Halloween Moviefest 2019

Here at the Allman Halloween Group we are well past our 31 movie goal as we enter the home stretch for the 2019 moviefest. As is tradition, we kicked this year’s season off with the original 1978 Halloween. It has been a very busy year so as we get ready for the finale, let’s start by recapping the moviesfest films that were released in 2019.

Three films from this year made the cut early in the season: The Wind, The Hole in the Ground, and the remake of Pet Sematary all screened during week one. I admit that I saw Pet Sematary as soon as it was released to home streaming. I had not heard much good about the remake so I was anxious to see how accurate the critics were. I think a lot of us are biased against remakes especially when the original was done so well. The bias comes by its reputation quite honestly - remakes and sequels tend to suck.

But that wasn’t the case with the 2019 version of Pet Sematary. John Lithgow reprises Fred Gwynne’s role as the good neighbor, Jed. And while I personally thought “Third Rock from the Sun” was a rare misstep, I am a big fan of John Lithgow so I really wanted to like the movie. And I did. There were some differences from the original 1989 film as well as Stephen King’s novel that might piss off a few purists. Like Gage being spared from the speeding truck that takes out his sister instead. Gage’s return from the dead was fairly short lived in the film, but the producers of the remake spent more time on Ellie’s return - and I thought this really upped the creep factor. I also thought the improvements in FX made both Pascow and Zelda more scary. So while I did miss Gwynne’s drawl in a few of the classic lines (“sometimes, dead is better”), I liked what Lithgow brought to the table. He isn't the welcome wagon of the neighborhood - he’s kind of a dick early on and he and Rachel don’t really hit it off. I found that more real. And I always wondered why Jed insisted Louis bury Church in the forbidden burial grounds. Lithgow’s character develops a better story here. The ending is also different and in my humble opinion (sorry, Mr. King), much better than originally written. If that doesn’t get you watching, I have no words.

The Wind is one of those slow-burn psychological horror films that typically ends with me going, “What?!?” Not this time. This film leaves it up to you to decide whether the character is being haunted or simply driven mad by isolation - or both. Unlike other similar films (I’m looking at you, It Comes at Night), The Wind holds your attention with a decent plot, plenty of real scares - and a few jump ones just because they are fun. After you decide what really happened, google a few “explained” sites and see if those bloggers got it right.

The Hole in the Ground reminded me a lot of The Babadook but without all of the noise. A single mom moves to a new place with her son where she is so consumed by her own personal issues that her boy is left to his own survival. Not unlike The Wind, you get to decide for yourself what is real and what is madness. This movie didn’t do it as well and spoiler alert: you never figure out what’s up with the hole. That bumped the score down for me. Way down and if somebody gave it a very good review, let me know what I missed.

There were four additional films from 2019 that made the moviefest later in the season. In the Tall Grass is a Netflix original based on a Stephen King novella and stars Patrick Wilson. With such great raw material I was expecting more. It took me several tries and a lot of endurance just to finish the film. The story is non-linear and confusing by design, reminding me a little of Castle Rock. But I couldn’t get happy with why it was so dark. Not theme dark, but screen dark. Like squinting your eyes trying to see what’s going on because they apparently forgot to hire a lighting expert. I don’t understand why filmmakers do this. I get that people are inherently afraid of the dark but it is impossible to conjure up a good scare when you can’t see anything but a shiny black screen and some leftover fingerprints. The story is one of redemption as the characters are forced to relive their experience in the grass until they make a selfless choice. More good material, but a movie just shouldn’t be that hard to see or follow. I couldn’t even find anything interesting on line so watch this at your own risk and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I saw Jordan Peele’s second horror film, Us, while held captive on an airplane. I had been pretty vocal about what I thought was a highly inflated rating of his 2017 film Get Out, so I expected an equally overrated result from his sophomore effort. Early reviews from fellow horror fans didn’t boost my expectations either. But I think Us holds up. I was pleased with the story and the execution. It has really good creep factor along with an unexpected twist at the end. My only real criticism is the lengthy explanation and contrived voice pattern by Red as she tells the story of the Tethered. The film relies on this long narration which feels lazy to me - why develop the plot through screenplay and acting? There is a less obvious social statement in this film, but it is the sound and cadence of Red’s grunting vocals ( we want to take our t - ime . . . ) that make the whole thing less effective than its potential. I also didn’t care for the angry rap music. That aside, it is a decent movie, better than I expected, and worth your time if you can tolerate the explicit lyrics.

The last two movies from 2019 are courtesy of The Conjuring Universe and occur chronologically between The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2. Annabelle Comes Home is the third Annabelle installment so I expected that all of the fun and horror would have been wrung out of the doll by this time. That wasn’t the case and it may be my favorite of the Annabelle series. It helps that the doll’s evil persona has been development over the course of several films in the universe. This movie also starts with a clip featuring the Warrens’ investigation of the Lutz family’s claimed haunting, the a told in the 1976 movie Amityville Horror sans the Warrens’ involvement.

