30 Days of Halloween (Day Four).

For those new to my blog, and to those confused about what the hell 'day four' means well, here is your explanation. Last year I attempted a thing called '30 Days of Halloween', it is basically a fun little game where you try and watch one horror movie for every day of October, running up to Halloween itself. I attempted to also review each film I watched...and failed pretty quickly, although I have a lot of free time as a student, I still don't have enough to watch and review a movie every day. So what I'm basically doing this year is having horror movie marathons with my friend, we've probably watched close to twenty horror movies in the last four days, that way I can basically fit like three weeks of viewing in the days I'm actually free to enjoy it and then taking several day breaks in between to do what I need to do, rather than trying to fit one in every day. That means that after each marathon (hopefully it should be around three each week) I'll pick out the best and worst of what I've seen so far and write little mini-reviews of horror I discover that I think you should be checking out and the stuff you should really be steering clear of. Enjoy!

My recommendations from the last four days of October surprisingly only amount to three films. And no, that doesn't mean I've seen a lot of bad films either, but horror is the genre I grew up on...so I'm a difficult bastard to please and so I've seen a lot I've enjoyed on the whole, but there is always something that makes it just not worth recommending when compared to well...the three I'm about to list.

My number one recommendation so far is a film named 'Absentia' which I'd honestly argue is a masterpiece, not just as a horror film, but just as a film in general. I really don't want to give too much away, but this was an indie film funded by people through a crowd funding website and what you get is a film that is genuinely frightening, not relying on cheap tricks or gore and an absolutely fascinating central mystery. With an ending that leaves more than enough for satisfaction, but also more than enough to debate with your friends over a beer, coffee or even over dinner, I love films that end like that. I not only recommend this to every horror fan who has been looking for a genuinely frightening film but also basically any fan of narrative film who can handle having the shit scared out of them, this comes with the highest of Think About It! Recommendations, brilliant.

Another that I'd argue is a must see horror film is a film called 'Creature'. Yes it's surrounded by people calling it 'the worst film ever made' and was a massive bomb in the box office and no, it isn't quite the masterpiece Absentia is, or well, rather not even near admittedly, but I really, really digged it and not even ironically, I really bloody liked this film. There is no denying that there is some terrible filmmaking at play and the story, although not complicated in itself, is surprisingly complicated for what it is and it really isn't necessary. However, Lockjaw, the aforementioned creature of the piece looks fantastic and the third act is just absolutely brilliant. It doesn't exactly come with the highest of Think About It! Recommendation, but it gets my seal of approval. Bam!

My final recommendation doesn't come quite as highly as either of the previous films, but is still a really enjoyable film and will make a great member to your horror collection or movie night this October (or outside of it too, since this is really as much a comedy as it is a horror film) and that is a film called, 'Flight of The Dead' which is basically Snakes on A Plane with zombies and apparently not a rip-off as they were made at the same time. It isn't quite as badass as that perhaps sounds, especially since it's lacking the presence of Samuel L. Jackson so I can't offer it any of the Think About It! Awards I just made up, but it's goofy zombie fun.

And so far, I really don't think I've seen that much is really worth the effort of alerting you to its existence  just to ask you to avoid it. I mean there are poor films like Beware or Tape 407 but neither are really bad enough to illicit the anger to get me to tell everyone to stay away. About the only one that does is a film called DeadHeads, I recognise this is a comedy, but the film is truly beyond stupid, it's just...I don't even want to describe it, because I know you sick people will just see it for yourselves to see if it really is that bad, but please just believe me, it is that bad! This movie earns the Think About It! Steaming Pile of Shit Rating of Disapproval.

Think About It!

-Locke