Month: October 2018

Released: October 1966

Director: Bill Melendez

Not Rated

Run Time: 25 Minutes

Genre: Animation/Short/Comedy

Cast:
Peter Robbins: Charlie Brown
Christopher Shea: Linus Van Pelt
Sally Dryer: Lucy Van Pelt
Cathy Steinberg: Sally Brown

This October has been a very fulfilling month when it comes to talking about horror movies and films that are most associated with Halloween.  As promised, here is my Halloween special review.  However, instead of my usual dark, dreary, and gory horror movies, I have decided to tackle something far more family-friendly.  I figured that since I spent most of the month talking about dark and depressing films, I thought I would close out the month with something positive and uplifting.  There are a large number of family-friendly Halloween movies out there, but I wanted to cover the one that everybody is familiar with: It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  This isn’t going to be a particularly large post as the film is only 25 minutes long, but it’s become such an important part of the cultural zeitgeist, so I thought I would do my best to try and deliver my opinion on this one.

The short opens with young Linus writing a letter to “The Great Pumpkin,” a Halloween spirit that he believes will rise from a pumpkin patch to deliver toys and presents to all the good children of the world.  While that one line that I wrote pretty much sums up the plot of The Great Pumpkin, there’s a lot more to the film than I think most people would see.  As a kid, I would enjoy watching this short film every time it showed on TV during Halloween.  I’ve seen it every year since I can remember.  I’m a huge fan of the Peanuts comic strip by the late Charles M. Schulz.  It was a comic strip that featured the likes of Charlie Brown, Linus Van Pelt, Snoopy, Sally Brown and company.  What I loved about The Great Pumpkin as a kid, was all the colorful imagery and wonderful animation.  The story may be simple, but the themes that are present throughout the 25 minutes are surprisingly thoughtful.  There is a message about the power of belief that would be lost on most children these days, but as adults, we see stuff like this and remember how simple things used to be when we were younger.  As kids, we believed in things like The Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause.  Linus’s belief in The Great Pumpkin is just another extension of that childhood innocence that many of us have since left behind, because as we get older and begin to understand the world more, the less likely we are to believe in such things.  Watching The Great Pumpkin is a great way to remind ourselves of a much simpler time.

There’s not much in the way of action here, it’s not that kind of short film.  The action that does come, comes in the form of Snoopy pretending to be a World War I ace pilot hunting down the Red Baron.  This sequence is incredibly fun, because the camera shifts the camera whenever Snoopy is climbing or going low.  The sound effects are pretty standard, but they do make for a fairly exciting experience for kids.  This sequence highlights another theme present within the film:  The power of imagination.  As adults, we often spend far too much time thinking about real-world affairs.  We no longer spend enough time looking at the sky and just…daydream.  Throughout the film, Linus is ridiculed for believing in The Great Pumpkin, but he has the best response to his critics: “I’ll stop believing in him, when you stop believing in that big red fella that goes ‘Ho, Ho, Ho.'”  To me, that really speaks volumes about the value of belief.  I think in the back of his mind, Linus knows that his belief is a little silly, but it’s no more silly than believing in Santa Clause.  The message is oh, so clear:  Just because you don’t believe in something, doesn’t mean you should stop others from believing in it regardless of how ridiculous you think it is, especially as a child when believing in something can be extremely important.

The humor of the Peanuts comic strip is very much present here.  There is definitely some social commentary, but it’s not overly mean-spirited and is something that children can understand.  The character designs and animations all add to the humor, especially when Snoopy is laughing at Linus.  Sally tricking Charlie Brown into kicking the football only to take it away is a running gag that has been a part of Peanuts since the very beginning.  It’s a part of what makes these characters so special.  Watching The Great Pumpkin now, as opposed to 30 years ago, I see a number of insights into what makes this short such a wonderful film.  It’s fun, it’s imaginative, and it has a great message for youngsters.  Is it the greatest Charlie Brown special?  No…but I don’t see anything really wrong with it, either.  This is a film for people of all ages and it something to say to each and every one of us.  So….do I recommend It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?  Yes.  Yes, I do.

It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! is one of the best Halloween specials ever made, as far as I’m concerned.  It’s uplifting, positive, and just a lot of fun.  So, with that I’m going to close out the month of October.  For the youngsters who plan on going Trick Or Treating tonight, be safe and definitely travel in groups or with parents.  For the parents, please keep an eye on your kids and make sure they stay out of the streets and out of trouble.  Aside from that, have fun and Happy Halloween to all!

