Category Archives: Ghost Movies

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies

Month of Horror (XXVII) – Hex After Hex

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A bodybuilder hooks up with a stewardess who happens to be possessed by a ghost. Hijinks ensue.

This is the third film in the Hex series, or whatever it’s called. I’d seen the first movie, plain ole Hex, an enjoyed it, so I went for this one, not knowing there was a movie between the two.

Which might have explained a thing or two.

Not that there’s any clear connection with Hex here in Hex after Hex. The first is a period piece while the second is closer to present day.

The other difference is that the former is a Horror flick and the latter… isn’t.

There’s not a serious bone in it’s body, despite several deaths.

I found it deeply entertaining (same goes for Hex as I recall, but for different reasons.) It’s deeply silly. The end could have used some work, but I have little complaints.

The second in the series, Hex Vs. Witchcraft, is now on the list, but probably not this month.

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies

Month of Horror (XXV) – Ruby

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A gun moll and her old friends are visited by an old flame. An old DEAD flame.

Oh, MAN is this a disappointment.

So close.

Might have needed a rewrite or three. Might have needed a better director.

It comes so CLOSE to clicking. The actors are spot on. The story has so much potential.

It’s almost infuriating how BAD it misses things.

The ending WOULD HAVE BEEN PERFECT had the story been better.

ARGH!

I still liked it, but man. MAN! Talk about a misfire.

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Review Site

[A MONTH OF HORROR – VIII] Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital

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Streaming in a haunted locale proves foolhardy. Shocking, right?

I picked this one because it was one of my favorite subgenre. Namely, annoying internet influencers go some place bad and die. It’s a surprisingly big subgenre including films like Deathstream and #ChadGetstheAx.

Anyways, it has its characters head to a spooky hospital where people died from one reason or another. I’m enjoying it, getting vibes like from one of my faves of this subgenre, Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum. More than that, the film even name checks Gonjiam.

Film ends, and as the credits roll I’m mentally comparing the two. It’s been a couple years, so memories fade, but I was thinking this was the better of the two flicks.

Then it happens. A credit pops up saying this flick was a remake of Gonjiam.

I just started laughing.

Fine flick. I’m giving it the same score as Gonjiam, but this, I think, is the better of the two.

3 out of 4

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies

[MoH] House on Haunted Hill

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A millionaire holds a party at a haunted house.

I was feeling guilty about starting late this year only to find out I didn’t even finish last year. The tradition has already been blown.

So we start again, shall we?

Tonight’s feature is the classic William Castle flick House on Haunted Hill. I’ve seen this I don’t know how many times. The acting is good, with Vincent Price in fine form. The script… makes no damn sense if you think about it and the end really, really doesn’t make sense. A rewrite here and there might have helped.

And yet tonight, for the first time, this film unnerved me in a way Horror films should. How it did this, I don’t know. Maybe credit Castle for that. He was most known for his showmanship, but he really could direct.

All in all worth my time any yours. If you can ignore the problems with the plot.

And the ending.

3 out of 4

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Sister Site

A Month of Horror (III): Portal

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[The Feature Image above is AI generated and has only the barest connections with reality. And is in fact scarier than this film.]

In brief, a team of ghost hunters enter the wrong haunted house and do the wrong things.

Its been said before that the hardest thing to review is a mediocre flick. You can rave about a great flick, you can rant about a bad one. The mediocre, though… you got nothing.

Portal‘s a little worse than that.

There’s nothing wrong with the acting, only it’s not really good. There’s nothing wrong with the story, except it feels like it could have used another draft. There’s nothing wrong with the directing, except there’s no scares. No fission.

The movie is okay. Like I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, it’s very much in it’s subgenre. The night footage is achieved with a bright light shining into the house through windows. The special effects work… ish.

It takes a while to get to the haunted house, but it’s not boring. It’s not anything. It just is.

I’m not sure I dislike it, but I can’t justify liking it.

There are short films so much better than this. Maybe it would have worked better as a found footage flick.

Dunno. Dunno, dunno, dunno.

I feel kind of bad with this review. The filmmakers tried. Hopeful the next try is better than this.

And yet, despite all that, not sorry I watched the film.

Makes no damn sense. But using the two score system of the sister site, this is two mehs (1.0 point each) for a total of 2.0 points.

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Monster Movies

[Month of Horror] Vicious

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Only one short tonight. Lost track of time.

Vicious

A young woman comes home one night and finds something bad in her house.

A problem I’ve noticed with a lot of these shorts is lack of context. The protagonist encounters something weird seemingly without rhyme or reason and it’s never explained.

This might seem unfair. There’s not a lot of time to get into things in under, say, fifteen minutes. However, it can be done.

Take Trick or Treat! for instance. It isn’t much longer than Vicious, and yet you know why what happens to the protagonists happens. Oh, not the whole story behind what happens, sure. Enough, though, that it makes a degree of twisted sense.

Here, something bad happens. You don’t know why. And when dealing with the Supernatural, as you are here, an explanation of some sort would be nice.

Carping done. This is a very good short (2.0). My one complaint aside, it does everything right in terms of atmosphere, acting, and all. It was a pleasure watching it (1.5), though I don’t think I liked it quite as much as Trick or Treat! Which makes it feel a little strange that this has the higher rating.

Oh well. Never said the rating system was perfect.

