It's day 287 of my One Movie a Day for 2023. It's also Day 14 of both my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en project, as well as the 31 Day Horror Challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. Plus, we...I...this magazine-ish site, can not forget to mention the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge that I joined this year.
Of course, this is the part where I tell you about the past decade and my usual 13 Days of Hallowe'en that I always did on my other old social medias where I did movie reviews, recipes and comedy skits. And I tell you how this year it's slightly different as I'm just doing the horror movie challenges here and on my Letterboxd. Huh...yeah I'm getting tired of typing that paragraph every morning; so I know you're get tired of reading it...if you've been following along for the month, if you're new then it's a new lump of words for you.
The mini challenge for my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en today is Werewolves. Yes, we moved off of vampire week and into something else. I decided last second to go with Monster High The Movie. I watched both this and the sequel back to back last night, and well it's lead is a werewolf, so here we go.
A teenaged girl, who is half human half monster, begins her first year at Monster High. Finally, feeling like she's fitting in, making new friends with a Frankenstein, a Mummy and a Vampire. She begins to date the Gorgon boy, who is insecure about his snakes. But, the school has one massive rule, no humans allowed. Fearing that she's going to be expelled for only being half a monster, she begins to hunt down the secret lab of Hyde. But, Hyde's son has other ideas for his father's work. Before anyone realizes it, Hyde Jr has started to steal everyone's powers.
Question, isn't being a werewolf being half human to begin with? I mean; isn't that the whole mythology? Anyways, it makes for a cute reversal of things as every time the lead character gets upset she changes from her wolf form to her human form. Normally, it's the other way around.
I liked this. It was just Hallowe'eny enough but still had a bit of a plot. I could have done without the random musical numbers, but I'm just not a fan of musicals. I do get why this franchise is popular though. It's a soap opera for Hallowe'en people.
The mini challenge for 31DayHorrorChallenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street, is Found Footage. I picked Day of Disappearance.
This follows a youtuber who after moving to live with his aunt, he starts to experience paranormal activity as well as begins to be stalked. Within the short time span of three months, he uncovers a family secret that leads to him being kidnapped.
Given this is a riff on not only found footage movies, but the paranormal shows that are massively popular and youtube culture, it works really well. There is literally a tongue in cheek moment at the end letting people know it's a movie and not to take any of it seriously, as the creature stalking him is flat out in the last scene referred to as a guy in a suit.
It's the device they used to do this that makes it work, which is in the youtube confines. The film makers released it originally as short youtube videos over the course of things, before editing together the final product. And in that direction alone, it's up there with Blair Witch Project.
Come back tomorrow to see what other tricks and treats I've got for you.
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