Halloween Horror Marathon 2021

[Paul MacLean]

The Howling (5/10)

I saw this movie on TV in high school, and at the time I found quite suspenseful and creepy. Halloween Eve seemed like a good time to revisit it.

But this is one of thse movies that hasn't aged well. Despite a 90 minute running time, it's a real slow burn, with little dramatic tension -- and just plain not scary. I even considered turning it off a few times. Joe Dante has made some terrific, wonderful movies, but this isn't one of them. It's also a reminder that horror movies are generally exploitation flicks made quickly and cheaply, giving the director and creative team little time or room to do their best. Lets face it, most films in this genre just plain aren't very good (which is why I don't watch them very often).

[Monterey Jack]

Yeah, I've never been a big Howling fan. Awesome Rob Bottin F/X (although the scene where the characters turn into cel-animated cartoons as they transform... ) and a fine PIno Donaggio score, but otherwise it's very dull.

[AndyDursin]

I always much preferred American Werewolf in London in the "Lupine Sweepstakes of 1981." I agree Paul, it's slow going and feels "cheap". The big draw are the makeup effects but it's mostly missing Dante's sense of humor and playfulness. Plus I never cared for the ending much either.

At least there's that sweet saxophone in the Donaggio end credits. I've long wondered if that wasnt some generic music that, like a lot of Italian composers, he wrote in advance for some other movie that they just decided to use.

[AndyDursin]

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA
8/10



Still think this is my favorite Hammer film -- firmly entrenched in the "golden age" of the studio's early outings but, for whatever reason, offers a more enjoyable and engaging story than most of its Dracula pictures. Christopher Lee and Dracula himself aren't here at all, but Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is, as he runs into a French college student (Yvonne Muldaur) who's just met an aging baroness and her "afflicted," mysterious son.

The film is bathed in warm colors and just works, with a script that's frugal but manages to establish its central characters and the surrounding country side in a convincing, effective way. The memorable climax is also one of the best of all the Hammer films. Old-fashioned fun, and holds up well on repeat viewing.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (2019)
7/10

We watched this one with Theo -- not a classic but pretty fun with some legitimately funny gags and enjoyable use of music. It manages to ram home its messaging in a way that's more satiric than saccharine as well. Overall quite effective, even with its generic animation (at least they used Addams' actual designs for the characters).

[Paul MacLean]

Christopher Lee and Dracula himself aren't here at all, but Peter Cushing's Van Helsing is, as he runs into a French college student (Yvonne Muldaur) who's just met an aging baroness and her "afflicted," mysterious son.
7/10[/b]

Side note, here's a funny reminicence from Stephen Fry regarding Peter Cushing and Christopher lee...

[Monterey Jack]

Another Halloween season comes to a close...



-Trick 'r Treat (2009): 8.5/10



Delightful horror anthology set in Warren Valley, Ohio, where they really get into the spooky holiday spirit each October, with a series of terror tales that overlap Pulp Fiction style over one Halloween night. There's a group of middle-graders who play a cruel prank on a local "retard" with a trumped-up town legend that turns out to be all-too-true. There's a virginal young woman (Anna Paquin) who plays out a real-life variation on "Little Red Riding Hood" with a masked killer. There's the local high school principal (Dylan Baker) who sets out to carve more than pumpkins. And there's Old Man Kreeg (Brian Cox), a holiday-hating curmudgeon who finds himself locked inside his sprawling home and bedeviled by a sadistic, bag-headed l'il imp named Sam (who keeps popping up throughout the other tales as a sort of mascot of malevolence).

Writer/director Michael Dougherty (Krampus, Godzilla: King Of The Monsters) clearly has a deep-set affection for all of the trappings of the Halloween season, and the autumnal cinematography of Glen MacPherson and Douglas Pipe's playfully sinister score (based, in large part,a round that sing-songy childhood chant that goes, "Trick or Treat / smell my feet / give me something good to eat...") add an appealing gloss to the bloody yet darkly funny proceedings. And the way the tales intersect over the course of one night make it ideal for multiple viewings to catch all of the various connections both obvious and ingeniously sly. This is as good as horror anthologies get, and remember...always check your candy.

