Horror Movie a Day October 2017

[SJP]

The Host (2006) watched on Netflix
A U.S. army base in Korea dumps expired medications down the drain, creating a violent mutant fish.  Wackiness ensues.
The first thing I thought to myself, on watching it, was "Wow.  I guess South Korea just loves making movies like this, since this is just like Okja."  Then I saw the same director made both movies.  You can really tell, what with the monster being more of a catalyst than the thrust of the film, a political statement on bureaucractic deflection and heartlessness, family wanting to reunite, and a lot of mood whiplash into hilarity.  Heck, it even ends in a very similar manner.  I enjoyed it, but the way the poster and DVD covers make you think it's a weird tentacle monster is a bit misleading (though I was very surprised to see the monster introduced so quickly, and out in the open, with almost no fanfare).

Invisible Ghost (1941) watched on budget DVD collection
A respected doctor pines for a wife he believes left him for another man.  Odd, though, that when he sees visions of her outside his window and goes on a brainwashed murder spree, nobody seems to suspect that Bela Lugosi might be the killer.
This one is...well...I really don't know.  It's certainly a goofy enough enterprise to riff on, but who came up with this ridiculous plot in the first place?  Within the first twenty minutes, we know for certain the wife isn't dead, but being kept in a barn on the property by the gardener (why he does this is never given a better explanation than she needs to get MUCH better before going on back in); the one suspected of killing everyone is sentenced to death, at which point his twin brother shows up to solve the mystery, for no reason than they already hired the actor and they were only going to pay once; and there is no reason to suspect anyone other than Bela Lugosi, because all the murders happen in his house AND he's already known to be a little loopy to begin with.
None of it adds up to much, but watching Lugosi's zombie walk is hysterical, as is the innocent guy's 1970s leisure suit collar.

[Darth Geek]

The Host (2006) watched on Netflix
A U.S. army base in Korea dumps expired medications down the drain, creating a violent mutant fish.  Wackiness ensues.
The first thing I thought to myself, on watching it, was "Wow.  I guess South Korea just loves making movies like this, since this is just like Okja."  Then I saw the same director made both movies.  You can really tell, what with the monster being more of a catalyst than the thrust of the film, a political statement on bureaucractic deflection and heartlessness, family wanting to reunite, and a lot of mood whiplash into hilarity.  Heck, it even ends in a very similar manner.  I enjoyed it, but the way the poster and DVD covers make you think it's a weird tentacle monster is a bit misleading (though I was very surprised to see the monster introduced so quickly, and out in the open, with almost no fanfare).

Is Okja really that much like The Host? I had heard good things about Okja, and I really liked The Host. But The Host had a really cool looking monster, not just the hippo looking thing from Okja. So if they're a lot the same then it's kind of pointless for me to bother with Okja.

[SJP]

Is Okja really that much like The Host? I had heard good things about Okja, and I really liked The Host. But The Host had a really cool looking monster, not just the hippo looking thing from Okja. So if they're a lot the same then it's kind of pointless for me to bother with Okja.

Okja isn't so much a horror movie as it is a really, REALLY dark comedy.  My wife wanted to watch it with me because it looked like it was going to be more family-based entertainment...it was probably right around the scene where Jake Gyllenhaal is introducing Okja to one of the other hippo things that she realized this movie wasn't what she thought it was going to be.
I think it's a funnier movie...at least, the first half is...and it tugs more on the heartstrings than The Host does...but there are definitely a lot of similar themes.  I liked both movies, but do note Paul Dano is in it, and every time he gets beat up all I could think of was milkshakes and "Don't bully me, Daniel!"

[SJP]

Movie 16: Be Afraid (2017) viewed on Netflix
A family finds itself terrorized by beings that lurk when sleeping or at the edge of their vision.
Oh, hey, Raze from Underworld and the guy from Sleepwalkers are in this.  OK.
The movie is shot well, and has some good monster costumes and some creepy scenes.  Problem is...it really doesn't add up to much.  Nothing really happens.  There's a difference between keeping monsters mysterious, and never having anything come from them doing stuff, either.  The ending KIND of explains their general existence, but not very well.  Big fat 'eh.'

