31 Days of Hallowe'en Challenge: Day 6

It's day 279 of the year and main project, that means we have landed on Day 6 of the 31 Days of Hallowe'en challenge and the #31DayHorrorChallenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street.

My 31 Days of Hallowe'en challenge theme is Halloween Franchise. I picked Halloween Ends.

It's been 43 years since Michael Myers first stalked the town of Haddonfield, and Laurie has finally seemed to move on. After the death of her daughter, she moves in with her granddaughter. While out one afternoon, she stumbles across a twenty-something who has been bullied because of an accident a few years earlier. Taking pity on him, she introduces him to her granddaughter. They soon begin dating. Unknown to Laurie, Corey has been in contact with Michael and has become obsessed with him; even to the point of stealing Michael's mask. Before long, Laurie finds herself once again eye to eye with Michael. This time winner takes all.

I actually really like the idea of someone else picking up where Michael sort of left off. The idea that it's something tangible that can be passed down. There is a lot of talk in this one about infection, be it Corey' hand after he's injured or the fear that Michael has left in his wake. It gives weight to the idea that he's almost vampiric, which we see when he kills the one guy in the sewer. He feeds off of his energy and fear.

The prompt today for the 31 Days of Horror Challenge from Nightmare on Film Street is Sequel I Haven't Seen. I picked 28 Years Later.

We start the movie with a scene of the day the zombie plague starts, following a young boy as he runs from them. 28 years later, we follow a man and his son as they leave their isolated seaside village in order to go hunting the zombies. They become stuck when the tide comes in, leaving them in danger of the zombies attacking. When they return a few days later, the son learns that there is a doctor who lives back out in the wilderness that might be able to help his mother, who's become increasingly sick. Sneaking out of the village, the son and mother start to make their way through the wilderness. Along the way, they discover that one of the female zombies is about to give birth. Saving the baby, they continue on to find the doctor. When they arrive to his location, they learn there's nothing he can do, other than help her end things. The son then returns to his village with the baby. But he doesn't stay, instead he decides to see how far he can get, in hopes of finding another village. He stumbles upon the now grown up man we saw at the start of the film.

I cried. I was not expecting a zombie movie to be so emotionally heavy. This was a beautifully shot movie, that at times has you scratching your head wondering if it's really suppose to have been a zombie film? This reminds me so much of the novel I Am Legend, with the zombies having evolved.

I'll be posting everyday this month, so come back tomorrow and see what's on the slab. If you want to follow along on my daily Letterboxd lists, you can do so here and here.