31 Days of Horror: 28 Days Later

October 26, 2008: 28 Days Later
A deadly and powerful virus escapes out of a British research facility, which spreads through a single drop of blood. Once infected with the virus you’ll be in a permanent state of murderous rage.
It only takes 28 days for the country to be overwhelmed by the virus and it’s now up to the survivors to salvage a future in a big, empty, eerie world with zombie like creatures trying to eat you.
The movie is one of, if not, the best post-apocalyptic movies I’ve ever seen. The feeling you first watch this movie is epic. You actually feel for these characters and as the movie goes on you feel the loneliness they have to push through and you also feel the constant fear of something always hunting you.
The movie spawned a sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which is another good movie and I would recommend you watch both. But, please watch them in order to get the full effect of them.
The movie was directed beautifully my Danny Boyle, who brought us the lackluster movie “The Beach”, but he comes together for this one and proves to be one of his best pieces of work yet.

31 Days of Horror: The Omen

October 25, 2008: The Omen

Robert, a U.S. Ambassador to Italy (Gregory Peck) and Katherine Thorn (Lee Remick) are a happy married couple that has everything they both ever desired. They want nothing more in their life except for one thing – a child.
Yet, tragedy strikes the couple when the baby Katherine gives birth to is a stillborn; a priest at the hospital who suggests that he should take a healthy newborn, whose mother had died in childbirth, approaches Robert.
Robert agrees and without telling his wife and the couple relocate from Italy to London, when they arrive, eerie events occur and a warning from a priest leads Robert to believe that the child he took from the hospital in Italy is evil incarnate.
This movie introduced Damian to the world and till this day he continues to scare us and his story continues to fascinate us.
The movie is well worth any price if you haven’t seen it or if it shows up on TV, I strongly recommend you watch it.
Like so many other horror movies this one was also remade, which was release in 2006 and I suggest just not watch it and stick with the 1976 original. I mean Richard Donner, the guy who brought us Superman I and II and also one of my favorite movies – The Goonies, directed this original.Some might like this more then others and I warn there are some disturbing scenes in this movie.

31 Days of Horror: The Fog

October 24, 2008: The Fog

On April 21st, 100 years ago, the wealthy leper Blake bought the vessel Elizabeth Dane and relocated himself and his family from leper colony to California and effort to build a town for them to live with less aggravation and more comfort.

Problems occur when the family is crossing Spivey Point in a very thick fog. The problems only worsen when they are misguided by a campfire onshore, causing the ship to come to close to land and crashing into rocks - Blake, his family and crew die.

We are then brought to present day, where they are preparing for the Celebration of the centenary at the fishing town of Antonio Bay. On this very day a strange, glowing fog appears, bringing the zombies of Blake and his crew back from the dead with the intentions of killing the residents of Antonio Bay.

The zombies want revenge for their deaths and as the movie goes on we see why.

A John Carpenter film, one with a lot of atmosphere, that makes one very eerie and memorable movie. And no I'm not talking about the 2005 remake, which was a total miss, I'm talking about the 1980 classic that should be the only one you watch.

31 Days of Horror: The Haunting

October 23, 2008: The Haunting
The movie is set in Hill House, a house that is known for its dark and evil history that includes accidents, suicide and human misjudgment.
A doctor by the name John Markway (Richard Johnson) a psychic researcher, assembles a group of people who have histories linked to paranormal activity.
One of the group members is a woman by the name, Eleanor (Julie Harris), who was the subject of unexplained poltergeist activities as a child. She also is feeling guilt over her mother’s death, but when she arrives at Hill House she slowly falls into obsession with the estate.
When the group gets together they explore Hill House, and their own insecurities. Little do they know that the estate holds darker horrors, as the souls from the house’s troubled past begin to make themselves known.
Released in 1963, this movie still holds all the scares and thrills it delivered so well all those years ago.
It’s based off of the Shirley Jackson novel, The Haunting of Hill House, and in my opinion is one of the best psychological horror films ever made. Because it doesn’t rely on blood, gore or monster to get its scares it plays with your mind.
The big reason everyone should watch this movie because it’s one of the very, very few movies that leaves its audience with an unsettling feel. It also leaves you with questions that you can answer for yourself.
I highly recommend this movie but please avoid the really awful 1999 remake that goes by the same name.

