Gabe Reviews Horror

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #31: The Strangers: Prey at Night It took me a while to decide what I wanted to do on Halloween; I felt like it should be more special than the other days, but I couldn't figure out how. In the end I decided to just watch several movies- and Lisa requested that I write about this one. (It wasn't the best one I watched today; I would recommend Await Further Instructions if you haven't seen it. It's on Netflix.) The Strangers: Prey at Night is the (boringly-named) sequel to the home invasion slasher The Strangers, which I remember really liking when it came out. This one has a similar-enough premise- a family arrives at a vacation home out in the sticks and while there, a group of maniacs attempts to murder them all. Pretty thin premise, but the first at least changed things up a bit with the characters and their attempts to keep themselves safe; this one doesn't, really. Like so many sub-...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #30: Hell House LLC Yipee. Another found-footage movie that has zero confidence in its own premise. Let me start this review by saying something infuriating about this film: It starts off as a documentary about a "tragedy" that happened at Hell House, a haunted house attraction in a small town. I put the word "tragedy" in quotations because this movie is so frustratingly vague about its own inciting incident- at no point do they ever give you enough information to be interested in the mystery. Instead, they show several people interviewed as saying, "What happened there? I have no clue" and "You watch the video. YOU tell ME what happened." This video they're referring to (as we see in full) is of a typical customer on opening night of this haunted attraction, going from room to room with all of the other customers, until they get to some stairs, at which point a b...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #29: The Curse of La Llorona I'm afraid I'm not really going to have a lot to say about this film; the only word I can think to describe the experience was "forgettable". This movie never really "grabbed" me, from the moment it started until the moment it ended. There were a few spots where it felt like it was getting interesting- when Raymond Cruz got into the mix it definitely started to perk up a bit- but every time that happened, a few minutes later it would start to spiral into a lull and then lose me again. I guess I'll give a synopsis. Linda Caredllini plays a social worker named Anna who has to take a mother into custody after this woman (seemingly) kills her own kids; she claims an evil spirit called La Llorona killed them as part of some ghost habit, but nobody believes her. But then when Anna's kids start coming under attack by some sort of evil specter, Anna h...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #28: It Chapter Two I first read Stephen King's It when I was in high school; it was the first book I'd ever read that actually scared me, and this new movie adaptation did not disappoint. Everyone has memories about how the TV miniseries scared them as a kid, but I can say without question that it does not hold up nowadays. (Fight me.) I really liked the first chapter when it came out a couple years ago (there were some changes to the original story I wasn't fond of, like giving Mike's entire role to Ben and damseling Beverly, but overall I thought it was as good as I could reasonably expect) but Chapter Two blew that one out of the water in my opinion, which is surprising since all I heard about it was that it wasn't as good as the first. I loved how well the adult actors encapsulated the same performance as their child counterparts- they all felt perfect for their roles. The scenes wh...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #27 - Double Feature Special: The Towns That Dreaded Sundown Surprise! Today I have a special treat for you: I watched BOTH versions of The Town That Dreaded Sundown- the original, and the sequel/reboot(?). I will be covering both in a sort of tandem-review. I'll start with a synopsis. The Town The Dreaded Sundown was a 1976 film loosely based on a series of actual serial murders from thirty years prior. I haven't done a ton of research to see how accurate it is (I only just verified that it is, in fact, based on an actual murder case) but the movie mostly follows the law enforcement officials as they attempt and ultimately fail to catch the killer. The sequel/remake(?), which went by the same name but was released in 2014, is about a series of what seem to be copycat murders taking place in the same town, but this one focuses more on one particular would-be victim of the elusive killer. I'll sa...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #26: The Blackcoat's Daughter Okay, full disclosure time: Due to the sheer amount of time it takes to watch 31 movies, I've watched a handful of movies this month under less-than-ideal conditions. I watched today's movie while at work, on my phone, with an external speaker; which meant that I was contending both with ambient noise (I work in a very noisy environment) but also with lots of glare on the screen. Also, I may not have been looking directly at the screen 100% of the time. It's important to note, however, that I've watched several movies this way (and even outside of October's horror movies I watch things this way fairly often) and most of the time, it's not a problem in the slightest. I might miss a detail here or there, or I might need to rewind something or pause it until I can focus more heavily on what I'm watching, but in nearly every case I can pick up enough...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #25: The Hollow Child The Hollow Child is a movie about a troubled teen named Samantha living with a foster family on the edge of a haunted forest. When her foster sister Olivia goes missing as a result of her neglect, Samantha feels understandably guilty- but then Olivia turns up back at home a few days later, perfectly fine. Or... is she....? I thought this was an interesting movie; it's covering ground that's already been explored by other movies and even classic folk tales, but for the most part I enjoyed this take on it. My only real issues come from the fact that I feel like there's a lot of tension added into this film by several (extremely minor) subplots that don't really serve any purpose except to make us feel like there's obstacles on every side. Which isn't a problem- in the absence of an actual secondary or tertiary conflict it can be helpful to create the illusion of o...