Deadstream | Halloween 2022

Sadly, we are nearing the end of the Halloween season. There are only a few more movies to go before we reach the dreaded Christmas movie season. In the hopes of finding a really amazing Halloween movie this year, I turned on Deadstream, a Shudder original movie.

YouTuber Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) has recently done a few things that caused him to get cancelled. After a six month hiatus, he is back with a livestream. He stream spending one night in a haunted house. When he accidentally releases vengeful spirit Mildred Pratt (Melanie Stone), the fight for his live becomes more than just an internet stunt.

There haven’t been a lot of good movies this season. Grimcutty and Sissy currently hold the top spots on my Top 5 list. However, Deadstream is fighting to get that top spot. If you have spent any time watching YouTubers, you will probably relate a lot to the audience watching Shawn’s livestream. We do see some comments from them occasionally and they are hysterical. From people not believing anything he’s doing to people making fun of him for being scared to people giving advice on what to do. The only thing the comment section is missing is the terrible racist/misogynistic/asshole people. Then again, Shawn is a young white guy. He probably wouldn’t get a ton of those comments anyway.

My favorite part of the movie, though, is how they add the comedy to the scary parts. Sometimes the ghosts will attach Shawn in a funny way, sometimes Shawn says something completely out of pocket, and sometimes it’s a combination of both. Every time I thought I was about to lose interest, there was something different to bring me back in. Deadstream isn’t like any other horror comedy movie I have watched. I might actually add this one to the annual list of movies to watch in my free time.

If you couldn’t guess by now, yes, I recommend watching this one. While I would classify any of the gory parts as “unrealistic gore,” there are some head explosions and whatnot. But they are all played for laughs, not for terror. I think Deadstream is pretty safe for any adult to watch. It’s probably not for the kids, though. Keep them away. Far away.

Hayride To Hell | Halloween 2022

Last night, my husband and I attended the world premiere for a movie filmed nearby. Hayride To Hell was filmed in Willistown Township, PA and stars Bill Moseley from Repo! The Genetic Opera and House of 1000 Corpses and Kane Hodder from Friday the 13th Part VII through Jason X. This was lining up to be a good movie.

Farmer Sam (Bill Moseley) is fighting to keep his farm. Many of the town officials want him to shut down his annual hayride, even though it is an extremely profitable event. Between traffic problems, rowdy patrons, and not being able to make payments to the bank, Sheriff Jubel (Kane Hodder) and the commissioner Betsy Butte (Allyson Malandra) have a point. But Sam won’t go down without a fight. He gathers his family and farmworkers to put on one last hayride for the naysayers. If only they knew it was their last.

When I heard about the premiere, there wasn’t a ton of information on Hayride To Hell. Would it be a slasher film? Would it be a thriller? A comedy? Well, it’s a little bit of everything. It’s not a straight comedy but it’s also not really a slasher. Yes, there are a lot of deaths. I believe the body count is somewhere around 12. But there is a lot of really funny bits in there. At the Q&A after the movie, we found out that many of the best scenes were improved by the cast. I didn’t realize how funny these guys could be.

As of right now, Hayride To Hell doesn’t have a distributor. It sounded like they should have a deal set sometime in the next few months. Unfortunately, that means I can’t give you any information on where you can find it. But, if you do hear something about it coming to a theater or streaming service near you, you should definitely check it out. Especially if you like horror comedies.

Matriarch | Halloween 2022

The horror movies this year have been all over the place. Hulu has given us some terrible thriller movies but it has also given us some of my favorite. I sat down to watch Matriarch, which is listed as a horror movie, and…I think that Hulu doesn’t know the definition of horror.

Laura (Jemima Rooper) is a bit of a mess. She has a decent job but she is an alcoholic addicted to cocaine. When she accidentally overdoses, she wakes up to find herself with a strange new affliction that causes black goo to seep out of her. After receiving a call from her awful mother, Celia (Kate Dickie), she goes home to try to figure everything out. What she figures out is that her family and her hometown isn’t what she thought it was.

