Happy Halloween

Have fun and be safe...

Your having fun already I see.

That's not me it's just an image I grabbed from redit

What horror flicks are people recommending this year?

Blur is lying -- he is the one on the left.

Seamaster wrote:What horror flicks are people recommending this year?

Were Watching Friday the 13th and Halloween on Sunday and Monday.

Mostly because I have two boys named Jason and Michael.... Yeah, coincidence... I think not...

Iago wrote:Blur is lying -- he is the one on the left.

HAHAHA I bought my costume at WalMart for 1.97(rollback prices) was 2.05. I'm just going to walk around as Jason.

Not really a horror movie, but I enthusiastically recommend Trollhunter. If you are a fan of Eighties horror, give the amazing throwback film House of the Devil at try.

It's almost sacrilege not to watch Halloween. Think I will also give House of the Devil a go though.

Your mileage may vary depending on your experience with Eighties horror. The film is shot to look like an Eighties film, and the transfer to video respects that, with the slightly washed-out look common to video transfers from the era. (The freeze frame and font during the opening titles is a nice touch.) It was even released on a DVD/VHS combo pack -- the packaging on the VHS was perfect. That said, pick it up on Blu-Ray. While it is shot on 16mm (again by choice rather than by necessity) the Blu-Ray is much sharper.

I found a place in downtown Calgary, which has one in stock. I will be able to pick it up tomorrow. Perfect timing!

Nearly every detail in the movie is spot-on. If you did not know that it was a recent film you could easily mistake it for a film made during the Eighties. The interesting thing is that the setting and details are all handled in a non-ironic fashion (unlike, say, The Wedding Singer. The director, Ti West, loved Eighties horror and his movie is an homage to them, but the setting is not merely cosmetic and it does serve the plot. For example, if anyone in the film had a cell phone the whole movie would fall apart.


Give Trollhunter a chance, if you have an open mind. Although it is a satire of the "found footage" genre, it is not really a comedy. That said, there are some really amusing moments in it.

By the way, Fred Dekker's wonderful send up of Fifties horror Night of the Creeps is available on Blu as well.

I have Night of the Creeps, and love it.

I'm not a big fan of the found-footage genre. I find it terribly phony and have a hard time believing in the story. Put it this way: If something horrible was chasing me and I was pretty sure it wanted to eat or kill me, the last thing I'd be doing is filming it chasing me. I've given the genre several tries and it just doesn't work for me. Surprisingly, the only movie like that that did work for me was Blair Witch, but that's because the kids didn't understand what was going on around them, and it wasn't like they were being chased; rather, they were being teased and tormented. Even then, it still wasn't a very good movie.

Give Trollhunter a try, then, since it satirizes the genre that you dislike.

Have you seen Fred Dekker's other entertaining Eighties horror/comedy The Monster Squad? Another favorite of mine.

I enjoyed Monster Squad when I was younger. As I've gotten older, I've found it's lost a bit of its charm. However, I'm thinking it's about time Seajunior was introduced to that title.

If it has been awhile, it is worth another look. You have to watch it with the right frame of mind.

Watching it with Seajunior would likely put me in that right frame of mind.

50% off Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble. Ye gods, will it ever end? There went another three-figure debit.

That offer has since expired . . . . What titles did you pick up?

If, The Jean Vigo Collection, 3 Women, and Bottle Rocket. I limited it to four titles so that I would have the satisfaction of limiting it to two figures, rather than three.

No Twelve Angry Men?

Not out yet. The prices only seemed to apply consistently to in-stock titles. Some of the pre-orders were at 50% off, some were not. Regardless, I will have plenty of time to pick those up when they are released. And yes, 12 Angry Men will be at the top of my list. (I will also get the Criterion version of the original Godzilla.

Good call on Angry Men. I thought Godzilla was great when I was a kid, but now I find it hard to sit through.

If you have not seen the original Japanese version, it is quite a different experience -- much more somber and pointedly political. I currently have both versions on the fine Classic Media DVD, but I am looking forward to the upgrade. The Japanese discs from Toho are supposedly painstakingly restored, but the Classic Media version was a bit ragged. Criterion has yet to let me down on Blu-Ray, so I hope that they will be working with the Toho masters.

Keep us posted.