HorrorGhouls – Page 38 – Horror Ghouls

The House That Jack Built (2018)

Posted on January 27, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Jack is probably many things, but he’s first and foremost a psychopathic serial killer. And this is his story, Jack: Portrait of a Serial Killer if you will, which spawns throughout twelve years, told in a series/segments of “incidents” with the lens of our favorite Danish drunk uncle, Lars Von Trier.

The 1st incident starts almost straight to the point. We’re on some road in the woods where a lady, simply called Lady 1, (Uma Thurman) is stranded with her broken car and broken jack, and makes sure that the first driver stops to help her. And it’s her lucky day because here’s Jack himself, yes with a capital J, (Matt Dillon) with his red van which he uses to transport his fresh victims with. This lady seems to have have some kind of death wish, or Autassassinophilia (the fetish of the risk of being killed) as there’s not many other ways to rationalize her sardonic behaviour as she taunts Jack by saying he could be a serial killer as he drives her to the nearest blacksmith. We all know what the scene leads up to as she continues to push his buttons and hits the jackpot with the final straw by calling him “too much of a wimp to kill anyone.” He slams the breaks and bashes her skull in with her broken jack. How … symbolic, if not the best ironic punchline ever, where we can already see the cynical pitch-black humor that starts to reek. He hides her car and takes her body to a freezer storage that he bought from a pizza shop, a place we’ll visit frequently as the stock of bodies starts to fill the place. And why does he collect the bodies? Oh, you’ll see…

The 2nd incident shows us the more calculated and manipulative tactics of Jack by making an elderly woman, or Lady 2, to believe he’s a policeman despite he cant show her a batch. This lady seems to have the bullshit alarms somewhere, but as the sneaky manipulator he is, she finally lets him inside the house where Jack strangles her. While it seemed to go pretty smooth and easy, the lady suddenly wakes up, gasps after air and Jack has to finish her off by stabbing her. Oh shit. Oh shit, indeed, because we also learn that poor Jack has Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, the worst handicap a serial killer can possess. And now with blood stained around the floor and walls, he spends the rest of the day cleaning up, going back and forth inside the house and his van as a yo-yo, even when hearing police sirens approaching. The only thing he always seems to forget is using gloves. If this is intentionally or a slip-up in the script is not easy to tell.

So, what about his romantic life? Any bird in his cage? We see a segment of Jack’s attempt to be in a relationship with a young girlfriend (played by Riley Keough), a scene I won’t spoil further other than it’s bizarre and as romantic as a moisty shithouse infested with flies, and just like we would imagine to be in a hollow and destructive relationship with a psychopath. Jack practices to smile in front of the mirror to do a shallow impression, like a politician preparing for a speech, but the only thing he can pull off is a smirk. Yeah, that narcissistic, arrogant smirk. Brrr, gross! We also see other sides of Jack, of course, as a struggling artist with an interest in photography. He drags his dead victims out of the freezer to take group photos of them, just some normal hobby activities for Jack. He has more plans with the corpses, by the way, just wait and see. He’s also an architect who, as the title itself says, wants to build a house which never seems to live up to his compulsive perfections.

And I haven’t even mentioned Verge yet. Who? His imaginative listener and debater which he confesses all his actions and highlights of his life as a serial killer to. Verge has the voice of a fragile old man (performed by Bruno Ganz) and further we go into the bleak, meaningless and hellish world of Jack, he seems more and more repulsed, shocked, and drained, just like the us, the audience. But if even he can sit through two and a half hour of Jack’s depraved insanity, then so can you. It does, however, reach the top in the 3rd incident which I won’t spoil, other than this is the sequence that sparked the controversy at the Cannes Film Festival where the audiences stormed out in shock, anger, disgust and all that which is always an effective selling strategy for the next film by Lars Von Trier.