Movie 17: Revolt of the Zombies (1936) viewed on budget DVD
An expedition to recover the secret to making invincible zombie soldiers for war ends up with the scientist in charge going mad with power.  Who'd have thunk it.
The movie doesn't have zombies in it, for one.  Everyone who would be considered a zombie is essentially brainwashed and mind-controlled by one person, which may fit the bill of classic voodoo zombies, but even here they're not poisoned or anything.  Best scene of the whole thing is where the scientist chases one of the locals through a swamp.  While both were clearly on a swamp set at some point during filming, they must not have gotten as much footage as they wanted, because they are both faking walking in front of a rear projection for several shots, with hilarious results.  There are also some fantastic "death by offscreen Hays code" moments, but otherwise, a bit boring.

Movie 18: Phantom of the Opera (1943) viewed on Blu-ray
Claude Rains is the famous Phantom...or rather, becomes the Phantom about halfway through the movie, thanks to a lengthy preamble.
While maybe not the most exciting adaptation of the story, this version is very much bolstered by two things: one, Claude himself, who is just a really, really good actor.  The guy steals the show even when he's not even trying, all because he is just takes to stuff very naturally, especially at a time when everyone else around him is going well over the top.  The second is the lush production value.  The Blu-ray especially does a great job of showcasing all the color onscreen.  Very few movies are as delightfully colorful as this, especially for a horror film, and it is visually stunning.  The monster makeup is nowhere near as horrifying as the silent version, but it is still a decent enough watch.  I'm not sure whether the movie would've been made better or worse if it had included the cut scenes where it is learned that the Phantom isn't after Christine for romantic purposes, but because he is her estranged father who abandoned her to pursue his musical career and now wants to make her part of his life again; it would make his obsession a little more fleshed out, if nothing else.

Also, I know realize I forgot to do a review of Dawn of the Dead.  In short, I like that movie, and have for a long time, but this time while watching, it made me wonder...yes, having a mall all to oneself is a cool fantasy during a zombie outbreak, but who is running the power company keeping the place wired up and comfortable?

Movie 19: When Animals Dream (2014) viewed on Netflix
Poor Marie.  Her mother is catatonic, her father is always nervous, she only has one friend at the fish prepping plant where she works, and to top it all off, she now has some mysterious rash and is developing anti-social tendencies.  It's almost like her family...and her town...have something to hide.
I really had to dig around below the "Movies Recommended for You" section to unearth this sucker, which I thought might be very similar to something like Ginger Snaps (apparently a lot of reviewers did, too).  At least Ginger Snaps had humor (and a strong underlying theme) to help carry it along; here, it isn't just the Danish weather that is gloomy, oppressive, and hard to watch.  The overall message of the film seems to be, "Boy, them small town people can be very judgmental, aren't they?" when the finale kind of proves them right all along.  Marie isn't the most sympathetic character, even before she starts getting all weird, and while the movie doesn't really suffer from pacing issues (it's a slow burn, but it moves everything along just fine), nothing really happens in it.  Sure, some people end up dead, but none of it amounts to anything emotionally, one way or the other.  The only thing that is worth watching about it is the mood that is set (and its jarring electro soundtrack), but really, instead of comparing it to Ginger Snaps, just watch Ginger Snaps.  It's a way better movie on every front.

[Compound]

Also, I know realize I forgot to do a review of Dawn of the Dead.  In short, I like that movie, and have for a long time, but this time while watching, it made me wonder...yes, having a mall all to oneself is a cool fantasy during a zombie outbreak, but who is running the power company keeping the place wired up and comfortable?

