Tag Archives: scarymovies

huzzah! christmas 2024.

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We had a really good Christmas Eve followed by our Christmas and birthday celebration for our Christmas babe Brandon but as usual I’m now ready for it to be done and put away. I’m going to squash that urge until New Year’s Day, however.

We watched three different versions of “A Christmas Carol” (Albert Finney, George C. Scott, and the Muppets). We ate tenderloin and burned Twisted Peppermint candles and the kid made an enormous birthday cake liberally decorated with sprinkles and buttercream and on Boxing Day we saw our big budget Christmas movie of choice “Nosferatu” (yep) and ate a square ton of buttered popcorn and I went to bed feeling sick and full as a tick.

(“Nosferatu” was interesting. I suppose I was expecting it to be a straight Dracula retelling but over our brewery dinner debrief, Brandon educated me that the original version was actually a ripoff of Bram Stoker, which explained the changes (England to Germany, different character names, some characters changed, amalgamated or removed altogether, etc.) I enjoyed all the key performances- Lily-Rose Depp gave an impressive turn in a role that was originally intended for Anya Taylor-Joy and showed she’s more than a nepo baby. I thought she was eerily reminiscent of Keira Knightley. Nicholas Hoult was also impressive (hard to forget, though, that he was the gawky kid from “About a Boy” and quite goofy in The Great (HUZZAH)) and Willem Dafoe always serves. Bill Skarsgård was a fine Count Orlak although in certain lights he sort of seemed like a demonic Omar Sharif as Zhivago and I’d kind of like to see him take on a totally different role next time – how about a romantic lead? I think he’s playing the Crow soon so that may scratch that itch.)

This morning we were up early to take Brandon to the airport as he’s headed out for a weekend with family. After I got home from the airport drop I got out for a three mile run. It’s mild and damp here in Southeast Michigan and the dark-eyed winter junco birds don’t quite know what to do with themselves. I came home with mud splattered up to my calves; I made more coffee, had a hot shower, got back into pajamas, and pulled out my old copy of “The Gentle Art of Domesticity” and my knitting.

I am looking forward to being full feral while he’s gone. There’s always the niggling feeling that I should be participating in some form of capitalism during this time off but for once in my life I’m going to ignore that. There’s a frozen pizza in the freezer, I have a ton of Vlogmas to catch up on, the kid has soccer and mall returns and exchanges, and I’d like to finish one more book in 2024*. I need to make progress on knitting my Christmas socks before I get sick of Christmas colors! There will be time to catch up on emails and bills next week, move into my 2025 Hobonichi, and feel dissatisfied that I haven’t monetized any hobbies. In the meantime, as Nicholas Hoult would say whilst playing one of his other acting roles, huzzah!

*Stay tuned next week for my Big Book Recap of 2024 which may or may not be interesting to fellow book lovers!

21 Days of Horror – Days 4-6

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The House of Dark Shadows, 1970

“Vampire Barnabas Collins is accidentally released from his centuries-long confinement at his family’s estate.” A theatrical retelling of the classic TV show.

Despite some positive IMBD reviews, this is a truly dreadful film. The lack of cohesive narrative and quick jumps between time and place make it difficult to follow unless you’ve seen the show. Even then there is absolutely no logic to the behavior of any character – particularly the supposed scientist with crazy bedhead who most resembles a cross between Mrs Roper and Will Ferrell as Harry Caray – when faced with a vampire who in turn looks startlingly like Mr. Bean.
The best thing about it is the setting – filmed on location in places like the Lyndhurst Estate and Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Tarrytown, NY and which lends a truly beautiful gothic aesthetic that almost makes up for the rest of the schlock.

Happy Birthday to Me, 1981

At the snobby Crawford Academy, Virginia’s group of friends start to go missing years after horrible events that happened to her as a child around her birthday.”

Melissa Sue Anderson should have stayed on the prairie (where she played Mary). Also starring Glenn Ford, a staple of many old movies including Superman, and Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren on Young & the Restless). All of the hot young assholes who make up the “Top 10” at Crawford are being murdered in new and innovative ways – one literally gagged 1980s-prep style (though not with a spoon – a kebab). Because apparently in 1980s Crawford Academy, the midnight snack of choice for the cool kids are – kebabs. Of course. You can’t kill someone as easily with a pizza roll!

There is a highly nonsensical twist at the end when the killer is revealed to be not who we thought, but one of the other “cool kids” apparently wearing a latex mask so convincing that even the killer’s father was fooled. (The original deepfake?)
A classic 1980s slasher and the familiar faces make it all the more entertaining.

Night of the Lepus, 1972

“Husband-and-wife scientists unwittingly unleash a horde of giant man-eating rabbits.”