Well, fellow space cadets, here we are:  The last day before Halloween.  The last few weeks have been an absolute ride talking about the various horror movies that I’ve seen over the years.  There have been good movies, bad movies and pretty much in between.  Over the past few weeks I’ve covered remakes, supernatural movies, slashers, dark action movies, and various other kinds of movies.  I’ve also reviewed a few including 30 Days of Night, The Descent, Venom, and the new Halloween film.  It’s all been building to this, to my final Best of October for 2018.  For this post, I’m going to go over some of the best horror movies that I have ever seen.  Remember, this list is entirely my opinion, so it may not line up with what you consider to be the best.  For me, these films are the reasons why I love this genre so much.  With all that in mind, let’s unearth some of my favorite horror movies.

Hereditary

Hereditary is perhaps my favorite horror film of 2018, easily.  The best horror movies, as I have stated multiple times, don’t rely on ultra-violence or jump-scares, but rather atmosphere and genuine tension.  You can have those elements, but they should never overshadow what the film is trying to accomplish.  Hereditary follows a family that has been racked with tragedy and there are certain elements, supernatural and otherwise that threaten to tear the family apart.  There is something special about a horror film that can affect you on a personal level.  Hereditary is a film where you can understand the stress and sadness that these characters are dealing with, and you can relate to that.  The really good horror movies are the ones that get under your skin.  This is a film that does just that.  It’s not the only one though.

The Witch

I love good slow-burners, especially if they are period pieces like The Witch.  This movie is creepy because it takes its time to build up its characters and setting.  It’s a darkly beautiful film that follows an extreme Puritan family after they’ve been exiled for being too extreme.  Over the course of the film, the family is beset by some really strange events including the disappearance of the family’s youngest child.  It’s extremely unsettling, not only because of the isolated setting, but because of the family’s extreme religious beliefs and practices.  It’s one of those pervasive themes that having such extreme beliefs can be very damaging to a family.  There is a supernatural element to the film, but the film, like The Omen, goes out of its way to provide a direct answer.  It has its shocking moments and it can be violent at times, but this is very much a character-driven horror film that stands out among the rest.

The Evil Dead(1981)

Most people would probably put the second Evil Dead film here instead of the original.  They wouldn’t be wrong, but I chose the original film because it is an incredible experience.  Yeah, there are a lot of technical issues that you could point out in the film, but that’s the result of a film crew that really had very little experience in making a full-blown movie.  In fact, I would actually say that those issues and the not-so-good acting are really part of the charm of the film.  It’s gory, brutal, but also strangely funny at times.  It’s far more of a horror film than its sequels, but it still manages to put a smile on my face.  The film follows a group of college students as they spend the weekend at a cabin in the woods(is there any other kind?).  They discover an old beat-up book along with a tape recorder.  As a result, they inadvertently unleash a demonic force that possess them one at a time.  I have to say that this is one of the most amazing movies ever made.  Not only was it Sam Raimi’s first film, but it also launched the careers of both him and actor Bruce Campbell.  It is definitely a product of its time, but I still highly recommend it.

The Exorcist

I brought The Exorcist up in my post about supernatural movies, but it definitely bears repeating here.  The Exorcist came out in 1973 and it shocked and horrified audiences world-wide.  There’s a reason for that.  The film handles the idea of exorcism realistically while still dealing with a supernatural event.  The set-up is simple, a young girl is exhibiting really strange behavior and her mother is trying to figure out why.  As it turns out, the girl is being possessed by some kind of demonic presence, so she enlists the help of a local priest that’s dealing with a spiritual crisis of his own.  This movie is fucking nuts, as was the reaction to it.  The film is what some critic have called, “a full frontal assault.”  There’s nothing particularly subtle about what’s happening here.  What really shocked people was the foul language that was coming out of Linda Blair’s mouth during the movie, and the various self-mutilating things that have been happening.  There’s a reason why this film is both respected and hated at the same time.  So…..recommended.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I don’t know what it was about the 70s and 80s, but the horror movies that came out of those decades were absolutely insane, not just in terms of content, but in how they were made.  Movies aren’t made like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre any more.  The movie feels very much like a documentary-type of film following a group of college kids as they encounter a completely psychotic figure with a mask made of human flesh wielding a chainsaw.  It’s been reviled as one of the goriest movies ever made, and yet, aside from one shot of a decomposing corpse, I can find no real gore in the movie.  It’s all implied, which makes for a more intense experience.  I love it when movies trick the audience into thinking they something they actually didn’t.  TCM did exactly that.  It’s an incredible film from beginning to end and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, unlike some of its sequels and remakes.

