Happy Halloween!

Today is the big day - Halloween!

Hope you find a scary way to celebrate, whether its online -

find tons to do @ the Countdown to Halloween -

between the covers of a book, on television or DVD,

at a party or out trick-or-treating!

To get you in the mood, here's a great horror movie mash up,

done to the great Michael Jackson classic, Thriller!

Enjoy & Happy Halloween!

Vigalondo's Extraterrestrial

Director Nacho Vigalondo has made a new film called Extraterrestrial, the teaser is below. He is the man behind the great flick Timecrimes, which I reviewed here.

Teaser EXTRATERRESTRIAL (English) from Arsenico / Sayaka Producciones on Vimeo.

Loved Timecrimes, so I would definitely give this a go!

Movie Monday: The Other

The Other (1972)



Cast: Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky, Norma Connolly, Victor French, Jenny Sullivan, John Ritter

Director: Robert Mulligan

Writer/Screenplay by: Tom Tryon

Plot: Set in bucolic 1935 Connecticut, this chiller follows identical Perry twins Niles and Holland as a string of tragedies befalls their family. With the Perry clan still reeling from the untimely demise of the boys' father, their mother ends up paralyzed, and a corpulent cousin is impaled on a pitchfork. But Niles soon begins to see a link between Holland and the "accidents."


This film was one I had never seen nor even heard of until recently. It is a dark movie, dealing with the dark side of childhood imagination and despair. Once you understand what is going on, it is hard not to sympathize with all who suffer here.


The children who play the twins are quite good, the boy playing Niles in particular. He comes off as a real boy dealing with situations beyond his ability to understand.


Hagen is also great in the role of the twins' grandmother, dealing with the darkness she thinks she has controlled, and soon realizing she has underestimated the problems of those around her.


Muldaur has a relatively small role as the boys' mother, lost in her own grief and soon trapped within her own body. I have never seen her look more beautiful than she does at the beginning of this film.


Recommended, for fans of thrillers and mysteries.

Spike TV - Scream 2010

The nominees are up & the voting has begun!

30 categories, so head on over to Scream 2010 to cast your votes!

They will tape on October 16th and the two-hour show will premiere on Spike TV on Tuesday, October 19th (9:00ET/11:00PT).

Movie Monday - Triangle

Triangle (2009)



[Melissa George; Liam Hemsworth; Rachael Carpani; Emma Lung; Michael Dorman; Henry Nixon; Joshua McIvor]

Plot: Murder in the Bermuda Triangle in this gripping high-seas horror. Jess encounters the first of many bad omens when her car kills a seagull near the local harbor. Later, her yacht hits a storm, forcing her and her friends to board a mysterious deserted ship. The clock on the ship has stopped -- and so has any sense of safety. Christopher Smith writes and directs.

I am in a pickle with this one, since I cannot really describe or review much more about this film without spoiling the whole thing!

The acting and directing and writing all come together well here, and it makes for an enjoyable flick. The less you know first time going in, the better. I myself knew a little bit, and it was enough for me to expect what others would have been surprised by.

It is a film that, if you like thrillers and movies that make you think, then you will love. If you don't want anything "out-of-the-box", then you won't enjoy it. I also think calling this a "horror film" is wrong. It is more of a thriller with dark edges than a true "horror" film.

Watched this one thanks to the Horror Squad Movie Club. Check it out!

And I am not going to post the trailer, because I think it gives too much of the plot away. Just rent it and watch it yourself. And if you have Netflix, it is available on Instant View right now!

Movie Monday - La ragazza del lago (The Girl by the Lake)

La ragazza del lago (The Girl by the Lake) (2007)



[Toni Servillo; Denis Fasolo; Nello Mascia; Giulia Michelini; Valeria Golino]

Plot: The corpse of a young girl is found beside a lake. The chief detective on the case, beset by his own family troubles, works to understand how such a seemingly happy girl could have been murdered. His investigation takes him all over town and into a sad episode from her past.

This is an Italian film, a multiple award winner in numerous categories. And all accolades are well deserved. The plot is tragic, yet simple. Yet the maze involved in sorting out just what happened is complex.