This was probably the slowest movie with the worst payoff I have had this Halloween movie season. It took forever for the story to get where it was going. I know the writers wanted to hammer home how messed up Laura is and how absolutely terrible Celia was to her but they went a little overboard. The whole movie is just under 2 hours long. Most of the time is spent with Celia rocking between trying to murder her own child and cooing at her in an attempt to earn forgiveness. We never get a sense that Celia is anything but an awful person and it isn’t until the last 15-30 minutes of the movie that we get any sort of answers for anything.

Also, I’m not sure why this is listed as horror. There are no horror elements here. I think we’re supposed to be scared of the black goo but the only thing it does is seep out of eyes, ears, and noses. It doesn’t seem to make anyone behave any differently. There aren’t even jump scares, which can be a very lame element of horror but that would at least validate the category. Even the big reveal at the end isn’t particularly horror. Well, maybe it is if you haven’t watched a lot of horror or get scared very easily.

Sadly, I can’t recommend Matriarch. I couldn’t find a single redeeming quality of it and I’m sorry I wasted my time watching it. There are much better movies out there. Especially if you are looking for actual horror.

The School For Good And Evil | Halloween 2022

When I first heard about The School For Good And Evil, I didn’t realize it was a book adaptation. In hindsight, duh. I should have realized it from the title. All I really knew is that it starred Sophia Anne Caruso from Beetlejuice the Musical and Sofia Wylie from High School The Musical: The Musical: The Series. That was enough to make me want to watch it.

Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie) are best friends that live in a village called Gavaldon. While Sophie dreams of being a princess, Aggie is called a witch by the townsfolk. After finding out about The School For Good And Evil, Sophie writes a letter requesting to become a student and leaves it in the Wishing Tree. That night, as Sophie attempts to run away from home, she is abducted by a skeleton bird. Agatha sees her friend being taken and grabs on, trying to keep her in Gavaldon. The bird takes both girls to The School, dropping them at their designated buildings. Sophie at the School For Evil and Aggie at the School For Good. Both girls swear they are at the wrong school and try their best to convince the deans to switch them. Or send them home.

This is one of those movies where you think you know where the story is headed but you aren’t exactly sure. I thought of at least three different ways it could have gone. But that doesn’t make the movie any less enjoyable. Actually, I think it makes it more fun to watch. While I don’t want to give too much away, there are a few things I want to talk about.

Both Caruso and Wylie are great as Sophie and Aggie, respectively. Their desperation to get out of their situation in any way possible comes through clearly. It helps that they are surrounded by some big talents too. Charlize Theron is Lady Lesso, the dean of the School of Evil, and Kerry Washington is Professor Dovey, the dean of the School of Good. Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Patti LuPone, Peter Serafinowicz, Rachel Bloom, Rob Delaney…there is so much talent in this movie that the only way it would have failed is if the source material was awful. Thankfully, the actual storyline is amazing. You’ll have yourself questioning the definition of good and evil at the end.

The School For Good And Evil should be on your list of movies to watch. I’m not sure how closely it follows the books, as I have not read them, but the movie is a ton of fun to watch. As of today, there are seven books in the series. I would love to see more adventures of Sophie and Aggie.

The Midnight Club | Halloween 2022

I generally try to stay away from series during the Halloween and Christmas review season. Not because I dislike them or I think they are going to be bad but simply because I don’t usually have the time to dedicate to an entire series when I’m trying to post a new review each day. Thankfully, I was able to fit The Midnight Club into my schedule this year.

Ilonka (Iman Benson) is a teenager with terminal thyroid cancer. She decides to move into Brightcliffe, a hospice for dying teenagers. Every night, the group of eight teenagers get together at midnight to tell scary stories. Is there more to the tales they tell and is Brightcliffe just a hospice center?

Last year, Mike Flanagan gave us the brilliant Midnight Mass. While The Midnight Club is based on a handful of young adult novels by Christopher Pike, I had high hopes that this would be a good series. While there are some slow parts, I was not let down.

To be honest, I don’t want to give too much of the story away. I think that this is a show that should be experienced without a lot of knowledge ahead of time. There are a few things that are up to interpretation but some other things are explained eventually. But I think my favorite thing about the series is that each story told by a teenager is based in other Christopher Pike books. They aren’t exact replicas of the books, that tends to make for terrible television anyway, but they are versions that fit the members of The Midnight Club. It is definitely an imaginative way to make the most out of all of the source material available.

