Gabe Reviews Horror

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #7 - Terrifier (2016) The Greek philosopher Plato proposed a hypothesis that the physical world is not as "real" or "true" as ideas, which are timeless, absolute and unchangeable. Ideas, or Forms, are the non-physical essences of all things, of which objects and matter in the physical world are imperfect imitations. So while you can go to the store and buy an orange, for example, there exists the "ideal orange" that has all of the traits an orange should have, and every orange you buy is striving to be this "Platonic ideal" of an orange (but is an imperfect copy of it). In one of his dialogues, Plato describes a world beyond our world where all of these ideal forms could be found- in that respect, everything in our world is an echo, a shadow of its perfect counterpart in that "world of Forms". I put forth that Terrifier is the Platonic ideal of a

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #6 - REC (2007) I'd never seen REC, but I saw its American remake, Quarantine (2008) way back when the word "quarantine" evoked a much less visceral reaction. The two movies are pretty similar- not exactly shot-for-shot but pretty close- and I'd heard everyone say that of the two, this was the superior version. I haven't re-watched the remake since it came out so I can't really comment on which was better, but I'll say right off the bat that this was a solid film that didn't overstay its welcome. REC is a Spanish found-footage film that follows Angela, a news reporter, and her cameraman Pablo. The movie begins with them doing a late-night news segment about the local Fire Department, and she goes along with the Firemen with the camera rolling to see what their job is like. But when they're called to an apartment building to help rescue a woman trapped in her

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #5 - Noroi: The Curse (2005) I had never seen this film, though I'd definitely heard it named in lists of "best horror films of all time" and I'm certain at least one or two video games I've played counted this among their chief inspirations. So I guess I had high hopes going in, even if I didn't know what exactly to expect. Noroi: The Curse is a Japanese found-footage film about a documentary filmmaker, Masafumi Kobayashi, investigating paranormal happenings around Japan. The movie starts with title cards explaining that during the production of his latest documentary Kobayashi's house burned down and his body was never found, so the stage is set for a twisted, spooky tale leading up to something terrifying happening to him and his family. We're introduced to a handful of characters, many of whom have psychic connections to spirits, and the plot eventually revol

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #4 - Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) Just when you thought you had gotten all of the mileage you could get out of the juxtaposition of "Nazi" and "Zombies", you were proven WRONG! Dead Snow 2 is a tour de force, taking (some) of what made up the first film and cranking it up to eleven. More action and comedy than horror (not that the first movie lacked either of those), this one has quite a different feel to it, but was still extremely enjoyable, albeit for different reasons. The film starts off right where the last one ended: with the only survivor of the Nazi Zombie attack (Martin, the guy who cut his arm off and then got bitten in the dick) trying to escape in a car but probably not succeeding. Zing zang zoom he survives but ends up in the hospital- thank goodness they were able to reattach his arm! Except... wait a minute, his arm wasn't in the car... That's right

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #3 - Dead Snow (2009) I'm pretty sure I know how the writing process for this film went: One of the writers put two words next to each other- "Nazi" and "Zombies"- and the script basically wrote itself after that. And what a script it was! Dead Snow is a Norwegian horror film about a group of college students that go to a remote cabin in the snowy mountains, bing bang boom nazi zombies. (Like the script for the film, this review writes itself too!) The main thing that struck me about this movie is how clearly self-aware it is. We start off with the characters talking about how similar their situation is to so many popular horror films (name-dropping the likes of Evil Dead and Friday the 13th), and then barely fifteen minutes in their party is interrupted by a spooky traveler who exposits the horrific Nazi-filled backstory of the region, with his presence so on-the-nose as

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #2 - Inside (2007) Inside, also known as À l'Intérieur, is a French film about a pregnant woman whose home is invaded by a mysterious woman seemingly intent on killing her to steal her unborn child. While I generally like home invasion films- home invasion is probably one of my deepest-seated fears and encourages a style of filmmaking that I tend to really enjoy- I can't say I was crazy about Inside. I'll get to some specifics in a moment (beware, spoilers ahead) but my general review is that this film has a good vibe and the two main characters put on great performances, and there are some incredibly tense moments in this film, but most of the tension comes from the ancillary characters acting like idiots in order to get themselves killed. About halfway into the film, some cops arrive at the protagonist Sarah's house while the antagonist is trying to kill her (and by this point,

