, Cary Elwes
Written by: Sophia Takal, April Wolfe
Directed by: Sophia Takal

<SPOILERS AHEAD>

For my 55th birthday, I went to see one of the most divisive horror films since 2015’s It Follows. The division falls sharply along gender lines as the male viewers search for new ways to express their displeasure and the females champion its clear-eyed take on the difficulties of modern life. What has created this intense, boys versus girls shouting match on social media? It is director-writer Sophia Takal & co-screenwriter April Wolfe’s reimagining the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas as a polemic on toxic masculinity and female oppression. Due to its transgressive nature and unsubtle/over-the-top presentation, Black Christmas has ruined Christmas for many horror fans!

CHAD CRAWFORD KINKLE'S FAITH OF THE FATHERS

CHAD CRAWFORD KINKLE'S FAITH OF THE FATHERS

Humanity has been gifted with a drive to create understanding and meaning. There is possibly even a biological mechanism behind that drive: One half of our brain records raw experience, while the other half draws lines around the elements, giving them borders and definition. This applies not just to concrete experiences but also abstract concepts, such as “What is beyond the stars?” or “Where did we come from?” Historically, whenever societies have formed, they sought to answer these harder, more abstract questions by creating a religion that is a reverential and a highly symbolic practice with a connection to an otherworldly source of power and wisdom.

[REVIEW] RED LETTER DAY (2019) WAS "UNDELIVERABLE"

[REVIEW] RED LETTER DAY (2019) WAS "UNDELIVERABLE"

Starring: Dawn Van de Schoot, Hailey Foss, Kaeleb Zain Gartner
Writer: Cameron Macgowan
Director: Cameron Macgowan
Studio: Awkward Silencio, RLD Productions

"Do we have to have another discussion about consent?"

Synopsis: The Edwards family, Mom Melanie, daughter Madison and son Timothy (Dawn Van de Schoot, Hailey Foss, and Kaeleb Zain Gartner) are settling into their new home. The kids complain that the new neighborhood is boring, not realizing that today is going to be a red-letter day in the worst possible way. A shadowy group called "The Unknown" has delivered a series of Red-Letters to the community pitting neighbors against each other based on their conflicting social media personas. In order to survive, the Edwards must be prepared to do what ever it takes to stay alive as they realize their new home is anything but boring.

Marla Mae (2018)

Marla Mae (2018)

Starring: Lisa van Dam-Bates, Travis Johnny Ware, Katie Hemming, Jason Stange
Written: Lisa van Dam-Bates
Directed by: Lisa van Dam-Bates

Lisa van Dam-Bates is the super-human triple threat behind medical shocker Marla Mae (2018). Writing, directing and starring in a movie would be beyond the powers of most ordinary mortals. I will barely get through writing this paragraph without needing to call my therapist. I was drawn to this movie by the fact Dam-Bates seemed to have so much control over her movie. I know it may seem unfair to say that this movie is more interesting because it was written and directed by a woman, after all, no-one goes to see Martin Scorcese films because he is a guy, but to me it is a numbers game. My opinion is that there are too few female voices in horror, especially ones that have so much control over their vision, to ignore a movie like this. Judging by its subject matter, it is easy to think that the subtext of Marla Mae is something extremely personal to most women: getting adequate and affordable healthcare from a system that doesn't appear to respect or pretend to understand women.

Shocktoberfest 2019 Final Edition

Shocktoberfest 2019 Final Edition

The Mask

Shocktoberfest 2019 Final Edition

What a long strange trip it was! We begin our Doris Day a Day a thon this weekend. Being married comes with some perks, but it is also duties. My non horror movie loving wife knows this is important to me, so she was willing to do without my presence for the last six weeks, but now it is time to show my appreciation to my greatest obsession, her. Let's get right to it.

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #6

Dream Home

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #6

So far, there has been a paucity of films from the Asiatic Region in this year's Shocktoberfest. This week's selections attempted to correct that omission. While none of this week's movies are considered Asian Extreme Horror, some of them are pretty close. Caveat emptor!

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #5

Crimes of Passion

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #5

Week off from work - Yay Fall Break! Obviously, I spent plenty of time watching films this week. There are some new films, some old favorites and also three movies that I consider to be modern stand outs in the horror genre.

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #4

2001:  A Space Odyssey

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #4

Seven more movies for Week 4! One first-time view, but numbers 25, 28, 30 & 31 were watched so long ago it was like seeing them as new. It was a treat to see them with what felt like new eyes.  Oh hey, I switched the list order in a way that makes more sense.

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #3

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #3

Illness came to my house this week and also a certain amount of horror film fatigue set in. Much time was spent tracking down lesser known films and re-watching some neglected films. I also realized that I picked a weird way to list my weekly choices! As a bonus, this week's post has some appropriate music to celebrate the  addition of Electric Wizard to my list of favorite bands.

Schocktoberfest 2019 Update #2

Shocktoberfest 2019 Update #2

Week Two has been all about the new films. Five of the 7 were first time views. But I also visited some old favorites!