The Houses October Built (2014)

Running Time: 91 minutes

Release Date: October 10, 2014

Review by: Stacey

I'm one of the few that actually enjoys a good found footage film (see: GOOD) and I'll get down on any film that is centered around the Halloween holiday itself.  After much internet buzz, my old man and I decided to sit our asses down and rent The Houses October Built, not to be confused by the documentary bearing the same title by the same director.  By the end credits, we were more disappointed than spooked.

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2013)

Running Time: 90 minutes

Release Date: Sep. 9, 2006 (TIFF) and Oct. 11, 2013 (limited US release)

Review by: Stacey

This was one of those rare movies that I actually went into full on cold watch.  I didn't even know what the premise was.  All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, that's basically all I knew.  I was a little hesitant because initially I thought it would be some kind of gross, teenage rape film.  I was way off.

Psychomania (1973)

Running Time: 95 minutes

Release Date:  January 1974 (US)

 Review by: Stacey

The 70's were a time when the occult and witchcraft were ripe in film.  Especially lower-budget films, which some soon became cult classics.  British film saw its fair share of the like, namely with 1973's The Wicker Man and many in the Hammer films collection.  Then in rolls Psychomania aka The Death Wheelers with their undead biker gang, pacts with the devil, and...frogs?  Yes, frogs.  

Tusk (2014)

Running Time: 102 minutes

Release Date: Sept. 6, 2014 (TIFF) & Sept. 19, 2014 (US theatrical release)

 Review by: Stacey

Let me start this review off by saying that I've never loved or hated Kevin Smith and his numerous film projects (with the exception of Clerks and Clerks 2).  I barely watched Red State last month, which I had heard was his contribution to the horror genre when it fact it was not horror at all, a lot of people hated it and it wasn't that good.  Except for Michael Parks.  So, when I heard that Smith would be making a film based off a weed-riddled conversation they had on one of his many podcasts revolving around a man being turned into a walrus and starring Michael Parks, I was like "FUCK YEAH."

What we got was an eye-opening look into WTFworld.  

American Mary (2013)

Running Time: 102 minutes

Release Date: Aug. 27, 2012 (London FrightFest Film Fest) & May 31, 2013 (US limited theatrical)

Review by: Stacey

I saw American Mary some time last year when it first came out on Netflix and being a film that was highly anticipated in the horror community, I thought I'd give it a shot.  What did I think?  Well, I didn't like it the first time I viewed it.  Maybe I didn't pay enough attention, maybe I didn't get it, hell, maybe I went to take a piss and missed a pivotal scene.  All I know is I didn't see what everyone was losing their shit about.  Okay, I think I know why and it comes in the form of fringe-haired, tall, brooding and very boob-y Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps).  For that I can't blame y'all, but c'mon now.  Fast forward to today and I felt like the now-cult classic venture by the Soska Twins (Dead Hooker In A Trunk), who seem to have taken the genre by storm, deserved another watch to see if maybe my opinions had changed.

 

Blood Glacier (2013)

Running Time: 98 minutes

Release Date: September 6, 2013 (TIFF) & May 2, 2014 (US limited release)

Review by: Stacey

Blood Glacier.  The name alone reeks of cheesy B-grade horror.  I've been hearing the name float around in the horror community the last few weeks but surprisingly, didn't hear many reviews on it.  I imagined it was a movie about a killer glacier so I tried to distance myself as much as possible from it.  Then I saw it was put up on Netflix and decided to bite that bullet and sit down for a watch.  Wait, researchers (in a desolate, cold wasteland known as the Austrian Alps, fighting off otherworldly monsters that use humans or anything it lands on, really, as incubators?  Wait a minute...did John Carpenter make this?

The Tortured (2010)

Running Time: 79 minutes

Release Date: August 28, 2010

Review by: Stacey

Looking at the cover, my eyes were immediately drawn to the words at the top right: "From the producers of Saw".  I knew what I was about to get myself into because anything with the name Twisted Pictures attached to it is going to be in the vein of it's previous films that gave "the house that Wan built" it's torture porn notoriety; most notably Saw.  Unlike Saw and it's many sequels that followed, The Tortured was straight to VOD and as the title suggested, it was torture to watch a lot of the time.