Heretic (2024)

HereticSister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are two Mormon Church Missionaries, who ends up at the home of a man called Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) who has asked for their visitation. Reed is a bit of a reclusive, but the lovely smell of blueberry pie in the oven that he tells them his wife is preparing, is quick to put the young women at ease. They begin discussing religion, and Reed starts asking a lot of questions and makes a few uncomfortable comments about their faith. They are being served one red flag after another, until they have had enough and decide to leave. Only to find out that they can’t, of course. And now they are trapped in Reed’s house, where he puts them up to challenges and giving them lectures, claiming that he has found the one true religion. And he wants to show these young women his findings…

 

Heretic is a psychological horror film, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Haunt, 2019 and 65, 2023).

 

This is a movie where the few characters and limited location leave the actors with limited tools, but in the right setting such movies can work wonders in building up a tense atmosphere. This one certainly belongs in that category. The acting is good and the characters believable, where Hugh Grant really sells it as the coldly vicious villain. This was his second horror film since The Lair of the White Worm (1988), where romantic comedies have been his main department over the years. Well, it’s often nice to do something completely different after such a long time! Also, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East were both raised Mormon so they carry their roles with what appears to offer a good insight and a convincing performance.

 

As can be expected, the underlying critique of religious structures and the control they maintain is served through much of Reed’s lectures. And while you’ll probably ponder a bit what the so-called one true religion really is, which Reed claims he’s found, you probably won’t be too surprised once it’s revealed. The film also doesn’t hammer it down on your head which side you’re supposed to agree with the most. In fact, Reed is undoubtedly completely right with many of the things he lectures about to the young women, but Barnes and Paxton also provides reasonable views and thoughts on their own beliefs. Now, I am not a religious person myself, but I did find myself agreeing with the young women on certain points even though they weren’t right…like how Sister Paxton mentions how prayer experiments have shown that praying doesn’t help, but she still considers it a nice thing to do in order to offer comfort to someone else. Reed might be right in a lot of his conclusions, but just like certain religious aspects which he’s eager to criticize, he’s using his beliefs to commit and justify his actions and thus inevitably placing him in the same category as other religious fanatics trying to control others.

 

I don’t want to spoil anything else as this movie is best watched while knowing as little about it as possible. Heretic is a suspenseful and dark theological thriller, very dialogue-driven but mastering it with great skill.

 

In the film’s credits, there’s the statement No Generative Al was used in the making of this film. So thumbs up for that!

 

Heretic

 

Writers and directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
Country & year: USA, Canada, 2024
Actors: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, Topher Grace, Elle Young, Julie Lynn Mortensen
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28015403/

 

 

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Sting (2024)

StingIn a somewhat dilapidated apartment building, a mischievous and rebellious 12-year old girl, Charlotte, gets an unexpected pet when a glowing object crash-lands in her aunt’s apartment. From said object, a tiny spider hatches (nothing suspicious about that, right?), and Charlotte decides to keep it and names it Sting. Upon feeding it, it keeps growing at an alarming rate (still nothing suspicious about that, it seems), but she still decides to keep her new pet a secret from the rest of her family: her mother, her step-father (who is a comic book artist that creates a project in collaboration with her, which proves to go a bit sour) and of course her baby brother who is too little to understand anything at this point anyway. Her biological father is living abroad and that’s the reason he can’t show her any attention (or at least so she’s told). A little family drama aside, the real problem here is Sting’s growing appetite which makes it search for other prey. While Charlotte keeps it in a jar, it’s smart enough to open the hatch and get outside to do a little night-hunting. And now the entire apartment building are in danger from a spider that keeps growing and keeps eating…

 

Sting is a horror film from 2024, directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. The director, being from Australia, said that the inspiration for this movie comes from his fear of spiders: I have raging arachnophobia because I’m an Australian, and everything in Australia is trying to kill you. Truer words could not have been spoken. I’m thankful for the tiny and harmful little buggers we have here in Norway! Here, you’re not likely to get killed by any wildlife, aside from the odd chance of getting in the way of a very angry moose. And even that is highly unlikely.

 

Now, Sting is yet another creature feature about a monstrous spider, which we’ve had a few entries of as of late and with some similarities. Just like in Vermin (2023), the story is taking place in an apartment building and affects the population there, and like in the cheese-flick Arachnid (2001) the spider comes from outer space. Other than that, it manages to stand on its own legs and differs mostly in how it’s got a nearly family-friendly tone over it, where it almost starts a little heartwarming while Charlotte bonds with Sting. Then, the grisly murders committed by the monster-spider are quick to remind us that this is a horror film after all. Hadn’t it been for the violent deaths, Sting could easily have been more of a children’s thriller (nothing wrong with that, of course).

