In preparation for tonight’s annual Halloween moviethon, we watched Rec (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 2007), Rec 2 (Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 2009), both recently released on UK Blu-Ray, and finally, one of my all time favourites, The Night Stalker (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1972).  I had seen Rec before and found it to be an excellently paced and well produced horror film and my thoughts were enhanced by viewing the UK Blu-Ray.  This is a genuinely scary film that makes good use of the claustrophobic setting.  However, the follow-up, which I had heard many good things about, paled in comparison.  After a promising start it was reduced to people screaming and shouting very loudly for the remainder of the film.  In fact, I cannot think of one sequence that was genuinely ‘jump out of your seat scary’.  Perhaps I should have been wary after seeing the rag Nuts give the film five stars and proclaim that “you will not sleep after watching this”; I slept just fine.  Perhaps the first disappointing film I have seen from Jaume Balagueró.

And as for The Night Stalker?  Well, if you haven’t seen it, you should really go out of your way to locate a copy.  I have lost count how many times I have seen it and I still enjoy watching Carl Kolchak run around Las Vegas searching for what could possibly be a vampire. 

On tonight’s menu is:

Trick ‘r’ Treat (Michael Dougherty, 2007)

Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)

The Thing (John Carpernter, 1981)

Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) (if I am still awake)

To get things started, I am now going to go and watch The Thing From Another World (Howard Hawks/Christian Nyby, 1951).

Anyone else watching a few scary films tonight?