The Horror Returns - THR Bonus Episode: 31 Days Of Horror - Part 2

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

We cover our 2024 31 Days Of Horror films #9-16. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A

Here we are, Brian and Lance again. We're off schedule this month, dude. What can we say, man? But at least we're doing them, right? Yeah, you're going to get these episodes. They might not be on time, but you're getting them. A little later than we'd like, but we did our 31 days of horror, one through eight. Tonight we're going to bring you nine through 16, and we may follow up a little sooner than normal,

so we can at least try to get these out by early November. But we'll see them all by the 31st, right? Yeah, definitely. Okay. All right. So we left off on number eight. Mine, I left on a negative note, Brian, with, what was it, haunt season that was supposed to be so good. And I can't remember what your eighth one was.

Refresh my memory. Asriel. Okay. So yours was probably better than mine. Okay, so on to number nine, Brian. What did you watch? This one was built as a body swap horror. It's called It's What's Inside and it's on Netflix.

You beat me to the punch again. Again! What'd you think, man? If I would have compared tone-wise, I would put this up there with Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. Yep, I can see that. But it's not as good as bodies, bodies, bodies. And I can agree with that, although I did enjoy it. Complete letdown for me.

Oh, no. I saw what they were trying to do before they were trying to do it with the whole body swapping thing. And it just, at certain points, it just got real boring to me. And it's not even really horror. Yeah, I guess it's more sci-fi. Thriller or whatever. So you can't recommend that one. Okay.

And it is on Netflix, though. Yeah. So if you get Netflix, you can check it out. All right, I'll go into more detail later then. As usual, you trumped me. But we'll, all right, here's another one I know you've already seen. And I think you kind of like this one. Winnie the Pooh Blun and Honey 2.

Didn't you see this one? Yes, I did. So what's all this? What's all this high and mighty grandiose talk about? Oh, you're going to love it so much more. The costumes are so much more realistic looking. It doesn't just look like a bunch of guys with plastic Walmart masks on. To me, it didn't, Brian.

This didn't do a lot for me, man. So you don't see no upgrades from the first one? I guess. Owl. Owl. Is that his name? He was weird. I'll give you that.

I thought the owl character was pretty trippy, but I don't know, man. These, these to me are just kind of, oh, man, kind of forgettable. Honestly, I don't even remember a lot of the kills in this one, at least in the first one, where they ran over the girl's head in the street. You know, that was pretty righteous, but, um, ah, man, I didn't, I didn't take away a lot from this. Maybe I was too hyped up. I don't know, maybe I thought it was going to be like Disney-level animation or something.

I think I expected too much. What do you think? Yeah, if you expected Disney-level animation, you were reaching too far. All right, well, that was my number nine. Let's keep going, man. Number 10 is a max exclusive. We reviewed the trailer, and it's called Caddo Lake. Okay, now we're getting into something I haven't seen yet

I'm curious what you thought Without spoiling anything This is what I wanted When I saw The Watchers Okay That kind of M-night There's a reason why M-night Doesn't really put his name

He doesn't James Wan movies If you know what I'm talking about with the producer title. I do. Other than his daughter, the watch's movie, the last one I think he did that he threw his name on

was Devil in 2010. Yeah, that was pretty good, the elevator movie. Good story, kind of a slow build, great performance from, I think the actor, Dylan O'Brien.

I've heard that name before. I think he's the lead actor, and yeah, this is the kind of thing. When I hear Sean Malone's throwing his name on something, this is kind of what I want. Not the watchers. I hate to say that, but... Oh, it is what it is. Yeah. Okay, so Caddo Lake, you give it a thumbs up then.

Yeah. Was it horror, though? Because I've heard some people describe it more as like a suspense-type movie. Yeah. I would have to say, if there is horror, it's very minimal. It's more suspense, thriller, psychological, maybe even sci-fi. Oh. I don't want you to spoil anything.

