My plans for the weekend did get switched up quite a bit yesterday morning when the early Saturday double feature I was planning at the Starlight Cinema City Theatres (where they run cheaper than anything pre-noon showings of all films in their lineup) was canceled by torrents of rain. One of the films I had been planning to see was Saw 3D, after catching up with the last three installments in the torture-laden series over the previous few days. Keeping in the Halloween spirit, I was going to follow that up with Paranormal Activity 2, having just seen the first film a couple of weeks back.
But it was not to be. I was already feeling run down from a quite stressful day at work on Friday (in which everything was handled just fine by EOB -- and that doesn't mean Edgar Octopus Burroughs), had some possible follow-up in the a.m., and then the rain hit around 5:30, just as I was setting up plans for the day. The rain was actually a relief since I was feeling so tired, and it became a very easy thing to burrow into the blankets on the couch and knock out a couple of movies.
Knocking out movies is what I tend to do well, and since I last posted my October genre-related choices on October 21, I have added many more films to my roster. Here's the update:
10/21/10 Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl 2009
10/22/10 Black Sheep 2007
10/22/10 Dead Silence 2007
10/22/10 Monster Beach Party A Go Go [aka Stomp! Shout! Scream!] 2005
10/23/10 Silent Scream 1980
10/23/10 Boogens, The 1981
10/23/10 The Hills Have Eyes 2 2007
10/23/10 Darkness Falls 2002
10/24/10 Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film 2006
10/24/10 The Boogeyman 2005
10/24/10 The Boogeyman 2 2007
10/24/10 The Satanic Rites of Dracula [Elvira edition] 1973
10/24/10 Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy 2010
10/24/10 Five Million Years to Earth [aka Quatermass and the Pit] 1967
10/25/10 Resident Evil: Apocalypse 2004
10/25/10 Feast 2005
10/25/10 X the Unknown 1956
10/26/10 Resident Evil: Extinction 2007
10/26/10 Evolution 2001
10/28/10 Saw IV 2007
10/29/10 Saw V 2008
10/29/10 Saw VI 2009
10/29/10 Trail of the Screaming Forehead 2007
10/30/10 Happy Birthday to Me 1980
10/30/10 Frankenstein Created Woman 1967
10/30/10 Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed 1969
10/30/10 Red: Werewolf Hunter 2010
10/31/10 Scared to Death [Elvira edition] 1947
10/31/10 The Haunting of Molly Hartley 2008
10/31/10 The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters 1954
As you can see from many of the choices in the past ten days, one of the themes for me this time was to make my peace with much of the modern horror that I have been avoiding so much over the past decade. This drive is probably going to carry over into November for a couple of weeks, now that my interest has been piqued and there are some films that I definitely want to see while the genre is still holding my full attention. To be sure, it hasn't all been pretty -- there are a lot of films that I would have been better off not seeing -- but one of the pleasures of focusing exclusively in one genre for any length of time is divining that clear line between the sublime (however ridiculous in execution) and the pure dross, the dreck, and the utter crap.
I am still planning on hitting the Saw 3D/PA2 combo, but next weekend instead. And as I often do at this time of year, I use September and October to fill in some noticeable gaps in my sci-fi/horror DVD collection, not least of which was picking up copies of the Nightmare on Elm Street 8 movie box set, Bigas Luna's mind-warping Anguish, Romero's Day of the Dead, the Night of the Creeps Director's Cut and the Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition, with the film presented in widescreen for the first time, as opposed to the original MGM release in pan-and-scan which made so angry after I bought it. (All pan-and-scan releases are to be considered automatic garbage if there is a widescreen version readily available, and especially if it is just due to studio-driven idiocy.) And I finally did get my copy of Teeth. I figure if I rent a film four times in six months, it is probably time to get my own disc.
So, what to watch for the rest of Halloween? Hard to say... so many choices, so little time. Jen and I are planning to watch at least a chunk of the recent Kids in the Hall mini-series on IFC, which is reported to have some horrific elements (the Grim Reaper is one of the main characters). Jen is not a horror fan in the least, so I have to find shows and movies where I can get her to dip her toes in the chilling waters without totally immersing her in a way in which she would not be happy. The Kids in the Hall help to forge a compromise in that area. Until then, the day is mine. I will likely choose a triple threat of films from the ones shown in the stack in the picture above, all of them purchases I have made in the last couple of months.
Or I might just end up reading some Poe or Lovecraft. After all, it's my day, just as it's all yours wherever you are. The point is to enjoy yourself.
I am still planning on hitting the Saw 3D/PA2 combo, but next weekend instead. And as I often do at this time of year, I use September and October to fill in some noticeable gaps in my sci-fi/horror DVD collection, not least of which was picking up copies of the Nightmare on Elm Street 8 movie box set, Bigas Luna's mind-warping Anguish, Romero's Day of the Dead, the Night of the Creeps Director's Cut and the Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition, with the film presented in widescreen for the first time, as opposed to the original MGM release in pan-and-scan which made so angry after I bought it. (All pan-and-scan releases are to be considered automatic garbage if there is a widescreen version readily available, and especially if it is just due to studio-driven idiocy.) And I finally did get my copy of Teeth. I figure if I rent a film four times in six months, it is probably time to get my own disc.
So, what to watch for the rest of Halloween? Hard to say... so many choices, so little time. Jen and I are planning to watch at least a chunk of the recent Kids in the Hall mini-series on IFC, which is reported to have some horrific elements (the Grim Reaper is one of the main characters). Jen is not a horror fan in the least, so I have to find shows and movies where I can get her to dip her toes in the chilling waters without totally immersing her in a way in which she would not be happy. The Kids in the Hall help to forge a compromise in that area. Until then, the day is mine. I will likely choose a triple threat of films from the ones shown in the stack in the picture above, all of them purchases I have made in the last couple of months.
Or I might just end up reading some Poe or Lovecraft. After all, it's my day, just as it's all yours wherever you are. The point is to enjoy yourself.
2 comments:
The Boogens! I just watched that today, along with The Walking Dead(the Karloff movie, not the TV show which airs tonight). Your post reminds me I need to track down Trail of the Screaming Forehead. It's not on netflix, where did you find it?
It was on IFC on Friday morning. I believe IFC is involved in the rights for the DVD. I had heard it was going to be released in the near future. Believe it or not, it says "Ray Harryhausen Presents" at the beginning.
If you haven't seen the next two films -- The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and Dark and Stormy Night -- they came out on DVD mid-August. Doubly hilarious, especially if you love the Lost Skeleton.
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