Boys From County Hell

31 Days Of Horror 13

Boys From County Hell (2020)

Trailer that sort of sets the tone, contains an impressive number of F-bombs for under two minutes, shows one of the twists and gives away my favourite joke

In a dead-end town whose only claim to fame is a local legend that might have inspired Dracula, the source of the legend is about to be knocked down to build a bypass. The general description and the trailer make it sound like a Tremors / Grabbers gory comedy take on vampires, but while that’s generally true it’s not so raucous throughout as there’s a much darker subplot in there too.

The medium: A Film4 Film Fear premiere, and presumably judging by the trailer it’s on Shudder as well.

WODtober 2023 14. Lines Drawn In Blood

WODtober 2023 14. Lines Drawn In Blood

Mo’s friends helped her find her sire, and let her decide what to do with him.

They’ll tell you I don’t care anymore

And I hope you’ll know that's a lie

’Cause I’ve found what I have been waiting for

But to get there means crossing a line

Mike Shinoda, Crossing A Line

Marvelous 3 IV

Marvelous 3 IV playlist on YouTube

I know it’s a sin but I’d kill a motherfucker that breaks your heart

The Devil Made The World While God Was Sleeping

WODtober 2023 13. Haven, Sweet Haven

WODtober 2023 13. Haven, Sweet Haven

People in the city joke about rent meaning living in a cupboard. Nick smiles but never laughs.

It could be sweet

Like a long forgotten dream

Portishead, It Could Be Sweet

Friday The 13th: The Series

31 Days Of Horror 13

Friday The 13th: The Series (1987-90)

1.01 The Inheritance

Intro and credits

It being Friday the 13th, I had to watch something Friday the 13th related, and the TV series about a group trying to retrieve an assortment of cursed antiques was more my thing than the slasher films that gave it its name and nothing else.

“Two cousins, Ryan Dallion and Micki Foster, inherit an antiques shop from their uncle. Together with his (former) partner, they must track down cursed objects that their devil-worshiping uncle had created...”

I remember seeing the first episode and not knowing if it was an ongoing format but figuring it would make a good one. I did not remember that the creepy little girl who gets the creepy little doll was future star of Go and director Sarah Polley.

Gameability: come up with some cursed antiques and you've got an urban fantasy campaign ready to go.

The Omen

31 Days Of Horror 13

The Omen (6/6/1976)

Trailer which has the 666 logo but doesn’t say Antichrist at any point

The big blockbuster take on the devil child success of The Exorcist, where a conspiracy to get the Antichrist into a powerful family to fit a fictional Biblical prophecy involves lots of supernaturally convoluted seemingly-accidental deaths just after people share clues about what’s going on. The cheerful nanny death is the only one that actually seems timely - if anything too early, because if the forces of Hell had been subtler with the home help nobody would have known anything!

The big setpiece deaths, the reveal at the old cemetery (the only traditional “Universal horror” style set in the film) and the generally foreboding atmosphere helped by Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning Ominous Latin score, and Gregory Peck playing to type in a not at all to type story make it a fun revisit.

Among other things, it’s about keeping secrets supposedly for someone else’s good. Robert Thorn (Peck) deceives his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) at the start and she never gets to find out why all these awful things keep happening.

It’s also the only film I can think of where a baboon attack nearly saves the world.

Gameability: Probably suited to a one-shot or miniseries unless the PCs have a shot at defeating the Antichrist before the last three minutes of the third film. (I once ran a Final Destination one-shot, a series all about similarly involved deaths.) A playable sympathetic Antichrist and/or deadly coincidence powers could be fun though!

The Medium: a 25th anniversary DVD (which itself is now 22!) with a commentary from director Richard Donner and editor Stuart Baird, a 45-minute feature on the production, as well as a separate bit of it that talks a little about its cursed reputation due to various coincidences and tragedies - which also didn’t stop it being made or released - that Richard Donner dismisses as pattern recognition because they were making a movie about scary coincidences, and a section with Jerry Goldsmith talking about the score.

Interview With The Vampire (1994)

31 Days of Horror 13

Interview With The Vampire (1994)

Trailer

Watching this again to compare with the series, finally showing here. After years in development hell and all the grumbling about casting Tom Cruise, this came out really well. Quite a bit of streamlining, but the essential conflicts and emotional connections hit and the style, romantic and spectacular and at times darkly comedic, works. (Up until the last couple of minutes anyway.)

