31 Nights of Halloween (2016)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 5



Written and Directed by: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons
Released: 2015

Yes, Kurt Russell starred in not one, but two dark Westerns last year, and as much as I enjoyed The Hateful Eight, I honestly feel that this is the better film. Some may question my classification of it as a horror film, but if you look at it with the traditional sense of the word in mind, it absolutely is a combination of the Western and Horror genres. You have the classic kidnapping of a woman, which can be attributed to the "damsel in distress" trope common to both classic Westerns and Horror movies, but it also features savage, cannibalistic, in-breeding Native Americans as the stand-ins for your movie monsters. And no, this isn't some racist outlook on Native Americans as a people, as the movie makes it clear that even a local tribesmen both fears and loathes this particular clan and their people. What makes this movie work so well, though, is really the acting. The chemistry between the main cast is impeccable, and between this and Tarantino's outing later that year, Russel proves that he was practically born to play a Western bad-ass.

What makes this movie work as a Western is, thanks to the great acting, the comradery between the main cast, which makes the journey to rescue Arthur's wife so endearing. Simultaneously, the elements in which any characters are exposed to this small but deadly group of ravagers makes for some terrificly disturbing Horror. I'm usually not a fan of gross-out Horror, but this film handles it surprisingly well with a certain level of sophistication that's hard to explain when dealing with such gruesome imagery, yet it's pulled off with just enough taste and restraint to work. It also feels suitably tense since by the final act of the film you really come to care about these characters and want to see all of them make it out alive with Arthur and his wife.

Bone Tomahawk is a one of a kind film, and IMO one of the best Western and Horror filicks of this decade, and that's certainly no small feat.

[Foggle]

Absolutely amazing film, and definitely the best classic-style western/cannibal horror movie I've seen in ages. I went in with no expectations (except for thinking that the plot and title sounded fun) and came out completely blown away. Richard Jenkins was especially phenomenal in it.

I thought the cannibals weren't actually Native Americans, though - didn't the professor at the beginning say they weren't? I can't quite remember unfortunately. Gotta' watch it again I guess!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I recall him saying that they were descended from a different tribe that practiced cannibalistic rituals and incest and passed it down through generations. He said this after being repulsed by one of the men saying that they were "his people", which is a common misconception since there existed hundreds to thousands of different individual native tribes and villages in America before it was colonized, many of which had no relations to each other whatsoever. So they were definitely natives, but those of a very exclusive, in-bred group that were fairly limited in number, rarely ever interacting with society since they lived so far out in the middle of nowhere. It's only those two outlaws unwittingly trespassing on their land who ended up leading them to the town when one of them escaped there.

[Avaitor]

The power is safe for tonight! But that's not really a surprise- things are supposed to get really bad tomorrow.

This is pretty high on my to-watch list, but it's not quite here yet. And I feel bad about it, since this looks and sounds right up my alley.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 6



Written by: Leigh Whannell
Directed by: James Wan
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey
Released: 2011

So, Insidious can be a pretty polarizing film. While it had a good amount of buzz and popularity with its release, it has also been met with a fair amount of backlash. And I can certainly understand that. While some praise it for its unique imagery when it comes to visual trickery as well as its more inventive ideas, others lambaste it for really being nothing more than a typical haunted house movie with all of the expected tropes and cliches, simply using flash to disguise itself as something more.

Where do I fall? Well, personally I do really like the movie, but it's definitely not without its flaws. Still, to me this was James Wan's first big break as a horror director. His previous attempt with the original Saw showed that he had some nice ideas, but didn't really have the experience to make for a compelling horror story or atmosphere. He made some less notable entries in the genre throughout the rest of the decade, but then he took everything that he had learned to do, and more importantly what not to do, and turned out this film, which despite what you think of it, is undeniably one of the big driving forces behind the huge resurgence of the horror genre this decade, and also really helped to make the supernatural haunting sub-genre popular again.

Essentially, Inisidious tells the story of a seemingly normal family undergoing terrifying paranormal activities, which seem to both start and escalate after their son mysteriously falls into a coma. However, the so-called twist to this film (which was already pretty much spoiled by the trailer) is that it turns out that the hauntings have nothing to do with where they live and everything to do with their son's apparent coma actually being something else entirely. It turns out that he has the ability to jump into a realm beyond the living at will, called "The Further," however in doing so he has left his body as an empty vessel, with a horde of spirits wanting to claim the vacant shell for another chance at living. And the depiction of these beings and this realm is where this film's visual creativity and prowess really shines. Admittedly, on a writing level there's nothing special here, but that's why it shows all the more just how good of a director James Wan has become, and he has arguably even improved his craft since this film.

