Category Archives: The October 13

Kill List

Posted on by

The October 10 of 13

After a poor stretch of films in The October 13, I was hoping for a really great one to balance out the list. I had been watching The Breakroom, which is a YouTube show from the New Rockstars and they gave a list of horror movies to watch before you die. One of the panelists brought up Kill List and I had never heard of it, so I hoped that it would break the unfortunate run I had been on.

It did. It was good. It was not great, but I found it a good time.

According to IMDB, “Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.“

This is a British psychological horror film directed by Ben Wheatley. It was a real slow burn, so slow that after the first act, I was afraid that this would be just another failure in the October 13. However, the film absolutely picked up and wound up with a batshit ending that tied the whole film together in a tragic tapestry.

Neil Maskell played Jay and Michael Smiley played Gal, out two lead protagonists in the film. They were partners in this hired killers job that led to them getting involved in this story. MyAnna Buring played Shel, Jay’s wife and the mother of his son Sam (Harry Simpson).

Throughout the first two parts of the film, you can see the mental instability of Jay as the killings he was hired to do became all the more brutal as they progressed. You would begin to think that the horror would come from inside Jay’s mind, but then things got considerably more real.

Hit List was not what I expected when it started, but it morphed into a wild ride that kept the tension to the final moments and a dramatic final scene.

I Was a Teenage Zombie (1987)

Posted on by

The October 9 of 13

I found this on HBO Max and, because of that, I mistakenly believed, this movie would be a good one to include for The October 13, or at least was a real movie. It was five minutes into it when I discovered that this was the most amateurish, ridiculously bad film I have seen in a long time.

When the sound quality of a film does not reach the quality level of Birdemic: Shock and Terror, you know there is something wrong.

According to IMDB, “Six high school buddies accidentally kill a drug pusher and dump his body in toxic waters. When the pusher returns as a zombie and goes on a killing spree, their only recourse is to dump the body of one of their own recently dead, and have him return as a “good” zombie to face off with the “bad” one.“

I have seen this referred to as a cult classic, but if this is a classic in any form, I have to question the choices of the viewer. I know film is subjective, but I don’t think anything should be that subjective.

The budget of this movie must have been $25 dollars and a box of donuts.

I take that back, they did have some real music involved in the film, with a soundtrack involving real bands and musicians. At times the music was played so you could not hear what was being said. Best part of the film.

I seen better acting on SNL, you know when the host clearly has not learned any lines and is just reading off the cue cards off screen.

How bad was the dialogue? I don’t know, you could barely hear it.

This was not fun. There was a time or two where I laughed at the movie. Not because it was funny, but because it was so embarrassing that the only thing you could do was laugh.

The zombie make-up was more like blackface. Or eventually green face.

Then there was a zombie rape scene. I’m not kidding. Offensive as it could be.

The quality of the movies in this year’s October 13 has been really down. With Piranha, Sorry About the Demon, and this film, I really need to find a good film for #10.

Piranha (1978)

Posted on by

The October 8 of 13

Piranha, a movie directed by Joe Dante, was a film that I never had any interest in seeing. Those type of B-movies were never in my taste. However, for the October 13, I decided to watch the original Piranha on Prime to see if it was more enjoyable than I thought.

It was pretty much what I expected.

According to IMDB, “An insurance investigator and her local guide search the Lost River Lake area to find too missing teenagers. When stumbling on an abandoned military facility, they release by accident in the river some flesh-eating piranhas that were bred to use in the Vietnam war. The piranhas are heading straight to a nearby summer resort’s lake and its guests.“

A Jaws rip-off, Piranha is a low-budget film that had some terrible special effects and the story about as simple as you could get. The acting was not very good either, especially with the secondary characters. The dialogue was atrocious for most of the film.

I have seen reviews of Piranha saying that it is a parody of Jaws or that the film was tongue-in-cheek humor. I didn’t think much of any of this film was funny, and the time when the film tried to add humor, it fell flat.

I can see why this may have become a cult classic, because there is so much awful about this that you can look at it an laugh… not with it but at it.

This would be a perfect film for Rifftrax Live as there is so much comedy to mine around what is on this screen. It was actually worse than I had thought and proved that I was right for avoiding it all these years.

