There wasn’t a whole lot of Halloween horror to really impress this year, but I’m still plugging away at what I come across, so it’s time for three more that I’ve added to my page of holiday horror.
LIVE-EVIL (2015)
Sometimes I watch a movie and seriously do not know what to take away from it. This is one of those cases. I so wanted this to be the fun party movie it is hyped as. Instead, it flatlined in every aspect for me.
It’s Halloween—we only know because the cop in the first scene mentions it and enters a empty house out of which kids in costumes run. Don’t expect much more Halloween atmosphere than that…although there is plenty of horror atmosphere. Sadly, all of it is wasted, which is shocking considering how much promise there is.
The cop finds a creepy lady in the house, seemingly disoriented (but we know better). She takes the woman to the precinct, causing a sort of supernatural mist to unleash into the air. All of a sudden, everyone in the precinct begins going loony on each other, getting the good old demon eyes.
Those affected also have trippy, disturbing horror visions relating to their own lives, which are the springboards that make them want to act out violently.
The movie turns into a whirlwind of gunfights on the street for the most part (the baddies are packing heat, too), with demon/zombie fighting banter between characters.
It’s just never all that clever or different enough (as good as) similar films. The biggest novelty is that the film begins in black and white and eventually switches to color. Although, I think that may have happened in a movie once before, like back in 1939 or so.
Tony Todd is the horror icon making a pointless cameo this time around…well, the point being, so that people like me will mention that Tony Todd is in it.
TRUTH OR DARE (2017)
Director Nick Simon, who brought us The Girl in the Photographs and 2 Lava 2 Lantula! directs what (by default) becomes my favorite movie of his – at least far as directing goes. He wrote The Pyramid, which I love.
Getting its debut on SyFy for October 2017, Truth Or Dare is pretty much as cliché as its title, but mostly in a good way. A group of friends rents a haunted house for Halloween and decides to play the classic game. Before long, ugly secrets are being revealed, and the friends are brutally maiming each other…because they start to realize that some supernatural power is forcing them to play the game or suffer the fate of their truth or dare anyway. Plus, they’re locked in the house and can’t get out.
I know, it’s so ridiculously a mash-up of Saw, Final Destination, etc., etc., but it entertains…for a while. Kids eat human flesh, bust knees, get electrocuted, get burned on a stove, etc., etc.
It begins to go downhill when the kids actually get out of the house early. They spend the rest of the film being terrorized by the game all over town and performing increasingly gruesome acts on each other until it feels like the dare for every one of them should just say, “DIE.”
By the end, it becomes eye-rolling as two final survivors take turns hacking each other to bits…in order for one of them to win the game and stay alive. WHAT? Ugh.
Heather Langenkamp has a cameo in the film, so fans of hers should appreciate the nod to a death in the original A Nightmare On Elm Street that happens just before she appears on screen.
NEVERKNOCK (2017)
Director Sheldon Wilson seems to have a cozy relationship with SyFy in October, having made several holiday films for them already, including The Hollow and The Night Before Halloween.
The intro kicks ass, with two teens and a boy playing pranks on each other in a scary old house on Halloween…then discovering what a big mistake that was.
Next, we meet our main group of friends – a bunch of girls and one guy. They go to the same house to play a game of “Neverknock.” It’s the old “do it three times and bad shit happens” rule.
The bad shit is that the little sister of the new girl in town disappears. Oh, and they also unleash this awesome black creature that spends the rest of the film pursuing them through town on Halloween night. And only they can see it. Double awesome.
Child horror star Jodelle Ferland of Silent Hill is one of the main girls, an added bonus to this good old creature feature/popcorn film.
Pingback: Treading familiar ground with this triple feature | BOYS, BEARS & SCARES