And having in mind that this is a Lars Von Trier film, where his name alone is a huge trigger-point for many for whatever reason, I had no clue what to expect when preparing myself for this in the movie theater back in 2018. As a character study of the mind of a serial killer, I would almost call this a masterpiece and undoubtedly one of the very best in the sub-genre of this type. It’s a raw and unfiltered portrait of a serial killer where we see how Jack evolves in his craft of killing, his deranged view on life, art and…grapes. Yeah, there’s a fifteen-minutes or so screentime dedicated to a discussion between Jack and Verge about grapes and vine. Start to sounds a little pretentious, you say? Well, serial killers and psychopaths are pretentious. Super duper uber-pretentious they are, just look up interviews/clips of John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, Ted Bundy and numerous politicial figures that’s dominated the limelight for the past two years.

Matt Dillon, who took his main inspiration from Ted Bundy is phenomenal in his role and makes Jack into his own unique beast of a character. I can’t deny that Dillon looks more like a slightly younger version of Bruce Campbell here, but that’s probably just me. However, he truly embraces it to make sure to give us a wild, entertaining ride into a crazyman’s odyssey into pure, demented darkness which you can only guess where it ever will end. And of course the film has some of the well-known trademarks of Von Trier with his artistic ways, freedom with its use of symbolism, metaphors and all that shit that pretty much makes his films so devise, polarizing and generally makes people go nuts. He puts a lot of his identity into his films, and to a certain extent it pisses people off, but that’s art, I guess. Trier himself views The House That Jack Built as an nihilistic celebrating of “the idea that life is evil and soulless“. Sure, can’t disagree on that. But, still on the surface there’s enough of a straight-forward story to enjoy here for us serial killer-buffs, and with the right sick and dark sense of humor the lengthy runtime will fly by.

Writer and director: Lars Von Trier
Country & year: Denmark, 2018
Actors: Matt Dillon, Bruno Ganz, Uma Thurman, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Sofie Gråbøl, Riley Keough, Jeremy Davies, Jack McKenzie, Mathias Hjelm, Ed Speleers, Emil Tholstrup, Marijana Jankovic, Carina Skenhede, Rocco Day, Cohen Day
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt4003440/

FROM WHERE IT HIDES – Horror Short

Posted on January 22, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

In his last weeks of life, a man embarks into the deep forest to confront death face-to-face. What he finds in the depths of an abandoned mine shaft may be more than he was looking for.

From Where It Hides is a creepy horror short with some pretty nice scenic locations and a good load of atmosphere.

Director: Quinn Halleck
Writer: Quinn Halleck
Country & year: USA, 2022
Actors: Gildart Jackson, Geoffrey Dean Mallard, Bonnie Morgan
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt18925656/

Psycho Goreman (2020)

Posted on January 20, 2023September 9, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

It’s the early 90’s (I assume) in a small middleclass suburbia where the siblings Mimi (Nita-Josée Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) are out in the backyard playing Crazy Ball. Yes, would you even imagine that there was a time when kids could have fun without a smartphone? My oh my. Luke is the the quiet and reserved one while Mimi is a fearless sociopath with some strong Tiny Tina demeanours (that crazy girl from Borderlands). She’s mean, sassy, demanding, animated and loves to pick on her brother. Later that evening they decide to dig a big hole in the yard, because that is what kids did back in the day when they couldn’t sleep. After a few feet down they find some pink/purple-glowing mystical artifact that’s clearly not from this planet. Another thing from space is an alien, played by Matthew Ninaber, covered in a full latex costume from toe to top. He’s from the planet Gigax and has telekinesis powers, the ability to throw big fireballs from his hands, and looks like a mishmash of all B-movie monsters from the 80s and maybe early 90s. For my part he reminded me more of Wishmaster.

Mimi and Luke encounter the alien in some abandoned shoe factory where they also stumble upon his first victims, a group of hobos with their bodyparts placed on the wall like a morbid David Fincher crime scene (the most graphic moments where the grittyness is concerned). They don’t seem that scared, though, but more thrilled. We get a whole flashback scene that tells us his origin story and how he came to Earth, but the most important thing to know is that he’s here to kill all mankind. Why? Because why not. The one and only thing that could hold him back is the glowing artifact (also called The Gem of Praxidike) we saw earlier, which Mimi luckily have in her pocket. When the alien gets the sight of it, he freezes. Because you see, those who holds the artifact can command the alien to do what they want, like John Connor did with Arnie in Terminator 2, so to speak. As the kids they are they see him as a big new toy and gives him the catchy name “Psycho Goreman”, PG for short just to play ironically with the title in case the film would end up with a PG-rating, which instead got unrated. Oh, well.