Psycho II (1983)

Posted on by

The October 7 of 13

One of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock films of all time was 1960’s Psycho. Twenty three years later, there was a sequel to the film featuring the return of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates.

Of course, I have been watching Bates Motel for the last several months, which is not necessarily canon in the Psycho universe. It gave me the opportunity to start to love the character of Norma Bates. So with this October 13, I thought it would be a good thing to watch the sequel to Psycho.

While this is nowhere near the level of the iconic original, Psycho II was not bad. Anthony Perkins was wonderful in his return to the role of Norman Bates. You could never be sure whether or not Norman had actually regained his sanity. I wasn’t sure until the very end, which was nice.

The story had an impressive twist to start off that I did not see coming. I am not sure it worked all the way through, but when we found out the surprise, it worked for most of the middle of the story.

It did feel like it went a little too long and I am not sure I loved the resolution of the film… at least part of it. No spoilers from me, but I did like the very end of the film… just not what led to it.

This was better than I expected it to be, but if you were to only watch one Psycho movie, make it the original Hitchcock classic.

Messiah of Evil (1974)

Posted on by

The October 6 of 13

This supernatural horror film from 1973 is the next film in the October 13. Messiah of Evil is a wild film, nightmarish-like with zombies and a “Dark Stranger.”

According to IMDB, “After losing contact with her artist father, Arletty (Marianna Hill) travels to the west coast. Though she doesn’t find him, she meets Thom (Michael Greer), an odd wealthy man who’s travelling with 2 lovers, Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford), to meet her father. She reads his diary and realizes there’s something strange with the residents of this California town.“

I will say that the story of the film is convoluted and fairly messy, but that seems to work with the tone that the film is setting. The dreamlike state of the film adds to the overall confusion of the situation and it helps keep the audience off-balance.

The “Dark Stranger” is an intriguing concept that the film does not go into much specifics about. This feels like it could have been an opening chapter of a film franchise. The whole Dark Stranger idea feels very Stephen King-esce. I would have liked more about that character.

The film took definite inspiration from the other zombie films of the time, specifically those by George Romero.

Sorry About the Demon (2022)

Posted on by

The October 5 of 13

So, this one was a horror comedy. I found it on Shudder, as most of the list for this The October 13 is this year. I found it to be really silly.

After dealing with a bad break-up, Will (Jon Michael Simpson) rented a house from a family. What Will did not know was the family, the Sellers, had rented him the house because they had made a deal with the demon that was in the house, Deomonous (voiced by Tony Vespe), to possess him and take his soul to Hell instead of their daughter Grace (Presley Allard).

This movie was funny at times. At least I chuckled here and there. Otherwise it was fairly messy with the plot and just silly as it can be. It was absolutely corny and silly. I am not sure if this was intended to be a parody or if it is just meant to be a horror/comedy. Either way, the film was not the worst thing I ever saw. I did not like the way it started, as it seemed fairly stupid to me. However, Jon Michael Simpson had a charm about him that made me want to keep watching, even though I wanted to stop watching at first.

Overall, it was not the worst film I have seen. It is not great, but if you are in the right mood, this could be a fun family horror/comedy for Halloween.

The Pool (2018)

Posted on by

The October 4 of 13

The October 13 continued today as I pulled a film from Amazon Prime to watch. It was the Thai thriller called The Pool.

According to IMDB, “Day, an insecure art director of a commercial production company is left alone to clear up a 6-meter deep deserted pool after the shooting. He falls asleep on an inflatable raft due to an unbearable fatigue. When he wakes up again the water level has sunk so low that he cannot climb out of the pool on his own. He screams for help but the only thing that hears him is some creature from a nearby crocodile farm.“

Starting off, I have an illogical fear of alligators and crocodiles. It makes no sense, but they give me a lot of stress and anxiety. I always joke that I am never going to Florida because of the killer alligators like I saw in Crawl. It is a joke, but that movie absolutely scared me. So seeing this man vs. crocodile survival tale, I was ready to be unsettled.

I will say that there were some good moments of anxiety in the film. Day, played by Theeradej Wongpuapan, and his girlfriend Koi, played by Ratnamon Ratchiratham, made an attractive couple stalked by this angry and hungry crocodile.

However, at the end of the day, it was hard to get past one simple fact. These two are dumb as shit.