 

The movie does focus a bit on family drama, and while some of it was fun enough (like the overly grumpy old aunt and her antics) others parts of it felt a little contrived. What makes the movie entertaining, at least for my part, is the spider itself and the mayhem it causes. Many of the angles, having the camera lead us into air ducts, claustrophobic little hallways and so on, helps building the suspense and a feeling that the creepy-crawly could be anywhere.

 

There’s also more than a few references to be found in the movie, where the most obvious is the girl’s name being Charlotte (a reference to Charlotte’s Web, a well-known story about a pig becoming friends with a clever spider named Charlotte). And one of the characters carrying a nail gun for protection is most likely a reference to Arachnophobia from 1990. The special effects in the movie are also pretty good, with several of them being practical effects. Richard Taylor was involved in the effects for the movie (whose company, Weta Workshop, also made effects for Lord of the Rings among several others).

 

Sting is a satisfying little addition to the creature feature list involving spiders, with some very nice special effects.

 

Sting Sting

 

 

Writer and director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Country & year: Australia, USA, 2024
Actors: Noni Hazlehurst, Jermaine Fowler, Alyla Browne, Robyn Nevin, Ryan Corr, Kate Walsh, Penelope Mitchell, Jett Berry, Kade Berry, Silvia Colloca
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20112746/

 

 

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Arachnid (2001)

ArachnidJoli Mercer is piloting a stealth plane in the South Pacific, when a translucent spacecraft suddenly appears (in a scene with such godawful CGI effects it could have belonged in The Amazing Bulk). Poor Joli crashes with the thing as his plane begins to malfunction, but his bad luck doesn’t end there. He crashes on an island, together with the alien ship. He sees a desperate-looking translucent alien-thing which is suddenly attacked by a giant spider monster, which then kills Joli as well. Then, ten months later, Joli’s sister is on the search for him. She’s been hired to be the pilot of a medical expedition who are doing research after natives on the island have started dying from an unknown virus. Upon reaching the island, the plane starts malfunctioning and they need to do an emergency landing on the beach. From there on, they have to trudge through the jungle in order to reach their destination, and they discover that the insects around the area have mutated into large and more deadly creatures. One of the guys in the expedition gets attack by giant ticks that starts burrowing into his body, and a giant centipede is killing one of the natives. And no, they didn’t crash-land on Skull Island. Aside from all the horrible creatures, the biggest threat of them all is a giant spider: the killer arachnid from outer space.

 

You know a movie is a stinker when the director himself says he only did it for the money… I basically did it for the money and it was a stupid script … I got to live in Barcelona for six months and, you know, they paid me well. Everything was good except I had to go to work everyday and shoot a dumb script. I haven’t seen that one since, you know, I made it. And some people say ‘Oh well, it’s actually better than you think’, but I basically tell people to avoid that one is what Jack Sholder (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, The Hidden) said about this film. Alright, then, that’s a way to wash your hands clean of something. We all need food on the table and can’t always work on passion projects…

 

Arachnid was released in 2001, and was the second film to be released under the Fantastic Factory Label (the first one being Faust: Love of the Damned from 2000) which was created by Brian Yuzna (Society, The Dentist) and Julio Fernandez in Spain. It was written by Mark Sevi, and then re-written together with Yuzna. The main spider design and the other creatures that used practical effects, were created by Steve Johnson. The film received a very negative reception upon its release, and while it’s easy to see this is one of those movies, it’s actually a bunch of fun, much thanks to the practical effects which are actually pretty decent and feels like a nice little throwback. Already from the funnily sloppy opening scene you know what you’re in for, so better brace yourself for leaving your brain on the shelf for a little while. As we get introduced to character by character, one more clichéd than the other, the killings and creatures are what’s the highlight of the movie. There isn’t a huge amount of gore here (which is a shame, really, as that could have added an extra spritz on the already goofy concept), but there’s still some nice scenes, especially the one involving the ticks that eat their way out. Yum.

 

What makes the movie suffer from being a truly fun B-horror movie, is that the pacing is a bit too slow and the characters feel a bit too dull. A quicker pace, more interesting characters and more kills could have lifted the movie up several notches. Yes, it would still have been a bad movie, but a bit more enjoyable. Overall though, Arachnid is a fun enough creature feature B-movie with some charming old-school effects.

