General Horror Films & TV Discussion Thread

[Gary]

Haven't don this in a while, so new and upcoming on UHD and Blu

Out now

-Opera (5 disc (!) limited release) (Severin)

July 16th

-Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original) 4K and Blu (Kino Lorber)
-Phantoms 4K/Blu Ray combo pack (Shout! Factory)

July 23rd

-Arcadian (RLJE)
-Jaws sequels on 4k (Universal)
-Cannibal Apocalypse 4K (Kino Lorber)
-The Strangers: Chapter 1 4k and Blu (Lionsgate)
-Nightmare Beach 4K (Kino Lorber)
-Confessions of a Serial Killer (Unearthed Films)
-The Ruins (Paramount)

July 30th

-I Saw the TV Glow (Lionsgate)
-The First Omen 4K and Blu (20th Century Fox/Disney)
-Houses of Doom (a collection of made for TV movies from Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi) (Cauldron)
-Sting (Well Go USA)
-Danza Macabre Vol 3: Spanish Gothic Collection (Severin)
-The Sadness 4K/Blu (Shudder)

August 6th

-Peril and Darkness: And Soon the Darkness and Sudden Terror 4K and Blu (Kino Lorbor)

August 13th

-Demons 1 and 2 4K and Blu (Severin)
-Chucky: Season Three (Universal)

August 20th

-A bunch of Walmart exclusive Steelbooks (including "Sinister", "Wolf Creek" and "Return of the Living Dead")
-Food of the Gods (Kino Lorber)
-Empire of the Ants (Kino Lorber)
-Beetlejuice 4K Steelbook (Warner)

August 27th

-Castle of Blood 4K and Blu (Severin)
-The Watchers 4K and Blu (Warner)
-Squirm (Kino Lorber)
-Kingdome of the Spiders (Kino Lorber)
-Reptilicus 4K/Blu (Vinegar Syndrome)
-The Woman 4K (Arrow)
-Poltergeist 2 and 3 4K (Shout! Factory)
-Chinese Torture Chamber (Vinegar Syndrome)
-Hillbilly's in a Haunted House (VCI)
-Eight Eyes (Vinegar Syndrome)


September 3rd

-Sweeney Todd 4K (Paramount)
-Creepshow 4K Steelbook (Shout! Factory)
-Amityville Horror remake 4K/Blu (Shout! Factory)
-The Boy 4K/Blu (Shout! Factory)

September 10th

-Late Night With the Devil Steelbook (Shudder)
-The Stepfather 4K (Shout! Factory)
-Longlegs 4K and Blu (Decal)
-The Strangers 4K (Shout! Factory)
-Link 4K (Kino Lorber)
-Zoltan, Hound of Dracula 4K (Shout Factory)
-The Antichrist 4K (Kino Lorber)

September 17th

-Torso 4K (Arrow)
-Friday the 13th remake 4K (Arrow)

September 24th

-John Carpenter's Village of the Damed 4K (Shout! Factory)
-The Exorcism (Vertical)

October 8th

-The Convent 4K and Blu (Synapse)
-Killers (Synapse)

October 29th

-Dogora Mora (Radiance)
-Daei Gothic: Japanese Gothic (Radiance)

 

[Gary]

Criterion announced "I Walked With a Zombie" and "The Seventh Victim" for October.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Longlegs did an impressive $8,900+ per theater at just 2,500 theaters. Per The-Numbers, Horror has now done $378 Million for the year off just 26 movies (compared to Drama's $435 Million off 107 movies).

The Numbers - Movie Market Summary for Year 2024

Annual Movie Market Summary for 2024

the-numbers.com

Market Share for Each Genre in 2024​

Rank	Genre	Movies	2024 Gross	Tickets	Share
1	Action	48	$1,383,333,647	128,324,061	34.05%
2	Adventure	31	$1,026,768,556	95,247,531	25.27%
3	Comedy	49	$489,978,745	45,452,547	12.06%
4	Drama	107	$435,155,755	40,366,898	10.71%
5	Horror	26	$378,062,905	35,070,756	9.31%
6	Musical	6	$175,351,803	16,266,399	4.32%
7	Romantic Comedy	6	$74,899,456	6,947,999	1.84%
8	Thriller/Suspense	26	$44,539,133	4,131,632	1.10%
9	Western	3	$27,592,818	2,559,629	0.68%
10	Documentary	36	$11,613,839	1,077,331	0.29%

 

[Gary]

Arrow announced the following for October

-J-Horror Rising, a box set of Japanese horror films from the late 90s and 2000s
-2009s Trick r Treat on UHD
-Hellraiser: Quartet of Torment, a boxset of the first four "Hellraiser" movies

 

[HarleyQuinn]

The Ring is dropping in October on 4K

One of those movies that really relies on the atmosphere/color grading so I'm curious how the 4K improves that vs the Blu-Ray.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched Warlock (1989) for the first time and it was a decent, fun watch. Julian Sands is enjoyable playing the villain and Richard E. Grant does a solid job being his counterpoint visually/acting wise in chasing him down into the future. It's one of his earliest movies, which fits as somebody who largely knows him only for his current fare. Lori Singer was fine as the woman caught in the middle having to assist Grant's character.

