Happy Halloween!

Happy happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

We've made it to the end of this year's countdown and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this year's selection of films. It was a nice variety of genres, geos, and eras, and only a few duds in the bunch!

Seventeen years is an impressive amount of time to stick to something, and I have every intention of making it eighteen years come 2025. 

Halloween is almost over, so I'm going to make this brief. Thanks to everyone who has been following along here, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Letterboxd. I've loved knowing I've influenced some of your viewing choices this month. You're welcome. Or, as the case may be, I'm sorry.

Below is a list of all the films I watched, in chronological order, along with links to their posts. Have a great evening, a happy holiday season, and let's make the best out of 2025 that we can!

Criminally Insane (1975)

Sacred Blood (2015)

When a Stranger Calls (1979)/When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)

When Michael Calls (1972)

The Coffee Table (2024)

Trauma (1993)

Cutting Class (1989)

Hell Hole (2024)

Die! Die! My Darling (1965)

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

In a Violent Nature (2024)

Let’s Kill Uncle (1966)

Hell House LLC (2015)

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre (1964)

Hush (2017)

Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

Oddity (2024)

The Manitou (1978)

Lake Bodom (2016)

Perfect Blue (1997)

MadS (2024)

Dead Ringer (1964)

Trap (2024)

Castle of the Living Dead (1964)

Seance (2000)

The Wailing (2016)

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)

The Appointment (1981)

Strange Darling (2024)

 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 31: Strange Darling (2024)

For the last few years I've tried to end this countdown with a brand new movie, but this time I'm ending it with a....kind of new movie. 

When I went to see MaXXXine at a preview screening, there were trailers for three horror movies before it, and the trailers made all of the movies look totally worth seeing. One trailer was for Cuckoo, which I went to see the weekend it opened. It was...not great. Another trailer was for The Front Room, which opened to pretty mediocre reviews, so I figured I wouldn't bother with that one until it's streaming somewhere. 

The third trailer was for Strange Darling, which seemed to have good word of mouth, but I was never able to check it out before it disappeared from theaters. (Also, it's a dumb title that I could just couldn't remember; I kept thinking it was called Strange Angel???) I had a free online rental on Apple TV+ so figured OK, let's see if those promising trailers resulted in at least one out of three worth seeing.

One thing the trailer highlighted is that actor Giovanni Ribisi is the film's director of photography, which seems like a strange flex. The movie itself opens with a big title card, almost like some kind of trigger warning, that the movie was shot entirely on 35mm. Which is great! But not worth such a pretentious call out. (To be fair, the cinematography is really quite good, aside from one scene in a hotel room that goes out of focus twice, for no story reason, which seems like a pretty big goof to include when your movie is touting both the name of the cinematographer, and the film's format.)

The film is broken into six chapters, presented out of order. Willa Fitzgerald plays "the Lady," and Kyle Gallner is "the Demon," two people about to embark on a possible one night stand at a cheap motel. The Lady asks the Demon if he's a serial killer, and I'll say right now, the minute she asked that, I knew what this movie was doing.

The non-linear storytelling makes the predictability of the plot a little more forgivable. You know where this story is going to end up, so learning just how it gets there, puzzle piece by puzzle piece, is a little more enjoyable. Also, seeing Ed Begley Jr and Barbara Hershey pop up as "Mountain People" preparing the most insane breakfast ever is a pleasant surprise. 

All that said, there was something about Strange Angel Darling that kind of rubbed me the wrong way, but saying just why that is would ruin some of the film's surprises (or at least attempts at surprises). I didn't regret watching it, but ultimately I think it proves, as far as those three movie trailers go, we're O-for-three on the movies themselves.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 30: The Appointment (1982)

I first heard of the British horror movie The Appointment after seeing the clip below, which was making the rounds on Twitter and Instagram last year. It was simply labeled "Ridiculous Car Crash" and indeed, it is absolutely ridiculous. Please watch it right now.

Digging into the comments of the clip on Instagram, the movie was identified as The Appointment, and the best reply to that comment was "Well, did he make it on time?" So, yes, I knew I had to see the movie to understand just why such an insane car crash is part of it. 

And damned if I can tell you!

This is one of the strangest films to make it onto this countdown, and I'm still not entirely sure I understand the plot. On the surface it's this: In a cold open, a girl goes missing while walking home from school (that scene is actually pretty effective). Sometime later, a girl at the same school is excited about her upcoming violin concert, but really, really, like weirdly, upset when she finds out her father won't be able to make it because he has an appointment that can't be missed that day. The night before the date of the concert, rottweilers stalk the house, and the family has nightmares about car crashes. The next day, he drives to the appointment...

