[The Mice]

Jericho
(2007 Video Game)
I don't really game any more. I was supersized my XBOX 360 powered on. I spent a few hours reminiscing before Denver Bronco NFL Football Game . Back in the day this was one of my all-time freakiest and favorite video games
Clive Barkers writing and art rendering are sublime.
​

This is one game that I meant to check out but it just simply got lost in the shuffle and/or backlog of games! One science fiction horror game that I really enjoyed from that era was Dead Space.

I still do game but admittedly not as much as I used to. I won't be bothering with the new consoles next month but wouldn't mind an Xbox One S for the living room since it has that sweet 4K Blu-ray drive and would make a good streaming box in general. Hoping it will drop to around $200 Canadian when the new consoles come out. The same thing happened to the Xbox 360 when the Xbox One came out.

Outside of that, I am soon looking to build a new PC entirely since the CPU on my gaming rig is from 2014 (that PC will become my Internet box afterwards). But given that I am not as much of a gamer anymore (even if I am really into Tom Clancy's The Division 2 right now), I might elect to go the budget route and get an Intel i5-10400F with an Asus TUF B460 Wi-Fi motherboard, 32GB RAM (since it is cheap), and some mid-range video card. I'm just waiting on the 3060 and 3070 video cards from Nvidia and am looking forward to AMD's announcement of their RX 6000 video cards on Wednesday. After that, I should have a good idea of what direction I'm going in. Right now I am rather torn but a lot of it comes down to available supply of parts too. A Ryzen 5 5600X is also a possible candidate for a CPU, as is the Ryzen 7 3700X.

 

[ADU]

No excuse for "shaky cam" anymore. Even my $100 4K action cam has electronic image stabilization and gyro. Piece of trivia: Android wasn't developed to be phone but for image stabilization for cameras.

Interesting. To quote Mr. Carson, I did not know that.

And speaking of androids, I slipped in two more flicks today. Both of which featured Mackenzie Davis...



37. Always Shine (2016) - FTV

This is a mid-grade psychological thriller about a pair of estranged friends, both actors, who go for a weekend trip to Big Sur to try to patch things up. According to Wikipedia, this has a 92% approval rating on RT, based on 49 reviews. I found it a little tedious and meandering though, in spite of some fairly solid performances by its two co-stars, Davis and Caitlin FitzGerald. Streamed free on Sony Crackle.



38. Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

I saw this previously in the theater. And gave it a thumbs up based on that. The sound and picture were so terrible though at the theater, that I really couldn't appreciate all the visual and sound effects. The Blu-ray edition definitely remedied that.

This was my first viewing of the movie on home vid. And it is easily one of the best-looking and sounding discs I've seen recently. Top-notch, with a pretty filmic look as well (thankfully). If I did the rating thing, this would probably get some of my highest marks for a recent SF-action picture for just the quality of the visuals alone. The movie is uber-violent though, and definitely not suitable for younger or less mature viewers.

Loved seein Linda and Arnie in action again together. And Davis was quite good too in this.

 

[RobKnapp]

The First Power (1990)
Kino Lorber Blu-Ray
First Time View

​

Director:Robert Resnikoff
Writer:Robert Resnikoff
Stars:Lou Diamond Phillips, Tracy Griffith, Jeff Kober

A dedicated L.A. police detective and a female psychic must stop a demonic serial killer the Pentagram Killer, one of Satan's disciples, possesses the First Power; the powers of resurrection, teleportation and possession.

The First Power is a pretty entertaining cops vs. serial killer movie with some interesting supernatural/Satanic twists. Resnikoff paces the movie quite well and keeps the action moving along at a good clip. The film also builds quite well to a pretty satisfactory conclusion that proves to be effective.

The film also has an appropriately dark look to it .Resnikoff slowly introduces more horror elements into the picture. There's good use of some interesting shadowy locations and the cinematography and lighting teams do an impressive job of balancing shadow and light in clever ways to create an eerie neo-noir atmosphere .

