100 Horror Movies Challenge Final Update

I'm about two weeks late with this final update but that shouldn't be a surprise really because I'm never very organised!

Day 26:
    - Blair Witch (2016, Directed by Adam Wingard, Horror/Thriller)
               - Meh. I'm not a fan of this franchise as a whole really and this one was a bit all over the place with a very tentative link to the original.

Day 27:
    - 2 episodes of Stranger Thing Series Two, equivalent to one movie (Drama/Fantasy/Horror)
               - It's back! I love this show and there's not really anything quite like it.

Day 28:
    - 7 episodes of Stranger Things Series Two (equivalent to 3 movies)
               - Poor health days can suck but it worked well for this challenge!

Day 29:
    - None.

Day 30:
    - None again, so good at this!

Day 31:
    - Jigsaw (2017, Directed by Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, Crime/Horror/Mystery)
               - It was good fun but even for a Saw movie this one had a lot of plot holes!

Final total: 47 movies in 31 days. Beat last year's score and almost hit halfway so happy with that. 

100 Horror Films Challenge Update Three

Day 18:
- The Babysitter (2017, Directed by McG, Comedy/Horror)
             - This one was a blast! I've now seen Samara Weaving in this & Mayhem and she really seems funny. Massively OTT on the gore and just hilarious.
- 2 episodes of Lore (Horror, equivalent to 1 movie)
             - I haven't listened to the original podcast but I love the mix of live-action, animation & narration and it really held my attention. Really creepy subject matter though, I couldn't watch too many at once!

Day 19:
- None, oops.

Day 20:
- None!

Day 21:
- Happy Death Day (2017, Directed by Christopher Landon, Horror/Mystery/Thriller)
             - This one definitely lived up to its trailer (which I reviewed on here). It's not anything massively different but it's a lot of fun and the lead actress, Jessica Rothe, was phenomenal.
- Get Out (2017, Directed by Jordan Peele, Horror/Mystery/Thriller)
             - I'll rave about this film endlessly because the actors just kill it & it creeps me out although I've had plenty of arguments lately about whether or not it's a horror movie, I vote yes but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Day 22:
- Happy Death (2017, Directed by Christopher Landon, Horror/Mystery/Thriller)
             - It's definitely cheating to count the same film twice but I'm doing it anyway, definitely still fun the second time round too!
- The Bad Batch (2016, Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, Drama/Horror/Romance)
             - If I'm being honest this one was a bit of an effort to get through. I felt like I needed a bit of setup before a certain thing happened, the characters largely irritated me & why this has 'romance' listed as a genre is beyond me.
- 2 episodes of Lore (equivalent to 1 movie).

Day 23: 
- 1922 (2017, Directed by Zak Hilditch, Crime/Drama/Horror)
             - Netflix are just pulling out all the stops with their Stephen King right now aren't they? The gore in this made my toes curl a bit & the acting was so good.

Day 24:
- None.

Day 25:
-Uh-oh, none again.

Current total: 41 movies in 25 days, still some time left and I've already beaten last year's total by 5.
 

Sins of the Gods Anthology Cover Reveal

I have news readers.
If you like reading me prattle on in these posts then you can read a creepy short story I wrote based around a god which is being released a few days from today on Halloween. I'm really pleased with it and there's some other excellent submissions so I can't wait for it to be out in the world.
Stay tuned for a blog post about an anthology that I've put together too but for now here's the details on Sins of the Gods from the horse's mouth:

'October 31st 2014 we released our first Sins of Time collection titled Sins of the Past. A year later we released our second titled Sins of the Future. This year we’re releasing Sins of the Gods. Sixteen tales of Gods and the mayhem that follows them. Each author takes you on a journey with a different God as you dive into an unknown world of chaos.

When the paths of gods and men cross, then the skeins of fate twist. And none more twisted than the sixteen stories of mayhem, horror and the plain weird in these pages.

