Oops! All Horror - Day 31 - Lake Mungo (2008)

 Happy Halloween, everyone!  We're finishing strong with a stunner of a film.   Content:  drowned corpse

An Australian family is devastated when 16-year-old Alice (Talia Zucker) drowns during a family vacation.  Soon after, the family begin experiencing disturbances around the house, leading them to seek out a local psychic and radio personality (Steve Jodrell).  

Okay, I am late to the party on this one, which is very well-regarded in horror circles.  I was initially hesitant because of the words "found footage" but this is not shaky-cam.  This is a spectacularly done documentary-style film that's a little like Presence mixed with Ghostwatch.  It is so well-executed I can see someone believing that it's a real episode of a haunting show.  The performances felt really natural, all the "twists" were exactly like the ones you'd see in a documentary, and it has just enough verité to make you wonder.  I am going to get a little spoiler-y so as always, highlight the text to read it.  **SPOILERS FOLLOW**  One of my complaints about Presence was the "time is a flat circle" nature of the haunting which reads as predestination and inability to escape fate.  I don't love that.  Lake Mungo neatly sidesteps all that by making Alice see her fetch, a death omen from Celtic folklore.  Maybe that's the same effect for you, but for me, adding a slightly supernatural element made it seem less philosophical and therefore less depressingly nihilistic.  **END SPOILERS**  

Lake Mungo is streaming on AMC+, Shudder, and Amazon Prime.

Oops! All Horror - Day 30 - Practical Magic 2 (2026)

  It's witches and witches are Halloween-y.  Shut up.  Content warning:  suicide

After the curse-related death of Gary (Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film), Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) renounces her magic and removes the memory of witchcraft from her two daughters, swearing her sister, Gillian (Nicole Kidman) to silence.  Ten years later, Sally's daughters return home for the wake of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) and Kylie's (Joey King) boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña) shows up to surprise her, running straight into the consequences of the Owens curse.  Devastated and angry that her mother hid her heritage, Kylie takes one of Jet's books and leaves for the Owens' ancestral home in Thornfield, England to try and break the curse.  Sally and Gillian follow, meeting Professor Ian Wright (Lee Pace), to help unblock Sally's magic.

I was extremely skeptical of this when it was announced because I am a huge fan of the original movie.  It didn't need a sequel and I was very worried this was going to be some sort of horrible nostalgia-farming cash grab.  

Fortunately, it manages to keep enough of the charm that made the original great so that I'm not mad at it.  It still probably didn't need to be made but it's fine.  It's cute.  Lee Pace is a major upgrade from Aiden Quinn although I do feel a little bad that Sally has had three major love interests and Gillian only got a psycho ex.  Likewise, Antonia (Maisie Williams) also gets short shrift in the film.  There's just not enough story to go around.  Still, I don't mind an underbaked cookie as long as it's appropriately gooey, and this was a fun, easy watch.  It just came out on digital and if you wait a month or so, it will be on one of the streamers.  I bought a copy, though.  And the soundtrack.

Oops! All Horror - Day 29 - Dolly (2025)

  Content warning:  blood, gore, dolls, vomit, forced breastfeeding

Chase (Seann William Scott) takes Macy (Fabienne Therese) on a hike, planning to propose, but is distracted by the sound of a child's toy.  He accidentally interrupts Dolly (Max the Impaler) at a private ceremony and is attacked and left for dead.  Macy goes looking for Chase but only finds Dolly, who kidnaps her.  Macy has to learn the rules of Dolly's game in order to survive and escape.

This is not reinventing the slasher genre but it's at least a decent new addition.  Production values are good, character design is solid, and it has a couple of surprisingly famous names in the cast.  If I hadn't seen Barbarian, I might have liked this more.  As it is, it could still be a really good time for you, a group of friends, and low expectations.  

It's a Shudder original, but it's also on Hulu.

