It's October now, and Amzon Prime have just put up a ton of 80s horror movies: THE HOUSE WHERE EVIL DWELLS, CREATURE (TITAN FIND), GHOULIES 1+2, DOLLS, MONKEY SHINES, HOWLING II, CELLAR DWELLER, NECROPOLIS, THE VIDEO DEAD, I MADMAN, SCARECROWS...

Tonight's double bill of British 80s horror junk: BLOODBATH AT THE HOUSE OF DEATH + DON'T OPEN TILL CHRISTMAS. In the 30 years or so since I last saw them on VHS tapes, I had forgotten just how sheerly bloody awful both of these films are.

On the train for Christchurch for Grindfest.... @dirtinthegate.bsky.social

Tonight's double-bill of Slasher Sequels Where The Wheels Fell Off The Wagon: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 4 was absolutely terrible and full of imbeciles, while FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 5 was just a routine set of toned-down slayings. It was my first F13 so I always had a soft spot for it... but no more.

#FrightFest scores so far: Day Four 213 BONES - 6/10 TOMB WATCHER - 4/10 HELLCAT - 4/10 BONE LAKE - 8/10 REDUX REDUX - 9/10

#FrightFest scores so far: Day Three THE RED MASK - 6/10 PIG HILL - 4/10 SELF-HELP - 5/10 THE HAUNTED FOREST - 4/10 JIMMY AND STIGGS - 0/10 HOLD THE FORT - 6/10

#FrightFest Scores so far: Day Two APPOFENIACS - 7/10 WHAT SHE DOESN'T KNOW - 4/10 DON'T LET THE CAT OUT - 7/10 A SERBIAN DOCUMENTARY - 5/10 THE CONFESSION - 5/10 FLUSH - 6/10

#FrightFest Scores so far: Day One THE HOME - 7/10 COGNAITIVE - 7/10 NIGHT OF VIOLENCE - 5/10

On the train to #FrightFest and will be posting ratings, thoughts and reviews on Letterboxd every night at letterboxd.com/streetrw/ .

Marking the start of this year's @frightfest.bsky.social tonight with probably my favourite closing double. I wasn't happy at all back in 2008, but the wild one-two of MIRRORS and DEATH RACE was exactly what I needed and cheered me enormously.

So: with fingers crossed that I get a Your Host ticket on the day, this is my planned @frightfest.bsky.social lineup (Disco films in pink):

Finally settled on my @frightfest.bsky.social choices. Now it all depends on my getting the Disco tickets....

So I'm starting to get my @frightfest.bsky.social schedule together but I have some clashes.... TRANSCENDING DIMENSIONS / DON'T LET THE CAT OUT IN A COLD VEIN / CONFESSION MARSHMALLOW / PIG HILL / FIVE SELF-HELP / CARETAKER / BLOOD SHINE BONE LAKE / NOSEEUMS REDUX REDUX / DEATH CYCLE Help!

Giallo double-bill tonight: MY DEAR KILLER + SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS. First one's definitely the better of the two but both were good fun; I'd seen them both before but had forgotten much of them over the years. The picture quality of MY DEAR KILLER on Prime was excellent.

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but there's a second screening of BAMBI: THE RECKONING at @frightfest.bsky.social : Thursday at 11pm in Discovery 2.

In exactly two weeks' time I should have my #FrightFest pass sailing into my inbox and I should have a nice coloured spreadsheet with titles chosen and intervals timed.

Since everyone else is doing one, here's my NYT Best Films of the 21st Century list: all you people have seen far more recent movies than I have.

There's another genre they don't make these days: the wisecracking cop action buddy comedy, eg Peter Hyams' RUNNING SCARED. Outside of the occasional BAD BOYS sequel, where are they?

Watched ANORA yesterday. That was Best Picture? Really?

My Horror Heresy #1: streetrw4.blogspot.com/2025/06/horr... #Halloween #horrormovies #sequels

June 1, 1984: the day I started my cinema and film obsession. And the film was .... (picture from @davidhyman.bsky.social ).

Tonight's double-bill of vintage British cop movies: CARRY ON, CONSTABLE (yes, there's a comma there) is one of the best of the old b/w ones. And THE BLUE LAMP is great: why didn't I have this on my DVD shelf before?

Last night's double-bill: two from Anchor Bay's coffin boxset of Pete Walker films, neither of which I'd watched in years and had mostly forgotten. Enjoyed both, though I think FRIGHTMARE has the slight edge over HOUSE OF MORTAL SIN.

It's a bank holiday weekend, so I double-billed a couple of lesser Carry Ons this evening: GIRLS and AT YOUR CONVENIENCE.

