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British made for television ghost story where a London lawyer must settle the remote country estate that is reputedly haunted.
I’ve always thought of the 2012 The Woman in Black as being an underrated gem along the lines of a modern Hammer horror film, so when I learned that the original British television version from 1989 was available on Blu-ray, I picked up a copy. This version was aired once on Christmas evening in 1989 and few people watched it as it’s not exactly a feel-good film. The film only existed in poor quality bootleg VHS versions (with commercial breaks) so it’s great to finally see it looking better than ever.
The film itself, while excellent by television movie standards, is a bit too casually paced and claustrophobic for the big screen. However, the performances are all excellent (what is it with British actors?) and there are a few effective visual scares, especially the Woman in Black herself, which I’m sure probably gave more than a few British children nightmares back in the day. Without spoiling much I was surprised at a fairly downbeat ending, especially for television airing on Christmas. It’s safe to say the film doesn’t pull many punches.
Fans of British horror and ghost stories will be captivated.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
11. Creepshow 3 1/5 (FTV)
12. Skinamarink 4/5 (FTV)
13. The Tunnel (2011) 2/5 (FTV)
14. Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives 4/5
15. Dracula (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Nekromantik 3/5 (FTV)
17. One Missed Call (2009) 3/5 (FTV)
18. Hatching 3/5 (FTV)
19. Evil Dead Rise 3/5 (FTV)
20. TerrorVision 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Call of Cthulhu 4/5 (FTV)
22. The Awakening 4/5 (FTV)
23. Jack Frost 3/5 (FTV)
24. The Devonsville Terror 2/5 (FTV)
25. The Houses That October Built 3/5 (FTV)
26. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) 2/5 (FTV)
27. I Like Bats 3/5 (FTV)
28. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3/5 (FTV)
29. The Shining 5/5
30. The Woman in Black (1989) 3/5 (FTV)
Kurbens Horror movie list!
1. Beneath Us All (2023) 2,5/5 FTV
2. The Flood (2023) 3,5/5 FTV
3. Island Escape (2023) 2/5 FTV
4. Vampires vs The Bronx (2020) 4/5 FTV
5. V For Vengeance (2022) 4/5 FTV
6. Love and monsters (2020) 2,5/5 FTV
7. Night Teeth (2021) 3,5/5 FTV
8. The Nun (2022) 3,5/5 FTV
9. Night Flier (1997) 3,5/5 FTV
10. Pet semetary: Bloodlines 1,5/5 FTV
11. Scream of the Wolf (2023) 2/5 FTV
12 The Boogeyman /2023) 4/5 FTV
13. Konferensen (2023) 2/5 FTV
14. Ghost Ship aka Triangle 3,5/5 2009 FTV
15, The Fall Of The House Of Usher ep. 1-4 4,5/5 T
16. The Fall Of The House Of Usher ep 5-8 2023 Netflix
17. Rosasanta aka Werewolf Hunt 3,5/5 2004 FTV
18. Låt Den Rätte Komma In aka Let The Right One In 5/5 2008
19. The Fearless Vampire Killers 4/5 1967
20. The Midnight Meat Train 4/5 2008 FTV
21. Halloween 5/5 1978
22. The Birds 5/5 1963 This is another rewatch but i wanted a good one to close out this years horror movie marathon. Great movie. For its time i think its amazing that the birdattacks are so real even considering that most of them actually are real birds. Some are mechanical but most are real mostly captured seagulls, crows, ravens and sparrows plus some pet birds. No CGI here. Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren (in her debut) as lead with Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette and Veronica Cartwright to back them up. Quite a good collection of actors! AAlso i wanted to thank Bob for hosting this fun event. I always enjoy it. Didn't reach 30 this year because of all the darn building in the house. Of the new things i've seen i think The Fall Of The House Of Usher must take first place. Great series. Highly recommend. Good for a binge, only 8 episodes.
2.-Haunted Mansion (Disney +)
3.-The Conference (Netflix)
4.-Annihaltion (Paramount+)
5.-This is Halloween (Discovery +)
6.-Deliver Us From Evil (Netflix)
7.-Viking Wolf (Netflix)
Centuries ago, Vikings were really, really obsessed with werewolves. Like, really. The ancient pillagers were infatuated by the lore of wolves, aka ulven. The mythology spans across Viking history — they revered varulver, feared them and looked to them as symbols of strength. The Norwegian horror movie Viking Wolf (Vikingulven) — by Kings Bay director Stig Svendsen and produced by Trollhunter’s John M. Jacobsen — explores this Norse fascination via a terror-filled series of events in a quiet Scandinavian town.
