Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 21: Lake Bodom (2016)

I'll admit I really only chose to watch Lake Bodom because it's Finnish--the land of my people!--and I'm always intrigued by Finnish horror movies. Other than that, the premise makes it sound like your average kids-in-the-woods slasher movie. Which it is! But it also goes in some unexpected directions...

Four teenagers venture to Lake Bodom, the scene of a grisly unsolved mystery back in 1960, to recreate and possibly solve the crime. Bad idea right? I mean, when is going into the woods ever a GOOD idea in a horror movie? 

Do the boys have ulterior motives? Do the girls? And is there someone else out there in those dark woods, watching them?

I think the movie benefits a lot from not knowing much more than that, so I will say, I liked the beginning OK, really liked the middle, and was a tad disappointed with the resolution.

I watched Lake Bodom on Shudder.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 20: The Manitou (1978)

The Manitou is the third San Francisco-set horror movie to make it to the countdown this year, and it's also the most bonkers. I mean, this movie has everything: Neck tumors that are actually babies; babies that are actually tiny Native American medicine men; levitating grannies; lasers; gratuitous nudity; Tony Curtis.

Curtis plays Harry Erskine, a sham fortune teller who may actually have the gift. Or is it just a coincidence that his ex-girlfriend, Karen (Susan Strasberg) has a tiny Native American manitou growing on the back of her neck? For a good 30 minutes of the movie, she doesn't seem that concerned about the thing. At least, it doesn't prevent her from taking more than one cable car ride around San Francisco, before hoping into bed with Harry in his Russian Hill apartment.

When doctors can't get near the tumor without getting tossed against walls, or burned by lasers, it's up to the likes of Burgess Meredith, as an anthropologist, and Michael Ansara as medicine man John Singing Rock (note: Ansara was not a Native American, he was actually Syrian) to figure out what to do.

I won't give away what that is, but the ending is truthfully one of the craziest things I've ever seen. This is a movie that just defies any kind of grading system. Is it one star? Is it all the stars? 

Yes. Yes it is.

I watched The Manitou on a Blu-ray from my library, but it's also available to rent online.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 19: Oddity (2024)

Oddity is a fun little horror flick from Ireland that melds a murder mystery with supernatural elements into a nicely compact 98 minutes. It's got a good sense of humor with some genuine jump scares and I liked it a lot!

A year after her twin sister Dani is murdered, blind psychic antiques dealer Darcy (both played by Carolyn Bracken) visits her brother-in-law Ted (Gwilym Lee) and his new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) at the scene of the crime, the old house Ted and Dani had been renovating.

I'll leave it at that, plot wise, since the story's surprises are a large part of the fun, but will add that the film also features a creepy wooden man (see above), several scenes in a psychiatric hospital, a glass eye, possibly some ghosts, and the perfect zinger of an ending.

Oddity is streaming on Shudder, along with director Damian McCarthy's previous film, Caveat, which I didn't like quite as much, but is still totally worth watching.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 18: Death Walks at Midnight (1972)

The giallo thriller Death Walks at Midnight has some nice visuals, most giallo films do, but I will admit I found it to be a huge bore and had to watch it in two chunks because I kept falling asleep.

In typical giallo fashion, the plot it pretty preposterous. Susan Scott stars as Valentina, a fashion model who helps out her journalist boyfriend with an article about hallucinogens by taking LSD and letting him observe her reaction. During her trip, she either hallucinates or witnesses a murder, and the rest of the film follows her trying to find the killer, who continues his killing spree.

There's just nothing particularly special about this one, aside from Scott's amazing hair (see above) and an ending that is, I suppose, kind of exciting, if also kind of silly.

I watched Death Walks at Midnight on the Criterion Channel, which has a whole lineup of giallo films this month.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 17: Hush (2016)

Hush is a home invasion horror movie that doesn't really do anything that original, but it does the familiar really well. It had me wincing aloud and screaming at the TV more than once. 

Kate Siegel stars as a deaf and mute writer who lives alone in the woods, and is stalked one night by one of those random, very determined killers you really only find in movies. The script was co-written by her and her husband, Mike Flanagan, who is also the director. Being a fan of (most) of the horror series for Netflix they've also collaborated on, I'm not sure why this movie just kind of passed me by, especially since it was available on Netflix until last year.

It's a taut little thriller, not even 90 minutes long, and reminded me, obviously, of Wait Until Dark, and a little bit of You're Next, that last one probably because the killer (played by John Gallagher Jr) just reminded me of the kind of killer you'd find in a mumblegore movie. (And for those of you who care about these sorts of things, here's a spoiler: the cat lives.)

Hush is now streaming on Shudder, but a new, black and white, re-edited, director-preferred version of the movie (called the "Shush Cut") is also available on a new Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory. Sounds like another watch may be in order!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 16: The Ghost of Sierra de Cobra (1964)

The Ghost of Sierra de Cobra started as the pilot to a TV series called Haunted, about an architect (Martin Landau) who does paranormal investigation on the side. The pilot wasn't picked up, rumor has it for being "too scary," so its running time was padded by about 20 minutes, and it was released as a feature film.