Depends on the version. in the '77 version, you could either go with "The mall has a generator" or "The nuclear power plants were still running, even without human operators." It wouldn't be uncommon for a mall in the 70s in the NE to have a generator, in case of heavy snow knocking out power.

In the Snyder version, I think they explicitly go looking for the generator at one point. One of the guards looks like a younger version of Mike and he's killed when they're looking for it. However, it's been a while so I might be misremembering.

[SJP]

Also, I know realize I forgot to do a review of Dawn of the Dead.  In short, I like that movie, and have for a long time, but this time while watching, it made me wonder...yes, having a mall all to oneself is a cool fantasy during a zombie outbreak, but who is running the power company keeping the place wired up and comfortable?

Depends on the version. in the '77 version, you could either go with "The mall has a generator" or "The nuclear power plants were still running, even without human operators." It wouldn't be uncommon for a mall in the 70s in the NE to have a generator, in case of heavy snow knocking out power.

In the Snyder version, I think they explicitly go looking for the generator at one point. One of the guards looks like a younger version of Mike and he's killed when they're looking for it. However, it's been a while so I might be misremembering.

Ah, the days when the name Zack Snyder didn't immediately mean box office poison to most people...of course, these days, most people would ascribe its success to James Gunn's script.

Movie 20: Rifftrax: When a Stranger Calls Back viewed on digital download.
Jill?  Jill.  Jilll. Jill.
I really don't know what to think about this movie.  On the one hand, the serial killer in it is a bit unnerving (except when he's thrown around for his bad ventriloquism act three quarters of the way through the movie), and he is handled very effectively.  On the other, the rest of the movie is ploddingly slow and pointless, and the 90s mullet the not-heroine of the movie has is ridiculous.

Movie 21: Rifftrax: The Last Slumber Party viewed on digital download.
Now, just one second, let me just try a little something...there, what do you think?
This movie is pure, almost unwatchably thrown together dreck.  It's also one of my favorite Rifftrax of all time.  Never has the simple acts of going to bed, buying orange juice, and going to a late night doctor's shift been so horribly mangled in the editing process.

Movie 22: Nightbreed: The Director's Cut viewed on Blu-ray
I will be honest...I don't think I've watched the Director's Cut from beginning to end until this year (there are some things I KNOW I would've remembered had I not skipped through and just watched a few bits), but I think I'll be sticking the theatrical cut of the movie.  Maybe the Cabal Cut will change my mind, but the Director's Cut, besides being longer, has only the saving grace of making scenes of Midian make a little more sense.  Otherwise, it hyped up more of the romance between the two leads to no avail, and it actually killed a character who lives in the theatrical version.  No reason to do it, either...I think the movie works better with the character living.  Clive Barker famously said the movie was never marketed correctly because the studio couldn't understand that the monsters were the good guys and the humans were the bad guys...well, the Director's Cut can't really figure out what IT wants to be, either.  At least the tone in the Theatrical is consistent...this one flits between romance, horror, campy action, satire, and mythical epic without picking one for any real length of time.  Granted, I LIKE the original release...I certainly don't think it's a great film, but it's fun.  This just seemed like meddling for the sake of meddling.  Still, the movie is what it is, and I heard the original 145 minute Cabal Cut, which has some VHS workprint footage in it that can't be restored to HD, will be released soon and is apparently the best of the various editions, but I'll believe it when I see it...and have time for a two and a half hour edition of the movie.

