30 September 2005

SWH: 2005 (4)

Troll (1986)
Jim Henson horror; not enough crazy Michael Moriarty. (5/10)
[watched with P]

Troll 2 (1990)
Worst acting and SFX I have ever seen… and I own a lot of Troma movies. (3/10)

29 September 2005

SWH: 2005 (3)

Lust for Dracula (2004)
Erotic horror without the horror or eroticism; nice Misty Mundae performance. (5/10)

28 September 2005

SWH: 2005 (2)

The Toolbox Murders (1978)
Cool slasher intro delves into slow-paced pathos. (6/10)

26 September 2005

SWH: 2005 (1)

Saw (2004)
Cool extension of Se7en, but the last half is weak and could've used more traps. (7/10)

Tales from the Crypt: "The Man Who Was Death" (1989)
William Sadler and Roy Brocksmith ruled, but the plot was nothing special. (7/10)

Six Weeks of Halloween: 2005

Six Weeks of Halloween
2005
Six Weekends of Movies:
  1. September 23rd
  2. September 30th
  3. October 7th
  4. October 14th
  5. October 21st
  6. October 31st

The Plan

There is no real plan this year. I'll be watching horror movies of my choice throughout the six weeks. I will start with Netflix rentals and movies from my own collection that I haven't seen. For the 7th year in a row, Halloween will be watched on Halloween.

Beer and candy will be present often.
26-Sep-05
Saw
Tales from the Crypt: "The Man Who Was Death"

28-Sep-05
The Toolbox Murders

29-Sep-05
Lust for Dracula

30-Sep-05
Troll
Troll 2

1-Oct-05
Color Me Blood Red
Codename: Kids Next Door: "Operation T.R.I.C.K.Y."
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Bus of the Undead"
The Stendhal Syndrome
Tales from the Crypt: "And All Through the House"
The Return of the Living Dead

4-Oct-05
Re-Animator
Dolls


5-Oct-05
From Beyond
Society
The Haunted History of Halloween
The Saturday Night Live Halloween Special

6-Oct-05
Daughter of Darkness
Robot Jox


7-Oct-05
Bride of Re-Animator
Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4


8-Oct-05
The Inquisitor
Fortress

Tales from the Crypt: "Dig That Cat… He's Real Gone"
Return of the Living Dead Part II
Michael Jackson: "Thriller"
Return of the Living Dead III
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 04-1: The Devil and Homer Simpson"
Necronomicon

11-Oct-05
House of 1000 Corpses

12-Oct-05
Castle Freak
Tarzan: The Epic Adventures: "Tarzan's Return"

14-Oct-05
The Amityville Horror
Strangeland

15-Oct-05

A History of Violence
Tales from the Crypt: "Only Sin Deep"
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
SNL: "Gay Dracula"
The Dentist
Space Truckers

16-Oct-05
Rob Zombie: "Super Beast"
Rob Zombie: "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)"
Toolbox Murders

17-Oct-05
Unspeakable
Rob Zombie: "Demonoid Phenomenon"

20-Oct-05
The American Nightmare
Rob Zombie: "Spookshow Baby"

21-Oct-05
The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit
Progeny

22-Oct-05
Tales from the Crypt: "Lover Come Hack to Me"
Man Bites Dog
Pagan Invasion: Volume I: Halloween: Trick or Treat?

23-Oct-05
The Dentist 2
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show: "Honey, Let's Trick or Treat"
Faust: Love of the Damned

24-Oct-05
Dagon
Beyond Re-Animator

25-Oct-05
King of the Ants
Rottweiler

26-Oct-05
May
Dracula
The Road to Dracula
Frankenstein
The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster
Boo

27-Oct-05
The Mummy
Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed
The Invisible Man
Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed!

