30 - Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (2020)

Sometimes it's hard to find a good horror movie to watch and review.  Sometimes, Netflix drops two of them on the night before Halloween.  As I've mentioned before, I think the US has more horror films per capita than any other country, but other countries occasionally dip their toes into the waters of crystal lake.  Tonight's choice is from Poland, of all places!  I didn't even know they liked horror films.

Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight (2020) begins like many horror movies do, with a camp full of kids in the woods.  This camp is for technology addicts to unplug and spends a few days in the woods without electronic devices, detached from the internet and computer games.  There's the usual mix of nerds and attractive teenaged girls and in-your-face counselors shouting about the perils of spending too much time on the internet.  They seperate into groups, which is usually where bad things start to happens, and of course, since this is a horror movie, bad things start to happen.

This is a Polish film, so of course I do not know any of the stars in it.  Acting and special effects were about normal for a movie of this type.  It's on Netflix if you want to check it out.  I don't know if I'd watch it twice, but let me break it down for you, so you have some idea what you are getting into.  Think the friday the 13th / Jason Voorhees movies, only if Jason were twins, and was mutated by an alien meteor.  Yep, I think that about covers it.  You can pretty much see the influences from the Jason Voorhees films everywhere you look.  Still, it's not entirely a copy.  Worth a watch, at least once, I think.

In other news, it's almost Halloween!  :-)  Hope everyone is having some safe Halloween fun.  I am hearing bad things in the news about the coronavirus running rampant, like one person being infected every second and someone dying every minute or so.  I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe.  Happy Halloween, in any case!  Until tomorrow night!

29 - ParaNorman (2012)

I was reading an article about hw Hocus Pocus wasn't a great Halloween movie.  I mean, I like Hocus Pocus but I never thought it was exceptionally great, it's just that it checks a lot of the boxes when it comes to good halloween entertainment.  Witches, black cats, trick or treating, evil spellbooks made of human flesh supposedly written by Satan with an eye glaring out of the front cover...  uh...   yeah.  And the article also said Paranorman was just better.  I saw Paranorman a while back, but couldn't really recall it very well, so.  Let's try watching it again!

ParaNorman (2012) is a story about a little boy who just doesn't fit in.  Bullies pick on him at school, he has very few friends, not even his family understands him.  I can relate, except for one big difference. Norman speaks to the dead.  Like in an everyday, "Hello, how are you today?" sort of way.  Norman's biggest supporter is his grandmother, but he can't talk about her to his family, because Grandma is dead.  Norman makes a new friend at school, but things are a little rocky between them, mostly because it's Halloween and Norman's creepy uncle Prenderghast is dying and has a task for Norman.  Norman has to read a book to prevent a witch's curse from raising the dead on Halloween night, and let's be frank, that's a big responsibility for a little kid.

ParaNorman is on Netflix if you want to watch it.  I think the biggest difference between Hocus Pocus and Paranorman is the fact that ParaNorman is animated, and Hocus Pocus is not.  Paranorman also has what i guess is a more heartfelt message about acceptance and tolerance of the differences in people, where Hocus Pocus is mostly about entertainment.  I don't know, I think once you've seen Paranorman, you've pretty much got the thing down, whereas with Hocus Pocus, you can watch it every year without really ruining the fun.  There's not a ton of comedy in Paranorman.  The voice acting was ok in Paranorman, but I think the only voice I recognized was John Goodman as uncle Prenderghast.  Obviously the special effects in a cartoon are a lot easier to manage than live-action, so those are fine, if a bit cartoonish in paranorman.  Which do I think is better?  Still gonna give the nod to Hocus Pocus for a yearly Halloween treat.  Paranorman just doesn't re-watch very well.

In other news, only two more days left in the month!  It's been a pretty rough month for me, so I haven't been enjoying the horror as much as I could be.  My vehicle died, been trying to get a new one, and my neck injury has been aching like an infected tooth for about three weeks now.  I hope you people are having more fun than I am, but I am still doing my best to finish off the month in a sugar-coma from eating too much Halloween candy.  :-)

Back tomorrow night with another review, but if you aren't back for the last two days, have a safe and Happy Halloween!

28 - The Howling (1981)

I love Werewolf movies, especially in October.  There's just something about this time of year that howls things about full moons, releasing the beast within, and eating rare-cooked hamburgers.  I try to watch at least one new Werewolf movie every October, but if I can't watch something new, there are always the old favorites!

The Howling (1981) is about a TV newscaster who is hunting a story, and finds a little more than she bargained for.  Karen White is tracking down a killer named Eddie, who no one can seem to catch, and damned if her crack journalistic skill doesn't help her find him.  Also, he kinds of calls her and tells her where he is.  Which, is fine for her, because she wants this story, but...  I'm pretty sure Eddie intends for Karen White to be his next victim.  Something really bad happens, but the cops catch up to Eddie just in the nick of time.  Karen is traumatized by her experience, and a helpful Psychiatrist recommends she spend some time up at "The Colony," a retreat for people with depression and emotional trauma.  Karen heads to the Colony with her husband, but everything isn't quite as it appears...

If you guessed "Everyone at the colony is secretly a werewolf," come up and collect your prize.  I'm not sure what your prize is, but it's hairy and full of teeth.  So.  Probably a chihuahua.

The Howling stars Dee Wallace (also famous as the mom from Cujo) as Karen White, Patrick Macnee (from the 60's TV series Avengers, of course) as the helpful Psychiatrist.  Christopher Stone (who was Dee Wallace's husband in real life, and also played her husband in Cujo) plays Karen's husband.  Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the body snatchers), John Carradine (the Owl from Secret of NIMH), Slim Pickens (Taggart from Blazing Saddles) and Noble Willingham (he really played some great villains, like the bad guy in The Last Boy Scout) also make appearances, and Robert Picardo (Yes, the Doctor from Voyager!) plays Eddie!  :-D  Yeah, I geek out about this movie all the time.  So many major stars, and most of them are dead now.  Acting is good and entertaining, and the Rick-Baker-Special-effects are excellent.  I have seen this movie lots, it is a classic werewolf flick, and very rewatchable.  I caught this movie on Turner Classic Movies, and it gets pretty popular around this time of year, so catch it next year if you can.

In other news, there's a rare Blue Moon on October 31st, Halloween, this year.  As everyone knows, full moon are popular with Werewolves, which is why I mention it right after reviewing the Howling.  Blue Moons are just a second full moon in a single month, which happens occasionally, but it's probably pretty rare for it to happen on Halloween.  According to the internet, the last one was in 1944, and the next one won't happen til 2039.  I'm starting to think years with Blue Moons on Halloween are just bad years.  Granted, I don't have a lot to go on, but in 1944, it was probably the worst part of World War II.  This year, well, it's 2020, and you guys know what kinda awful crap's been going down this year.  Tell you what, if I am still around in 2039 (I'll only be 69), and that year sucks too, the idea that blue moons on October 31st are a sign of bad years, I'm going to decide it is definitely a working theory and go from there.  :-D  Back tomorrow with another review!

27 - The Possession of Hannah Grace (2018)

I've been watching demonic possession movies all evening.  It's kind of hard to pick the best one, which was probably the Exorcist, which I have already reviewed this month.  The most realistic was probably the Exorcism of Emily Rose, but it's mostly legal stuff and not much action.  So I'll just pick the most entertaining one of the bunch.

The Possession of Hannah Grace (2018) begins in a Morgue, like many horror movies do.  The new night employee, Megan Reed, has a history, like many people do.  She used to be a police officer, but when her partner was killed, she couldn't draw her gun.  She just froze up.  It happens.  People just don't know how they are going to react in stressful situations, until they get put into one.  Sometimes, not all the training in the world can help.  Megan turned to drugs and alcohol, and eventually lost her job.  After recovering from her addiction, Megan was able to get a job in the Morgue.  Unfortunately, the new corpse being admitted to the Morgue tonight has a history, too.  And so does the bum who just broke into the Morgue.

Shay Mitchell plays Megan Reed, but I didn't really recognize the rest of the cast (or Shay Mitchell, for that matter)  Acting was decent, effects were pretty good for a movie of this type.  Gray Damon plays Andrew Kurtz, Megan's ex.  Kirby Johnson does a good job playing the corpse, Hannah Grace.  Nick Thune is Randy, a friendly ambulance driver.  Um, I think that's almost everybody.  I caught this movie on one of the Starz channnels.  Kind of a fun watch, a little scary here and there, generally high levels of tension and suspense, but still plenty of action.  I think I reviewed this one last year for my ohmrat 2019 and it's still jsut as entertaining, so certainly re-watchable.  Watch it if you feel like seeing a couple peeps do battle with a possessed corpse, and are tired of the usual Priest vs Demon battle royale scenario.

In other news, it's late, and I'm sleepy!  :-)  Only a few more days to go.  Hope I find some entertaining movies to watch.  Until next time!

26 - Girls With Balls (2018)

I must confess, I was actually looking for Tucker and Dale vs Evil when I stumbled upon this one.  Alan Tudyk is awesome, and I am definitely going to try and watch that somewhere again at some point.  America might have the best horror movies (ok, we probably have the most horror movies, if not the best, but at least we're great at something), but that doesn't mean other countries don't dip their hand into the horror genre at one point or another.

Girls With Balls (2018) is a french film (I think) about an all-girls volleyball team that takes a wrong turn at Alburqurque (sorry, bugs bunny reference) and ends up hanging out with a bunch of cannibalistic hillbilly hicks that like to hunt girls for sport.  But these aren't just any girls, these are the Falcons, the Champions!  And they aren't just going to lie down and take something like being killed and eaten!  They're going to fight back!