 

Arachnid Arachnid Arachnid

 

Director: Jack Sholder
Writer: Mark Sevi
Country & year: Spain, USA, Mexico, 2001
Actors: Chris Potter, Alex Reid, José Sancho, Neus Asensi, Ravil Isyanov, Luis Lorenzo Crespo, Rocqueford Allen, Jesús Cabrero, Robert Vicencio
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271972/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Salem’s Lot (2024)

Salem's LotBen Mears is a writer who has decided to return to his hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in order to write a book about his childhood. When arriving there, he very quickly meets and befriends a woman named Susan Norton, just so we have established the love interest right away. At the same time, as kid named Mark Petrie must defend himself from the school’s bully, and a newcomer called Straker opens an antique store. This mysterious man, a European, has moved into the Marsten House which has been abandoned for a long time due to a history of murders. We soon learn that Straker is some kind of Renfield, and his vampire master is the Orlok look-alike Kurt Barlow. It doesn’t take long for people to start dying with strange bitemarks on their necks, and the survivors must try and combat the evil that has invaded their hometown.

 

Salem’s Lot is based on a 1975 novel by Stephen King, directed by Gary Dauberman. The novel was previously adapted for television in 1979, a mini series directed by Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist, Texas Chain Saw Massacre). There was also a sequel called A Return to Salem’s Lot which was released in 1987, and even a TV mini series called Salem’s Lot which was released in 2004. They sure have given the novel a lot of adaptions, but none ever got to be shown in the theaters, which includes this 2024 version. This movie also had a fair bit of hiccups during its production, to the point where many suspected the entire film would end up scrapped. In 2023, however, Warner Bros decided to release the film on Max.

 

The film’s reception was not particularly good, and the trailers didn’t exactly promise anything of golden standard either, and this dampened our expectations. Overall, though, we found it to be.. quite decent, actually. There characters are ok, although not portrayed in such an in-depth manner that you could give too much of a shit about any of them. There are some creepy atmospheric scenes and it was able to create enough suspense to keep your interest up. It’s even a bit campy, which shouldn’t come as a surprise in a movie where a 12-year old is running around killing vampires and saving people like he’s some primary school Van Helsing.

 

Overall, Salem’s Lot is pretty fine for what it is, there is some decent atmosphere here and there and Barlow can come off as creepy enough when you don’t get to see him too clearly. Many people prefer Tobe Hooper’s 1979 mini series, and others again prefer the book. Without making any comparisons between neither book nor previous adaptions, this movie works well on its own. You just can’t avoid being left with a feeling that they didn’t really hit the nail on its head compared to what was probably the intended original vision (which had a 3-hour long duration).

 

Salem's Lot Salem's Lot

 

Writer and director: Gary Dauberman
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Lewis Pullman, Makenzie Leigh, Jordan Preston Carter, Alfre Woodard, Bill Camp, John Benjamin Hickey, Nicholas Crovetti, Spencer Treat Clark, Pilou Asbæk, Alexander Ward
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10245072/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Immaculate (2024)

ImmaculateThis is the so-called twin film of The First Omen, even though the script for Immaculate was already written way back in 2014. Sydney Sweeney was 17 when she auditioned for the film to play an aspiring nun. Nothing much happened after that and the film fell into development hell. What a fitting situation for a nun film. However, the script stuck with Sweeney and after some well-earned money after being in the hit TV show Euphoria, she bought the rights to produce the film herself. So this clearly became a passion project for her. She hired Michael Mohan to direct, who she’d worked with on the erotic thriller The Voyeurs (2021), and got a distribution deal with Neon.

 

The film starts with a spooky opening scene with a young nun who fails to escape from a secluded convent, a place we, of course, are going back to later. As she’s about to get through the locked gates, she breaks her leg and gets captured by a group of obscure cloak-wearing persons who then… bury her alive. God bless.

 

Then we’re introduced to the rookie nun Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) who’s just moved to Italy, all away from Detroit, to devote her life to her great Savior. Because when she managed to survive after drowning under the ice of a frozen lake, and being clinically dead for seven minutes, she swallowed the shiny Christian pill and never looked back.

 

The first act is pretty straight forward. She settles in the convent where she meets a variety of nuns. Some are young, some are old, and then we have those you’d stay far away from. The convent is also far in the middle of the countryside where the sense of isolation starts to creep in sooner than later. The language barrier is also strong, as she can hardly speak Italian. But if she did, the film would’ve had to require subtitles. And Americans are too lazy to bother with such a thing, so …

 

While she does the best she can to blend in, she starts having nightmares and sees creepy visions in her bedroom. And after taking a bloodtest, she finds out that she’s – pregnant. Just out of the blue. Huh. The staff is, however, ecstatic as they now see her as a Virgin Mary with a gift from God himself, and against her will, hold her captive in the convent during her trimesters. From here on, the similarities to The First Omen goes in their separate directions, where Immaculate serves its own unique little spin on the nun/pregnancy horror sub-genre.

