31 Days of Halloween (2022)

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
Both the song itself and the cinematography are top notch here.


I hate to credit Channel Awesome with anything, but back before everyone knew what assholes they were, they did introduce me to this little gem.


The childhood song I learned was dark enough. This guy turns it up to 11.


Instrumental, but it certainly sets a mood. I mean...dang...those strings!


Also, I mean, c'mon...how could I not post some version of this?

 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
I watched Invisible Man last night. It was...I guess it was pretty good for a movie, but for a movie included on a set of horror movies, I just don't see it.

Whereas some of these movies are humorous because of outdated SFX and values dissonance, this one seemed to be deliberately comedic. Aside from derailing a train and a few other murders, most of what happens amounts to little more than immature pranks.

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Also, when it comes to monster horror...well...let me put it this way...

Hunchback of Notre Dame:
Quasimodo wasn't a monster. He was simply a human with a malformation. He wasn't even the villain of the story. If anything, he's the hero. My opinion, this wasn't monster nor horror. There was some action, but I have to classify this as drama.

Phantom of the Opera:
I'll give it the Horror bit. I can see Horror here. But the Phantom was not a monster. He was a guy who had acid thrown in his face and had access to a lot of secret passages. So, horror? Yes. Monster? No.

Creature From the Black Lagoon:
Horror? Sure. Monster? Ehhh, debatable. I'd say it's more along the lines of 'natural creature that by all rights should have been extinct', but I'll allow it.

But at the end of it, I was left with the feeling that the humans were some place they shouldn't have been and the creature was defending its territory.

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Personally, my favorites so far have been...

Dracula:
Dracula is a supernatural monster who's totally in the wrong and absolutely needed to be stopped.

The Mummy:
Imhotepis a supernatural monster who's totally in the wrong and absolutely needed to be stopped.

Frankenstein: (haven't got to the movie yet, but in the book so far)
Kinda works against my argument. The creature isn't supernatural. It was made by science. And when it comes to who's in the wrong, they both share in the blame.

Yet I'm loving the book so far.

I'm not sure if there was a point in any of that. Mostly just observations.
 

Glitch

Well-known member
Citizen
Jeepers Creepers today, the deleted scene where the Creeper talks threw me a little, it's like that deleted scene from Alien that could have changed everything.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Annual reminder that it is tragic how Bela Lugosi is more remembered for ignorant parodies of his performance than for his actual performance. He was actually a good actor.
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
Parodies only make light of old movies because they're old. They're made with old tech, old cultural sensibilitie, old Hays Code restrictions.

I wonder what iconography today's movies will be remembered for in 90 years.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
They had no effects budget. They didn't give him fake fangs. They didn't even have background music to tell us what mood we're supposed to be feeling. The only tool he had to work with to create a movie monster was his own acting. He deserves to be remembered for how well he pulled that off.
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
Oh, I'm not denying that at all. My post wasn't mean as a condemnatio. If anything, it was a defense of these movies. I've been watching them this week and can't help but notice that these movies would not be made this way toda. All you need to see as proof would be the remakes that have come out.

But the problem isn't with the movies themselves. Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney...they all deserve their place in history for making these icons.

Unfortunately, unless you're a cinephile or grew up with these movies, most average people will probably only ever see an outdated movie with values and cultural differences that were a sign of the times and would never fly today.

Heck, you don't even have to go back to the 30's to see it. How many lines in 80's movies (if not entire movie) would get blasted for content that was socially acceptable back then but would never be done today? Have you ever tried to go back and watch Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th? Because I hugging laughed my ass off!

Yes, Dracula got hit with it hard with things like Sesame Street's count and even MLP's Pinkie doing a whole "I vant to suck your juuuice" quote when Fluttershy became a vampire. Dracula has unfortunately become synonymous with this stupid iconography that's based more on parody than the actual source it's purported to me from. Lugosi definitely deserves better.

Unfortunately, that's just cinema works. It doesn't matter how much Dracula made audiences crap their pants at the time. It doesn't matter how great the effects in War of the Worlds was at the time. It doesn't matter how much 12 Angry Men made the audience think long and hard about the justice system at the time. Unless you're one of the rare few that actually respects classic cinema and enjoy it for what it is...al most people will see is how it simply doesn't meet today's standard.