In short, yes, I think you should watch it. The Midnight Club is set up to be a multi-season show. I hope that Netflix doesn’t let us down and renews the series. We could definitely use a good spooky series like this every Halloween season. And since the show is set up to have the characters die and get replaced with new ones, having the actors age out of their characters shouldn’t be a big deal. I really would love to see more of this.

V/H/S/99 | Halloween 2022

Anthology series can be tricky. Sometimes you get a pile of really great stories, sometimes you get a pile of crap, and sometimes you get something in between. As a follow up to last year’s V/H/S/94, we are shot into 1999 with V/H/S/99. Where 94 was found footage, 99 is presented as a mixtape of sorts.

The first story we see is “R.A.C.K.,” which is an acronym for the lead characters - Rachel (Jesse LaTourette), Ankur (Keanush Tafreshi), Chris (Dashiell Derrickson), and Kaleb (Jackson Kelly) - as well as the name of their band. One night, the decide to break into a music venue that burned down during a show three years ago. The band that was playing, Bitch Cat, were trampled to death as the audience fled the fire. As R.A.C.K. was messing around, they get attacked by the zombie members of Bitch Cat. Things don’t end well for the pranksters.

“Suicide Bid” is the story of college freshman, Lily (Ally Ioannides), as she pledges the Beta Sigma Eta sorority. Four of the sorority sisters invite Lily out to a graveyard, where they dare her to spend the night buried in a coffin. Lily agrees and somehow puts up with the torture pranks the sisters pull on her. However, when a security guard comes to investigate what is going on, the girls leave Lily in the coffin in the pouring rain. As Lily’s coffin fills with mud and rain, she is…saved by a previous hazed student, Giltine (Chris Page), who died during the same prank. The sorority girls return the next morning to find the grave filled with water and Lily missing. Now it’s Lily’s turn to haze them.

Forcing us to remember old children’s adventure game shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple or Double Dare, “Ozzy’s Dungeon” shows us what can happen when those games go wrong. Donna (Amelia Ann) is competing to win a wish from Ozzy (Amelia Ann). Unfortunately, Donna suffers a major leg injury on the final obstacle, meaning she didn’t win the wish. Years later, the host (Steven Ogg) of the show is kidnapped by Donna’s mother, Debra (Sonya Eddy). Debra tortures the host until he takes the family to get their wish from Ozzy. Only Donna didn’t wish for things Debra wanted her to.

In between all of the episodes of V/H/S/99, we see stop motion movies with plastic army men. In “The Gawkers,” we find out that these little movies are being made by Brady (Ethan Pogue) with a camera owned by his brother, Dylan (Luke Mullen). Dylan and his friends take the camera back from Brady in order to record their hot neighbor, Sandra (Emily Sweet). The boys see Sandra getting a new computer delivered to her house. She has asked Brady to help her set up the webcam. Of course, the boys coerce Brady into setting it up so they can watch her from Dylan’s computer in the hopes of seeing her naked. But when Sandra starts to undress, the boys find out that she’s not the human they thought she was.

Finally, my favorite episode, “To Hell And Back.” Nate (Archelaus Crisanto) and Troy (Joseph Winter) are filming a ritual where a woman (Tori Pence) is offered as a sacrifice to the demon Ukoban (Dustin Watts). She will be the vessel he uses when he rises from hell. When the ritual begins, Nate and Troy see an uninvited demon, Furcas (James C. Morris), in the room. The witches cast him out but he takes Nate and Troy with him. As they try to escape, the men get help from Mabel (Melanie Stone), a tortured soul, with the promise they they would write Mabel’s name in witches’ book when they get back. Nate and Troy manage to hitchhike with Ukoban back Earth, where the witches kill them for ruining the ritual. Dying, Troy scribbles Mabel’s name in the book with his blood.

