October Horror Challenge 2022 #91: "Don't Breathe II"

I heard that this movie was a worthy sequel to the first one. That's the most that I heard, because I hadn't even seen the original movie yet and I was running screaming from any possible spoilers. Now I just watched the original movie five minutes ago and I wanted to see the second one as soon as possible, so I immediately put on the second one. Let's see how this sequel stacks up to the original.

Norman Nordstrom, the blind man from the first movie, has now spent the last four years hiding out in a secluded cabin. He's living with a little girl, and he has effectively recreated his family from before the accident in the first movie. As the movie says, however, there's no shortage of weirdos in the world, and a van full of unseemly individuals is about to kidnap the little girl and take her away, so the old man must find within himself some reserves of strength and a few sadistic tricks up his sleeve if he is to ever get his daughter back.

This movie has things turned around from the original. For everyone who thought they should maybe be rooting for the blind guy in the first movie, here's your chance to root for him now. Though I take umbrage at the description of the house he lives in as a "cabin"-it's a palatial fucking estate as far as I'm concerned. I really like the little girl in this movie. He's trained her well for survival and she's a tough little cookie who rivals her dad (yes, I'm calling him her dad because he's the one raising her, so he's effectively her dad). Plus he goes all "Liam Neeson in Taken" on the kidnappers once they try to take the little girl, so I really was rooting for him this time around.

I see that the old man is still into his creative use of anything he can find as a weapon in this movie (and man's best friend gets a few more turns as a weapon in this movie too). There's a really twisted, nasty twist in this movie that really impressed me (wow, they really went THERE, I'm impressed) that will have you rooting even more for the old man once it happens (at least I was sure as hell rooting for him after that). This movie really makes good use of the gun again, too. Glad to see the old blind guy is still up for using his old tricks as well as his new ones. Plus he's still better at hand-to-hand combat than I will ever be. This really is a worthy sequel to the original (like "The Collection" is a worthy successor to "The Collector"). There's more gore this time around, too. Definitely check this one out.

October Horror Challenge 2022 #90: "Don't Breathe"

When this came out, one reviewer called it the best American horror movie in 20 years. That's pretty high praise (no wonder they put it on the poster for the movie, now THAT'S a headline) and it's what made me initially want to see this movie. I love slashers, and home invasion horror movies freak me out, so this sounded like the perfect movie for me. Unfortunately, life got away from me and it wasn't until today that I was able to check it out. Let's see what I think of it.

In this movie, three Detroit thieves named Rocky, Alex and Money get their money by robbing the houses of rich people. One day, Money hears about a blind war veteran who won a huge cash settlement when his only child died. Thinking they're about to score some easy money, the three thieves break into his secluded home in a run-down neighborhood. Unfortunately, the plan goes awry and they find themselves trapped inside the home in a desperate fight for their lives after finding out a shocking secret about their supposedly helpless victim.

See, THIS is why you don't rob people. Well, that and it's illegal and morally wrong and all that, but this movie makes a life of crime look terrifying. This movie and a movie called "The Collector" are enough to deter me from a life of crime, because you just don't know when you break into someone's house what you're going to find there. In this case, yeah the guy is blind, but they're on his turf and he knows the layout of his house well enough to find his way aroundfairly easily whereas the place is like a maze to them, especially in the dark.

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The gore in this movie happens mostly in the dark, so it's not all that plentiful, but there's lots of violence (I mean lots of it) so the movie is pretty sadistic in that regard. I don't know if it qualifies as a slasher exactly, but there are some creative weapons used in this movie. I would typically say using a gun is lazy in a movie like this, but this particular movie manages to make good use of a gun, a wrench, a crowbar, the door handle of a fridge, a radiator on the wall, various other blunt instruments, plus I'll never look at artificial insemination the same way after this movie. Hell, even man's best friend gets a turn to be used as a weapon at one point. Overall, this is a very well-done movie. on to the sequel we go!

October Horror Challenge 2022 #89: "Boo: A Madea Halloween"

Madea is like the Jay and Silent Bob of Tyler Perry movies. She is in his regular movies for comic relief, and then she has her own movies like this one where she is the main character, and these movies are the "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" of the Tyler Perry universe. If you like Madea, you'll probably like these movies, and if you think Madea is annoying, you probably won't like these movies, so plan accordingly when you're deciding to watch these movies. I think Madea is funny, so I tend to like these movies, but this one got bad reviews even by Madea movie standards, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one. Here's hoping I enjoy it!

In this movie, Madea finds herself at the mercy of ghosts and ghouls when she breaks up a Halloween party at a frat house. Madea is her usual mouthy self in this movie, snarky and wisecracking her way through life. It's Halloween, so you get your regular Madea humor along with some added ghoulies and ghosties and tricks and treats.

