We seem to be hitting quite a few anthologies so far this month. I tend to like them because sometimes the limits of a shorter film makes for more interesting storytelling, and if you kind of hate one section, there's always a chance that something you like better will be coming along. (This does not always hold true, and if you are watching something truly dreadful, sometimes it's better to nope out entirely sooner rather than later. LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES!)

This, however, despite the cheesy low budget title screen you see up there, was not dreadful. It was heavy on the dudes (About four shorts in I was wanting to see women characters who weren't naked or dead. I did eventually get my wish.) I'm going to go with the same format I did for "Tales of Halloween" on this one and share a few thoughts about each short. I should say that I did enjoy the connecting story here, simple but effective. (And who can't relate to frantically trying to remember a password, even if the consequences aren't life and death?)

Eden: In the written word, "I assassinated the president when I was eight years old," would be a shocking a compelling beginning. In film? Show don't tell, show don't tell. It's a visual medium, for chrissakes.  I felt the biggest weakness of this very nihilistic dystopian film was that it gave away far too much far too soon with the opening narration.

Iris: Takes the "out of control, all-knowing AI" trope and turns it on its head. Take that, asshole.

Flesh Computer: Weird. Uncomfortable. Apparently some dudes really will try to stick their dick in just about anything.

Pathos: Oooh boy. This is the one that was disturbing in that "burrows into your brain" way that some good horror does. Nothing really new, thematically, that we haven't seen in Sci-fi many times over, but done effectively and well. There's a reason that we return to some ideas over and over. Environmental destruction, a desire for mindless entertainment, the destructive forces of capitalism? Yeah.

Eveless: Ugh. just ugh. I guess if you're really super into mpreg in your fanfic you might enjoy this? Husband got a kick out of the ridiculousness of some of the "surgical instruments" on the table. I was mostly bored. Wow. All the women are dead. How original.

They're All Going To Die in Space: Well done, interesting enough twist. I expected it to be a little bit more interesting with a ship named "The Tantalus." The ending shot definitely worked thematically, the announcement of the ship's computer took away some of the ambiguity that would have made it really compelling.

Entity: Pretty and trippy. Unfortunately, not much else. Some of the visuals reminded me pretty heavily of Stargate's wormhole animations. 

Kingz: Meh. Kind of felt like an extended excuse for an HR Geiger-esque monster with a flimsy morality tale attached.

There were a couple of (annoying) tropes throughout that we noticed:
Sci Fi = PIXELS!
Sci Fi also  = COLD BLUE LIGHTING
Seizure inducing light flashes = SUSPENSE BUILDING AND SCARY! (or the filmmakers think they are, anyway. They pretty much read as an easy way to set up a cheap jump scare to the audience.)

I was not entirely sure how I felt about this one, but upon a couple of day's reflection (and a nice long drive through one of those large stretches of nothing some of us live near,) I decided I liked it.  This is a very "American" horror film - it only works somewhere that has those long stretches where you can drive for hours and see nary a sign of civilization. Or that gas station that looks almost identical to the one you passed three hours ago. 

This one had a nice wraparound with the structure that reinforced the "never ending torment" themes throughout, and a low key intertwining between stories instead of trying to be super clever with it. (I love it when the intertwining is super clever, but with the more serious tone of these stories, I think it would have been distracting in this one.) "Accident" was the most gripping one for me. Truly nightmarish in every sense of the word. This is the second anthology flick I've watched this month with the radio DJ as the connection between the stories. It can either be seen as a classic or cliched option, and in this one it fell a little more into the "cliched" category. (And the DJ had a nice enough voice, but I might have liked it more with a more interesting or compelling voice.)

I really didn't expect to be this emotionally affected by a movie that was about zombies on a train. But, I was. Zombie movies usually have something to say about our humanity, and this one was no exception. Much of the time, what zombie movies have to say about our humanity is that we are all perfectly capable of being monsters. What this one has to say is that we are also capable of being angels. And it says that without being saccharine or manipulating us emotionally. 