Is there like a giant alligator or something, or am I way off base? I think you're way off base. Okay. All right. But then again, I don't know what horror is anymore. When I think this movie I just watch is a great horror movie and then I'd see people's reviews and It's like I wouldn't call this a horror movie I'd get confused on what horror is supposed to be

Right Because a lot of people I guess a lot of people say the science of the lambs is not horror All that matters is is did you enjoy it? That sounds like you did so that that's kind of at the end of the day that's all that matters right? Yeah, and there are some sad moments in this movie, so Okay, hits a nerve then. Yeah. Cato Lake, all right.

I'll definitely check it out. So, where do you think I went after Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey too, Brian? Take a wild guess. Craycoon. I thought about it. I still might. It's definitely on the short list of ones I might check out,

but do you remember us watching a trailer not too long ago by the way the title has been changed but the trailer we watched if I recall was called Mickey's Mouse Trap oh gosh did you watch Mickey's trap or trap or whatever it's called now I watched the mouse trap oh is that what it's called so yeah our buddy Darien from a padded room watched it and I started giving him hell about it and he responded back all right people just settle down. It's just a movie. And I'm like, okay, I'll accept that challenge and I watched

it and Brian, this is trash, man. This is garbage. They missed an opportunity with this movie. They missed a big opportunity. And what's with that ending where the mouse can like be there and then he teleports away

magically somewhere? There are no rules in this movie. It's just ridiculous. Were there any on-screen kills even? Maybe there was one with a knife? Maybe? This was rough. I remember if there was even that kill.

This was rough, man. I mean, I love the setup, right? They're in a, they're in like a chucky cheese or whatever that they're working, and they're having to do the overnight shift and cleaning the place up or whatever, so they have a sex and stoner. party like you see in so many of these horror movies. So, you know, had it been, I didn't even really need, now this one I didn't need Disney level animation.

I was happy with just the steamboat Willie mask, but for fuck's sake, at least give us some gruesome kills. And we didn't get that. And a teleporting mouse at the end of it, it just completely took me out of it. I hate to say it, but this one was worse than, than, we don't know. Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey too for me. So we're scraping the bottom of the barrel, man. I hope with number 11 you can bring us back up.

Yes. I actually enjoy number 11. It's a new shutter movie with an unfortunate title called Daddy's Head. Sounds terrible. The premise is a... A stepmother is left with her stepson after the husband dies. Okay. And you said, you said, you said, you said this was on what?

XVidios.com? Is that where you, okay. Daddy's head. I'm sorry, go ahead. You kill me with the title, dude. I didn't make the titles. Well, they're left with, she's basically left with a step. son all alone that she's not fairly close to.

Okay. And they're being tormented by some kind of creature in the house that takes the shape of some creepy things. Hmm. Okay. Good, good special effects? Yeah, I thought the creature looked pretty cool and creepy at the same time. Was it like a head in a bag or what I mean what what was daddy's head? I can't tell you Lance. Okay.

You got AMC plus. You got shutter. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. And there's a lot of new stuff up, by the way. So we're not going to have any trouble rounding out these 31 days as long as we get the time to do it. Yeah. But yeah, I think Daddy's Head is worth a watch.

All right. I'll check it out. Especially if you have shutter. Okay. Adding it to the short list. My number 11 is when you've already talked about tonight. I think I dug it a little bit more than you did, and that's the, you know, it's what's inside. So, okay, so here's what I liked about it.

And I do definitely see your comparisons to bodies, bodies, bodies, bodies. But I did like that setup. I thought that you're familiar with the Safdi brothers? Yeah, uncut, Jim. So, yeah, uncut jams, high life, right? The one where you had all the acid in the Sprite bottle that the poor guy drank. Yeah, it's just like quick cuts, right? And just like very anxiety-inducing camera angles and stuff like that.