I usually like Madea, but she seems different in this movie. She's phoning it in here and she doesn't have any of her usual charm for me here. Usually the formula for her movies is there are a lot of laughs, then in the last ten minutes or so of the movie things will get serious and there will be a message at the end about family and love and something along those lines. in this movie the funny stuff feels forced though, at least to me. I'm used to Madea delivering effortless monologues where she'll get more ridiculous as she goes on until they're full on hilarious in the end, but here her speech is choppy like she forgot what she was saying. I've never seen that in her movies before, so I was disappointed.

About 3/4 of the way through this movie, when they get into the car and drive to the church, things smooth out a bit and the movie seems to find its footing. That's when things get funnier and scarier. The characters make some boneheaded moves that characters in horror movies typically do. I thought Madea was smarter than that. I didn't know the churches had services on Halloween, though I guess it makes sense if they think Halloween is evil to have a service to counter the evil. I could never go to a church that believed Halloween was evil. my church is going to be live streaming a service this Halloween, but they're celebrating Halloween, not condemning it. Tyler Perry inserts himself into this movie, playing the dad of a teenage daughter, and they finally do have a conversation at the end of the movie, which is what I was waiting for the whole movie, and I'm glad they finally got to the point, and Madea gets to shine and be her usual preachy self when she talks some sense into the unruly teenager. It's too bad the movie waits until the last fifteen minutes to get good, but it's not bad, and I'm glad I held out until the end. overall, I think this movie was worth watching for Madea fans, but everyone else might want to stay clear.

October Horror Challenge 2022 #88: "The Visit (2015)"

M. Night Shyamalan is hot or miss for me. I've liked most of his movies, but sometimes he gets too far up his own ass and his movies suffer for it. I liked "The Village," though, and "Lady in the Water," and most people didn't like those movies, so I'm thinking I might like this one too. I tried to ignore the negative reviews for this movie and decided I would make up my own mind about it when I saw it. Looks like that will be today! Here goes nothing!

This movie is about a girl named Becca and her younger brother Tyler who wave goodbye to their mother and hop on a train to go visit their grandma and grandpa in Pennsylvania for the first time ever. their grandparents live deep in Pennsylvania farm country, so deep that their cellphones don't even get reception way out at their grandparents house. Their nana and pop-pop seem to welcome them at first, and they tell their mother that they're having a great time, but soon they begin to notice increasingly strange behavior from their grandparents, and when they discover a shocking secret about the couple, they begin to wonder if they're ever going to make it home again. Ooh, spooky.

if there's one criticism I could level against M. Night Shyamalan, it's that he loves his third-act twists, and sometimes he loves his twenty minutes of twists so much that he forgets the other eighty minutes of his movies are important too. I wonder what the twist will be in this movie? While we're waiting for the twist, the actors are doing a good job making me care about the characters. I actually like Becca and Tyler, though they don't seem to want to respect their grandparent's rules about going to bed and not leaving their rooms after nine, and I have a feeling bad things are going to happen to them for ignoring that rule.

I'll tell you one thing that surprised me, no one ever told me this was a found footage type movie (I avoided spoilers like the plague, so no one told me anything about this movie, really, but I was surprised to see the shaky handheld camerawork because the whole point of this movie, in Becca's mind, is to get her grandparents back into a relationship with her mother). They've been estranged for years after their mother left home to be with the man she loved. That's a sad story, and it adds pathos to the film. Once the plot twist happens, everything starts to happen very quickly, though the characters don't listen to me while I was yelling at the screen telling them what to do (they never listen to me...sometimes I have good ideas). All in all this was a good movie that's not just about the twist, because there's plot development both before and after the twist that works for me. I ended up really liking this one.

October Horror Challenge 2022 #87: "Halloween III: Season of the Witch"

I remember the first time I reviewed this movie. I had just watched it for the first time and I was PISSED so I started writing my negative review, and I gave a synopsis of the movie, and the more I described it, the more I realized I had fun with it, so by the time I was done writing my review was positive and I realized I liked the movie. I think it helps if you put yourself in your ten year old self's shoes and watch the movie like you're a kid again. At least I know that's what worked for me. Ten year old me would have loved this movie.

In this sequel, except for a brief shot from the original "Halloween" on tv early in the movie, don't expect to see Michael Myers, because this movie has a whole mother kind of evil on its mind. An emerdoctor named Dan and the daughter of a murder victim, named Ellie, uncover a diabolical plot by a small-town mask factory worker named Conal to commit ritual murder on Halloween using an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual is a complicated plot involving a boulder stolen from stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock Halloween masks, and a triggering device contained in a television commercial, all of which will combine to kill millions of children on Halloween night.

