The Horror Returns - THR’s 31 Days Of Horror Part 1

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Brian and Lance discuss their first 9 movies of October 2023. 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

All right, everybody, welcome to the Horror Returns, special edition. Yes, that's right. It's that most magical time of the year when Brian and Lance bring you their 31 days of horror, brought to you by our friends at the Horror Returns. That was stupid. We are the horror returns, Brian. That's late in the day. All right, so look, this is a huge month.

There's a lot of stuff going on. Everybody loves October. everybody loves Halloween and god damn it this is always our biggest time of the year for the podcast so I'm super excited that we're bringing these these 31 movies to you

there's going to be some good and some bad am I right Brian they're not all going to be jewels yeah usually especially with horror you got to sometimes get through a lot of the bad to get to the good

gotcha cut through the chaff to get to the weed or whatever they say. Yeah, exactly. All right, man. It's been a while. What's the format here, dude? Are you going round robin?

Or what's the plan? We're going to go round Robin, and I will kick us off with my number one. I went to Screenbox. The past couple of years, me and Lance have been doing all 20, whatever that year was, new releases.

I'm doing stuff that's new to me. It doesn't have to be 2025, so this one was new on Screenbox. It's from 2023. It's an Indonesian zombie horror movie titled The Draft.

The Draft. Is this like a war, a war horror movie or what? That's what I thought it was going to be. But then when we get to the middle of the movie, it explains it. Basically, it's five college students that go, let's see, it says goes on a weekend trip to a family-owned villa.

And when they get there, like, some creepy supernatural things start happening. And then the reason for it, they find out is that they are in a horror movie that somebody is writing. So it's very meta. Yeah. Oh, okay. This sounds interesting. And there's a little bit of comedy. there. It is subtitled.

So you're going to have to do some reading. I'm probably going to end up watching it twice. Okay. I'm probably going to watch it the second time because I feel like there's some stuff I was missing, neither watching or reading. Gotcha. But it was pretty decent. I like the idea. There was some good makeup effects on the zombies.

And the acting was pretty decent. So if you got a screen box, check it out. So is it a screen box original or is it one that they picked up? One they picked up that they labeled screenbox. All right. Draft recommended? Yeah, check it out. It is a little slow in the beginning, but once you find out what's going on, it picks up from there.

Cool. All right. The draft. Never even heard of it, man. So my horizons are expanding, dude. Might have to check that out. Is it only on Screenbox, as far as you know? As far as I know, yeah.

All right, I got you. Well, I went over to Shutter, man, for my number one. I actually, Brian, I'm going to stick with a format that I've done the last couple of years in all 2025 releases, at least as far as I know they are. You know, sometimes they'll do the festival circuit a year prior? Yeah, the actual release date is like 20, 22 or something. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I'm pretty sure this is a new one.

So, yeah, go over to Shutter, and it's called Monster Island. Have you heard of this one? You saw it, I think. I haven't seen it, but I've come across it on Shudder. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, I'll put it this way. There's a movie that when I was younger, I think it was like it was a senior in high school or early college years, Brian. And this movie, I went to the theater to see this thing like five times. There's a movie called Enemy Mine. Have you heard of this one? Yeah, with Loua Gosset Jr. and Dennis Quaid.

Yeah, I was going to say Randy Quaid, but... Close enough. That guy's not doing anything right now. Yeah, it was, well, yeah, he was doing the Hollywood Starfuckers conspiracy or whatever, right? Yeah, I heard you left the country. Probably. No. Oh, man, yeah, it's, all right, so enemy mind was a big, a big one for me.

It's like an alien and an earthling in the not-too-distant future, and they're bitter. enemies, but they each crash land. There's like a star battle going on, and they crash land on this planet. They have to survive together. Love that movie, dude. And this one, Monster Island gave me serious vibes. And it's like

I was back in that day again, man, like a very young adult. Checked this out. And I was just gleeful with this movie, Brian. I thought I was going to like it. I had a feeling. I didn't know it was a period piece. I didn't know it was set in World War II.