Aside from the ending (which is actually not surprising, really, but I don't want to spoil things), that is really all that happens in this movie. It's all filmed in an off-kilter way, with takes that last too long, and that, along with a constant churning soundtrack in the background, feels very Lynchian, but without any of David Lynch's sense of humor. I'm telling you, this movie truly is a headscratcher!

The Appointment is available to stream on the Roku channel. The print is good, but unfortunately not in the original aspect ratio. Below is the best trailer I could find out YouTube, which has French subtitles.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 29: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)

There haven't been a lot of comedies on this countdown this year, so I decided to seek one out, and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has been on my watchlist since I first saw its title earlier this year. And while it's not exactly a comedy filled with guffaws, it's definitely offbeat, and really cute.

The vampire rules are a little different in this French-Canadian story. They're bloodsuckers, for sure, and have to avoid sunlight, but they can have and raise children like human families, they just age very, very slowly. Growing fangs is a coming-of-age rite of passage, but young Sasha's haven't come in yet, and a visit to a vampire doctor show's her brain's empathy center is ignited when she see's humans harmed, not hunger, which explains her revulsion when it comes to the idea of killing for food. She relies on blood bags instead, sipping on them like they're Capri Suns.

As she eventually becomes a teen (played by Sara Montpetit), her rebellion continues, until her family forces her out of the house to live with her cousin, who promises to straighten her up. Then Sasha meets a suicidal teenager (Félix-Antoine Bénard), and she begins to rethink her stance.

It's a clever bit of storytelling, equating a vampire's awakening with a teenager's sexual awakening, and I really loved the ultimate resolution to the story. Aesthetically, the movie is borderline twee, though not in a bad way, and reminded me a bit of Wes Anderson, along with a dose of A Girl Walks Home Alone at night, especially when you compare these two scenes. In all, worth seeking out. I watched it on a Blu-ray from my library, but it is available on Mubi, and as an online rental.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 28: The Wailing (2016)

The Wailing has been in my watchlist for several years and I think the main thing holding me back is its imposing running time. At almost two-and-a-half hours, that's a lot of Korean horror to sit through.

And indeed it is a long and convoluted film, with a story that starts out like a zombie and contagion film, and then ends up closer to a demon and possession film. I think. Honestly, I was pretty confused by it all, and it took reading several write-ups after watching for it to finally click and make sense.

A cop in a small Korean village finds himself dealing with sickness, murders, and madness amongst the townsfolk. Many suspect a Japanese stranger living on the outskirts of town may be to blame for it all, and it becomes personal when the cop's young daughter falls ill.

Kwak Do-won is really good as the cop, who is the unlikeliest of heroes because he's pretty cowardly, and not that smart. Kim Hwan-hee, the young actress playing his daughter, is also impressive. It's probably one of the best kid-in-a-horror-movie performances I've ever seen.

I watched The Wailing on Netflix, but it is also available on multiple platforms, including Kanopy, Hoopla, and the Criterion channel.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 27: Seance (2000)

Last year I was turned on to the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and included his 1997 film Cure in the countdown. A little while later, I also watched his 2001 film Pulse, which was also pretty good (not as good as Cure, but good!). He has a lot of films in his filmography, but 2000's Seance was one that sounded really intriguing. It was made for TV, and was based on the book Seance on a Wet Afternoon, a book that was also adapted into a British movie in 1964, starring Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough. (It's currently streaming on Criterion and Max, for anyone interested.)

Problem was, Seance is not streaming or rentable online, and my local library did not have it on disc. There are some versions available on YouTube and DailyMotion, but they did not seem to be the full version of the film.

Then, in a weird bit of kismet, I saw that it would be showing for one night at my local Alamo Drafthouse, and despite that showing being at 9:15pm on a weeknight, I bought a ticket...and then they rescheduled the movie to start at 10:15pm, and I seriously began to doubt my ability to make the effort and stay awake that late on a work night. 

But I did! 

Was it worth it? Yes and no. The print was actually a video projection in TV aspect ratio, so not the best quality. But it was the full version of the film, so that was a plus. And the film itself is very good. It follows the basic premise of the 1964 version Seance on a Wet Afternoon. A woman with psychic abilities, but not a lot of clients, decides kidnapping a girl and then "finding" her will help boost her cred, and her husband is roped into the plan. Just how the kidnapping takes place, and the ultimate resolutions, are very different in each film, though neither of them are exactly fun resolutions. And the one big difference between the two? The 2000 Seance is loaded with actual ghosts. 

So that evening was probably the most effort I will ever put into this countdown, but ultimately it was fun. (Even though the waiter at the Alamo never brought me my damn milk for my coffee, which meant I didn't drink that coffee, and staying awake without it was definitely a challenge! Obviously I'm still bitter. Just like that coffee.)

