NEW: I started logging regular watches, for now. Check it out here. It's still a bit crude looking as I'm starting to build it.
| Day | Title | Rating | Additional Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shadowzone (1990) | 4 | |
| 2 | Hellraiser (1987) | 8 | |
| 3 | Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) | 7 | |
| 4 | Hellraiser III (3): Hell on Earth (1992) | 6 | |
| 5 | Dreamscape (1984) | 1 | The story doesn't start until it's halfway through. This was really difficult to watch and poorly created. If you have ADHD it will be impossible to pay attention to it. |
| 6 | Witchtrap (1989) | 10 | New fav! I don't believe I can emphasize enough how HILARIOUS this movie is! I was cracking up the entire time. The acting is so atrocious, deadpan, and the dialog is overly wordy, dramatic and hilarious. The dialog is totally fucked. I'd say it sits somewhere between Trancers and Pink Flamingos dialog-wise, except horror themed. It borders on melodrama and schlock. The line delivery is horrid! Delivery is very reminiscent of the Dreamlanders in a John Waters film. The delivery is the most inauthentic and unconvincing ever. It's like someone held a gun to their heads and made them recite these awful lines that nobody felt. This is perfect 1980s b-movie trash, and I love it. It's even funnier that it was meant to be taken seriously. |
| 7 | The Midnight Hour (1985) | 5 | Featuring Shari Belafonte. It's basically a fun 80s flick except safe for TV. This could've been a classic were it not limited to TV audiences. |
| 8 | Bad Moon (1996) | 5 | Mariel Hemingway carries the entire movie, her role as the loving sister is the only thing that made this palatable as it's otherwise full of every cliche imaginable and quite boring. Otherwise I'd rate it a 4. |
| 9 | The Toxic Avenger (1984) | 4 | It's trash, like you'd expect any Troma film to be. It really isn't great. It's a product of its time - an edgy shock film which still has a massive cult following for some reason. |
| 10 | Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) | 1 | absolute shit. Also: flashing light/strobe warning. |
| 11 | Shadow Zone: My Teacher Ate My Homework (1997) | 9 | if you love the 90's Goosebumps TV series then this is for you. Apparently there was one before this called 'Shadow Zone: The Undead Express' which I may try to squeeze into this year's list. |
| 12 | Hide And Go Shriek (1988) | 1 | this film is utter shit. |
| 13 | The Convent (2000) | 6 | unique special effects combined with time remapping. SEMI-SPOILER (setting or plot details revealed) (click to show)Made use of UV light / glow in the dark makeup as an effect which I found interesting and original. |
| 14 | Alison's Birthday (1981) | 2 | cliche and just plain sucks. |
| 15 | Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988) | 7 | I really enjoyed this one. Lately I've developed quite the obsession with Full Moon films from the 80s like the Trancer series. I will fit Creepozoids into this list somewhere. |
| 16 | Dracula's Widow (1988) | 2 | cheesy melodramatic / satirical hard-boiled detective type vibes, but in the worst cliche type of way. Not my thing at all. |
| 17 | Creepozoids (1987) | 4 | a bit hard to watch. If it were any longer than 1 hour 12 minutes I'd go batshit. |
| 18 | Demonic Toys (1992) | 5 | not much to say. It's what you'd expect from a possessed toy/doll movie. |
| 19 | The Addams Family (1991) | 3 | I last saw it in the theater. It hasn't really held up. The story is disjointed but has some funny moments still. |
| 20 | Subspecies (1991) | 7 | Lots of cliches but at the same time it's fun and doesn't feel like the same-old. |
| 21 | Lights Out (2016) | 1 | I rated it a 9 until... SPOILER (click to show)the ending. What coudld've been an all-time great horror tale was completely spoiled in the remaining minutes. About 1 hour in I sensed something cringy was going to happen, I got the vibe that they couldn't resist it, and I was correct. It took the tone of the entire movie and turned it upside down. What was a fear-soaked masterpiece was turned to disgust and depression. And frankly - anger at the situation that they'd do that. I am someone who likes to vibe off the movie afterwards - I like the spooky feeling of 'maybe someone IS looking over my shoulder'. These types of endings ruin all that - it's like waking up from a peaceful, relaxing dream to a dumpster falling off of a truck outdoors followed by jackhammers. Total vibe killer. I am utterly disappointed. |
| 22 | Hack-O-Lantern (1988) | 4 | Pretty dull and has no real atmosphere. It's best viewed as a background movie because it isn't interesting enough to pay attention to. At the same time it's not horrid, it just isn't worth watching. |
| 23 | Spellcaster (1992) | 4 | meh. Has Adam Ant but that's about it. |
| 24 | Shock 'Em Dead (1991) | 6 | tempted to rate it a 7, even. Unexpectedly good. Traci Lords. |
| 25 | Pulse (1988) | 8 | excellent psychological horror/thriller. First half of the movie is the build-up with periods of suspense, leading up to the last half which is a long bout of extremely intense suspense. A well-executed thriller. |
| 26 | Aenigma (1987) | 5 | linear, supernatural revenge. Generic storyline. Would be a 4 or less if it weren't so hilariously bad that it made me laugh. |