The film follows Thale and her family, who’ve just moved from Oslo to a place called Nybo. While attending a party to make some new friends, Thale’s knocked down by some… thing, some creature, that also viciously murders her new classmate. Is it human? Animal? Some sort of human-animal hybrid that’s been creeping around for nearly a thousand years? And why is Thale suddenly feeling so strange?
...not bad as "shaggy dog" tails, err-tales go....bit of a departure from the standard mythos twists....happy it was my closer for the year...as always Bob-thanks tons for keeping the dark heart of Halloween beating....
October 2023 Horror Movie Marathon!
01. The Meg 2 (absolute drivel)
02. No One Will Save You ( really good)
03. Pet Sematary;Bloodlines (jesus this was bad)
04. Talk To Me (really good)
05. Haunted Mansion (not too bad)
06. The Exorcist: Believer ( its a dud)
07. It Lives Inside (Enjoyable
08. Dracula Untold (Enjoyable)
09. The Plague Of The Zombies (Really good)
10. Dark Harvest ( Enjoyable)
11. Rogue (Really good)
12..Alligator (Really good)
13. Crocodile (Really bad)
14. Five Nights At Freddy's (ok'ish)
15. Legend Of The Werewolf (really good)
“A woman's bachelorette getaway turns deadly when her bloodthirsty fiance and his backwoods friends crash the party.”
This movie got trashed for being so bad. I liked it. Kept me entertained. Entertained works.
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
15. Psychoville*
23. The Pyramid*
25. Unfriended*
34. Haunting of the Queen Mary* — 2023 — Hulu
35. Bury the Bride — 2023 — Tubi
“A psychotic photographer, a modern-day Scrooge and a pack of evil children dominate this collection of macabre tales.”
i usually love anthologies. So many familiar faces. So many!
But it was terrible.
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
15. Psychoville*
23. The Pyramid*
25. Unfriended*
34. Haunting of the Queen Mary* — 2023 — Hulu
35. Bury the Bride — 2023 — Tubi
Season 3 unrelated stories. I thought these were pretty good. Always vibrantly filmed. Money behind these.
1. El Conde*
3. No One Will Save You*
5. Bone Tomahawk*
8. Reptile*
9. Maximum Overdrive*
10. Duel*
11. Westworld
12. Hell Night*
15. Psychoville*
23. The Pyramid*
25. Unfriended*
34. Haunting of the Queen Mary* — 2023 — Hulu
35. Bury the Bride — 2023 — Tubi
37. American Horror Stories — 2023 — Hulu
Four episodes: Bestie, Daphne, Tapeworm, Organ.
Stephen King written small town werewolf movie based on his own Cycle of the Werewolf novella calendar.
I hadn’t seen this since the VHS days of the 80’s and didn’t remember much about it, so this almost felt like a first-time viewing. There’s lots of King-ish elements that I recognized and enjoyed, from the drunk guy singing a Rhinegold beer jingle to some of the small town antics. A young Corey Haim does well as the lead actor, but it’s Gary Busey who steals the show as his charismatic uncle from the wrong side of the tracks. Say what you want about the bear-like appearance of the werewolf, they wisely keep its screen time limited for maximum effect, much like Jaws did with the shark.
Stephen King was rumored to have been intoxicated when he agreed to do the original Cycle of the Werewolf project, and the screenplay feels similarly disjointed and structurally problematic. At times we get an older version of the big sister character narrating the scenes like in the film version of To Kill A Mockingbird (or more to the point, Stand By Me), but the sister is most definitely not a major character so this is an odd choice. The music seems a bit like TV movie material and took me out of the movie.
Another odd thing is that the fireworks scene in the novella was tied to the fourth of July, but in the movie we’re told the fireworks show has been canceled, but since a bottle rocket plays a key part in the monster’s identification, there’s a fireworks scene anyway. Maybe it’s normal in Maine to set off fireworks any time of year? Minor nitpicking perhaps, but overall there is a messy, episodic feel to this movie most likely brought upon by the calendar structure. Or maybe King was still a bit tipsy.
