Hola, amigos! Welcome back to the World of Death! I know it’s been a while since I rapped at ya, but thankfully my rotation came up just in time for Halloween. This month we have a trio of films for you from filmmakers both domestic and abroad. Lots of accents and subtitles this month, really putting the “World” in World of Death.
First up we have The Last Halloween directed and co-written by Marc Roussel. This is a delightfully Canadian dystopian view of what your typical North American Halloween will look like after the impending climate disaster. The Last Halloween feels like something straight out of “American Horror Story” the way it combines three or four different types of horror movies and throws them all in a big ole cauldron. Part ghost story, part monster movie (with hands down the most interesting “ghost monster” I’ve ever seen), part post-apocalyptic thriller.
In the middle of this horror sandwich is Devil’s Night by Anthony R. Risen. This one starts out with four girls camping in the woods the night before Halloween. Having just gone camping like a week ago I can attest this is probably the best time of year to go camping. A lot of times in movies and shit you see people camping in the summertime, this is a TERRIBLE idea as it gets hot as balls outside and when you camp there’s zero air conditioning. Really camping in the Fall/Winter is the only time worth camping. Plus fewer bugs! Anyway, Devil’s Night gets props right off the bat for employing a 90% juvenile cast. There’s a whole bunch of kids in this one and they turn in pretty solid performances. It also commits to the bit; Devil’s Night is essentially a story within a story and the story being told is being told by kids, so sometimes the narrative slides a little off the rails as one would. All good stuff.
Rounding out this month is Augusto Almoguera‘s Noche de Brujas (roughly translated by my high school Spanish into Night of the Witches) hailing from Spain. Super fucking entertaining. There’s a serial killer on the loose at a Halloween party and what follows shouldn’t work as well as it does, but it does. It’s a very self-aware, Scream-style take on the slasher at a party genre but it 100% lands all the jokes and will leave you with a smile on your face. Muchas gracias to the filmmakers for this one. It’s 13 minutes well spent.
That’s all for this month. Meet us back here in November for another foray into the World of Death. Rock over London, Rock on Chicago!
– Pat O’Sullivan
@Frost2112Jack
World of Death is the web series that fans of independent horror have been waiting for. Featuring short horror films from all over the globe created by the largest variety of talent that a collection has ever been able to boast, WOD provides plenty of blood, guts, screams and laughs for all fans of the macabre. WOD is the perfect entertainment for a fan base constantly on the go. Watch it anywhere, at any time, for FREE! New episodes premiere the first Wednesday of every month at 10am CST.
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