A long overdue rewatch of ANY GIVEN SUNDAY tonight. I don't care about American football, I have no idea what's going on on the pitch half the time, everyone's shouting, half the dialogue is drowned in a constant Various Artists soundtrack ... and it's still great.

Found today while rummaging: 39 random issues of Samhain magazine, and two sales lists of horror VHS tapes which I probably bought a few from "back in the day" (ie over thirty years ago).

Drugs and phones in cinemas? Terrible ideas.... streetrw4.blogspot.com/2025/03/lets...

Is It Really That Bad? The other night I rewatched The Bonfire Of The Vanities: streetrw4.blogspot.com/2025/03/is-i...

Tonight's episode of Is It Really As Bad As Everyone Says?: The Bonfire Of The Vanities. Verdict: an overall Yes. None of it is funny, none of it is even faintly believeable, most of the characters are grotesques, monsters or caricatures. Nice jaunty theme music though.

Last night's double-bill of Luigi Cozzi (STARCRASH and CONTAMINATION) reminded me that his version of THE BLACK CAT still hasn't had a UK release....

Just watched Splatterfest Exhumed off Prime. I was at that festival and never realised just how disastrous everything was behind the scenes. But I absolutely do remember The Comic going down extremely badly! Fun times.... Actually, I might even still have my ticket somewhere.

Tonight's double-bill: Michael Hordern Toga Shenanigans. UP POMPEII (fair fun, slightly more nudity than expected from the 70s sitcom-to-cinema subgenre) + A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (songs got in the way of the farce, frankly). Both casts absolutely stuffed with familiar faces.

I imagine a lot of people will have been watching at least one Gene Hackman film tonight. Mine were The Conversation and The Poseidon Adventure.

Another indifferent giallo double tonight: SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CATS EYES was mostly drab and uninteresting, while THE FIFTH CORD didn't hold my attention at all (I've already forgotten why the killer was doing it), though I liked its focus on some striking architecture.

Every Bond film from now on is going to exist in that same "not really" space as Never Say Never Again.

I think I was incredibly generous, not to mention charitable, in giving SKINAMARINK a whole sixteen minutes before bailing on this unspeakable, literally unwatchable, drivel. Life is too short.

Charity shop find of the week: £1 for an Italian DVD of enjoyably daft 1989 underwater horror LEVIATHAN (Peter Weller, Ernie Hudson, Amanda Pays and a Jerry Goldsmith score). No current UK availability.

I asked ChatGPT about (CARRY ON) DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD and it claimed TWICE that there's a scene in which Sid James dresses up as a cow.

Double giallo last night: DEATH WALKS/STALKS ON HIGH HEELS is still an enjoyably twisted mystery; while THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS WARDH was somehow not as good as I remember; maybe it was the ugly, nasty sex scenes. (Watched both films in the English dub, which fits the genre better for me.)

Very pleased to find the 1990 Ally Sheedy psychic thriller FEAR on Prime - in the proper ratio (they used to have it in 4:3). It's enjoyable enough: I hadn't seen it since it came out and had forgotten almost all of it.

Double Dario tonight: DO YOU LIKE HITCHCOCK? (now that I have a region-free DVD player) + SLEEPLESS. Much of the former is pretty silly and isn't helped by the English dub (I think it was subbed at FrightFest). The latter is the best of his post-Opera films and is still solidly enjoyable.

Finally out of the bleak miserable wasteland of January: now, forwards into the bleak miserable wasteland of February.

Enjoyed WOLF MAN enough, though it's not up there with The Howling or Wolf. Also it's yet another instance of great chunks of the movie happening in near total darkness. Just because the characters can't see anything doesn't mean we mere schlubs in the audience shouldn't.

Thinking today about Italian horror movies that never made it to the UK: Luigi Cozzi's The Black Cat and Lamberto Bava's remake of The Mask Of Satan. What hope for an Arrow / Shameless / 88 Films / 101 Films / Other release?

Are @itvxofficial.bsky.social now putting ads in films on premium customers accounts? Because they were there tonight.

Oh, go on then, just one episode...

Thinking about it: maybe not such a good idea to watch three Weissmuller Tarzans in one evening, especially as none of them were very good and one of them actually featured a singing postman. I just wanted to get them over and done with so I can take the box back to Cex.

My final Cineworld visit today (CW Northampton closes on the 19th): NOSFERATU, and while it's visually quite striking there's not much else in there. Very much Un Film De...., but the style suffocates it. It's better than The Lighthouse, but what isn't? Or maybe I'm just not an Eggers fan.

Harlequin is one of my favourite "Ozsploitation" movies. I always wondered whether Robert Powell ever got considered for Doctor Who, and if not, why not?

This evening's movie was, er.... unexpected.