It's a stupid way to judge a film, I know. It's just where we seem to be.
 

Princess Viola

Dumbass Asexual
Citizen
Also, when it comes to monster horror...well...let me put it this way...

Hunchback of Notre Dame:
Quasimodo wasn't a monster. He was simply a human with a malformation. He wasn't even the villain of the story. If anything, he's the hero. My opinion, this wasn't monster nor horror. There was some action, but I have to classify this as drama.
Anyone who considers any version of Hunchback 'horror' honestly gets the side-eye from me.

Like you could argue some adaptions are horror adjacent but yeah.
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
I really wasn't sure what to expect from Hunchback. I'd never seen any version of it, not even the Disney version.

I mean, I knew in the Disney version, Quasimodo was a good guy. But then Disney even tried to make Maleficent and Cruella sympathetic if not good guys. So I wasn't taking their word for it.

But yeah, Quadimodo was one of the few characters in the entire movie that was a good person. And no, definitely not a horror movie.

---page break---

On Frankenstein, I'm still working my way through the book but I have finished the movies Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.

Honestly, I think Frankenstein is much more sympathetic in the movies. He's really irritating me in the book.

"Oh sure this person was murdered, this other person is sentenced to death for a crime she didn't commit. Sure they may have some sorrow, but nothing compared to my sorrow. Surely no one on earth has ever felt sorrow like what I've felt because I'm...so...sorry!"

Oh get the hug over yourself, you self-absorbed twit! This poor girl had someone she loved as a brother get killed and she's being sentenced to death for it. She did nothing wrong! You on the other hand brought all this on yourself and brought down your family with you. Woe is you? Here, let me play the world's smallest violin for all the sympathy I have for your sorrow!

The creature garners some sympathy insofar as his creator abandoned and hates him and he's been met with hostility on all fronts. So he does get some sympathy.

But Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse.


He still kills innocent people and framed another innocent person who got the death sentence because of him.

So like I said, I haven't finished the book yet. But dang, I'm getting tired of Victor's shit!
 

Noideaforaname

Stone and Sky
Citizen
Haven't gotten to watching much Halloween stuff yet, but Youtube recommended this version of The Hearse Song, which feels very appropriate:
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
So, after watching the Boris Karloff Mummy, I wanted to revisit the Brendan Fraser version. I'd only seen it once before (Off Netflix I believe). I'm still watching it as I write this.

Question, is it just me or does Fraser's character remind anyone else of Nathen Drake?
 

Sean Whitmore

Active member
Citizen
So, after watching the Boris Karloff Mummy, I wanted to revisit the Brendan Fraser version. I'd only seen it once before (Off Netflix I believe). I'm still watching it as I write this.

You should check out the "sequel" to the Karloff one, The Mummy's Hand.

Not REALLY a sequel, since it's about a completely different mummy. But it's a decent watch, and you'll find it's where the Fraser version got its more action-adventurey tone from.
 

Sean Whitmore

Active member
Citizen
I actually didn't think I'd be participating in spooky season as much this year, as I have a ton of stuff going on at the moment. But looking back, I've actually piled up a respectably amount of first-time watches so far.


Dark Glasses (2022) - Shudder
I just happened upon this; Shudder aired it as a surprise drop, and I even missed the beginning, but what with it being a Dario Argento movie, I figured it was worth watching the rest. Almost made me a little nostalgic for the days of discovering new movies on cable. It was pretty good, about an escort who is blinded and then stalked by a serial killer, though I doubt it'll ever be spoken of in the same breath as his classic giallos.