31 Days of Horror: Scream

October 22, 2008: Scream

This movie is one of the best and refreshing horror films that I've ever seen.

It was released in 1996 and during this time, slasher movies were all dying. Jason's and Freddy's hay days were over and the Friday the 13th franchise just took a terrible turn in the 1993 release of Jason Goes to Hell.

The Slasher films went silent until 1994 when Wes Craven released New Nightmare, another installment in his Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. It was better then Jason Goes to Hell, but still didn't add anything new to slasher movies.

Two years would pass and Wes Craven releases, Scream. A slasher movie that will be remembered for putting new life into the genre and making it fun and scary again.

The movie is about a quiet, peaceful town in California that becomes a stomping ground for a psychopathic killer, who is targeting high school students. The killer aka "Ghostface", seems to be the name the horror community gave him, calls he's victims on the phone and asks them questions (example: Name the killer in Friday the 13th?) If you answer that question correctly you win and if you don't you'll loose and the penalty is death. He might also just play around with you and just have a casual, yet scary conversation.

That's what I liked most about this movie, because the characters/killer does go to the movies and know all the horror cliches. So in order for them to survive they have to out smart someone that has seen one too many horror movies, by using their own knowledge of the genre.

I don't want to say much, because if I do it will ruin the movie for you, if you haven't seen it. The movie did spawn two sequels, making the Scream trilogy. The sequels are watchable but not as original and refreshing as this one.

There is also talk about a fourth scream movie and Wes Craven (director for these movies) is also considering on returning to direct.

Side Note: Thank you all for the positive feedback that I've been receiving. If anyone wants to see a deeper look into a movie on the 31 Days of Horror list or any movie, just request it and I'll do I full length review. I'll also do reviews of books, games, and even TV shows if you want, so all you have to do is ask.

31 Days of Horror: The Thing

October 21, 2008: The Thing
The Thing is one of John Carpenter’s stunning masterpiece of horror.
The movie focuses on a group of scientists who are braving the winter in an isolated camp deep in Antarctica.
They soon come upon an alien spacecraft buried in the ice. Near the alien craft they find a body of an alien being, which has been frozen solid by the harsh environment. This becomes a find of a life time for the group and they bring back the alien body to camp and they let it thaw out.
Soon the alien awakens and turns out its not friendly and proceeds to take over the identities of the scientists.
It’s now up to Helicopter pilot MacCready (Kurt Russell) to lead the surviving men in discovering who among them is human and who is “the thing” that they must destroy in order to all survive. Their ultimate goal is to stop the alien from spreading to the mainland and infecting massive amounts of populations.
This is truly a horror classic. The special effects might seem dated, but over all the movie really boils down to a very impressive who can I trust and who can't I trust kind of film.
I strongly recommend this movie for anyone, whose looking for a good scare and something that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

31 Days of Horror: Night of the Living Dead

October 20, 2008: Night of the Living Dead

Director George A. Romero at his best, when he tell us a story about the rising dead and the people that fight against them in order to survive in Night of the Living Dead.

It all begins when the brains of the recently deceased become reanimated, allowing them to rise from the dead and eat human flesh.

How are they coming back from the dead? Well in the movie they talk about a NASA satellite returning from Venus being covered with radiation and due to this it could have caused the dead to rise. Note that this is only left as speculation in the film.

What we do know is if anyone dies during this crisis and their brains are not destroyed they will return as a flesh craving zombie, you can also be infected if your bitten by one of the monsters. The only way to kill them is to destroy the brain - which makes for one great horror film.

As the movie unfolds we see a young women, who was visiting her father's grave taking refuge in a nearby farmhouse. While there , she is met by a man who protects her and barricades them inside. They then later discovery that there is people hiding in the basement and they all come together to try to understand what is happening and to get an idea on their situation.

They soon realize that if they want to survive they need to get gasoline from a nearby pump and put it into a truck. In order to do this they have to brave the hordes of walking corpses that surround the house outside. As the movie sees these characters putting their plan into action, panic and tension arise and that only adds terror to the group and makes it harder to survive.