.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 31

FINAL DAY!
Watched: Two episodes of Kolchak when I couldn't sleep at 5am. "Mad Monster Party", "Nightmare City", "Halloween III", "Monster Squad" & the "Night of the Living Dead" 1990 remake. We watched a half an hour of "Arsenic & Old Lace" before we had to turn it off because no one but Jen & I were in to it. All in all a fantastic day of film watching & hanging out with great friends. Happy Hallowe'en everyone.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 30

Day 30: Devil's Night. In honor of our dark Lord, I watched "Demons." Simply one of the best films ever made. Hilarious. Killer soundtrack. Good special effects. Extremely quotable. You will have fun watching this movie.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 29

Day 29: Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu the Vampyre." So good. I had no idea. The rats creeped me out. Holy crap. Also, I now have a crush on Isabelle Adjani. So beautiful!

NOSFERATU, INSIDE OF YOU & ME!

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 28

Day 28: I have seen the glory of the coming of insanity. "House." Not the "classic" 80's haunted house movie starring the greatest american hero, but the Japanese film from 1977 about a bunch of school girls staying at an old house in the country with one of their aunts & the chaos the ensues. Holy shit is this movie nuts. Jen & I both watched with our mouths agape. It reminded us of "Survive Style 5", "Wild Zero", "Happiness of the Katakuris" & that scene in "Pod People" when Trumpy makes everything go nutty in the kids bedroom. This may be the film that I give my highest recommendation to so far for this project. If you dig horror & absurd comedy this is going to make you smile.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 27

Day 27: "Phantasm." One of my favorite films. This film, Dario Argento's "Suspiria" & Fulci's "Beyond" are the films I believe come closest to filming a nightmare. So good. Coscarelli hits this one out of the park. It's almost Hitchcockian how good of a movie he got out of so little. Truly quite an achievement. Angus Scrimm is amazing in this. I love that the lady version of the Tall Man let's Tommy "finish" before killing him. I can't tell if the aliens have some breeding program they are working on or it was an act of final kindness for a condemned man or maybe she just loves hillbilly baby batter. At any rate, what a fantastic film. Despite all of it's flaws it holds up so well & still maintains some scares.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 26

Day 26: "There's someone in my fruit cellar!" Evil Dead 2. This movie makes me feel 14 again. Never has a film blended slapstick comedy & horror so well. I think watching this on VHS is a big help in taking me back to yesteryear. Seriously, rewinding a VHS tape seems so quaint & olde thymey.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 25

Day 25: Ju-on. Nuff said.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 24

Day 23: Today's films may seem a little counter intuitive to horror purists, but hear me out. I watched Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas", my favorite British horror film "The Wicker Man" & John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13." I realize that "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is a stop-motion animation "kids" film, but I feel that it captures a lot of the Hallowe'en spirit in it & that Tim Burton & Henry Selick both very much had the holiday on their minds while producing the film. "Assault on Precinct 13" may seem more of an action film, but I contend that it exploits the horror of urban blight & feelings of isolation that come from living in large cities. As for "The Wicker Man", well, this film is simply amazing. I watched it today with commentary from Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee & the director Robin Hardy, which was delightful. Old British men reminiscing on a something they did 30 some years ago is always entertaining, be it film or football or what have you.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 23

Day 22: Today's film is the Larry Cohen film "Q" or "Q-The Winged Serpent" or "The Winged Serpent." Any name you call it it's still a movie that could have been better than it was. The film start off with something loose in the air above NYC wreaking havoc & decapitating window washers. The monster effects are handled pretty well in stop motion, but the two story lines of the petty crook & the Aztec cult bringing their god back to life were not handled well. Mobsters & monsters rarely mix to good effect. With the likes of Michael Moriarty, Richard Roundtree & David Carridine this should have at the very least been a campy good time. It was not. I do however think that if I had seen this film in my youth I would have some affection for it. Jen pointed out that it was like a bad episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I couldn't agree with her more. She's smart. If you don't believe me check her blog out, http://somethingoccurred.blogspot.com/.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 22