 

Director Michael Mohan does a pretty good job, considering this is his first horror film with primary romcoms under his belt. A big leap, for sure. Solid camerawork all the way through with tasty visuals where the inspiration from classic Italian horror films really shines. While there are some cheap jumpscares shoehorned in here, the film relies mostly on mood and atmosphere where we have the isolated eeriness of the convent to creepy catacombs, all shot on locations in Rome and the outskirts. No frontal nudity here, unfortunately, just to make that clear. Sydney Sweeney is, for some, known for two things, but she’s also a top tier actress who conveys layers of intense emotions with her eyes alone – while she carries the whole film with a big bucket of blood to the s h o c k i n g ending.

 

Immaculate Immaculate Immaculate

 

Director: Michael Mohan
Writer: Andrew Lobel
Country & year: USA/Italy, 2024
Actors: Sydney Sweeney, Álvaro Morte, Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, Giorgio Colangeli, Dora Romano, Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi, Giampiero Judica, Betty Pedrazzi, Giuseppe Lo Piccolo
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23137390/

 

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

Terrifier 3 (2024)

Terrifier 3Terrifier 3 picks up the story right after the ending of Terrifier 2, where Art the Clown was beheaded by Sienna, and the final girl from the first movie, Victoria Heyes, has been possessed by the Little Pale Girl and gives birth to Art’s head. Now, in the third movie, we start off with Art’s headless body finding its way to the asylum where Victoria is located, where they both body-count a little before going into some kind of hibernation phase in an abandoned house. Then, five years later and close to Christmas, Sienna has just been released from a mental health center and has come to stay with her aunt Jess, her husband Greg, and their daughter Gabbie, who pretty much idolizes her. While Sienna is struggling with reconnecting with her brother Jonathan, who is now in college and trying to move on with his life, Art the Clown has decided to bring another nightmare to Miles County, and this time before Christmas.

 

Terrifier 3 is the third movie in the Terrifier franchise, all written, edited and directed by Damien Leone. Terrifier 3 premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 19, 2024, and later released theatrically in the US on October 11. It is currently the highest-grossing unrated film of all time. Damien Leone stated in interviews that the main reason for choosing a Christmas theme for the movie, was that he was directly influenced by the 1972 film and 1989 TV series Tales From the Crypt, as they both featured a story about a mentally insane person dressed up as Santa and going on a killing spree. The opening of Terrifier 3 is a homage to that episode which is called “And All Through The House”. He also got to fix one of his bigger regrets from the two other movies, regarding Victoria Heyes who was the original final girl in the franchise (who got her face eaten off by Art in the first movie which explains her looks). This is a character Damien Leone regretted not fleshing out further, and thus he decided to feature her more in the third film, as a heroine turned villainess.

 

Now, most people within the horror circle are well familiar with this murderous clown called Art. Wearing a Pierrot-like costume, uttering not a single sound under any circumstance at all, and with antics and behavior very reminiscent of Mr. Bean, he sure is a character easy to recognize whether you like him or not. The guy is now all over the place, with another movie sequel already in development and even an upcoming game and other merchandise. Art has more or less become a gore-icon, so if you go and see this movie mainly for the gore and practical effects, you won’t be disappointed. There’s gore a-plenty, some really visceral kills and even a scene with a rat forced down a tube in someone’s throat that made Art’s actor (David Howard Thornton) a little green around the gills. I can’t say any of the scenes really got under my skin though (I’ve gotten far too desensitized for that) but I can easily recognize and admire the jolly playfulness and the great use of practical effects during scenes like this and had a fun time watching it. I also found the opening of the movie to be quite moody and with a fitting soundtrack. So, will you have a fun time if you want to see Art the Clown going crazy during the holidays where he kills and maims and wreaks havoc? Yeah, no doubt. This movie does more of what most of its fanbase loves it for, and that’s expanding the horizon for how much gore you can possibly add and adding new ways to dismember and spill the blood ‘n entrails on screen.

