A blog about horror movies that take place during Halloween or fall season and where to watch them. With posts containing movie news, trailers, official posters, fan art, poster collections, stills/screen captures, reviews, video mixtapes, short films, and vhs, dvd, blu-ray, 4K uhd covers.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

SMILE (2022) VHS, DVD, BLU-RAY and 4K UHD Covers

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Custom VHS cover by @rewind_vhs for sale at etsy.com/au/shop/REWINDVHSaustralia:


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Custom VHS front spine by @dr_herbertwest:


USA DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD covers:






Custom DVD, Blu-ray covers and disc label:




Canada French Blu-ray, 4K UHD covers:



UK Ireland DVD, Blu-ray/4K UHD covers:



German, UK, Ireland disc scan:


German DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD covers:




Japanese DVD, Blu-ray cover and disc scans:




Official Trailer:


Final Trailer:


All The Best Scenes:


Laura's Death Scene:


The Audio Recording Scare Scene:


You're Going to Die! Scene:


The House Alarm Scene:


Car Jump Scare Scene:


The Dead Cat Scene:


Fake Therapist Scene:


You're Gonna Be Okay Deleted Scene:


Your Patient Is Going to Die Scene:


Stabbing the Patient Scene:


Rose Burns Herself Scene:


The Curse Enters Her scene:


Behind The Scenes Featurette:


Parker Finn Featurette:


Every SMILE In The 2022 Film Smile:


KILL COUNT:


Original Motion Picture Soundtrack:

WIKIPEDIA: Smile is a 2022 American psychological supernatural horror film written and directed by Parker Finn in his feature directorial debut. Based on Finn's short film Laura Hasn't Slept (2020), the film stars Sosie Bacon as a therapist who witnesses the bizarre suicide of a patient, then goes through increasingly disturbing and daunting experiences that lead her to believe she is experiencing something supernatural. It also features Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Kal Penn, and Rob Morgan, as well as Caitlin Stasey reprising her role from Laura Hasn't Slept.

IMDb STORYLINE: Having spent years trying to flee her own childhood trauma by working her fingers to the bone, compassionate psychiatrist Dr Rose Cotter is used to treating the most damaged and vulnerable members of society. Laura's puzzling case, however, is a different story. As an unsuspecting Dr Cotter attempts to rationalise the dreadful delusions of the deeply disturbed young woman, hair-raising encounters with the unexplained cause the therapist to reconsider. Now she is losing her grip on reality. Can Rose deal with the ugly past and confront the smile, the unsettling grin of death?

A feature adaptation of Finn's short was announced in June 2020, and the cast was added in October 2021. Principal photography began that month in New Jersey and ended in November. Originally set for release on the streaming service Paramount+, distributor Paramount Pictures opted to release the film theatrically after positive test screenings.

Smile premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2022, and was released in the United States on September 30. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $217 million worldwide on a budget of $17 million. A sequel, Smile 2, is scheduled to hit theaters on October 18, 2024.

At the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards, Smile was nominated for Best Movie and Most Frightened Performance (Bacon). At the 51st Saturn Awards, the film was nominated Best Horror Film.

PRODUCTION: In June 2020, Parker Finn was signed on by Paramount Pictures to write and direct a feature-length adaptation of his own short film Laura Hasn't Slept, which saw a desperate young woman seeking the help of her therapist to rid herself of a recurring nightmare. In March of that year, the short film had won the Special Jury Recognition Prize for South by Southwest's Midnight Short category.

In September 2021, the film was announced under the title Something's Wrong with Rose with Sosie Bacon cast as the titular character. The following month, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Rob Morgan, Kal Penn, Judy Reyes, Gillian Zinser, and Caitlin Stasey joined the cast.

Principal photography began on October 11, 2021, in New Jersey, including in the city of Hoboken, and wrapped on November 24, 2021. Some filming locations included the Murphy Varnish Lofts, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark and Lewis Morris Park in Morristown.

Editing and post-production were completed in May 2022. Visual effects was done by the-Artery and was supervised by Yuval Levy and Vico Sharabani, when the film was simply retitled Smile. The film's score was composed by Cristobal Tapia de Veer and featured an obscure musical instrument called the daxophone as the lead instrument. For practical effects, Finn recruited Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. of Amalgamated Dynamics, who he described as a major influence in wanting to be a horror filmmaker for their work in films such as Aliens.