Compared to the series note Lestat’s move on Louis being far less planned and his life being briefly sketched in, and the not-quite-kisses - the ecstatic first bite bringing them up into the air is fully clothed in the film and recreated naked in the show.

Gameability: Well...

The medium: a special edition DVD with a behind the scenes featurette partially from the time and partially for the release with director Neil Jordan also providing a commentary track, noting changes from the novel and details like a local voodoo group working on the enslaved uprising and even the interior sets that aren’t tombs being influenced by mausoleum decoration.

Slice (2018)

31 Days Of Horror 13

Slice (2018)

Trailer

I ran a Buffy The Vampire Slayer game in 2014-15 set around the Graveyard Shift of a pizza place (running with the Doublemeat Palace metaphor of the crappy first job), and heard that someone had made a similar movie four years later. So seeing this was kind of a strange experience. And in part connected to that but I think not entirely, one I didn’t enjoy. I had unmet expectations from the premise, but also overall as a film. I don’t think this is just me thinking I did that better.

Slice has the supernatural in the open and ghosts have their own neighbourhood, and yes it’s called Ghost Town. Ghosts are represented by people in varying degrees of pale makeup - and there’s never a bit where someone puts flour on their face to pretend to be one. And apparently they still need to eat, or at least want pizza.

There’s also a werewolf, among other things.

But no vampires, and there’s also never even a joke about garlic keeping vampires away.

WODtober 12. Tension Between Us

WODtober 2023 12. Tension Between Us

“This one is mine. Look. Don’t touch.”

Keep it just between us

Tori Amos, Liquid Diamonds

Slayers

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story

This is happening.

Western twang Buffy theme.

V5: The Crowded Streets 1.01

All the PCs met, establishing some knew each other, and helped sort out a bit of what happened around the brand new neonate PC’s illegal Embrace by introducing the first NPCs, Colette and Laurence. (It’s environmentally sound to reuse and recycle! And I noted that they’re among the nicest vampires in town and it’s all downhill from here.)

WODtober 2023 11. Cursed

WODtober 2023 11. Cursed

She knew she could never see him again. Not like this.

Cursed love is never ending

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cursed Sleep

Interview With The Vampire

The new Interview With The Vampire series finally reaches British TV, starting tomorrow on BBC Two and then their iPlayer free streaming service. Empire five star review.

V5: City Of Angels 1.05

A small group tonight, so some of them got to miss Paris dressed down and at one point using her real first name...

WODtober 2023 10. It's Lonely On The Top

WODtober 2023 10. It’s Lonely On The Top

The throne sits empty. No-one dares. For long.

I’m a worthless check, a total wreck, a flop

But if, baby, I’m the bottom, you’re the top

Cole Porter, You’re The Top

WODtober 2023 9. Eyes Of A Monster

WODtober 2023 9. Eyes Of A Monster

He can see you.

But I threw you the obvious

Just to see if there’s more behind the

Eyes of a fallen angel

Eyes of a tragedy

A Perfect Circle. 3 Libras

The Vault

31 Days Of Horror 13

The Vault (2017)

Trailer

This is one of those “crime story intrudes on horror story” movies - a gang tries to rob a bank that was once robbed with all hostages dying in the 1980s. And it doesn’t try to hide this, with mentions of The Vault being haunted upfront. And unlike some examples of the subgenre where the crime story would be interesting itself (see From A House On Willow Street, where a gang kidnaps a rich kid and makes the ransom call... and nobody answers...) it’s a pretty generic robbery setup to get to somebody getting shot unleashing the haunting.

Not the best "crime story intrudes on horror story" I’ve seen, but like most of them it would make a good basis for a horror one-shot for something like Chronicles Of Darkness, Dead Of Night or Dread.

The haunting itself has a bit of a twist...

WODtober 2023 8. Rivals

WODtober 2023 8. Rivals

Vincent should have known better than to let the applause for Michael’s violin recital bother him after sixty years of them.

I am immortal

I have inside me blood of kings (yeah!)

I have no rival

No man should see my sequel can be my equal

Queen, Princes Of The Universe

Humble Bundle Of Darkness

V5 and many sourcebook PDFs as well as H5 at Humble Bundle, and an option to get the card game Rivals for a big discount and the price of postage but only in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

WODtober 2023 7. Rage Against The System

WODtober 2023 7. Rage Against The System

“You killed him!”

Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage

Smashing Pumpkins, Bullet With Butterfly Wings