Halloween Horror Marathon 2013

[Monterey Jack]

Welcome, BOILS and GHOULS! It's nearly SHOCK-tober, and you know what that means! A month's worth of chills, thrills, spooks, shocks, shrieks and screams! So carve that pumpkin, put up the decorations, chase away those pesky Trick-or-Treaters, and settle down with some classic fright flicks. I'm DYING to see what everyBODY else has on tap.

Hee-hee-hee...

[Monterey Jack]

Lo-and-behold, Netflix has sent my first seasonal offering a few days early! I know it's like peeking at your presents before Christmas, but I've been a GHOUL-d boy this year...

Sisters (2006): 6/10



Tepid remake of the Brian De Palma film, reasonably competent, but lacking in style and tension.

[AndyDursin]

Yes MJ is back with his annual thread!!! NICE!! I watched Curse of Chucky last night -- it sucked, sadly.

Universal did send me the whole box set at least. 1 is the same disc as before, 2 and 3 look decent (3 better than 2), Bride of Chucky and Seed have some DNR on them.

[Monterey Jack]

Yes MJ is back with his annual thread!!! NICE!!

Always nice to hear my efforts getting some appreciation. Hope you're feeling well enough to participate more then you did last year, Andy. I've got a stack of seasonable scary movies on tap, from old favorites I've amassed on Blu over the past six months to a handful of blind buys, plus I'm pushing scary stuff to the top of my Netflix queue (this year's theme: 80's slashers, which I was too young and too chicken to see the first time around ). LOVE this time of year allowing me to wallow in horror films.

[AndyDursin]

Yuck, I remember last fall too well...Paul came to visit, and I had a nasty cough/low grade fever that took forever to get rid of.

I was up in Maine all week with Joanne, so I have a lot to catch up on -- I did check out the Amityville set...I will post some thoughts on it later prior to the column going up at week's end.

[AndyDursin]

FRIGHT NIGHT 2 - THE NEW BLOOD
4/10

Talk about bizarre. Though billed as FRIGHT NIGHT 2, this direct-to-video film from 20th Century Fox is yet another remake of the original 1985 Tom Holland classic, just with the settings changed. Here, Charley, Amy and Evil Ed are in a high school program in Romania. Instead of Jerry Dandridge, we have Gerri Dandridge, a female professor with a taste for blood. Peter Vincent is here too, but instead of a horror movie host (a la Roddy McDowall) or a magician (a la David Tennant), he's a Ghost Hunters-like, would-be paranormal investigator. The movie plays out exactly as you'd expect -- same basic plot structure as the Holland original, but with more blood, less humor, and something of a road company cast that's not particularly engaging (though the female leads are attractive enough).

It's beyond strange that the director and crew commentary say they're making a sequel to the 2011 Fright Night, when the movie is actually a remake. The story doesn't acknowledge the earlier film (how could it when Evil Ed is back, alive and well!) in any capacity. There's some vague plot element in Charley and Amy's relationship that "something" happened to them before, but it's never spelled out, and otherwise, the characters behave as if it's the first time something happened to them (Charley and Peter have never met, for example). So, so strange!

Basically, though, the movie isn't terrible -- it's watchable, but nowhere in the league of the 1985 film or even the 2011 remake. Like a better-than-Syfy Channel rendition of the story, which for most fans, isn't going to be enough, though it's a passable timekiller if taken on its own terms.

[Monterey Jack]

We all go a little mad sometimes...

-Psycho (1960): 10/10

-Dressed To Kill (1980): 9/10

[Monterey Jack]

More 80's slashers...

-When A Stranger Calls (1979): 7/10



There's a brilliant, chilling short film in here somewhere (indeed, it was, until the director saw the money generated by Halloween and expanded his short to feature length to cash into the "babysitter in peril" genre), but after the fantastic first 25 minutes, the film is padded like crazy, making a weird tonal shift where we follow the sinister killer from the opening sequence around for nearly an hour, even making him into a somewhat sympathetic character! It all comes around again to a satisfyingly tense conclusion, but it's a strange, disjointed experience. Still worth a look for horror fans.

-He Knows You're Alone (1980): 3/10



Grindingly generic slasher copies so many shots and concepts verbatim from Halloween that John Carpenter should have sued. There's a somewhat amusing opening scene with a murder in a theater showing a deliberately cheesy horror flick (which was cribbed wholesale in Scream 2), and it's fun to see a very young, very skinny Tom Hanks in his film debut, but otherwise this is dankly lit, bereft of suspense, and doesn't even offer any memorable gore. Blah.


-Happy Birthday To Me (1980): 7.5/10



Here's a pleasant surprise...a seemingly rote slasher brimming with memorable death sequences and a compellingly convoluted plot climaxing with a wild, Scooby-Doo ending that will either drive you nuts, or else have you grinning with delighted disbelief. Veteran director J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns Of Navarone) keeps the direction slick and the tone light and nimble.

-Nightwing (1979): 6/10



The Birds it ain't, but it's still a watchable entry in the 70's "Nature Run Amok" cycle. Music by Henry Mancini...!

[Paul MacLean]

Yuck, I remember last fall too well...Paul came to visit, and I had a nasty cough/low grade fever that took forever to get rid of.

Gee, thanks.

[Paul MacLean]

Just kidding!

[AndyDursin]

More 80's slashers...

THE BURNING is fun if you haven't seen it already

[Monterey Jack]

Rosemary's Baby (1968): 10/10



One of the most masterfully unsettling horror films ever made...and yet you barely see a thing.

[Monterey Jack]

Man, Bodega Bay just can't catch a break...

The Birds (1963): 10/10



The Fog (1980): 7.5/10



Best Easter Egg in a long time...

[Monterey Jack]

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956): 9.5/10



Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978): 10/10

[esteban miranda]

My Hallowe'en viewing last year was pretty modest, just the two Kolchak pilot movies.
This year on the schedule is Dracula (1931), Dracula's Daughter, Son of Dracula, The Mummy (1932), and The Mad Magician.
It's been several years since I've seen these (and the last one is a new acquisition).