10/31: Part 3

While I wasn't particularly impressed with the 2017 "10/31" and the 2019 sequel "10/31: Part 2", then I still opted to sit down and watch the 2022 third movie, on the off-chance that it would be an improvement upon the previous two anthologies in the franchise.

I wasn't harboring much of any grand expectations or hopes though. But still, since I hadn't already seen "10/31: Part 3" before, then of course I opted to give the directors the benefit of the doubt.

First of all, I have to say that I really liked the movie's cover which was a cool tribute to the classic scary comic books from back in the day. I really liked that, and it was definitely a plus in my book.

The stories in this third anthology were even worse than in the previous two. So you're not in for anything grand here. I sort of blanked out and zoned out during the monotonous pacing of the anthology, and the individual segments just didn't deliver much of anything worthwhile watching.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie. But I will say, that while the stories were bland, then some of the acting performances were actually fair enough.

Visually then "10/31: Part 3" was okay. I mean, it wasn't top of the line special effects, for sure. But the effects served their purposes well enough.

"10/31: Part 3" was the weakest of the three movies in the franchise so far. And not really worth spending 75 minutes on watching. I managed to suffer through it, but if you were to ask me tomorrow what the stories were about, I could maybe relay one of them or so. A very, very forgettable anthology.

The movie's "Creepshow" inspired cover was the best part about the ordeal.

My rating of "10/31: Part 3" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Presented by Queen Malvolia, a series of Halloween-themed tales unfold involving various encounters with terrifying figures.

The Good Stor(ies): House of the Mummy-Preparing for a new haunt season, a man operating a scare attraction out of his house decides to utilize a special mummy prop in his decorations only to learn the mummy can come to life and stalks him and others who show up through the house. On the whole, this is a fun if overall predictable feature. The initial setup of the need to decorate the house for the upcoming haunt season following the trouble with his wife and all that goes on there is fun enough and the false scares about his skittish nature falling victim to everything give this some nice atmospheric touches. The actin in general isn't bad as the gory confrontations with the malevolent creature provide some likable scenes as the disbelieving victims are continually able to stumble upon it not knowing the truth and the resulting kills get quite fun. It's just predictable and is easily guessable where it's all going with few surprises so it's not too surprising and is a factor to get over.

Lock Smith-Moving into a new house together, a married couple decides to try their luck fixing it up only to find that the mysterious urban legend involving a black-gloved killer living in the house is real and has to fight back against the intruder. This was a pretty enjoyable if somewhat problematic story. The initial setup of the urban legend about the killer living in the house works quite well as the flashbacks to the previous victims are generally fun bringing about solid stalking scenes and gruesome kills. This carries over into the present-day stalking of the main couple who've moved in so it's got a lot of rather likable elements at play. Much like the previous segment though, this is wholly predictable and doesn't have too many surprises in store as the whole thing plays out the way you'd think being the main issue with it.

Hack-in-the-Box-Coming together with her friends, a group of women decides the time is right to fight back and stop a demonic jack-in-the-box that's terrorized them before. While this is the shortest segment here, there's still a lot to like about it. The backstory that gets filled in with the brief running time not allowing for a traditional catch-up on the story as we're dropped into it already lived-in is a fine touch, the atmospheric touches of being alone in the house with the creature and trying to figure out what to do with it or where it is has some suspenseful moments alongside some great gore effects. It's incredibly brief and really could've used a bit more length to stretch out the backstory of what's going on so it's not all inferred as it is, but otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.

The Bad Stor(ies): Old Man Gross-Heading to a Halloween party, a group of friends decides to pass the time looking into the truth about a local urban legend featuring a strange killer living in a house in town, but when they learn the truth are forced to deal with the killer to escape. This was a pretty disappointing segment that really could've been much better. The main idea here is solid if entirely cliche and predictable like so many of the other segments have been as the group of teens looking into an urban legend and finding it to be true is a factor employed in the previous segments already. Besides that, it's also quite predictable and has no real surprises in what's going on, and with the characters not being believable in why they're hanging out around the house after learning he's there, it feels infuriating at times with how they behave. The gore and kills here are great and carry this one quite easily but the drawbacks to this one is a bit obvious.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Brief Nudity.

So, the first two installments of this franchise/series while not award winning weren't bad and were tolerable. They clearly ran out of little horror indy movie makers to go to that are worth a damn cause they scraped the bottom of the barrel with this one.

These are all anthology movies btw, so they all have 4 or 5 or 6 little short films in them. That's another weak point of these, besides the crappy acting, unlike good anthology movies like Tales From The Darkside or Creepshow or Twilight Zone, the movies, not the series, where the short movies are all woven together by an overall bigger story, these just have this ugly fat chick with her boobs hanging out trying to be a rip-off Elvira acting or well actually not acting, yeah she can't act either, like the hostess of a show presenting the shorter stories.

It's just not original at all, everything is a rip-off of something that's already been done... better. Like I said earlier, the first two were somewhat tolerable but this third installment is just awful. The acting is atrocious, there's not one saving factor at all.

So, unless you just LOVE the first two and are so stoked they made a third one you can't just contain yourself, skip this one, or just go watch the other two. Oh, and you can fast forward through the can't act ugly fat wannabe rip-off Elvira on all of these, you're not missing anything but a good example of what bad acting is. She really serves no purpose whatsoever.

Alright I've said my peace and done my do diligence warning people about this atrocity they call a anthology horror movie.

Our hostess, Malvolia: The Queen of Screams (Jennifer Nangle) is back to introduce us to four new bone chilling stories. There's even a series of mock trailers before the film, just like in the second film. The Slaughter, Night of the Halloweenies, Radio Tower Road, Candy Killer and A Strangers Treat are the faux trailers.

House of Horrors kicks of the actual film. Newly divorced Wes is trying to make some money since his miserable ex cost him his job. His big idea is to put together a spookhouse for Halloween. Wes goes into a thrift store that is having a going out of business sale and spots a mummy. The shopkeeper sells Wes the mummy, with the warning "Be Careful with him around midnight". Wes takes the mummy and sets him up in his house of horrors. Wes soon discovers what the shopkeeper was talking about and soon the mummy will help Wes out with his problems. I found this to be a pretty good story.

Next up is the Locksmith. The Lockhart house has just sold and a new couple is moving in. However there's a legend about the house and the son that was locked in the attic. Is it just a legend?

Old Man Gross is our third tale. Old man Gross is the mean old shop teacher that doesn't seem to celebrate Halloween. A group of four college age friends decide to try and humiliate Mr. Gross. When they break into his home, they discover much more than they bargained for. This is my least favorite story.

Last, but not least we have Hack in the Box. Four women have plans to stop an evil entity, and apparently coaxing the Jack in the Box out is part of the plan. Will things go as planned for the friends?

Overall, I enjoyed 10/31 Part III.