This movie stars a bunch of mostly-cute french girls that I have never seen before in my life.  Acting was barely passable for a movie of this type.  Effects were about as poor as the acting.  It's not that the movie wasn't entertaining, but it was almost played for laughs, like it was supposed to be a spoof, but nothing about the movie is actually funny.  I guess if you want to see a bunch of French Volleyball girls goofing off for a third of a movie, then running like hell for a third of the movie, then fighting with a bunch of inbred french dudes for the last third of the movie, then, watch this?  It's on Netflix if you feel the urge.  Not sure I'd watch it again.  Like I said, it's not that it wasn't entertaining, but scary or a serious slasher flick, it definitely isn't.  Still, I suppose it's sort of a comedy-horror flick?  Honestly, it's hard to classify this one.  I almost want to say it's bad, and it is, like when the Coach runs across a small dog, and it just attacks his scrotum for no apparent reason.  Other parts are laced with blood and gore, so, if that's what you are looking for, there is plenty of that here.  All in all, I'd say, meh?

In other news, there is no other news.  Halloween is this coming weekend, and I hope everyone is loving the horror movies like I am.  See you guys tomorrow night for another review!

25 - My Bloody Valentine (2009)

Not many people look at a holiday like Valentine's Day and think "I want to make a horror movie around this."  Funny thing is, this is not the first movie about a Valentine's Day killer.  I know there was one about a mine back in the 80's, and I think tonight's movie is probably a remake of that one, since it was all about a killer in some coal mine or something, and I am pretty sure it was called the same thing.

My Bloody Valentine (2009) begins with the accidental death of 5 miners, probably due to some mistake made by the son of the mine's owner, a young man by the name of Tom Hanniger.  There's a single survivor, a Harry Warden, who is in a coma.  As it turns out, the other 5 miners didn't die from the cave-in, but were killed by Harry to preserve his air supply.  Exactly one year later, on Valentine's Day, Harry wakes from his coma and goes on a killing spree.  The Sheriff shoots him, but the mine collapses, and they lose track of Harry Warden.  Then, ten years later, the killings begin again.  It seems as though Harry Warden is still alive, after all.

Jensen Ackles (yep that guy from Supernatural) plays Tom Hanniger, the son who returns to town ten years after the killings.  Tom Atkins (From Night of the Creeps, which I reviewed at the beginning of the month!) plays Sheriff Burke, now retired after dealing with the Bloody Valentine's Day killer ten years past.  Jaime King (most recently from Black Summer) plays Sarah Palmer, wife of the current sheriff.  Betsy Rue (from Halloween 2) plays Irene, who has an amazingly long nude scene.  I didn't recognize any of the rest of the cast, but the acting was decent.  Effects were minimal, as this was pretty much a slasher movie, but they did the job.  Much like the palm trees in haddonfield during the filming of Halloween, none of the exterior scenes in this movie look anything like early February.  All the trees and leaves are covered in green, I can't see any frosty breath from people breathing outside at night, and there's not a patch of snow anywhere to be found.  They don't say exactly where this mine is or what kind of mine it's supposed to be, so I guess it could be somewhere sub-tropical, maybe Texas or Southern California.  Pretty sure it's not Florida.  Ruins the immersion factor slightly, but whatever.  The rest of the movie was okay, kept me guessing who the killer might be right up to the very end.  I caught this on Showtime next, I imagine it'll probably be in their on-demand section if you want to catch it before Halloween.  Worth at least one watch, though I don't know if seeing it a second time would be worth it.

In other news, we're in the final stretch!  A few more days of horror movies, and then it's another OHMRAT gone!  I hope I've been able to give my half-a-dozen subscribers some comfort in these trying times.  At this point, anything resembling consistency is probably very comforting.  Hugs to anyone out there who needs one!  Back with another review tomorrow night.  Until then, have fun.  :-)

24 - The Thing from Another World (1951)

You know a movie is good when it gets remade 30 years later, and then gets a prequel another 30 years after that.  I'm talking about The Thing from Another World, made in 1951, based off the short story "Who Goes There?" written by John W. Campbell.  I've never read the story, but I've seen all the movies (The Thing in 1982 and, Thing in 2011) multiple times.  They're all just good entertainment, science fiction horror at its best.

The Thing from Another World (1951) starts out pretty calmly.  A reporter named Ned "Scotty" Scott arrives at the Officer's Club at an arctic military base looking for a story, and it's not long before one gets dropped into his lap.  A nearby research station reports a downed plane, and "Scotty" tags along for the ride.  Turns out the downed plane is actually a UFO, and while efforts to recover the downed spacecraft are hampered by an incoming storm, a body is recovered and brought back to the research station.  The storm hinders all efforts at communication, and getting the story out proves impossible.  The military posts a guard on the frozen alien corpse until such a time as orders about it can be verified, but then...  you know it...  all hell breaks loose.

James Arness plays the titular "Thing," Kenneth Tobey plays Captain Hendry, and Margaret Sheridan plays Nikki Nicholson, the Captain's love interest.  Douglas Spencer is Ned Scott, and Robert Cornthwaite plays Dr. Arthur Carrington, the lead research scientist in charge of the research station.  I love how the tension mounts throughout the entire movie, both between Dr. Carrington and Captain Hendry, Captain Hendry and Nikki Nicholson, and between everyone and the alien.  I love how there's a running commentary on the Captain's love life through the entire movie, popping up at random times throughout the movie.  I also love how the weather, the cold and the storm are almost as threatening to everyone as the alien is, even more than in the remake with Kurt Russell in 1982.  I mean, let's face it, in 1951, there wasn't a lot in the way of special effects.  It's likely all the outdoors scenes and cold and snow effects were real, and people had to be wary of actually freezing to death in between scenes.  I don't like that the movie is in black and white for the most part, but it was made in 1951, so what are you gonna do, right?  I caught this movie on Turner Classic Movies if anyone wants to watch it, assuming they play it again this month at some point.  This movie is very popular on TCM.

In other news, I actually finished my review early tonight!  :-D  Now I can go watch horror movies for fun, in addition to playing obscene amounts of computer games.  One more week to go before Halloween!  I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am.  Until next time, horror movie fans!

23 - Slice (2018)

Some horror movies are light-hearted and amusing, some are dark and grim.  What movies you find personally scary are individual to each and everyone, and probably have a lot to do with your childhood experiences.  Sometimes, horror movies can be too personally scary to even watch.  To date, I have never watched the movie "Misery" in its entirety, mostly because I have a fear of medical stuff and there weren't any like, horrific monsters in that movie (aside from Kathy Bates' terrific performance).  Everyone who's ever read my blog knows I love a good monster flick.  :-)

Slice (2018) starts like any good murder mystery begins, with a murder most foul.  Someone has slain a pillar of the community, a bastion of good hygiene and classical good looks, a paragon of...  okay, they killed a drug-addicted drug-dealing pizza delivery boy.  Just sliced his throat wide open from behind, and they don't even give you a good camera angle, so you can't tell who done it.  Probably where they got the movie name from.  Play on words.  Slice of a throat, and a slice of pizza.  Get it?  Funny stuff.  There's a few more murders after that, all pizza delivery people.  Strangely, they all even work for the same fast-food pizza joint.  Strange coincidence!  :-o

I saw this on one of the showtime channels, if you want to catch it yourself.  Special effects were pretty basic, and the acting wasn't exactly stellar.  I love that the whole town of Kingfisher in the movie is basically a haven for ghosts, and they advertise that they haven't seen a witch, werewolf or demon in ages!  Which, I suppose is a good selling point if you're hoping to move there.  I mean, who wants to live in a town with a witches, demons and werewolves?  Ghosts are bad enough, amirite?  Not a bad watch, kinda funny, entertaining enough for at least one viewing, I should think.  Two, probably not, but once is good.

That's all for tonight.  Gettting late, and I needs my sleepies.  :-)

22 - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Halloween isn't just about horror movies, and being scared.  It's also about dressing up in costumes and trick or treating and kids having funs and eating so much candy you vomit chocolate all over the bathroom floor.  Sure, it's fun for adults, but it's also fun for kids, and just like Christmas, it means something different for everybody.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is about the king of Halloweentown, Jack Skellington, feeling a little morose after his favorite holiday ends, as anyone would.  Jack is out walking when he accidentally wanders into Christmas ville (or whatever it's called) and sees all the fun stuff going on in preparation for Christmas.  Jack is so excited!  Jack decides he's going to bring Christmas back to Halloweentown, and he does, only...  nobody gets it.  Not even Jack, really.

Chris Sarandon (yes, the same guy who played Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night!) plays the voice of Jack Skellington (but not the singing voice, that was Danny Elfman) and Catherine O'Hara (who Beetlejuice fans will recognize as Delia) plays Sally, a stitched-together girl who tries to stop Jack from ruining Xmas.  The whole thing is like a claymation version of a cartoon, and every other scene is a singing number.  Definitely not my kind of movie, and certainly not horror, but it's still a Halloween favorite this time of year.  I have never seen it, I wanted to shut it off multiple times, and I certainly wouldn't watch it again.  Think Hocus Pocus, but instead of just a couple rock'n'roll singing numbers, the whole movie is a rhyming musical.  I caught this on Freeform, if anyone wants to see it for themselves.  Just totally not my kind of horror movie, but much like toffee or caramel candy bars are not for everyone, I assume this movie sparks a lot of fond memories for kids who grew up with it.  Not gonna deny anyone their choice of comfort food this time of year.

And in other news, speaking of denying people their comforts, we should all thank AppleTV+ for stealing the Peanuts holiday specials away from people who might watch them on regular TV this year, and puttiing them behind a paywall.  Jesus fucking Christ, guys.  2020 isn't bad enough, you have to buy the exclusive rights to something I have watched on TV every holiday season for the last 50 years and make it so I won't ever see it again?  And not just me, but everyone who doesn't have access to AppleTV+?  Nice.  Real nice.  Good thinkiing, assholes.  No, please, why don't you just fucking copyright pizza while you're at it?  I get you're trying to sell your ridiculously stupid service, but this is not the right fucking way.  I hope this blows up in your goddamned faces.  Dickheads.

