Halloween Horror Marathon 2016

[Monterey Jack]

Halloween Horror Marathon '12

Halloween Horror Marathon '13

Halloween Horror Marathon '14

Halloween Horror Marathon '15





[slide projector turns on, revealing a blurry photograph of an unassuming, sandy-haired man, early-40's, pushing carriages through a supermarket parking lot]

MULDER: Looks like we have a new case to study, Scully.

SCULLY: [examines picture] Let me guess...genetic mutant? Alien abductee? Elvis clone?

MULDER: [chuckles] Hardly. Meet Monterey Jack, age 42. Works as a grocery bagger. Pays his rent, pays his taxes, not much luck with the ladies.

SCULLY: [frowns] Sounds a little sad to me, but hardly the genesis of an X-File.

MULDER: [flips open manila folder] On the surface, yes...wage-slave, not many friends, but it's the man's viewing habits that are a little odd.

SCULLY: "Odd"?

MULDER: Every October, this man makes a concentrated effort to watch as many horror movies as possible. [looks at list] For at least the last decade, he's kept up this annual tradition. He's fanatically dedicated to it. He hasn't missed one day in the month or October, in all of those years combined. Sometimes two or three movies per day if he can manage it.

SCULLY: Okay...so the man lacks a social life. Sound like anyone we know...?

MULDER: [grins] Point taken. Still, it begs the question...why? Why so many "scary" films, concentrated around a specific time of year?

SCULLY: Um, there's a holiday that occurs at the end of said month every year. You may have heard of it?

MULDER: That's what this man wants us to think, to conceal the real reason he ingests so many movies of this type.

SCULLY: Which would be what, Mulder?

MULDER: I'm not exactly sure, but it has to tie in somehow to the X-Files, Scully. He doesn't just watch these things for a cheap thrill, he always seems to study them obsessively, cataloguing and ranking his experiences and sharing them online.

SCULLY: So, what you're saying is...

MULDER: ...these "movies" are X-Files...only ones that have been redacted by the government in the most ingenious manner possible. By hiding them in plain sight, in movie theaters and on video store shelves, disguised as cheesy monster movies and ghost stories.

SCULLY: [frowns] That's a stretch, even for you, Mulder.

MULDER: Nevertheless, we need to know just what sort of secrets these movies contain, the kernels of truth hidden inside the glossy Hollywood lies. In short, we need to watch what he watches. [hands over list of movie titles]

SCULLY: [perusing list] Mulder, this is madness. NO one can watch this many movies in a month.

MULDER: That's why we're trading off, Scully. Every other day in October, you will have to watch the indicated movies [points] and study them for inconsistencies, plot logic, subtext. [picks up bag of sunflower seeds] I'll take the other days. We'll compare notes on Halloween and cross-check them for recurring motifs, imagery and subliminal messages hidden in the margins.

SCULLY: [takes off glasses, rubs eyes] Something tells me I'll need Visine before the month is half-over, Mulder.

MULDER: [smiles] That's why they put the "Eye" into F.B.I.

[Monterey Jack]

-The Blair Witch Project (1999): 10/10



Lost a lengthy review blurb I had written out about this (thanks, stupid screen freeze ), so I'll just say this...Blair Witch is the most effective bit of narrative forgery since Orson Welles' 1938 radio production of The War Of The Worlds, and despite all of the "found footage" clones in the years since has yet to be topped for sheer, mounting dread.

[AndyDursin]

Always enjoy this thread MJ!

A note for the interested: Fox's EXORCIST series has gotten very positive reviews and premieres 9/23 (Friday):

http://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/the- ... 201858359/

[Monterey Jack]

-The Thing (1982): 10/10



Just re-issued on a spiffy, feature-crammed Scream Factory Blu-Ray (it'll take me days to peruse all of the extra content ), John Carpenter's greatest film is also one of my top-ten favorite movies of all time, and not merely in the horror genre. This is, in many ways, the polar opposite of The Blair Witch Project...instead of implying the off-screen presence of a monster, this film practically shoves you down its bloody, gaping maw, courtesy of some of the most jaw-dropping creature effects of the 80's, envisioned by the mad makeup genius Rob Bottin. As a technical gross-out affair, the movie remains peerless both for its time and for all time. But underlying the gore and viscera is a tale of paranoia that's every bit as unsettling. A flop in its day, The Thing continues to gain new fans and inspire contemporary filmmakers to this day (including a surprisingly good 2011 prequel and cues from Ennio Morricone's eerie score gaining a second life in Quentin Tarantino's recent claustrophobic, snowbound western The Hateful Eight), and is filled with some of the best Bruised Forearm moments ever conceived.