 

Now, what Terrifier 3 unfortunately lacks, is more story to the bone. Maybe this sounds a little unreasonable considering that the first movie pretty much had no plot whatsoever, and the franchise’s selling point is obviously blood and gore. Nothing wrong with that, by all means…but the second film did take things many steps further story-wise, teasing us with what appeared to be more in-depth lore and possibly an interesting background story for the franchise’s namesake (which is not the clown, but an abandoned haunted attraction we got to know about in Terrifier 2). Everything was pretty much set up for some further development of Art’s background story…but that’s not really what we got much of in the third film. Now, Damien Leone stated that it took 6 years to make Terrifier 2, and that he had completely underestimated how ambitious it would eventually become. It’s obvious he’s planned for some deeper lore and background story for Art, the Terrifier attraction, and the Little Pale Girl (whom we know is the demon possessing Art), but we’ll probably get more of that in the 4th film. Terrifier 3 was made with a considerably stricter deadline, and the production barely made it on time for its premiere at Fantastic Fest. In addition to this, the long time it took to make Terrifier 2 is also the reason why the storyline of this movie is set to five years later, as especially Elliot Fullam (who plays Jonathan, Sienna’s younger brother) has aged very obviously since they started filming Terrifier 2 in 2018. Personally, I have no problems enjoying mindless gore-fests as long as they’re somewhat upbeat and fun, but at this point this movie felt more like a Christmas-special to me than an actual sequel, I guess..?

 

Terrifier 3 definitely delivers on the gore and practical effects, and Art the Clown is more jolly, more evil, and more Mr. Bean-ish than ever. I just personally wish there had been some more story development at this point, but I’ll consider this as Art the Clown’s X-Mas special. The fourth film is already in development, which is stated to be the final film in the franchise. Hah, yeah, we’ll see how that goes. Everyone knows that slasher villains never truly stay dead, that’s Horror 101. So by the end of this decade we’ll probably have Terrifier Returns, Terrifier Origins, The First Terrifier, Terrifier in Space, and Terrifier in the Hood. And that’s not even a joke.

 

Terrifier 3 Terrifier 3 Terrifier 3

 

Writer and director: Damien Leone
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Lauren LaVera, David Howard Thornton, Antonella Rose, Elliott Fullam, Samantha Scaffidi, Margaret Anne Florence, Bryce Johnson, Alexa Blair Robertson, Mason Mecartea, Krsy Fox
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27911000/

 

Prequels:
Terrifier 2 (2022)
Terrifier (2016)

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Smile 2 (2024)

Smile 2It’s been six days since police officer Joel got the Smile Entity’s curse passed onto him after watching Rose committing suicide, which is the grim way the curse spreads over to someone else. Joel appears to know a way to pass it on to someone else before the curse makes him kill himself, though. He targets two criminals, intending to kill one of them in front of the other, hoping this could free him of the curse. This doesn’t go by plan at all, and both criminals end up dead during a shootout. There was still a witness, though…the drug dealer Lewis Fregoli who had hidden himself in a closet upon Joel entering the place. When seeing him, Joel apologizes, saying this was not meant for him, and then flees the place. He did not get to live long enough to figure out if he got rid of the curse, however, as he gets hit by an oncoming pickup truck that smears his blood and entrails on the ground, forming a smile. And that’s the opening for Smile 2.

 

Now, we enter the life of Skye Riley, a pop star having a comeback after a time of substance abuse and a car accident that killed her boyfriend. She’s still got the scar from the accident, and is bothered by severe back pain which she desperately needs some strong pain killers for. She’s got this guy who can supply her with vicodin, and you probably guessed it: yes, it’s the drug dealer from the opening. When Skye meets him in his apartment, he’s already into the latter stages of the curse, and before his weird behavior rings enough alarm bells for Skye to leave, he kills himself in front of her by smashing his face to pieces with a weight plate. Nice. Another trauma to add to the list for the poor pop star. She first thinks about calling the police, but instead flees the place as she’s afraid that getting caught up in the death of a drug dealer during her comeback won’t look good. Of course, she doesn’t leave the place emptyhanded, as the Smile Entity has already infected her, and she soon begins to experience the first stages of the curse: hallucinations where people keep eerily smiling at her. And then, of course, things get gradually worse.

 

Smile 2 is the sequel of Smile from 2022, both written and directed by Parker Finn. It stars Naomi Scott as the pop star Skye Riley. She is an English actress and singer, and a soundtrack of the songs in the movie called Smile 2: The Skye Riley EP was released through Interscope Records on October 11, 2024.