That's all for tonight.  I'm going to go kill some zombies in a computer game or something.

21 - Tales from the Darkside (1990)

I generally don't like anthologies, but they seem to come up a lot in horror.  Probably has something to do with some horror stories being short and to the point, so you can group them all into one over-arching story.  Some anthologies are really good inter-twined tales, like Trick 'r Treat.  Others are just good, despite being not particularly fancy.

Tales from the Darkside (1990) starts with an encapsulating tale about a little boy being kidnapped by an alleged witch (they never really make that clear) who is going to cook and eat the little boy as part of a dinner party.  Fortunately, the little boy is given a book to read until suppertime, so he recounts three tales to his would-be cook, hoping to delay the inevitable as long as possible.

Deborah Harry is the witch, and there's a lot of young stars in this one.  Christian Slater, Julianne Moore and Steve Buscemi star in "Lot 249," the first story of the three.  William Hickey and David Johansen star in the "Cat from Hell."  Then there's James Remar, Rae Dawn Chong and Robert Klein in "Lover's Vow."  Acting is good, effects are fine, and the stories are good to watch.  Even after not seeing this movie for a couple decades, I can still recall every aspect of the three stories, so they definitely left an impression.  Certainly re-watchable.  Catch it on HDNET, one of the premium channels, or maybe on AMC's fear fest this month.

No other news tonight!  Hope everyone is having fun!  :-)

20 - Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)

I remember the Tremors movie when it came out, way back in 1990.  Kevin Bacon was even in it!  Since then we've had 6 sequels, and even a short-lived TV series!  None of the sequels had Kevin Bacon, but all of them had Michael Gross as Burt Gummer, a survivalist who managed to survive multiple attacks by Graboids, Shriekers, Ass-Blasters and whatever other forms of Graboid that evolved from the originals.

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020) is about a big-game hunter who also runs a genetics company.  He's tasked his tech team to "juice" (genetically enhance) a handful of graboid eggs so he can have the ultimate big-game hunt with a bunch of high-powered rich executives.  Confining the Graboids to an island, the execs set up camp on a nearby biological preserve inhabited by a bunch of biologists working for his company, boating back and forth over the course of a weekend to hunt the graboids down.  Of course, things never go to plan in a good monster movie, and not only are the graboids harder to kill than expected, but they don't stay on their own island for very long...

Michael Gross returns as Burt Gummer, Survivalist and graboid expert.  The supporting cast is actually quite good, and Michael Gross is an acting veteran.  There's not much build-up in this one, the battle against the graboids pretty much begins immediately and continues throughout the rest of the movie.  Special effects are decent, the Graboids are CGI-generated here instead of being physical special effects like back in 1990, but they still aren't bad.  The new Shriekers (the juiced ones) are pretty cool-looking if nothing else.  Shrieker Island just dropped on NF today, if you want to watch it there.  Not sure I'd watch the movie twice, but the female guide with the bow and arrows, (Anna, played by Cassie Clare, I think?) is very easy on the eyes.  Wouldn't mind seeing her again.  Just watching her pull back a bowstring made me sit up and take notice.  Not bad for a single watch, and hey, it's a Tremors movie!  Can't go wrong with vicious, murderous monsters who explode and launch orange goo all over everything for hundreds of feet all around.  It's like blowing up a dead whale at the beach with dynamite, only with a little less running and screaming.  :-)

In other news, we're 2/3rds of the way through the month!  Another week and a half of horror, and then the grand finale of horror reviews for the month!  Oh, and of course, there's Halloween, which probably won't be as much fun this year because of that whole darned global pandemic thing.  But, if there's one thing watching horror movies all my life has taught me, it's that death often leads to new life!  Yeah, I'm sounding cheerful about a global pandemic, but hey, it's 2020!  With all the disasters we've already had to suffer through this year, a global pandemic might be the least of your concerns.  Stay safe and stay strong, Horror move fans.  We know how to hunker down and wait out the bad things in life.  Watching horror movies, with popcorn!  :-)

Til tomorrow, then.

19 - Horror of Dracula (1958)

This year is definitely a time for comforting things.  Old horror movies give me comfort.  I been watching them all month just to make myself feel better in these dark times, to recall a period before this, when all I had to be afraid of was some creepy movie on TV.  Ah, to be so young and foolish again.

Horror of Dracula (1958) is the classic tale about Johnathan Harker, who goes to visit Dracula's castle under the guise of cataloguing his library.  Harker is secretly there to kill Count Dracula, but decides to help a poor girl that Dracula has kept in his castle.  Sadly, Harker learns too late that the girl is a vampiress, and is bitten.  Dracula saves him, only to have Harker try and save himself by killing Dracula.  Harker must choose between killing Dracula and killing the vampiress, and chooses unwisely.  Harker kills the girl, but Dracula escapes.  And then, Van Helsing must come to finish the job.

I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies, where they've been showing a lot of old horror movies this month.  Peter Cushing is Van Helsing, and Christopher Lee is Count Dracula.  Cushing and Lee made a lot of antagonistic horror films with the Hammer movie studios int he 50s and 60s, but they were good friends in real life.  Acting was excellent, effects are dated now but were good for the time, and are relatively minimal.  Certainly no bad CGI to deal with here.  Story is good, and the ending is superb.  I highly recommend it, as much as I recommend watching Christine, the movie I reviewed last night, and forgot to mention that I recommended.  :-)  Yeah, been crazy busy.  Life and all.

In other news, I got games to play and horror to watch!  Catch you guys next time! :-)

18 - Christine (1983)

Stephen King has pretty much dominated the horror scene for the last 45 years or so, giving us such wonderful gems as Carrie and The Shining.  I been reading his books since I was 7 years old.  My sister was reading "The Stand," another of his works, and I asked her if I could read it, because I was getting bored of the books in second grade.  She wasn't finished with it, so she gave me another of his books to read.  It was called "Christine," about a possessed car.  "It's scary," she said to me.  "I know the difference between fantasy and reality." I answered back.  And then, I opened the book, and started reading.

Christine (1983) is about an old 1958 cherry-red Plymouth Fury convertible that causes two factory accidents before it even rolls off the assembly line.  Twenty years later, Arnie Cunningham is a nerd looking for his first car, and chances across Christine.  The car is rusting to pieces in an old lot, but it's for sale.  Arnie immediately falls in love, and must have it!  Next thing you know, Arnie is the proud owner of a broken-down rusted-out shitbox, as a Conehead would call it.  Arnie lovingly restores the car to perfect condition, only to have some bullies get their revenge on him by busting up his car.  Only, Christine doesn't like that.  As Arnie would say, those shitters are gonna pay.

Keith Gordon plays Arnie Cunningham, and John Stockwell plays his best friend, Dennis.  Alexandra Paul plays the hottest girl in school, who both Arnie and Dennis go after, but Arnie gets her.  The late Kelly Preston plays another of girls in the school.  The late Robert Prosky plays Will Darnell, owner of Darnell's garage, where Arnie fixes Christine up.  The late Harry Dean Statnon plays a Detective, looking into the grisly murders of some local high school kids.  And of course, William Ostrander is Buddy Repperton, the bully who pulls a switchblade on Arnie.  I'd like to say that Buddy Repperton was my first experience with a bully, but even in the second grade, I already knew what a bully was.  We all have a Buddy Repperton in our lives, some jackass who wants to stand in our way, to put us down so they can lift themselves up.  For some of us, the Buddy Reppertons of the world are just figurative concepts, but for Arnie, the Buddy Reppertons of the world are real Buddy Reppertons, "shitters" just standing in our way, waiting to be run over by a cherry-red 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine.

Not many people know this, but I have a shiny metallic-mint-green computer case that looks like an old cadillac.  She was affectionately called "Christine" many times.  I've had the case for maybe 15 years, but have upgraded the components within, multiple times.  Funny thing, I wasn't the first person to call my computer Christine, which just tells you what a classic horror movie Christine really is.  I caught the movie Christine on Starz if you want to watch it.  Another funny thing, the movie was also directed by John Carpenter, who directed the Thing and Halloween and the Fog and half a dozen other of my all-time favorite Halloween horror movies.  Weird coincidence!

In other news, I caught the season finale of "Lovecraft Country" on HBO earlier tonight.  I was honestly kind of disappointed with the ending.  They have all of Lovecraft to play with, and I didn't even see Ch'Thulhu once.  Siiiigh.  Oh wells.  Maybe things will get better in season 2, if there is one, which I doubt.  I applaud the use of magic in the series, but I am a fan of monsters, and there just weren't enough.  I suppose I should be happy for the ones I saw, but honestly, that was it?  Seems like such a let-down.  Shame, the series seemed like a great place to launch some serious horror stories, and it was all just petty human crap.  I am disappoint.

Catch you guys next time with another review.

17 - Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

I was 32 years old back in 2002, when tonight's movie came out.  It was a couple years after the turn of the millennia, the world hadn't ended, and the doomsday-preppers were coming out of their bunkers, checking their watches, and looking sour-pussed and hung-over.  Kari Wuhrer was just off her spin in Sliders, and Scarlett Johanssen was still largely unknown, typecast as "the daughter of the lead character."  It wouldn't even be until the next year that she even started playing adult roles, appearing with Bill Murray in Lost in Translation.