Oops! All Horror - Day 28 - Cronos (1993)

  Content warning: blood, bugs

Jesús Gris (Frederico Luppi) is just a mild-mannered antiques dealer in Mexico City when he discovers a strange artifact in the base of a wooden statue. The golden device takes a small amount of Jesús's blood and imbues him with new vitality. Obviously, something like that is in hot demand and Jesús begins to be harassed by a gangster (Claudio Brook) dying of cancer and his nephew/goon (Ron Perlman).

Guillermo Del Toro sprang fully-formed from the head of Calliope, I'm pretty sure. This is his first feature film and you can already see the director he would become. Now, whether you are on board with that or not is up to you.  Personally, I love it even if I would have liked a different ending. I can see the vision, though! 

Perlman is the most recognizable name in the cast for English speakers and he is so very young and brash. It is adorable.  Luppi was in all three of Del Toro's Spanish-language films, so aficionados may recognize him as well.  This is unfortunately not streaming anywhere except to rent or buy but it is well worth tracking down.  

Oops! All Horror - Day 27 - Harpoon (2019)

 Content warning: dead animal (fish, seagull), blood, mild gore

Jonah (Munro Chambers) and Sasha (Emily Tyra) join their abusive friend, Richie (Christopher Gray) on his boat for a day trip, unaware that all their secrets and resentments are about to be revealed.

This is billed as a dark comedy horror and I guess.  It's very light on the horror for my tastes.  Minus one scene, I would classify it as just a black comedy.  That being said, it's also not very funny.  For me, black comedies only work if they are based in irony or schadenfreude and at least one of the characters hasn't done anything to deserve what happens to them.  It is like the fourth movie I've seen this month to flirt with cannibalism so I guess it's on theme?

It's streaming on Prime but there are better options out there.

Oops! All Horror - Day 26 - Detention (2019)

Not to be confused with the 2011 film Detention starring Josh Hutcherson that is borderline unwatchable.  Content warning: blood, executions ( hanging, gunshot), suicide, domestic violence (off-screen)

Wei Chung-ting (Tseng Ching-hua) finds himself trapped in a recurring dream while being tortured by the Chinese regime in Taiwan.  His school had been secretly copying banned books and someone dimed them out to the authorities.  Wei must discover what happened while avoiding the monsters roaming the halls of his school.

I was a little worried I wasn't going to get my yearly dose of Asian horror.  We're coming up on the end of the month, after all, and pickings have been fairly slim this year but Taiwan delivered with this nasty little cautionary tale about authoritarianism.  You don't really even need the ghosts to make it effective, although one could make the argument that the ghosts are needed to keep it from being a little too effective.  For that, you're going to want to skip straight to The Act of Killing.  But instead of making ourselves depressed, let's just focus on the ghost story.  

Apparently this is based on a video game.  Which is fucking wild.  Parts of it do feel like gameplay, especially some of the hallway scenes, but just the concept of turning your national tragedy into a video game is crazy to me.  

Anyway, this is streaming on The Criterion Channel or on Tubi for free.  Choose wisely.

Oops! All Horror - Day 25 - Tales from the Hood (1995)

  Content warning: blood, gore, child abuse, gang violence, archival footage of lynchings, cross burnings, hate crimes, racial slurs

Three men (Joe Torry, Samuel Monroe, Jr. and De'Aundre Bonds) are sent to retrieve it shipment of drugs mistakenly picked up by a mortician (Clarence Williams III) and are treated to a series of tales about the bodies on view.

This was a very good anthology marred only by a weak framing narrative.  I'm sure it was intended to be funny, but I found it grating.  Best individual performance has to be David Alan Grier, playing waaaaay against type.  If you grew up seeing him on In Living Color, this would be kind of a shock.  Best segment of the anthology is "KKK Comeuppance," which is basically a remake of The Trilogy of Terror segment with a miniature "native" doll that menaces Karen Black.  Except this time it's a racist Southern senator (Corbin Bernson) being attacked by the spirit of murdered slaves.  So much better.  

It's currently streaming on Starz, which I thought I had but apparently don't, so I watched it...elsewhere. I can't speak for the sequels but I definitely recommend this one.