Day 22: The absolutely ridiculous "Street Trash." This film is a lot more rapey than I remembered it being when I had last seen it 15 or 16 years ago. It was still a fun time. This was the first time Jen had seen it & she looked confused through most of it but did laugh a bit. She gave the quote "my female sensibilities are being abused." For a film that seems to have set out to be as repugnant as possible, the creators of "Street Trash" would probably take this as a compliment.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 21

I can't believe there are only 10 days left until Hallowe'en! Time moves too fast. Though it did not necessarily feel that way whilst I was enjoying tonight's horror film. I decided to check out the Val Lewton produced "Cat People". In most of the books I've read about horror cinema the Val Lewton films are always held up as a bench mark for intelligent horror film & "Cat People" is often touted as the first of these. I found it to be a good thriller but barely a horror story. Sort of an update of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" without the horror elements or the feminist slant that make "The Yellow Wallpaper" so gripping for me. The "Cat People" disk that came from Netflix also has "The Curse of the Cat People" on it, so I look forward to checking that out. All in all not a bad movie. I just had different expectations for it. I am also looking forward to watching "I Walked With A Zombie", another of the Lewton produced films. I saw this years ago & remember it quite fondly.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 20

Day 20: "Sleepaway Camp". Holy shit. I have no idea what just happened. I feel like the movie should have been 3hours long but the cut I saw was half that & the other half would make all the sense! I feel like I just sat through someone's dream. WTF?
The final shot is worth watching the movie.


























...you won't be going home...or understand this god damned movie.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 19

Day 19: "Trick 'r Treat". I've sung the praises of this film previously. I love it. Perfect Hallowe'en film for me. It has that fun flavor of horror comics with a decent amount of gore & some actual good acting. And it truly gets the spirit of the holiday. This is how an anthology movie should be done.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 18

Day 18: "Asylum" from Amicus. Peter Cushing & Britt Ekland both make appearances in this collection of shorts. It was fun but no where near as good as Amicus' "Tales From the Crypt" movie.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 17

We are going to eat you...That's right, today's film is the mighty Zombie, or Zombie 2 or the myriad of other names this film has had. Directed by Lucio Fulci, this is one of my favorite films. Attentive followers of this blog & fans of this film will have noticed that the name of the blog is taken from the opening line of Zombie.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 16

Day 16:
Today was rough day in Horror film watching. After starting off with an oldie but great-y with "Bride of Frankenstein", I followed up with "Rawhead Rex" (turns out if you disliked the short story you're probably not gonna like the poorly made film) & finished off with "Sundown:Vampires In Retreat". Really? David Carradine's character named Mardulak was Dracula the whole time. Huh. Didn't see that one coming...oh wait...
"Sundown" is a pretty fun movie but by no means is it good or even worth your time. Bruce Campbell, M. Emmett Walsh, Gerardo (yes THAT Gerardo) & the dude who played Bobby on Twin Peaks make it passable.
All in all not a bad day in film. Rough, but not bad.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 15

We're back in it! Today's film is an odd little Japanese gem from 2000 called Uzumaki (Spiral). It is based on the comics of the same name by Junji Ito. Highly recommended.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 14

Epic fail. I was not able to watch a movie last night due to having a head cold & needing to sleep post recording. I figure since I am a few ahead I can miss one day. I will make it up this weekend. I did fall asleep watching the "Zombie Nightmare" episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but I can't really count that.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 13

Day 13: A bit of cheat today since I had recording which got me home late. I watched the Masters of Horror episode H.P. Lovecraft's "Dreams in the Witch House". This is my favorite episode of this series. It's also, in my opinion, the closest adaption of H.P.L's work that Stuart Gordon has done.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 12

Day 12: Slither. Great. Like an expansion of the space worm premise from "Night of the Creeps". If you don't know "Night of the Creeps" it's the first film directed by Fred Dekker of "Monster Squad" fame. Amazing fun film. Get you butt in gear & go watch it. If you don't know "Slither" get your butt in gear & go watch it!