So, where does the plot go from here? A lot of shit happens, but not in the way you’d probably imagine it. Since Mimi outshines the entire cast with her energetic and manic presence and seems to be as psycho as Goreman himself, it would be easy to picture these two as a deadly duo going on an epic genocide crusade-mayhem while being chased by tanks, choppers and the military. Hopefully in a sequel. Mimi and Luke doesn’t know much about what to do with him other than first disguise him in some clothes, like in Frankenstein: The College years (for the few that have seen that film) and hope he gets accepted by their mum and dad. They forgot to cover his face though, but no one would notice such minor details, lol emoji. I couldn’t care much for the scenes with the parents. They’re just there with their own marriage issues to make us know that the kids aren’t orphans. Their goofy deadbeat dad (played by Adam Brooks) has some comedic nuggets here and there, and yeah, he alone got some chuckles out of me. His best scene is where he gets a mental breakdown while taking a dump. Meanwhile when Luke and Mimi gets along with PG as they start a garage band together with PG on drums, play videogames and what kids would do with a huge toy as PG, the council from his homeplanet sends the galactic warrior Pandora, an angelic creature with small wings as eyes, to save us Earthlings from PG’s destruction.

Psycho Goreman is written and directed by Steven Kostanski, a young man from Canada who seems to dedicate his film career with his production company Astron-6, by producing a pastiche of low-budget, 80’s-centric films with titles such as Manborg, The Void, Father’s Day, Leprechaun Returns to name some. With his latest feature he takes inspiration from the early 90s with films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, Star Wars, the epic intros from the Saturday-morning cartoons from the 80s, martial arts, some spices of Troma and everything from the obscure corners from the 80s, puts it all in a grinder and out comes Psycho Goreman. So, how does it taste? Hmm..

There’s not as much blood and gore as the title would make you believe, though. If there was some malfunction with the grinder, I don’t know, but the result is more sweet, more innocent and light-hearted than you’d expect. The film relies more on slapstick, goofy fight scenes, and overall a showcase of impressive, if not charming, make-up effects/costume designs and a handful of references. There’s something for everyone to like here, I personally have a weak spot for Death Trapper, a walking meatgrinder filled with body parts. And then we have a giant, wobbling brain with some terrified eyes. The miniatures seen in PG’s flashback scene were nothing but gorgeous which also gave some Mad God vibes. The musical trio Blitz/Berlin adds a fitting retro soundtrack to enhance that fuzzy feel of nostalgia. And then there’s probably a drinking game of references. The most notable are the scenes with the council on PG’s homeplanet which clearly mocks the political nonsense we had to sit through in A Phantom Menace that still seems to haunt us. We also have a reference to Steven Kostanski’s favourite film Phantasm with an extended dream sequence. So, yeah, there’s a lot to chew on here and get inspired by, and with its colorful cartoonish and over-the-top silly, naive tone, Psycho Goreman suits perfectly for the the whole family to enjoy with pizza, coke and root beer on a Friday night.

Psycho Goreman is available on DVD/Blu-ray and can be watched on various streaming sites.

Writer and director: Steven Kostanski
Country & year: Canada, 2020
Actors: Nita-Josée Hanna, Owen Myre, Matthew Ninaber, Steven Vlahos, Adam Brooks, Alexis Kara Hancey, Kristen MacCulloch, Anna Tierney, Roxine Latoya Plummer, Alex Chung, Scout Flint
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt11252440/

DON’T FEED THE CAT – Horror Short

Posted on January 15, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Chloe finds a cat trapped in her sick grandfather’s basement.

