Thursday, October 29, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #329 Halloween/Television Edition - Horror



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Halloween Edition/Television Edition - Horror

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 29 - Halloween/Television Edition: Horror
 
 

Last week of the Horror Edition and it's also the TV Edition. My picks today are the most recent horror TV series I've seen the past year.
 
True Blood (2008 -2014)
I had seen this back when it aired then had stopped until about season 3 or 4 and finally completed the series this year. Basically watched right from the start again. Overall I enjoyed it; it was a fun sexy horror dark comedy.

Castle Rock  (2018 - )
If you like Stephen King adaptations I'd recommend this though this isn't really an adaptation. It's new stories based around characters and settings made famous in some of King's books. I prefer the second season, less confusing and it has a more identifiable character that the story features, which was a younger Annie from Misery.
 
Servant (2019 - )
I really like this. It's basically about this couple whose baby died, I think from SIDS, and with the wife unable to accept the death, the family, upon a friend's advice decide to use a doll in place of the baby. The wife proceeds to treat it like her baby, alive and well. The series begins when the couple bring in a live-in nanny to care for the doll baby when the wife ends her maternity leave and restarting her job, which brings the weird to a whole new level. This series has such super creepy atmosphere and you can't decide who to be afraid for more, the young nanny staying in a household where one its members is suffering a mental illness, or the couple who have opened their home to a stranger from unknown origins.

Locke & Key  (2020 - )
This, if you didn't know, is based on a graphic novel of the same name written by Joe Hill (Stephen King's son). I have been waiting for an adaptation of this since I read it a few years ago and there had been a pilot episode shot in 2011 that was never picked up for a full series. While overall I did enjoy this new adaptation, I thought the depiction of the supernatural stuff was pretty decent, season one is still a bit of a disappointment. The problem is that I remember the graphic novel to be much more sinister in tone and this adaptation is just too PG and YA-ish. I'm hoping they make the tone in the second season darker and not waste such a great horror premise.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020 - )
This is from the team that brought The Haunting of Hill House. This time it's an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw. Like the other series, this too was a slow burn, it only really started to get good for me from episode 5 (just like on Hill House) where things start to make a lot of sense and we begin to see the connections. While not as great as Hill House, Bly Manor was still good and features some similar things like: a lot of jumps between past and present, characters who aren't fully aware of their being, a character self sacrificing to appease the restless and it is similarly more sad tragic horror rather than jump scares horror. Now I'm eagerly anticipating what other literary house this anthology is going to tackle. Some have speculated it's the Eel Marsh House from Susan Hill's The Woman in Black which I am so for, that house is creepy. Another literary house I think would be interesting is Hundreds Hall from Sarah Water's The Little Stranger.
 
 
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Thursday, October 22, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #328 Halloween Edition - Holiday Horror

 



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Halloween Edition - Holiday Horror

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 22 - Halloween Edition: Holiday Horror
October 29 - Halloween/Television Edition: Horror
 
 
Well this was quite tricky, trying to remember what movies was set against what holiday. My picks today are all non Halloween movies.
 
Escape Room (2019)
Staying on her college campus during Thanksgiving break, a young woman accepts a mysterious invitation to an Escape Room. It was an ok tension filled movie where the characters try to solve elaborate puzzles before time runs out. 

P2 (2007)
After working late at her office on Christmas Eve, a woman finds herself trapped in the garage and pursued by the crazy garage attendant. I don't remember much of this now, but I think it was an ok movie.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
On a day trip to Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day, a few students from a girls' boarding school and a teacher disappear. One of my favourite movies. I wouldn't really categorise this as outright horror, I'd say this is more of a mystery drama that has some horror elements, in that people have gone missing, with subtle hints of the supernatural. Overall the movie is beautiful and eerie. Also the movie like the book cleverly misleads you into believing that it's based on a true story.
 