I understand some things need to be exaggerated for tension, but when characters continually do the stupidest things during a film, it just pushes the level of believability. I found myself yelling at the computer screen over and over, wanting Day to do something smart once. There were so many opportunities to do something else and he constantly chose the wrong one. It was frustrating.

Then the CGI on the crocodile was at times wonky. That can be forgiven because of budgets, but when it is combined with the dumb characters, that makes a tough combination.

And for the dog lovers out there, there is a scene with a dog that is perhaps the single most horrific scene I have ever watched anywhere. The imagery of the scene will disturbing even if you are not a big dog fan, like me, and for the dog lovers out there, you will not be prepared for the shocking moment.

I had seen this receive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes so I was hopeful this would be a hidden gem. However, looking closer, the audience score is at 53%, and I can see why that is. This had some positives, but the stupid decisions, the CGI, the crocodile, and the horrific scene near the end dropped this one down for me.

Hell House LLC (2015)

Posted on by

The October 3 of 13

I watched the most recent Hell House movie, called Hell House LLC: Origins- The Carmichael Manor for this year’s June Swoon. I had no idea that this was the fourth film in a franchise. So I figured the first film of the franchise would be a good film to use for The October 13.

This was filmed in a documentary style of a supposed incident at a haunted house called Hell House opening during the Halloween season where fifteen people died in, what authorities were calling an “unknown malfunction.” The documentarian, Diane Graves (Alice Bahlke), found the sole survivor of the crew from the haunted house, Sara (Ryan Jennifer Jones), and Sara gave her several recording made by the others at the Hell House.

At this point, the movie became a combination of documentary and found footage film, and it was absolutely insane.

The footage was remarkably creepy as it showed so many frightening moments inside the Abaddon Hotel, which was deserted and had signs that there may have been a Satanic cult here at one point in its history.

As the crew worked to get their haunted house constructed inside the Abaddon Hotel, strange things began to happen, especially with some of the clown mannequins.

Some of the stuff they got on film was frustrating at times because it never seemed to matter to Hell House CEO Alex (Danny Bellini) even when his crew was clearly suffering the effects of the hotel. There was a mystery reason that Alex was so determined to stay and, though referenced, it was never revealed. I have seen speculation that it was a financial reason and I have also seen that the answer might come in the actual sequel to this. Maybe that one has to go on a watch list too.

I found this really intense and I enjoyed this whole film. The found footage was fun and filled with anxiety. Those clowns were absolutely creepy and the little things made this all the better. This was a wonderful film for The October 13.

Speak No Evil (2022)

Posted on by

The October 2 of 13

Recently, I went to see the new movie starring James McAvoy called Speak No Evil without the knowledge that there had been a Dutch version of the film just a couple of years before it. When I discovered that, I placed the original version on the list to watch for The October 13.

Man, I feel like I have been kicked in the gut.

The first two acts of the new movie was very similar, if not a shot for shot replay of the Dutch film. However, the third act took a drastic turn and ended up in one of the darkest endings I have ever seen for any movie. Legitimately, I feel a little sick to my stomach after this one got over.

According to Wikipedia, ” The film centers on Bjørn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), a Danish couple who are invited by Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders), a Dutch couple, to their country house for a weekend holiday.”

It is difficult to not compare the two movies since I saw them so close to each other, and since I saw the 2024 American version first, it feels as if that is the original to me. I know this Dutch version is the first one, but it is bouncing around in my head in the other order. Fedja van Huêt plays the role that James McAvoy would play in the American version. I think I enjoyed both performances. McAvoy’s was a touch more unbalanced while Fedja van Huêt was a touch more sinister.

That third act though. Holy cow. I can’t describe it sufficiently to make it clear how disturbing it is without spoiling, so let’s just say that this is completely different from the American version.

This is one of those movies that will stick with me for a long time. I do expect that I will never want to watch this again because of the way it kicked me in the gut. If I had watched this before the American version, I cannot imagine wanting to go see the remake.

First time I have given something two ratings…

The Day of the Dead (1985)

Posted on by

October 1 of 13

The first film of the October 13 this year was one of the all-time classics among the zombie genre, written and directed by the father of the zombie movie, George R. Romero. It was the third film in his zombie trilogy, The Day of the Dead.

To be honest, I thought that I had seen parts of this movie before, but after watching it this morning, I realized that I had never seen it at all. None of the film was recognizable for me.