I was impressed by Lou Diamond Phillips (Logan), he finds comfort in this serial killer thriller, completely convincing as a cop on the edge, tracking an elusive madman with ties to Satanism.

Beautiful Tracy Griffith (Tess) is good as a professional psychic driven to stop when she starts seeing the pentagram killer after his death. She's a proactive character and a good foil for Logan. Tess doesn't come across as some kind of New Age flake, but a grounded person who speaks matter-of-factually about the spirit world.

The real scene stealer in the movie, however, is Jeff Kober as the Pentagram killer . He's obviously having a good time with the part and does a great job of creating some palpable menace with his character. The work of the three leads, combined with a few decent supporting efforts and the right balance of action, horror and suspense make The First Power is an entertaining thriller and a supernatural neo-noir ; a fine way to kill an hour and a half . 8/10

There is a 32 minute interview with Lou Diamond Phillips, 17 minute interview with Jeff Kober, and the original trailer. The interviews are excellent, and are full of behind the scenes details.

🎃 October 31 days of Halloween viewing 🎃
1. Becky (2020) F.T.V. 9/10
2. Cat People (1982) F.T.V. 8/10
3. The Lodge (2019) F.T.V 9/10
4. Gretel & Hansel (2020) F.T.V. 7/10
5.Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987) 9/10
6. Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) 8/10
7. The City of the Dead (1960) 8.5/10
8. The Grudge (2020) F.T.V. 6/10
9. Phase IV (1974) F.T.V. 8/10
10. The Hunt (2020) F.T.V. 9/10
11. The Blood on Satans Claw (1971) F.T.V 8/10
12. The Entity (1981) F.T.V. 9/10
13. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) 8/10
14. fear dot Com (2002) F.T.V. 8/10
15. The Turning (2020) F.T.V. 7/10
16. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) F.T.V 8/10
17. Proxy (2013) F.T.V. 9/10
18. The Bad Seed (1956) F.T.V. 7/10
19. Laviathan (1989) 9/10
20. The Abyss (1989) 8/10
21. DeepStar Six (1989) 8/10
22. Deep Rising (1998) 8/10
23. The Uninvited (1944) 8/10
24. Snatchers (2019) F.T.V. 7/10
25. Gremlins (1984) 10/10
26. Horror of Dracula (1958) 8/10
27. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Live Cinema Showing 10/10
28. Night of the Lepus (1972) 8/10
29. The First Power F.T.V. (1990) 8/10 ​

 

[darthrsg]

I remember when The First Power was in heavy rotation on the C Band units and you could watch it all day on repeat. I should revisit it.

 

[Brian Conrad]

What better for Halloween than a zombie comedy (not a spoof of zombie movies). 'The Dead Don't Die'. Don't go by the trailer, it's Jarmusch, give the film a shot. It's an ode to Romero zombie movies more then a spoof of the genre. It's funny The film references other films/other characters some of the actors have played, Romero films, and the film itself. Watch and listen carefully, there are things going on at several levels. Zombies follow the Romero school of zombie-ism vs. the Snyder school. Watched on Cinemax.
The Dead Don't Die (2019)





The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves.

Director:
Jim Jarmusch

Writer:
Jim Jarmusch

I'm a Jarmusch fan but haven't seen it yet. But speaking of artsy directors and writers I watched "The Curse of Downers Grove" on Hulu last night which was co-produced and co-written by Bret Easton Ellis. Tension runs high in this film about problems at a high school right before graduation. Three and a half car batteries.

 

[ADU]

24. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) (guest reviewer)

Since Nightmare is an acknowledged classic I have reviewed here in prior years, I once again invited my 15-year-old daughter Jillian, who was seeing the film for the first time, to be the guest reviewer. Take it away, Jillian!

Just wanted to commend Ms. J on another excellent movie take!

 

[Waboman]

The First Power. There’s a blast from the past. Must be at least a couple decades since I’ve seen it. Like darth said, will need to revisit it.