Some of the effects are dated/corny but there's some decent gore/kills and physical effects. The plot is what it is but this is largely carried on the interplay between the 3 leads and Julian's warlock character.

 

[Brocklock]

Peacock added a bunch of horror movies. Great variety from Get Out to the thing to Saw to Universal monsters, a bunch of Wes Craven movies, and some of the Halloween series. September and October is the only time the movie library is worthwhile.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Finally got around to watching The Babysitter and The Babysitter: Evil Queen on Netflix. Really enjoyed the 1st one (7/10) with a lot of blood splatter, fun characters, and solid acting from all. The sequel was pretty disappointing (5/10) relying too much on the "self-referential" stuff that Scream, etc. was doing by 2019/2020 that the first movie held to more of a minimum in part because it was 2016/2017.

Samara Weaving was so much fun though and I was hoping to get more out of Jenna Ortega in the latter but it almost felt paint-by-numbers with her performance (not bad but not quite the high I was looking for).

 

[tekcop]

As a kid Warlock was the scariest movie in the world to me.

 

[Brocklock]

Looks really interesting. Leigh Whannell is 2 for 2 and his Invisible Man re imagining was really good. Christopher Abbott is also one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood, and he should do a great job here.

 

[Youth N Asia]

In a Violent Nature just hit Shudder.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Ah shit, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan teaming again.

 

[Brocklock]

That's the type of trailer I love. Very intriguing, while not showing the whole movie in the trailer. There's just enough there for me to be interested.

 

[Gary]

The Hitcher is finally coming to Blu and UHD

 

[Brocklock]

Great trailer and I love how they aren't showing Nosferatu. Looks really eerie and has sort of a similar vibe to The Witch, so i'm excited.

 

[Brocklock]

Happy October

https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/1ftpukg

 

[HarleyQuinn]

I keep my 10/1 and 10/31 choices simple: Hocus Pocus on October 1st and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on Halloween. Looking forward to doing a smattering of movies throughout. I don't always watch a movie a day but sometimes I'll do 2-3 in a day to get a similar total.

 

[Gary]

This was supposed to be Zach Cregger's follow up to "Barbarian" before he decided on something else, so it certainly looks interesting.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Spooky Season Bonanza Time!!

Baskin (2015) was even better on a re-watch 8 years later. So much of this movie stuck with me from the one time I saw it back in 2016 that I knew what I was expecting and still felt the suspense and tension.

A squad of Turkish police officers trade stories of their debauchery while at a restaurant, and are then called to an emergency call in the village of Inceagac, an area known for strange happenings. On the way, their van crashes into the river after running over something (someone?) and they, on foot, discover an old Ottoman-era police station with an empty squad car outside. As they investigate the scene, they're drawn into a hellish maze of increasing horror, having entered the gates of Hell itself.

This is an all-timer for me, a Turkish take on the gorey nightmare surrealism that Fulci's best excelled in. What few marks against it come mostly from director Can Evrenol's lack of experience, and it's sure to stick in your craw if you have any love for stuff like Phantasm or the Beyond. 7/10

---------

Barbarian (2022) is two films in one. First, we have an incredible 30-minute short with great chemistry between the leads and remarkable tension. Then, an hour long exploration of toxic masculinity that feels more like a parody than anything else.

Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives at her AirBNB in the dilapidated outskirts of Detroit, where she finds that Keith (Bill Skarsgard) is already a tenant, the rental agencies having double booked. They decide to share the house, and Tess soon discovers an underground passage that seemingly seals their doom. Cut to weeks later, where actor AJ (Justin Long) is fired from his show over accusations of sexual misconduct, so he flees to the same house as earlier, which he actually owns, in order to get it ready for sale. AJ stumbles upon the same passage, and the truth of the horror beneath is unveiled.

This was a fucking mess. It's not unusual for a film to have one great act followed by shyte, but this one hurt particularly because of how brilliant the first act was (focusing on Tess and Keith) and how disjointed and tonally inconsistent the second and third acts (focusing on AJ) are. After, I had to double check on who writer/director Zach Cregger was, the name so familiar, and found that he was one of the principal cast members of sketch comedy legends the Whitest Kids U Know.

