Summer of Horror

It wasn't scary. We just watched a lot of horror movies. 

A little over three weeks ago my boyfriend broke his ankle. At this point I still had 1½ weeks left of my summer break. Ironically it happened on the one day I wasn't home because I was out getting my first covid vaccination shot. As luck would have it.

Anyway, during that last week we watched seven horror movies pretty much back to back. It all started with Fear Street of Netflix. All of the movies were on Netflix.

1. Fear Street: Part 1 - 1994. We both really, really liked this movie. It was really neat as a horror movie in that it didn't feel like it fed into all the tropes and yet it had the slasher like in Scream, and the unkillable killer like in Halloween, and the witch/ghost paranormal experience. The fact that it takes place in the mid-90s somehow made it even better as we just sat there and commented on the fashion and the technology and had a great time. The setup of the rivalry between Shadyside and Sunnydale was great, the buildup of the legend around Sarah Fier was amazing, and the reveal that this happens with a set amount of years ebtween each time felt very IT. All the little pieces fit together beautifully. It wasn't too gory (except that one part in the end where one person gets their head chopped to pieces in a fish-chopper), and the suspense was great without actually getting boring. 

2. Fear Street: Part 2 - 1978. This one was very much like a homage to Halloween. It felt like a classic despite being brand-new. There was a nice twist at the end that neither of us expected. Apart from the bits and pieces that continued to build the legend around Sarah Fier, this was a pure slasher movie. But there were several hints in this movie that something else was behind what was going on, and it was an awesome use of foreshadowing for the third movie. Just perfect storytelling.

3. The Bye Bye Man. While waiting for the third part of Fear Street to come out we turned to other horror movies. We had had our eyes on this one for a while and so finally decided to watch it. Loved the buildup of suspense throughout, but boyfriend pointed out that he missed having a background story for the villain (spoiled from Fear Street?) and I very much agreed. There wasn't enough legend surrounding the evil, it was just there doing its thing and people got caught up in it. Still it was a solid horror movie with an ending completely open for more. The internet doesn't agree with us that it was solid, but we both enjoyed watching it. Our only gripe was the lack of detail. 

4. The Ritual. I mean, this takes place in the wilderness of northern Sweden so of course it was a given that we would watch it at some point. Robert James-Collier is in it and I just keep thinking of him as Thomas. He will forever be Thomas. So we have four ridiculously British guys attempting to hike through the Swedish wilderness in Sarek National Park (according to their map), but one of them hurts his knee and can't stop bitching about it so they decide to take a shortcut through the woods instead of continuing along the hiking trail. Bad idea. In the woods they come across runes and wooden idols and a deer strung up on the trees. They spend the night in an abandoned cabin and all wake up from really weird nightmares. After that they all become increasingly aware that something is very, very wrong in the woods and that something is hunting them. Like most horror movies the setup is great, the suspense is amazing, and then comes the reveal and the conclusion and it all falls flat on its face. I really, really enjoyed this movie up until the last twenty minutes or so. But kudos to the film makers for doing a good job with the rendition of the folklore/legend/mythology. 

5. Army of the Dead. This was (for the most part) a pretty standard zombie movie tbh. What makes it stand out is how the infection got loose (an escaped military experiment), the fact that the alpha zombies are sentient and intelligent and basically leaders of a new civilization/race/nation, and that the entire movie takes place after the zombie threat has been contained. The opening credits show the beginning of the zombie threat and how the people fought against them etc etc. But when the movie starts that part is over. The zombies are contained in a sealed off Las Vegas which is set to be nuked. But before that a rich guy tasks one of the fighters from the opening credits to assemble a team to break into a vault inside Vegas and steal a bunch of money. He does and off they go. Inside the cordon the mostly usual stuff in zombie flicks happen; people start dying, there's a traitor, someone has wandered off chasing their own goals, the traitor keeps screwing people over and they don't realise it, and then there's the leader trying to keep the operation smooth despite it all slipping through his fingers. It was fun, fast-paced, neither scary nor especially gory, and a completely standard zombie movie. 

6. Wounds. This whole movie felt like a prelude to something that didn't happen. There was barely any suspense just a slight tickling feeling that something was wrong, but it didn't get to suspense level. I spent the whole movie waiting for something to happen, but the entire thing felt like a buildup until the thing that makes everything happen and then nothing did and the movie ended. Super disappointing. This is like one of those artsy movies that's strange just for the sake of being strange that doesn't really do anything. There was a part in the middle that seemed like the strating point for things to happen, but it just died instead.

7. Fear Street: Part Three - 1666. The end of the story! I loved seeing the pieces come together. The legend of Sarah Fier explored and explained. Everything we learned in the first two movies came to use in this final movie as the ultimate showdown happened in the mall of Shadyside. It was a perfect ending to a great trilogy. Can't really say more than that or I'll spoil the whole thing. Action from start to finish and it was so good.