Movie 23: Simpsons Treehouse of Horror 28/ Bob's Burgers Wolf of Wharf Street viewed on Hulu
Was going to watch Arachnophobia for today originally, but had some streaming troubles that prevented me from watching it properly.  Luckily, these were Halloween episodes, and they worked just fine as a replacement.
Simpsons
Story 1: The Exor-Sis
Maggie gets a mail-order Pazuzu statue, gets possessed, and hijinks ensue.  Amusing enough, with the best part involving Flanders and the line, "Oh good, the police are here!"
Story 2: Coralisa
Parody of Coraline, where Lisa gladly visits the other side to avoid her family, and hijinks ensue.  Has a nice callback to the previous story, which if I recall is the only time a Halloween story has acknowledged the existence of another Halloween story, save for any connections involving Kang and Kodos (who, in another first, are not in this episode at all, unless I missed them).
Story 3: Mmm...Homer
Homer discovers, while the family is away, that some things are tastier than hot dogs...and there's a lot to go around...
You know, the show may not have achieved the lofty heights of its earlier seasons, but there's no denying that, even if not a great segment, this one is certainly one of the more memorable ones in recent years.  My wife actually commented on how gross this story was, and I agree, even if I was chuckling at how far it was willing to go at times.

Bob's Burgers Wolf of Wharf Street
Bob hurts his leg and is stuck at home, watched by Teddy, while Linda takes the kids trick or treating on one of the foggiest Halloweens in years...and it just so happens there are reports of a strange wolf-like creature in the area.
I love this show, and practically every episode, but I don't think I've laughed as hard at it in a long time as I did here.  Their Halloween episodes tend to be pretty good to begin with, and this one was no exception.

Movie 24: Arachnophobia viewed on Hulu
A South American super-spider comes to a small-town and takes up residence in the home of the town's new doctor, who just happens to hate spiders with a passion.
Haven't watched this in awhile, but I was not only amazed at how much of it I remembered without effort, but also how effective it still is.  There are remote control spiders, but there are a lot of real ones, too, and they do a good job of mixing them.  Plus, I saw this in the theater when it first came out and was way younger than its PG-13 rating, and I remember the dessicated corpse at the beginning being one of those shocking 'I'll remember this for years' moments.  Still a lot of fun to watch regardless.

Movie 25: Big Bad Wolf viewed on Amazon Prime
After a guy and his sometimes girlfriend's trip to a cabin with their friends ends in a massacre at the hands of a werewolf, they suspect that the guy's abusive stepfather might be the one behind the mayhem.
Wow.  Not sure exactly how to handle this one.  For one thing, there are a plethora of recognizable horror faces (David Naughton cameos as a sheriff and is very different looking than his London days, Clint Howard as...well, kind of as himself, really), and the lead guy is Chloe Moretz's brother, but the biggest surprise was seeing Kindergarten Cop's Crisp playing yet another villain role (I had to look him up, but he was so familiar that I knew I'd seen him before).  And therein lies my conundrum with the film.  The monster makeup is pretty good, all things considered, and the monster, against the usual presentation, is the most talkative and quippy monster since Freddy Krueger (I'm not kidding).  And while I thought at first they were going to make it more mysterious if the stepfather is bad or not...well, that goes out the window pretty quickly as you know he's the monster within a few minutes of them figuring it out.  But Richard "Crisp" Tyson is good in this...TOO good.  His character is so completely, utterly, irredeemably sleazy that it makes the film hard to watch at times.  Most of the movie is played as a dark comedy, but there are some things he does, which are played for laughs, that are even too uncomfortable at times for me to recommend.  While there is nothing graphic onscreen except for gore (which is done both with good practically effects as well as bottom barrel CGI), this is a case when what you DON'T see makes things even worse.  And what makes it ironic is that the theme is actually something worth exploring for this genre.  An abusive family member who is literally a monster isn't exactly new, but beneath its c-grade movie veneer there is a deeper message which feels like it could've been in a movie that was a little more thought-provoking.  The movie has its moments, but beware, your mileage will definitely vary on this.  Believe me, I wouldn't blame some people for shutting it off just because of some of the cruder moments.

[Compound]

Okay, where did I leave off?

Horror at 37,000 Feet
When attempting to move the chapel of his wife's family, an American architect's plane is haunted by mysterious circumstances.