So that's what I liked about it, right? That setup part. But yes, you're right. The delivery after that setup did not live up to the hype. Now, I think if this basic premise had been in the hands of, like, let's say, a Ryan Johnson, you know, who's so good at, you know, putting these, you know, disparate characters together and, you know, making it kind of like a murder mystery type thing. But did you see the twist coming at all?

The final twist? I didn't see it coming, but by the time it got there, I didn't care anymore. You'd lost interest. Fair enough, fair enough. I think I liked it a little bit more than you did, man. I had fun with it, I'll have to admit. I definitely didn't see that one twist coming with the, like, who is this crazy girl driving in traffic yelling at people?

And, you know, I don't know. I definitely enjoyed it more than you did. I'm going to tell you this. It was a huge step up from blood and honey, too, and mousetrap. I'll tell you that. Oh, yeah, I mean, if you're watching that. So, yeah, all right, well, it's what's inside. Definitely not a horror movie, but we're moving up.

We're moving up. Let's see if we can keep doing it for the rest of the list. What do you have next? Number 12 was probably a hidden gem, in my opinion, so far. And that's Hulu's Mr. Crockett. Okay, okay. What'd you think? I had a lot of fun with this one. I thought the lead actor that played Mr. Crockett was, he did a phenomenal job.

He was creepy. He gave me a lot of nightmare on the street vibes. Okay, okay, I can see that. I can see that. Lots of puppets, practical effects. Okay. I didn't know a lot about going into it, so I didn't expect the R rating until... Oh, it was definitely R-rated. Yeah, until there was some gruesome kills and F-bombs being dropped. I was like, oh, this isn't for kids.

This movie, would you say it kind of did what imaginary earlier this year have tried to do? It did what imaginary wishes it could have done. So, definitely 100% recommend Mr. Crockett. part of Hulu Wien, right? On Hulu. Okay. All right. Well, we're definitely moving up with our movies here.

And I'm going to keep us up there in that rare air with God, I never thought in my life. I'd say this. A To Be Original movie. But I don't know, man. I was hearing so many things about this movie. I had to finally check it out. You could put a gun to my head. You can, you know, you can threaten to kill my cat or whatever.

I ain't going to give anything away on this movie. You're going to have to go in blind and you're going to have to figure it out for yourself. But, of course, you know, I'm talking about low lives. This is not what I was expecting. But in a good way, in a very good way. And yeah, man, this movie takes a lot of really, really familiar old horror movie tropes and just kind of throws them on their ear. And I don't know, it's really super original.

I just don't understand how to be scored this high quality of a movie. And I want to see what else this filmmaker is going to do. I mean, had you heard anything else about this, Brian? Or have you heard anything else that this filmmaker's done? I have heard nothing about this I just started This movie itself I just started hearing word of mouth about it

And even then I still didn't watch it Right away and then one day I was just like No I just I needed something to throw on So I threw it on and yeah I was surprised And I think it's better that people go into it Not knowing anything Yeah I mean they say They say go into like for example

strange darling blind. But shit, dude, and for my money, this movie's 10 times more original than the twists in Strange Darling because I didn't see

any of this stuff coming. And I thought there were alliances being forged that maybe went in different directions than I would have thought even later in the movie.

So it kept twisting after the initial twist. So, man, I can't say more good things about it. I mean, no matter who you are, you got to be, because it's free. You don't even have to pay a subscription for it. So, you know, sit through a couple of short commercials.

You know, take our word for it. Go out there and treat yourself to a little movie, not to be confused with Low Life that came out about four years ago. It was actually on my top 10 that year. I really loved Low Life with the Luchadora, the Avenging Luchadora, if you remember that one? Yeah, I do. But yeah, this was amazing.

This was a really fun movie. I didn't see any of it coming, and I'm glad I didn't. Don't listen to anybody if they're starting to get into spoilers. Like The Geek said, the trailer was a masterwork in how to do a trailer. So, yeah, big ups for low-lifes. What do you got, Brian? All right, number 13, I'm going to keep it short and sweet. the substance.