 

I really enjoyed the first Smile movie, which I initially didn’t know what to expect from, but ended up having a real good time with. Then the news about a sequel came, and oh man, I did not have high hopes for this one. Not only because I initially felt that the first movie worked well as a stand-alone, but also because the first trailer of Smile 2 made it look incredibly generic and underwhelming. Well…I’m happy to say I was totally wrong, and Smile 2 was much better than I anticipated. I actually even found it to be better than the first one, and that caught me quite by surprise. Just like the first movie, it’s starting with a punch and does not hold back. The backstory of the protagonist is told through bits and pieces, giving us further and further glimpses into her psyche and troubles. While you’re supposed to feel sympathy for her of course, it’s also obvious that she hasn’t completely unstuck her head from her ass despite therapy and going off drugs. In her past she treated those around her like shit, and while she is clearly ashamed of this now, she’s still at a stage where her selfishness and woe-is-me attitude makes her completely blind to how the people that cares for her are oftentimes bending over backwards just to support and help her. And of this she’s actually subconsciously aware, which is why the demon is having a field day when toying with her.

 

The jumpscares in Smile 2 are generally good and adds to the atmosphere, in contrast to movies where many of the jumpscares don’t have any other impact than blasting you with high sound or quick movement and no actual scares. Sure, you can see them come from a mile away, but the way they build up the tension and also lingers makes them a perfect example of how good jumpscares should be utilized in movies like this. The one with her friend on the bed, in particular, is a prime example of this. The ending also ventured a bit into horror-acid-land when Skye’s completely under control of the hallucinations, and just like in the first movie we also get some monster effects which are pretty wild.

 

So, despite my first expectations, Smile 2 is a worthy sequel of the first and in my opinion even surpasses it, and while the ending was very predictable (at least when you know how the Smile Entity works), it sets up for what could be a pretty interesting third movie in this franchise.

 

And it also effectively advertise the Norwegian-based bottled water VOSS, which Skye is drinking liters of for her well-being. Yup, it’s important to stay hydrated, curse or no…

 

Smile 2

 

Writer and director: Parker Finn
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2007
Actors: Naomi Scott, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Peter Jacobson, Ray Nicholson, Dylan Gelula, Raúl Castillo, Kyle Gallner, Drew Barrymore, Zebedee Row, Roberts Jekabsons
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29268110/

 

Prequel: Smile (2022)

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Trick ‘r Treat (2007)

Trick 'r TreatIt’s Halloween, the best time of the year! Well, for us Horror Ghouls at least. And for Sam, a cute little trick-or-treater you’ll get to know better here in Trick ‘r Treat.

 

In the fictional town of Warren Valley, Ohio, several people are celebrating Halloween night. The stories here are told in a nonlinear narrative, and first we meet Emma and her husband Henry. Emma is a Halloween hater (yup, one of those), and blows out the jack-o’-lantern before midnight. This is not according to Halloween rules! And she’ll soon find out the consequences. Then we meet Steven Wilkins, who is a serial killer who sticks to his own rules and traditions on Halloween. Just a reminder to all the kids out there to check their candy. We later also meet a group of teenagers, who visits a flooded quarry where the urban legend of the Halloween School Bus Massacre was supposed to have taken place. And then, we have a group of young women in sexy costumes, where one of them wears a Little Red Riding Hood outfit. Hmmm…I wonder if she’s going to meet any wolves tonight. Then, of course, there’s little Sam, who is always nearby. Some of the stories and characters have a relation to each other, and all will be revealed before Halloween night is over.

 

Trick ‘r Treat is a horror anthology film from 2007, written and directed by Michael Dougherty in his directorial debut. The film was delayed for two years, and only had a limited number of screenings at film festivals. It grossed only $27,909 on a budget of $12 million. Ouchie. Over the years, though, the film has since garnered a cult following. Fans have been teased with a sequel for several years but so far nothing seems to happen. Only time will show. In the meantime, Dougherty directed Krampus (2015) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019).

 

If you’re a Halloween lover, like any horror ghoul with the slightest ounce of self-respect does, then this movie is certain to feel like a treat. Like many horror anthologies out there, including The Mortuary Collection and Tales from the Hood, all the stories are in some way interwoven with the rest. Aside from the aforementioned anthologies however, this one is told in a nonlinear way and mixes the stories a bit back and forth. It doesn’t require too much attention to get the coherence, so don’t worry about it being too hard to follow. There’s a little bit of twists and turns, including some characters appearing in one story only to prove a significance later on in one of the other stories. It’s all pure popcorn entertainment, never even remotely frightening but offers a little bit of gore here and there and a lot of lighthearted amusing fun. The cute little character Sam is derived from the word Samhain which is the ancient Celtic festival of the dead. It’s from Samhain that the modern-day Halloween is derived. In this movie they’ve taken the name a little further and turned him into the most adorable little deity. Just don’t be fooled by his cuteness, though, he sure knows how to play tricks on those who disrespect the traditions!