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 26: Castle of the Living Dead (1964)

Castle of the Living Dead is notable for a few reasons. It stars Christopher Lee, for one. He plays a creepy castle dweller who has created an embalming fluid that basically creates instant taxidermied animals - and PEOPLE. It also features Donald Sutherland in his first big film role (actually, three roles, as a soldier, a witch, and an old man). There's also some controversy over who actually directed it, though that's really the result of the need for some Italian pseudonyms, which were created for tax purposes. The director was Warren Kiefer, and yes, he's Kiefer Sutherland's namesake.

But this is a case where the cast and production are more interesting than the movie itself. Castle of the Living Dead was a slog for me, and I could barely finish it. I think in general I tend to have problems with these 1960's period piece horror movies. For instance, while some of Corman's Poe movies are absolutely beautiful, I think most of them are just deadly dull. Castle, set after the Napoleonic wars, has some lovely black-and-white photography,  but it doesn't make up for the deadly pacing and bad dubbing. And despite a story rife with frozen corpses of various species, not enough horror. (Also, I think this movie may have been an influence for the character of Master Blaster in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome??)

Anyway, just not for me, but doesn't mean it won't work for you! 

I watched Castle of the Living Dead on a Blu-ray from my library, but it's also available to stream on Tubi.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 25: Trap (2024)

While Trap does center on the pursuit of a serial killer, it probably falls more accurately into the genre of thriller than horror movie, but I'm going to include it in this countdown anyway because it's directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who's no stranger to the horror genre, both good and bad.

Josh Hartnett plays a dad who is taking his tween daughter to a "Lady Raven" concert at an arena in Philadelphia. Lady Raven is played by Saleka Night Shyamalan, the director's daughter, who is indeed a pop singer, though not in the realm of selling out arenas, which makes this movie just an elaborate ploy by M. Night to give his daughter a concert movie. Nicely played, M. Night. Nicely played.

Within the context of the movie, the concert is also a ploy, in this case an elaborate trap to catch a serial killer called the Butcher. So rude! Ruining a nice afternoon between a serial killer and his daughter!

Trap is a lot of dumb fun. It is not lost on me that Haley Mills, of The Parent TRAP, also plays an FBI profiler. And I don't know enough about the "trap" genre of music to say if the concert qualifies as trap, but I do know a trap door makes an appearance near the film's end, which, be warned, does not contain a "twist," per se, but does include a few swerves.

Trap is currently available to rent online - and just premiered on Max.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 24: Dead Ringer (1964)

Dead Ringer, not to be confused with the David Cronenberg movie Dead Ringers, is one of Bette Davis's hagsploitation horrors, and it's a hoot.

She plays twins Margaret and Edith. When Margaret's rich husband Frank dies, Edith, after years of estrangement, shows up at the funeral. Frank was once Edith's man, but Margaret stole him away, to live a life of luxury, while Edith ended up living above a failing cocktail lounge. 

So she comes up with a plan to steal Margaret's life.

It's clear Davis enjoyed the roles, throwing her full Bette Davis persona into them. (At one point, she even cracks a "What a dump!" about her ramshackle apartment.) The movie was directed by actor Paul Henreid, and the scenes in the bar, especially one where a murder is timed to the drums of the bar band, are wonderfully energetic.

Co-stars include Karl Malden as a cop who is in love with Edith, Peter Lawford as Margaret's lover, and Jean Hagen as Margaret's best friend. (She's woefully underutilized.) In all, an enjoyable bit of psycho biddy horror.

I watched Dead Ringer on TCM, but it is also available to stream free on Tubi.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 23: MadS (2024)

MadS is a French outbreak/zombie movies whose biggest selling point is it was shot in one take and is presented in real time.

Now, having seen the movie, I find it really, really hard to believe that's true, but the director, David Moreau, insists it is absolutely true. He says it took five days to get it right, and the film that we see is what was shot on the fifth and final day. If that's the case, then it really is one of the most impressive feats of filmmaking I've ever seen, and I definitely want a behind the scenes making of documentary!

I would say, even if he's fibbing a little, it is constructed very well, so that there are no moments that could clearly be edit points, and it does really feel like a real time, single cut movie, with all the tension and anxiety that brings. (I'd also like to commend the camera contraption they used, because for something shot handheld, the camera work is steadier than many conventional movies these days.)

As for the plot, there's nothing particularly groundbreaking about that: a rich teenager buys some drugs before a party, and on the way home, a woman covered in bandages gets into his car. She infects him with some kind of contagion that turns people feral, and the film follows that contagion as it passes along. There are several locations in the town, and various means of transportation, so this isn't a single take movie all shot in one place, and thinking about the logistics of that just makes me head hurt. But probably not as much as the infected teens in the story.

MadS is currently streaming on Shudder.