This review was originally written in October 2023. Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #1- Trick 'r Treat (2007) Happy October, everyone! It's great to be doing this again, and what better way to start it off than with Trick 'r Treat, one of the best Halloween-centric movies ever made! I've seen this one loads of times and I'm still seeing new details I never saw before. This review is going to be fairly short and spoiler-free, because there's so much fun to be had seeing this film for the first time, I don't want to ruin it for anyone! Trick 'r Treat is a collection of linked stories taking place on Halloween night in the fictional town of Warren Valley, Ohio- where they take Halloween very, very seriously. Throughout the movie we see a husband and wife arguing about Halloween decorations, a school principal with many dark secrets, a group of girls getting ready for a costume party, some children playing a prank on a schoolmate, an urban legend from

After 2022's intense 100-movie challenge, for this year I decided to go back to my roots: finding a list of 31 horror films some random person made online, and watching those. But this time I made sure to swap out any movies I've already reviewed, and I think we've got an exciting batch! So, in October 2023, I watched the following movies: 1. Trick 'r Treat (2007) 2. Inside (2007) 3. Dead Snow (2009) 4. Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) 5. Noroi: the Curse (2005) 6. REC (2007) 7. Terrifier (2016) 8. Terrifier 2 (2022) 9. Possession (1981) 10. The Fog (1980) 11. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006) 12. Event Horizon (1997) 13. Strangeland (1998) 14. Session 9 (2001) 15. Inferno (1980) 16. The Thing (1982) 17. Goosebumps (2015) 18. Ghost Ship (2002) 19. House of 1000 Corpses (2003) 20. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) 21. Dog Soldiers (2002) 22. Thir13en Ghosts (2001) 23. As Above, So Below (2014) 24. The Wailing (2016) 25. Society (1989) 26. Spookies (19

This blog post was originally written in October 2022. Alright, everyone! The hundred movies are over, and it's been a wild ride. Thanks again to all of you who read my reviews- I feel like I learned a lot about horror cinema this year, and although this was a LOT of time and work (seriously, you try setting aside like three hundred hours of next year and see how it goes) I'm still glad I did it. Instead of reviewing a movie today, I'm sort of going to be reviewing some highlights of the Bucket List as a whole.  To look back at this year of horror, I've come up with a few categories I'm going to use to pick some of the movies I've watched. It's not an exhaustive list, of course- if you have any ideas for more categories for me to assess, reply down below and I'll pick the movie/s that fits the best! Favorite Movie: The Cabin in the Woods (2011). It's just such a fun movie, and I'll never get sick of it. Least Favorite Movie: Werckmeister Harmonie

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #100: The Fly (1986) The Fly is a remake of the 1958 original, following a scientist (in this case, Seth Brundle) as he finishes developing and testing his newest invention, which will allow mankind to teleport. He develops a relationship with a journalist (Veronica) who is documenting his invention, but when it seems like she might be having an affair with her boss/ex-lover, Seth gets drunk and goes along with testing the teleporter on himself while she's away, and it appears to go successfully. However, he starts developing changes- first positive ones, and eventually horrifyingly negative ones. Can he figure out a way to turn himself back? And if he does, will the result be worth the cost? With both iterations of this story (as was the case with a lot of classic horror I've seen this month) I was shocked how little this seemed to parallel the pop culture interpretations of it.