 

The actors playing the deformed children from the Halloween School Bus Massacre segment all had real disabilities or injuries, and they apparently had a total blast during the filming. And we also got one of those famous gumball rolling down the stairs scenes, which is of course a nod to the excellent ghost horror movie The Changeling (1980), and the cameraman working on this sequence also filmed that exact scene in that film.

 

Trick ‘r Treat is a solid Halloween movie, with enough ghoulish pleasantries to satisfy the most. Happy Halloween!

 

Trick 'r Treat Trick 'r Treat Trick 'r Treat

 

Writer and director: Michael Dougherty
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2007
Actors: Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Quinn Lord, Lauren Lee Smith, Moneca Delain, Tahmoh Penikett, Brett Kelly, Britt McKillip, Isabelle Deluce, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Alberto Ghisi, Samm Todd, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862856/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Monster House (2006)

Monster HouseIt’s only one day before Halloween, and 12-year-old Dustin James (or D.J. for short) is busy spying on his creepy elderly neighbor, Horace Nebbercracker. He sees that the old man steals a little girl’s bicycle, and that’s a habit that’s been going on for quite some time. Whenever something enters Nebbercracker’s lawn, it’s his. This same day, D.J.’s parents leave for a convention, and the teenage girl Elizabeth (aka Zee) will babysit him. When Dustin and his friend Charles Chowder play basketball outside, they end up losing it on Nebbercracker’s lawn. Ooops, we all know where this is headed. Still, D.J. tries to retrieve it before the old, cranky neighbor notices it, but too late. Nebbercracker comes out of his old house, furious like a bat from hell and wants to give these snotty brats a piece of his mind! He goes completely crazy, lifts D.J. up while shouting you think you can just terrorize my lawn?! while the boy desperately tries to claim his innocence. Then the inevitable happens: the old geezer suffers a heart attack and is taken away in an ambulance.

 

That same evening, Zee’s boyfriend, Bones, pays a visit and starts talking about rumors relating to Nebbercracker, about how he supposedly cannibalized his wife. He also says that Nebbercracker once stole his kite. Later, when D.J. spies on the now empty house across the street, he notices that when Bones leaves the house, a kite is coming out of the front door of the old Nebbercracker house. Bones goes to retrieve it, and is then dragged into the house. D.J. starts to believe that the old house is now haunted, and the next day they save a candy-selling girl called Jenny from becoming another one of the house’s victims. No one believes them about the monster house of course, especially since today is Halloween, so it’s all up to them to stop the house from claiming more victims.

 

Monster House is an animated supernatural horror comedy from 2006, directed by Gil Kenan as his directorial debut. Originally, the movie was set up to be at DreamWorks, but one thing lead to another and he ended up having a meeting with Steven Spielberg and Sony Pictures Entertainments picked up the project. The movie was filmed using a technique called motion-capture, where the actors performed the characters’ movements and lines while they were being linked to sensors. And while there were a bunch of parents that got pissed off due to the movie’s horror elements and dark themes, it received generally positive reviews and grossed $142 million worldwide on a budget of $75 million.

 

Despite being an animated PG-rated movie, it’s one that can be appreciated by adults just as much as the younger ones. It does not only have an intriguing story and a creepy mystery, it also has very charming and likable characters where they’ve done a great job at matching the perfect voices. There’s a sense of both horror and adventure, with an 80s throwback style that fits so well with everything. This being a children’s movie and all, the horror elements are still very prominent and there’s even some nods to Hitchcock’s Psycho and Rear Window. It’s got a predominantly dark theme, which gets even darker than you might initially expect, and kudos to them for having the balls to take it all out. The final part of the movie does go totally wild and proves that it aimed to live up to the title, and while this strays a bit from the more subdued horror elements from earlier in the movie where everything about the house was still a mystery, it’s a very fitting way to end it. After the final showdown we even get a cute little aww-moment.

 

Monster House is a great animated thrill ride for the young yet not-so-young audience, and I’m afraid this one was very much lightning in a bottle which we’ll never get close to seeing again. An animated movie filled with the sense of adventure reminiscent of what could be found in movies like The Goonies (1985) and filled with an actual horror story and horror elements, very much working as a perfect introduction to scary movies to a young audience…yeah, I doubt that’ll ever happen again.