-Coraline (2009): 10/10

-The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): 11/10





Henry Selick's pair of delightful stop-motion kiddie horror flicks are the perfect way to send off another year's worth of merrily macabre fare. 2009's Coraline (which Selick adapted from a novel by Neil Gaiman) concerns one Coraline Jones (voiced with appealing spunk by Dakota Fanning), a young girl who moves with her parents into the "Pink Palace" apartment complex in Oregon. Coraline is bored to tears by her rainy, remote isolation, and mother Mel (Teri Hatcher) and father Charlie (John Hodgman) can't really relate, embroiled as they are in their work as horicultuists who dislike getting their hands dirty. But when Coraline discovers an old doll that's an eerie likeness of her (as well as a curiously small, bricked-off door in the wall of one room), she's drawn into a series of vivid dreams, where she's welcomed with open arms by her "Other Mother" (Hatcher again), and "Other Father" (Hodgman) who are the spitting image of her real parents...save for the glistening black buttons sewn where their eyes should be. Coraline is at first enchanted by her Other Parents, who curry her favor with delicious food and lavish presents, but it soon becomes obvious that the sweetness of their company hides a rotten core, and that her surreptitiously sinister Other Mother wants to make her the latest in a string of child victims she has stolen away over the decades.

Like all of Selick's work, Coraline (the first production from the geniuses at the Laika animation studios) is technical marvel, with insanely-detailed environments, innovative character designs and flowing animation. Set to a dreamy, evocative score by Bruno Coulais, Coraline is a superb piece of filmmaking craft as well as a funny & freaky take on Alice In Wonderland, and a genuine work of art in a family movie medium that too often rewards pandering mediocrity.

Before he made Coraline, however, Selick collaborated with producer Tim Burton on his holiday-mixing stop-motion musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon, sung by composer Danny Elfman), the "King of Halloweentown", finds himself bored with the same-old haunts each year, and longs for something new...so when he tumbles into the wintry wonderland of Christmastown, he becomes entranced by its movement, color and overall cheery disposition ("There's children throwing snowballs / instead of throwing heads..."), and desires to make it his own, going so far as to kidnap the "Sandy Claws" (Ed Ivory) and take his place on Christmas night. Things...don't go so well...

Filled with marvelously crooked sets and canted camera angles and carefully desaturated color schemes, Nightmare Before Christmas is yet another love letter from Burton to the classic Universal Monster films of the 1930s and 40s, and Elfman's busy song score (ranging from the introductory joygasm of "This Is Halloween" to the plaintive lament of "Sally's Song") keeps the film's plot moving forward with clever lyrics and bouncy melodies. It's a terrific updating of the classic Rankin/Bass holiday specials of the 1960s, yoking Burton's love of lonely outsiders to Selick's technical wizardry in a perfect mind meld of creativity. It's one of those films that never grows tiresome, and it's the best, most wistful way to bid adieu to another's year's worth of ghouls n' goblins.

[Monterey Jack]

Eighty-five horror movies in October! Didn't break last year's record of ninety, but not a bad showing.

God, I'm pooped.

[AndyDursin]

As always a stalwart performance MJ. Can't say I'd WANT to watch all of those, but someone has to do it! And entertaining reading as always regardless of the movie.

[Monterey Jack]

And entertaining reading as always regardless of the movie.

Thanks. This annual thread represents the majority of the creative writing I do about film in an average year. What I wouldn't give to be able to make a living at it, but if you don't have a YouTube channel, no one's going to listen to you. no one READS criticism anymore.

[AndyDursin]

And it's amazing how useless most of the Youtube stuff is. I might as well start doing some reviews where I open up boxes and say like 10 seconds of relevant information! Seriously that's about all it takes.

[Monterey Jack]

And it's amazing how useless most of the Youtube stuff is. I might as well start doing some reviews where I open up boxes and say like 10 seconds of relevant information! Seriously that's about all it takes.

"Unboxing" videos are the dumbest waste of time I can possibly think of, and yet EVERY THREAD on Blu-Ray.com has at least one of these as an anticipated release comes out. Yet I can gas on for three paragraphs about a movie I love -- or loathe -- and no one seems to care.

[jkholm]

And entertaining reading as always regardless of the movie.

Thanks. This annual thread represents the majority of the creative writing I do about film in an average year. What I wouldn't give to be able to make a living at it, but if you don't have a YouTube channel, no one's going to listen to you. no one READS criticism anymore.

Have you ever thought about posting your reviews on letterboxd? You may not get paid for writing reviews or get many followers but if nothing else, it's a great site to log and keep track of what you've watched and reviewed. There are definitely people on that site who are interested in reading and writing about movies even if some of the most popular reviews for any given movie are just Twitter jokes.

And yes, the site has moderators. Somehow I stumbled onto a group of people who are young (in their 20s), Christian and conservative who aren't shy about their right wing views. I can tell by some of the comments that some of them have encountered the thought police but I think you only get in trouble if the wrong person reads your review and complains. I bet most of the reviews you've posted on Andy's site could be cur and pasted without much revision and be "safe" on letterboxd.

[AndyDursin]

I've been on there, I think I posted one or two reviews, but it seems the most popular type of review is a really short, funny line or two a la a Twitter comment so I didn't continue on there. I do check it out and have enjoyed some of the reviews though at times...a better gauge than Rotten Tomatoes scores (then again isn't anything lol)