| 27 | Slime City (1988) | 9 | unexpectedly good, amusingly repulsive, original & creative. Very camply, humor you'd expect from an 80s b-movie. Very much in the vein of Herschell Gordon Lewis, if I dare to say, specifically Something Weird (1966). Contains insane gore carried out perfectly to the point where it's utterly disgusting yet unrealistic if such things would normally bother you (think: Braindead (aka Dead Alive) (1992). Reminiscent of Basket Case (1982) in quite a few ways. The ending scene unlocked an all-new, highly creative level of gore rarely seen. Trash cinema at its finest. |
| 28 | Tourist Trap (1979) | 1 | This shit is literally unwatchable. How dare you release this crap in the era of Halloween and Phantasm! It's the shittiest of the shit. It's like someone saw Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) (another shitty "1" movie) and said "Hey, this movie really sucks. I bet I can steal some of its ideas and make something even shittier!" I wanted to fall asleep after the first 5 minutes and it only goes downhill from there. It's the most dull, boring crap ever. They wouldn't even dare play this on TV for free for fear they'd permanently lose viewers. If you are bored and watch this, I guarantee you will die instantly of extreme boredom. If whoever made this is still alive, they should be slapped silly. Someone should find the master reel and burn it! The actors were forced to live out the rest of their lives wearing a paper bag over their heads in shame. Get the picture? Good. |
| 29 | The Ring Two (2005) | 6 | The movie has a lot of atmosphere. I'd describe it as suspenseful, gloomy, somber, sorrowful and surreal. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the story, the atmosphere felt stiffling and oppressive because of my personal preference towards the subject matter and I found myself feeling awkward and uneasy a lot of the time. SPOILER (click to show)I would've liked to see it revolve around the tapes instead of other mechanisms, or at least take a different path rather than focusing on someone being ill. These types of scenarios are depressing to me. |
| 30 | Shrunken Heads (1994) | 9 | Charles Band, Full Moon, enough said! You'll probably either love it or hate it, there's not much of an inbetween on this one! I found it quite original, and the soundtrack (Richard Band, Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo) amazing and quite fitting. I'd describe it as 1950's style horror comic content turned to a dark comedy film. Or rather, if the ads from such a comic were made into a movie (think in the vein of the ridiculous ads in comics like about sea monkies as large as people, man-eating venus flytraps, and other fantastical scams/claims). Heavy elements of pulp, unconventional superherolike avengement, campiness, and 90s specifal effects. It's fun, twisted, and could've easily leant itself to an entire franchise, which, sadly, it did not. Though, there's always Head of the Family (1996). |
| 31 | A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) | 6 | This is a prequel and my least favorite entry in the franchise. The visuals made it difficult for me to see. Here are my reasons (basic setting details revealed, no real spoilers): SEMI-SPOILER (setting or plot details revealed) (click to show)Most of the movie takes place in darkness. This, combined with the frustrating trend of using small onscreen text, makes it an accessibility issue. Despite this, there are some innovative visuals. SPOILER (click to show)If you've read my other reviews, you'll know I'm not a fan of the "ill protagonist" device. It's depressing and ruins the story for me. The story begs you to have empathy for the lead, and plays off your heartstrings. In that sense, it feels like a cheap, easy way to engage you emotionally without any innovation. |
NEW: I started logging regular watches, for now. Check it out here. It's still a bit crude looking as I'm starting to build it.
My favorites list is in the dropdown menu, which are my favorite of all time. It's by no means comprehensive, or in any particular order, but films I hold in high regard and rate these all as a perfect 10. If you agree with any of them, you might find the other ones to be appealing, and might relate to my other ratings. I like to think I have exquisite bad taste 😂
If you want, you can download all of the yearly CSV files (2019-2024).
Download the favorites list.
My summary of 2024 is: it's clear I struggled to find decent films this year, this year was the least satisfying of all years this far. I didn't prepare this year which I usually do. I try to log all movies I find thoughout the year to compile a list. I only had a few, and of those, most didn't make the cut. It helps to have fallbacks in case you start to play something and it sucks. That said, I did discover a few gems like Witchtrap, Shrunken Heads and Slime city. I keep debating if a 9 rating was too low for Slime City, that one is still resonating with me, and I won't forget it.
I think I'm going to start logging my discoveries throughout the year, as well as start blogging other stuff I've been watching. Now that 31 Nights of Halloween is over, I will get back to where I left off in the Trancers franchise, which I've been looking forward to all month, though I'm sure it's downhill from here after having seen the first 3 films!
Thanks for reading. Hope you had a Happy Halloween, and I'll see you next year! Feel free to reach out if you like.