Despite any flaws it might have, I really do like the surreal aspects of this movie, especially in the third act which really goes nuts with very strange and abstract imagery. And yeah, while the story is pretty basic, I do feel that it actually works to this movie's benefit, as it keeps the conflict grounded enough to still be interesting without losing itself too much in trying to be deep or intellectual and ensuring that it would not only appeal to an extremely niche audience. This isn't a great horror flick by any stretch, and I don't expect it to go down as a classic, but as the culmination of a talented director's struggle to make a genuinely good horror movie over the years, I find this to genuinely be James Wan's launch into stardom, and I really do think that it's worth checking out for what it is.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 7



Written and Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Nobuko Miyamoto, Shingo Yamashiro
Released: 1989

Sweet Home is a really peculiar little title....or two. You see, while it does have a cult following and recognized name among fans of more obscure horror (even by J-horror standards), it's really more for the video game. Yes, that's right, Sweet Home was released in conjunction with a licensed NES game directed by none other than the now-renowned video game director Shinji Mikami, creator of the Resident Evil franchise and who specifically directed the first game, its remake, and RE4, which is one of the best video games of all time. However it's really his work on Sweet Home that is credited as having officially birthed the Survival Horror genre of video games, and considering that it's a licensed game for the earliest and most technologically limited Nintendo home-console, that's pretty amazing.

That said, obviously the game had to base itself off of something, and while it has a number of differences from the film since it was co-developed alongside the movie's production in order to release on the same day, it does still largely take a lot of big cues from the movie's plot and twists. The movie itself may not be quite as memorable, but having seen it myself, I definitely can't deny that there is definitely a sense of unintentional campy entertainment-value that still makes it worth watching. The special effects are actually even kind of impressive for something so low-budget. I mean, yes, they have their own level of cheese to them, but there is some genuinely good practical design to most things in the movie.

Essentially, it deals with five people trying to excavate and study the abandoned mansion of a once-famous painter and his family long after they had died after living a life of tragedy. From there, it's your pretty typical haunted house movie, and the big twists are usually pretty easy to see coming. Even so, I can't help but feel that there was something about the genuine effort put into the movie, both in terms of its design as well as from its actors, that really helped to sell the whole thing for me. Nothing about it stands out as particularly very good, but it also still has a strange charm about it that kept me interested the entire way through, and while it's not something that I'd personally go back to revisit past an initial viewing, I'm certainly glad that I watched it once. This can be a fun flick if you are curious about an obscured and long-forgotten part of horror history.

[Avaitor]

I think I've heard this story before, but it also sounds new to me. Cool!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 8



Written and Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones
Released: 2004

Time can certainly do a lot to change your perspective on a movie. When I first saw Hellboy over a decade ago, I was extremely disappointed in its lack of action and found the movie to be a bore. However, as I see the climate of comicbook films now, as well as how it was back then, I have a lot of appreciation for how unique of a movie this was since it's like nothing else from either that decade or this one. That isn't to say that Hellboy is a flawless movie. It still has its slow parts, and can feel rather clumsy at times with how it handles its plot and character development, but on the whole it's a much better movie than I initially realized.

The two obvious things that stand out here are Guillermo del Toro's excellent use of practical effects and cinematography to create some truly great visuals that still mostly hold up today. Beyond that, however, the thing that really makes both this and the sequel so appealing above anything else is Ron Perlman's performance as the titular Hellboy himself. I mean, in general the costume design in this movie is phenomenal, but I can't imagine how painstakingly long and difficult it must have been for an entire team to constantly apply hours-upon-hours worth of make-up and prosthetics onto Ron Perlman's face and body day-in and day-out. This is of course back when motion-capture technology was still fairly infantile, and only huge-budget endeavors such as The Lord of the Rings films could afford to use them, so comparatively they had to go old-school when dealing with characters like Hellboy and Abe in a mid-range-budget movie like this. That said, what these actors were able to accomplish with so much crap on them weighing them down is truly amazing, and it says a lot that despite being a role where nobody gets to properly see the actor's actual face, Ron Perlman has pretty much owned the role as Hellboy to the point that, just like with Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine or Robert Downey Jr.'s take on Tony Stark/Iron Man, I can't imagine any other actor taking that role without being immediately cast under the shadow of who came before them, and no amount of make-up or prosthetic-baggage could cover that up.

Now, as for why this film is featured in a month where we discuss horror-themed movies, that shouldn't be a problem for anyone to discern thanks to this movie's general set-up and amazing art-direction. While it may be a superhero film in essence, much like the Blade movies which we discussed last year, its roots and lore and sunk deep within the realms of horror, what with stuff like the great creature designs in the movie which are clearly inspired by old-fashioned gothic imagery of hellspawn, or the terrifying full-body Nazi costumes with those dreadful dead-eyed masks, or  the fact that our main character basically looks like a devil. Personally, I love it when horror-themed aesthetics are placed in the realm of another genre, and that helps contribute to this film's unique look and feel.

One knock that I do have against it is that the villain is pretty forgettable. If anything, the strongest parts of the movie are when the characters focus on their development and relationships with one another. While the third act is fun for what it is, it does make me realize just how little investment I had in the actual stakes of the plot, and the villain just didn't really phase me that much one way or the other. He was just someone that was there to be defeated, and in that regard the sequel substantially improved on the first movie.

