Kampung Kreepy

It’s almost Christmas. What better time for horror movies than the Yuletide? After all, Yule originally was a pagan mid-winter festival celebrated by pre-Christian Germanic peoples. The early Germans believed that the “Wild Hunt” occurred during the 12 nights of the Yuletide (Dec. 21 to Jan. 1). That was when a host of ghostly hunters rode the night skies led by Odin, whose many roles included the god of the dead. The hunters would mimic the sounds of howling wind and storms as they swept up the souls of the dead as well as any unlucky people and animals that crossed their path. The Yuletide feast was thought to be a sacrifice to secure blessings from Odin and the other gods for abundant crops and livestock in the coming spring. Yule was adopted and adapted by the Christians. However, even as Yuletide became Christmastide, some of the older traditions and customs were retained, such as wassailing and the burning of the log. In the spirit of the Wild Hunt, I have suggestions for ho...

It’s three days to Thanksgiving, and I have movie recommendations that will help horror fans enjoy the holiday even more. Watch a movie every night until Turkey Day. Or watch them all on the day itself, right after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Have a great Thanksgiving! Kristy (2014) A college student stays in the dorm while most of her schoolmates go home for Thanksgiving. She is targeted and pursued by a cult of sadistic killers. Does anyone else find empty college campuses creepy? If you do, this is the horror flick for you. The movie is fast-paced and exciting. Kristy can be streamed on the Roku Channel or Tubi. Into the Dark: Pilgrim (2019) A woman invites re-enactors into her home to recreate an authentic Thanksgiving with the pilgrims, in the hope that her family will appreciate the holiday even more. Unfortunately, the actors take their work very, very seriously. Pilgrim is from Season 2 of Hulu’s Into the Dark TV series produced by Blumhouse Production...

Are you tired of the never-ending horror movie franchises? Want to watch something this Halloween that may not have gotten too much attention? I have a few recommendations for you. In July, I blogged about movies that many horror fans might not have heard of. It was one of my more successful posts. I’m doing it once more for this spooky season. Again, I want to stress that I generally am not a fan of slasher movies. I don’t like overt gore and gratuitous violence. What I do like is mounting dread and dark atmosphere. I want cold fingers tickling my spine. I want the hair on the back of my neck to stand. I also have a thing about ghosts and haunted houses. Many of the flicks I’m recommending don’t have much in the way of jump scares. Some of them are old so you may have forgotten about them. The chill factor is what these movies have in common. The movies are listed in no particular order. 1. The Awakening (2011) A writer who debunks paranormal phenomena investigates an alleged ...

I spent last night watching T he Houses October Built 1 (2014) and 2  (2017). I also saw Hell Fest  (2018) again. Yes, it was a long, scary night. For those who haven’t seen the movies: The Houses October Built and its sequel are found-footage flicks about five friends who embark on a road trip to document some of America’s scariest haunted house attractions. Their filming provokes a few of the haunted house staff. They find themselves in even deeper water when they try to track down an underground extreme haunt known as the “Blue Skeleton.” Hell Fest features a group of teenagers who bump into a serial killer when they visit a horror-themed amusement park. The park is basically one giant haunted house. The movies aren’t bad, and they’re a must-watch for anyone who loves haunted houses. For me, I don’t get the lure of the attractions. Full disclosure: I’ve said this before in the blog. I was terrified years ago at a haunted house in Eugene, Ore., run by the Jaycees. I wa...

Some of you already have put out the pumpkins and bought the mums, and it’s still September. But when you’re looking forward to something fun, you want that anticipation to last. I understand. To help with that anticipation, I’ve compiled a list of 10 movies that are sure to put you in the Halloween mood. Not only do they take place at Halloween, but they’re all about celebrating that zany, wacky time of year when the ghouls and goblins come out to play. Watch one of my recommendations a week (and two a week for the last three weeks) to amp you and the kids up. Most of the movies are kid-friendly, but I’ll add a warning if they’re not. Many of you have already seen most of the movies. Watch them again with the kids. Kids have no problem watching the same movie over and over again. I know. The Teletubbies theme music is seared into my brain. Enjoy, and Happy Halloween (in September)! The movies are listed in no particular order. 1. Hocus Pocus (1993) This Disney movie is so well-...

Photo: Netflix.com I watch a lot of bad horror movies. Heck, my family thinks I watch nothing but bad horror movies. Recently, however, I saw something that made me think, “Damn, that was a good one. Good enough to crack my top 10.” I’m talking about Netflix’s Blood Red Sky , a German vampire movie that takes place on a plane in mid-flight. The premise: a German woman and her young son embark on a flight to the United States. The doctors there think they have a cure for her condition. Her flight is hijacked by a group of brutal terrorists. To protect her son, she has no choice but to reveal her secret. The movie is slick. The protagonist is relatable and very sympathetic. You care right up to the end. The pace is fast, the action sequences are exciting. The vampires themselves are scary and feral. The claustrophobic setting makes them even more terrifying. As you can probably tell, I like my vampires to be frightening. None of that Twilight nonsense (although I have to confess tha...