And so, of course, you've got a, you know, a Japanese soldier, and I think it's a British soldier. And they basically, you know, wash up on shore after this accident at sea with the ship. And they're shackled together, okay? They were on a prisoner of warship. So the British soldier was a prisoner of war, and he was shackled to this Japanese soldier. and so they basically have to work together. And they don't, I really love the way they film it. They don't do any of those cheap gimmicks, you know, kind of like Star Trek does with the universal translator,

where they wash up and three minutes later they're speaking the same language. They didn't do that. They spoke different languages the whole time. Love the creature effects, man. Love the creature effects. Kind of like a creature from the Black Lagoon type effect. you know, gill men sort of that live on this, sort of like lizard man, gill man that live on this island.

And there's a lot of, like, universe building once they get on the island with like how the creatures live and how they reproduce and stuff like that. And then you've also got, you know, just like any good monster movie, Brian, the true monsters of the humans. And so, of course, you have some Japanese soldiers that wash ashore as well, and they're none too happy to come across the British chap. So, yeah, a great movie. I can't believe it was only like an hour or 28 minutes.

Pretty quick watch, but it was very rich in story, very rich in character development. They even had a great little after scene. So I highly recommend this, Monster Island. Cool putting it on the list. All right, moving to my number two. We're getting a little folk horror here. This one came out in the theater is like a few months ago,

but is now available to rent. It is a rabbit trap starring Dev Patel. It's basically about him and his wife. They're musicians. They moved from London to like a little small cottage in the country of Wales.

Basically, they're working on a new album. He likes to go. I don't know. don't know what you call her music it's like experimental like he goes and like progressive it's like progressive yeah he goes and records different sounds and then incorporates that into the production and but when he's out doing so him and his wife to disturb an ancient they they describe what kind of fairy it is in their in their folklore in their country i forgot the name of it but it's a a ring a fairy ring and they disturb it and then this child shows up and then things get kind of weird after the child

shows up and I'll just leave it at that yeah yeah it was a ring of mushroom mushrooms right I think so look like it I spoiler alert I saw this for too man and yeah I I like I like the the way that the fairy creature I couldn't tell if it was like a young a young man or a young woman. Did you have that as well? Yeah, I had to look it up. It is a young lady, but they were, they kept referring to her as him. So I don't know if they were, if they were 100% sure. Yeah, I think it was probably done, done on purpose, you know, to kind of add to the, to the fairy lore of it a little bit. Yeah, a little slow getting through this one, but it is excellently made

and I thought the acting was really good. Yep. And I wish I had it here but I never heard of these fairies and it was good to learn about a new folklore in a different country. Yeah, it's

going to be a rewatch for me, dude. It's very lush and it's very deep. And there's just like, there's so much stuff that if you if you're not paying like perfect attention, to it the whole time. I think I missed some things.

So definitely want to go back and check it out. What was your takeaway? Yeah, I agree with you. I'm definitely going to rewatch it because I feel like there's layers to it. And I'll probably get more off of it off of a second watch. But yeah, this one is another recommend. Nice.

Like I said, it is slow, but if you're into folk horror and a good, like, mystery, and what's happening. And Deb Battell, he's, he's, he's pretty solid when it comes to acting. So, and I don't know who the actress was that was in it. Rosie McEwen, I think is her name. Rosie McEwen. She was the one that played his wife.

She was pretty good in it too. So definitely check it out. Nice. So another, we're doing good so far, Brian. Is it going to last? All right. So I've got one of those Shutter movies again for number two. I stuck with Shutter.

And this is a little movie. Now this one I know you've seen, Brian, the rule of Jenny Penn. Oh, yeah. What did you think? It was okay. I know on our Facebook page it was very divisive. Neither people loved it or they hated it. Okay.

You weren't in the middle on this movie. be. All right. Well, I'm on the camp that I absolutely loved it. Like Jeffrey Rush and John Lithgow, I mean, if this wasn't like a direct-to-shutter movie,

this would probably be, or could be Oscar contention almost, especially with Jeffrey Rush. Because just, and some people are, I think some people, Brian are saying, oh, it's not a horror movie. It's not a horror movie.

Dude, it's horrific, man. You know, you're a respected member of the community. you're, you know, a judge. And that scene in the beginning was terrifying, dude, where he was handing out the sentence and then his hands started shaking. And then he started dropping things, dropped the pen, couldn't write.