Odd Thomas (2013)
I've scrolled past this one on Amazon Prime for years now, and finally decided to give it a shot. Based on a Den Koontz book, Anton Yelchin (RIP) plays a psychic who can see ghosts and has limited precognitive ability. In a nice change of pace for this kind of setup, the movie gets right to it; there is precisely zero dicking around. Yelchin's character doesn't whine about what he is, he immediately uses his power to help, and when the movie starts both his girlfriend and the local chief of police already know his secret. Kinda like watching a supernatural TV series in its 4th season, just straight to the magic stuff.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) - Tubi
The Texas Chainsaw series is a lot like the Halloween one; both started out with bona fide classics, got progressively worse, and each one has had weird outliers with cult following and remakes with mixed opinions. TCM 3 is smack-dab in the "okay" territory. A very decent slasher that's not as groundbreaking as the original or as weird and funny as the sequel. I love Ken Foree, and the cannibal family were enjoyable. Viggo Mortensen's Tex is no Chop Top, but he and his brothers got the job done. The lack of gore is a shame, though. Where the first movie avoided it by choice, this one definitely wanted to be a bloodbath, and was just edited to death. I'd rank it up there with Halloween 4/5. Not great, but completely watchable.

Magic (1978) - Tubi
Stayed on Tubi after TCM3 and watched this excellent little psychological thriller. Plot-wise, it's every "crazy ventriloquist" story you've ever seen, and it's nowhere near as unsettling as it's horriffic trailer. But a young(er) Anthony Hopkins acts the absolute HELL out of it. Burgess Meredith was great too.

Vampire: Los Muertos (2002) - Tubi
I wasn't expecting much from a straight-to-video sequel to a movie that wasn't that great to begin with...and that's what I got. It was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, so it was at least watchable, but it didn't have any memorable characters or scenes like his Halloween III or Fright Night Part 2 did. I think the best thing about it was Diego Luna as an eager young vampire hunter.

Hellraiser (2022) - Hulu
I've gotta be honest, Hellraiser as a franchise just never did it for me. I've watched the first two movies a couple times each, trying to see if I could get into the flow and see the appeal, and they mostly just leave me cold. Well-made movies for sure, with a couple of great moments, but neither of them have made me want to see more. And this new one is no exception. I think it's right up there in terms of quality with the first two (which, from what I understand, would put it well above the 8 sequels I didn't see), and fans of the series will probably really dig it. But to me, it was just okay.

The Vampire's Ghost (1945) - Youtube
I just learned about this movie the other day, when Dark Corners did a review of it, and was intrigued by the concept. A vampire is chewing his way through a small African village, and when our colonizer hero discovers his identity, he puts the guy under a mental curse to not be able to reveal it to anyone. Kind of like what Mordo does to Doctor Strange in his origin story. The vampire then sets out to seduce the guy's fiancé, basically right in front of him.

Everything's done as well as it can be, and this is one of the earliest examples I can think of where the monster is not presented as evil or tragic so much as just world-weary. He's been alive forever, he's gotta kill to live, everywhere he goes he is eventually found out, and then he's gotta go somewhere new.

What hurts it is the runtime--barely an hour--which sees the hero break free of the vampire's control and defeat him far too easily. (Spoilers for anyone who doesn't know how the Hays Code works) Ultimately, that leaves this movie as more interesting than outright classic.

The Ninth Configuration (1980) - Tubi
Not horror at all, but I'll mention it because of the Exorcist connections. It was written and directed by William Peter Blatty, writer of Exorcist 1 and 3, plus the books they were based on. And it very much continues the theme of those two movies, namely "How can one believe in God when there's no evidence and everything on Earth is terrible." Only this time, with no demons or anything. It even kind-of follows a character from Exorcist; that astronaut that Regan tells "You're going to die up there." An uneven movie, but overall very good.
 

Caldwin

Woobie Destroyer of Worlds
Citizen
You should check out the "sequel" to the Karloff one, The Mummy's Hand.

Not REALLY a sequel, since it's about a completely different mummy. But it's a decent watch, and you'll find it's where the Fraser version got its more action-adventurey tone from.
I may add that to my list of things to get after payday. Meantime, I still have two more movies to watch in the Fraser trilogy.

I can't seem to find my Scorpion King DVD. Not a huge loss. Not a great movie. But it did have Godsmack's video on it for I Stand Alone. I'm gonna have to kick myself if I sold it to Disc Replay.
 

Ultra Magnus13

Active member
Citizen
So, after watching the Boris Karloff Mummy, I wanted to revisit the Brendan Fraser version. I'd only seen it once before (Off Netflix I believe). I'm still watching it as I write this.

Question, is it just me or does Fraser's character remind anyone else of Nathen Drake?
Nathan and Rick are both just takes on Indy, so yeah.
 


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