The End...?

Well, October has ended and with it, my 31 Film Challenge of 2019. For my last four days of October I watched a highly debated classic, a very creepy take on a folktale, an outstanding sophmore effort, and a dud. There's always at least one dud.

Here they are in order:

October 28th: The Lighthouse (2019)

                Robert Eggers' sophmore effort lives up to and exceeds expectations. It definitely bounced way over the high expectations I had for it. The film gives us striking visuals, a spellbinding story, and powerful turns from Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe as two men taking their 4 week shift at a lighthouse. Loneliness, paranoia, the feeling of being trapped not only with someone you hardly know and are forced internally and externally to deal with ones own guilt and conscience. This is just a surface level commentary on it. By all means get to Cinemapolis and see this movie! Then, find me and we will chat. Theories abound!

October 29th: Hole in the Ground (2019)

                This one had been getting recommended to me for months, but I keep passing it by. What a fool was I! A single mother and her son move to a old fixer upper in the Irish countryside. This house is near the forest which contains a gigantic sinkhole. Scary already. The mom, Sarah (Seana Kerslake), hears a strange story about a woman from the town who started claiming her own son was "not really her son". One night Sarah's son goes missing, and when she finds him something seems just a bit off. The changeling tale is not new, but this take is clever, creepy, and had one an excellent ending. This was perhaps the scariest film I watched all month

October 30th: The Nun (2018)
               This was a bummer. I love horror films about nuns. But this movie was a drag. It was all jump scares you could see coming a mile away, and characters I just didn't care about. If you're looking for a scary nun movie, I suggest The Devil's Doorway.

October 31st: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

               I know, people either like this one or don't, but I have always loved it. I found the premise so disturbing as a kid- a big Halloween mask manufacturer plotting to kill kids on Halloween night through the masks. KILLING KIDS! Rarely do you see a kid getting his face melted and snakes crawling out of it, but you do see that in this movie. Scary stuff. Sure, the movie has a squirrelly plot and some cheesy dialogue, but Dan O'Herlihy is so deliciously diabolical as Conal Cohcran, the mastermind behind the deadly masks, coupled with the reveal of what those masks can do and why they want to do it make this one close to my heart and a Holiday favorite. Also, that Silver Shamrock jingle is so darn catchy.

Just because October is over, that doesn't mean the horror movies stop. I say celebrate horror all year round. It's here for us all. Be here for horror.