So come to find out, I guess he had a stroke, is what I'm getting out of it. Yeah, so basically he's trapped in a wheelchair, stuck in this, you know, old folks home, Let's call it what it is. I don't know what the term. The PC term is. I always called it Old Folks Home.

It's not a place I ever would want to be, Brian. So retirement community. Okay, retirement community. Yes, okay. But certainly not the best one, right? Like, he met that guy that was drinking a fifth. He had his little flash there and hit a cigarette, and the cigarette fell on to him.

He spilled some whiskey, and he caught up. He went up in flames. Yeah. Like, who is watching these people, man? Watching themselves. Well, the things that, the things that Lithgow is able to get, I don't want to get too spoilery, but I, you know, it's kind of early on that you find this out that he's a bit of an asshole.

And the things he's allowed to get away with, dude, with these characters. It's just terrifying, man, to think you could ever be in that situation. This is true horror, don't you think? oh yeah this is a lot this is a good example of elder horror unlike that George Romero 45 minute film I can't remember what it was called I forgot all about that

that came and went I can't remember what it was called yeah it's how good it was we can't remember how good what the name was all right well the the rule of Jenny Penn in my opinion is not just good but pretty damn great. This could be on a list

for me at the end of the year. I'm glad I caught this one. I'm very glad I saw it. And Jeffrey Rush again, I just can't, I'm just can't say enough good things about the performances in this movie. So yeah, another highly recommend. We're on a roll.

All right, number three, we're going to take a dip here. Our first one. Uh-oh. This one is not, I've seen it advertised on horror websites, but it's not a horror. It's a thriller. And it's called Trust, starring

Sophie Turner. Okay. What's her name? I can't remember the character's name in Game of Thrones. Sansa. Sansa. That's it. Sonsa. She plays a Hollywood actress that she's kind of going through some

stuff that she didn't want to get out the public. So she kind of gets like an Airbnb, like a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. And then she basically gets abducted by the people that

are one of the people, well, one of the people owns the Airbnb. And his friends find out that this Hollywood star is there and they need the money. So they basically lock her up. Wow, that's pretty cool concept, I think. Yeah, but like nothing happens.

That's always a problem. You just cut back and forth from the guys arguing about what to do to Sansa Stark trying to figure out how to get out of this room. Oh, no. And how long is it? About two hours? Hour and a half. Okay.

Did it feel like two hours? At times it did. Okay. So I can't recommend this one at all. The acting was fine. It's just nothing. Nothing was happening. And when something did,

you kind of seen this scenario in other movies before. So I can't recommend trust. Okay. So not super original. And then on top of that, boring AF. And she's like super. skinny now. It was kind of

unhealthy, huh? Unhealthily skinny. Jarring to look at. Like, I didn't remember her being so thin before, but when we were watching her, she was a young lady on Game of Thrones, so. Sure, sure.

Yeah, that's always a little off-putting for me, Brian. Yeah. So, I hope she's okay. I mean, that was my number three. Ooh, all right. So not so much of a recommend then, huh? No, definitely not.

You can skip trust. That one was also available to rent. Gotcha, gotcha, okay. All right, so my number three is on Netflix, and it's a movie in our long list of films that that Brian and Phillips saw at the theater and Lance missed because that's something going on with all the drama this year. But I am going back to revisit all of them.

And this is one that I added to the repertoire, and it's a movie called 28 Years Later. Do you remember this one pretty well? I remember a lot of dick. The Alpha. Yeah. I liked it well enough I know people got upset

because they the main thing I heard from people is they wanted basically what was happening in the first two movies to happen again I liked it because it was something different yeah understandable right

I mean you see a 28 movie and you kind of want to you know that was my takeaway too Brian I thought it I thought it went pretty far away. All right, so they want to do something different. I get it. I mean, look, you've got a genius director here

and one of my favorite screenwriters working in Hollywood right now. And they put this together. And yes, it was very jarring for me, dude, because I was not expecting, you know, to see, like, how would I describe this? It was like old school bow and arrow. type people that were on this little island that they put together.

And then you've got the kid that, you know, understandably he wants to save his mom. You know, and then the way that story ends is pretty sad. But, yeah, it was, I didn't, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first two, I'll put it that way. Maybe not the same level of action and whatnot. Yeah. I mean, we also got to remember this is the first in a trilogy.