3.5 out of 4

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Monster Movies, Short Film, TV Anthology (MoH)

[Month of Horror] Night Visions: Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs/The Gate/The Backwater Gospel

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Night Visions

Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs

A psychiatrist with the ability to absorb the illnesses of his patients comes upon a situation that may be more than he can handle.

Yes, I cribbed that summary from the show’s Wikipedia page.

Yes, I am ashamed of myself.

One confession done, here’s another.

At some point I grew tired of TV shows. Could not force myself to watch them. Told myself something had to give between the reading, the tv, and the videogames, might as well be the TV.

Watching Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs, it occurs to me this apathy started around the same year this series came out.

There is something entirely too familiar about this story. The acting, the direction, I don’t know what. It just felt too much like something I’ve watched a thousand times before. Or struggled to watch a thousand times before.

How bad did it get? Well the episode comes with two stories and I’m only talking about one. How bad do you think it got?

I had a similar problem earlier in the month. I tried to watch an episode of Ghost Story staring Jason Robards (of all people) and I didn’t make the halfway point. Too dull.

Or seemingly dull. Same thing, though, when push comes to shove.

All of this might seem to point towards me carping about Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs. And I did have problems. The script could have used a rewrite, maybe even shortening. Certain parts to my mind didn’t add up. There was entirely too much Luke Perry.

Entirely.

Too.

Much.

Those, though, might be considered Cullen Carps and discarded. The moment Our Hero begins his latest attempt to help someone on is gripping stuff. Well worth the wait getting there.

In other words, it does it’s job. Maybe not a great episode, but certainly a good one (1.5). I kind of like it (1.5) and might seek out some more. Especially the ones directed by the Great Joe Dante and Not Really That Bad Toby Hooper.

Though I’m not finishing the episode Now He’s Coming Up the Stairs belongs to. That story just ain’t clicking with me at all.

Oh, and Henry Rollins as Rod Serling? Really? Nothing against the guy, but really?

3 out of 4

The Gate

A couple of kids open up a gate to Hell. Typical weekend, actually.

This is yet another one of those films I can slip on and watch anytime and still get a kick out of it. Yeah, the effects can be lame, and yeah, the acting is only just adequate. Watching it this time I thought it would have worked better if it was a wee bit shorter.

And more Italian leaning. If you catch my drift.

But you know what? When it works, it works. It’s funny most of the time, and it has more than a few truly nightmarish moments. The final monster is one of cinema’s best.

It’s a good movie (1.5) that I love (2.0).

Oh, and the Dark Gods as malicious pranksters? I can almost see that.

3.5 out of 4

The Backwater Gospel

An agent of death comes to a backwaters town.

I didn’t like this cartoon short the first time I watched it, and I can’t now say why. It’s perfect, nasty in the way Horror should be nasty.

Great stuff (2.0). But do I love it? Yeah, maybe I do. (2.0)

Oh, and the Undertaker’s smile? Yeesh.

4 out of 4

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Short Film

[Month of Horror] Last Bus Home/Trick or Treat

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Last Bus Home

A young woman and a young man wait for a ride in the dark of night.

Same premise as with our previous subject, Waiting, with a young woman experiencing difficulties while waiting for a bus. Short, well acted, but not particularly scary.

Good (1.5), but I didn’t get the same kick as the earlier film. So maybe a meh (1).

2.5 out of 4

Trick or Treat

A couple faces a persistent Trick-or-Treater.

This one, though, is a delight. Well acted, decent story, it made me wish it was longer. Not scary but creepy, very creepy.

I’ll say good (1.5) and liked (1.5)

3 out of 4

A Month of Horror, Ghost Movies, Monster Movies, Short Film

[Month of Horror] Who’s Hungry?/Leave/Run

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For the record, I also watched There’s a Man in the Woods again. Take that for what it’s worth.

Who’s Hungry?

A brother and sister run after the wrong ice cream truck.

This is a very charming little animate short. No dialogue, just action, and it really doesn’t waste time. I didn’t find it scary or particularly thrilling, but maybe it wasn’t supposed to be. I looked up Horror Short Anime Film and this popped up with the other suggestions that didn’t look like anime. It might have just been made to entertain.

Well it succeeded. It’s pretty good (1.5) and I rather liked it (1.5).

3 out of 4

Leave

A doomed tree grove takes steps to save itself.

This short shares problems with a lot of other shorts. All it is is a single scare, built up to, then executed. It feels more like the start of something rather than a complete whole.

Which would be okay, I guess, had it been scary. It wasn’t. Nicely shot, a little too dark, and one hopes the film makers move on to better things.

Two mehs. I dunno if I should put the numbers in or not. But you get the idea.

2 out of 4

Run

A man goes into the woods in search of a missing woman.

Then there’s this flick.

It’s shot on a Go-Pro on a head rig and shows. It’s antagonist makes no sense; there are whole scenes that that make no sense. Is this something the man is actually seeing? A recording? What?

What dialogue it has is written out on screen. Not sure why. All it all, the whole thing has the feel of a Horror Walking Simulator. Just really kind of off putting, especially when the main character refused to move where my mouse told him to.

These are the jokes folks.

That aside, Leave is the better made film. By a large margin.

So why am I giving this a low good (1.5)?

Because Run, nonsensical as it is, does it’s God damn job.

Four freaking jump scares. One I saw coming a mile away and still jumped. It ain’t fine art, but it’ll do until something better comes along.

Seriously, I liked it (1.5) far more than it deserves. If I hadn’t rewatched There’s a Man in the Woods it would have been the best thing I saw today.

3 out of 4