The film follows a group of survivors, a combination of military and scientists, who have taken up refuge in a deserted missile silo to avoid the Living Dead. Meanwhile, one scientist tried to discover a way to domesticate the Dead.

The military men, in particular, were such horrendous people that it was clear that they were being set up to become zombie chow, and have the audience happy at their fate. There were very few of the survivors that were easy to root for.

Sarah (Lori Cardille) was one of the scientists who seemed to have the best head on her shoulders. John (Terry Alexander) was the helicopter pilot.

The worst of the military men was Captain Henry Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) and Private Walter Steel (Gary Howard Klar), both men were abusive and power mad. They were the characters in a slasher film that you want to see killed. And this film did not let us down. Rhodes’s death specifically was horrific.

We also came as close as we were going to get to a thinking zombie with Bub (Sherman Howard) who was being trained by scientist Dr. Matthew Logan (Richard Liberty).

There was a lot of screaming in the film, but I think that was meant to show the negatives of the humans, how the humans may actually be the monsters in this monster story.

One of the funniest part of the movie was seeing the oncoming zombie horde with the collection of zombie types in the mass. There was a zombie cowboy, a zombie football player, a zombie clown… makes one wonder why this group of one time people were together at all.

The Day of the Dead is a solid film with some amazing zombie gore, particularly for the time frame. I was very pleased with the kills of the film as the deaths of these unlikable humans were satisfactory.

Apostle (2018)

Posted on by

The October 13 of 13

So The October 13, the watch of thirteen horror/Halloween/thriller movies that I had not written a review for on the site, comes to an end with the final listed film, the Netflix film called Apostle starring Dan Stevens.

According to IMDB, “The year is 1905. Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) travels to a remote island to rescue his sister after she’s kidnapped by a mysterious religious cult demanding a ransom for her safe return. It soon becomes clear that the cult will regret the day it baited this man, as he digs deeper and deeper into the secrets and lies upon which the commune is built“

The first feeling, vibe, I got from this film was that it reminded me of The Wicker Man. This turned even more brutal and certainly avoided the hammy clichés of the Nicolas Cage’s movie.

This started really slow. In fact, almost an hour in, I was not finding much to enjoy in Apostle. Dan Stevens is always solid and his performance was basically what was keeping me with the film.

When things picked up, there was some horrific scenes involving a father and his daughter that were shocking and disturbing. It was at this point that I found myself more invested than I had been at any point prior to this.

The third act of this film was brutal and bloody, with some horrific imagery that pushed the story into a new level. However, I am not sure that I enjoyed the resolution of this film.

This wrapped up The October 13 with a bit of a downer. Apostle had some ups, but I’m not sure there are enough ups to recommend it.

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Posted on by

The October 12 of 13

The penultimate film in the October 13th watch was a horror/comedy called Jennifer’s Body, which featured performances from Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried.

This one was up and down for me. There were things that I thought were clever and enjoyable, but there were other aspects of the film that I found disappointing and dumb.

I really liked the relationship between Seyfried’s Needy and her boyfriend Chip (Johnny Simmons). I thought that relationship defied the typical relationship you would see in a teen film and I thought they had a rooting interest. I was very unhappy with the resolution of this coupling.

Megan Fox was actually pretty good in this role, even if a lot of it was dumb. Fox as a demon-possessed creature oddly fit.

Unlike some of the other films I have seen lately, this one’s conclusion was much better and provided some satisfaction after much of the disappointment of the story up until this point.

The film was lacking any real funny moments as I may have laughed once. The scares were almost minimal as it just depended on having some blood on Megan Fox or having her make scary faces when she attacked her victims.

The parents and teachers (especially the terrible wigged up version of JK Simmons) were so lost and were lacking in this story at all. Everything was so unbelievable that when the parts that were supposed to be normal is difficult to believe, the fantastical isn’t going to work either.

This is not the worst movie I have watched during the October 13, but it is down the list for sure.

Saw (2004)

Posted on by

The October 11 of 13

I have never had any interest in the Saw franchise. The torture/gore films do not appeal to me and I have always connected the Saw franchise to that form of movie.

However, I decided that this movie watch, The October 13, I would give the original Saw a try. I had heard that this was the best of the franchise and did not resemble the gore fests of the sequels that followed it. So I added it to the list.