Unlike V/H/S/94, I thought these stories worked well. Each of them were a complete story with an actual ending and the camera wasn’t swinging all over the place (most of the time) so you could actually see what is going on. A lot of these stories are filmed with a handheld camera, meaning there is a bit of jerkiness to the visuals but it’s not nearly as bad as last year. There were some fun ideas in there. I would have liked to have seen “The Gawkers” tell a little more of Sandra’s background or “Ozzy’s Dungeon” flesh out Donna’s character a little more. Otherwise, “Suicide Bid” and “To Hell And Back” are the strongest stories of the bunch. I don’t know if we’ll get another V/H/S release next year but I hope that it continues to improve the stories it tells.

HeBGB TV | Halloween 2022

Last night, my husband and I went to a local screening of HeBGB TV. The movie was written and directed by three guys in nearby Lancaster, PA. It has been making the film festival rounds and we were lucky enough to live close to a screening.

A multidimensional cable box, HeBGB TV, has been appearing in stores and houses all over the world. The Purple Guy (Jake McCellan) appears in the house of a brother and sister to convince them to watch HeBGB TV. Together, they watch all of the weird and wonderful shows on the strange cable box.

My husband is a big fan of cheesy, campy horror movies. That is definitely where HeBGB TV falls. It isn’t the scariest movie on the block. Nor is it the goriest. However, it is a ton of fun with some awesome special effects thrown in. Our favorite bits were “Monster Girl,” “Fang,” “Candy Corn,” and “The Night Snacker.” There are some other funny bits throughout the movie but those were the ones we liked the best. Your mileage may vary.

While the movie is quite funny, I was most impressed by the fact that a majority of the movie was created by three men - Adam Lenhart, Eric Griffin, and Jake McClellan. All three of the contributed to the writing, directing, and producing but Griffin handled a lot of the cinematography and editing, while Lenhart did the stop motion/animation/special effects and McClellan did the lion’s share of the acting. Yes, there were another handful of actors and some more help with the animation/graphics. But a majority of the movie was just these three men. That is very impressive.

There are a few more screenings listed on their website. If there is a screening near you, go check it out. Especially if you are lucky enough to see McClellan bring a character to life on the stage. We got to see him as Doctor Knucklehead, as well as listen to a Q&A after the movie with the creators. It was eye-opening. I hope that they get the chance to expand on some of the characters in HeBGB TV. It would be awesome to see more of them.

Raven's Hollow | Halloween 2022

Raven’s Hollow is the horror movie for all of the Edgar Allan Poe fans out there. The movie mostly revolves around Poe’s famous poem, The Raven, but there are some references to his other works.

In the autumn of 1930, West Point military cadet Edgar Allan Poe (William Moseley) is on a training exercise with four other cadets. The group finds an eviscerated man on a rack in the middle of nowhere. Before he dies, the man whispers one word to Poe, “raven.” Poe assumes this is a reference to the nearby village Raven’s Hollow so the men travel there to find the murderer. Unfortunately, the military cadets are not ready for the secrets hidden in the Hollow.

Last year, Shudder gave us some of my favorite movies of the season. Horror Noire, The Medium, V/H/S/94. This year, the movies have seemed very lackluster. With the exclusion of Sissy, I haven’t liked anything from Shudder. While Raven’s Hollow isn’t terrible or confusing, it isn’t great either. It felt like the entire point of the movie was to try to shove as many Poe references in as possible. The movie would have been much better if they had just pulled the key elements from The Raven poem and twisted them to fit into the horror story they were building. It would have been easy to take West Point cadet Poe and have him experience elements from the poem without having to include many of the other characters.

I believe most people will pick Hollow apart for its…not great acting. Maybe I have seen too many terrible films but I didn’t think the acting was quite that bad. Instead, I kept getting distracted by the references to Poe’s other works. It made me second guess my knowledge of The Raven. Then again, if you aren’t particularly familiar with Poe’s works outside of The Raven, this probably wouldn’t be an issue for you.

Should you watch it? It is probably worth a go. There are some very good scenes that I wish were fleshed out a little bit more but are still quite beautiful as they currently are. Don’t go in expecting too much, though. We’re looking at like a 5 out of 10 movie here. There are definite places for improvement but it’s not a complete waste of time either.

Umma | Halloween 2022

The more horror movies I watch, the more I realize how much I really like Asian horror movies. Umma may have been made in the United States but it was both written and directed by a Korean-American woman. Hopefully, it will be on the same level as last year’s The Medium from Thailand.