THEATRICAL/HOME MEDIA RELEASE: Smile had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2022, followed by screenings at Beyond Fest on September 27. It was released in the United States on September 30, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures President and CEO Brian Robbins said that Smile was originally slated for a streaming-only release on Paramount+, but the studio eventually decided to release the film theatrically because of strong results from test screenings. The film was released for VOD platforms including Paramount+ on November 15, 2022, with a DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD set released on December 13, 2022.

BOX OFFICE RECEPTION: Smile grossed $105.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $111.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $217.4 million. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $101 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it tenth on their list of 2022's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

In the United States and Canada, Smile was released alongside Bros, and was projected to gross $16–20 million from 3,645 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $8.2 million on its first day, including $2 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $22.6 million, topping the box office and slightly overperforming its projections, while being the biggest debut of September 2022. The film made $18.5 million in its sophomore weekend, remaining atop the box office. The 18% second weekend drop was the second-smallest ever for a horror film behind Get Out's 15% in February 2017, and marked the best non-holiday hold of the pandemic era. Although it was dethroned by newcomer Halloween Ends in its third weekend, the film continued to hold well, making $12.6 million. On November 9, 2022, it became only the third R-rated film released in the pandemic era to gross $100 million domestically, as well as becoming the highest-grossing R-rated horror film worldwide during the pandemic.

CRITICAL RESPONSE: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 197 reviews, and an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Deeply creepy visuals and a standout Sosie Bacon further elevate Smile's unsettling exploration of trauma, adding up to the rare feature that satisfyingly expands on a short." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled at PostTrak gave it an overall 69% positive score, with 53% saying they would definitely recommend it.

Marisa Mirabal of IndieWire gave the film a grade of B−, noting its plot's similarities to films such as It Follows, The Ring, Oculus and Final Destination. She wrote: "Smile navigates unhealed trauma through a supernatural lens and mischievous juxtaposition, despite feeling like a shadow of other stories", and added that it "delivers a captivating and claustrophobic mental hellscape that will cause one to both grimace and grin." Tasha Robinson of Polygon wrote: "Smile is often a gimmicky, even corny horror movie, packed with so many jump-scares that the sheer pile-on borders on laughable... But no matter how excessively the legitimate scares pile up, they're startling and convincing. The editing and music are impressively tuned for maximum impact whenever the slow-burning tension resolves with an abrupt, ugly surprise. All of which makes Smile an efficient ride, if an unusually unrelenting one."

Katie Rife of RogerEbert.com gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, writing: "In padding out the concept from an 11-minute short into a nearly two-hour movie, Smile leans too heavily not only on formulaic mystery plotting, but also on horror themes and imagery lifted from popular hits like The Ring and It Follows." Kevin Maher of The Times wrote: "There are some nice jump scares and Bacon is charismatic but it's achingly derivative and dull", and gave the film 2 out of 5 stars. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Common Sense Media also gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, writing: "The image of a creepy, sinister smile is so primal and so chilling that it might have inspired something truly penetrating, but, sadly, this horror movie is content to fall back on noisy jump scares."

SHORT FILM: Laura Hasn't Slept was written and directed by Parker Finn in 2019 and later debuted at South by Southwest in 2020. The positive reception at the film festival resulted in Paramount Pictures commissioning the filmmaker for a feature film adaptation, though it was later revealed that the movie is a continuation of the original story.

The premise follows Laura as she recounts a series of horrific dreams and hallucinations where she is being pursued by a smiling man to her therapist. As she does so, she begins to realize that she is not where she thinks she is, that she is again experiencing an extra-sensory episode, and that the counselor she is confiding in is actually the entity that has been tormenting her. While the ending of the short film seems to indicate that the character dies, Laura later appears in Smile where she seeks the help of Dr. Rose Cotter; indicating that the resolution to Laura Hasn't Slept was a continued hallucination. The character ultimately sets in motion the events of the full-length film.

The short movie later received a wide release as a bonus feature on the home video media release of Smile; Paramount marketed the feature as a "Smile original short film". Finn additionally called the short "the origin" of Smile.