[mkaroly]

The thing I liked most about THE THING (lol) is that there was no romantic subplot - it is in many ways a truly "guy" movie. It is funny, scary, creepy, and a mess-load of fun. Great stuff!

[AndyDursin]

Blair Witch (2016)
5/10

Not as embarrassing as the godawful first sequel, Adam Wingard's requel is pretty much just a rote redo of the original (which I've always found patently overrated). A group of kids go back into the woods, hear things, rinse and repeat. The first half of the movie is a total bore and isnt even well executed in terms of its set up (its sometimes confusing as to whose POV we are seeing). The dialogue is blandly delivered by a cast that's utterly forgettable save a pair of fairly attractive female leads, and thrills are few and far between.

If you can make it through, the final 15 minutes finally come alive and give fans a decent climax with some intriguing effects and just a little enhancement in terms of folklore...but it's too little too late. This concept really needed a fresher and different take all the way through instead of mainly recycling its predecessor for most of its duration.

[Monterey Jack]

-Blair Witch (2016): 6.5/10



Reasonably effective sequel to The Blair Witch Project suffers mainly from the fact that it's impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube. The reason the original created such a pall of unease over gullible audiences in 1999 was because no one had ever seen anything quite like it at the time (and the beyond-ingenious online marketing campaign refusing to break the illusion that it was actual footage from a trio of missing student filmmakers), but now, "Found Footage" has become a genre unto itself, and one that has even managed to break out from under the broad "horror" umbrella. So what do director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett (the talented team who previously collaborated on the stylish horror flicks You're Next and the little-seen The Guest) do to add to the existing mythology established by original filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez? Not a whole lot. Aside from a minor retcon of Elly Kedward's banishment origin story, this is for the most part a beat-for-beat re-creation of the first movie, only with a LOT more annoying jump scares. Yes, a few of these do actually work, but, for the love of God, who waits until they're RIGHT BEHIND someone before making their presence known, especially when you're in the pitch-black woods and strange stuff is going down? Horror movie characters, that's who.

One thing about the original that still resonates is that the three amateur leads actually looked like ordinary, schlubby college students from the grunge-era 90's. There were no attempts at cheap scares, none of that bullcrap, just three kids making an honest attempt at a documentary and getting in way over their heads. In this film, the characters are generic "types", and harder to honestly emphasize with. While the movie generates efficient levels of tension, no longer does it have that swoony sense of DREAD that suffused the original...now, it's just business as usual in the post-Paranormal Activity era, where Found Footage is no longer utilized because it's a unique and interesting way to tell a story, but because it's cheap and easy to earn a profit with it.

[AndyDursin]

I think the commercial failure of BLAIR WITCH this weekend is, at least, some proof that the original was mostly just a product of its era. It was influential -- there's no doubt about it -- and it was a cultural "moment," but it's not, and never was, a great piece of filmmaking IMO, and it hasn't stood the test of time either. Those guys never went on to do anything else, the cast disappeared, and the "Brand" was soiled by both its terrible first sequel and so many copycats since, that a lot of its innovation faded away quickly.

In producing this new film, Lionsgate was undoubtedly hoping it was the EXORCIST of its time -- but it's not, and never was. At least for them it didn't cost much.

[Monterey Jack]

-The Thing (2011): 8/10



Respectful, underrated companion piece to the 1982 John Carpenter classic was pilloried by fans of that film at the time for release for daring to simply exist (willfully ignoring that fact that the Carpenter film was itself a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World) as well as for the abundance of CGI effects instead of the unforgettable Rob Bottin rubber & latex creatures from the '82 film, but honestly...it's a lot better than you'd expect, and it actually improves the more you watch it. Yes, some of the CG transformation shots are a bit dodgy, and yes, the continuity doesn't quite jibe at times with the Carpenter flick, but the movie honors the creeping dread of the original and the exploding-torso insanity of the Bottin monster designs, and is anchored by the always-welcome presence of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the rare knee-weakening beauty who can totally sell the transformation from sheltered scientist to flamethrower-wielding badass.

