What I've been watching...

Do you ever have that feeling, when you come back to work after a holiday, that you may as well have just come in the previous week and just done the work? It's not quite that bad here but there have been a couple of moments where I've sat and wondered...

So, no bookish post today then, I've only just managed to catch up with everything else! There will be one tomorrow though and then after that, hopefully we're all back to normal here. In the meantime though, I've been watching some surprisingly good stuff (as well as 'Detention of the Dead')' let me quickly tell you all about it...


'Scare Package' (2019)

Chad, the owner of Rad Chad's Horror Emporium, recounts a series of bone-chilling, blood-splattered tales to illustrate the rules of the horror genre to his newest employee.

Every time I see a new horror anthology movie on Shudder, I celebrate by sitting down and watching it immediately. You know that horror anthologies are my favourite kind of horror movies...

I'll come straight out and say it... Stick with 'Scare Package', don't turn it off whatever you do, it's brilliant. It starts off looking like one of those really cheap looking horror movies that you find on Prime, you know the ones that I mean, and I was starting to consider (quite seriously) what else was on my 'to watch' list. I stuck with it though, mostly because of the story with the melting man in it (and the director's mission to see how far they could melt someone down and still have him talk) and I ended up being really glad that I did. 'Scare Package' is a really funny homage to all the stuff you love about horror, whether it's grossing you out or making you think, “so that's who cut the electricity...” There's a guy for that by the way, seriously.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you like horror anthology movies then, hell... you've probably already watched 'Scare Package' haven't you? You haven't...? Well, you know what to do.


'Detention of the Dead' (2012)

I tried to watch 'The Power' but it was too much of a slowburner for me (maybe another time, I don't know...) so I thought I'd watch 'Detention of the Dead' again, mostly for the zombies but also because 'The Power' really didn't work for me and I was left in that spot where you pretty much have to watch something, just so you can say that you did.

This was a rewatch and I have to say that 'Detention of the Dead' was pretty much the same as it was last time round... That is to say, okay(ish) but with absolutely no urgency accompanying either the zombie problem or all the teenage 'rites of passage' stuff that came up. There are any number of better zombie movies out there, this one is alright but is happy to meander along rather than be anything. Watch any of those other movies instead of this one.

'Creep Show', Season 2, Episode 2

I was always going to watch this but having watched Episode 1, I was approaching this episode with a little more trepidation than I normally would. And it turned out that... Well, we've got the same kind of problem that episode 1 had; one dodgy episode and one great episode. This time however, the dodgy episode was a little better while the good episode wasn't as good as it could have been. Does that mean things are balancing out? Maybe...

'Dead and Breakfast' signposted its ending a little too clearly but Ali Larter delivered a chilling descent into madness, as the B&B owner, that was nicely complemented by C. Thomas Howell (now where have I seen him before...?) as her scheming brother. Nice twist at the end, only slightly spoiled by the fact that you know something is coming...

'Pesticide' was the better episode with some nasty jump scares that may have been hallucinations, or not... What I didn't get though was any sense of motive for the story. Was King just high and seeing things? Who was Murdoch? And what was the bit with the therapist all about? If you just sit back and let 'Pesticide' be a drug fuelled horror romp that maybe isn't mean to make all that much sense... Well, it's a good'un. Any more than that though and I'm not sure. The series, as a whole though, looks like it's on the right tracks :o)

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