It's with a touch of melancholy that we bid farewell to spooky season proper. The end of October hardly means the end of my horror movie watching for the year but it does mean the end to being able to see your interests reflected just by walking into the grocery store for a while. This year was notable in that I participated in my first ever HoopTober challenge instead of just doing my own thing, that I was able to return to the theater for some watches, and that I participated in #Horrorgivesback via the Unsung Horrors podcast (which you can still donate to as of this posting). I think I got in a nice mix of older and newer movies and managed to knock off some watch list items that have taken me years to get to while re-visiting some old favorites. Per usual, I will only be discussing what I liked best out of the new-to-me watches - and limiting those to the ones I watched in October - but feel free to check out the entire list: https://letterboxd.com/mplsmatt/list/slashing-through-hooptober-2021/
The Living Dead Girl (1982) - Speaking of gore, this has to be one of Rollin's gorier efforts. However, he manages to imbue it with an emotional substance and gothic longing that you rarely get from on screen gut munching. There are some attempts at light comedy that I could really do without but it's an absolutely gorgeous film.
Primal Rage (1988) - You're going to want to bump this to your next Halloween viewing list. Experiments reviving primate brain cells result in a baboon infected with some kind of rage virus - sound familiar? - that when unleashed on a Florida campus results in gory chaos. This has some trappings of an 80s sex comedy and probably one of the best 80s Halloween dances on film. Umberto Lenzi has a writing credit for this and Claudio Simonetti did the music so it's the best kind of bonkers.
Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters (1968) - This was my Halloween matinee choice and I ended up really
loving it. Despite the title, there are probably not enough scenes with monsters but the ones you get are fantastic. There are a couple towards the end shot in beautifully evocative slow motion featuring dozens of monster/apparition designs. If you like weird Japanese supernatural stuff - this seems like a home run.
The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch (1968) - This is a weird film that definitely has a children's entertainment vibe - particularly with the focus on the main girl and her narration of events - but it's also surprisingly grisly. The effects are cheap looking but there is a ton of visual creativity at play - the various nightmare sequences are genuinely eerie and the use of obvious puppets caused me some cognitive dissonance enhancing the overall effect. I'm not sure that everything in this movie makes much sense but it took some cool narrative turns and the climactic scene is TENSE.
Abby (1974) - The fact that this film got buried under litigation is truly criminal. Yes, this is a Blaxploitation Exorcist rip-off but there were dozens of possession movies in the 70s and this is a particularly fun one. The cast is great with Carol Speed, William Marshall, Austin Stoker, and Bob Holt as the voice of the demon. Shot in and around Louisville, Kentucky it has a terrific regional independent quality and though the budget was modest, the most is made of what they had. It would be great if this got a restoration and could be screened in front of audiences again.
The Psychic (1977) - I've been re-visiting or finally viewing a chunk of the Fulci filmography and managed to fit this one in. I've always heard mixed reviews of The Psychic and I think that's largely due to comparisons to his other gialli. It doesn't possess the acid-test insanity of Lizard in a Woman's Skin or the ferocious cultural criticism of Don't Torture a Duckling (though it does borrow that wild dummy drop). Still this is an incredibly lush giallo that takes a lot of the genre stylings and turns them all the way up to eleven. The music is cranked, the cameras sweep and zoom, there isn't a huge body count but there are some satisfyingly gruesome moments. Recommended if you're a fan.
The Funhouse (1981) - Another filmography hole finally filled! Tobe Hooper really had a unique lens into American familial dysfunction. Aside from strained family dynamics this is an absolute carnival ride of a film - a half wrecked calliope lurching around the fairgrounds spewing cotton candy and small engine exhaust. I had a blast.
Ghosthouse (1988) - Somehow sold as a sequel to Evil Dead 2 this is closer to an Italian stab at Poltergeist. Ghosthouse offers a wild mix of amateur radio enthusiasm, spectral kids, creepy clowns, exploding jars and lightbulbs, casio beats, inexplicable hitch-hikers, psycho caretakers, maggot-y grim reapers, and a slew of competent and sometimes surprising gore effects. Also at one point the floor gives way to corrosive ghost milk filled with skulls. You know you want to watch it.
Patrick Still Lives! (1980) - Completely unauthorized Italian remake/sequel to Ozploitation slow-burn Patrick. For some reason I thought this would be zanier but it is kind of a scumbag watch with a seriously sleazy take on the tale of a comatose psychic. I loved it but don't yell at me if you manage to catch it.
The Mansion of Madness (1973) - Absolute stunner from the director of Alucarda. This does get a bit chatty in parts but I found it consistently engaging and surprising. Would make for a terrific theatrical experience.
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