Six Weeks of Halloween2003
Six Weekends of Movies:
- September 26th
- October 3rd
- October 10th
- October 17th
- October 24th
- October 31st
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What's This All About?
I love Halloween. A lot. But, as only one night of the year, it's over rather quickly. To solve this problem, I'm going to make this holiday six times longer than normal: I'm going to celebrate six weeks of Halloween.
On one night -- Friday, Saturday or maybe Sunday night -- for each of these weekends, I'm going to watch two or three or four movies from one of the chosen themes (see below). More than likely, I will also drink beer and eat candy as this happens.
So what? Well, other folks are more than welcome to come to any or all of these six movie marathon days. You can also partake in beer and candy... just like me! Should other people want to come, the theme of the weekend can be voted on, as well as which of the movies from that theme we'll watch. My recommended choices are the ones with pictures (see below).
Special Exception: On Halloween night itself, my only definite plan is to watch John Carpenter's
Halloween, as I do every year on that night.
Themes
The Horror Films of Michael Moriarty Michael Moriarty is a great character actor, and -- on most accounts -- a crazy mother in real life. These first two movies are by NYC indie god Larry Cohen. The last... well, it's supposed to be
something.
Italian Horror This is a mix of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci movies: Italy's two most famous horror maestros.
Suspiria has been called the
Citizen Kane of horror, though Wells's movie never had a rock video by Goblin to go with it.
Asian HorrorThe Eye comes to us from Hong Kong and is one of the recent "this is fucking scary" films from Asia to make it big here.
Evil Dead Trap is an example of Japanese "New Wave" horror. What I wrote about
The Eye also probably applies to
Ringu, the original version of the film that was remade here.
Watched: Week 1 - The Horror Films of Christopher WalkenBetter than the USA TV series is 1983's
Dead Zone, the quintessential Walken film.
Communion is a surreal alien movie based on nut-case Whitely Strieber's fascinating book. In
The Prophecy, Chris is a badass angel. Nuff said.
Serial Killer Rutger Hauer is a psycho in
The Hitcher. Nuff said, again.
Henry is the best serial killer movie ever made. Period.
M is the first serial killer movie ever made, from Germany.
Watched: Week 4 - The Horror Films of Stuart GordonStuart Gordon has the ability to make great movies out of Full Moon budgets.
Castle Freak and
Re-Animator also feature cult actor Jeffrey Combs.
The Films of David Cronenberg Cronenberg is a fucking genius.
In Space! The weirdest trend in modern horror is to put an aging slasher franchise in outer space. But, damn, does it make some funny movies.
Watched: Week 5 - VampiresThe Spanish version of 1931's
Dracula is supposed to be superior to the Browning/Legosi version. It was filmed at night, using the same sets as its more famous brother film, but with different actors and a different director.
Watched: Week 2 - Comedic HorrorIn
Killer Klowns, a shadow puppet kills someone. Yep.
The Films of Clive Barker Despite greater-than-normal studio meddling, Clive manages to produce some frickin' cool movies.
Under-Appreciated Slashers A slasher flick is, I think, a horror movie in its purest form. Sadly, even amongst fans of this sub-genre, some gems are ignored or out-right hated for little reason. But, the unexpected homoeroticism of
Elm Street 2, the uber-goofy rocker/killer/drill-owner of
Slumber Party II and the tightly crafted, yet direct-to-video goodness of
The Dentist deserve to be appreciated more than they currently are.
Watched: Week 3 - The Films of John CarpenterI have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum.
Watched: Week 6 - My ChoiceMy choice for the night.
Pre-Movie Toons
1999 - eXistenZ - Virtual reality infused with a dose of Cronenbergian surrealism -- that's the future of gaming I want to see. A human teeth-shooting gun made from the amalgamated bones of mutant amphibians taken from a dinner special in a restaurant is just about the coolest idea ever. The movie makes much more sense to me now that I've read a bit on existentialism.
2000 - Camera - Cute commentary on aging in the movie biz. From the eyes of an old actor, the energetic crew on a set must, indeed, look like children. Apparently, Cronenberg worries about aging these days.
2002 - Spider - Very, very subtle. Typically, a movie like this would be an energetic mind-screwer, bouncing from one point of view to another. Instead, it took me a beat to notice when Mrs. Wilkinson changed into Spider's mother, and a very long time to notice that his mother and the tart were played by the same actress. An incredibly interesting portrayal of schizophrenia from Cronenberg and Fiennes.
