Halloween 2015

[DannyBeane]

[jellydonut25]

I'm surprised to see as much positive feedback on Homerzilla as I have.

I thought it was bad. The Simpsons has done "poor dubbing" jokes already in the past (the episode Marge in Chains, where everyone gets the Osaka flu from juicers ordered from Japan), and FINALLY doing a Godzilla segment, only to have the whole crux of the segment be a joke from 1998 seems....DUMB. It seems a lot of reviewers are interpreting the latter half of the segment as a rip on the 2014 film, but I think the adjusted posture of Homerzilla, the reference to Zilla, the references to it bombing are all obviously 1998 jokes, which of course means they waited 26 years to do a Godzilla segment, and when they finally did, chose to do a joke from 17 years ago, AND picked the lowest-hanging, boringest fruit of all. Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer were all in GINO, and they made NO use of that. Not to mention, other than Lisa and Grampa, they made NO use of it being SIMPSONS characters. The great thing about something like King Homer was that Homer falls in love with Marge, and Lenny is still kinda buddies with Homer and Burns and Smithers have their usual repartee. Homerzilla has NONE of that. It isn't a SIMPSONS Godzilla parody, it's just a crappy Godzilla parody, with bad-dub jokes, and "the movies are cheap" jokes. Yay? Some have complained about the "racist" accents they did, but I thought that was more a function of how a lot of people were honestly first introduced to these movies, and being true to that style of dubbing...my complaints are that there weren't many jokes, the few they did give us were from 17 years ago, and the whole thing had a palpable air of laziness to it. The Simpsons writers claim they look forward to Treehouse the most every year because it gives them the most freedom and is fun, albeit challenging for them to come up with ideas. If this is them when they feel they're pushing themselves, then color me glad I don't watch the show anymore because I'd HATE to see them when they feel like they're phoning it in a little bit.

Flipside, I actually thought the Sideshow Bob segment was mostly enjoyable. After the opening, which I didn't ADORE, but found a neat "Simpsons in Ren & Stimpy" thing, and the Sideshow Bob segment, I was riding pretty high and ready to just fall in love with the Treehouse of Horror once again. Then Homerzilla showed up and I was reminded of just how far the show has fallen.

[Mysterio]

I actually agree with Jelly. When the segment started I was like "neat!" but the jokes weren't funny, and when it hit the midpoint and they interrupted it to do the reboot part it just seemed dumb and I felt vaguely insulted. Treehouse of horror has pretty much sucked for like 20 years. The last segment was weak too. Sideshow Bob was the best one, and it wasn't great.

As Kodos and Kang said at the close, "Just because it looks like season four doesn't make it season 4!"

[Dr Kain]

[lhb412]

Watched Young Frankenstein, 'cause when monsters iz loose, boards must be tight!

[jellydonut25]

[jellydonut25]

The Monster Squad - My jam, buh-bam! WHAM! Love this movie. ADORE this movie.

Predator - Not a "perfect" movie, but kind of a perfect monster movie. The score is spectacular, the effects are great and that final showdown is absolutely sublime.

The Frighteners - So much fun. When I first saw it, many many years ago, I had no idea that Johnny's head was supposed to be made up to look like he had charring from the electric chair and I always just thought he had a weird haircut that looked like he had an egg cracked on his head. Also, I never had an appreciation for Jeffrey Combs' character the way I have grown to just love that bonkers performance as an adult. Just oodles of fun.

The Fly - This movie just absolutely FLOORS me every time, honestly. The direction is great, the score is awesome, the story not overly convoluted by too much fluff (as could have been the temptation to pad things out and provide more backstory, etc), and the performances are just SPECTACULAR. Goldblum (who I always like) is on another level here. I actually think a couple more minutes of setup may have been a good idea, to ingratiate the characters to us a tad more, but this movie is that perfect monster movie combination of disgust, terror and heartbreak. This is about as near to perfect as a movie gets for me.

EDIT: I do feel compelled to discuss the infamous monkey-cat deleted scene a little bit. It's well-known among fans for featuring some great body horror and showing WHY Brundlefly has an odd number of limbs when his final transformation takes place (he sees it poking out of him and cuts it off in this scene, while he still has his mental faculties) but the scene also sort of flies in the face of Brundlefly's ultimate plan to become human again. It shows him trying to combine a monkey and a cat and coming up with something that is just...horrible. Which would obviously discourage him from wanting to do it at the end of the film with another person, and so the viewer has to make a bit more of a leap to "well, it was his only option, and he was CRAZY" instead of it seeming like a plan that was logical, if completely insane and monstrous.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Circle - I was hoping for a flick like 13 Tzameti or Cube.. 50 people wake up in a dark room with a sphere in the middle that kills people based on votes every 2 minutes. They have to decide which one of them will be the sole survivor. At the begining there is a lot of jumping to conclusions about all the unstated rules, but once all that is out of the way all the socio-political discussions come out where people try to decide why they are more worth at a chance at life than others in the room. Its the kind of movie i enjoy watching once.

[jellydonut25]

[klen7]

Rogue - I avoided this when it came out despite its good reviews because so many of those reviews compared it to Wolf Creek (same director). Wolf Creek is the kind of horror I strongly dislike (sadistic torture and rape). This movie fortunately stands on its own as a really solid killer croc flick.