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Thursday, October 15, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #327: Halloween Edition - Snow / Winter Horror



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Halloween Edition - Snow / Winter Horror

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 15 - Halloween Edition: Snow / Winter Horror
October 22 - Halloween Edition: Holiday Horror
October 29 - Halloween/Television Edition: Horror
 
 

I think the snow and cold makes a good backdrop for a horror movie. It sort of heightens the sense of both physical and psychological isolation. Anyway this is another hard one. Mostly because I'm running out of movies to pick from. These are all ones I've picked before for other themes.

The Blackcoat's Daughter a.k.a February (2015)
Other than the two staff staying off the main buildings, the last two girls stay alone at their boarding school waiting for their parents who seem to be late in picking them up for winter break. I like it. The whole being alone at a school that looks quite isolated in not great weather is already creepy. Throw in a girl who seems off and you're just dreading in what way it's all going to go wrong.
   
The Visit (2015)
Two siblings on their own visit their estranged grandparents whom they have never met before for a vacation. I like this one too. It starts off like a fun vacation with the kids quite excited to meet their grandparents for the first time but then things get weirder weirder.

Let the Right One In (2008) 
A bullied boy befriends his new strange neighbour. One of my favourites. I know the title is likely a play on the whole vampire lore of having to be invited into a home. But I also think it works in the case for Eli, in that she, the vampire, has to be careful who she lets into her secret, and we see that it's a cycle, that she had picked the right one in Oskar's predecessor.
  
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Thursday, October 8, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #326: Halloween Edition - Based on a True Story

 



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Halloween Edition - Based on a True Story

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 8 - Halloween Edition: Based on a True Story
October 15 - Halloween Edition: Snow / Winter Horror
October 22 - Halloween Edition: Holiday Horror
October 29 - Halloween/Television Edition: Horror
 


This is so hard. Why did I ever come up with this theme.
 
An American Haunting (2005)
This is based on the story of the Bell Witch, which some believe is true while others think it's an urban legend of sorts. I saw this a long time ago. I remember not being impressed by it and that it starred the girl who played Wendy in Peter Pan.
   
The Exorcist (1973)
This was apparently inspired by a real exorcism on a teen boy in 1949. I am not a fan of possession/exorcism movies...I don't find them scary, I just find those possession scenes too over the top. What I did find scary, were the earlier parts of the film, before the full blown possession of Regan, where the changes in her was thought of as being a medical issue. She is sent to various medical tests and we see her mother scared and worried. That, I thought was scary and presented well. It was the kind of real horror that a lot people go through when they are sick, the stress and anxiety of having to go through test after test, a process of elimination, just to find a diagnosis.

Psycho (1960)
This was inspired by the story of Ed Gein. Out of the three movies I picked today, this is the only one I like.
 
 
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Thursday, October 1, 2020

Thursday Movie Picks #325: Halloween Edition - Horror Movie Houses



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Halloween Edition - Horror Movie Houses

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 1 - Halloween Edition: Horror Movie Houses
October 8 - Halloween Edition: Based on a True Story
October 15 - Halloween Edition: Snow / Winter Horror
October 22 - Halloween Edition: Holiday Horror
October 29 - Halloween/Television Edition: Horror
 


I find large old empty houses scary and they of course make great settings for horror movies. Here are some of the houses I remember.
   
The Haunting (1999)
I rewatched this again recently. I wasn't a fan of it then and still not now and it really just pales in comparison to the great TV series The Haunting of Hill House. But the house in the movie was memorable. It was this large empty mansion with a lot of very heavy ornamental decor...even after all these years I still remember the cherubic angel (or was it cupid) carvings (on the mantel?) which would suddenly move.  

Crimson Peak (2015) 
I didn't love this as much Guillermo del Toro's other period horror movies but I still thought it was an ok movie. And the house was memorable (it's this big dilapidated gothic mansion with a giant hole in the roof) as well as the imagery of the exterior of the house later in the snow with the red clay.
 
The Little Stranger (2018) 
Like Crimson Peak this one too features a crumbling mansion though it still has its roof and looks less gothic and more of a country home. The house is creepy in part because the family's fortunes have greatly reduced after WWII and with only one servant left to serve the family of three, the house is very empty and has that sad depressive atmosphere, which makes every weird thing that happens more creepy.
 
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