Throughout most of the tale, we are faced with the sadness and despair life has to offer. But, at the end, we see that life can be hopeful, if you choose to look at it the right way. Anyway, just a great film.

Movie Monday - Fermat's Room

La habitación de Fermat {aka Fermat's Room} (2007)

Plot: Four mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host on the pretext of resolving a great enigma. The room in which they find themselves turns out to be a shrinking room that will crush them if they do not discover in time what connects them all and why someone might wish to murder them.

This is a suspenseful thriller of a movie that kept me guessing until the end. Sort of a brainiac-thriller, since riddles or 'enigmas' are the keys used to stop the room from shrinking. But the interconnection between the main characters is much more puzzling than these problems, and may very well be their downfall.

Great movie, well acted and directed. It is a Spanish film, with English subtitles. I wonder how long it will be before someone decides it 'needs' to be remade with an American cast? Not needed, in my opinion. Although a spoof-version done with the cast of The Big Bang Theory might be fun!

Recommended for fans of tense thrillers, but you have to be open to reading subtitles and paying attention throughout.

This is a film I stumbled upon thanks to the great About.com: Horror Movies Airing on TV.

Theme Thursday - Telephone

When a Stranger Calls (1979)

[Charles Durning; Carol Kane; Colleen Dewhurst; Tony Beckley; Ron O'Neal]

Plot: A petrified baby-sitter, a relentlessly ringing telephone and whispered threats set the stage for this suspense-packed, hair-raising chiller. A string of menacing phone calls unnerves baby-sitter Jill, until a compulsive shamus enters the scene to nab the caller -- a deranged killer. Fast-forward seven years … the homicidal maniac returns to ruthlessly torment Jill, who's now a wife and mother herself.

This movie is often remembered for the opening, where the babysitter is terrorized by the menacing phone calls from a stranger. These scenes are intense and hit home, at the time, for lots of young girls and women who had fears of something similar happening for real. And Kane was well cast as a nervous, scared teenage babysitter. Her big eyes can act all by themselves!

It is definitely 'of its time', due to the changes with telephones in the past 30 years. Back then, a line like "the calls are coming from inside the house" was damn scary stuff! Now, not so much.

The middle section of the film is not as well remembered and is really pretty sluggish. Dewhurst, Durning and Beckley are great actors, but the whole thing is just slow and almost boring. Yet it does do its part in showing just how dememented the stranger is, instead of making him a one dimensional killer.

The film picks up once more at the end, seven years later, with the babysitter a mother now herself. I was freaked out the first time I saw it. Good way to end a horror flick!

The film had a sequel, "When a Stranger Calls Back", a 1993 made-for-TV movie. Kane and Durning are back in their roles, this time helping another woman who is going through a somewhat similar experience. Not as great as the original, but it has its own positives, as well.

The original film itself was remade in 2006 as "When a Stranger Calls". This film dumps the slow moving middle section of the original, instead having the entire film focus on babysitter Jill and her night of terror. It was not well received. And, as I said, "the calls coming from inside the house" doesn't have the same scare value when everyone and their stalker uncle has a cell phone!

Here is the trailer for the original film:



I still have a hard time grasping the fact that the movie just celebrated its 30th anniversary!

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Have you checked the children?

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For more Theme Thursday posts, click here ---> Telephone

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Thriller/Horror Movie Mash-Up Magic!

The Vault of Horror posted this yesterday, and I just had to share.

Warning: If you don't like horror, some of these scenes will NOT be your cup of tea.



Quite awesome and very well done!

A great way to kick of the Halloween Season, and what better day to share it than on what would have been Michael Jackson's 51st birthday?

This video was created last year ago by Mark & Chris Wournell.

Theme Thursday - Shadow

Shadow of a Doubt is a great thriller from 1943, directed by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock.

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Young Charlie Newton is excited at the pending arrival of her Uncle Charlie. Bored with her humdrum life, she is thrilled at the prospect of learning about the adventurous life he seems to lead.

Soon though, she has reasons to doubt her uncle, and once the doubt creeps in all it can do is grow. She gets more adventure than she ever bargained for!

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This is one of Hitchcock's films that I just can watch again and again.

