October Horror Movie Challenge- Day 8

Blood Harvest (1987) is a bizarre film. At it's heart, it's nothing more that a sleazy slasher flick, and not a particularly riveting one either. But add to this mixture an out of place score, an inscrutable film structure, and Tiny Tim as an obviously disturbed individual dressed as a clown and Blood Harvest becomes something more. Something... magical. I'm not entirely sure how weirdo ukelele-playing sensation Tiny Tim came to be involved in a low budget straight-to-video slasher flick. His career had clearly fallen on hard times, but it's still very odd that this would be something he would choose to do. I can't lie and tell people this is a good movie, it's not. Still, I enjoyed the heck out of it and as far as 80's slashers go, you could do a lot worse. 9 out of 12 beers.

Below Zero (2011) is a horror/comedy that brings us Edward Furlong as a horror screenwriter who, being pressed to churn out a new script, agrees to be locked in a meat locker for five days which he hopes will inspire him to write the perfect horror movie. As he begins to write a story about a man being terrorized by an insane butcher (Michael Berryman), his imagination and his reality begin to become indistinguishable from each other. Below Zero keeps you guessing at where it's going, but unfortunately it doesn't really go anywhere all that great. It wasn't a bad movie, but I don't think it's one that I'll revisit. 6 out of 12 beers.

The Leprechaun franchise is a very strange one. While the first movie was just okay by horror movie standards, the sequels took the series into ever maddening depths of cheesiness. While many people would argue the merits of any of the Leprechaun films, no one can argue that it was Warwick Davis' charm that carried the franchise as far as it went. Warwick Davis is not in Leprechaun Origins (2014). Instead, the titular leprechaun is played by Dylan Postl (WWE's Hornswaggle), though you would never know if it wasn't on the poster. Leprechaun Origins re-imagines the leprechaun as a growling, savage beast that lives in a cave outside an old Irish village and demands sacrifices from the villagers. This movie made it's biggest mistake by associating itself with the Leprechaun franchise. If it was just a movie called Leprechaun and it premiered on the Syfy Channel, I would be okay with it. It's simply a paint-by-numbers creature feature and that's fine if that's what you're looking for, but when you attach yourself to an already established franchise, people are going to expect certain things and be disappointed when you don't deliver on them. Through most of this movie, I just reminisced with my friend about all of the wacky things that happened in the other Leprechaun movies. If during a film, your audience wishes they were watching another film, you have failed as a filmmaker. While not the worst, Leprechaun Origins is easily the most disappointing movie I've seen this month, if not this year. 1 1/2 out of 12 beers.

After Leprechaun Origins, I decided that I needed something older to cleanse my palette. I decided on Monster Of Frankenstein (1981). This anime take on Frankenstein was the second feature in a joint effort between Marvel Comics and Toei Studios, the first being Dracula: Sovereign Of The Damned which I reviewed here. If you're familiar with the story of Frankenstein, then you're already familiar with the basic plot. While not as wacky as the Dracula one, Monster Of Frankenstein is still fun in a cheesy anime way. 7 out of 12 beers.

I was on a roll, so I moved on to the fifth movie of the day, 100 Bloody Acres (2012). This Australian horror/comedy involves two brothers who make fertilizer and discover that freshly deceased bodies make the best fertilizer. There are more than a few laugh-out-loud moments in this movie and they balance well with the gruesome murders. 100 Bloody Acres is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of gory horror/comedies. 10 out of 12 beers.

Day eight was a very busy day of movie-watching, and I decided to finish it with Neon Maniacs (1986). A group of teens are terrorized at night by a Village People-esque group of mutant warriors that live under the Golden Gate Bridge and can only be defeated by water. Neon Maniacs is just good, old-fashioned, monsters-on-the-loose fun. It's never explained where this bizarre group of mutants (a samurai, a doctor, a native american, a hangman, an archer, etc.) came from or why it is that they can be defeated by ordinary tap water. It just is. And it was a fun movie to end the day with. 8 out of 12 beers.