Eight-Legged Freaks (2002) begins with the same origin story of every Marvel superhero and DC villain, Toxic Waste.  Wade, the mayor of the small town of Prosperity, AZ, is storing Toxic Waste in an abandoned part of an old mined-out gold mine under the mall that he owns.  It's a financially beneficial arrangement for Wade and the company storing the toxic waste, but there's only two problems.  One is that none of the townsfolk know about Wade's illegal storing of toxic waste under their town, and two, one of the barrels fell off a transport truck and ended up in a pond.  While Wade tries to get the townsfolk to sell off their land so he can legally dump the toxic waste under the town, the mine's owner, Chris McCormick, returns to inherit his land   And while Wade and Chris are butting heads over selling the mine, the toxic waste is messing up the local ecological chain.  Seems a bunch of crickets are able to digest the toxic waste, which is all well and good, but then a spider-collector with a roadside spider-farm tourist attraction starts feeding those same crickets to his zoo full of rare spiders...  and it's making the spiders grow...  and grow...  and groooowwwwww...

Kari Wuhrer plays Sam Parker, the best-looking Sheriff I have ever seen in a movie, and the one that all small towns about to be overrun with giant spiders deserve.  Firm but fair, ecological-minded but okay with bending the law a tiny bit to smooth over ruffled feathers, Sam's even a great mom to her kids, Mike (Scott Terra) and Ashley (Scarlett Johannsen).  Ashley is dating Wade's rogue son Bret (Matt Czuchry, from the Resident), and Mike is good friends with Joshua (Tom Noonan), who is the spider-collector.  As I said, it's a small town.  Everyone known everyone, it seems.  Leon Rippy plays the wonderfully-corrupt mayor Wade, and David Arquette plays Chris McCormick, who comes back to town to woo Sheriff Parker.  Doug E. Doug does a wonderful turn as Harlan Griffiths the radio personality, and Rick Overton is Deputy Pete Willis, who provides much of the comic relief alongside Doug E. Doug.  The spiders are all CGI, except maybe the ones inside the tanks at the beginning of the movie, and it really doesn't matter.  The special effects and the acting are decent enough.  This movie isn't about winning awards, it's about fun entertainment, and it delivers in a big way.  I caught this on IFC, one of the premium channels, if you want to watch it yourself.

Spoilers!  I love this movie.  I love Kari Wuhrer as the beautiful ass-kicking sheriff.  I love Scarlett Johanssen as the daughter, and then there's the son who tries to warn everyone and knows he's never going to be listened to because he's just a kid, but he keeps trying anyways.  I love that the crazy crackpot on the radio finally turns out to be right about something, and I love how they try to make David Arquette seem cool, but he's basically just a big dumb animal stumbling his way through life.  I love how everyone gets covered in spider guts and webbing, and I love how the residents of the entire town are all pissed at Chris for temporarily abandoning the Mine.  I love the old Barber, about to give Chris a shave, who seems more likely to cut the young man's throat... "Hold Still!  I wouldn't wanna CUT YA."  Hilarious.  I love how this entire movie plays it all totally serious, but everyone is still totally in on the funny bits.  Steady build of tension, and the entire last half of the movie is a running action-packed gun battle with a bunch of CGI spiders with green goo for blood.  Love it all.  Seen it before, would watch it again.  In fact, I DVR'd that shit, so I could watch it again this month.  Oh yeah.  Love me some DVR'd horror.

In other words, I am temporarily housebound, because my vehicle broke.  Going to have to get a new one, soon as I can start pulling money out of my ass.  Looks like I am stuck inside watching horror movies for the foreseeable future, a fate I wouldn't wish on anyone but myself.  :-D  Have a nice night, ppls!

16 - The Lazarus Effect (2015)

I know I've reviewed this movie before.  It might even have been last year, but it was either review this movie tonight, or review Van Helsing.  Now, Van Helsing has Dracula and Frankenstein and Werewolves and all, and is a very entertaining movie, but I have also reviewed it before.  So let's go with Lazarus Effect, since it's a legit horror movie, and not just an entertaining monsters movie / action flick.

The Lazarus Effect (2015) is about a group of scientists working to extend the time whena  dead person can be brought back to life without ill effects, basically to give the doctors more time to repair the body.  They developed this formula, but they are having problems getting it to work.  Then, boom, they have a flash of insight and figure it out!  Like most scientific breakthroughs in horror movies, however, the scientists are so busy trying to prova that they can, that they never think about whether or not they should.  So they revive a dead dog, and much like a hound of hell, the sudden re-animation of Rocky the elderly pooch marks the arrival of chaos.  An accident happens in the lab, and the team of scientists try to fix it it, only that's when...  you know it...  all hell breaks loose.

I caught this movie on one of the Starz channels if you want to watch it.  Starts kind of slow, almost looks like some found-footage nonsense at first, then gets rid of all that crap and gets right into the building of suspense and growing horror.  Not a long movie, and not the best horror flick out there, but not bad.  Effects are decent, gets straight into the heart of things, even does a little character backstory to explain all the horror.  Acting is decent.  I've seen it twice now and it's definitely re-watchable.  Could do worse for a horror movie.

That's all for tonight!  Enjoy the movies if you get 'em!

15 - Psycho II (1983)

There used to be a lot of stigma around mental illness.  Nobody talked about it.  It was shameful.  If you had someone in your family who was crazy, you never talked about them.  Nowadays it's pretty common, and there's a ton of medications for it, but back in the old days it was straight into an asylum.  Asylums generally weren't very nice places, back then.  Electro shock therapy, experimental drugs, heavy sedation.  Supposedly, they are much better now, which is a good thing.  

Psycho 2 (1983) is a sequel to the original Alfred Hitchcock thriller.  Norman Bates was in an asylum for 22 years after the infamous shower scene in the original Psycho.  Now, he's out of the asylum and back working his Hotel.  There was a lot of fuss over Norman getting out, and a lot of opposition.  Maybe the stress was getting to Norman, because he's seeing things, hearing voices again.  It's his mother.  But Norman's mother is dead, isn't she?  She can't be bothering him again, driving him to kill.  It has to be someone else.  Norman's mother is, after all, dead...  Isn't she?

Psycho 2 was pretty decent, I caught it on Retroplex, one of the premium channels, on cable TV.  Anthony Perkins returns as Norman Bates.  He's a little twitchy at first, as might be expected for a recently-sane person.  Robert Loggia is Norman's Psychiatrist, Dennis Franz is Norman's Hotel manager, and Meg Tilly and Vera Miles play part of the supporting cast.  The acting was good, the effects were minimal.  I mean, he's basically just dressing up as a woman to kill folks.  It's nothing special.  It was a sensation back in the 60s, when Psycho came out, but it wasn't even that kooky back in 1983.  Decent sequel, but the pacing was a bit slow.  Lots of suspense, very slow build without much of a payoff, but still not a bad watch.  I remember enjoying this quite a bit in 1983 or 84, back when I was a teenager.  A sequel to one of the most famous horror films of all time?  A must-see, back then!  Now, it's more, meh.  Not a bad watch.  There was even a Psycho 3 (a little worse for wear) and a Psycho 4 that tried to explain Norman's origin story, which probably sucked.  I haven't seen it in years.

In other news, I have places to be, so bye for now!  :-)

14 - Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Some Halloween things are traditions.  Bobbing for apples.  Dressing up in spooky costumes.  Going Trick or Treating.  Drinking the blood of slain enemies out of their broken skulls.  For me, it's watching horror movies all month long, reviewing them for my blog, and scarfing so much chocolate candy that my pancreas screams in horror.  The drinking of my enemies' blood out of their broken skulls comes a close second.  I mean, let's be honest, broken bone is sharp and my dexterity isn't what it used to be.  Last time I drank the blood out of a broken skull, I cut my lip.  :-(

Trick 'r Treat (2007) is almost all about Halloween traditions, told through a series of interwoven tales.  They call it an anthology, and there are basically 4 stories, but all of them are so intermingled with each other that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.  There's Laurie, looking to make her first hookup at a Halloween bash with her sisters.  Principal Steven Wilkerson has a hot date for the Halloween parade, but first he has to teach his son how to carve a proper pumpkin.  Some kids are looking to play a prank on a poor weird girl who loves to carve pumpkins, based off an old local legend.  And of course, there's old Mr. Kreeg, who just wants to spend a quiet night at home with his dog.

I don't usually like anthologies.  I've made that abundantly clear over the years I've done my blog.  There's usually like 3 or 4 completely different stories that don't have a damn thing to do with each other, loosely tied together with some duct tape of a tale wrapped around the outside of them.  The short stories aren't good enough to be whole movies, and the over-arching tale is basically a band-aid holding the bloody mess togther like some lifeless Frankenstein's monster stittched together by a blind man with shaky hands.  Trick 'r Treat isn't like that.  There's so many stories here, it's not just 4 tales, it's like there's a whole town's worth of stories, all interconnected on halloween night, and they just focused on 4 of them.  Every time I watch this movie, I see things that I missed the first time around, things that mean something else later on, things you only notice when watching this movie a second time or a third.  I caught this movie on AMC's fear fest, so if you want to watch it there, go ahead.  It's better without commercials, but hey, watch it where you can.  I'm going to toss out a few spoilers so you guys know why I love this movie.

First off, let's take Sam.  Sam looks like a little kid wearing his pajamas around on Halloween night with a burlap sack over his head, looking to score some easy candy.  That's not Sam.  Sam watches everything to make sure everyone is following the rules on Halloween night.  Sam's in all the stories to some extent, more or less, but he's not the narrator.  Sam might be the narrator, if Sam spoke.  Sam doesn't speak, but he writes wonderful messages in blood.  Then there's Pricipal Wilkerson, who has a whole series of Halloween hijinks planned for the evening, but things don't go exactly as planned.  They never do!  And Little-Red-Riding-Hood Laurie, played wonderfully by Anna Paquin, but she's only a pretty piece of the whole story.  Then there's Mr. Kreeg, an old man with buried secrets, played by Brian Cox.  But old secrets rarely stay buried on Halloween night, as Mr. Kreeg can attest to.