Don’t Feed the Cat is a simple yet effective horror short, building up tension from the get-go. And who wouldn’t feel sorry for a poor cat trapped in a basement..

Director: J. Zachary Thurman
Writer: J. Zachary Thurman
Country & year: USA, 2023
Actors: Ryan Lucy, Tara Brown, Bries Vennon

Creature (1998)

Posted on January 13, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

On a remote Caribbean island, there’s a government facility where the head scientist, Dr. Bishop, works on a project which includes a shark and human hybrid with the ability to adapt to any environment. Richland was sent to visit the facility, and is lead inside by Peniston. While Richland is being shown some of the dolphin/shark hybrids, the human shark hybrid breaks free from its tank and kills Dr. Bishop. Richland orders Peniston to kill it, but for some reason he instead traps the creature in a containment unit and dumps it in the sea.

Then we head forwards in time, to 25 years later, when a marine biologist (Dr. Chase) is working on the same island. The locals are not so fond of him, with his obvious care for sharks and his willingness to protect them, and he doesn’t exactly earn any extra stars of approval when he botches Ben Medeira’s fishing trip by cutting loose a pregnant great white shark that one of his customers had on the hook. Meanwhile, things are stirring up as another local, the cocky fisherman Puckett, retrieves a containment unit, and yep, it’s that one containment unit, which has been in the sea for 25 years. By doing so he accidentally and unwittingly releases the creature (which was alive for 25 years inside that containment unit…) and it’s hungry, of course. Medeira, while trying to lure back the pregnant white shark by throwing bloody fish pieces into the water so he can get it back on his customer’s hook, ends up as the creature’s first victim. The locals believe it’s the great white that killed him, the one that Dr. Chase set free, and despite his objections after inspecting Medeira’s body no one will listen to him. In perfectly good timing, Dr. Chase’s ex-wife, their son and the ex wife’s sea lion Robin comes to the island for a visit. While trying to solve the mystery behind Medeira’s death, which Dr. Chase is convinced could not have been done by a shark, the crazy Peniston (who is called “Werewolf” by the locals since he keeps howling at people for no apparent reason) sees the empty containment unit and realizes that the creature has been set loose.

Creature is a miniseries directed by Stuart Gillard, and it’s based on Peter Benchley’s novel White Shark. As you probably know, there’s another shark movie based on one of Peter Benchley’s novels, the famous Jaws which is a classic and probably one of the very, very few shark horror movies that can be deemed to be good. Not saying there aren’t many entertaining shark movies, there’s plenty of so-bad-it’s-good and pure comedies out there, but very few shark movies with a serious tone have been even close to successful on the same level. So, if you expect Creature to be in the same vein as Jaws, you’d be sorely disappointed. It’s slightly cheesy, typical B-class creature feature, but not without entertainment value. For example, the creature itself is pretty well made. No surprise there, seeing as Stan Winston and his studio is behind the special effects. We do not see all that much of it, though, but the few scenes where it’s properly included looks pretty neat. And I do say properly, because some scenes with the creature are filmed/edited in such an inexplicably distorted, unclear and strange way. This would have made sense if the effects were crap (considering it’s a well-known “trick” in some movies with very low-quality special effects to make those scenes as quick and confusing as possible) but here it makes no sense at all. Oh well. The acting overall is decent enough, we have Craig T. Nelson (the father in Poltergeist) as Dr. Chase, and it was fun to see Giancarlo Esposito in the role as Peniston/the crazed “werewolf”. Esposito is now mostly known for his role as Gus in the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul TV series, and even had a role as the dictator villain in the video game Far Cry 6. Here, however, he mainly plays something completely different from the stiff-faced villainous type he’s mostly known for.