Sins of the Gods features:

Heart Eater, Mirren Hogan

Black Dog, Misha Burnett

Coils, Valery Riddle

To See Her, Ana Marija Mesh Ova

Gorgon's Daughter, Stephanie Barr

Dikē, Ian Richardson

Raising Hel, Chasity Nicole

Roleplay, Don Miskel

Minos' Sin, Kerry E.B. Black

Once I Was a God, Fiona Skye

Diana, Louise Sorensen

Midas, Rae Lyn Bardon

Shades of Black, Debbie Manber Kupfer

The Dream, R C Larlham

House at the End of Eternity, Jen Ponce

The Watcher, Angela Nolan

Now that you know about our collection, it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for- the cover.'

I love the cover it's subtly creepy, hope you enjoy it if you pick up a copy. 

100 Horror Films Challenge Update Two

Day 6:
- None, fail!

Day 7:
- 2 episodes of AHS Coven (equivalent to 1 movie)

Day 8:
- 4 episodes of AHS Coven (equivalent to 2 movies)
          - Hahaha why is Stevie Nicks in this?!

Day 9:
- 2 episodes of AHS Freakshow (equivalent to 1 movie)

Day 10:
- 4 episodes of AHS Freakshow (equivalent to 2 movies)
          - I don't think I'll watch any more of this one now to be honest as now Twisty's gone I've lost interest!

Day 11:
- None again!

Day 12 (Mayhem Film Festival Day One):
- Double Date (2017, Directed by Benjamin Barfoot, Comedy/Horror)
- M.F.A (2017, Directed by Natalia Leite, Thriller) WILD CARD ONE

Day 13 (Mayhem Film Festival Day Two):
- Bitch (2017, Directed by Marianna Palka, Comedy/Drama/Family) WILD CARD TWO
- 68 Kill (2017, Directed by Trent Haaga, Comedy/Crime/Romance) WILD CARD THREE
- Habit (2017, Directed by Simeon Halligan, Horror)
- Friday the 13th Part III 3D (1982, Directed by Steve Miner, Horror Thriller)

Day 14 (Mayhem Film Festival Day Three):
- Tag (2015, Directed by Sion Sono, Action/Fantasy/Horror)
- A Day (2017, Directed by Sun-ho Cho, Drama/Mystery/Thriller) WILD CARD FOUR
- Most Beautiful Island (2017, Directed by Ana Asensio, Drama/Thriller) WILD CARD FIVE
- Prey (2016, Directed by Dick Maas, Comedy/Horror/Thriller)
- Suspiria (1977, Directed by Dario Argento, Horror)

Day 15 (Mayhem Film Festival Day Four):
- Rift (2017, Directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen, Drama/Horror/Mystery)
- Mayhem (2017, Directed by Joe Lynch, Action/Horror)
- Dead Shack (2017, Directed by Peter Ricq, Horror)

Day 16:
- None, I was a bit filmed out after an awesome but full-on weekend.

Day 17:
- None, I'm so good at this!

Current total is 33 films in 17 days which I'm really happy with. I'm working on a review of Mayhem, including a couple of other films which I can't count on here because I've run out of wild cards. 

100 Horror Films in October Challenge

It's that time of year again everybody!

You may remember I wrote about this challenge last year but here's a quick recap of the rules:
- 100 films in 31 days.
- The film must have 'horror' as a genre on IMDb.
- Films must be at least 60 minutes to count.
- 5 wild cards can be used for non-genre films.
- I always end up cheating in some way & I just got into American Horror Story again with my Mum so I'm just going to say now that I'm going to count two episodes of any longer horror TV show as a film because it's still horror & it's the same length.

So here's what I've watched so far:

Day 1:
- Gerald's Game (2017, Directed by Mike Flanagan, Horror/Thriller)
              - This one made me feel extremely uncomfortable and I loved the ending. I think Mike Flanagan is a huge talent on the horror scene at the moment & this is one of his best yet. It's on UK Netflix now, you should watch it.

- Two episodes of AHS: Murder House (All AHS is Drama/Horror/Thriller), 6 episodes of AHS: Asylum (equivalent to 4 movies)

Day 2:

- 7 episodes of AHS: Asylum, 1 episode of AHS: Coven (equivalent to 4 movies)
              - I loved Murder House, Asylum was a bit heavy & tried to be too many things so it's bottom of my list of the series I've seen so far.