Okay, first off- who the hell tries to move a chapel in the cargo hold of a passenger plane? Seriously, 10-20 tons worth of stone there. You'd ship that on a boat. Anyway, after her family has their family estate turned into condos, an English woman has her family chapel moved to the US. Unfortunately, the chapel doesn't want to go. A TV movie, so no gore, but fairly effective with the atmosphere. Lots of recognizable actors too, including William Shatner as a priest, Chuck Connors, Buddy Epsen and Paul Winfield mysteriously doing an English (?) accent. Still, it's a pretty effective little horror film.

The Savage Bees / Terror Out of the Sky
A swarm of Africanized bees is loosed outside of New Orleans during Mardi Gras. And then more show up in California.

A pair of TV movies about the then hot topic of Killer Bees. The first one is pretty good. The people act fairly rationally when confronted with bees that can sting you to death... except for one. In both films, a plot point is that the staff of "The National Bee Center" doesn't want the public informed that there are killer bees about. Why? Because "The public would go berserk, slaughtering bees and sparking a famine." Two points- One, from the standpoint of actual history. There are Africanized bees in 12 states now, and in a few states all the bees are Africanized. And in the past 40 years, no, no one decided to start a lynch mob for the bees. So, you're a paranoid idiot. Two- in the movie you drive a motorcade through New Orleans with a loudspeaker shouting "Stay inside! There are Killer bees loose!" If the bees slaughter didn't happen after the first film, why are you still paranoid about it in the sequel? Anyway, in the sequel, one of the bees got loose and contaminated the bee hives and the Bee center must track it down. Grizzly Adams is in this one. It's not as good of a film as a good chunk of the run time is devoted to a love triangle between the one returning character from the first film, her boss and her pilot boyfriend.  And it's just so, so dull. So the first one is okay, but skip the second.

Panic at Lakewood Manor
Poison ants attack a Florida hotel.

So, hypothetical question. You're a construction worker and you suspect that your excavation work has unearthed an army of killer ants?  If your answer is "Take a bulldozer and in a rage, keep digging up more and more of the ground and unearth even more ants" well, you and the screenwriter had the same idea.  Anyway, ants "who have become poison after being exposed to poisons and pesticides"  swarm into a nearby hotel that's being bought by an evil businessman. Suzanne Sommers is in this, pre-Three's Company. The ant bits are okay, but the humans in peril, well, I really didn't care about them. At all. Best scene of the film?  The Coast Guard shows up in a helicopter to rescue some of the trapped folks. After rescuing one, the helicopter lands to move the rescued woman to an ambulance. And when it lands, the backwash from the props sends ants flying and into the crowd standing nearby watching this. While I don't think a helicopter pilot would actually do this, it was amusing to see. Still, eh. Okay at best.

Nightbeasts
Sasquatches run amok!

A deadbeat dad takes his son on a hunting trip, only to run into rampaging Sasquatches. And surprisingly, deadbeat alcoholic dad actually tries to care for his son's well being. Rather refreshing to see that trope resisted. Anyway, there's an Amerindian village that's unaffected by the Sasquatches, for plot reasons. And again, to the film maker's credit, while there's a bit of "Well, of course the tribe has a shaman" in it, there's also a good amount of having those characters not being stereotypes as well. Unfortunately as a whole, eh, it's okay. Nothing spectacular, but not awful either.

Ice Shark
Sharks terrorize a research base in the arctic.

Sigh. Shark fins are not saws. A shark can not use its fin to cut ice, especially not ice thick enough to support a multi-ton research facility. For the most part, this should be good. The characters aren't idiots. Their reactions to a shark attack make sense and are rational. But unfortunately, these are super genius sharks that hunt in packs. They may as well be doing accounting on the side.  They're just too smart to take seriously. Also, film makers? Sharks die if water isn't flowing over their gills. A shark sitting out of the water for several minutes is going to be dead. Period. Overall, it's okay.

Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell
A bunch of trailers from Horror films, with sketches in between.