Random things I geeked out about:
Su-an's face! (The little girl in the above screenshot) So expressive and at times heartbreaking.
The underlying theme of "Hey assholes! When things go to shit, we cooperate and work together!"
The shot at the end on the train. I'm not going to spoil it, you'll know it when you see it.
The movement of the zombies! So cool. (I'm a dancer, I notice things like this.)
They didn't "Night of the Living Dead" the ending. We were worried. And yes, I do realize I just used a title as a verb. You will deal with it.

I know a lot of people are bored with the zombie genre. This movie is still worth your time.

(Except I actually kind of cheated and watched this on the first day, but do you really care?)

This was a disturbing and uncomfortable one. I wondered aloud if it was written by someone of our generation who came of age during the AIDS crisis, and my husband pointed out that my own coming of age during the peak of the AIDS crisis may have colored my perceptions of the movie. "Sex equals death" is not a new idea to any of us who were alive in the 80s. (Insert rant about how at least we were given good information about things like condoms, even if it did come with a large dose of fear, instead of the bullshit "abstinence only" education they are trying to shove down kids' throats today.)

So, anyway. Horror and sex. Sex and horror. The two are so often intertwined, but this one makes the link much more explicit- the curse is passed on via sex. (It's never really spelled out if it's only sexual intercourse, but that seems to be the case. (Insert gripe about heteronormativity and our society's over emphasis on intercourse here.) For a movie revolving around a sexually transmitted curse, although there is some nudity, it never really became overly explicit or gratuitous.  We saw background characters enjoying intimacy, flirting. etc, which added a nice contrast to the drastic consequences the main character is facing for enjoying a human connection. (And speaking of human connection - unlike some horror, you actually believe this group of friends, you know, liked each other. If I'm wondering why these people are even spending time together, I'm probably not going to like the movie.) Along with creating an undercurrent of dread with a nice subtle touch, it also raised interesting ethical questions. What, exactly, is the right thing to do in this situation? (If you sacrifice yourself so as to not have the responsibility of passing it on, it then rebounds back on the person who gave it to you. Either way you are putting someone's life in danger.)

There were a few things I disliked. There were a couple of places that stretched suspension of disbelief just a little too far (was the pool abandoned, yet that well maintained, or did they just sneak in after closing? Why was it in the ridiculously architecturally elaborate "spooky" building?  Why with the unneccessary overwrought thunderstorm to try and build atmosphere? That thunderstorm was so, so unnecessary.)  The dialogue about the suburb/city divide felt like it could have been interesting if it was more in line with the themes of the movie, but it felt out of place. I was unsure for a large part of the movie if the characters were in high school? college? What was going on with their "sort of there but almost completely uninvolved and uninterested in their lives" parents?

I really like the way this one ends. I am sick of stupid jump scares at the end of horror movies, and instead this one made what I felt was a strong, but nicely ambiguous choice.

I'm always drawn to horror anthologies, because even if you dislike one section, there is a good chance there will be something else you enjoy.  In Tales of Halloween, there was enough that tickled both my spooky and my funny bone that this one will probably be added to "Trick R Treat" as an annual October viewing. And you can't beat Adrienne Barbeu as the radio DJ serving as the connective tissue. Just a few thoughts on each one (SPOILERS ahead):

First of all, the animated opening sequence inspired by pop-up books is great fun, and sets the mood for what is to follow.

Sweet Tooth: I love that this plays on both the traditions of parents stealing their kids' Halloween candy (not that *I* would ever do such a thing...) and traditional ghost stories/urban legends that tend to get passed around from kid to kid.

The Night Billy Raised Hell: Watching Barry Bostwick chew the scenery is pretty fun, the twist is pretty fun, the sound effects are completely ridiculous. and fun.

Trick: Possibly my favorite of the anthology. Deliciously mean-spirited in that way that only horror can be, with a theme of the weak triumphing over the powerful? Yeah, that's my jam.

The Weak and the Wicked: Hmmm, kinda meh for me, honestly -despite (as the title indicates) also having a theme of the weak triumphing over the powerful.

Grim Grinning Ghost: Definitely my least favorite. That's a helluva lot of set-up for basically a single mediocre jump scare.

Ding Dong: What. the. hell. did. I. just. watch!? I still don't know exactly how I feel about this one.

This Means War: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA *inhale* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sometimes, my tastes are simple.

Friday the 31st: This is tied with "Trick" as one of my favorites. Goofy animation and multiple horror movie homages.  Keep your eyes out for some fun easter eggs for horror fans.