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 11

Day 11: I'm finding it start to be a bit of a downer that I need to watch a movie everyday. I'm curious to see how I fare this week with Onodrim recording Wednesday through Saturday. My time will be tight! Speaking of tight, today's film is a loosey goosey piece of Universal cash-in called "House of Frankenstein". It features Dracula (played by John Carradine), Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr, reprising his role) Dr. Niemann (played by Boris Karloff) & Frankenstein's Monster (played by Glenn Strange). The whole story seems pretty slapdash about a mad scientist who gets loosed from jail with his hunchbacked minion, finds the skeleton of Dracula in a sideshow, thaws out the Monster & the Wolfman, has a gypsy lady hanging around, blah blah blah... That said I find it rather enjoyable in a similar fashion to "Abbott & Costello meet Frankenstein". We got this movie as part of the Universal re-issue set of Frankenstein. Those sets are pretty dang sweet. Anywho, here's to keeping on with my mission to watch a movie a day.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 10

Day 10: Roger Corman/Joe Dante/Keenan Wynn classic "Piranha".

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 9

Day 9: "The Exorcist", "Creepshow", "Maniac Cop". First time I've seen "Maniac Cop". Battle of the chins. Good times.

Hell Comes To Your House

Download
I found this recently & have been listening to it pretty consistently recently. Great early death rock/punk rock from the likes of 45 Grave, Christian Death, Social Distortion, Modern Warfare, Red Cross, & a few others. I think the comp is consistent throughout. Perfect fall driving/biking/walking around music. Makes you feel 15 again without all the shitty hormonal changes & threat of high school bullies kicking your ass for wearing all black on school color day.

Four Color Fear

I picked this book up after reading about it in the last issue of Rue Morgue Magazine. I've always had an interest in horror comics since I was a kid & I pick them up when I can. This collection is interesting because it focuses on non-EC related titles. I didn't realize that EC made up only 7% of the horror comics industry in the 50's before the comics code came in & ruined it. It does have some EC artists who worked with other companies & a lot of the comics are in the same style as EC.
One thing I really like about this book is the inclusion of the covers printed on gloss paper in the midsection of the book. Check out the video below to get a look inside the book.
If you are a fan of horror comics or a fan of contemporary titles like Hellboy, The Goon, Walking Dead, I wholeheartedly recommend you check this out. Fantagraphics did an awesome job.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 8

Today's film, "Slugs", is by the director of "Pod People" & "Pieces" J.P. Simon (aka Juan Piquer Simón). I love the idea of a slug infestation being a life or death issue. There are actually a couple scares in this, but also it drags a bit. All in all I recommend it you like Squirm or other films where nature turns on man.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 7

Day 7: Basket Case. I had never seen Basket Case. Wow. I had no idea what I was in for.

Seriously, Thanks Boo Berry

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 6

Today's film: CHOPPING MALL! Thanks Brad.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:.Day 5

Day 5: Had to cram in a quick one before gaming. Today's film is one of my favorite werewolf movies "The Howling".

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:.Day 4

Today's film was the classic & well thought out "Puppet Master".

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 3

Day 3: Crammed a lot in today. Lazy Sundays can be good & fruitful sometimes. Watched "Plan 9 From Outer Space", "Vampyr" & "Fright Night". I hadn't seen Vampyr before & it's a pretty phenomenal film. Far surpasses Nosferatu in my humble opinion.

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:. Day 2

DAY 2: October 2nd, 2010
Today's film was Neil Marshall's "Dog Soldiers".

.:Hallowe'en:Horror:Project:.

This year Jen & I will attempt to watch at least one horror film a day for the month of October. It does not sound like a difficult project, but we shall see. I plan on documenting the course of our films here in the hopes of inspiring you to watch at least a couple movies to get you pumped up for Hallowe'en.

DAY 1: October 1st, 2010
The films we chose for today's viewing were Fulci's classic "Don't Torture a Duckling" which I had never seen before & Hitchcock's classic "The Birds".