The movie was filmed partly on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. (As is mostly the case when a movie or series is based on a book, there’s differences, and in this case the material from the book has apparently pretty much gone through a complete reworking. For example, in this miniseries the US Navy creates the creature during the Vietnam war, while in the book the nazi’s created it during WW2, and the story is set to happen on Long Island instead). Aside from the tropical surroundings, we do get some enjoyable sets, including an abandoned laboratory partly underwater, tunnels, and a foggy swamp. Yeah, sure, it’s not great, the book is probably better (I haven’t read it, just a hunch), and it’s sometimes unintentionally cheesy, but at least it’s entertaining. So grab the popcorn, put your brain on standby, as this B-creature feature will by no means scare you or astonish you, but with its mish-mash of a human hybrid monster, government cover-ups, family struggles, occasional nonsense spritzed with a Caribbean flavour, it’s a typical B-movie that’s entertaining on a popcorn level if you can take it for what it is.

Director: Stuart Gillard
Writers: Rockne S. O’Bannon
Country & year: USA, Canada, 1998
Actors: Craig T. Nelson, Kim Cattrall, Colm Feore, Cress Williams, Michael Reilly Burke, Michael Michele, Matthew Carey, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Blu Mankuma, John Aylward, Giancarlo Esposito
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0156205/

ANTIKK – Short Horror Film

Posted on January 8, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Anjelica loves everything old-fashioned and vintage, but when she buys an antique bathtub from a dead person’s estate, she learns that some old things have more soul than others.

Antikk is a creepy and atmospheric Norwegian horror short, about a woman who finds that her newly acquired antique bathtub contains more than just the water she filled it with..

Director: Morten Haslerud
Writer: Morten Haslerud
Country & year: Norway, 2020
Actors: Christiane Schaldemose, Daniel Bianchini, Sverre Horge
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12230726/

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012)

Posted on January 6, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Leon is a young man who deals with antiques, and inherits his estranged mother’s house and belongings after her suicide. He arrives at the house, and takes a look at the inventory, all the while we get a narration delivered by the deceased. Rosalind Leigh, the mother, gives a monologue about her life where she describes the overwhelming loneliness she felt after her son rejected her due to their difference in faith and his negative religious experiences throughout his childhood. She describes how she, during the remainder of her life, feared he would never regain his faith or return to her, but she kept waiting. While wandering through his mother’s old house and her belongings, he discovers that it was actually she who was his anonymous benefactor who bought all the items of antiquity he sold. The more he looks through his mother’s belongings, the more he feels that he is surrounded by sinister figures and starts having hallucinations that rocks his skeptic foundation to the core.

The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is a horror movie directed by Rodrigo Gudiño, and is one of those typical horror films that is bound to have very split opinions: you’ll either think of it as a sluggish, boring snoozefest, or you’ll be intrigued by the atmosphere, underlying messages and metaphors. And while I have to agree that the film didn’t really tap into all the potential it could have had, I still enjoyed its ominous feeling of unease which was blended so well with the main character’s surroundings. In fact, Rodrigo drove around Toronto looking at houses, until he found one that was owned by a mother and daughter who were eccentric Collectors. And it sure was a perfect fit. It’s filled with knick-knacks, huge statues, old dolls and whatnot. The imagery, cinematography and lightning are all spot-on, and the voice-over by the deceased woman is an excellent touch, with her moody and husky voice.

There are a few flashback scenes presented, where the mother starts seeing a demonic cat-like entity concurrently with her failure to deal with her loneliness. Rosalind appears to have sought some kind of comfort from joining a religious cult, some kind of “angel cult”, taking her religious beliefs and eccentricities to another level. I personally wish this could have been explored a bit further, but we never really got to know too much about this cult she was an apparent member of. We do get more than a few glimpses into Rosalind’s gradually destroyed psyche, however, which is not directly in correlation with the cult, but rather how her faith overpowers her despite being the sole reason for the destruction of the relationship with her son. Leon, on the other hand, is clearly struggling as well. While wandering the house and pretty much attacked with ptsd-triggers all around, he keeps calling his girlfriend psychologist. There’s suffering and sadness all around, coming from both perspectives.