Who would have thought… I liked this a lot.

For me, the film benefited from its cast because it featured Cary Elwes, whom I loved from The Princess Bride, Danny Glover (whose inclusion surprised me), and two of my favorites from LOST, Ken Leung (who played Miles) and Ben Linus himself, Michael Emerson.

The film also did not include nearly as much gore and torture scenes as I expected. It was there, but it was more psychological torture than anything else. It felt like the graphic scenes all were earned and not just tossed in for a gross-out quota.

Unfortunately, I knew the answer to the twist of the film because I had seen the previews for Saw X which was out this year (and I have not seen) and I knew the actor who was behind Jigsaw. I wished I had not known that because it did affect my viewing of this.

Some of the storytelling aspects of the film was confusing, especially the flashback sequences which kept the narrative from being told in a typical structure. While that is usually a cool feature, this caused more confusion as I was not sure when the events were taking place and in what order we were supposed to put them in. Still, I give director James Wan credit for trying to frame the story in a different manner than other slasher films.

I did not like the ending scene of the film as it felt tacked on or unsatisfying. I found that it really stretched credibility of the film that already required a lot of stretching. Plus, I did not like the way they left everything up in the air and how we really do not know the fate of some of the characters involved.

In the end, I was impressed overall with Saw and I am pleased that I watched it. It was a much better film than I thought it was going to be. However, I do not plan on watching any of the other, universally panned sequels that followed this.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Posted on by

The October 10 of 13

How is a film that is so well-known and iconic this bad?

The Amityville Horror was made in 1979 based on a “true” story. It is one of the most famous haunted house movies of all time. Yet, this was not a good movie.

It was so silly at many times that it undercut whatever tension and anxiety it tried to build into the mood.

I would give credit to James Brolin and Margot Kidder, who played George and Kathy Lutz- the newly married couple who moved into the house where a brutal murder of a family took place. Brolin and Kidder did what they could and they certainly committed to the story. They were not the problem and they may be the reason why this stinker has passed the test of time.

Of course, Brolin’s axe into the bathroom door came a year before Jack Nicholson’s far superior axe job in The Shining. Brolin snapped out of his trans fairly quickly so maybe Jack needs to take some notes from him.

The same could not be said for Rod Steiger, whose performance as Father Delaney was so far beyond over-the-top that his entire screaming monologues become laughable.

The ending was both sudden and ridiculous. George Lutz was a much better person than I am because I would be going dog shopping for a new dog instead of running back into that insanity. And why did he fall into that huge pool of blood? Where did that come from?

It felt as if the film had a bunch of subplots that never really came together in the movie.

It may be iconic, but that does not make it something you should watch again. Bad movie.

Slither (2006)

Posted on by

The October 9 of 13

The October 13 continues this month with James Gunn’s horror/comedy/sci-fi film called Slither. This is a monster from outer space type film that had some zombie movie tropes to it.

Gunn’s favorite actors make appearances in this flick, including Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion. Elizabeth Banks is another of Gunn’s regulars. All of these actors are front and center in major roles in this movie.

According to IMDB, “From the depths of the endless space, a flaming meteorite crashes into the dark woods of the sleepy town of Wheelsy, South Carolina. As the scorched rock reveals its silent content–a baneful parasitic organism–a subtle alien invasion commences, and the war’s unlucky first victim is the town’s local businessman, Grant (Michael Rooker). Little by little, as an internal change transforms Grant into an utterly hideous monstrosity, his wife, Starla (Elizabeth Banks), starts to feel that something’s been eating at him the last few days. Now, before the unstoppable extraterrestrial attack, no one is safe, and to make matters worse, Grant’s transformation is far from over yet. Who can stop the slithering army from outer space?”

Nathan Fillion was great as the local sheriff. I loved the writing for Fillion, his dry wit was so apparent and a perfect fit for the story. He was excellent in this role.

This was tense, and it was very creepy, with those slithery red worms going into people’s mouths and turning them into monsters.

Slither had a definite Men in Black feel to it with just more gross-out moments. It was funny with some real laugh out loud bits. Gregg Henry was a hoot in his obnoxious mayor role.

Slither was great. I had thought that I had seen this before, but as I was watching it, nothing seemed familiar. I enjoyed it tremendously.