Sober Horror Fan

Day 150 of Sobriety. I had been looking forward to seeing Possum for a while, and finally caved in and bought it on blu-ray , as that is probably the only way I will ever get to see this independent British production. It was directed by Matthew Holness, who is familiar to some of us through his work on British TV, notably his Channel 4 horror-comedy Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and his brief appearances in Ricky Gervais’ The Office as Simon, the obnoxious computer technician. Around the time Possum was released, I read an excellent interview with Holness on the wonderful Haunted Generation hauntology blog. In the interview Holness discusses his various inspirations, many of which are hauntological in nature, such as the British public information films of the 1970s, and also his love of Hammer films. So much of what he said resonated with me that I couldn’t wait to see all of those influences manifest themselves in his first feature film: Possum .   Unfortunately, upo...

Day 140 of Sobriety. I came across The Pact when I found it included on a list of “atmospheric horror films.” The list included a number of my favorite films, such as Mandy (2018), Hereditary (2018), and The Shining (1980), plus a few that I’d never heard of, including The Pact . Since it was in such good company, I thought I would check it out. The story is about a young woman (Annie) who travels to her old family home in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles following the death of her mother, at the same time her sister (Nicole) and cousin (Liz) disappear under mysterious circumstances. Annie tries to find out what happened to them, while trying to come to terms with her family’s dark past. One thing that distinguishes The Pact from most of its neighbors on the “atmospheric horror films” list that I saw is that it is clearly a low-budget, independently produced work. It looks to me like it was shot on video, and has that slightly flat “TV soap opera”-ish look. That’s a ...

Day 111 of Sobriety.  I had never heard of this movie at all until the day before I watched it, when it appeared in my Amazon Prime Video recommendations. I thought it sounded interesting, so I checked it out. It's often described as a “coming-of-age” movie, and I can see why—it’s kind of like The Wonder Years with a really scary serial killer in it. The plot is about a 16-year-old boy growing up in a very devout Christian family in a community that, about ten years prior to the beginning of the film, was traumatized by an unsolved string of murders. The story begins when Tyler, the young boy, discovers that the perpetrator of those horrible crimes could be shockingly close to home. The eponymous killer in the movie is based on real-life serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the BTK Killer who murdered more than ten people in Kansas between the mid-seventies and early nineties. I have to say that while the movie does not feature any of the blood and gore that mig...

Day 109 of Sobriety. The Child was my last film to watch from Arrow Video's American Horror Project: Volume 2 set. I enjoyed the other two films in the set— Dream No Evil (1970) and Dark August (1976) and  so I was looking forward to another film in line with what I have come to expect from these sets: a left-field, low-key, eccentric, low-budget horror film. And that is exactly what I got. The plot is about a young woman who goes to work as a nanny in an isolated mansion in rural California. The mansion is situated in the middle of thick woodland, and is inhabited by the aging patriarch, his adult son, and young daughter. The mother of the family is dead, having been murdered in the woods by tramps several years prior—an incident which has cast a dark shadow over the house and all of its inhabitants. It is not long before the young nanny discovers that all is not well in the household, particularly with regards to the young daughter the eponymous “child” of the fil...