31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 15: NICOLE
Three sentence review:
Watched this short film (hour and fifteen?) on Tubi tonight. A solid little revenge tale with a little bit of American Psycho and Gerald’s Game peppered in. Love the lead’s relationship with dirty martinis!
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 14: One Cut of the Dead
Three Sentence Review:
How much fun can you have watching a low budget horror movie? Apparently infinite fun when its a relentless, zany and entertaining zombie flick out of Japan. If you haven’t seen it I couldn’t BEAR to spoil it for you, just know that I highly recommend this one.
More than three sentence review:
Get your killer BBQ and chicken sandwiches at The Pitts BBQ in the south side of Richmond, VA. This little gem has my dream backyard patio: an expansive privacy fence surrounds a huge yard of retro and hodgepodge patio furniture and is decked out with kitschy signs, string lights galore and lots and lots of Horror props. The covered patio at the front of the yard even has Mike Myers and Pennywise to greet you! The Pitts hosts Tuesday movie nights and my fiancé and I went to enjoy some food, beer and the movie. The Pitts is known for BBQ, but they also have a fried chicken sandwich appropriately called The Hellraiser. There are three levels of the Hellraiser sandwich. Level one is about 40,000 on the Scoville scale so no big deal. I tried level two – 1,000,000 on the scale this time – and it was DELICIOUS TORTURE. My eyes watered, my nose ran and my tastebuds delighted. Much like Hellraiser, it was a mix of pleasure and pain. Whew. Not sure I could handle level three and get the free T-shirt but if you can do the Carolina reaper pepper go for it!! Beetlejuice the movie was iconic as always. Interesting to remember he’s only in the film for about 20 minutes. The characters and monsters are the absolute best. We had a blast!
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 12: The Cleansing Hour
Three sentence review:
The possession horror film enters the social media influencer age! I watched this one on Shudder and it’s about a “priest” who performs staged exorcisms via social media on his wildly popular YouTube-esque channel, The Cleansing Hour -there’s even Vatican approved holy water for sale! Things get creepy when an actual demon possesses one of their girlfriends and while I enjoyed it, I REALLY enjoyed the end and wish they would have expanded on that a little more!
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 11: Eaten Alive
Three sentence review:
Tobe Hooper loves him some psycho rednecks in an eerie location. This time it’s the sadistic Judd, the owner of the rundown Starlight Hotel in East Texas who has homicidal urges and a crocodile at his beckoning. Marilyn Burns, Carolyn Jones and a very young Kyle Richards star in this 1976 follow-up to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it has elements of all of the things you love about Hooper – grit, spooky sets, and demented characters.
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 11: Child’s Play 3
Three sentence review:
Tonight’s movie is dedicated to my fiance, who adorably loves the scene where one of Andy’s friends jumps onto the grenade. Yes, I would say that pretty much sums up Child’s Play 3. It’s a fine sequel that puts Chucky in a new environment, explores more of Andy’s psyche and relationship with Chucky, and amps up all of Chucky’s greatest charms: snarky one liners and absolute carnage.
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 9: Hubie Halloween!
Three sentence review:
My fiance and I had a blast watching Adam Sandler’s latest Netflix movie, Hubie Halloween. I immediately texted my older brother to let him know that my eleven year old nephew would love this silly love story to the true spirit of Halloween. The decked-out Halloween decor in the Salem setting actually inspired me to put up more of my decorations and I absolutely adored June Squibb in all of her raunchy thrift store t-shirts – so much fun!
Three sentence review:
I am a big fan of Adam Green, from his awesome horror themed tv show Holliston to his work getting back to “old school American horror” with the Hatchet series. Part two is an enjoyable sequel and I love the interactions between Tony Todd and Danielle Harris. Victor Crowley is as brutal and hideous as ever, and I hope the Hatchet series continues to get more installments as Crowley rightfully takes his place among the slasher villain greats!
31 Nights of Horror IX, Night 5: Session 9
Three Sentence Review:
This film gets a lot of love from being one of those “undiscovered gems” from the early 2000s. I watched it again and found it to be watchable but a little “meh”. It has good twists, a supremely eerie location, and a great cast (, but it’s nothing spectacular in my opinion – watchable for sure, but not a favorite of mine.
Longer review because I’ve been meaning to watch this for years:
This is the third time I’ve tried to sit down and pay attention to As Above, So Below and I’m so happy that I finally did. I’ve noticed that Gen Z horror fans in particular seem to rave about this movie which I find fascinating/wonderful. Maybe it’s the first great horror movie they “discovered”, maybe they had a blast watching it with friends, maybe it’s the first time they learned about the Catacombs in Paris. Whatever it is, I’m here for it. I enjoyed the story being centered around alchemy and history rather than rooted in religion, though the religious symbolism is still there. It was very “National Treasure Goes to Hell” (literally) and even though true historians probably would scoff like a scientist watching any disaster movie, I loved it. There is so much going on in this film: a quest for the philosopher’s stone, an underground tour of Paris, a woman trying to carry out her father’s life work, a will-they-or-won’t-they romance with an attractive translator/church trespasser? This is a great example of a horror movie doing A LOT but doing it effectively because everything the movie builds you up for descends into hell and madness. I am now unsure if The Descent or this movie made me more claustrophobic. Really great watch if you haven’t gotten around to it yet, or watch it again on Netflix if you haven’t seen it in a few years.
NERDCROPOLIS 