The Ransom of Rusty Rex: Gotta love a good plot twist, and a kidnapping going horribly awry is always a fun one.

Bad Seed: Okay, I think the previous two have to be in a tie for second place, THIS one is my favorite. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me laugh like a hyena. Sometimes I just like really silly, corny things.

     The problem with any movie that centers around possession, and especially possession of a young girl, is that you can almost always be assured that The Exorcist did it better. The Conjuring 2 was no exception.

     I went to see The Conjuring 2- actually in a movie theater! With other people! (That hasn’t happened in a long time.) It was definitely fun to have the communal experience of people holding their breath, curling into a little ball in their seat, and screaming around me. (I am terrible, and can’t help but giggle at the jump scares, even though I am a total sucker for them. It’s been a while since I’ve had the experience of being well and truly heart-poundingly scared during a movie. [Rec] was the last one that managed it.)

     The problem with pushing the angle that your movie is “based on a true story!” when it centers around hauntings and possession is that, for us skeptics, you have just made it that much harder to suspend disbelief and dive into the frightening aspects of the movie. And really, at some point we must decide that we’ve gotten all the leverage out of the “true story” (cough HOAX cough) of The Amityville horror that we’re gonna get. (This movie did not revolve around that particular ghost tale, but it was used as an opening gambit, and featured the paranormal researchers that also figured into that story.)According to IMDB, one theater even brought in a priest to “counsel” moviegoers if the felt the need after watching it. My eyes, they do roll, even if it was a genius bit of marketing.

     There were some absolutely stunning cinematic moments of pretty. (I was particularly fond of the sequence that made use of paintings and shadows.) But as beautiful as they were, a lot of the scary moments seemed just a bit too predictable to be truly frightening. I found the plot of the movie to be meandering and plodding, I was getting bored and wondering how the two different story lines were going to be pulled together somewhere around the halfway point of the movie. I started thinking that what I truly wanted was an abstract, experimental movie with all of the typical “horror” sequences cut together. In general, I would be a fan of more abstract experimental horror movies- but alas, the pressures of money and marketing mean we must have a well defined plot to hang on to.

     I have said for a while that I am really wanting someone to come up with a new and interesting design for the ghosts, demons, etc. in haunting type movies. Long hair, pale, dark eyes and lips seems to have become the popular new template. In The Conjuring 2, we get a Marilyn Manson look alike in a nun costume. meh. Where’s HR Geiger when you need him? The “twist” was...interesting, but unfortunately the movie had pretty much lost my interest by the time it was revealed.

     The acting was well done, I was especially impressed with the young girl who played Janet. (It's just so easy for child actors to fall into the trap of being too precocious and annoying. This child was believable and likeable.) The relationship portrayed between Ed and Lorraine Warren was lovely, if a bit saccharine at times.  A character struggling with their faith seems par for the course in this type of movie, but it felt the writing in this one was verging uncomfortably close to proselytizing. The idea of believing a young girl who says she is experiencing horrific things is such a powerful and important idea, but unfortunately in this movie it falls flat. (And while the character of Ed Warren in the movie claims that spirits often come to houses where there is “negative energy,” the truth is that many a haunting or poltergeist has been claimed not because there is a malevolent spirit, but because there may be a troubled child calling out for attention and help in any way they can.)

It's been a while!
Of course, I was watching all sorts of horror movies during October, but the actually writing about them part didn't happen.  I'll have to go back and do so - thank you Netflix viewing history.  (Another binge rewatch of Leverage in September Julie? Really?)

But for now, I'm gonna give you a run down of some horror movies I really like. (NOT my "ALL TIME FAVORITE HORROR" list, because that's just too much pressure for a Monday afternoon.) Let's say 10, because that's a good round number, right? okay. so:

TEN HORROR MOVIES THAT JULIE REALLY LIKES.
-Dawn of the Dead (original): This was one of those that creeped into my head and stayed for a while. This, for me, is the pinnacle of the zombie genre. Asks all those questions about who is really the monster and critiques of capitalism and society...before Romero started using the "THIS IS SYMBOLISM!" hammer in his movies. (I love you, George, but we get it. The monsters are us.)