True. I think, yeah, the bone temple was pretty cool to see that reveal. Yeah. And hopefully we'll get some answers on that group that pops up in the end because that was a complete tonal shift that last five, ten minutes. I kind of enjoyed it, though. I like all the action in that. So I'm on the fence on this one, man.

Not really. I would probably be at a five and a half. I liked it a little bit better than not. Okay. I think I was at a six and a half, seven, somewhere around there. I think so. I think so. Yeah, it sounds about right.

All right. Number four for me came out in 2023. I found this on Tooby, and it's called Double Blind. I've heard, oh, yeah, with the drug experiments or whatever. Yeah, basically it's an experimental drug trial. All these test subjects sign up for it. they're taking the drugs, and then they find out they can't go to sleep. Yes.

This is one I want to watch. I heard Heather talking about this one on Friday Nightmares. Yeah, and then essentially they can't go to sleep, and then whoever the higher-ups want them to continue to take into drugs, and then they find out that if they finally do go to sleep, they die. Oh, okay. So the thing is for them, to try to stay up as long as possible.

Mm-hmm. And of course, you got the hallucinations, the backstabbing, the all kinds of stuff. I really enjoyed this one. And pretty much the entire cast, I didn't recognize anybody but one person. That was Pollyanna McIntosh. Mm-hmm.

From the movie The Woman and Jadus on The Walking Dead. On the Walking Dead. that's right. That's right. So, yeah, I recommend this one. I had a good time watching this one. I thought it was pretty solid. And the scenario that they were in, I thought it was a good one. So, yeah, double blind on 2B. 2B. All right, I'll check it out.

All right. For my number four, we hit the seven Cs, Brian, for a little movie called Popeye's Revenge. I kind of actually kind of enjoyed it. Yeah, Popeye's Revenge, it was kind of a gore fest, man. Tell me which one this is, because I get confused. I've seen a couple of them. Well, yeah, there was one called Popeye the Slayer Man, and I think one or two more. This one's a rental title.

I don't think I could find it streaming anywhere, but it's fun, man. I got to admit. It's kind of fun. It's just a straight-up slasher movie. And you do get olive oil, and she's crazy too. And, you know, drunk teenagers having sex and getting killed. Who could ask for anything more?

I really kind of enjoyed it. Popeye's Revenge. It has olive oil in it. I did not see this one. I saw the other one. Olive oil is definitely a major character. All right. Put that one on the list also.

What are you on? Number five. Number five. This one is also another rental. It just came out recently. It's titled Scurry. Let me guess about rats. That's what I thought at first.

It starts with the giant earthquakes happen in the city and the ground opening up. And then our main character, we kind of start with him inside the hole, stuck, injured. You hear stuff in the background as does. movie title suggests kind of scurrying around and he's trying to find a way out and it's just complete chaos on the surface with all the damage the earthquake delivered and then he meets someone else they kind of play back and forth on which one is trustworthy you know if they're both good if they're not and then when you finally see the the creature it's it's not what I expected

and I kind of like that. I'll just say it's not a rat. I gathered that from what you said. Is it kind of like that Eli Roth thing from a couple of years ago? What's Eli Roth? The one where there was an earthquake

and he was like one of the actors in it and... Oh, it's like that, but imagine that happening and then your main characters fall underground and they're trying to get out and there's like giant creatures after them. It sounds fun to me. Yeah.

It does have its slow moments because they give you some character development, which I kind of was like, okay, I get it. You know, this happened to this person, this happened to that person. Let's get to the giant creatures. Sure. Just show me the fucking creature, right? Yeah. And Lance, I got to warn you, there is CGI-5. Of course there is. Yeah, of course.

All right. Number five, I've got... All right, now we're starting to kind of take that inevitable dive down into the depths, and that would be another shutter release, Brian. This one is called House on Eden. And it is a found footage movie. It's about an hour and 20 minutes. There is a house literally in the middle of the woods with no one around. and yet they call it House on Eden,

like it's Eden Street or something like that. And very, very little happens until the end, but it's not a good slow burn. It's not a fun slow burn. Is this with the YouTubers? Probably. It definitely looked about, yeah, about that quality. Are they like paranormal investigators?