Even so, any gripes aside, this is definitely a great comicbook movie and certainly a good movie to check out in the month of Halloween if you're in the mood for something a bit different than what you're used to.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 9



Written and Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Seth MacFarlane
Released: 2008

Looking back on it, 2008 was a monumentally pivotal year for the state of comicbook movies. Two of the biggest films of all time in the genre were released in the same summer, Iron Man and The Dark Knight, the latter of which became the highest-grossing superhero movie in existence up to that point, though the former arguably became far more important and influential in the long run. However, sandwiched somewhere in-between those two behemoths was the sequel to the already niche Hellboy, and unfortunately having to compete in a summer with those two blockbusters pretty much spelled the death of this franchise as Hellboy II: The Golden Army was a relative flop at the box-office.

Now, as someone who genuinely enjoys all three of these movies, I say that in all seriousness and not just to sound different, having re-watched Hellboy II not once, but twice last year, it has since become my favorite of the three, and honestly one of my favorite films in the entire genre. There is so much that I just didn't appreciate about this movie back when it came out, but it really was ahead of its time in so many ways. For one thing, unlike most other comicbook movies, and much like the first movie, this is not a straight-up action movie as much as it is about these characters and their development, as well as this world and its mythology and lore. Thus, the movie focuses on things that appeal far more to me now than simply cool action and slick pacing. Hellboy II has some of the best world building that I've ever seen in this genre of film, and for as good as the set and costume designs as well as the practical effects were in the first movie, this one manages to absolutely surpass it in every way. Of course there is still more action here, and more use of CG, but it is interwoven so naturally into the movie's plot and pacing so well, and the visuals still hold up incredibly well eight whole years later, and will most likely still hold up several years from now.

However, what's most important is that this movie also improves both on what the first movie was particularly weak at, as well as the things that it already did really well. For an example of the latter, the character interactions were what made the first movie work, and in this film they are even better. Having characters have good chemistry in the heat of battle or an intense action scene is one thing, but I really appreciate how we got so many scenes of them conversing and playing off of each other in their natural element, when no imminent danger was going on, such as "Red" (Hellboy) and Liz trying to work on their relationship, or Abe developing romantic feelings of his own, or both Red and Abe getting hilariously drunk over said romantic problems that they both shared in common, as well as just about any interaction with any of the cast between them and Dr. Krauss (which is easily the best voice work that Seth MacFarlane has ever done, IMO). And wow was Dr. Krauss such a great new character. The movie sets him up one way and brilliantly subverts where you expect his character arc to go, and it really makes me sad that we never got a third film all the more, because I really wanted to see much more of this character (and really, all of these characters in general). He also had such a cool, unique ability and state of existence that is really, really out there for a comicbook movie, even by today's standards. As for an example of the former thing that I mentioned, with this movie improving on the weaknesses of the first, I mainly have to point to how much better the villain is here. While not one of the all-time greats of the genre by any stretch, Prince Nauda Silverlance is a nuanced villain with a compelling backstory and motivations behind his ambitions. While the titular Golden Army itself doesn't amount to quite as much as you might expect, it's thanks to Nauda being such a well-written villain that you do feel that the heroes are up against a legitimate threat for the entire movie.

So, yeah, while we may never be getting a Hellboy III, I am really glad that we at least got to see this film made, and if for some reason you haven't seen it, then I highly recommend it. And yes, just like the first movie, the other-worldly themes to this movie's art design alone makes it a perfect film to view during the Halloween season.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 10



Written and Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart
Released: 2015

This is one that I've been meaning to check out for a while, now. I've heard great things about it, and it definitely has an interesting premise that seems right up my alley. Unfortunately, since I haven't seen it, I can't really comment on it, but I'll just leave that up to Avaitor this time since this is one of his picks.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, and this is actually my next rental from Netflix... which isn't here yet.

I'll come back to it this week.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

NIGHT 11:



Written and Directed by: Robert Eggers
Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy
Released: 2015

And this is yet another one that I've really been wanting to watch. It sounds like one of the more slower-paced but thoughtful horror movies in recent years. This would definitely be up my alley.

[Foggle]

This one is fantastic. Not particularly scary, but exceptionally creepy. Very haunting atmosphere and interesting story. Performances are great too.

[Avaitor]

Another one that I suggested, but haven't god a chance to get to yet. I kind of wish that these were spaced separately, so I could have found more time for them.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Sorry about that. But, you can always still talk about these movies once you watch them. Also, it'd be nice if you told me when you expect to see some of these movies so that I don't accidentally put it up too early. For now I'll push some of your choices back until you say you're ready.

NIGHT 12



Written by: Philip Eisner
Directed by: Paul W. S. Anderson
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill
Released: 1977

This is one of those films that was utterly panned by critics when it came out, but has slowly developed a strong cult following over time. Once again, I haven't seen this one so I can't make any comments on it, but while I'm not sure whether I'd enjoy it or not, it certainly does have my interest and I will check it out eventually. Good Bad Flicks actually did a really good video about the making of the movie, so at the very least I would recommend checking that out since there was a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes stuff about how much of a journey and challenge it was just to get this film made.