Of course this feels disjointed. Cregger's teeth were cut on edgelord comedy, a show that was clearly more the product of his late comedy partner Trevor Moore than his own, and his foray into horror is filled with the same flavor of plot developments. This reminded me of Don't Breathe, but lacks the same finesse of Fede Alvarez's overrated grindhouse homage. 5/10

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Now to knock out a pair of absolute bangers.

Alien (1979) gets better with every watch. I've loved it for over 30 years now, but I'm starting to really, truly appreciate just how incredible it is...and I'm sure I'll say that the next time I watch it. And the time after that. And so on. Virtually flawless.

Odd thing to point out? Special Order 937. For decades I thought it was enacted by chance, but this time around it's obvious that no, this was intentional. The company knew there was something on LV-426 and wanted it, which means I'm going to have to re-assess Prometheus and Covenant soon. 9.5/10

------------

And, of course, you have to follow it up with Aliens (1986), which is even more of a marvel on a technical level (because Jim Cameron didn't fuck around), buuuuut...something just feels off this time. Not bad, in any way, but I'm starting to agree with the viewpoint that the switch from horror to action just doesn't land as well. I'm chalking this one up to how my personal preferences have changed over the years, because it's still an absolute classic that is responsible for one of the most common sequel tropes ("send in the soldiers") around. 9/10

Also...Jeanette Goldstein got some biggems. There'sa reason almost every shot of Vasquez has her holding something in front of her, and it's just that much more apparent to me now.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

Watched The Platform 2 on Netflix. 4.5/10 leaning 5/10

I enjoyed the 1st one and found it surprisingly tense with an intriguing, well handled plot (multiple levels of 2 people with food on trays going down level to level with the study of human nature and pacifism vs. barbarianism/save yourself vs. work to feed everybody).

This one was far more of a mess. I gave the 1st one released in 2019 a 6/10 (others seemed far higher on it than I) and this largely retread the same ground while having more confusing elements that weren't explained or tied in well to the plot. The two films reminded me a lot of Cube and Cube 2 where the sequel largely did the same as the first but to a lesser extent and the stuff it tried to explore was just muddled/messy at best.

I'd say you can probably skip this one and just re-watch the 1st as you'll have a better time.

 

[tekcop]

Barbarian (2022) is two films in one. First, we have an incredible 30-minute short with great chemistry between the leads and remarkable tension. Then, an hour long exploration of toxic masculinity that feels more like a parody than anything else.

The opening act is so good.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

More for the Spooky Season Bonanza.

Hmmmm...I can't say that I liked Hocus Pocus 2 (2022], necessarily, but I also don't care for the original. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that this one isn't as well-made as the first, but I certainly enjoyed it more.

I really did love the "new coven" aspect of it. It was a clever way to switch things up, even if it wasn't necessarily as fleshed out as it could have been. Whitney Peak (Becca) kills it, and does a better job at holding the screen than the original three. And Lemmy help me, but I had a few legitimate belly laughs at some of the gags and cheesy lines.

The ending? Eh. I liked the thought behind it, but there shouldn't have been any sort of a redemption arc attempted, as it sorta undermines the whole "trying to kill all your fucking children" aspect. 5.5/10

------------

In a vast ocean of Jaws knockoffs (seewhatidid), something like Under Paris (2024) deserves a lot of respect. It ticks enough of the right boxes (gore, set up, major event, and a politician that wants to ignore the problem) that overlooking the obvious CG is easy, and lead Bérénice Bejo does an admiral job carrying the workload.

An environmentalist researcher (Bejo) has been tracking various aquatic wildlife by the Pacific Garbage Patch, a 30km wide spot in the middle of the ocean where sheets of garbage have accumulated into a floating mass, in order to study how they evolve around the problem. Her team is wiped out by an overgrown Mako named "Lilith," whose path in the ensuing years brings her into the Seine just as a major triathlon is to happen.

The ending was...hot damn. I just did not see it coming, and I'm glad it happened. The scenes within the catacombs are brilliant and everything you'd want from a movie like this. 6.5/10

------------

Sorted by date and scored.

1. Baskin (7/10)
2. Barbarian (5/10)
3. Alien (9.5/10)
4. Aliens (9/10)
5. Hocus Pocus 2 (5.5/10)
6. Under Paris (6.5/10)

 

[RedJed]

So I'm back at the one horror (or horror ajacent) a night for the month of October. So far nothing too wild so far.....I'll just trail back on what I've seen so far

Started out the month by deep diving into almost everything Salem's Lot. I had never seen the original mini-series or the terrible sequel....I recalled watching parts of the TNT remake mini-series from 2004 that quite honestly didn't connect at all to me.