[Monterey Jack]

-Carrie (1976): 10/10



Just reissued on a superb Scream Factory Blu-Ray in time for it's fortieth(!) anniversary, Brain De Palma's Carrie remains one of the most lyrical bloodbath horror movies ever made, one of those rare films that can break your heart before freezing your blood. Few horror heroines are as sympathetic as poor, downtrodden Carrie White, given tremulous, woeful grace by Sissy Spacek. And few horror antagonists are as spiteful, deranged and -- yes -- oddly empathetic as Carrie's religious harridan of a mother, played with lip-smacking, theatrical relish by Piper Laurie. Watching these two women come to blows as Carrie's first period (which, disturbingly, she has no idea of what it means when it occurs in the most horrible, public way imaginable in the girls' high school locker room) awakens a nascent telekinetic ability unleashed be her bouts of melancholy and rage becomes a riveting masterclass of acting, heightened by De Palma's florid, gorgeously cinematic direction and Pino Donnagio's haunting lullaby of a score. It all climaxes in one of the greatest setpieces in horror film history, one where the initial, mean-spirited thrill of seeing Carrie unleash her abilities against her tormenting peers (Nancy Allen is magnificently despicable as her chief antagonist, ruthlessly exploiting her feminine wiles to goad her dimwitted brute of a boyfriend -- played by a Sweathog-era John Travolta -- into one of the cruelest pranks ever conceived) almost immediately gets suffused by a sickly, this-can't-be-happening terror. Author Stephen King, whom whose fertile imagination the original source novel sprung, once chillingly referred to Carrie White as "That psychic predecessor to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold", and, indeed, the decades since Carrie have unleashed far too many real-life tales of sullen, dead-eyed teenagers unleashing their repressed anger at their fellow students and anyone else in their crosshairs. What Carrie daringly gives the viewer is a glimpse into the psyche of such a disturbed individual, and one finds it hard to find where their sympathies lie. That's why the film's burning humanity still elicits a shock of recognition decades later, and even after several wan attempts to remake and sequelize De Palma's original. It's a bloody beaut.

[AndyDursin]

I have reviews of Stephen King's IT, SALEM'S LOT & CAT'S EYE (all now on Blu-Ray) in this week's column:

http://andyfilm.com/2016/09/21/9-27-16- ... r-horrors/

[mkaroly]

-The Thing (2011): 8/10

Respectful, underrated companion piece to the 1982 John Carpenter classic was pilloried by fans of that film at the time for release for daring to simply exist (willfully ignoring that fact that the Carpenter film was itself a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World) as well as for the abundance of CGI effects instead of the unforgettable Rob Bottin rubber & latex creatures from the '82 film, but honestly...it's a lot better than you'd expect, and it actually improves the more you watch it. Yes, some of the CG transformation shots are a bit dodgy, and yes, the continuity doesn't quite jibe at times with the Carpenter flick, but the movie honors the creeping dread of the original and the exploding-torso insanity of the Bottin monster designs, and is anchored by the always-welcome presence of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the rare knee-weakening beauty who can totally sell the transformation from sheltered scientist to flamethrower-wielding badass.

From what I remember I did not like this movie at all when I saw it. Admittedly, it was probably due to my affection for Carpenter's film. I know you like MEW a lot MJ but I was not at all sold on her in the film. If I remember correctly, I didn't even like that she was there (not MEW in particular, but any female character at all). TTFAW did have a female character and so technically there was no foul in including a female character, but I vastly preferred the absence of said female character in Carpenter's film. Lol...how many times can I say "female character??"

[AndyDursin]

I wasn't as high on it as MJ but I generally think THE THING was one of the better "re-quels" -- follows the same template as FORCE AWAKENS as basically being a 'remake in the guise of a sequel (or in this case prequel)', reprises the same scenes, etc. Yet I felt it was well executed and I enjoyed the spaceship ending, which was at least "different".

I've been itching to watch it again, perhaps I will next week when Paul visits!

[Monterey Jack]

When it comes to MEW, I must admit I am biased as hell. I still think that The Thing '11 was unfairly maligned at the time and is better than people claimed it was, much like the 2010 Wolfman. For all the whining about "Crap CGI!", at least both films were enthusiastically R-rated without being needlessly disgusting and were about adult characters, a rarity in this era of PG-13 "subwoofer jump scare" and found-footage garbage. Yeah, Winstead may have been cast to get a pretty female face in there among all of those hairy Swedes (Norwegians, MEW), but she was refreshingly not there just to spice up the proceedings with gratuitous titillation or just to play "The Girlfriend"...her gender was not an issue in the slightest in how the character was written or played, and I appreciated that. Like 10 Cloverfield Lane, it was fun to see Winstead let out her inner Ripley.

And speaking of Halloween...



James Rolfe's final Monster Madness. Still, looks like he's going out with a bang.

[AndyDursin]

Taking a hiatus??