October 31st: Extraterrestrial (2014, Netflix)

This film is directed by the Viscious Brothers, a group reponsible for Grave Encounters and its sequel.  I didn't realize that going in and expected just your run of the mill "people find aliens and aliens go bwah!"

I was so wrong.  I'm so glad that I'm reviewing this one for the actual day of Halloween becuase it is actually just such a shocking movie.  Not in any way that you go "OH MY GOD!" but in the way that at the end you utter to yourself "oh...wow."

In it, a group of horror tropes go on a booze and drug filled trip to a cabin in the woods, a classic set up.  That classic setup is used as the backdrop of characters that we learn to care about, learn to loathe and learn to go "oh shit!" when something happens.

The aliens in the movie seem almost completely omnipotent, with mind control powers, the ability to cut down trees in perfect places and survive .20g shotgun blasts.  

It really is one of those films that draws on every trope you can ever imagine, but still manages to shit on every trope ever imagined.  By the time you end the movie, you're so hopeless and just exhuasted that you can't even keep going.  And you thank the movie for ending.

This is an example of the Viscious Brothers' great direction and writing and I REALLY hope to see more from them in the future.  I still remember being exhausted by Grave Encounters and its sequel the first time I saw them.  This movie is no different.

October 30th: Undying (2009, Netflix)

Ok, so, maybe this is more of a romance murder movie than a horror movie.  I don't know.  It's totally in the air.

It's a movie about a woman who moves into a house haunted by a Confederate soldier and is a doctor as a hospital where a guy got into a bar fight and was put into a coma.

Put two and two together.  That's what happens.  Her new beloved Confederate soldier boyfriend put into the body of a bar fighter becomes both.  It's just... what was supposed to happen???

Her boss tries to cover up for the fact that she stole a body from the hospital (not to mention the houndreds of thousands of dollars worth of machinery that keeps him alive!!!!!) and uses it as leverage to try and rape her.  And then flashbacks.  And then someone a pepperbox pistol from the 1860's in the house still works.  I have nothing.  Don't bother.  People!  JUST SKIP THIS!!!!!  WITH A PASSION!!!!

October 29th: Grave Encounters 2 (2012, Netflix)

Being a huge fan of the first entry in this two-some of films, I expected a lot out of this one.  I really wasn't let down.

What I'm going to say isn't going to bring down or drag down or spoil anything too much for people watching this film: it's meta.  100%  The whole concept behind Grave Encounters 2 is that Grave Encounters was a real supernatural encounter that took place and was turned into a film to make money off of it.

That's the entire first act of the film.  It explains that.  You really won't miss that much with that spoiler.

This film differs from its parent film buy explaining a lot more about what's going on and by making the supernatural presence much more palpable.  The final scene of the first movie plays heavily into this one puts a character into the film we didn't expect to see.

I thoroughly found this to be a more terryfing film than the first one, given that I cared much more about many of the characters and a the story seemed to make a lot more sense than the first one.  I give this film a great big old "GO AND SEE IT!"