10/31

"10/31" is a portmanteau style horror film, made as a showcase for five independent writer/directors and largely crowdfunded. It's hard to be too harsh on the films, given the budgets, some of which look decent and occasionally have good effects, but generally it's a collection that includes performances that are too amateurish and stories that are confusing. I've detailed more about each episode below.

The Old Hag - Two aspiring filmmakers, Tyler (Nick Edwards) and Kevin (Mitchell Musolino) arrive at Kathy's (Cindy Maples) bed and breakfast to produce a promotional video. Though the hotel specifically doesn't have any guests - Tyler has an interaction with an elderly guest on the third floor. Performances are a little amateurish and the prosthetic for said old hag are a little too clean and over lit to convince it's anything other than prosthetics. Story is a sadly predictable and the only scare is the cheap one right at the end.

Trespassers - After an underwhelming Halloween date Stephanie (Sable Griedel) takes new in town Jeff (Chad Bruns) to a local farm where, legend has it, decades ago the farmer went mad and killed his family after a scarecrow was put up on his land. Performances are a little better in this one and shooting in a cinema helps production value - but the creature at the end looks like a shop bought mask and the story is muddled. Better, but not good.

Killing the Dance - On her last night before leaving home, Ashley (Bailey Ingersoll) takes her brother Mikey (Noah Howland) to work at a roller-skating rink. After dark, the rink switches to a roller disco and secrets are revealed. Then a masked character begins to attack the other patrons with a straight razor. This felt much longer than the previous two entries. There were some nice early moments, including a tracking shot that was more ambitious than anything seen so far, and shooting on the rink is well done. Storyline wise though it's a little obvious, way too long and the budget betrays the effects somewhat.

Halloween Blizzard of '91 - During a snowstorm that seemingly cancels trick or treating, a family is visited by three small characters in old style costumes. After giving them candy, they leave, but not before leaving a sleigh bell on the porch. This was the worst episode of the four. Really amateurish performances, with the exception of the mother Katie (Katie Walgrave), bad choppy cutting and a story that didn't make much sense.

The Samhain Slasher - Peter McNeely (Greg Fallon) is haunted by horrific dreams. His daughter Mary (Jordan Phipps) goes to a Halloween party but both have ignored TV reports about an escaped murderer in the area. Performances and effects were a lot better this time, but the story was confounding mixing supernatural and slasher elements but never making clear what was what.

Provided you accept this for what it is, it's not the worst collection you'll ever see - but go in expecting anything more and you'll be sorely disappointed.

10/31 is a horror anthology that features five different stories. All of the stories take place on Halloween. The quality of each story varies with the third story probably being my favorite of the bunch.

The first story involves two friends shooting a commercial at a haunted bed and breakfast. One of the friends keeps seeing this old woman.

Story number two; "Trespass" involves a young couple on their first date. The female decides that they movie that they went to is too boring so she suggests checking out an old country property with a spooky legend about an old scarecrow on the land.

The third tale involves a killer on the loose at a skating rink's Halloween party. This is probably my favorite of the stories. It has a good pace and an interesting twist.

Story number four might be the most bizarre. You've got a kid that loves Halloween, creepy trick or treaters, and Santa Claus!

The final story involves a slasher crashing a teen Halloween bash. Pretty standard fare.

Overall 10/31 is a pretty decent horror anthology.

A fellow horror fan recommended this on a forum I frequent and when I saw it was on Prime, I figured "why not?" I'm also a sucker for Halloween themed horror films. I was impressed by "The Old Hag,","Trespassers" and "Killing the Dance" despite their budget limitations. The namesake character in Old Hag was indeed "creepy"! Also the wraparound hottie horror host was serviceable, though some more could've been added to the wrap around "ending".

What hurts this movie from being great are the final 2 stories, "Halloween Blizzard '91" and "Samhain Slasher"...these looked REALLY cheap and the story and direction seemed rushed and unpolished compared to the first 3 stories. April in the 'Blizzard" sequence was easy on the eyes though! Yummy! Sadly no nudity.

I would've given this a 5/10, but since I enjoyed 3 out of 5 of the stories, I figured I'd give it an above average rating. If you're in the mood for a decent Halloween anthology, I recommend 10/31

... in the hopes it would get better, but each story is not good at all. The acting in all of these are complete garbage. I honestly couldn't figure out if the point of these films is to make fun of the horror genre or if they're actually trying to be scary.

Skip this 'collection' and save yourself from losing 1.5hrs.

Now, I've actually watched the 2019 movie "10/31 Part 2" prior to having a chance to watch the 2017 movie "10/31". And while I wasn't overly impressed with part two, I must admit that I wasn't really harboring much of any grand expectations to this predecessor from directors Brett DeJager, Rocky Gray, Zane Hershberger, John William Holt, Hunter Johnson and Justin M. Seaman. But with it being a horror movie, although an anthology nonetheless, I opted to sit down and watch it, as I had the opportunity to do so.

The first segment is titled "The Old Hag" and it is written and directed by Justin M. Seaman. It was a nicely written story, although a bit cliché and generic. But it was actually entertaining enough, despite this. The acting performances in the segment were good. The effects were good as well, adding to the overall creep factor of the storyline. This was actually the best thing about the entire anthology. Though the ending was rather unnecessarily stupid.

Zane Hershberger wrote and directed the second segment, which is titled "Trespassers". The storyline in this segment as fairly weak, and it was a slow paced narrative, and that just didn't help to improve the overall impression of this second segment. The effects, however, were fairly okay. The music was also quite okay in this segment, as there was a distinct 1980s vibe to it.

"Killing The Dance" is the title of the third segment, and it is written by Jason Turner and directed by John William Holt. The storyline in this segment was not particularly good. I love how quickly the blood coagulated on the first woman being cut with a razor at the skating rink, that was just a pretty poorly done effect. The music in this segment was just unfathomably annoying to listen to, and it went on non-stop.

The fourth segment is "Halloween Blizzard of '91", which was written and directed by Brett DeJager. It was the most pointless of the segments, especially since there wasn't really a thoroughly written script to support it. It looked and felt like something that writer and director Brett DeJager just shot on the fly.

The fifth and last segment is "'The Samhain Slasher" from writer and director Rocky Gray. This segment was okay. I mean, it was a pretty straightforward narrative, although somewhat on the weak side in terms of a thoroughly written storyline.

And the tie-in segment that presented the segments and tied them together was "Malvolia's Halloween Monster Marathon", from writers Rocky Gray and Zane Hershberger, and directed by Hunter Johnson. It wasn't a particularly great concept, but luckily we didn't have to endure much of it, as it was just in the beginning and end of the anthology.

Watchable for what it was, but you're not in for anything grand here. It is not like the writers conjured up a Halloween classic here. And I doubt that I will ever return to watch "31/10" a second time, as it was about as entertaining and enjoyable as the "31/10 Part II" sequel was.

My rating of "31/10" lands on a four out of ten stars.