Laura Hasn't Slept (2020) short film:

SEQUEL: Following the release of Smile, during interviews between November and December 2022, writer and director Parker Finn stated that he had intentionally left portions of the first movie ambiguous, with various plotlines unresolved, while expressing interest in exploring those details in a potential sequel film. The filmmaker stated that while additional installments may explore the backstory of the entity, he would like to keep its mysterious nature intact. He noted that a follow-up movie would be notably different from the first, stating that he believed "there is still a lot of interesting stuff to explore in the world of Smile. ... I’d want to make sure that there’s a new, exciting, fresh way into it that the audience isn’t anticipating. I also want to find some new ways to scare them and unnerve them."

In April 2023, Paramount Pictures officially announced at CinemaCon 2023 that a sequel had been green-lit and was in pre-production, with Parker Finn once again serving as writer and director. Smile 2 is scheduled to be released on October 18, 2024. In December 2023, Naomi Scott was cast in the leading role. In January 2024, Lukas Gage was added to the cast of the sequel. Kyle Gallner will reprise his role as Joel with Rosemarie DeWitt also joining.

WHERE TO WATCH Smile (2022):


YOUTUBE REVIEWS:



















































































Click on the movie titles below to see more HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIES VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray Covers:


ROB ZOMBIE's 31 (2016)
ALL HALLOWS EVE (2013) and ALL HALLOWS EVE 2 (2015)
BAD CANDY (2021)
BEETLEJUICE (1988)
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) and
BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2 (2000)

CANDY CORN (2019)
THE CLOWN MURDERS (1976)
COBWEB (2023)
CREEPSHOW (1982) and CREEPSHOW 2 (1987)
THE CROW (1994)
DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981)
ERNEST SCARED STUPID (1991)
THE FEAR: HALLOWEEN NIGHT (1999)
GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN (2018)
THE GUEST (2014)
HACK-O-LANTERN (1988)
HAUNTEDWEEN (1991)
HAUNT (2019)
HELL FEST (2018)
HELL NIGHT (1981)
HELLIONS (2015)
HOCUS POCUS (1993)
HOLLOW GATE (1988)
HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003)
IDLE HANDS (1999)
JACK-O (1995)
KIDS VS. ALIENS (2023)
LADY IN WHITE (1988)
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (1985)
THE MUNSTERS (2022)
NIGHT OF THE DEMONS Trilogy (1988-1997)
PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985)
PRIMAL RAGE (1988)
PUMPKINHEAD (1988)
SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER (2004)
SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK (2019)
SCREAM VI (2023)
SHARP CANDY (2019)
SILVER BULLET (1985)
SMILE (2022)
TALES OF HALLOWEEN (2015)
TERRIFIER (2016)
TERRIFIER 2 (2022)
TRICK OR TREATS (1982)
TRICK OR TREAT (1986)
TRICK 'R TREAT (2007)
TRICK (2019)
WACKO (1982)
WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL (2013)

OR click to view HALLOWEEN FRANCHISE VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray Covers!


Wednesday, October 16, 2024

CINEMATIC VOID's Top 10 Films Set On HALLOWEEN (video)

For this edition of the Cinematic Void Vlog, Jim shares his favorite films set around the Halloween season. Video by @CinematicVoid:


Halloween is a time for spooky vibes, thrilling tales, and a bit of nostalgia. With so many films set around this haunting holiday, it’s only fitting to curate a list of personal favorites that capture the essence of Halloween. Here’s a look at my top ten picks, each bringing its unique flavor to the celebration of all things eerie.


10. Hack-O-Lantern (1988)

Kicking off the list is Hack-O-Lantern, directed by Jag Mundhra. This film stars Hy Pyke as a charming grandpa who also happens to run a satanic cult that sacrifices people on Halloween. The unique killer costume, standout kills and out of place stand up comedy bit make this a memorable watch. The film has a blend of heavy metal and horror elements, with a twist that keeps you engaged. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth checking out, especially with the 4K UHD/Blu-ray release by Massacre Video.

WHERE TO WATCH Hack-O-Lantern (1988):


9. Primal Rage (1988)

Next, we head to Florida with Primal Rage, directed by Vittorio Rambaldi, with a script co-written by legendary Italian exploitation filmaker Umberto Lenzi. This film features a rage virus that turns baboons into crazed monsters. When a college reporter gets bitten, chaos ensues on campus. The Halloween party setting, complete with costumes and special effects by the legendary Carlo Rambaldi (Vittorio's father), makes this film a fun ride. It’s a blend of horror and absurdity that’s sure to entertain.