A simple urban legend is foundation for The Curse of La Llorona so don’t look for a lot of depth here. I think this is my least favorite of the Conjuring films. The performances are over the top and the alternative spiritualist’s methods feel contrived in order to bring more mystery and evil than is real. The acting is kind of, sort of, really awful. On the up side, you can look away from this movie without much risk of missing something and because the extensive Spanish isn’t subtitled, you miss a fair amount of dialogue anyway if you don’t speak the language. This movie can run happily in the background to set a mood when you need to get some errands done and need to step away from the TV.

And finally, season 2 of Into the Dark opens with Uncanny Annie. A group of friends gather on Halloween night and play a board game with high stakes. It reminded me of a cross between Beyond the Gates, Truth or Dare, and Unfriended. I think it is the scariest installment of Into the Dark so far. Thank you Hulu.

Now for films that are not so new, but new to the Halloween moviefest. I’m not sure how I missed John Dies at the End all these years but I caught it for free on Vudu. Good thing, too, because it would have pissed me off to pay for that turd of a film. To be fair, the films starts out pretty good with some decent eye candy and a strong performance by Paul Giamatti. But then it just sort of goes . . . nowhere. So they double down on the eye candy with a couple of weird scenes featuring naked women in masks - I don’t even know what that was about. But the movie ended and that was a relief. If you saw something redeeming in the movie that I missed, please enlighten me. I beg you.

Sadly, if John Dies at the End is a video turd, then Beyond the Door is whatever happens when a video turd goes bad. This may be the worst horror film I have ever seen - and I sat through The Black Room. Everybody has that one scary movie they saw at a young age that stays with them. Some of us revisit the movies as adults and thank the evolution of music, sound, and cinematography while deciding whether the old films hold up. For me, that defining movie is Tales from the Crypt. For my husband, it was Beyond the Door. Funny how a fake beating heart or a single levitating woman can set the tone for years to come. I mercifully slept through maybe 15 minutes of Beyond the Door . I am taking full credit for the movie because I watched the remaining 90 minutes of what I can only describe as a really bad mashup of The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. You have been warned.

I accidentally ran into Dark Skies as a free option on streaming media a few years back and enjoyed it enough to give it a respectable three skulls for its moviefest debut. The film crosses into the alien realm so you decide whether that meets your horror movie criteria. It worked for me.

I searched out Shadow of the Vampire after reviewing one of those “best of” lists and just like John Dies at the End, I wondered how I had missed it all these years. Unlike John Dies at the End, Shadow of the Vampire is really good. John Malkovich stars in this movie about the making of Nosferatu - arguably the best horror movie of all time. I disagree with that assessment but that isn’t the point. This dramatized documentary is, in my opinion, so much better than the movie it examines that it deserves a spot on your list. Willem Dafoe plays Mr. Schrek whom legend claimed to be a real vampire.. Many of the strange attributes of the actor’s demands are said to be real.

Identity is new to the moviefest for no other reason than I simply forgot what a good film this is. When describing the John Cusack film that takes place in a motel, I immediately jump to 1408 because . . . well . . . it’s a John Cusack film that takes place in a hotel. Thank you, Mat, for asking whether this qualifies as a horror film because I had forgotten about it. And yes, it most certainly does qualify and will probably be a moviefest regular going forward.

The Haunting in Connecticut is one of the Ed & Lorraine Warren investigations that omitted their involvement when making the movie. There was a lesser known documentary featuring the Warrens that was the topic of a post earlier this year so I won’t go into details here. I will only to suggest you add this to your own moviefest lineup because it is very well done thanks to strong performances by Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, and Elias Koteas.

Beyond the Gates is a fun take on a 1980s fascination with VHS board games. Similar to Uncanny Annie, the stakes are high and once play is started the game must be completed. The actors in the film are obscure and I struggled to find something familiar that any of them was known for except that you will (sadly) remember Chase Williamson who starred in John Dies at the End. Don’t use that as an excuse to skip this movie. It’s a solid 4-skull in my book.

The Witching Season is a 5-part anthology exclusive to Amazon Prime. It has a distinctively Halloween feel that weaves the seemingly disparate episodes together, but you’ll have to pay attention. I’m not 100% sure whether this series has been on the moviefest lineup before, but it’s kind of obscure, easy to miss, and well worth the 80-minute total run time.

Unfriended is a film that uses social media as a setting for a horror tale. Following the suicide of their classmate, a group of friends become victims of an unknown stalker that appears as a blank icon during video chats and sends social media messages in the name of the recently deceased. It is a good concept but a little difficult to watch as it recreates the crappy video and sound quality that defined apps like Skype at the time. The movie is a bit noisy with a lot of yelling and screaming as the friends find learn about secrets they kept from each other and what ties them to the tragic suicide.

The remaining films are moviefest regulars and include everything released to date from The Conjuring universe plus scary favorites like Oculus, Insidious , Oujia and its prequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Craft, The Cabin in the Woods, The Shining . . . Is it me, or do a lot of these horror favorites start with, “The?”

Sinister, Pumpkinhead, Creepshow, 1408 and Trick ‘r Treat bring us to the home stretch. Is it ever Halloween without Trick ‘r Treat? I am such a fan that we have a full-size Sam animatronic at the haunt this year.

Despite my busy schedule and very, very tardy update, the season is obviously progressing well and we’re having more fun than ever watching horror films. Not that we ever need an excuse to watch horror films.