Nifty plan, huh? Yes, the plot of this movie is silly, but there's something to be said for the evil mask maker guy who wants nothing more than to kill a bunch of kids on Halloween night just for funsies. It's the kind of uncomplicated plot that I would have loved when I was ten and less concerned with plot holes and logic and all the other things that conspire to ruin our fun enjoyment of low-budget horror flicks. I like how the bad guy in this movie gives his speeches about why he's doing what he's doing but he doesn't give any details or try to over explain the logistics of how he's doing what he's doing, it's just "a magician never reveals his secrets" and "we had a heck of a time bringing that here, you wouldn't believe how we did it!" I see you, smartass movie. I think I'll have that Silver Shamrock jingle stuck in my head for the rest of eternity now that I watched this movie again. 🎶Hurry up with Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, hurry up with Halloween, silver shamrock!🎶 I also love the bad guy's spooky monologue about Samhain and why he has to sacrifice all the children during the ritual on Halloween night. creepy! This movie isn't for everyone, but it's better than it gets credit for, and it would be a great movie to use to introduce the kiddos to this horror loving hobby of ours.

October Horror Challenge 2022 #86: "Curse of Crom: The Legend of Halloween"

Peacock recommended this movie to me after I watched "Halloween Ends" last night because I guess they know I dig horror and ghost stories. This movie is about a group of teenagers who accidentally release an ancient evil and need to banish it before Halloween night. I hate it when I accidentally release an ancient evil while I'm hanging out with my friends. It happens so often in these movies that you'd think it was easy to do, but luckily my friends and I never managed to release any ancient evil beings while we were traipsing around telling each other ghost stories and saying "Bloody Mary" in front of the bathroom mirror.

The teenagers in this movie look really old to be teenagers. I know that's common in movies, but it's really distracting me here for some reason. The bad guy in this movie is a guy in an obvious rubber mask with a black hooded Cape that looks like something a modern-day scooby doo villain would wear. The final showdown comes complete with cartoony looking ghosts and the scooby doo looking villain dying a very scooby doo worthy death. I think this movie is meant for kids, so maybe I shouldn't judge it too harshly, and if I were ten years old I would probably really like it, so maybe you should watch it with your kids.

October Horror Challenge 2022 #85: "Beast (2022)"

Does anyone else remember the 2007 movie "Prey" with Bridget Moynahan? She played a stepmom who goes on a vacation with her family to an African wildlife preserve, then she and the kids get stranded and surrounded by hungry lions who keep attacking, and they have to survive? This movie gave me some serious "Prey" vibes. It was kinda like "Cujo" but with lions, where the mother figure had to protect her children from the monster. I love Idris Elba, so I was excited to see him in this movie, and I finally got to check it out today, streaming only on Peacock.

In this movie, the recently widowed Dr. Nate Daniels and his two teenage daughters go on a vacation to Africa to go to a wildlife preserve which is managed by Martin Battles, who is an old family friend and a wildlife biologist. This trip is supposed to help heal the rifts in their family caused by Nate's behavior before the mother's death, but what starts out as a joyful trip of healing suddenly turns into a nightmare. Soon Nate and his family find themselves stalked by a hungry lion. that survived poachers. Will Nate be able to protect his family from the lion in a fearsome fight for survival?

Lions are a lot like big cats. Martin Battles, the wildlife biologist, spends a lot of time in the early scenes of the movie playing with the lions like they're big cats. These are the tamer of the animals, not like the big, mean lion who ends up stalking the family later in the movie. The movie opens with a scene of the big lion chowing down on some poachers who tried to kill it, so we know it's big and it's angry. The teenage daughters in this movie do a lot more to help out than the kids in the movie Prey, who are mostly there to be put in peril to further the plot.

Apparently, when you're trapped in a truck with a killer lion roaming around wanting to eat you, past fights and issues you have had can come to the surface at the most inopportune time, and there's some bickering that goes on here between the characters while they're all trying to avoid becoming lion chow, but they manage to get past the fighting and band together in order to survive, so I was proud of them. The movie has a few surprises up its sleeve too, like a confrontation with some angry poachers and an accident with their vehicle that puts them in further danger. In the end, this becomes a morality tale about the dangers of poaching, which is a timely message in this age where poaching is still going on. I was invested the whole time in these characters and their fight for survival, so I really enjoyed this movie just as much as I enjoyed "Prey" back in the day. Remind me never to go to a wild game preserve for vacation.