Probably in my top 10 of the year. Really? I won't say it did Cronenberg better than Cronenberg, but it did Cronenberg proud. I could see that. I can see that. Demi Moore is one of her best performances. And that's saying a lot.

And don't eat food when you watch this. It's a gross out. isn't it yeah that's all I got to say about the substance which I think was coming to digital in the next couple weeks it's I think maybe you can catch it in this theater run still but if not you can you'll have to wait I think it's end of the October early November is gonna hit digital so yeah it's I don't know man it's funny you should bring this up now because this this movie was also my number 13.

And I don't know, you're talking about Demi Moore, but I think, what's her name? Not Kristen Stewart. What is that actress's name? She kind of reminds me of Kristen Stewart a little bit. Can't think of her name, but she did a really good job too. And this is another one. You don't want to give too much away, right? Because, you know, we saw the trailer.

You had to see it for the, for the, for the, podcast and I didn't know it was taking that turn. I thought it was just some kind of a, you know, like a makeup that they were applying that was making them look younger or something like that. I had, I mean, yeah, okay, I probably didn't dig this one as much as you, man, which surprised me because I really wanted to, but to me it was a little far-fetched the way that there weren't like doctors around to administer certain techniques and you kind of had to do them yourself. And I thought, oh, come on now, really. you know, but hey, it's a movie, so, you know, take it, take it for what it's worth.

I mean, there were a lot of good performances in this. I can't think of her name to save my life. Not Kristen Stewart. Of course, you talked about, you know, DeMe More as well. But I don't know, man. Oh, Margaret Qualley. Margaret Qualley is her name. But what about Dennis Quay, dude?

I'm glad he's not in a movie that has to do with dogs. Boy, I'll tell you what, man. When they would do that close-up on his yellow teeth, it's just, yeah, I'm with you, dude, it's a good movie. I just, it was a little far-fetched for me, but then again, I'm not a super big body horror fan, so, you know, it stands to reason, but I definitely understand your comparisons to Cronenberg,

and it's a good movie. It has a lot to be able to. are a lot to say about, you know, society and what we value. And it has some great performances. So, you know, I dug it too. Maybe not quite as much as you, but I did enjoy the substance. All right. Number 14, I believe you saw this one earlier this year,

and that is the spider movie Sting. Oh, yeah. That's right. The alien spider and the little girl, right? Yeah, this is directed by Kyra Roche Turner sure pronounce that right

uh... Wormwood the movie that brought us together Oh, I didn't even think about that I do remember hearing that Okay okay How did you like the opening sequence With the way the spider became what it was

I liked it I thought a lot of the stuff with the spider was good And I thought this was a super fun movie. I'm really interested to hear if Nez watched this movie because he is not a fan of Spiders. Probably not.

Probably not. And I just really dug everything that happened with the spider and the effects of the spider. There was some really fun kills in here. Yes, there were. Great characters, right? Great, great character. Great, great character actors.

Yeah. There was almost some comedy in there, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. And I'm really surprised a lot of people don't talk about this director that much. Mm-hmm. Because I think we've pretty much been entertained by everything we've seen of him. Oh, yeah, for sure. I enjoyed it a lot, man.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Yeah. So this one I found on Hulu, if anybody's looking to watch it. All right. That sting. Not to be confused as the feedback we got last week from our listener that said it was the craziest musician biopic he's ever seen or something like that. Yeah, it's not the recently retired wrestler either. Ah, okay, it's neither one of those stings. Gotcha, gotcha, okay. All right, number 14, you've seen. I do love the absolutely gorgeous Georgina Campbell but I do want to know who her agent is

because she's done some really great movies like Barbarian and she's done some real stinkers like what you would you say earlier the Watchers she wasn't bad at the Watchers no it wasn't her fault That's that you're in all fairness That is a true statement But I like to call this little movie

Which is actually called lovely dark and deep I like to call it What the fuck just happened Did you get it? I didn't get it Was she a ghost the whole time? I don't understand Help me out here because I know you've seen this movie

Into a different spirit world Through the woods And I love folk horror And I love woodsy horror so this should have been right at my alley. I need to see it again. I need to see it again, Brian. I must have missed something, man, because I don't know, dude.