It's a notable movie for a few reasons. The writer and director, Joseph Stefano, wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho. The cast also features several Hitchcock alums; along with Landau (North by Northwest) we have Diane Baker (Marnie), and Judith Anderson (Rebecca). Lastly, the cinematographer is Oscar winner Conrad Hall.

It's kind of a shame it didn't make it to series; it predated the similarly-premised Kolchak by about 10 years. The story, about a millionaire, his wife, and possible phone calls from his dead mother (this is the second "calls from the dead" movie in the countdown) isn't particularly scary, and you can guess what's really going on pretty quickly. But I will say, the "ghost" in the movie is actually very creepy!

I watched the movie version on Prime. The pilot version is available in YouTube and embedded below. I think it's probably the better version of the two. The movie version has so many moments where the camera just sits on a shot a few seconds too long, to the point of it being awkward, which is clearly just because the running time had to be padded.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 15: Hell House LLC (2015)

Hell House LLC is a frustrating found footage/mockumentary horror movie because it does some things really well, but the majority is a headache inducing muddle.

The film is presented as a documentary about a haunted attraction set up in an old hotel, and how several people died on its opening night. It uses "found footage" and talking head interviews to tell the story, but too often it veers into that ultimate found footage horror movie problem of people filming what no one in real life would actually film, and including footage that no actual documentary would ever include because it's so boring. (There is a lot of footage featuring the annoying characters putting together the haunted attraction. A lot. Too much.)

This movie is the first in what has become a franchise, with three sequels and another on the way. But I don't think I'll be seeking any more of them out.

I watched Hell House LLC on Shudder.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 14: Let's Kill Uncle (1966)

Actress Mary Badham only made two more movies after her memorable debut as Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird; William Castle's Let's Kill Uncle was her last one.

She got the role in the film because her brother, John Badham, was Universal's casting director at the time, and if his name sounds familiar, it's because he went on to direct such films as Saturday Night Fever, Dracula, and WarGames.

While the film is a William Castle picture, it's from the latter half of his career, when he'd let the whole "gimmick" thing go. Which is, of course, a bit of a shame, since without such a hook the movie is pretty lame. Pat Cardi co-stars as Barnaby, an orphaned boy who is in line to inherit millions after his father dies in a car crash. But, as he won't get the money until his 18th birthday, he is sent to live with his uncle (Nigel Green) until then. 

Uncle Kevin, however, has a different idea about who should get that money.

Most of the movie is a game of cat and mouse as Uncle tries to kill Barnaby, and Barnaby tries to kill uncle, none of it terribly thrilling or funny, aside from the ridiculous scenes involving a shark in a swimming pool (see the fin of the shark in the pool; cut to stock footage of a shark obviously shot in the ocean).

This is the second Shower Curtain Film of this countdown, and your guess is as good as mine as to why the movie influenced the title of Morrissey's second solo album, Kill Uncle.

I watched Let's Kill Uncle on a Blu-ray from my library as the versions I found streaming online were not letterboxed. 

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 13: In A Violent Nature (2024)

In a Violent Nature is soooo close to doing something truly original, but to be that truly original film, it would likely end up being one hardly anyone would sit through. As it is, I imagine there are plenty of people who won't sit through it. 

The movie follows the rise of a vengeful killer as he aims to find the necklace that was taken from his woodsy gravesite. And when I say follows, I mean that literally. A good portion of the movie is just following this killer through the woods as he walks from victim to victim.

And that's where I think the movie chickens out a bit. I wanted more real time walking, with fewer edits in his journey. And while that probably sounds nuts, I just felt like the amount of walking in the current film is both too much for the average viewer (I will admit, I dozed off once, and had to rewind a good ten minutes to see what I had missed), but not enough to feel truly transgressive.

What we get between the walking are the ill-fated campers who will eventually meet their dooms, and the kills, which are extremely violent. I'm not sure if it was the actors, the dialogue, or a combination of the two, but the scenes with those campers aren't great, which also had me wishing there was more walking and less talking.

So, while I did appreciate a lot of what the movie tried to do, for me, it didn't really live up to the hype that surrounded it.

In a Violent Nature is currently streaming on Shudder.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 12: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a horror comedy mockumentary that plays with the tropes of the slasher genre in sometimes clever ways, but doesn't completely work as a comedy since it's not actually that funny. 

I was immediately reminded of Man Bites Dog (1992) another movie that centers on a documentary film crew following a serial killer around. Though that movie is much, much darker, it succeeds more on the black humor front, which Leslie Vernon could have used more of.

The basic set up is that serial killers like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees were real life villains, and becoming a legendary serial killer is like a career choice, requiring research and training. A film crew follows Leslie Vernon as he plans to make his serial killer debut, donning the identity of a boy who had been killed by a vigilante mob years before.

The movie is not bad, and the performances, especially from Nathan Baesel as Leslie, are fun, and seeing slasher movie tropes (like slow walking, and lowering your heart rate to feign death) presented as things one must train for is amusing. But I guess I just wanted more, and in the end, the movie becomes a standard slasher, dropping the whole mockumentary set-up.

I watched Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon on a Blu-ray from my library. It is also available to rent online.