Overall, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is an atmospheric, gothic ghost story and sombre tale about loneliness and the monster it can turn into, and how faith can not only bring people together, but also bring them completely apart. It’s definitely intended for a mature audience, very low-key, vague and a bit up for interpretation, and we all know that this kind of recipe doesn’t always taste well for everyone. However, it can hit the right strings if you can appreciate this sort of film, and you might find it intriguing and delightful. A pure slow burner indeed, but the atmosphere is plentiful with the creepy house and all the collectables inside.

Writer and director: Rodrigo Gudiño
Country & year: Canada, 2012
Actors: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Charlotte Sullivan, Mitch Markowitz, Sarah Illiatovitch-Goldman, Rodrigo Gudiño, Bob Dorsey, Rogelio Gudiño,
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt2332831/

THE MILKMAN – Horror Short Film

Posted on January 1, 2023June 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Upon acquiring a vintage toy, the “Peep-Scope”, a man unleashes a ghostly entity from a comic book into his own home.

The Milkman is a really fun horror short that presents part of the story through a cool retro “comic book” viewed in a special device, the “Peep-Scope”.

Director: Vincent Dormani
Writer: Vincent Dormani
Country & year: USA, 2022
Actors: Ben Goldman, Larry Thompson Jr.
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt24515514/

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

Posted on December 30, 2022August 1, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Erin Bruner is a lawyer filled with ambition, who takes on the case of a Catholic diocesan priest who is charged with negligent homicide following an attempted exorcism on a 19-year old girl, Emily Rose. The archdiocese wants the priest, Father Richard Moore, to just plead guilty so they can scuffle this under the carpet and do as much damage control as possible, but Moore won’t have it, and pleads not guilty. He is determined to tell Emily’s story. Bruner then starts experiencing strange things on her own, like waking up at 3 a.m. to the smell of something burning. Moore warns her that she might have become a target for demons, and through bits and pieces we get to know Emily’s story.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose was written and directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written by Paul Harris Boardman. Derrickson actually chose to use Boardman as his co-writer because, with himself being a believer and Boardman a skeptic, he thought this would balance the screenplay with enough realism from both perspectives. And I dare say this was probably a very good decision, as the movie does a solid job on walking the line between religion and science, constantly making you wonder if she really was possessed or just terribly mentally disturbed.

The movie is told with some back-and-forth between the trial and the lawyer-related stuff, and flashbacks from Emily’s life. What makes this movie different from the plethora of other demonic possession movies, is its blend between courtroom drama and the supernatural, carefully balancing between the two and offering enough for both believers and skeptics to hold on to. The movie is inspired by the true story of Anneliese Michel from Germany. There’s actually another film based on this story, called Requiem, which is more based on the, well…actual true events. The young German woman was born in 1952, and died in 1976 after she underwent 67 (!) exorcisms. She died of malnutrition, and her parents and the priest were convicted of negligent homicide. Just like the Conjuring movies, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is best viewed as pure fiction with a few slices of truth, otherwise it would just become completely convoluted with thoughts of what is obviously invented for the purpose of scares in the movie, and what’s inspired from the true events. The true story was indeed a religion vs science trial regarding the aftermath, but the backstory of Emily Rose (Anneliese Michel) is very loosely based on what really happened. I guess in that sense, it’s wise to not even have the character named after her to make the distinction even more obvious.

Jennifer Carpenter, who is playing the role of Emily Rose, does nothing but a stellar performance as the struggling/sick/possessed young girl, and does so with some pretty chilling possession scenes that are bereft of any pea soup vomiting or head twisting. In order to prepare for her role, Jennifer actually spent hours in a room full of mirrors while trying out different body positions and facial expressions to see what was scariest. Many of the scenes where Emily is experiencing the effects of her “possession”, it is still very much left in the open whether it’s really demons causing it, or a result of her mentally disturbed mind. Feel free to take your pick on which is the scariest alternative.