Yes. Okay, these are actual YouTubers, like playing themselves. All right. Well, look, I won't hold that against them, dude. I mean, you know, there's a lot of talented people on YouTube, but these three were not among those ranks, in my humble opinion. Yeah. Very bad, Brian.

Very bad. Enough said. We'll segue from your found footage movie to my found footage movie that I found. You can rent this one on Prime. It is the man with the black umbrella. Never even heard of them. one. Yeah, I came across this one. It looked interesting. Basically, this guy's trying to solve the mystery of his sister being murdered. When he gets a hold of some surveillance footage,

there's a man with a black umbrella walking towards the house. And you can't see his face because he has an umbrella open. And the deeper he gets into the mystery and he hires a private an investigator to help him and they're on digging into things and finding out stuff. It gets very formulaic. Ah, okay. But there was some like

cool stuff in there. Like there's a scene where the main guy finds an umbrella on his hotel bed. And he picks it up and he opens it. And you can see the outline of the man through the umbrella and then when he closes it, it's gone. There's like cool stuff like that, but...

Okay. Majority of the movie is basically typical found footage, paranormal activity, jump scare, camera goes here, there's nothing there, comes back, there's something there. Sure, sure. So if you're into found footage movies, check this one out, but this one, like I said, it was some cool things in there, but most of it was nothing new, so... Okay. This is a kind of recommend.

And it's... You said it is streaming, correct? No, it's available to rent on Prime. Oh, rant on Prime. Yeah, I probably will save my shekels. Yeah. It'll be streaming here soon. Okay.

All right. I may watch for it. Who knows? All right. You're number six? Number six. Okay. I went to Norway for my number six, Brian, for a little movie a lot of people are talking about.

I don't know if you've heard of this one. The Ugly Step Sister? Yep, seen it. You saw it? Yeah. What'd you think? I thought it was a good take on the whole Cinderella thing, you know, get a different point of view and some good disgusting body horror in there. Yeah.

Very, very sexual also. No kidding, dude. Definitely not for the young. Yes. Not for the little ones, that's for sure. Yeah, I enjoyed it, man. I had a lot of fun with it. I, um,

oh man, that one scene where she makes her feet, uh, where she wants to have her feet fit fit into the shoe. Oh yeah. Jesus Christ. And don't forget. the nose job scene. Yeah, the nose job.

14th century plastic surgery, right? It's exactly what you think it is. Yeah, or not to spoil it any further, but the method of weight loss that she takes. Oh, my God, dude. Yes, that was the worst. That was the worst. Yeah, I recommend this one, man.

Sounds like you do too. Yeah, absolutely. All right. I thought it was German. at first, but apparently it's from Norway. So, Norwegian horror. All right. Our final one that we're going to talk about, number seven, our final one for me is Field of Screams, and I do not recognize this movie.

Field of Screams. It's about a young couple. One of them, their father dies. He inherits the farm, and he goes there, and nothing happens for an hour. Oh, Jesus. Then a guy or a creature and he kind of looks like a scarecrow with the sackhead. Mm-hmm.

Shows up and starts killing people. When he kills people, they become like one of him. And it's completely low budget. The acting is not good. The story is pretty much nonexistent. There is one guy. His acting's so bad. I won't say his name because I don't want to be disrespectful,

but he's so hamming it up that it was almost entertaining. Oh, no. He's like turning it up to an 11. Is this a 2025 release? Yes. Okay. I'm going to see it. Is it streaming or?

It's available to rent. You know what? It's worth it. It's worth it, dude. I got to see this. Yeah, but you know where it's. find it. Okay, fair enough. All right, well, this, this, uh, we'll close it out then, because my number seven is the aforementioned rabbit trap. Uh, really, really enjoyed it and absolutely going to be a

rewatch. So Brian, that closes out our, our first, uh, segment of 31 days. And, uh, we want to thank you guys for listening to us and, uh, sticking around, we'll be bringing these, what, about every week or so, you think? Or what's the, what's the, we'll try to, We'll try to get at least seven in, seven or eight of them in and do it that way. Nice. See everybody next week. Yep.