 

[Panson]

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) (FTV)

Eight years after the original 1977 film, a group of young friends are menaced by the clan of desert cannibals.

This Wes Craven film came right on the heels of his excellent first A Nightmare On Elm Street, and it is much maligned by critics and Wes Craven himself. It's often seen as a low-quality cash grab film capitalizing on the name recognition of the first Hills film, and the name of Wes Craven, and that's a fair assessment, but the film actually isn't nearly as bad as it's reputation.

Yes, this has none of the brutish subversive horror that made the original a classic, but does have many of the same elements and same characters, most notably the return of the egg-headed Michael Berryman, and Janus Blythe as Ruby, the reformed feral girl with a heart. New characters are introduced, most of them disposable except for a blind girl named Cass who has superior hearing and sense of smell, and who I found myself rooting for. There's the usual desert setting and nasty booby traps that the clan sets to maim and kill their unwitting human prey, and some fun chase sequences on motorcycles. Things sag a bit in the middle but pick up nicely at the end when the survivors left turn tables on the killers and make some booby traps of their own, leading to a satisfying ending.

Despite being a mid-80's film, the tone and music feel much more like a late 70's TV movie, blood and guts aside. Maybe Wes Craven was just phoning it in, but If you know nothing about the original film, this plays as an average, if dated, low budget action-horror film.

3 out of 5 stars.

Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5

 

[ApolloCreed]

Just realized that we're missing some of the usual suspects this year. BornSlippy, GoCabo, GeneralKenobi, Yankeeman..... Hope you guys are well.

 

[darthrsg]

Just realized that we're missing some of the usual suspects this year. BornSlippy, GoCabo, GeneralKenobi, Yankeeman..... Hope you guys are well.

Slippy has been MIA since before the Rona.

 

[darthrsg]

Yankeeman posted just before October.

 

[darthrsg]

Looks like General Kenobi is no longer on the site.

 

[darthrsg]

The House Where Evil Dwells

​

An ancient crime of passion and a ghostly trio leave its mark on the present. In The House Where Evil Dwells an American family move into a traditional Japanese house rumored to be haunted. It isn't long before supernatural events begin. Seemingly playful at first, lights on or off, soon evolves into something more sinister. Things ramp up after a local monk delivers a message on their unfortunate choice of dwelling.

It's a pretty cool setup and appears to be a rarity in regards to the typical haunted house movies, at least I've not seen many like this. You have a great location, and some cool ambient sounds like the cicadas. There's also that late 70's jazzy sound. You get spooky talismans, samurai swords, and a tragic event replaying from beyond the grave. Old witches, Force ghost samurais, giant enemy crab, and more. It has that 80's TV movie feel but is rated R for nudity. All in all I enjoyed it.

​

 

[tenthplanet]

A lot of people have seen this before but I hadn't ..'The Fourth Kind'...A thriller involving an ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up.
My take. An alien abduction movie with no UFOs and no seen aliens based on real incidents with footage from sessions with the real people. Imagine a real life X-files situation crossed with aliens as supernatural entities vs. science fiction ones. After you watch this you may believe or not, but you'll have something to think about that hopefully won't be your dreams Worth a look if you've never seen it.

Spoiler

Check out the window for white owls before you go to sleep

 

[tenthplanet]

Looks like General Kenobi is no longer on the site.

 

[RobKnapp]

Nightbreed (1990)
Shout!The Director's Cut : Blu-ray

"I have seen the future of horror, and his name is Clive Barker" - Stephen King

Clive Barker has gone on record as saying that he felt that distributor Fox and financiers Morgan Creek Productions never understood the film and simply cut the story to pieces omitting most of the more graphic violence so it would fit what their idea of the picture should have been.

Shout, with Warner Home Video, were able to locate the original film elements in the Warner archives to newly restore the sequences. Barker stated, "when Scream Factory told me that they found the Nightbreed film footage, I was gob-smacked! This is the ultimate validation of choices made by myself and Mark Miller all the way back in 2008."Shout! Factory announced The Director's Cut Blu-ray in July 2014.This version, overseen by Clive Barker, will run twenty minutes longer than the theatrical version and contain forty minutes of new and altered footage. Nightbreed is now broader in scope, has a clearer vision, is more epic in feel and has better defined characters.