-May: We stumbled on this on IFC, and would have thought it was some sort of quirky indy romance flick had we not taken a few minutes to look up the description. The character of the "quirky"  girl  whose awkwardness becomes too real, too uncomfortable, and not "cute" in that socially acceptable "manic pixie dream girl" way.  A modern take on Frankenstein, mashed up with the serial killer flick. (Also, oh my god. Eyes. This one tests the limits of my squeamishness around anything having to do with eyeballs. I tend to watch large portions peeking out from behind my fingers.)

-[Rec]: Point of view/found footage. My entire family laughs, because I can be fantastic at suspending my disbelief if I want to, and I am a total sucker for jump scares, but this is one horror movie that truly, honestly, terrified me. The atmosphere, the location, and the way it is all used is so very effective that just seeing the staircase still has the power to send a shiver down my spine. Also, Angela is a fantastic final girl. She's not "tough" in that stereotypical "Strong Female Character" way, but though she is terrified, she also fights for her survival with every speck of grit she can muster.

-[Rec] 3: Total departure from the feel of the first two movies. But- Zombie fighting chainsaw wielding bride. What's not to love? Also, it is totally and completely a love story. Not one with a very happy ending, but still, a love story.

-Let the Right One In: I know, this one is on just about everybody's list. It's just really really good. Also, this is not something I usually go into raptures over, but the sound design is absolutely brilliant. (This may be the movie that I can credit with my beginning to totally geek out over the sound design in horror movies.)

-Poltergeist (the original. duh): Okay, you want to know the real reason I love this movie? Because it is a family movie, in the best sense of the word. That family is going through something terrible, and horrific. And they stick together, they take care of each other, and because of that they come out on the other side.
The first one is so lovely for just that reason, that I am living happily in a land of denial and have refused to watch any of the sequels.

-Dead Alive (also known by the original New Zealand title of Brain Dead):  am actually a little afraid of going back to rewatch this early Peter Jackson effort, because for a long time it was "MY FAVORITE!" but twenty year old Julie's sensibilities were a bit different than forty one year old Julie's sensibilities. But for now I remember it as the goriest movie that has ever made me laugh that hard. (There's a scene with a lawnmower. And a room full of zombies. Set to a waltz. Any questions?) Also contains these two classic lines of dialogue:
"Your mother ate my dog!"
and
"I kick arse for the LORD!"
Just...full of absurdity. (And gross out humor. Don't eat before watching. Seriously. I have friends who will back me up on this.)

Shaun of the Dead: Yeah, I have a bit of a weakness for horror comedy. The remake/homage to Dawn of the Dead that it actually deserves. (Forget that "zombies! in a mall!" remake. Because that is ALL that remake understood about the original.) This one has held up through repeated rewatchings, and it still delights me. It's goofy and it makes me laugh, but its biggest strength is that it has very human and real characters that we actually care about.

Nightmare on Elm Street (the original. again I say "duh" SO very much. I've seen the remake, and it is so terrible in so many ways.):   Ah, nostalgia. The effects are cheesy. (Although I love the surrealist atmosphere of the "dream" sequences) The synthesizer soundtrack is cheesier. But the idea of a villain who could enter your dreams terrified me as a teenager. As did the subtle implications that Freddy was not just a murderer, but also a child molester.  And Nancy is a determined and clever final girl.

Trick R Treat: An anthology of intertwined stories happening on Halloween. (I adore me some intertwined storytelling.)  Creepy and gross and scary, with moments of humor. Everything I love about Halloween. The perfect movie to pull out every October.

Yes, yes - yet another "found footage" type horror film. I know, it's starting to feel a bit overdone since the "Blair Witch" craze, but I will express a certain fondness for the genre. I liked the set up for this one, it wasn't your typical "a group of 20 somethings are going into the woods to investigate something spooooooky" type set ups. Instead, it starts with a rather gut wrenching portrayal of a woman stricken by Alzheimers and her adult daughter who has come to care for her. The young woman who is filming the documentary is likable but flawed, willing to skimp on ethics in order to get what she wants and needs for her project.