There’s a ton of chilling atmosphere and a lot of subtle creative details that add to the creepy vibe. The actors did a stellar job by providing convincing performances, and the courtroom drama manages to add both suspense and ties in with the rest in a way that makes it feel wholesome. With the movie being a bit old, some of the CGI (which there isn’t much of anyway) is perhaps a little outdated, but not at all bad and it’s being sparsely which doesn’t affect anything negatively. The Exorcism of Emily Rose stands out as a solid and chilling possession horror movie which has aged quite well, and provided a well founded start on Derrickson’s horror movie career (with him later giving us movies like Sinister, Deliver Us From Evil, and The Black Phone). And no matter whether you consider the story as one of demonic possession or mental illness, the result is equally creepy and frightening.

Director: Scott Derrickson
Writers: Paul Harris Boardman, Scott Derrickson
Country & year: USA, 2005
Actors: Jennifer Carpenter, Laura Linney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Colm Feore, Joshua Close, Kenneth Welsh, Duncan Fraser, JR Bourne, Mary Beth Hurt, Henry Czerny, Shohreh Aghdashloo
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0404032/

Tom Ghoul Reacts to Some Trailers and Point Out The Titles HorrorGhouls looks forward To in 2023

Posted on December 28, 2022December 29, 2022 by HorrorGhouls

Even though we’ve mainly been focusing on older horror movies, we check out newer stuff whenever we have the occasion or access to keep us somewhat updated on the modern, living world and an excuse to drag ourselves out from the crypt to smell some fresh air.

And 2023 seems to be an awesome year of horror with a murderous Winne the Pooh, a dancing doll, three Dracula-related films, and a bunch of kids kicking some alien ass. Here’s some of the titles to look forward to:

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey

Blood or honey with your bread? Why not both?

Here’s one of the rare occasions where just the title alone is enough to hit the interest meter up to eleven. But to be honest, I was also one of many who thought this was a fake trailer because Winnie the Pooh as a slasher villain sounds just too far out to be true. But no, it’s an actual film and Winnie the Pooh has some serious business to take care of after he got set free in the public domain where he can finally release his decades of boiled-up anger. And we’re already rooting for him, even before reading a synopsis.

Here we meet a young adult Christopher Robin who takes his girlfriend to 100 acre woods to say hello to his old childhood friends: Piglet, Eeyore and of course Winnie. But something is clearly wrong as they enter the woods and we soon learn that Old Winnie has been suffering some serious abandonment issues after Christopher left him, which made him become a serial killer.

Don’t know what to really expect other than the trailer showing clearly the three acts for the film: the first looks like a dark fantasy, the second as a mediocre teen slasher, the third as a gritty Grindhouse as if it was directed by Rob Zombie. I’m intrigued, at least.

Project Wolf Hunting

Train to Busan, and Peninsula, comes quick to mind here for some reason. But Project Wolf Hunting appears to be something quite else that seems to deal with a bunch of max prisoners being used as guinea pigs for some body-horror experiments. As they get put in cages in a cargo ship to get transported from the The Philippines to South Kora, something goes horribly wrong when they escape and causes a roller-coaster of a riot.

Looks like Con Air meets Under Siege and says hello to The Predator in Splatterhouse? Well, sign me up ’cause this seems like a wild all-inclusive boat ride with a lot of gory action and top-notch filmmaking in general. The original title is Neugdaesanyang.

Thorns

It’s quite impressing that this little indie film trailer already looks ten times much better than most of the Hellraiser sequels.

And speaking of; Thorns seems to take a lot of inspirations from the aforementioned franchise, blended with some Lovecraftian intergalactic, Sci-Fi mayhem. The practical effects also looks pretty tasty with several monster creatures all from a cenobite-looking creature to a toilet monster, and the atmosphere seems to be in place. Doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously either which can be a good or bad thing.

And then we have the man and the legend himself Doug Bradley as … uncle Satan in human disguise, just to take a wild guess? And yes, his appearance looks like it was shot via a zoom call, which makes sense when you really think about it. Even Satan have to keep himself in touch with the technology, you know.

And let’s keep ourselves excited with director Douglas Schulze’s own note with: “Thorns is ripe with physical makeup effects and plenty of gore.” The sufferings will be legendary, in other words.

