MR Sandman: Freddy Has Competetion

A young girl, Hailey Kate Schmidt, must survive a nocturnal nightmare.

A hell of a lot has been done already when it comes to kids having scary experiences at night, be they real or imagined, in film. However, this film managed to surprise me, I found myself somewhat taken a back at times at the direction with which this film went as I wasn’t expecting to go there. It is not subversive in a way that ruins the experience and makes you feel cheated but rather in a way that reinvents the form. I hope that more kid has bad dreams/ bad experiences at night horror films learn from this film.

I thought the horror in this film was quite smart and well developed, it wasn’t a jump scare sort of film and instead built its horror slowly through a creeping sense of dread and theat. I appreciated the film taking this approach as far too often in modern horror scares are related to oh did you see that person show up behind her with a music spike.

Overall, this film is truly new and novel.

4/5

Pros.

It is scary

The child acting is good

It is well done

It will stick with you

Cons.

It could do with being longer maybe about another 15 to build up more tension

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The maker of this film reached out to me on social media to ask me to check out his film for review, if you would like me to do that for your film then by all means drop me a line on social media, I am on all platforms bar TikTok.

If you would like to watch the film for yourself its on Youtube

Ghostwatch: The British Blair Witch

Summary

A BBC crew investigate a haunted house little do they know the entity wants them there.

So Ghostwatch is something of a legend in the UK it was a found footage film that many people thought was real as it was shown on TV to look as real as possible and that caused a lot of social commotion. It was Blair Witch before Blair Witch.

The film takes the form of a televised ghost hunt, we have a traditional old fashioned BBC presenter leading us through a night that will prove whether ghosts exist or not. However, as the night progresses things start to go awry in a very Late Night With The Devil sort of way.

What works so well about this film is just how real it appears it does genuinely feel like it’s an actual televised ghost encounter. If I had been shown this at the time on live television I would had thought this was real too. There is some elements that might look a little dated by today’s effect standards but on the whole it holds up very well.

I liked the film’s atmosphere and its non-reliance on jump scares, however, for anyone familiar with the Enfield Poltergeist there are a number of familiar elements which might make the film seem a bit obvious, though this is made up for with quite a different ending to how that case went.

Overall, a British horror gem.

4/5

Pros.

It is scary

It seems real

It has a good ending

It makes the most with a limited budget

Cons.

Too many nods to Enfield

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Dr Terror’s House Of Horror: Don’t Do Tarot Kids

Summary

Christopher Lee and his friends board a train, wherein they meet a fortune teller, Peter Cushing, little do they know it will change their lives forever.

There is just something about old school British horror that you can’t quite replicate anymore. Maybe it is the setting or the creepy edge that the lives of the upper classes seem to have in these films- meaning perhaps too many films these days are focused on the working class and the plight of poverty rather than excess.

I liked the wrap around story telling device and the fact that each story also worked on its own, both things are important in an anthology. The stories themselves were a mixed bag as often is the case with these short of films, I found a few of them to be good and a few entertaining but flawed. I would suggest that the Voodoo one is the weakest as it doesn’t have much more beyond its central conceit.

I would say that the stories themselves and the effects still hold up, yes you can see strings in a few shots or things look a bit low-fi here and there but on the whole it still works well.

Overall, a good way to spend Halloween.

3/5

Pros

It has a lot of charm

Terrific performances

Some good scares

Cons.

It looks a little dated at times

The stories are a mixed bag

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Aging Like Fine Wine

Summary

The Juice, Michael Keaton, may have aged, but much like wine it has got better not worse.

This film truly felt like a blast from the past, it doesn’t feel like we get films like this anymore, silly and fun with no mention to politics of moralising. It was nice to see the world that we all remember from the 80’s original further expanded, I thought that this film added a lot of much needed clarity and hopefully if we do get a 3^rd film it can do more of this.

The returning cast all gave great turns, and Jenna Ortega did feel like a natural addition to this world and the family, however, I would say her sub-plot was the weakest of the film. On that note some of the more interesting plot lines such as Beetlejuice’s wife, Monica Bellucci, do feel a bit short changed as they don’t go anywhere meaningful.

It is nice to see Tim Burton being Tim Burton again and I would say for fans of the director this is a must see return to form, it feels like everything he was doing in his pre 2012 career again rather than some of his more questionable recent turns.

Overall a fun film that won’t set the world on fire.

3/5

Pros.

It is fun

It explores the world

The returning cast

Cons.

Some weaker plot lines and some unfinished ones

It never hits the heights of the first

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Terrifier 3: Blowing Up Kid’s Christmas

Summary

Art the Clown, David Howard Thorton, is back and this time he is dressed like Santa Claus.

So if you want to write this film off as just another gore fest then I would say to you what did you expect? Did you watch the last two film? Personally, I think that is just people trying to be trendy by being contrarian to a popular new release.

I found this to be an improvement over the second film, but I would say that some of its issues were still there. Namely that the film has pacing problems and has Art get away in the end, this is problematic as it just feels like we are then going to have to wait for yet another sequel which is going to be yet another showdown between Art and his nemesis, Lauren LaVera. I think at this point there battle should already be over and Art should have moved onto a new group of victims ala Freddy or Jason.

I did enjoy how over the top this film took the gore, I thought the mall scene with the bomb was pretty funny, as was freezing Santa Clause, I liked the black mirror it held up to the holiday of Christmas and took every opportunity to make it as nasty as possible.

Overall, if you are a fan of the franchise you will like this one.

3.5/5

The black mirror

The gore

The comedy

Some great kills

Cons.