Anyhow, the original mini-series, even though a little long in the tooth, was by and large pretty excellent. Amazed that this creepy stuff ended up on network TV like it was. Very unsettling tone for the majority of it. Performances were great too, and godamn the look of the vampire was very WHOA, freaked me out a bit.

And then onto Return to Salem's Lot. Holy fuck this was awful. Done by the same dude who was attached to the Its Alive franchise, just a total non-connected mess to the original. Not filmed in the same locations as the original and really there was hardly anything or anyone connected to this from the mini series. Felt like a really blatant cash-grab. The acting in this was soooo atrocious as well, so much that it actually became a thing to keep watching to see how ridiculous it would get.

I didnt rewatch the TNT mini-series at all since I recalled hating the feel for it back when it first aired, I think I only made it through an hour of it previously.

Then came this remake which dropped on MAX this weekend. I get why there was such a delay on this....it was filmed well before covid even hit and just sat. There was many shifts from the novel and original miniseries here, and not all for the best. I felt like in general, there was a nice flow and dark vibe to this, but it felt in some ways very incomplete when you compared it to the details of the mini series. All in all it was absolutely one of those typical remakes that didn't offer anything interesting to the fold and kind of more established how great the original was, and how bad this adaptation ended up being. The whole third act was way way different than anything from the original, as an example.

I will post the rest of my month ahead when I get things laid out more. This weekends viewing included more all new films (VHS Beyond, Frankie Freako and a real dud in Monster Summer), but next week will dive back into past franchises as a focus.

 

[Brocklock]

There is one beautiful shot of Straker stalking some kids in a silhouette that is one of the best shots I've seen in a movie this year. That's about all the good I have to say about it. But, it ended up being unintentionally hilarious. Mark turning into a little Blade, just whooping Vampire ass all over the movie was awesome. Lewis Pullman was basically dead air and contributed nothing. Barlow was pretty lame and overly CGI as well. The third act is so stupid and I laughed everytime they used the glowing crosses.

 

[RedJed]

Quick thoughts on my weekend stuff:

Frankie Freako: My absolute fav of the three this weekend. I dont know how to fully explain the wackiness of this one, but it is akin to the 80/90s genres of little monsters like Gremlins, Ghoulies, and Munchies. Dude who did Psycho Goreman had his hand in this one. Quite tame on the gore and intensity and more in line with a fun more whimsical but wild story with lots of dark humor in it and general goofiness. So less horror but still I think I would consider it a bit of one.

Monster Summer: If there is ever a film that you could call Stranger Things Lite, this absolutely would be it. Lots of similar tropes to ST....a missing child at the outset, the child comes back spooked and affected, in a trance. A group of kids who band together to figure out what is causing all this hoopla, with the help of an old man. The old man happens to be Mel Gibson, playing and phoning in this performance as the cliche old retired guy who the kids are kind of side-eyed about, but ends up being this father figure to at least one of the main characters. This was just too weak in execution, without much spooks or scares to count. The story wasn't really that engaging either.

VHS Beyond: This one felt more interconnected than almost any other VHS film in history so far. I dont think it was my favorite of the bunch (one and two still have that) but it was much better than the other Shudder exclusive VHS releases from the past three years were. Also this had much more of a sci-fi vibe to it all versus straight up horror since the focus was alien abductions.

 

[RedJed]

There is one beautiful shot of Straker stalking some kids in a silhouette that is one of the best shots I've seen in a movie this year. That's about all the good I have to say about it. But, it ended up being unintentionally hilarious. Mark turning into a little Blade, just whooping Vampire ass all over the movie was awesome. Lewis Pullman was basically dead air and contributed nothing. Barlow was pretty lame and overly CGI as well. The third act is so stupid and I laughed everytime they used the glowing crosses.

Oh yes, the glowing crosses! What in the fuck was that all about??!!!

Did you ever see Return to Salem's Lot from 87? I will say this remake was a masterpiece compared to that one!

 

[Brocklock]

I think i tried years ago and got bored and watched something else.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

We should brainstorm some ideas for viewings next year and share our thoughts. Make a little viewing club out of it.

Hell, may as well start this year with Xmas a-comin'...

CXF Seasonal Viewings: Holidazed 2024

With how many of us actively focus on seasonally relevant movies between October and December, it's high time we congregate into one big viewing list that anyone participating can weigh in on. Since October is already full steam ahead, it doesn't make sense to start with horror movies to get us...

culturecrossfire.com

 

[RedJed]

I think i tried years ago and got bored and watched something else.

I fell out during the first viewing since it was so dull, within the first 20 minutes. Revisited it the next day to see just how terrible it got.