 

Kenan later made the Poltergeist remake from 2015, and his latest release was Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire this year. There’s no doubt that Monster House remains his strongest entry into the horror genre. Even to this day it has kept its spooky charm, and I’m sure many of the children who were originally frightened by watching this one when it was released back in 2006, now remembers it fondly. Well, that’s at least how I remember the movies that scared me when I was a kid…

 

Monster House Monster House Monster House

 

Director: Gil Kenan
Writers: Dan Harmon, Rob Schrab, Pamela Pettler
Country & year: USA, 2006
Voice actors: Ryan Whitney, Steve Buscemi, Mitchel Musso, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, Sam Lerner, Woody Schultz, Ian McConnel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Lee, Spencer Locke, Kevin James
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385880/

 

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

TerrorVision (1986)

TerrorVision – Hey, remember that movie? You know, the one about the little space guy. Made you cry like a butthole?

 

After the insanely catchy theme song, we get the pleasure of meeting the Puttermans. They are… uhm, well, a lot could be said about the Puttermans, but first and foremost, they are a family. And not just a family, but an American family, living in Los Angeles. They’re THE most American family of all time. And the year is also 1986, with its peak of technology, and being a wealthy upper-class, what can be more perfect than that? Here we have mom Raquel and dad Stan, a swinger-couple, living the American dream with their two kids, a wacky survivalist/doomsday prepper grandpa and some other middle-aged dude who should be in jail for his fashion choice. The family’s daughter, Suzy, likes to dress up as Cyndi Lauper and dates a stoner dude named O.D. (overdose). He’s an over-the-top stereotypical metal head who’d make Beavis and Butt-Head look like Jehovah’s Witnesses.

 

The family dad puts up a big satellite dish with no success. It isn’t after a lightning bolt hits the dish from the blue sky when the family can enjoy Channel 69, MTV and Medusa’s Midnight Horrorthon. C o o l. The lighting comes from a garbage disposal on the distant planet Pluton, by the way, that teleported a Hungry Beast to eventually come out of the Putterman’s TV and terrorize the family. But you just wait, cuz it gets crazier. The best way to describe TerrorVision is a live-action Saturday-morning cartoon on mushrooms, shot like a demented sitcom with three episodes stitched together. Absolute zero logic and all over the place. The only thing missing here, to put the satirical cherry on top, is a laugh track.

 

TerrorVision is written and directed by the Full Moon bat Ted Nicolaou, here under the banner of Empire Pictures. This is his directorial debut after working over a decade as sound engineer and editor on films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and with his first collab with Charles Band on Tourist Trap (1979). The monster design was made by John Carl Buechler, who also made Troll the same year, another Charles Band production. Nicolaou said to Buechler as he was making the monster: make it look really stupid. The result is something that looks like if Sloth from The Goonies was mutated with a dog, Pizza the Hutt and one of my classmates from elementary school. So, mission accomplished, I’d say. The youngest actor who plays the family’s son was permitted by his Christian parents to be in the film on one condition: to not have him in the same frame with the nude paintings which you’ll see everywhere in the house. And Mr. Nicolaou sure broke that promise more than one or three/four times.

 

The film was panned by the critics upon its release, where we have a quote from Time Out Film Guide saying: — The aesthetics of trash sink to new depths of delirium in this kooky sitcom variant of Poltergeist. Couldn’t be more true though. It wasn’t until years later it found its niche audience and is viewed as a so-bad-it’s-good film, which I beg to differ. Yes, it has its clear elements of such, but it’s way too self-aware to fully earn a spot in that category. Not for everyone, but sure a wild, doozy ride if you’re in for it. It’s basically the best and worst of the pop-cultural 1980s in a nutshell, exaggerated up to the max. Maybe some Aha..hahaha’s for the adults and just mesmerizing birthday party schlockfest for the kids with some gooey light-hearted gore. It will leave an impact, nevertheless, even in the year of 2024 where 1980s throwback films are more popular than ever.

 

TerrorVision is available on a DVD/Blu-ray double feature with The Video Dead from Shout! Factory.

 

TerrorVision TerrorVision TerrorVision

 

 

Writer and director: Ted Nicolaou
Country & year: USA/Italy, 1986
Actors: Diane Franklin, Gerrit Graham, Mary Woronov, Chad Allen, Jon Gries, Bert Remsen, Alejandro Rey, Randi Brooks, Jennifer Richards, Sonny Carl Davis, Ian Patrick Williams, William Paulson, John Leamer
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092074/

 

 

Tom Ghoul