It's Day 303 of my One Movie a Day for 2023, as well as being Day 30 for my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en project, and the 31 Days of Horror Challenge that is being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. And I can not forget, the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge I joined in on this year.
This is the part where if you've been following along all month, you know I tell you about how normally over the last decade, I have been doing my 13 Days of Hallowe'en project that ran from the 19th-31st of October, on my old various social medias, where I would do movie reviews, recipes and comedy skits. But, this year, I've just kept it simple here on this new site and my Letterboxd.
Today's mini challenge for my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en, is a Charles Band Movie. I picked Skull Heads aka Devious.
An isolated family in the Italian hills, find themselves visited by three members of a movie crew who would like to use their house as a location. The father is against the entire thing, kicking the people out of the house. The young teenaged daughter however, is eager to have some people in her life that are not her family. When the three visitors turn out to be art thieves, things get out of hand as bullets fly and almost everyone ends up dead. But, thanks to the house spirits who have the ability to bring the dead back to life, we learn that things are not all that they seem.
I love Charles Band/Full Moon Pictures. They have been a staple in horror and sci-fi since the beginning of the 1980's. The storyline here isn't really new or anything, we find out the family is fairly inbred, and are connected to deep rooted witchcraft. But as always, the puppets are amazing. For lower budget movies, this company has pulled in some massive talent over the decades, and the scripts though short and sometimes predictable, the acting is usually better quality than some other lower budget companies. And the locations, the costumes/wardrobes are always beautiful and on point. Someone once commented to me that you watch Charles Band movies just for the locations, and I honestly can not argue with that.
The mini challenge today for the 31 Day Horror Challenge hosted by Nightmare on Film Street, is Family Friendly Fright. I picked The Hybrids Family.
We follow two half witch-half vampire kids, as they try to run away to the states in order to go to film school and become film makers. Their family does not approve, and decide to use the family magick to bring them back. When that does not work, the kids have to prove they know what they are doing, when they show the family their zombie movie school project.
Okay, so I know this plays like an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark or Goosebumps, but it really lacks something. The idea is there, the acting for the most part is good, but it's just missing something. I don't know if it was meant to be a pilot for a show or if there are more movies connected to it, but it almost feels like it's the opening half of something bigger. It just left me feeling like I only got part of the story.
Come back tomorrow to see what tricks and treats I have for you on the slab. Tomorrow is Hallowe'en, and it will be the last round of these challenge posts for 2023. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do one giant round up of everything at the end of the day, or if I will break things up into multiple posts? I do still have the final post of my 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days to add tomorrow too, plus whatever I actually get up to myself while trick or treating.
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