Oh lord. There's a ventriloquist with a dummy in this. No, his name is not Peanut, nor is he a woozle. Anyway, 90 minutes of trailers from the 50s-80s, with painfully  unfunny segments in between.

Some random comments on some of the trailers. "I Drink Your Blood" -What horrors will be committed with this hose? Um, nothing? It's a garden hose and those aren't really threatening unless you're filming a documentary about the Freedom Riders.  "Africa:Blood and Guts"- "We're going to shoot a cow. Yes, a moo cow. I'm not sure how a dairy cow gets lumped in with zebras, elephants and giraffes. But hey! Shooting a cow!" The House that Screamed- "Huh. All those dead bodies and it's rated PG? Or GP as it was for a short while?" BLOODY PIT OF HORROR! Oh, if only this were the Rifftrax version. Or even the ICWXP version. Night of the Bloody Apes! Oh, there are luchadores in this.  Also, a lot of these trailers are unwatchable. Not because of gore, but because they just aren't filmed well. And a few look like "Let's play with the Photoshop contrast features" despite the whole Photoshop not existing yet thing. Skip it. Find a copy of "Terror from the Aisles" or "Trailer War" instead.

[Compound]

Tag
While on a schooltrip, a Japanese schoolgirl watches as the wind cuts the bus, and all of her classmates, in half. It gets weirder from there.

Huh. This one's strange, even for Japan. After watching her classmates die, a Japanese schoolgirl gets tossed into an alternate reality where she's attending a different school and no wind-based massacre ever happened. And then more weird stuff happens. And it all spirals to an ending which tosses in a different, non-wind based, horror but makes little sense.  It's... interesting, I guess? I don't think that I recommend watching it though. Also, weird side note- unless I missed one of the victims in the crowd as the wind was slicing folks in half, no man appears in the film's 100+ person cast until after the first hour is over.  And that one is Piggy from Lord of the Flies. It's a strange little film/

Zombeavers
After a barrel of industrial waste lands on a beaver dam, a colony of beavers becomes flesh eating zombies.

This was far better than it should have been. Yes, I'm saying this about a film about zombie beavers. After one of their number was cheated on,  a trio of college girls take a getaway to get away from their boyfriends. Who then show up. And then the nearby zombie beavers show up too. Things go badly after that.

Okay, the bad points- the beaver puppets look awful. At no point do they resemble anything other than a puppet. There's an effective use of them when the director just shows the eyes of the beavers glowing in the darkness. That's nicely atmospheric. But the second they get close enough to see. Yeah. Puppets. (And if they of them were CGI, which is possible, then they looked like computer models of puppets, rather than beavers. Good work in making them look like puppets, but they did need to be more beavery.) The good points- well, most of the rest of the film. Despite the goofy premise and the "wacky" intro scene, the rest of the movie takes their goofy little premise seriously.  "Is that a beaver? Ahh! It just gnawed off Steve's face! Run!" No stupid little asides. No winks at the camera. It's all taking zombie beavers as a legitimate threat. And that makes for a better movie than the "Winking at the camera because we know this is silly too" does.  What's more, the characters start off as horror film cliches and then deviate from that path. Example- there's three sets of girls and their boyfriends. Boyfriend #1 cheated on Girl #1 with Girl #2, unbeknownst to boyfriend #2. In most horror films, BF#2 would fly into a rage, be oblivious to the situation and then get killed. In this film, BF#2 is hurt but basically says, "You know what? We'll discuss this later. I'm going to try and save Steve's life right now. That's a bit more urgent." Creepy male hillbilly turns into "Still creepy, but more concerned with surviving and keeping other people alive than being creepy." There's even a bit of "Okay that character clearly fits this role and... oh. Yeah, nevermind." Yeah, I can't believe I'm defending Zombeavers here. One more thing- all the female characters have slight to more pronounced southern accents. Except the film is filmed in southern CA and takes place in Indiana(?). I can't identify the license plates (dark blue with white text. Arizona vanity plates? Old Arkansas?) so that doesn't help. Still, kinda liked this.