The performances by the cast are wonderful, led by Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten (I have come to love this guy, such a great actor), Patricia Collinge and Henry Travers (Clarence the angel from "It's a Wonderful Life"). And also a young Hume Cronyn as a neighbor and friend. Just an awesome cast in a superb film!

This film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing. Well deserved!

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Here is a trailer for the reissue of the film:



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Theme Thursday - SHADOW

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Movies I've Subjected Myself to Lately

Do You Wanna Know a Secret? (2001)

[Joey Lawrence, Chad Allen, Jeff Conaway]

Ugh. What a waste of time. I had read bad things about this, but went in hoping for the best. It's just not good, not even a "so bad, it's good" movie. Just bad. The climax of the film was just stupid.

You are better off with watching nothing than watching this, and I won't watch it again.

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Nightmare Honeymoon (1973)

[Dack Rambo, John Beck, Rebecca Dianna Smith]

This is a 70s flick I had never seen, and I DVR'd it from TCM last week. The plot is simple: newlyweds head off for their honeymoon but run into some bad dudes who do some horrible things. The rest of the movie is about the new couple in the direct aftermath and how they deal with what happened.

This was okay, but was too "of it's time period" for me. I can't reveal too much without giving away the plot, but let's just say I think the way the couple deal with things would be handled MUCH differently were this remade today.

Wouldn't watch it again, but if you like 70s movies or revenge flicks, give it a whirl.

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Leprechaun 2 (1994)

[Warwick Davis, Charlie Heath, Shevonne Durkin]

Okay, I had never watched this one before, either, and only did so now because it aired on St. Patrick's Day and I figured it would give it a go.

This movie just couldn't hold my interest, and I actually dozed off once toward the end. Just boring and blah. At first I assumed this was an 80s flick, but it was made in 1994. This comedy/horror film fails on both counts.

Will NOT watch this one again.

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The Abandoned (2006)

[Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden]

Had no clue what to expect from this one. And now that I have seen it, I don't know what I watched.

It is a Bulgarian ghost/doppelgänger film, but set in Russia. Frankly, I was just confused. That said, it was creepy at times and there is a "twist" at the end that isn't really shocking. Just unsure what to make of it all.

Not sure if another viewing would help clear things up or not. I dunno.

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One Missed Call (2008)

[Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns]

Ok, so this is the film from last year, where people hear their deaths on cell phones before it actually occurs. An American remake of the Japanese film "Chakushin ari", which I haven't seen.

This one seems to be missing something. There are creepy faces, creepy moments, but nothing that really scared me. And the end was just ... meh.

The actors were fine, for the most part. Although Margaret Cho in a serious (albeit small) role was odd. Not sure if the original version is supposed to better or not, but this film doesn't make me want to rush out and see it.

Wouldn't watch it again.

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Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)

[Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill]

A classic "Sherlock Holmes" movie, with Rathbone and Bruce great as Holmes and Watson, and Atwill equally wonderful as Moriarty.

If you like old mystery movies or Sherlock Holmes in general, you will love it.

I would definitely watch it again!

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Niagara (1953)

[Joseph Cotten, Marilyn Monroe, Jean Peters]

I had never seen this great little thriller before. Just a fun, suspense type of movie, with great acting and awesome locations. Cotten is always superb, and Monroe is beautiful, if not the best actress around. But I think Jean Peters was just as beautiful, even is they try and play her off as the "plain" one here.

A great movie and one I would watch again sometime.

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Cutting Class... or, I Want My 90 Mintues Back!

Ok, so I DVR'd a movie the other day called "Cutting Class". It is a horror pic from 1989 I had never gotten around to watching, and I should have kept it that way. It's main "claim to fame" is being one of Brad Pitt's first big movie breaks. And really, that is ALL it has going for it. His acting is okay, but... the rest... meh.

On IMDb, it says the movie is a comedy/horror/thriller. This movie doesn't succeed or deliver on any of those levels. Not funny, not scary, not captivating. Just boring. Martin Mull and Roddy McDowall are both in this in minor parts, McDowall's role just being odd and Mull's being dumb.

There are good "bad movies" and bad "bad movies" and this is DEFINITELY a bad one. Not fun, in any regard, unless the MST3K guys ever need fodder for a reunion show or for their newer RiffTrax site.

NOT recommended, unless you are masochistic.