I want to say more about this movie, but it's much too good to spoil.  Go watch it where you can, or do like I did, and get it on DVD or Blueray.  That's all I have for tonight.  Almost halfway through the month, and at least two weeks worth of horror to go.  I don't know if my heart can take all this excitement!   Oh, who am I kidding?  I've been watching horror movies and reading scary books since I was in 2nd grade.  Violent thunderstorms put me to sleep.  I live for this time of year.  :-)

See you people tomorrow night with another review.

13 - The Thing (2011)

"The Thing," John Carpenter's 1982 remake of "The Thing From Another World" (1951) still stands up as one of the finest horror movies ever made.  So does the original 1951 movie, for that matter, but let's stick with the 1982 version for now.  Kurt Russell led a fantastic cast of supporting actors, the special effects were superb, the atmosphere filled with such terror that you could cut the fear with a knife.  If you noticed at the end of the movie that you had pissed yourself, you probably weren't alone.  Or, maybe that was just me.  :-/

The Thing (2011) tries to recreate that horror by telling the tale of the norwegian research base that discovered the alien body in the first place.  In the 1982 version, what happened at the Norwegian base is never really discussed.  All we knew was that something horrible happened there, and a dog escaped, was chased by a couple guys in a helicopter, and that's how the 1982 version opened.  Which leaves a whole hell of a lot of wiggle-room to tell a prequel story.  The 2011 version attempts to fill in the details that led up to the 1982 movie.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the lead actress, accompanied by a host of other actors whom I mostly didn't recognize.  Special effects were CGI here, where they were not in the 1982 version, but they at least had a similar style.  Definitely creepy-looking, to say the least.  Acting was moderately okay, but the movie didn't seem to have the same gritty, life-or-death feel of the 1982 version.  I caught this movie on HBO zone, i think it was, if you want to watch it yourself.  This is the second time I've seen it and the second time I've reviewed it.  It's not a bad watch, but I think I was a bit hard on it the first time around.  Don't compare it to the 1982 version.  Let's face it, there was a reason that the 1982 movie wasn't about what happened at the norwegian base, because it just wasn't as exciting.  Look at it as a reasonable approximation of what might have happened at the norwegian base, and keep in mind that there was only one way the movie could end, with those two guys in the chopper going after that dog.  Everything in the movie had to flow up to that point, so it couldn't have been easy to make.  I did like the scenes of the spaceship, which was kind of cool.  I wonder if there's ever going to be a sequel about that?  Hmm.

In other news, almost half-way through the month!  Wooot!  Still plenty of movies to watch and review and still enjoying all of them!  I expect to be all horror movie'd out come november, but for now I am still loving every minute of it!  Bring on the next horror flick!  :-D  See you guys tomorrow!

12 - Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)

Witches are pretty popular around this time of year, both for Halloween costumes and horror movie villains.  Also, I think halloween is one of the eight witches sabbats or something?  I don't know.  It's been years since I danced naked under the full moon, and I was really drunk at the time, and that's probably too much information for you.

Hansel and gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) is more of an action movie than a horror movie.  Hansel and gretel, after barely survivng the whole nearly-being-cooked-by-a-witch-in-their-childhood thing, are now professional witch hunters, going from town to town to clear out covens of witches.  The only problem is, there's a blood moon coming up (also very sacred for werewolves, or so I hear) and there's a lot of children missing from this next village.  What could the witches need all those children for, I wonder?  Probably got something to do with that blood moon, if I had to guess.

Jeremy Renner stars as Hansel and Gemma Arterton is Gretel.  Famke Janssen plays the evil Witch, which is awesome, because she is badass in just about every movie she's ever been in.  This is more action movie than anything else, there's not really any suspense, but I just felt like a little variety in my horror movies tonight.  The special effects were pretty decent, especially the wide selection of mechnical weapons the Witch hunters seem to have invented.  The troll looked a bit goofy.  This movie wasn't really scary, but it was entertaining and a fun watch.  I've seen it a couple times now.  Probably watch it again at some point, just for kicks.  :-)  I caught this on AMC's fear fest.  I been waiting for Hocus Pocus to show up on whatever channel that's on, but all I'm getting lately is the addams family.  Meh, that's a fun watch too.

Okay, that's all for tonight.  It's late and there wasn't really anything scary on this evening.  As I said at the beginning, half the battle of OHMRAT is finding a good movie to watch and review every day this month!  :-)  Catch you guys tomorrow night.

11 - Countdown (2019)

I like the older horror movies, mostly because it's pretty rare that they make decent ones anymore.  It's all about the jump scares and the CGI monsters nowadays, actors in front of green screens, pretending there's something there.  They never use real werewolves or vampires anymore.  Sigh.  The Good Old Days, amirite?  :-D

Countdown (2019) is another of those you-know-you're-gonna-die-and-you're-trying-to-stop-it movies.  You know, like Final Destination, The Ring, and so on.  This time, it's an app on your phone.  You download this app called Countdown, and it tells you how long you're going to live.  Some people get 87 years or whatever, some people get 20 minutes.  It's all a matter of fate, or so the app would have you believe.  In reality, it's Steve down at the coffee shop, dicking around with your timer, laughing his ass off.  Oh, that Steve.  What a jokester.  Goddammit, Steve.  Goddammit so much.

Elizabeth Lail is the lead actress, playing a nurse named Quinn who downloads the app onto her phone after a patient comes in and tells her about it.  The patient dies when the app said he was going to, which leads Quinn to question how long she has left.  As it turns out, it's only a couple days.  The only other actor I recognized was the Nurse's Boss, Dr. Sullivan, played by Peter Facinelli, but the rest of the cast does an adequate job of getting the point across.  Effects were barely passable for a movie of this kind, and I did not find them scary.  Still, the movie has a slow build of tension, though there are long periods of boredom where people are basically staring at their phone waiting for the timer to tell them it's time to die.

So....  Much like real life, in that aspect?  :-/

I caught this movie on one of the Showtime channels, so it might still be available there, if you want to watch it yourself.  I can't really recommend watching it again, but I guess it was okay for a one-shot.  Fast forward through the boring parts.  I did love the Priest, who was just WAITING for something like this to happen.  That dude should show up in every horror movie from now on.  His excitement was hilarious.  Shame he didn't have a bigger part to play, but I guess the excitement would probably wear off if he was facing this stuff down every other day.

In other news, tomorrow is Columbus Day or something.  Happens every year around this time.  Says so right on my calendar.  Guess I get a day off work.  BWAHAHAHAAAAA!  Yeah.  Good one.  I'm off to play something and relax for a bit, before I crash.  See you guys tomorrow.

10 - The Car (1977)

In some of the best horror movies, the villain doesn't have an origin story, doesn't have any reason for doing what they do.  The good guys often call this insanity, and maybe it is, but it doesn't necessarily make for a bad story.  Michael Myers, of the Halloween movies, he didn't have an origin story.  He just started killing when he was 6.  Dr. Loomis tried to explain it, but it wasn't really an explanation.  Dr. Loomis just called him "Evil."  Some of the best villains are like that.  No origin stories.  No reason for doing what they do.  They're just evil.

The Car (1977) is about a black car that just seems to come blazing out of the desert, and runs a couple of bikers off the road.  No, not those kind of bikers, the kinds with pedals.  Just, no back story, no warning, bam car runs a couple bikers off the road.  You want to know why?  Too bad.  Car is already going after victim number two, a french horn player, hitch-hiking his way back home.  Screw you, this movie isn't about plot.  It's about a black car driving around and killing folks.

James Brolin plays the lead character of this film, Kim and Kyle Richards play his daughters.  Ronny Cox plays an alcoholic deputy who just loses his sobriety over this freaky car going nuts and killing folks.  I recognized a few other faces but it was hard to tell from where.  The acting was decent, the plot moderately coherent, considering all everyone was trying to do was get the hell out of the way of this rampaging car and figure out some way to stop it throughout the whole movie.  Effects were decent for the time, nothing CGI of course.  Have seen this movie before, was a fun watch, kinda scary, pretty entertaining.  I caught this on Netflix if you want to watch it.  Decent horror flick!

In other news, it's late and I've had a headache all day, so good night.  :-)

9 - Incarnate (2016)

I'm fond of most horror movies, but like anyone with a pulse, there are things I don't like, and things I just love.  I think monsters are awesome.  I just love all the different kinds of beasties that people come up with, and just giving them a reason to exist in the world means they are going to run into people at some point, and often bad things happen when monsters and people intersect.  Then, of course, there are demons.  Bad things happen around Demons.

Incarnate (2016) is a more modern take on the Demonic Exorcism movies.  A psychic exorcist uses drugs and a team of technicians to help him tap into the subconsciousness minds of possessed people, and evict the demons from the host's mind with the help of the hosts themselves.  The exorcist does this because his wife and son were killed by a demon called Maggie, and he wants revenge.  Sounds easy enough, but first you have to find this "Maggie" demon, and then you actually have to evict it from its current host.  Maggie finally turns up in a little boy, and the exorcist tries to evict it.  The only problem is, Maggie is not just a demon, but an Arch-Demon.  And what happens when you fail at evicting an Arch-Demon?  That's right!  All hell breaks loose!  Ding ding!  You go to the head of the class.

I saw this movie on HBO Zone last night, if you want to catch it there.  Special effects were minimal and passably okay, but the acting was pretty sub-par.  Aaron Eckhart plays the disabled exorcist who spends most of his time in a wheelchair, but they try to make this into an action movie of sorts, and it's not really working.  Supporting cast was meh.  I liked the fact that he transmits his psyche into the subconscious minds of the victims and tries to free them from their dream-like comatose state to evict the demon, but they could have had so much more fun with it, and they didn't really go there.  Also cool is the vatican just keeping a possessed guy in cage somewhere for study, which brings up the question, what does happen to demons when they aren't exorcised, and the victims don't die?  Is there a middle road?  Apparently, there is!  Ending is pretty much predictable, since they foreshadow it throughout the entire movie.  I've seen this movie before, I think I even reviewed it a few years ago, but it's not really worth watching a second time.