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #24: Basket Case This movie was recommended to me, with the suggestion that I not watch any trailers before doing so; I didn't watch a trailer, and now that I've seen the movie I can understand why. There's (sort of) a big part of the plot that is intended as a reveal about halfway or so through the film, and treating that as a spoiler makes it kind of difficult to talk about what this movie is actually about; but I'll do my best. Basket Case is a bizarre film about a young man named Duane who travels to New York on important personal business, carrying around with him a large basket. He talks to whatever is inside the basket, he feeds it, and it seems to be a part of whatever business he is trying to get done. However, exactly what- or who- is inside this basket is dangerous, and has a closer connection with Duane than you might think... This movie seems to be billed as a Comedy/Horror, but...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #23: The Possession of Michael King Well, here we are, with another found-footage movie. Spoilers for my review: I didn't much like this one, and I'm going to complain a lot about technical stuff. Fair warning. So, The Possession of Michael King is a movie about a guy whose wife (whom we presume was a strong believer in the supernatural) recently died, and so he's setting out to debunk the paranormal by subjecting himself to some satanic rituals. Surprise surprise, he ends up getting possessed. Despite being presented as found-footage, many of the scenes could not possibly have been shot without multiple takes or a camera crew (like the scene with the psychic at the very beginning). For most of the film this is hand-waved by our protagonist wearing a thing around his neck that supposedly captures his POV and a shot of his face, but then you need to assume that this (incredibly slight) device som...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #22: Eli Eli follows the story of a child suffering from an autoimmune disorder which has made him allergic to basically everything; his life has been torture but his parents are spending the last of their money to take him to a special doctor who has treated many people like him with an experimental gene therapy procedure. While in the spooky house/laboratory/hospital thing, Eli begins to see and hear things he shouldn't, leading him to believe the house is haunted- and that there may be more to the doctor's methods than everyone is telling him... First things first- I thought this movie was very, very good..... Except the ending. The ending wasn't bad, exactly (I'll do my best not to spoil it) but after the big reveal I felt like the movie had a completely different tone, and I really, really liked the tone that the 70~ minutes before had, and not so much the tone of the last ~20 minutes. ...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #21: Late Phases: Night of the Wolf This movie took me by complete surprise; I've had some difficulty getting ahold of some of the movies on my list lately and so when I found this one I wasn't super excited for what sounded like a typical werewolf movie. (I'm not sure why, but werewolf stories just don't interest me most of the time. So I felt predisposed to not like this one.) But here's the thing: It's not a werewolf movie. Yes, there's werewolves in it (quick synopsis: a blind war veteran moves into a retirement village but then surprise werewolf) but that's hardly what this movie is about. At its core, it's a story about a grizzled, cantankerous old man who has had to live with the bad things he's done his whole life and when his own mortality is staring him in the face he needs to figure out what kind of a mark he wants to have left in the world. Between scenes ...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #20: Pumpkinhead This is one of those movies that I know I'd heard of as a kid, but never seen. And now that I've seen it I don't even know how I heard of it because I can guarantee nothing from this movie was part of the collective consciousness of my youth (whereas everyone knew about Jason in the hockey mask with a machete and Freddy wearing a sweater and killing you in your dreams, even though I never saw those movies until I was an adult). Pumpkinhead is a story about a man whose son is accidentally killed by some fast-talking city folk come ridin' their bikes up and yonder, so he employs the talents of an old witch to get revenge. She summons Pumpkinhead, a being of pure vengeance, who goes on a killing spree- but as the bodies pile up, the man starts having second thoughts, and in trying to undo the summoning he finds that he and the monster have more in common than he thought... This...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #19: The Houses October Built What to say about yet another found-footage movie? I'll say that of the found-footage I've seen so far this one had a better format than most: The footage looks believable, there's a good explanation for why they started recording it in the first place (as opposed to just happening to be filming everything that happens, like Cloverfield or Chronicle or whatever) and the first half of the film was fun and relatable. The second half of the movie (like basically all found-footage) is where it really falls into being just yet another found-footage movie. I don't know if it's generalized fatigue or just found-footage fatigue but I mentally checked out during most of the latter part of this film. I guess I didn't say what this is about? A group of friends decide to start a video project where they travel to haunted house attractions across the country (?) and ...