28-Oct-05
The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
Bride of Frankenstein
She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein
Werewolf of London

29-Oct-05
Merrie Melodies: "Claws for Alarm"
Freddy vs. Jason
Tales from the Crypt: "Collection Completed"
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 05-1: The Shinning"
Tales from the Crypt: "Dead Right"
Dracula's Daughter

30-Oct-05
Son of Frankenstein
Hard Rock Zombies
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 14-1: Reaper Madness"
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 14-2: Frinkenstein"
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 14-3: Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off"
The Invisible Man Returns
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 15-1: The Ned Zone"
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 15-1: In the Belly of the Boss"
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 15-1: Four Beheadings and a Funeral"
Scarecrow
The Mummy's Hand
The Invisible Woman

31-Oct-05
Halloweentown
The Wolf Man
Monster by Moonlight: The Immortal Sage of the Wolf Man
The Real Ghostbusters: "Citizen Ghost"
Tales from the Crypt: "The Switch"
City of the Living Dead
Rob Zombie: "Dragula"
Rob Zombie: "Living Dead Girl"
Rob Zombie: "Super Beast"
Rob Zombie: "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)"
Rob Zombie: "Feel So Numb"
Rob Zombie: "Demonoid Phenomenon"
Rob Zombie: "Return of the Phantom Stranger"
Rob Zombie: "Spookshow Baby"
Halloween

Totals
62 movies / 47 shorts
average rating = 7.0

09 September 2005

Coscarelli (closing thoughts)

That's it! That's everything Mr. Coscarelli has directed so far. I may just be subscribing to expensive Showtime, just so I can see his newest effort in the Masters of Horror. Waiting for the DVD sets for that would be hard.

The Phantasm quadrilogy is probably my all-time favorite horror movie series. I love the fact that Coscarelli wrote and directed each and every installment. I love that -- except for fake-Mike and no-show Jody in P2 -- the four main characters stick around for the entire series. I love Reg's everyman hero. I love the surreal aspects of P1 and P4. I love the "road trip through a post-apocalypse" theme of P2-P3. It's truly a unique series. I'm saddened that it seems -- like every other horror series -- we will be getting a remake instead of P5. Worse yet, Coscarelli will not be directing the new trilogy. Because of this, I doubt very much that these new films will have a fraction of the magic of the originals. Ah well. We're lucky to have the four that we do.

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (1998-2002)

1998 - Phantasm IV: Oblivion - A welcome return to the surrealistic style of P1 and a welcome return of the Reg-Mike friendship started in P2. The emptiness of the world of P4 is subtle. Coscarelli doesn't announce it, but by the end of the film it's fairly clear that the Tall Man has been consuming the country unabated, despite 20 years worth of interference from Reg and Mike. There are only six characters in the entire film, and only two (one?) are actual human beings. Tantalizing glimpses of potential futures, definite pasts, blurry faces, and the psychic from P1 all add to the fun. A bittersweet, but appropriate, ending to the series (if this is indeed the last).

2002 - Bubba Ho-Tep - Hellishly good idea for a movie, though executed a tad slowly. This is probably due to stretching out a short story into a full movie. Bruce Campbell absolutely disappears into his role. I love the design of the mummy and the fact that he speaks in hieroglyphs. It's also nice to see Joe R. Lansdale get some movie love; he's one of the best horror writers no one knows about. I wasn't blown away by this movie as I was expecting to be, but it was a lot of fun.

(comment in the main post)

07 September 2005

Coscarelli (1989-1993)

1989 - Survival Quest - Beautiful scenery, but nothing terribly special. Lance Hendrickson, as always, does a bang-up job as the Survival Quest master. He's essentially the Mr. Miyagi to his group's Daniel. Their rivals, the military boot camp sharing their woods, are essentially the Cobra Kai dojo. Similar lessons are learned. Also: man, Catherine Keener has aged very well since this.

1993 - Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead - Not as annoyingly goofy as I'd remembered. Clearly, Coscarelli is a fan of Sam Raimi. I think he was going for the Evil Dead 2 style of horror-humor in this one. Doesn't stray too much from the path P2 blazed; it's a road trip movie with a mausoleum. However, we're thrown some juicy info concerning the Tall Man and his interest in Mike. A satisfying Phantasm film.

(comment in the main post)