In other news, I have a headache in my entire upper body.  Yeah, fun stuff.  Old neck injury acting up again, so I'm going to call it quits with this short review and try and get some relief.  Hope everyone out there is having more fun than I am, and enjoying the lovely weather we are having, in some places.  If it's not nice where you are and you can't get out to see the fall foliage (I can't, my brakes are shot at the moment, and I'm still waiting for them to get fixed), then I hope you're enjoying some horror movies!  The Haunting of Bly manor dopped on Netflix today, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.  It looks like horror, but it's a series, so not really the best subject for a review this month.  Still, if I can check it out, I'll let you know what i think.  That's all for tonight!  :-)

8 - Hubie Halloween (2020)

Yep, I'm reviewing an Adam Sandler movie.  It's come to this.  Ten years ago, I was at the top of my game.  Today, I'm reviewing an Adam Sandler movie.  Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  (cries for about an hour)  Oh, you're still here?  And you really want to read this?  Well.  Shit.  (wipes tears away)  Let's do this, then.

Hubie Halloween (2020) is about that guy.  You know him.  We all know him.  That one guy who's a total nerd, a dweeby dorkface, the one everyone picks on.  Hubie Dubois's favorite holiday is, of course, Halloween.  Hubie's life mission is to keep everyone in the town of Salem, Massachusetts safe, every single Halloween.  Hubie gets a lot of abuse for this.  Kids throw things at him.  Adults pick on him.  Co-workers at the deli counter play pranks on him.  Let's face it, Hubie is not very popular, because he's a nice guy.  Nobody likes a nice guy, especially today.  Because today is, you guessed it, Halloween.

This movie is pretty much about as Halloween as any movie could get, except it's not actually scary.  Adam Sandler is Hubie Dubois, the town dork who manages to save the day by being who he is, I suppose, much like Kung Fu Panda, and I'm sorry I just compared Adam Sandler to Master Po.  Julie Bowen is a nice neighbor lady Violet Valentine who happens to be a foster mom (Sandler's kids play her children), Kevin James is Sgt. Steve Downey, her former husband and the law and order in town.  Rob Schneider and Steve Buscemi play a couple of escaped lunatics, and Ray Liotta pops up as one of Hubie's bullies.  There's a lot of other celebrities in this, so if you want to see the lows they've sunk to for money, hey, watch them show up here.  The plot was moderately coherent, I even laughed at some of the interactions between Hubie and his mom (June Squibb), and her shirts were a wonderful running gag throughout the movie.  The thermos was just ridiculous.  I watched this movie on netflix, where it was released yesterday.  I guess this was okay to watch once, but I can't really recommend it, unless Halloween comedies starring Adam Sandler are really your thing, and if they are, I feel bad for you.  Seek therapy.

In other news, yesterday was my mom's 88th birthday, so, yay for her.  Probably should have mentioned this yesterday, but I miffed it, as usual.  Oh wells!  Hope everyone is having fun this October, staying safe, and watching plenty of horror films.  :-)  See you guys soon.

7 - Dr. Sleep (2019)

I've often started my October Horror Movie Review-A-Thon with The Shining (1980).  It's got one of the greatest opening sequences in the history of horror movies (in my opinion), and it's certainly one of the most classic scary movies that everyone should watch at least once every October.  It's got Jack Nicholson, a great set, and awesome effects.  I mean, who doesn't know Redrum, you know what I am saying?  Well, guess what?  There's a SEQUEL!  :-o

Dr. Sleep (2019) follows Danny Torrance, survivor of the Overlook Hotel, as a grown man.  Plagued by wandering spirits reaching out to him from the Overlook, Danny stumbles upon a friendly town, puts down roots, and starts cleaning up his life.  Danny begins to accept his gifts, but still keeps them hidden from most folks, because they are a bit off-putting, to say the least.  There's only one small problem.  Danny, as we all know, isn't the only one who shines.  Enter Abra Stone, a young woman who can do "magic" as she calls it.  And just like the Overlook Hotel is hungry for those that shine, so there are other things in the world, even people that hunger after those that shine.  Some of those things are hunting Abra, and Danny is the only one that can help her.

I think I've pretty much given away half the plot, but fuck it, I love this movie.  I saw it on one of the HBO channels over the summer, and I was going to review it then, but I decided to wait until October, because let's face it, this IS a horror flick.  How could I not honor the sequel to the Shining by giving it a spot in my horror movie review a thon?  I couldn't!  Ewan Macgregor (Obi-Wan himself) stars as an adult Danny Torrance, Kyliegh Curran is Abra Stone, Emily Alyn Lind (The Babysitter) is Snakebite Andi, and Rebecca Ferguson is Rose the Hat, quite possibly the sexiest and most stylish Villainess I have ever seen in a horror movie, and that includes the colon!  Sorry, had a little bit of undigested Airplane! in my gut.  I think I got it out.  Special Effects are awesome, and pretty much revolve around a psychic war between the good guys and the bad guys.  And guess where everything comes to a head?  You know it!  The Overlook Hotel!  Holy shit!  Could this sequel get any better?  I don't think so!  Catch it on HBO if you get the chance.  I've seen it twice already, and enjoyed it just as much both times.  Not as scary as the Shining, but scary in a different way.

In other news, it's late and I am hurting so I am going to call it a night, play a little bit before bed, and then hopefully enjoy the sweet sweet release of sleep, myself.  I just noticed Hubie Halloween (Adam Sandler) dropped on Netflix, so maybe I can review that tomorrow night.  I know, ugh, Adam Sandler, and meh, comedy, but fuck it.  Going to give it a shot and hope I can make it through without vomiting.

See you tomorrow night.

6 - Carrie (2013)

Did I ever tell you guys of my enduring love for Stephen King novels?  I mean, I don't really like the endings to most of his books, but the stories are at least enjoyable.  The first one I ever read was Christine, when I was 7 years old.  I loved the ending to that one.  Then the Stand.  In fact, I think I read most if not all of Stephen King's novels.  They made some decent movies out of them, too.  Not great ones, generally, but decent.  I loved the Sleepwalkers movie!  But that's not what I am reviewing tonight.

Carrie (2013) is the remake of the 1976 movie with Sissy Spacek playing the titular role.  This movie plays out pretty much like the first one.  Carrie and her mom (a bit of a religious nut) live alone, and Carrie doesn't know a lot of things about life in general.  One day a rather unfortunate event marks Carrie's entry into womanhood, and her school-mates make fun of her.  Carrie doesn't like that.  Burying her rage seems to bring forth the power of Telekinesis, the ability to move things with her mind.  Some of her school mates, punished for their wicked wicked ways on Carrie's behalf, seek revenge on Carrie herself.  Which, as you can imagine, is probably a bad idea.  Then, everyone goes to the prom!  Where all hell breaks loose.  Yep.  You knew it would.

I reviewed this movie some years ago, but I think I was a bit harsh on it the first time around.  In the first movie, it really seemed obvious that Carrie's powers were telekinesis, but in this movie, I think I am beginning to wonder.  Maybe this Carrie's powers are actually satannic or witchy in origin.  She seems to wave her arms around a lot to focus her powers, unlike Sissy Spacek, who seemed almost entirely mental about it.  It's entirely possible Chloe-Carrie's abilities were granted by dark powers in response to her mother's cruel and domineering religious bent.  I mean, there's no Ouija board or anything, but aside from that, how many other horrific ghost-revenge stories does this mirror?  A lot of them, no doubt.

Chloe Grace Moretz plays Carrie this time around, and honestly, she's too pretty to be Carrie.  Carrie is supposed to be unpopular, and I never knew any really pretty girls to be unpopular.  Chloe outshines pretty much all of her co-stars in this one in the looks department, so it's kind of a stretch for me to think of her as some unpopular wallflower.  Julianne Moore is phenomenal as the crazed psychotic religious-nut mom, probably even doing a better job than the mom in the first movie, though it's a close call.  There's no one in the rest of the cast who really stands out as exceptional, though a few of them were recognizable from other roles.  Effects were pretty standard (and bloody) for this type of movie.

I caught this one on AMC's fear fest, so it's likely they will show it again at some point.  Not sure where else it's up for grabs, but if you like Stephen King and absolutely must see all the incarnations of his film adaptations, then you can probably catch it there.  Honestly, if you have the choice, I would recommend the first (1976) one.  It's slightly better acted, has John Travolta in it, and I honestly think it had a better flow to it?  I don't know, maybe I just don't like remakes that much.  Still, the 2013 movie version isn't horrible, and if you can't get Carrie any other way, it's worth at least a watch.

In other news, there is no other news tonight.  My chronic spinal pain is acting up, I missed my nap, and I want to game a little bit before bed.  So I will bid you all a fond adeiu, and go take care of myself.  Oh yeah, papa-bear needs some me time!  See you peeps tomorrow, hopefully.

5 - The Exorcist (1973)

There are few movies considered classics in the horror movie genre.  There's Psycho, there's the Shining, and then there's the Exorcist.  I don't recall ever reviewing The Exorcist before.  I'm not sure why.  Seems like a prime choice for a horror movie review.  Not sure why it took me so long to get to it.  Anyways, let's get on with the reivew!