Rifftrax: Mind Ripper
A company tries to make super soldiers for the government. It doesn't go well.

I just watched this, and I remember very little of what the bad guy in this actually does to kill people.  Not a bad riff though.

Looking through my list, I've done a lot of different decades of horror film, except the 60s and 90s. (To be fair, Mind Ripper unriffed is 90s.) So I fixed that.

13 Ghosts
A paleontologist inherits a mansion from his long long uncles which is home to a number of spirits....

I'd seen the remake of this, but not the original.  So, I rectified that. The original is from William Castle, who was behind "The House on Haunted Hill" and this shares the same basic theme. "Seemingly supernatural horror turns out to have a real life cause, but there's still some supernatural spookiness about."  And despite being nearly 60 years old, yeah, this isn't bad. There's some silliness with the son in the film, and there's the gimmick of the film. When folks entered the film they were given a set of glasses with a blue and red lens. At various points in the film, the viewer would be told to "Put on the ghost viewer" and the screen would be tinted blue. If you looked through the blue lens, you couldn't see the ghosts, but if you looked through the red lens, you could. It's a strange little gimmick and frankly, some of the ghost scenes go on far longer than they should because of the gimmick. There's a bit with a ghost lion and lion tamer that seems to drag on forever. But aside from that, it's not a bad film. It even has the Wicked Witch in it.

The Minion
The key to unlock the antichrist is found beneath New York City and a priest is sent to retrieve it before a demon can snatch it and open the doors to hell.

Okay, this is the third (or maybe fourth?) Dolph Lundgren film I've watched this October. I'm not quite sure how he became a subtheme. Anyway, it's 1999. The millennium is still a year away, but I'm not starting that argument again. Transit workers find a hidden tomb underneath NYC that holds a mysterious knight and key. And then a demon that can hop from body to body shows up... (checks Fallen's release date. Both filmed at the same time. Probably not ripped off, just coincidental timing) ... and a knight of the Templars shows up to find the key and keep it from the devil's hands.

Eh, it's okay. The horror element is decently done, but the "body hopping bad guy" thing has been done better elsewhere. (See The Hidden or the aforementioned Fallen.) There's a nuclear power plant staffed by primarily Mohawks, which was interesting. Not a job normally portrayed as being a tribal job, I guess. It's got the vibe of "Ahhhh!!! MIllenium!!" that existed at the time. It also has the cliche of "someone standing in the middle of a room, in the open, shooting up people who are supposed to be trained marksmen and in cover" happen twice in it though. It also has a demon run its host body through a radioactive area with no ill effects, which seems kinda goofy. Anyway, the film's okay. I have no strong love nor hate towards it. But I will gripe about one thing. At the beginning of the film, there's a voice over about "It's Christmas time in NYC in 1999 and it's the warmest Christmas ever!" Oooh. Some many take that as a dire warning towards the downfall of the environment due to man's hubris. Me? My mind instantly went to "They didn't film this in the winter in New York so they just said it's really warm to explain why there's no snow and no coats. It was probably filmed in May." Future Compound- It was filmed in June. So close.

[SJP]

Well, October has ended, and I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to keep it up this year, but oddly enough, having to stay up to keep an eye on newborns actually made things easier (well, made VIEWING easier, anyway).  Congrats to those who did it, and even if you didn't, I hope you had fun anyway.

Since it's November, quickie reviews of the last few viewings:
Movie 26: Hotel Transylvania 2 viewed on Netflix
Inevitably, I end up having to watch something not particularly scary so that my wife and I can share the TV at some point.  This is one of those times.  There are far worse things to have to watch, though.  I will admit the scene of them trying to get back to the castle on the scooter is still amusing.