Amanda (Sandra Oh) lives on a rural farm, raising bees and chickens with her teenaged daughter Chrissy (Fivel Stewart). Since Amanda gets sick when there are electronics around her, the pair live without modern technology. One day, Amanda’s uncle (Tom Yi) shows up at the farm to inform Amanda that her mother (MeeWha Alana Lee) has died. Slowly, Amanda relives the traumatic events of her childhood, brought upon by her own mother, her Umma. Can Amanda overcome her trauma to become a good mother to Chrissy or will she be fated to transform into her Umma?

Despite the fact that there are quite a few scenes that are way too dark and a few scenes that have little explanation, I found Umma entertaining. I don’t think it was quite as scary as some of the other Asian horror movies I have watched but the feelings of a child constantly disappointing an abusive mother came through clearly. As I am not of Asian descent, I can’t quite connect with those feelings or any of the abuse that comes from them, though I do see it depicted a lot in Asian media. I can understand it, even if I can’t relate. It does make me feel bad for Amanda and I hope that she’ll be able to seek therapy to overcome her past.

I think that, if you consume a fair amount of Asian media or are actually of Asian descent yourself, you might enjoy Umma. However, if you aren’t familiar with Asian culture, I’m not sure how the movie will come across for you. There are explanations as to why Umma is so terrible to Amanda but without that background of understanding Asian family dynamics, even a little bit, it might not be enough of an explanation to understand why it’s happening. Either way, Sandra Oh is a fantastic actress. If you have no other reason to watch the movie, watch it for her. You won’t be disappointed there.

The Curse of Bridge Hollow | Halloween 2022

Every year, I try to make sure I review some family friendly Halloween movies in addition to the scary slasher-fest films. This year has given us a few decent sequels with Under Wraps 2 and Hocus Pocus 2 but the originals, like Spirit Halloween The Movie, haven’t been as good. Netflix’s The Curse of Bridge Hollow has the potential to be the next big family Halloween movie. Let’s see if it lives up to it.

The Gordon family - Howard (Marlon Wayans), Emily (Kelly Rowland), and Sydney (Priah Ferguson) - are moving from Brooklyn to Bridge Hollow. Since it is Halloween, all of the houses are decorated. Each with it’s own theme. But Howard isn’t a fan of Halloween so there will be no decorations or celebrations of any type at the Gordon house. When some classmates tell Sydney about the history of their old house, she searches the attic for anything cool or haunted. She comes across an old jack-o-lantern and, during an argument with her father, lights it. This awakens the ancient spirit of the town, Stingy Jack. In order to stay in Bridge Hollow after midnight, Stingy Jack has to find another soul to send to hell.

Bridge Hollow is chock full of comedic geniuses. Obviously, there’s Marlon Wayans but there’s also Rob Riggle as the next door neighbor, Lauren Lapkus as the mayor, and John Michael Higgins as the high school principal. And while Priah Ferguson doesn’t have the history that her co-stars do, she has amazing comedic timing. This should have been a shoo-in for a cult classic. But there are a few downfalls.

For the most part, Bridge Hollow is funny and entertaining. However, it also takes a running joke and runs it straight into the ground. Howard, Sydney’s dad, is a science teacher. As a result, he is into science hard core. To the point that at least once in every scene, he says “Pop Quiz…” followed by asking Sydney some science-related question that is supposed to get them out of a sticky situation. It was cute at first but after the fourth “Pop Quiz,” it got tedious. The same goes for Emily’s, Sydney’s mom, baked goods. She is trying to open a bakery featuring vegan, gluten free pastries. But all of her food is terrible. To the point that her own family won’t even pretend to like it. Why would they let her waste money trying to start a business that they know will immediately fail? Why do they let her open a stand at the town festival to sell food to the locals when absolutely everyone says the food in inedible?

If you are able to overlook the minor quips in the script, it is a fun movie. I can’t wait to see where Ferguson’s career takes her. She has a bright future as a comedic actor but I think she could handle more dramatic roles if she wanted. Anyway, Bridge Hollow may not be the “watch every year” cult classic that I hoped it would be. At least I didn’t feel like I wasted my time watching it.