There are a lot of things that defy explanation about this film. First, that relatively respected actors such as Janet Leigh, DeForest Kelley, & Rory Calhoun got mixed up in it. Second, that we are supposed to be afraid of a gang of super cute and decidedly non-scary fluffy bunnies splashed with red paint and allowed to rampage amongst small scale models of farms and villages; third, that they tried to pass off a DUDE IN A BUNNY SUIT as a real murderous rampaging bunter for the close-up killings. Fourth, that a sheriff at a crowded drive-in movie could use a bull horn to announce ““A herd of killer rabbits is headed this way, we have to evacuate this theatre!” And not one person yelled back “Rabbits are herbivores!” (or tried to blame Joe Biden).

21 days of horror 2021!

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I think we had our best year yet with 21 Days of Horror, achieving 19 out of 21 targeted films. Without further ado, here are our picks for notable watches, with the full list at the end of the post. A note on our categories: we have a Best of Season, a Worst of Season, and an additional category of Rewatchable. A Rewatchable is a film that for us becomes a classic that we can go back to year after year.

Sara’s Picks:

Best of Season: Terror Train, 1980. Unusually, the first film we watched also ended up being my favorite for the season. It’s not strictly a Halloween film, as it takes place over New Year’s; a fraternity books a picturesque old sleeper train for an overnight masquerade party. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, it’s a standard ‘revenge’ plot, but gets many extra points from me for cool costumes, an aura of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’, and magician David Copperfield in a peculiar guest role.

Worst of Season: Chopping Mall, 1986. Brandon disagrees but in my opinion this film was wretched. A small group of kids (with a random young married couple thrown in to buy beer) decide to have a sex party in a mall furniture store after hours. Meanwhile, a lightning storm scrambles the wiring of the experimental robot security team. Transformed into rogue killing machines, the murderous wheelie bins slowly scoot around the mall stalking and zorching the sex crazed teens. The virginal nerd kids slowly and ineffectively dispatch the completely not scary robots and live to hold hands for another day.

Rewatchables: Halloween, 1978 and American Werewolf in London, 1981

Brandon’s Picks:

Best of Season: Sleepaway Camp, 1983. 80 minutes of terrible movie, but the twist at the end of the 81st minute makes this one very memorable.

Worst of Season: The Mutilator, 1984. Released as Fall Break, a terrific example of dumb choices made by people under duress.

Rewatchable: American Werewolf in London, 1981

  • Terror Train, 1980; Sara’s Best of Season
  • Halloween II, 1981
  • April Fool, 1986; an ensemble cast featuring Biff from Back to the Future.
  • Fright Night, 1985; an excellent turn by Roddy McDowell, some great supporting performances but these do NOT include Marci from Married with Children.
  • Sleepaway Camp, 1983
  • Train to Busan, 2016
  • Graduation Day, 1981
  • Chopping Mall, 1986; Sara’s Worst of Season
  • The Evil, 1978; unremarkable except for a few good 1970’s outfits. Brandon: “Richard Crenna. C’mon, man… Not a bad premise, and somewhat atmospheric, but it started to feel like a TV movie after awhile.”
  • Halloween, 1978; Sara’s Rewatchable
  • Friday the 13th, 1980; who doesn’t remember Kevin Bacon? Altogether a surprisingly solid horror film and may also attain a Rewatchable category from Sara.
  • The Fog, 1980; another surprisingly good movie that had subtle yet undeniable tips of the atmospheric hat to The Birds, even though the plots were not similar.
  • Curtains, 1983; a small budget cult classic with an incomprehensible plot starring several very similar-looking late 1970’s-looking actresses with fluffy hair and aggressively tweezed eyebrows; a lyrical ice skating scene and a really good scary mask.
  • Silent Night, Deadly Night, 1984; this was a strong runner-up for Sara’s Best of Season. Really excellent. Points taken off for the fact that it’s actually a twisted Christmas movie. Brandon: “This has been on my list for well over 30 years. Not bad, and the toys of the era as seen in the toy store where the movie is set offered some wonderful nostalgia.”
  • American Werewolf in London, 1981; Brandon and Sara’s Rewatchable
  • The Mutilator, 1984
  • The VIllage, 2004
  • Hellraiser, 1987; really stands up. Dense plot and a lot of backstory. Brandon: “I probably could not have watched this as a teenager, afraid of the flying fish hooks, but a lot of this plays now as camp. Overall, the most sophisticated story of this genre.”
  • Dead & Buried, 1981; this is another honorable mention as a really strong small budget film starring James Farentino as a sheriff in a small town and the only one who doesn’t know that everyone else is a zombie.