The Exorcist (1973) is about, well, an exorcist.  It doesn't really start out that way.  There's an actress, and her daughter, and Psychiatrist / Priest, who happens to be a big fan of the actress.  The actress is in town shooting a movie, and the actress' daughter, Regan, finds an old Ouija board in a closet.  She starts playing with it, and contacts a spirit, whom she refers to as "Captain Howdy."  Sadly, Captain Howdy is shy, and only talks to Regan.  Later that evening, Regan's mom hears something in the attic, and immediately thinks "rats."  But it's not rats.  It's not much of anything.  Could it be Captain Howdy?  We never know, because Regan is starting to feel, shall we say, not quite herself?  Yeah, you know what's coming.  All hell is about to break loose.

I love how, even in 1973, it's all about the Ouija Board.  I love how even the mother knows you aren't supposed to use it by yourself.  I love how, when I'm two or three years old and this movie is being made, they already know all about Ouija boards and they are already so much of a horror movie trope that all they even do in this movie is mention it in passing, and you just already KNOW that's how "Captain Howdy" makes his way into Regan.  They don't even have to show it, like they do in all the fancy remakes, making a huge deal about how the piece moves by itself!  :-o  Nope, they are just like "Yep, Regan's playing with a ouija board." and you're already all like "Aw, shit, that's bad news right there."  Forty seven years and 47 different pale imitations later, The Exorcist is still the gold statndard when it comes to Ouija boards infecting people with evil spirits.

Special effects are very well done for 1973, and hold up pretty well even today.  Linda Blair does an excellent job as Regan, and let's be frank, will probably be remembered for her role in this film for the rest of her natural life, and even afterwards.  Max Von Sydow is Father Merrin, who looks like he's on death's door here, and still somehow managed to live until this very year.  RIP, Mr. Max von Sydow!  You are already deeply missed.  Ellen Burstyn is Regan's mother, the famous actress, and Lee J. Cobb (12 angry men) is in one of his last great roles in this movie as Lt. William Kinderman, investigating the death of Burke, one the actress's friends.

I caught this movie on IFC, but they'll probably show it on AMC at some point this month, and maybe a few other channels as well.  This month is perfect for this movie.  There's even a scene in this movie showing kids trick or treating around halloween, and there's certainly a lot more scenes of fall foliage in the Exorcist than there were in Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis.  :-D  Then again, The Exorcist does NOT have Jack-o-lanterns in it.  So.  There's that.  This movie is infinitely re-watchable.  Enjoy as often as you can.  :-)

In other news, that's all for tonight.  It's already nearing my bedtime.  Have a good one.  See you guys soon!

4- Witches in the Woods (2019)

Not all horror movies are for everyone.  I watch a wide range of different sub-genres in the horror genre.  My personal favorite is monster movies.  I love seeing aliens and demons brought to life, either in my imagination from a great book, or from the special effects a good movie can evoke.  Not all horror movies even have monsters.  Sometimes, the monsters are the humans in the movie, themselves.

Witches in the Woods (2019) is about a bunch of teens heading out on a camping trip, like many many other horror movies.  It's snowy, apparently they are planning on camping out in the snow, or going to some cabin in the mountains, or something.  It's never really clear.  What is clear, is that they aren't going to make it.  The road is blocked.  To get around the block, they have to travel through Witch Country, basically a place where there were witch trials, but not as famous as the ones in Salem.  Apparently, there were a lot of places like that, because this isn't the first I've heard of it.  Somewhere along the way, they take a wrong turn, and end up lost in the wilderness.  Where...  Yep.  All hell breaks loose.  :-)

So this wasn't the best horror flick.  Acting was moderately passable at best.  Nobody famous that I could see.  Effects were minimal.  This story was more about what happens when things go wrong, and a bunch of impressionable young minds are left to their own devices to try and make things go right again.  No monsters, unless you count the humans.  Not even any witches, really, from all I could tell.  There were Woods, so the title was half right.  So what happened?  Well, bunch of horror movie characters make a lot of bad decisions.  As you may have seen from other horror movies, this is pretty much a thing that happens in horror movies.  Not surprising.

You can catch this movie on one of the showtime channels, if you want to watch it.  I think it was Showtime Next?  There wasn't anything spectacular about this movie, at least for me.  Maybe someone will get more out of it than I did.  I wouldn't watch it again.  It was pretty disappointing for me.  I mean, you get a title like Witches in the Woods, you want to at least see some, well, witches, amirite?  Right.  So, no witches, no monsters, just the evil that men and women and particularly teens, do to each other.  Which, in some instances, especially reality, can be horrifying enough for anyone.

So, in other news, Had an 88th birthday party for my mom, at my niece's house tonight.  Brakes worked fine going there.  Did not work the minute I got back in the car.  Brake pedal went all the way to the floor.  Figured I'd take it slow going home.  Then, the brake light came on, and it started to rain.  Was a rather exciting ride home, but nothing bad happened.  Pulled in safe and sound, and the rain had stopped by then.  Did have to pee, the whole way home, though.  Fun stuff!  :-)

Catch you guys tomorrow night.

3 - Night of the Creeps (1986)

I just love B-horror movies.  They're entertaining, they're fun to watch with a bucket of popcorn, and they just don't give a rat's patootie if the critics like them or not.  I could spend all month long just reviewing B-horror flicks, and, come to think of it, I probably will be.  So go get your strap-on, uh, I mean, strap yourself in for a wild ride!

Night of the Creeps (1986) is a tender story of love between a man and a woman, a cop and a sorority girl, and zombie alien brain slugs.  Hang on, I'll get to that part.  So, like any good horror film from 1959, this story mostly starts out with the escape of a mental patient from a lunatic asylum.  In typical horror-movie fashion, a guy and a girl are out on a date, and make bad decisions.  Like, not listening to the radio announcing the escape of a mental patient from an asylum.  So they see this meteor blasting into the woods (like so many other horror movies begin) and and the guy wanders off into the woods to find it, leaving the girl alone in the car.  Where an axe murderer happens to be out wandering around.  Fast forward to 1986, and a couple of dorks (which they call themselves several times in the movie) are trying to pledge a fraternity, and the jocks decide to test them with a fraternity prank.  So the dorks find a cryogenics lab on the campus, and of course, there just so happens to be a corpse inside it from 1959.  You know what happens next!  That's right.  All hell breaks loose.  You knew it was comin.  ;-)

Night of the Creeps is one of my favorite movies, and not just because the main character happens to be a dork (played by Jason Lively, Rusty from Vacation).  There's also Detective Cameron (played by Tom Atkins, from Halloween 3, and the Fog), and Cynthia Cronenberg (Jill Whitlow, who I don't recall seeing in anything else ever, but is adorably cute in this).  This plays out like a comedy, but is basically a sci-fi-alien-zombie-slasher-love-story-revenge flick.  Yeah, I think that abouts covers it.  Special effects are pretty good for 1986, and hold up fairly well.  Acting is good.  Dialogue is superb, and very funny.  I caught this on Turner Classic Movies a while back, and DVR'd it, and forgot I had it.  This was the Director's cut, which doesn't look any different from the version I saw, so I'm not sure what was different.  I'm sure this movie is out there, somewhere, if you want to see it.

Now, let's deal with the elephant in the room.  The Zombie Alien Brain Slugs.  Yeah, that's a thing, at least in this movie.  So there's a brief scene at the beginning of this movie, it looks pretty ridiculous, but there's basically an alien zombie running around with a cylinder full of slugs.  And there's two not-dead aliens chasing it with guns, and they're really desperate to stop that "experiment," as they call it, from getting off the ship.  Unfortunately, it does!  And that's the crashed meteor from back in 1959, which leads to... well, everything else.  Now, I'm going to ruin a few parts for you, if you don't mind.  Spoilers to follow.

I love the part where the Janitor sees them running out of the building, and keeps giggling about them "screaming like banshees."  I love every interaction between the two nerds, because it's all hilarious.  I love how Detective Cameron confesses to tracking down and blowing away the psycho who hacked up his girlfriend with an axe, and then covered up the crime by burying the body.  I love how all the little stories in this movie interact to form an absolute mess.  I love how Detective Cameron is like one lighter flick away from ending it all.  Depression is a thing, people.  If you suffer from it, like Detective Cameron who lost his one true love in 1959 and revenge-killed her murderer and then hid the body and hasn't been the same since, please get help.  There may be aliens out there who just want to hug your brains!  :-)

Okay, all that having been said, I've seen this movie about 50 times.  Always entertaining.  Watch it if you can.  In other news, it's Saturday night and there are other horror movies to watch.  My kinda good time!  :-D  Bye for now!

2 - Vampires vs The Bronx (2020)

Last night's movie was from as far back in my childhood as I started watching horror movies, and tonight's movie just dropped on netflix TODAY, so we are getting quite the range up in here.  But I like a wide variety of horror movies, all over the genre, just like I like my music.  So let's skip all the chatter and get right to the review!

Vampires vs the Bronx (2020) stars three main characters, boys just on the verge of entering adulthood. The first is Lil Mayor, aka Miguel Martinez, the socially-adept leader of the group, a kid from the bronx just looking to save his favorite Bodega (run by his buddy Tony) from being forced out by a rent hike.  Bobby Carter is one of Miguel's homies, whose father was gunned down in the streets.  Henny, a local thug, is looking to hook Bobby up with his crew, but so far, Bobby ain't cool with that gang shit.  The third member of Miguel's crew is Luis Acosta, the gangly nerd of the group, just back in town from Miami.  Miguel's posting flyers all over the Bronx to advertise a block party, admission is ten dollars, to raise money to save Tony's Bodega, where Miguel and his friends grew up.  The only problem is, the Vampires are taking over the Bronx, one small busienss at a time, and who do they have their sights set on next?  You guessed it.  Tony's Bodega!  :-o

Zoe Saldana makes a brief Cameo as Becky, who sells her business right at the beginning of the movie and sets the stage for what's going on.  Method Man is Father Jackson, who runs the local church, and has been keeping an eye on these boys for years.  Shea Whigham is Frank Polidari, a shady real estate broker who works for the vampires trying to take over the hood, who I recognized from his recent appearance as Cole in Kong: Skull Island.  But the real stars of this movie are the kid heroes who stand up to the evil vampires trying to pretty much murder every last person in the hood, played by Jaden Michael, Gerald Jones the 3rd and Gregory Diaz the 4th.  Acting was decent, special effects were pretty standard for a vampire movie, and the story did not take any time to get started.  You pretty much knew what was going on from minute one, right up until the end of the movie.  No suspense, granted, but lots of vampire-killing action, and that's really what you want to see in a vampire movie, isn't it?  Yeah, I thought so.