This didn't, I thought I thought I was going to go in just absolutely loving it. What was the movie we saw last year where they were in the woods and there was like the fungus that was growing and it could communicate with itself on other sides of the wood and stuff like that? You remember the one I'm talking about? Oh, yeah, I can't think of the name. Part of the movie was in English, and I think part of it was either Spanish or some indigenous language. Gaia. There you go.

There you go. This had a lot of those vibes, I thought. Did you get that? Yeah, I could see that. Yeah. I mean, I guess the point of the story is, you know, if you go into the woods, be prepared to get out of your comfort zone, maybe. Yeah. Or maybe not go into woods alone.

I didn't hate it I really didn't you know and there was nothing nothing wrong with her performance I just was very confused at the end of it so maybe this is one that

that merits a rewatch you know where we at number 15 this is from this is from the team that brought you the Terror Fire movies and that's their newest one called stream

I heard about this one and I think I was tempted to even donate some money to their cause when they were putting the movie together but I never got around to it. How was it, man? I had fun with it. It's a straightforward story. This family, they're looking to do some family bonding so they take their kids to a kind of hotel resort that has no Wi-Fi, doesn't even accept kids. cash up front. Okay. And essentially they're there being put into a game where they're being hunted and killed

throughout the hotel by different killers. Sounds a little Rob Zombie 31-ish, maybe. And the selling point for me is Damien Leone or Leone, however you say the name. Did the effects for this movie. All right. Well, that makes sense. That makes sense. So were there some good practical effects,

or was it like real digital, CGI heavy? Good kills, good effects. Okay. Who's who of horror cameos? No kidding. I won't spoil any of them. Check it out. Okay, stream.

And is... Go ahead. No, you've just answered my question, I think. you said you're going to tell me where we could find it. Oh, you can view it on VOD digital or whatever you call it. Okay. So it's available probably like on, you know, Apple or Prime or any of those. Okay, cool.

All right, I'm going to check out stream. It's definitely been on my list. All right, my next one is one you've talked about, Mr. Crockett, and I was incredibly pleasantly surprised. very much a gross out movie. It was a lot of really, really good, super gross special effects. And like I say, it did. It achieved what imaginary tried to.

Now, I'm going to tell you this. Dude, you know me, I don't get creeped out very easily. Like, we get, see, this is the only problem with us doing a horror podcast, right? We get, like, super, super jaded. And nothing, you know, it takes a lot to make us. uncomfortable. Would you agree with that? Yeah, definitely. So,

I'm a little older than you guys. I grew up on Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers' neighborhood, early, you know, really, really early Pee Wee's Playhouse. This channeled all of that. And these kids were creepy as fuck,

especially their eyes. Once they started watching it, you can't really compare it to I don't think any other movie but you know of course you know as you know I was you know I was I was a big fan of a couple of a couple of movies that have come out recently

that have kind of had to do with the effects of watching too much TV on our culture you know and like what's reality versus try you know in other words it makes it difficult sometimes when you you're a last key kid you grew up on TV sometimes it's a little hard for you to differentiate reality from fantasy and stuff like that. And I don't know, man, this one just kind of took it to the nth degree.

And I don't know, man, something about this movie just really got to me. I don't know if it was the Mr. Crockett character. I guess it has to do with that generation we're in, right? Like our kids, our parents will tell us, you know, hey, kid, instead of having to, to be responsible for watching you, or instead of telling you to go outside and play, just plop in front of a TV. And that sort of becomes our lives.