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #18: Dead Shack I have strong thoughts about this film, but I'm having trouble putting them into the right words. I'll start with the synopsis: A teen boy and his best friend's (?) dysfunctional family go on vacation out in the country, but their vacation is cut short when the neighbor turns out to be harboring a gaggle of zombies. Hilarity ensues. (Maybe not that last part. Except maybe yes.) Here's the biggest problem I had with this film: I can't remember the last time I've seen a movie try so hard to be funny (even movies in the comedy genre). On one hand this movie is partly a competently-shot zombie/slasher film; on the other hand, every single person on-set must have been told there would be a laugh track or something. EVERYONE is mugging for the camera at EVERY opportunity. Every other line is clearly meant to be a joke (and it all sounds scripted, so it wasn't just the a...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #17: The Forest The first thing I want to say is that this movie feels like it should be right up my alley. A movie about Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest? Sign me up! However, this movie makes some missteps (specifically, one misstep it makes over and over) that unfortunately keep it from being great. The Forest is about a girl who travels to Japan in search of her twin sister who lives there (?) and has recently gone missing. She finds out her sister went into Aokigahara, the spooky forest where people go to commit suicide, so our protagonist ignores all warnings and goes off anyway. Unfortunately for her, the spooky forest has some spooks and scares in store, and she just might have to come face-to-face with her haunting past in the process... The first thing that struck me about this film is how cavalier the main character is about all of the people's warnings; despite the fact that her sister has bee...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #16: Haunt So, while watching this movie I kept going back and forth between really enjoying it and being perplexed as to what kind of a movie I was watching. For much of the film it's a fun Halloween horror flick, but the tone and the style keeps changing and I can't tell how seriously it's taking itself. It's directed by Eli Roth so I'm inclined to think it's just having a good time, but some parts of it really turned me off and I'm not entirely sure why. Haunt is about a group of friends (question mark?) that go to a haunted house attraction on Halloween night, which starts off exciting but then the effects start getting a bit too realistic. If it had remained with that premise for the whole film (much like Hellfest, of which this movie seemed like a carbon copy for the first half hour) then I think I would've felt much more favorably towards it; but it becomes this self-s...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #15: The Other Side of the Door I think it's kind of amusing that twice in a row I watched a movie where the entire plot revolves around a mother whose son drowned and she refuses to let go. I mean, either the odds are incredibly low or there's an inordinately high number of horror films that follow that exact premise. So this movie is about a family who has moved to India, and their oldest son tragically died in a car accident. It's been some time, but the mother is still heartbroken, and following a suicide attempt the family's Indian housekeeper tells her of an ancient ritual that will allow her to talk to her son one last time from behind the closed door of an abandoned temple. Against the housekeeper's instructions, the mother opens the door, and in doing so releases some kind of a malevolent force that... I dunno, jump scares them a bunch? I'm not going to have a lot ot say abo...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #14: Before I Wake For much of this movie I felt that it wasn't quite a horror movie; after finishing it I looked up the IMDB trivia and apparently the director strongly objected to it being marketed as one. There are definitely some scary parts of this film, but those aren't really the focus and at its core it's a family drama with some supernatural elements. Before I Wake is a movie about a family that adopts a foster child who, as it turns out, has supernatural powers that bring his dreams (and nightmares) to life when he sleeps. At first they try to use this power to give them more time with their son, who died in an accident some time before, but then things turn sinister and the mom has to investigate into the boy's past to figure out how to stop this malevolent force that comes from his nightmares. First I want to say that I was not at all expecting such emotional weight in this movie...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #13: The Taking of Deborah Logan Hooray, more found-footage. I'm not really sure what overall thoughts to give other than "it's not as bad as most found-footage" but that isn't really meant as a compliment. I enjoyed most of the movie but it falls victim to so many of the problems other found-footage films do, and lots of standard horror tropes as well. I can't really think of much this film did that hasn't been done many times before. Let's start with the plot: A documentary crew are doing research on Alzheimer's, so they set up a long-term study on a woman named Deborah Logan, with the crew living in her house and documenting the progression of the disease. As her conditions begin to worsen, supernatural happenings start to occur, and eventually it's discovered that her condition and behavior are tied to this evil ritual attempted by a dying man many years ago. Th...

This review was originally written in October 2019. October Horror Movie Review #12: The Emerging Past Director's Cut So, the only reason I know about this movie is because one of the listeners of my podcast knows someone who was involved in making it; that makes me feel like there is a non-zero chance of what I say somehow getting back to that person and I don't really plan on saying anything particularly good about this one. Apparently it won some film awards but I'll get this right out there: I really didn't like this movie. A lot of it might be personal gripes, but you can decide for yourself. (And there is a big twist- question mark? - that I do plan on spoiling. I'll try to save it until the end.) I think it's a little goofy that this film is titled (everywhere I could find anything about it) "The Emerging Past Director's Cut". There is a different movie called The Emerging Past that has nothing to do with this one; as far as I can find there...