This movie was pretty entertaining.  I'd probably watch this again if it came up on TV at some point, and nothing better was on, so it definitely passes the rewatchability test.  Catch it on Netflix if you want to watch a popcorn-muncher you haven't seen before, something that fits in with October.  I mean, it's not Shakespeare, but Shakespeare's been dead for 400 years, amirite?  Pretty sure he doesn't have anything new coming out.  I was going to look him up on IMDB.com, but I'm pretty sure Shakespeare does not have his own IMDB page.  I could be wrong.  Not even gonna check.

Two movie reviews down, 29 to go!  In other news, it's Friday night and I got computer games to play.  Stay safe out there, campers.  Rumor has it that there's a global pandemic going on.  Wear a mask, and I'm not talking about a goalie mask full of holes (looking at you, Jason Voorhees), or a Captain Kirk mask painted all white (yeah, don't you dare sass me, Michael Myers), because those are definitely not going to be much help stopping the transmission of viruses.  Plus, Cold and Flu season is coming up!  Remember to wash your hands after you brutally murder someone who isn't in your family bubble!  Til next time, which should hopefully be tomorrow night.  :-)

OHMRAT 2020 Begins!

Yep, it's my annual October Horror Movie Review-A-Thon!  I have often ended my 31 days of Horror movie reviews with the Halloween movie holiday classic, but since it's 2020 and everything is ass-backwards this year, I am starting with it.  Yes, that John Carpenter 1978 classic, live-reviewed by your favorite horror movie reviewer!  Okay, so I needed some comfort food, and for me, horror movies are comforting.  Here we go with the live review!  Yeah, this is kind of stream-of-consciousness here, but hey, I'm going with it.  Right about now, I am glad I am still conscious.

Halloween (1978) Michael Myers origin story, the movie that started a genre, and launched a half-dozen sequels and remakes!  Originally titled the Babysitter Murders, a young Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Laurie Strode, a babysitter with a secret past that not even she really knows about.  Turns out Laurie is adopted, and her older brother is a brutal murderer who just escaped from an insane asylum!  On Halloween night, 1978, fifteen years after he kills his older sister at the age of 6, Michael Myers decides to hunt down his little sister, now 17, and do her in!  :-o

I love all the little details in this movie.  I love how it's a slow build where you, the viewer, are the only one who knows everything that's going on. Only you know that something horribly bad is going to happen, and that no one or nothing can stop it!  Well, except for maybe Dr. Loomis.  Dr. Loomis knows.  Dr. Loomis (played wonderfully by the late Donald Pleasance) is Michael Myers' Psychiatrist.  Dr. Loomis is the only one who knows what Michael really is, and in his words, Michael is just pure evil.  Dr. Loomis knows, and he's tried to warn people, but no one listened!  And now, now it's too late.

I love watching the daytime scenes while Michael Myers drives around the entire town all day on Halloween in a stolen car and no one ever really sees him.  There's even one scene where Dr. Loomis is standing on a street corner, scanning the streets for any sign of the brutal killer, and Michael Myers is just calmly making a left turn right behind him, in full view of the camera, but out of Dr. Loomis' sight.  You think, "oh man!  If only he'd turned around a few seconds sooner!  the police were right there, Loomis could have pointed him out and..."  but that's ridiculous.  The car's already gone, and Loomis missed it.  Missed his one chance to stop Myers in the middle of the day, before the horror even started.  Because you know what happens when night comes...  All Hell breaks loose.

The character of Dr. Loomis really makes this movie work.  If all you heard was "Michael Myers escapes from a facility for the criminally insane" over a radio station while Laurie is smoking dope with her friend, you're not going to pay attention.  People escape from institutions from the criminally insane all the time in the old horror movies.  It was pretty much a staple of campfire ghost stories and horror movies back then, when the stigma of mental illness was something horrific that nobody talked about.  Not like now, when everyone you know is basically nuts, and on multiple medications for it.  That doesn't build suspense.  What does build suspense is Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" playing over the radio while the girls smoke dope, watching Michael Myers following behind them in his car, after hearing Dr. Loomis tell everyone within earshot how freaking horrible this psycho killer is, how he's not just insane, he's just Evil, with a capital E.  That's some suspense right there.  The killing doesn't even start until later.  Until then, Michael Myers is just this looming, watching, silent presence that dogs Laurie Strode all through the movie, just following her around all day, stalking her, hunting her, learning the movements of his prey.  You know he's going to kill her.  You know it.  You just don't know when, or where, or how, and that's the important stuff.

I don't even mind that the daytime scenes were shot in Southern California, and you can see palm trees in the background in some shots.  So?  Who says Haddonfield doesn't have palm trees?  They add atmosphere, dammit!  Let's just say Illinois is having a warm Halloween day!  Honestly, everything looks too green.  Sure, they throw some red leaves at Laurie a few times, like a breeze is blowing them, but there's not a single tree that's not bright shiny green in this movie.  Green ivy grows on everything, it's so pretty!  Not really fall, but it's still pretty.

Then the killing starts.  Nobody notices.  Dr. Loomis has a good talk with the sheriff.  They can't find a damned thing wrong.  No Michael Myers, no bodies, no Halloween Hijinks.  The Sheriff wants to call everything off, but Dr. Loomis convinces him to stay on the case, for just a few more hours.  Little do they know it, but all Hell is about to break loose.  I know, because I've seen this movie probably several times a year since I was still in my single digits, and I'm 50 now, dammit.  40 years of horror movies, and I still love this one!  That's got to say something, right there.  Well, yes, it says I am old, but not JUST that.  It says this movie is a Halloween classic!  Funny how it's all Babysitters that die.  No wonder it was called the Babysitter Murders originally.  Good move on the name change, Mr. Carpenter.  Good move.

The music in this movie is awesome, written by John Carpenter himself.  Really draws you in, those high tinkling notes that aggravate your spine like a crying baby, then those low ominous tones that let you know that things are not going to go well for anyone in this movie.  There's actually a variety of different background music going on in this movie, all of it different, but it's all those high tinkling tones mixed with low ominous notes, the contrast between sounds contrasting how everyone thinks everything is going fine while people are dying all over the place.  Special effects are minimal, and considering this movie was made in 1978, they've held up beautifully over the years.

I love how Michael Myers is just basically wearing Captain Kirk's (William Shatner's) face through the whole movie, a Halloween mask painted stark and lifeless white.  There's a break-in at a hardware store during the day.  The Police suspect "kids" because all they're taken is rope, knives and Halloween masks.  Of course it's Michael Myers, you ninny!  But this is sleepy little Haddonfield.  Michael Myers hasn't been around since 1963.  Haddonfield is a safe little town.  Safe, until the bodies start dropping.  I don't even think they found all the bodies.  I feel bad for the tow truck guy laying in some hay, early on.  They never show him dying.  Michael Myers needed some work clothes, boots.  Killed some poor tow truck driver for it.  Just, offed him for his clothes.  Like the Terminator.  Years before Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Years.  Nobody ever found the tow truck guy, at least not that they showed.  Dr. Loomis was standing like ten feet away, but nope.  Didn't see the body.  Missed that one.  Probably still rotting there, poor bastard.  Dead on a bale of hay.  Just bones now.  Forty years later, just dry bones.

Fifteen minutes left in the movie, and Laurie Strode finally meets her older brother.  Jamie Lee Curtis was typecast as a "scream queen" from this movie, mostly because she does a lot of damned screaming in the last 15 minutes.  Nobody is around to help.  Nobody can hear her screaming.  Either everyone is already dead, or asleep, or out at a party somewhere.  Must have been one damned fine party.  Dr. Loomis finally finds the abandoned car from the mental hospital, 12 minutes left in the movie.  Nothing like waiting tilt he last minute, Doc!  There's that tense music, going on in the background.  Laurie Strode manages to survive her first encounter with Michael Myers, but like little Tommy says (no not Tommy Jarvis, that's Friday the 13th), "You can't kill the boogeyman!"  I'm surprised she manages to even wound the guy.  He's practically unstoppable for anyone else.  She always goes for the eyes.  "Go for the eyes, Boo!"  Yes, that's my mantra, too.  Three minutes to go.  Dr. Loomis finally finds his former patient.  Nice timing, Doc!  Damn, took you long enough!  You know what happens.  You've seen this movie, too.

Spoiler alert, 40 years too late.  Dr. Loomis unloads his gun into Myers.  Point-blank range.  6 shots in the chest.  Laurie survives to come back for the sequel, but Dr. Loomis goes to check on the body, and it's just... gone.  It's like little Tommy knows what no one else does.  "You can't kill the boogeyman."  You can't kill the boogeyman.  You just can't!  Save it for the sequel.

Phew, what a ride.  Comfort food, indeed.  Got my fill of horror for the night.  Halloween is on AMC's Fear Fest, something they do every October.  Just like me, they are horror movie fans.  In other news, I am going to try and post a review every day this month, but who knows how that is going to go?  The real challenge is finding the time and finding a movie to review, every day.  Can I do it once more?  Or will I finally fail?  I will, someday.  Not sure when.  Could be tonight.  Hopefully not.  I have 30 more days worth of horror movies to enjoy, I'd hate to miss the rest.  See you guys next time!  :-)