And it just, I don't know, man, this one got to me. I thought Mr. Crockett was like a super creepy character. I could see this becoming a franchise pretty easily. I'd really count. Didn't this one start off as just like a short in an anthology or something like that? I don't know Pretty sure I heard that

I first posted the trailer on our social media It was like the first time I heard of it No I'm pretty sure that there And I'm gonna do some research and find out But I'm pretty sure this started out as like a 20-minute You know, many film inside of an anthology That Hulu did I don't know a couple of years ago

But be that as it may man I was genuinely creeped out by this movie. This is one of the few that AJ watched with me, and she kind of enjoyed, too. She didn't really like the gross out parts quite as much, but she didn't like the scene with the bubble. Yeah, or him making the dude eat all the nasty green stuff

at the beginning of the very first scene. It's like when that scene came on, you know, he said, be sure to eat all your vegetables. or whatever he said. AJ was about to piece out but like as we watched it and saw that there was actually a story here

we were kind of like all right this is you know this is pretty cool so she actually stuck with me man and as you know AJ doesn't always do that so no man big props to Mr. Crockett I saw that poster and I thought I am not going to watch this piece of shit it's just some you know

cartoonish character with a bow tie this is going to be stupid you know, just like, you know, trashy, you know, horror comedy stuff. But I was genuinely creeped out by this movie, man. I really was. So, yeah, man, big props to Mr. Crockett. I enjoyed it a lot. All right.

My last one, number 16, that we're going to talk about here, is another trailer we talked about, the Norwegian zombie film handling the undisional. dead. This is one that I saw today that I almost put on. Is it worth it? I think so. It's more of a horror mystery because the dead come back.

They don't know why the dead don't know why they're back either. They're kind of confused at what's going on. The government tries to step in to get involved. I do remember this trailer now. Yeah, so beautifully shot. I thought well acted and good mystery elements to it. I kind of feel like it's not your typical zombie film. So definitely recommend this one.

I believe this one's also on Hulu. Okay, I did, yep, I did see it on Hulu when I was scrolling through today. and I saw carved on there as well. So there's a couple of maybe check out. All right, so we're going to finish with one more, and then we're signing out for this time. Yep. Okay, my number 16 was a French movie

that I found on Shudder called Mads. Have you heard of this one? I might be talking about it next time we record. All right. Well, you know, I'm a sucker for the single shot movie, right? Like one shot of the dead, and I loved a lot of the scenes in children of men, for example, where it was like a 10-minute shot with one camera,

or at least they made it look that way. And I loved, what was it, 1916, the World War I movie that was like that. So that's what this is. That's exactly what you get. But there is a twist, and that twist is that you're not following the one single character through that entire shot. You basically follow three different,

characters' trajectories. And the first character is kind of like an every man. You know, he's, I don't think it's given too much a way to say that it starts out with him, you know, scoring drugs from a buddy and taking a couple of rails with him and then taking the baggie of drugs with him

and things get crazy from there. So that's already setting it up for you don't know what's going to be real versus, you know, fantasy or in your mind. but once it gets to like the second of the two of the three characters that it follows, this particular actor's acting in the way that they're being affected by this disease or whatever it is, is so convincing that like I've seen street crack addicts more sane than this person. So, um, and then, and then you kind of, you kind of get another one as a bonus.

I don't want to give too much away, but, um, I enjoy this one, man. I'm, I'm looking forward to what you thought about it. the French language, you know, having to read subtitles, did take me out of it kind of from time to time, but that kind of is to be expected. But I will definitely recommend Mads. And I think it's streaming. Is this one on Shutter also, Brian? Yes. Okay. So, yeah, some, a few stinkers here, but probably more good than bad, I think, in this batch, if we were to be honest, right? Yeah, I think, if I think about it, I think my first, first batch of movies was a little bit more solid, but yeah, not too many bad ones than this one.

Okay. Well, we promise to be back soon. Hopefully this next time sooner rather than later. But for now, this is Brian and Lance signing out, part two of 2024, 31 Days of Horror. Until next time, keep it creepy or whatever, right? Thank you.