Blood Red: Hooptober 9.0: Week The End

And we’re out, folks. Another year down, another Blood Red for the books. And there was only one film left to watch after last week, so while I did catch things like Terrifier (not my thing but so outrageous I liked it in spite of itself) and Barbarian (incredible first 40 minutes. Then bat-shit crazy for the film’s remainder, which is fun not equal to that amazing beginning) and Guillermo del Toro’s horror anthology Cabinet of Curiosities (yeah…I love it) the only thing I actually watched and reviewed for the marathon was the new Henry Selick joint, Wendell & Wild. I dug it, if didn’t outright love it for a few reasons.

As always you can read the full reviews over at Cinema Dual. In the meantime, smoke ’em if you got ’em…

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Blood Red: Hooptober 9.0: Week Six

Week 6(66). We’re so close to the end, so close in fact that technically there’s only one film left to review. I’ll figure that out later, but for this penultimate column we have some good, some bad, some surprisingly good, and some surprisingly bad. Let’s kick it off with Guillermo del Toro’s Director’s Cut of Mimic, a film I saw at the drive0in when it first came out and now find a lot to enjoy, even as it reeks of studio interference. I still don’t know what to make of Troll 2, which is most certainly not a sequel to Troll (thanks studio distribution hacks!) and despite being labeled the “Best Worst Movie” is just a terrible movie with a few fun moments. I wish I could endorse Dario Argento’s return to giallo with Dark Glasses, but sadly a lot of his preoccupations don’t translate as well now, and the style has suffered in the decades since his heyday. Deadstream, however, is very much of the moment, and I found myself delighted with the found footage horror comedy. V/H/S: Viral has some great segments but unfortunately can’t overcome its bad ones. Still – check out the “Dante the Great” segment if you can. And finally, I caught up with Halloween Ends. I’m definitely the lone horse here at Nine Circles in that I actually enjoyed it.

As always you can read the full reviews over at Cinema Dual. In the meantime, smoke ’em if you got ’em…

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Blood Red: Hooptober 9.0: Week Five

Week five and the weariness is beginning to set in. Thank goodness I found a couple of gems in the films covered this week. Unfortunately, the new reboot of Hellraiser isn’t one of them, as the film despite some great Cenobites drags like a limp dog for 3/4 of its runtime. That being said, it’s still a better ride than the extremely lo-fi 70s science fiction horror of The Alpha Incident, which I was only able to watch on YouTube. Things get infinitely better from there, with The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Woman giving off some serious giallo vibes courtesy of the guy behind all the Gamera monster films. Then we tackle the requisite Tobe Hooper film with his massive homage to Hammer and Quatermass with the bonkers (in the best possible way ) Lifeforce before really coming down to Earth with the completely inert remake of Firestarter.

As always you can read the full reviews over at Cinema Dual. In the meantime, smoke ’em if you got ’em…

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Blood Red: Hooptober 9.0: Week Four

Apologies, I’m remote and without my usual templates. The normal banner will return in a few days!

Four weeks in and we’re more than halfway home. This week we hit some of my favorite films in the marathon to date with the fantastically scary and prescient His House, followed by the unnerving and twisted Saint Maud. After that is a minor yet enjoyable mishmash of horror and mystery in 1974’s The Beast Must Die, featuring a gimmick worthy of William Castle before jumping into the fable horror or Moroccan monsters with Achoura. Finally, end with a nod to the excess of the 80s, the manly hodge podge of The Hidden.

As always you can read the full reviews over at Cinema Dual. In the meantime, smoke ’em if you got ’em…

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Blood Red: Hooptober 9.0: Week Three

Another Sunday, another slice of gore and horror. This week we go all over, hitting an interesting take on Lovecraftian horror with Glorious, a schlocky Alien ripoff called Creature, a classic giallo with the wonderfully named The House With the Laughing Windows, some 70s regional low budget horror with more on its mind in Night of the Strangler, and finally another schlocky ripoff, this time of Piranha with the bug infested The Nest.

As always you can read the full reviews over at Cinema Dual. In the meantime, smoke ’em if you got ’em…

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