Movie 27: Hotel of the Damned viewed on Hulu
An ex-con and his buddy, going to retrieve his wayward daughter and her boyfriend, get spun off the road and end up taking refuge in an abandoned hotel...or, at least, abandoned by anyone normal.
OK, this movie really has no reason to exist.  It's not that scary, the plot never really goes anywhere, nobody really learns anything, the villains aren't even that tough (every time they show up, they get their butts handed to them, with maybe a few exceptions), and every scene in the movie looks like they took the same four sheets of drywall and rearranged them to make different rooms.  On the other, I can't help but laugh regarding the main character...he's the guy who plays Nick, the goofy brother from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.  That in itself isn't so bad, but his character's name in this is ALSO Nick (or Nicky, anyway), so I just sat there waiting for Michael Constatine to show up and try to tell all the cannibals the Greek origin of any word.  Speaking of which, the daughter's accent is all over the place.  I have no idea where she is supposed to be from, but to paraphrase Eddie Izzard, she sounds like she's from everywhere.

Movie 28: South Park: Sons of Witches viewed on Hulu
New Halloween special!  I laughed.  Regardless of how you feel about Mr. Garrison lately, he did have a solution to the town's problem this week.

Movie 29: What We Do in the Shadows viewed on Amazon Prime
I watched this in August, and already wanted to see it again.  One of the better mockumentaries out there; tightly told, enough gore to be edgy, and just damn hilarious.  I hope the sequel/spinoff movie gets here soon.

Movie 30: Halloween II and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! both viewed on Blu-ray
Halloween II isn't a fantastic movie, but I have a soft spot for it.  Maybe it's that despite being a direct sequel to the first one, it still has a fun 80s vibe.  Maybe it's just the passage of time when we've seen just how bad the sequels can get, it's still way better than those, even if it's not as strong a film as the original.  Maybe it's that this movie managed to incorporate ideas that remained Michael Myers staples for years.  Anyway, I still enjoy watching it from time to time.  And there's not much to say about Charlie Brown that hasn't been said.  Still funny and charming after more than 50 years.

Movie 31: Van Helsing viewed on Blu-ray
I am well aware this movie is a dividing line; people love it or hate it with equal passion.  I like it, and not even in an ironic way.  It's just a big barrel of fun for me, CG and all.  I didn't watch it this time around with the Quiptracks riff, but if you haven't heard it, it's astounding, and if you don't like this movie, the Quiptracks is certainly a great way to enjoy watching it.

[SJP]

Zombeavers
After a barrel of industrial waste lands on a beaver dam, a colony of beavers becomes flesh eating zombies.

This was far better than it should have been. Yes, I'm saying this about a film about zombie beavers.

I've been wondering if this was worth watching.  I kind of danced around it because it sounded like it was going to just be another in the long line of "We know this is stupid" kind of films.  My interest is piqued now.

Also, as a final footnote, I mentioned earlier in the month how a movie at least wasn't as bad as Demons (2014).  I would like to apologize to Demons (2014) because I forgot Dark Moon Rising.  That pile of sloppily edited emo garbage is still available for viewing on practically every streaming service even after a year or two, so there's a good chance of amateur riffers having a nice leg up in their career savaging it and not having it vanish any time soon.

[Pak-Man]

Movie 31: Van Helsing viewed on Blu-ray
I am well aware this movie is a dividing line; people love it or hate it with equal passion.  I like it, and not even in an ironic way.  It's just a big barrel of fun for me, CG and all.  I didn't watch it this time around with the Quiptracks riff, but if you haven't heard it, it's astounding, and if you don't like this movie, the Quiptracks is certainly a great way to enjoy watching it.

I saw this in theaters. It kind of got lost in the shuffle between Hellboy and Constantine and I think there were a few others that year when it came to films about secret organizations dealing with paranormal threats. For a while I forgot all about it, and was convinced it wasn't all that good. Then I caught it on Cable a few years ago and realized it's a blast. It's not an extremely smart movie, but it does what it does very well.