And that’s a wrap until next year. I hope your Halloweens are delightfully creepy and atmospheric and your pillowcases are full of candy and your masks still allow you to see oncoming traffic and any lurking masked figures around hedges. Be well and Happy Samhain!

friday five

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Capping off another work week with a sigh of relief and hoping you are all well – here’s an October Friday Five.

Puzzle season has commenced…

1. 21 Days of Horror – longer term readers will know that every October I delve deeply into the world of horror films. It started out as 31 days, but I couldn’t do 31 horror films and keep a healthy mental balance (and most years we don’t hit 21 either)! On Halloween I will recap the season and unveil our favorite. If you know us, we aren’t big on zombies or torture or overt gore, and tend to lean towards the late ‘70’s and 1980’s genres. Brandon also really enjoys Hammer horror from the ‘60’s. Join us on Halloween for our final pick.

2. Halloween trip to Glenlore Trails with the Girl Scouts. The weather was perfect – cool enough for a jacket but exceptionally mild with a big moon. The Scouts ran off on their own for the roughly 1-mile walk. The displays weren’t scary – mostly lights and projected images – but it was all intended to be family-friendly and it was a nice night to walk in a spooky woods.

3. A real live trip to a movie theater! We saw James Bond “No Time to Die” at our local and had dinner out mid-week. The movie was good but way too long in my opinion. I can watch Daniel Craig forever and a day but I am of the firm belief that we need to get back to the days of 90 minute films (this one was 2.5 hours). We had the theater to ourselves so the teenager was on her phone most of the time ha.

4. The hummingbird feeder is down, washed, and stored, and the seed feeders are up. (I save suet for colder days later in the season.) And yesterday we saw our first dark-eyed Junco, which we also call ‘snowbirds’. They are regular visitors in the snowy months and not around much at all in warm ones, so this is a sign that despite the balmy autumn, winter won’t be delayed indefinitely.

5. I know that I run the risk of jinx but it’s been so nice to have everyone healthy here. I am not taking it for granted. I’ve been back to tracking my food via Weight Watchers, trying to eat well and make overall good choices. Lots of evening kombucha and I’m glad the weather is cool enough for hot tea again. If you like a sweet dessert tea that will give you a post-dinner or pre-bedtime treat, I highly recommend this:

Tonight I’ll be at a football game to watch my kiddo’s middle school band perform a pre-game with the high school band. This is very exciting for me, as I loved band in high school and never miss an opportunity to remind people that I was actually BAND PRESIDENT (#geek). The rest of the weekend – who knows? Lots of relaxing and a couple of runs for sure. I hope you enjoy it and recharge your batteries for the big lead-up to Halloween. Be well – xo.

‘halloween is upon us’ – hubie

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Happy Halloween!

It’s become a bit of a tradition for us to spend the month of October engaging in a horror movie marathon that’s become known as our ’21 Days of Halloween’. There’s no real logic behind that number except that shooting for 31 horror movies felt waaaay too much and 21 seemed challenging yet achievable. We rarely ever actually hit 21 (last year I think we made it to 17) and this year we are coming in with a somewhat lackluster showing of 15. But it’s all in good fun and without further ado, here is our complete listing. Our starred reviews follow the list and if you can stick around until the end of the post you can see my lovely daughter in her Halloween costume.

  • Alice Sweet Alice (1976)
  • Prom Night (1980)
  • Asylum (1972)
  • Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)
  • Weekend Murders (1970)
  • Hubie Halloween (2020)
  • Final Exam (1981)
  • Last House on Massacre Street (also released as The Bride and The House That Cried Murder) (1973)
  • Night of the Demons (1988)*
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 watches Boggy Creek II (1984)
  • The Boy (2016)*
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
  • The Birds (1963)
  • The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
  • A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

NIGHT OF THE DEMONS STARRED REVIEW (by Sara) – This raunchfest came out of nowhere to be my favorite film of the season. It’s a great example of the 1980’s horror movie genre, complete with an exceptionally lame party at an abandoned funeral parlor / mansion, an Indian burial ground, bad girls doing spine-bending interpretive dance to a truly awful 1980’s power ballad soundtrack, lots of gratuitous boobs and butt cheeks, early death to the sexually promiscuous, demons, and the virtuous Final Girl. There’s also a side plot featuring a crotchety old man and the urban legend of razor blades in Halloween offerings which has a very satisfactory ending. It has it all!

THE BOY STARRED REVIEW (by Brandon) – An outrageous concept so sure, why not? Lets see where the hell this goes. Well executed, well paced, and with a nice little twist to boot. The sleeper hit of our little marathon.

Miss L – Plague Doctor – that’s my girl!

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween weekend! xoxo