In a tie-in documentary, Clive Barker relates that the producers expressed a concern that "The monsters are the good guys". Barker replied, "That's the point."

Director:Clive Barker
Writers:Clive Barker (novel), Clive Barker (screenplay)
Stars:Craig Sheffer, The Master of Body Horror: David Cronenberg, Anne Bobby

Craig Sheffer and Anne Bobby in Nightbreed (1990) ​

Boone (Craig Sheffer) may be a troubled young man, but his troubles are just beginning. Set up as the fall guy in a string of slasher murders, he decides he’ll hide by crossing the threshold that separates ’us’from ’them’and sneak into the forbidden subterranean realm of Midian. Boone will live among the monsters.

As with any Clive Barker production, Nightbreed is absolutely brimming with practical creature effects. The bizarre Nightbreed take on all kinds of kooky forms, many of which could be classified as deformities, others plain ridiculous. Despite this, the monster makeup is pretty consistently amazing that's where much of the creepiness is mined.

Barker encapsulates his vision throughout with a myriad of great sets and visual effects. Barker's vision of Midian is truly an otherworldly experience. The Gothic sensibilities, coupled with the ornateness of the set create a world which is unlike anything ever captured on screen.

The film features a fantastic score by Danny Elfman which complements the mystical underworld where monsters dwell, and which seems more alive and colorful than the real world, which is full of drabness, pain and suffering.

Nightbreed remains one of the best horror fantasy flicks out there. It is supremely entertaining and unlike anything horror fantasy film a fan will ever see. It's a story where the monsters are the good guys. There is truly nothing else out there like it! The greatest attraction here is the audience's immersion into the film's world it creates. It's not a movie for everybody but it shows why Barker is one of most unique horror writers around. 8/10

🎃 October 31 days of Halloween viewing 🎃
1. Becky (2020) F.T.V. 9/10
2. Cat People (1982) F.T.V. 8/10
3. The Lodge (2019) F.T.V 9/10
4. Gretel & Hansel (2020) F.T.V. 7/10
5.Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987) 9/10
6. Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) 8/10
7. The City of the Dead (1960) 8.5/10
8. The Grudge (2020) F.T.V. 6/10
9. Phase IV (1974) F.T.V. 8/10
10. The Hunt (2020) F.T.V. 9/10
11. The Blood on Satans Claw (1971) F.T.V 8/10
12. The Entity (1981) F.T.V. 9/10
13. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) 8/10
14. fear dot Com (2002) F.T.V. 8/10
15. The Turning (2020) F.T.V. 7/10
16. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956) F.T.V 8/10
17. Proxy (2013) F.T.V. 9/10
18. The Bad Seed (1956) F.T.V. 7/10
19. Laviathan (1989) 9/10
20. The Abyss (1989) 8/10
21. DeepStar Six (1989) 8/10
22. Deep Rising (1998) 8/10
23. The Uninvited (1944) 8/10
24. Snatchers (2019) F.T.V. 7/10
25. Gremlins (1984) 10/10
26. Horror of Dracula (1958) 8/10
27. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Live Cinema Showing 10/10
28. Night of the Lepus (1972) 8/10
29. The First Power F.T.V. (1990) 8/10
30. Nightbreed (1990) 8/10 ​

 

[Ben23]

I sadly have not watched enough horror movies lately, but I did get my Halloween pipe yesterday from Eldritch Pipes in the UK!!! I love it so much.

 

[darthrsg]

Nice.

 

[ApolloCreed]

​

Slippy has been MIA since before the Rona.

Yankeeman posted just before October.

Looks like General Kenobi is no longer on the site.

😕I sort of mistyped in my last comment....I had known that they weren't posting lately, but it just dawned on me that none of them were posting specifically in October. Like I said, I hope they're all doing well.