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #99: Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht (1979) So, this is the fourth adaptation of Dracula I've seen this month. I'm not going to lament that fact as much as I did for Horror of Dracula (despite that being a better film overall I was a lot less frustrated with having to watch this one) but I am going to compare it to 1922's Nosferatu, of which this is a direct (almost shot-for-shot) remake. Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht is a German film that follows Jonathan Harker, an estate agent, who travels to a remote part of Transylvania under orders to arrange a property deal with Count Dracula, who plans to move to Jonathan's town of Wismar. The locals warn him of the legends and superstitions that surround the count's castle, but he soldiers on and meets the bizarre, monstrous count. Once the deal has been made Dracula seemingly becomes infatuated with a cameo of Johnathan's w

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #98: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a film about a group of friends in San Francisco (Matthew, Elizabeth, Jack, and Nancy) when a rash of odd panic begins cropping up around town. Elizabeth notices her significant other acting unusually, meeting with strangers and conducting covert business, and Matthew tries to help her see through this irrational fear. But when Jack and Nancy discover a strange lifeless body has begun to materialize in their place of business that resembles Jack, it kicks off a sequence of events that make it clear that something supernatural and sinister is indeed manipulating the city of San Francisco- and possibly, the world. I think this was a very fun film. At the start, before anything concrete is established, a lot of work is done to show that something  is amiss, and also to lay the groundwork for what will eventually be

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #97: Eraserhead (1977) I want to say at the top of this review that I knew nothing whatsoever about this film before watching it, except that it's made by David Lynch (and therefore I assumed it would be very, very weird). It is in fact very weird, but as the movie went on and I actually thought about what Lynch seemed to be trying to say and do, I'm not really sure "weird" is the word I would use to describe it. Watching this film distinctly reminded me of the term "deepity". A deepity is a saying or platitude, that at first seems deep or profound, but to the extent that it's true, it's trivially so; and to the extent that it's profound, it's false. An example is "Age is just a number." If you take it literally, it's so obvious nobody would have ever needed to state it. If you take it metaphorically or instructionally, it's no

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #96: Suspiria (1977) (I just noticed that these last two movies- Carrie and Suspiria- both had 2010s remakes starring Chloe Grace Moretz. I didn't mean to put them side-by-side, that's just how it happened.) Suspiria is a film about Suzy Bannion, an American girl who travels to Germany to join a prestigious ballet school. Once there she becomes strangely ill, other students are mysteriously murdered, and she begins to learn of a nefarious plot among the staff that could mean dark intentions are afoot. I spent the first thirty minutes of this film asking myself, "What the hell is this movie?" It redeemed itself by the end- not in a sense that I enjoyed it, but in a sense that I understood what the hell it even was, but I don't think this is a good film and I say without exaggeration that some of the sequences in it are so nonsensical that I can't accept them as be

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #95: Carrie (1976) I'd only ever seen the 2013 remake, and didn't have strong feelings about it, but I'm pretty sure I knew the plot of this movie even before that. This movie definitely felt like it held up pretty well, and actually manages to circumvent a lot of common problems I've been having with numerous older films this month. The film follows Carrie White, a shy teenage girl who has been struggling through her high school social life due to a very sheltered and religiously-extreme upbringing. But she discovers that she has telekinetic powers right around the time a group of bullies decide to assault her at the Senior Prom, so one way or another it all comes to a head. I just want to say: it has been shocking  how many movies this month seem to have been made under the assumption that the only way to write a story is to pad out the first 45 minutes with a whole lot

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #94: Don't Look Now (1973) Don't Look Now follows a married couple, Laura and John Baxter, who have lost a daughter to an accidental drowning and are living in Venice while John works as an art restorer and their son is at a boarding school in London. The couple meets a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to have psychic visions (and has communicated with the Baxters' deceased daughter). The blind psychic has a couple visions that seemingly come true, Laura leaves Venice to visit their son who has been injured, and John thinks he sees Laura still in town with the two sisters, so he searches for her and eventually gets the police involved. Laura (who did in fact leave town) comes back but she and John get separated. John thinks he sees their dead daughter run into an abandoned building or something, so he chases after her, but it turns out it's actually