WHERE TO WATCH Primal Rage (1988):


8. Flesh Eater (1988)

Coming in at number eight is Flesh Eater, directed by Bill Hinzman, known for his role in Night of the Living Dead. This film serves as an unauthorized sequel to the classic where zombies wreak bloody havoc at a Halloween party. With fall weather scenery, a hayride and plenty of costumes, it captures the Halloween spirit and delivers a taboo death of a trick or treater.

WHERE TO WATCH Flesh Eater (1988):


7. Kenny & Company (1976)

At number seven, we have Kenny & Company, directed by Don Coscarelli. This coming-of-age story set in Southern California during Halloween captures the nostalgia of youth. While not a horror film, it features a scary haunting house sequence that inspired the director to make Phantasm (1979) with Reggie Bannister and A. Michael Baldwin who also appear in this film. A great reminder of simpler, spookier times.

WHERE TO WATCH Kenny & Company (1976):


6. Hell House LLC (2015)

Number six is the found footage film Hell House LLC, released in 2015. This movie follows a group that sets up a haunted attraction in a creepy hotel. As opening night unfolds, things spiral out of control. The unsettling atmosphere and clever storytelling make this an annual watch during the Halloween season.

WHERE TO WATCH Hell House LLC (2015):


5. The Guest (2014)

Coming in at five is The Guest, directed by Adam Wingard, witten by Simon Barrett. This action-horror hybrid stars Dan Stevens as a soldier who arrives at a grieving family's home, claiming to have known their deceased son. As bodies start piling up, the family's suspicions grow. With a fantastic score by Steve Moore from the band Zombi and visuals reminiscent of Halloween 3, this film is a captivating watch. Also stars Maika Monroe who gives a fantastic performance.

WHERE TO WATCH The Guest (2014):


4. Night of the Demons (1988)

At number four, we have the classic Night of the Demons, directed by Kevin Tenney. A group of friends decides to party at an abandoned funeral home, but things take a turn for the worse when demonic possession occurs. With memorable effects and standout performances by Amelia Kinkade as Angela and beloved scream queen Linnea Quigley in an unforgettable lipstick scene. This film is a staple for Halloween viewing.

WHERE TO WATCH Night of the Demons (1988):

Honorable Mention #1: Night of the Demons 2 (1994) (just as good as the first)


WHERE TO WATCH Night of the Demons 2 (1994):


3. WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

In the third spot is WNUF Halloween Special, directed by Chris LaMartina. This film is presented as a found 1987 VHS recording of the nightly news followed by a live ghost investigation into a haunted house. Featuring period-appropriate commercials, it captures the essence of Halloween and old tv broadcasts in a unique way that was actually taped on VHS. It’s a nostalgic trip that has become a favorite for many during the spooky season.

WHERE TO WATCH WNUF Halloween Special (2013):

Honorable Mention #2: Out There Halloween Mega Tape (2022) (aka WNUF Halloween Sequel 1990's set VHS recording)

WHERE TO WATCH Out There Halloween Mega Tape: Buy at WNUF.bigcartel.com


2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

At number two, we have the often-debated Halloween III: Season of the Witch, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill with cinematography by Dean Cundey. While it’s not a direct sequel (No Michael Myers), it has more Halloween vibes than the 1978 original and holds a special place in my heart. It's take on Halloween mythology, the Silver Shamrock masks and song, the score by Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the evil story, and the terrific performances by Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Dick Warlock make it iconic and a yearly must-watch.

WHERE TO WATCH Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982):

Honorable Mention #3: Halloween (1978)

WHERE TO WATCH Halloween (1978):


1. The Midnight Hour (1985)

Finally, topping the list is The Midnight Hour baby, a 1985 TV movie directed by Jack Bender with great cast Shari Belafonte, LeVar Burton, Kevin McCarthy, Lee Montgomery, Curtwood Smith, Dick Van Patten and countless others. Set in a town reminiscent of Salem, Massachusetts, the film follows a group of kids who accidentally raise the dead while trying to steal artifacts for a Halloween party. With a fantastic soundtrack and engaging story, this film is a perfect Halloween treat.

WHERE TO WATCH :


That wraps up my list of top ten films set on Halloween! Each of these films brings something special to the table, whether it’s nostalgia, horror, or just plain fun. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my picks and what your favorites are. Happy Halloween!