This one is a slow burn of a film, it's very effective that the framing documentary has nothing supermatural about it whatsoever, because it takes time for that element of the film to emerge for the characters, and there is effective mind-fuckery before they come to realize that something more than an aging woman's illness is happening. The relationship between mother and daughter is also a fantastic element - they both quite obviously love each other, but the strain in the relationship adds a tension to all the proceedings.

Go forth and watch Rihanna's BBHM video! Nudity, violence, definitely not safe for work.

Trigger warning/ Content Warning: discussion of sexual assault.

Assorted thoughts from watching this with extra added bonus CAPSLOCK. Consider this my almost-but-not-quite liveblogging of this movie:

Man, that building (from the first movie) STILL has the power to send a shiver down my spine. A++ for location on the first film, movie makers.

Oh lord, I am already bored with the “damsel in distress and her rescuer” storyline. This dude is seriously rubbing me the wrong way. So HELP me if this thing turns into a romance... (They did that already in [Rec 3] loved it there. Will NOT love it here. Sidenote: [Rec 3] is a departure from the style and tone of the other movies, and I still loved it.)

Are they trying to make this awesome character from the first two movies as useless as possible? UGH! Come on writers, ANGELA IS NOT USELESS. I really enjoyed that in the first movie, she wasn’t that stereotypical STRONG!  BADASS! WOMAN! character, but she fought really hard for her survival.

So, THAT’s how we’re gonna tie the 2nd and 3rd movies in the universe together, huh? All right, we’ll go with it. Poor old lady.

Ew. This “dude as peeping tom/voyeur” thing as a matter of course is just...ew. So very tired of seeing this EVERY. FREAKING. WHERE. In horror, in comedy, just stop. Dudes like looking at naked girls, ESPECIALLY without their permission, we get it. IT IS LAZY WRITING AND ALSO GROSS STOP USING IT.

Okay, that monkey looks fake, AND the way they filmed it was...exceptionally cruel. Cruelty can definitely be used as a tool, especially in horror, but that was just REALLY gratuitous. I understand that sometimes in horror, there is an urge to film stuff just because “hey, we can, and it looks cool,” but, once again, it looked REALLY FAKE. (this is when elder child “noped” out of watching. Put the people through terrible things, but you start being mean to animals? Absolutely not.)

Why wouldn’t you want the creepy thing OUT of you? I’m not sure I get her logic here. But...this bit has definite themes about bodily autonomy. There were definite sexual assault overtones in the way they chose to film it and...not sure how I feel about this. at all.  (I’m okay with “uncomfortable” in horror. Sexual assault is something that many of us deeply fear, so exploring it in a horror context makes sense. It just seems that, once again, instead of being really thoughtful about how it’s filmed, it’s once again ALL about the shock value. UGH.) Also the "carrier" vs "infected" thing got a little muddy.

I guess we can SORT OF forgive the creepy voyeurism thing earlier since it was an actual plot point later. Kind of. I’m sure you could have found  different way to foreshadow that though, I still stand by IT IS LAZY WRITING STOP USING IT.

Oh, thank god that dude’s a bad guy. Seriously, I have never been so RELIEVED to find out someone is a villain.

We’re really working the gross body horror/analogues to sexual assault here aren’t we? Still not sure how I feel about this. FREUD WOULD HAVE A FIELD DAY WITH THIS. (Even though his theories are mostly bunk.) Had a fascinating conversation with the younger child about this one after the movie, though. (He was not a fan. I was not a fan either, but I argued that it DID go along with what they were doing with the rest of the movie.)

Eh, you were creepy peeping tom guy, but at least you’ve sort of become more likable over the course of this movie. SORT OF.  I guess it’s okay that you’re probably going to live.

Apparently zombies can’t swim. Wonder why none of them even seem to be falling off the side of the boat. IS THE OCEAN SECRETLY FULL OF ZOMBIE REPELLANT?

Oh, don’t you dare not let her survive this movie. DON’T YOU DARE. Okay, the soundtrack REALLY BETTER NOT BE LYING TO ME about the hopeful ending in store.

Huh. Well, that was...something. I STILL DO NOT KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS MOVIE. Other than, of course, it was nowhere near as good as the original [Rec] (Haven’t seen [Rec]? YOU NEED TO GO SEE IT. YES, the original Spanish version, NOT the US remake “Quarantine.” EMBRACE THE SUBTITLE, PEOPLE.)