How do you like your horror movies? With lots of slicing and dicing, and blood splatter everywhere? Or do you prefer jump scares and edge-of-the-seat tension? How about a mounting sense of dread? The slow burn toward terror? I’m generally not big on serial killer/slasher flicks. I couldn’t finish watching The Midnight Meat Train (2008), for example. It's way too gory and violent for me. I also haven’t seen any of the Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies. I prefer dread and atmosphere. I want chills that send cold fingers down your back, that will stay with you for days. I like the sort of movie that—when you think you’ve forgotten all about it—suddenly plays back in your mind at 3 in the morning when you’re alone and you just heard a weird sound in the next room. The movie also gets bonus points if it has a strong female protagonist. Below are 10 movies that I particularly liked. They aren’t big box-office hits and they haven’t been shown widely in theaters nationwide. Two...

I’m part of the wonderful writing and horror communities on Twitter and Facebook, and I thought I’d do something to give back. You’re going to love this. I have compiled a list of 10 movies—not just movies but horror movies—featuring writers! YES! On a side note, Stephen King has written numerous books with an author as the main character, of which many been made into movies. These include The Shining , Misery , Salem’s Lot , It and The Dark Half . In case you’re wondering, this is not a list consisting mostly of movies based on King’s books. King gets only one slot. I decided on The Shining , just because it’s one of my personal favorites. My list, in no particular order: 1. Hush (2016) Maddie Young is an author who’s deaf. She is home alone at her isolated house in the woods when she is targeted by a sadistic masked serial killer. What I especially like about the movie is how Maddie, when trying to outwit the killer, plays out different scenarios in her head in the same way t...

Shadow in the Cloud is a 2020 oddball New Zealand movie now streaming on Hulu. It doesn’t quite know what it wants to be—a wartime action film or a creature feature. It is charming and great fun for all that. There are quite a few edge-of-the-seat moments. What I particularly liked was how the female protagonist saves the day. This is what I and other women who yearn to be heroes (or superheroes) fantasize about. This is pure female empowerment. The movie takes place in 1943. Flight Officer Maude Garrett boards an allied B-17 bomber that is about to fly from Auckland to Samoa. She claims she is authorized by a high-ranking officer to ferry top-secret documents to the destination. The male crew members make her ride in the sperry—a gun turret mounted at the bottom of the bomber—on takeoff because they don’t have a seat for her. While in the turret, she discovers there is a nonhuman passenger on board who is intent on destroying the plane. By the way, “gremlins”—creatures that prey o...

While watching Frozen on Hulu last night, a thought struck me. You don’t always need an elaborate or complex plot when you’re writing fiction or making a movie. The plot of the 2010 horror movie (it’s not the one with the Disney princesses) is simple—three college students are trapped on a chairlift just as a storm breaks. It’s night, nobody else is around and the ski resort has shut down for the next few days because of the storm. They’re dangling above the snow and it’s very, very cold. If that’s not bad enough, hungry wolves start appearing. Photo: Pixabay.com Implausible? Perhaps, but the movie had tension, fear and excitement. Even hope. You even liked the characters. As a writer, I’m perpetually on the lookout for something that might make a good story. The movie demonstrates that you don’t always need weeks of research or endless plotting to deliver something entertaining and interesting (although accuracy is always nice, and character development is paramount). There are ...

Supernatural The final season for Supernatural wrapped up last year (Season 15), and I wish the series would start up again. I can’t imagine life without the Winchester brothers. You can watch Supernatural reruns only so many times on Netflix . Okay, the show was getting a little stale and the actors sometimes appeared to be phoning it in for the final season. But when it was good, it was really good. Mind you, I wasn’t fond of the overarching plots. I liked it best when it was just Dean and Sam hunting monsters. Many of those episodes were genuinely scary. Photo: Netflix.com One especially memorable episode was when the brothers were tricked into attending a Supernatural  convention (Season 5, Episode 9). It’s hilarious how they interact with the cosplayers, some of whom are dressed as them. And don’t worry—real ghosts actually turn up. Another memorable episode (Season 13, Episode 16): Dean and Sam are sucked into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You? Two of my favorite...

The movie Gretel and Hansel , now streaming on Hulu , is a retelling of the Grimm fairy tale with a very modern emphasis on female empowerment. While I found the movie’s pacing a little slow, it did a good job in capturing a fairy tale’s dreamlike and horrific quality. It has all the prerequisites—a dark wood filled with mists and mysterious figures. An evil villain. Innocent protagonists who are plunged into a nightmare through no fault of their own. A lesson to be learned. Photo: Hulu.com In case you don’t already know this, the original fairy tale involved two siblings—Hansel and Gretel—who are lost in the woods. They stumble upon a house made from gingerbread and other goodies and start eating it because they are so hungry. It turns out that a witch lives inside. After capturing the children, she puts Hansel in a cage to fatten him up for eating (yep—the Grimm tales were … grim). She forces Gretel to work for her. The children ultimately escape and the witch gets her comeuppance....

I just watched “ Lights Out ,” now streaming on Hulu . I’ve watched the 2016 horror movie before, but it still managed to scare me the second time around. There isn’t a lot of depth to the story, and the concept is pretty simple: a family is terrorized by a ghostly shadow entity named Diana who can only appear in the dark. Nonetheless, I found the movie effective, probably because I, like a lot of other people, don’t like the dark. After I saw it, I actually was nervous about turning off the lights to go to bed. What I consider a good horror movie isn’t based only on the number of jump scares, or how often I screamed or covered my eyes. Another factor I take into account is how long the movie lingered in my mind. Photo: Pezibear at Pixabay.com Take, for example, “ The Sixth Sense ,” the 1999 movie about the boy who saw dead people. After watching it, I had a hard time going to the kitchen at night to get a snack. I don’t like looking under the bed, even in daylight. The movie proba...