M3GAN

We all laughed, cringed and almost lost our minds by the first M3GAN trailer. It left us beyond bewildered, and we started to question life on such a high philosophical level that even Socrates would tell us to chill down a bit. It was just too much to take in, even for a trailer. It has already created a million memes on Twitter. It’s insaaane, riight?

And how could the second trailer top the first one? Well, this trailer looks more like a parody of the first trailer which is a great achievement in itself. It also indicates that the tone is going to be all over the place. Is this a comedy, a straight horror, or both, or just pure unintentionally funny dancing turkey of the year to be shred apart with no mercy? It’s hard to tell, but nevertheless, I can’t deny that it looks fun, but for all the wrong reasons. That uncanny dancing, though, still makes me lost for words. It’s like witnessing a TikTok video on the dark web as if the surface TikTok wasn’t disturbing enough.

M3GAN is also written and directed by Gerard Johnstone who made Housebound back in 2014, another silly yet entertaining film. So, we just have to eagerly wait and see.

Kids vs. Aliens

This one just came suddenly from nowhere as a lightening from the sky (pun intended). Kids vs. Aliens is Jason Eiseners very long-awaited follow-up feature since his Grindhouse flick Hobo With a Shotgun from 2011, which I’m a big fan of. He’s also known for his Christmas Horror short Treevenge.

Kids vs. Aliens looks like Stranger Things on acid and seems like an explosive B-movie insanity with a lot of energy and zero compromises, just what we would expect from Json Eisener. It has the same colourful and vibrant look from HWaS, although it (also by juding from the poster) seems more like a light-hearted Halloween party movie and overall silly fun for the whole family to enjoy.

Subspecies: Bloodrise

The most requested sequel to Full Moon Features within the last 20-plus years that’s probably given Charles Band a chronic headache, ulcer, sore toenails and whatnot, but has finally a teaser: Subspecies: Bloodrise with our favourite vampire Radu.

This is a prequel of Radu from my understanding, spanning back to the old times before smartphones and shit. Ted Nicolaou, who wrote and directed the previous four films way back in the 90s is behind the steering wheel.

The visuals looks pretty promising. It has the gothic atmosphere, some sinister-looking vampires with fangs and swords, slices of cheese, and the classic soundtrack from The Aman Folk Orchestra. Full package it seems. And of course the star himself, Anders Hove as Radu with Denise Duff.

Some more anticipated movies for the upcoming year:

Renfield

Nicolas Cage as Dracula? Of course! And even rated R? Hell yeah!

Nosferatu

A remake of Nosferatu from 1922 by The VVitch and The Lighthouse director Robert Eggers. Cool. Also the second remake since Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht from 1979. And just for the occasion; Happy 100th birthday, Orlock, you sleazy old bastard.

Last Voyage of the Demeter

And here’s yet another Nosferatu/Dracula film, this one from our Norwegian Andre Øvredal. This one is based on the sailing ship Demeter that transferred Dracula from his homeland in Wallachia to the seaside town of Whitby in England, a boat trip that didn’t go pretty well for the captain and crew.

Evil Dead Rise

Have no clue what to expect in this sequel to Evil Dead (2013), but judging from the very few still images we’ve been teased with, it surely peaks my interest. This one is directed by Lee Cronin who also made the pretty stylish and atmospheric horror short Ghost Train.

Insidious: Don’t Fear the Dark

We’re not done with The Further yet in this prequel story of the Lambert family. This is the fifth installment in the Insidious franchise, this time directed by ~~Ed Warren~~ Patrick Wilson, and this is his directorial debut. The image is a still from one of the previous films.

Shelby Oaks

The debut of Chris Stuckmann, which is a found-footage film and the most-funded horror film project on Kickstarter so far. According to IMDb, the plot is about a woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister and falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real. The film is set to be released in July 2023 and no one can deny that the expectations is on a certain high level.

Sister Death

A sequel to the Spanish possession horror Verónica, which I don’t remember much of. But the images of the creepy nun and the Grindhouse-ish title is more than enough to check it out.