Week 2 of my 31 Days of Horror Challenge for 2024 and I’ve managed to keep up so far.
This week:
- Psycho II
- Leprechaun 4 : In Space
- A Sweet and Vicious Beauty
- Killer Klowns from Outer Space
- Ghoulies
- The Final Destination
- Terrifier 3
Day 5 – Psycho II
Recently watched the original Psycho on a lovely 4K I picked up and it got me wanting to watch all the sequels which I’ve heard are supposed to be pretty good (Well, the 4th one is supposed to be a crazy) But yes, this was pretty great. Really plays with your expectations a lot and and a super young Jennifer Tilly is really good. Lovely cinematography by Dean Cundey too.
Day 6 – Leprechaun 4 : In Space
I’ve been slowly working my way through the Leprechaun movies over the past few years (You really need to pace yourself with these). Oddly I was finding that each one was substantially better than the last with the last one being pretty good with the Leprechaun up to mischief in Vegas being a great setting. So of course bringing him into space sounds like a fun idea, but unfortunately just like Pinhead and Jason Vorheese before him, this is a real slog. There’s no real explanation for the leprechaun actually being in space and the move it is mostly just marines walking down corridors and getting in firefights with the leprechaun. Yes the Leprechaun is using guns in this one and you don’t get much of his wish granting magic at all.
Day 7 – A Sweet and Vicious Beauty
This one was a real surprise that I went into knowing nothing about it. Very low budget horror/action movie. It’s a period piece set in a town where when you die your last breath is caught in your throat. A woman starts stealing these last breaths to cure her illness but then starts to get stronger from harvesting fresher breaths and takes to wearing a mask and wielding a big axe as she slaughters more and more townsfolk. The acting is pretty hammy, but the action is really cool looking. A great effort on a low budget.
Day 8 – Killer Klowns from Outer Space
The first movie I’ve already seen before. But this is a great one and worth returning to. This is a b-movie parody that knows what it’s doing. The titular Klowns look great and theirs such a large variety of them. I wish there were a few more scenes of the Klowns abducting people in strange clown based gags are this is where the movie really shines. The wandering around the Klown spaceship isn’t quite as engaging. But great little movie and oh boy is that theme tune an ear worm.
Day 9 – Ghoulies
Somehow have never seen Ghoulies. This way more dull than I was expecting. I was hoping for at least some fun puppet action but the Ghoulies actually do very little, they’re sort of just standing around on the sidelines also watching this dull movie with you. Reading a description of Ghoulies 2 and it sounds like they’re a little more proactive there, so maybe I’ll continue with the series.
Day 10 – The Final Destination
Another film I’ve seen before. Last time I saw it was in 3D at the cinema when it came out and that’s exactly where this film belongs, in 3D on the big screen. I was never a big fan of the whole 3D trend as very few movies actually leaned into the technology, but that’s not the case here. You have lots of stupid scenes of things flying out of the screen at you. But when you take away all that 3D fun you’re left with and incredibly bad movie with very weak leads playing poorly fleshed out characters. And while I recall the effects being fine in 3D, watching it now on a standard TV all the deaths are all done with very low quality CGI.
Day 11 – Terrifier 3
My local cinema regularly does mystery screenings and this week they sprung Terrfier 3 upon us. Luckily I’d just watched the Terrifier 1&2 double just recently as I hadn’t bothered with these movies before. They’re not great. Incredibly well done, but mean spirited gore and violence and gore and Art the Clown is a fun killer. Art does have a confusingly thought out backstory which they try and flesh out a bit in the third entry in the series and it’s also now a Christmas movie, where the first 2 were set at Halloween and I’m also a big fan of a killer dressed as Santa chopping people up. Overl all this is still a pretty weak movie and it could probably be improved by being a bith shorter, as like with the second one all of the scenes just go on far too long.