Not a classic King film, but an enjoyable 80’s werewolf movie with some great characters.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
11. Creepshow 3 1/5 (FTV)
12. Skinamarink 4/5 (FTV)
13. The Tunnel (2011) 2/5 (FTV)
14. Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives 4/5
15. Dracula (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Nekromantik 3/5 (FTV)
17. One Missed Call (2009) 3/5 (FTV)
18. Hatching 3/5 (FTV)
19. Evil Dead Rise 3/5 (FTV)
20. TerrorVision 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Call of Cthulhu 4/5 (FTV)
22. The Awakening 4/5 (FTV)
23. Jack Frost 3/5 (FTV)
24. The Devonsville Terror 2/5 (FTV)
25. The Houses That October Built 3/5 (FTV)
26. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) 2/5 (FTV)
27. I Like Bats 3/5 (FTV)
28. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3/5 (FTV)
29. The Shining 5/5
30. The Woman in Black (1989) 3/5 (FTV)
31. Silver Bullet 3/5
A true story of the 12 young boys and their soccer coach that became trapped deep within the caves in Thailand.
This is both triumphant and heartbreaking.
A former Thai Navy Seal very sadly drowned during their rescue operation. R.I.P Saman Kunan.
(Incidentally, the yellow canary that my child inherited from a local school here, was named in honour of him.)
Another Navy Seal passed away soon after the rescue, from an infection caused by an injury during the rescue. R.I.P Beiret Bureerak.
And sadly this year the captain of their soccer team took his own life. R.I.P Duangphet Phromthep.
1) The Rig* (2023 - Prime)
14) Don't Worry Darling * (2022 - Neon)
15) The Fall of the House of Usher* (2023 - Netflix)
16) Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein* (1948)
17) Thirteen Lives* (2022 - Prime)
Happy Halloween, everyone. 🦇🎃👻
Monster hiding in dark closets menaces a therapist and his children still grieving over the loss of their mother and wife.
I remember reading this short story in Stephen King’s 1978 collection Night Shift and it was one of my favorites. Most kids remember having an instinctive fear of dark places such as closets, basements and the underside of their own bed, and The Boogeyman uses all of this locations to great effect. Unlike Five Nights at Freddy’s where the grief of the characters felt out of place in a gimmicky movie, in this film it’s not just a plot device and fits organically with the things that are happening in the story.
The cast all do a great job, especially Sophie Thatcher who pretty much appears in every scene. She has some truly awful “friends” who I was hoping would get some sort of comeuppance but this isn’t that kind of movie. But that’s not to say that the ending isn’t cathartic in other ways. Some critics have said that not enough of the logic and lore was explained in the movie, but honestly sometimes knowing less is better, especially in horror. If you want everything tied up neatly, the movie may frustrate, but give it a chance and it will get its hooks in you.
Originally this was planned to go straight to Hulu, but when initial screenings were very positive, King himself insisted that it be given a theatrical run. Wise move, The Boogeyman did pretty good box office for a spooky little film about a monster in a closet.
4 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2023 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Ghostwatch 4/5 (FTV)
2. Wendel & Wild 4/5 (FTV)
3. Dolls 3/5 (FTV)
4. Society 3/5 (FTV)
5. Tombs of the Blind Dead 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Brainiac 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
8. Talk To Me 4/5 (FTV)
9. Young Frankenstein 5/5
10. The Exorcist II: The Heretic 3/5 (FTV)
11. Creepshow 3 1/5 (FTV)
12. Skinamarink 4/5 (FTV)
13. The Tunnel (2011) 2/5 (FTV)
14. Friday the 13th part VI: Jason Lives 4/5
15. Dracula (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Nekromantik 3/5 (FTV)
17. One Missed Call (2009) 3/5 (FTV)
18. Hatching 3/5 (FTV)
19. Evil Dead Rise 3/5 (FTV)
20. TerrorVision 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Call of Cthulhu 4/5 (FTV)
22. The Awakening 4/5 (FTV)
23. Jack Frost 3/5 (FTV)
24. The Devonsville Terror 2/5 (FTV)
25. The Houses That October Built 3/5 (FTV)
26. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) 2/5 (FTV)
27. I Like Bats 3/5 (FTV)
28. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3/5 (FTV)
29. The Shining 5/5
30. The Woman in Black (1989) 3/5 (FTV)
31. Silver Bullet 3/5
32. The Boogeyman (2023) 4/5 (FTV)