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #93: Frenzy (1972) Frenzy is a film that takes place in London during a rash of serial murders, where the killer has been sexually assaulting women and then strangling them with a necktie. The story follows Richard Blaney, a down-on-his-luck barfly with a checkered past, who gets pinned early on as the prime suspect in the Necktie Murders, and does his best to evade capture. But every time it seems like he's found a way out of the spotlight, he gets pulled right back in. Movies like Frenzy are the prime example of why I feel justified in giving entries like Repulsion a low score. Frenzy is long (115 minutes) and most of it is pretty slow-paced, but the characters are all fully-realized people and each of them clearly has more going on than what you see in any given scene. Could you imagine how much less interesting this film would be if Blaney spent most of his scenes just staring bla

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #92: Repulsion (1965) I'm gonna get this right out there: I did not like this movie. Not at all. I'd be very comfortable placing this in the bottom five out of all of the movies I've watched this year, and that's saying something. At no point in this entire movie did I feel like I was enjoying myself, and reading some of the other reviews people have written about this just makes it all sound like pretentious nonsense. Repulsion is a film about Carol, a Belgian manicurist living in London with her sister Helen. Carol has some sort of serious cognitive disorder that causes her to hyper-focus and obsess over certain things to the great detriment of her social and professional life, and (possibly related) she also has some sort of underlying discomfort with sexuality and men in general. Her sister goes out of town leaving her on her own, and her cognitive disorder gets so bad

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #91: The Birds (1963) So, I really didn't know what to expect with this movie. On the one hand, it's held up by many as one of the horror classics that scared them to death as a child. On the other hand, there's been a lot of those so far this month, and most of them have been extremely unimpressive. On the third hand, this movie is TWO HOURS LONG and I have a hard time believing that it needed to be. On the fourth hand, it wasn't that bad. The Birds is a film about Melanie, a "modern rich socialite" as IMDB puts it, who runs into a lawyer, Mitch, and the two sort of flirt-prank each other and it ends up with Melanie driving out to Mitch's lake house in a seaside town called Bodega Bay. While there, the local birds suddenly start acting erratically- first by ramming into Melanie while she's out boating, to attacking kids at a party, to eventually storming

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #90: Eyes Without a Face (1962) Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) is a French film about a surgeon, Dr. Génessier, whose daughter, Christiane, had her face disfigured in an automobile accident. With the help of his assistant Louise, they've taken to kidnapping young girls and performing surgeries on them, in the hopes of transplanting one of their faces onto Christiane. Over the course of the film they abduct three girls in this way- the first two transplants don't take, and by the time of the third, the police have begun to catch on to the trend of abductions. But ultimately Christiane lets the third girl go, kills Louise, and then lets loose a bunch of dogs which maul Dr. Génessier. This film has a creepy atmosphere I suppose, but I'd be lying if I said 99% of the heavy lifting wasn't being done by the creepy featureless mask that Christiane wears throughout mos

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #89: The Innocents (1961) The Innocents is a story about a young woman, Miss Giddens, being hired by a wealthy uncle to serve as governess (whatever that is) to his orphaned niece and nephew, Flora and Miles. (I mean, I can piece together through context clues that it's some kind of a housekeeper/babysitter/teacher/surrogate mother figure, but I guess I'm just starting off this review by expressing how completely disconnected I feel from the characters in this story because what could I possibly have in common with any of these people? Even the jobs they work are concepts that are utterly foreign, not to mention every single moment of their day to day lives. But I digress.) As the days go by, Miss Giddens begins to notice strange things around the house- shadowy silhouettes, disembodied voices, odd behavior from the children- and as she investigates, it seems to all be related to

This review was originally written in October 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #88: Psycho (1960) I'll be perfectly honest: I was not at all expecting to enjoy this movie. I'd seen the remake years ago (which was pretty accurate to my recollection) and wasn't impressed by it, so considering I already knew the big twist of this one I was expecting it to just be another slow, dry slog. But boy was I mistaken! This one moves at a nice clip, it's paced really well (even if a bit strange and unconventional) and there's enough going on that it never overstays its welcome. Psycho starts off following Marion Crane, a secretary who decides to steal a big thing of money from her employer and run away to live with her boyfriend. On the way she stops at a roadside motel, where the creepy innkeeper, Norman Bates, has an unhealthy relationship with his mother and a penchant for taxidermy. After he watches Marion in the shower, an unseen figure (presumably Norm