Day 3:

- Nothing

Day 4: 
- Flatliners (2017, Directed by Neils Arden Oplev, Drama/Horror/Sci-Fi)
             - I only recently watched the original Flatliners & I really enjoyed both. I'll be doing a full review of this one so watch out for that.

Day 5:
- 6 episodes of AHS: Coven (equivalent to 3 movies) 
              - Coven is a re-watch for me but I've forgotten enough to make it worth it, I love the unique powers the witches have. I may not always like AHS but at least I can say it definitely treads its own path!


Current total: 13 movies in 5 days. Thanks to a couple of binge days of AHS I'm actually fairly on track & with Mayhem film festival still to come I'm confident I'll beat last year's score of 36. 

Jitterman Review

Jitterman (2016)

IMDb genre: Short/Horror
Director: Alex Mathieson
Writer: Alex Mathieson
Starring: Tom Gordon, Naomi Petersen, Richard Mark

I was lucky enough to get a screener for this short which has not long had its cast and crew screening. You may remember that some time ago I was able to review 'The Tour' which I enjoyed, and that was written and directed by Alex Mathieson & Damon Rickard so I had high hopes for this one.
The email with my link advised to watch with the lights off and headphones in which to be honest I initially thought was just a way to hype the scares; in the same way that many horror film apparently make audiences sick at festival screenings. I figured I'd try it though so I settled down at around midnight in the dark not really sure what to expect. To paraphrase Stephen King's opinion of the new 'IT' movie, I was not prepared!
There are several jump scares which are particularly effective with the enhancement from Eric Elick's fantastically creepy score. I don't want to give any spoilers but if/when you get to watch it keep an eye on the bookcase, that was my favourite scare and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a second.
The 'babysitter under attack' trope has been well-used but it's one that horror, and me, never seems to tire of because there's a lot to do with it and it works well in this short too. The interaction between Naomi Petersen's babysitter and Alexander Stucker's Charlie, the child under her care, is a little wooden at the beginning if we're being honest. However, once the scares begin they both react very organically and you find yourself rooting for them both which is an impressive feat in a 12-minute long film. 
There's a small spoiler now but I'm too impressed not to say something. As almost a framing device, and to add suspense, the babysitter turns on a black-and-white horror movie with a bit of a 'Night of the Living Dead' vibe which plays in snippets throughout much of the short. First of all I thought that they'd somehow found a movie which mentioned 'jitters' so it would fit in but as it turns out this was also created for the film. This is indicative of something that shines through the whole short; Alex Mathieson obviously adores his craft. This extends into the cinematography as there's some unusual shots and we're kept close to the action to draw us in.
The actual design of the antagonist is perfect and definitely ups the scare factor and I very much enjoyed the way things came together at the end. Pretty much the only downside for me once things got going was that, while I know it was done for atmosphere, some of the shots were a bit too dark and it made it hard to follow the action.
So basically if you see Jitterman anywhere make sure you check it out, it's original and surprisingly scary. I think it would be excellent on the big screen. Make sure you stay for the credits too because the song is so good!

General Opinion:
 


Scare Factor:

 

Quite jumpy and really draws you in. 

Gore:



There isn't really any but it doesn't need it.

Clowns:



There's the odd fake-out scare but this definitely isn't a horror comedy.



There's no screening information for Jitterman that I'm aware of yet but watch this space!

RIP Tobe Hooper

I know I'm not alone in my sadness this morning but it felt necessary to me to write this post to add to all the outpourings of praise.
I have fond memories of my first Mayhem Film Festival meeting people I knew from online horror groups and watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the big screen on Halloween. That's a memory that will stick with me forever and I have Tobe to thank for it. By all accounts the shoot for Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a horror film in itself but if they hadn't pushed through and made it I bet there would be a huge hole in horror since then as many have been inspired by it; Leatherface has earned his place in the slasher villain hall of fame and Tobe Hooper along with him.
It seems sad that he has passed away during FrightFest, such a large celebration of horror, but I bet the tributes he gets there will be astounding.
If anyone needs me for the next couple of days I'll be watching all the Tobe Hooper films I can get my hands on, including Lifeforce which I hadn't heard of until today.
RIP Tobe Hooper, thank you for pushing the slasher genre forward and for all the terror.