It is badly paced

Art got away

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Strange Harvest: The Strangest Day Of A Cops Life

Summary

A serial killer carries out an occult murder spree in California.

I thought this was an incredibly engaging horror film, it took the whole true crime craze and mixed it with found footage to do something new and fresh.

The idea of a evil serial killer is already morbidly fascinating but then mix in that they have occult powers and are trying to bring in an ancient evil God to the world and you have the recipe for a great film. For the most part the film delivers on this and is a strong horror film, particularly the final third.

However, my issue with this film is that some of its sub-plots are either knowingly or unknowingly comedic. You don’t want to laugh but they are so unintentionally funny at times that you cannot help but to. I think that this mismatch hurts the film but isn’t major enough to cause serious issues with it widely.

Overall, a fun mixing of genres but not perfect.

3/5

Pros.

A good mixing of sub-genres

It feels fresh

It has a great ending

Cons.

Pacing problems

Issues with tone

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Children Of The Wickerman: The Hit Of Frightfest

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A documentary about the making of the Wickerman and the effect it had on the sons of the director.

This film really serves a duel role firstly as a making of the Wickerman featurette and then also as reflection over the life and times of its director Robin Hardy, the father of the documentarian.

I found the making of side of things to be quite interesting it is fascinating to learn about the history of the film and how it both came to be but then also died and rose again. As a fan of horror I always love a good making of documentary.

Where things slipped a little for me was in the more personal side of it, I thought that whilst it was interesting to learn about the man behind the camera and the lives he ruined, at times it almost had a hit piece like quality to it, and that then went after the film as well. Whilst I can understand the son, the documentarian, being angry at his dad as he did some heinous things to him, I think aiming that negativity in part at the film is misplaced and hurts it as the main people watching the documentary are fans of the film. It is complicated as that raw emotion is also a selling point of the film and adds to its uniqueness.

Overall, a good documentary that other than a few missteps into being a hit piece tells a fascinating story of a film that changed the lives of a lot of people.

4/5

Pros.

It is informative

It is entertaining

It shows the effect the film has had on people

Cons.

The hit piece like moments

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Paranorman: We All Need To Listen More

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A young boy, voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, can talk to dead people and needs to use his gift in order to save the town.

I think Laika is one of the best animation studios, mainly this is because they are not soulless CGI studios owned by massive studios like Disney, or Universal. Laika along with places like Aardman and Ghibli are some of the few truly original studios left and I think that is incredibly important. The studios talents are on full display here as we see a very gothic inspired world that also has a lot of call backs to classic Americana and the creature features of the 50s and 60s.

There is also something beautiful and timeless about the message of people hating things that scare them even if they pose no real threat to them. It makes the weak and confused message of a contemporary release like Inside Out 2 look so much worse by comparison. In my opinion that is what a lot of recent animated films are missing good central messages.

Overall, a sweet and seasonally appropriate film that is beautifully animated.

4/5

Pros.

The message

The animation

The characters

The world

Cons.

A few pacing issues

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Black Cab: Get An Uber

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Nick Frost plays a cabbie with an attitude.

This film has an interesting aesthetic but fails to do much more with it than the bog standard. I like the idea of a horror film about a cabbie driving down northern country lanes in the dark worrying about ghosts, however, in reality the film is just very standard.

I found the bulk of the film to be entertaining if Frost’s performance was a little over the top at times, however, where things really started to fall apart for me was in the third act. This is due to the time loop nature of the haunting with the ghost being made by his actions and then so one and so forth, and I found that to be a tad bit obvious from the start.

As for Frost playing against type, he is okay, it is not on the level of some funny man turned dramatic actors we have seen in recent years. I found his character to only have a few menacing moments the rest of the time he seemed either just angry or bumbling. The idea of him as a scary villain never really came through for me.

Overall, a serviceable if forgettable ghost story.

2.5/5

Pros.

The setting

The premise

The atmosphere

Cons,

Frost as a villain

The ending

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Beezle: The Witch In The Walls

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A house infested with a witch goes through generations of trauma.

There was a kernel of a good idea here, we don’t get many witch films and less so that try and unorthodox narrative approach, it plays more like an anthology than a linear narrative.

However, in execution we come undone.

I can some up the issues with this film into four key areas, the characterisation, the witch, the scares and the ending. There is a throughline of mediocrity throughout all of these things and that was a disappointment.

So first things first, the initial two segments are fine nothing special but it is clearly the third where things start to get weird. Enter Nova, Victoria Fradkin, a character who’s whole dimension is just that she’s horny and wants a kid. You could argue had this been written by just a man that it was incredibly sexist and reductive but she helped write her own material so she was okay with it. Nova, wants to have sex wearing her partner’s dead mother’s lingerie and is constantly pressuring him for sex to a point where it becomes uncomfortable. Moreover, there are a number of nude or near nude scenes that just feel almost as though Fradkin is showing off for an ego trip, and when you realise her close relationship with the director it all starts to make more sense.

The witch could have been special and unique but instead it is just another demon like figure that behaves in the same way and never really does much of anything. To role scares into this one the film relies heavily on jump scares, did you just see that face? That kind of thing, to which I thought gave it a tacky feeling.

Finally the ending is the ending of so many found footage films after becoming possessed Nova kills her husband and then I guess sits in the snow, or does some random off screen action for it all to continue with a new family. Paranormal Activity did all this decades ago.

Overall, amateurish at best.

1/5

Pros.

It has a good premise

Cons.

It is not scary

It has pacing issues

It is creepy at times

It wastes its villain

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