Comics!!
I binged 2 more volumes of Revival, and read a Silent Hill mini series from IDW. The story was a classic hitman runs off with the bosses wife story except they end up in Silent Hill..also the characters names are Jack and Jill, which made me chuckle.

I've started reading Uzumaki by Japanese horror manga writer Junji Ito. It's effectively creepy.

[Tom R VanSlambrouck]

I've been watching the final Season of Hemlock Grove on Netflix. It's kind of on the slow side sort of like Season 1.

[Dr Kain]

[klen7]

Room on the Broom - If you have toddlers and know about The Gruffalo, you probably know this story as well. A witch goes for a flight and a dragon pursues.

The Last Days - A Spanish flick that takes place in Barcelona. A worldwide, deadly outbreak of agrophobia traps everyone in doors. Two men try to get back to their families from their office. This flick reminded me of Blindness, but less depressing. Worth a watch

[Dr Kain]

Cabin in the Woods - This wasn't planned, but one of our friends bought too many tickets as it was showing at our Drafthouse and asked if we would be interested in going. We did and it was as great as always. Not to mention getting to see it on the big screen again was fun. A nice 8/10.

[mr.negativity]

[Dr Kain]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I've been waiting all year to do this one. Let's Conclude Halloween Month by taking a look at a different sort of monster in the form of Michael Myers. Is this classic truly a masterpiece or did it just get lucky?

[jellydonut25]

[alienhulk2099]

The Brain That Wouldn't Die, Betelgeuse, Goosebumps, and Rob Zomibe's remake of Halloween 2. They were good, great, good, and excellent, respectively. Have a Happy Halloween folks!

[Dr Kain]

I think you got your listings out of order as you have Excellent in the same spot as RZ's HII.

[klen7]

Vacancy - I watched this due to an unrequited crush on Kate Beckinsale. The story was spelled out early and never deviates, but the pacing and acting set it aside from a lot of slashers. The cinematography and editing in this film are additional standouts. It also clocks in at around 80 minutes, so it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Dracula Untold - so this is what the new Universal Monsters universe looks like. I didn't hate it, but there was a lot of flash that could have been cut to keep this from being a generic actioner. The epilogue seemed more promising than the concept they used for this film. Overall, better than its trailer

[lhb412]

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Had the traditional Halloween meal of sushi and ended up visiting the comic book store for this year's annual 'Halloween ComicFest' offerings (a mini version of Free Comic Book Day). Got the Donald Duck Halloween special and the sneak preview of the next volume of Shigeru Mizuki's Kitaro!

... and just watched Dead of Night (1945) on TCM. This is an excellent British horror anthology that was obviously a huge influence on everything that came after it. It heavily foreshadows The Twilight Zone, and not just because one of the stories is about a ventriloquist dummy who develops a mind of his own.

I still haven't watched several staples as well as a few newly bought Blu-Rays for the holiday, so I'm just gonna extend my Halloween movie watching into the weekend (for me Sunday and Monday).

[jellydonut25]

Near Dark - Most movies that try to meld genres, even those that do it well, falter when it comes to truly blending their genres together. Take something like 2008's The Burrowers. There's a very clear distinction with that movie when it decides to stop being a Western and starts being a monster movie.
Near Dark perfectly blends feelings of a Western, a vampire movie, a coming of age film, and a twisted family drama into one gloriously atmospheric pot littered with interesting characters and great moments.
In addition, Near Dark's vampires manage to be terrifying, revolting, and yet charismatic and magnetic. There's something oddly appealing about Lance Henrikson's Jesse and somewhat attractive about Bill Paxton here as well, and at the same time, we wouldn't necessarily want to be part of their misfit family of amorality. We can see how Jesse would be swayed to their view, and at the same time, ultimately repelled and at war with them.

An excellent movie if you can allow a slight lack of early characterization to go by and get drawn into the atmosphere and best moments. 4/5

Halloween - 5/5.

[klen7]

So here's my roll-up for Halloween 2015

THE GOOD
- Housebound
- The Babadook
- American Werewolf in London
- Spring
- Curse of Chucky
- Late Phases
- In the Mouth of Madness
- From the Dark
- The Last Winter
- Hocus Pocus
- Rogue
- The Last Days
- Vacancy

THE BAD
- Tremors 5
- Monster Squad
- Near Dark
- The Visitor
- Open Grave
- Mimic 2

THE UGLY
- Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
- Silent House
- Fear the Walking Dead
- The Rift
- +1
- Zombeavers
- Rise: Blood Hunter
- Circle
- Dracula Untold

OTHERS
- Face Off
- Goonies
- Harry Hugglemonster's Halloween special,
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Monster Musical
- Doc McStuffin's newest Halloween episode
- Older Doc McStuffin's Halloween special
- Alvin & The Chipmunks meet Frankenstein
- Toy Story of Terror
- Casper
- Room on the Broom
- Gremlins 2

COMICS
- Silent Hill
- Revival
- Wolf
- Uzumaki
- Tag



So i think i hit my goal of 31 films this year. I tried to hit a lot of movies i hadnt seen before which worked out pretty well. Housebound, The Last Days and Late Phases were all movies i found surprisingly good overall. I also felt like some of the smaller films (From the Dark, The Last Winter, and Spring were all pretty effective films despite much smaller productions. I also was able to visit a few films that i had been meaning to see (Vacancy, Near Dark, Monster Squad and In the Mouth of Madness).

[jellydonut25]