Night of the Living Dead

Of all the sub-genres in horror, the zombie is the one that I hate the most.  It’s not because of the idea that the dead somehow come back to life and hunt people for brains.  No.  I hate the genre because its one of the most over-used and over-saturated sub-genres.  There are so many zombie movies, that it’s not even funny, and most of them aren’t even good.  That being said, George A. Romero struck gold with his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead.  Yeah, the zombies were slow-moving, but they were everywhere, and the film focuses on a group of folks who ended up in a farm-house.  It’s not the first film to deal with zombies, but it revolutionized the genre with how it dealt with zombies.  The film was shot entirely in black-and-white, and even for 1968, a black-and-white film was starting to become rarity.  It’s an iconic piece of film history that no film buff should be without.

Alien

I know I’ve mentioned this one before in my other posts, but Alien is just so damned good, I have to mention it again.  Yeah, it’s definitely science fiction, but it is also a real horror film at its core.  There is truly something horrific about a life-form that wants to reproduce by invading your body, regardless of whether you’re a man or woman.  Alien is as much a psychological thriller as it is a monster movie.  It balances the two so well, that very few movies can match the film’s intensity.  Combine that with H.R. Giger’s creature design and you have something right out of a goddamn nightmare.  It doesn’t matter how many times that I watch the film, it’s absolutely incredible.  Ridley Scott, the director, and the cast which included Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Hurt round out a cast of very likable characters.  The real star of the show, however, is Sigourney Weaver as Ripley.  Sigourney is right up there with Carrie Fisher, Margot Kidder, and Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the greatest actresses of her generation.  Alien set the world on fire as a horror film and as a film in general.

Those were some of my favorite horror movies of all time.  While I could have narrowed it down to just one movie, what would be the fun in that?  I adore this genre, despite some questionable films throughout the years.  This year has seen some pretty decent films, and I hope that we will see more next year.  I hope you all have enjoyed reading The Best of October as I did writing it.  It has been a very thought-provoking and creative experience that I will never forget.  These last few weeks have been incredibly rewarding as far as this site goes, and I plan on doing this again next year.  While this post may be the last for The Best of October, I’ve still got one more post specifically for Halloween, so stick around.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Halloween is almost here.  Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve covered different topics including the supernatural, dark action movies and British horror films.  While the supernatural definitely plays a huge part in this holiday, Halloween is also about dressing up as monsters.  Ghouls and goblins are definitely par for the course for Halloween, but the two of the most popular monsters associated with Halloween are vampires and werewolves.  While I initially intended to do separate posts for each one, I feel that these two are so intrinsically tied with each other and the holiday, that I think it’s a better idea to combine the two into one post.  Vampire movies have been around since nearly the beginning of the medium.  One of the earliest examples is Nosferatu, starring Max Schreck.  One of the earliest werewolf movies released was 1941’s The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney, Jr.  While vampires have become more popular over the years, werewolves are just as terrifying.  I think everybody knows what these two monsters are, so I will refrain from explaining them.  This post will delve into my favorite vampire and werewolf movies.  Let’s sink our teeth into these ones.

Dracula(1931)

What can I say about this film that hasn’t already been said?  It’s a classic in every sense of the word.  Based on the Bram Stoker novel of the same name, the film follows a mysterious Transylvanian count as he makes his way to England.  As it turns out, this mysterious figure is Count Dracula, and he’s searching England for a bride.  The other thing is, is that he’s a vampire, needing to drink human blood to survive.  This is definitely Bela Lugosi’s film, through and through.  Not only is he charming and charismatic, he’s also scary as hell when he needs to be.  The actor’s natural Hungarian accent helps make the character one of the most iconic on-screen villains of all time.  Of all the classic monster movies, Dracula stands tall above every single one of them.  87 years later, the film still has an impact on audiences around the world.  That’s how good this movie is.

The Wolfman(2010)

2010’s remake of the classic The Wolf Man is one that I completely forgot about.  I know people have often ragged on the 2010 film, but I found it to be a very entertaining film.  Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Hugo Weaving really help bring this story to life.  It’s about a man who has to return home when he finds out that his brother has been killed by a mysterious beast.  As it turns out, this beast is a werewolf that only appears during the full moon.  While out hunting for the beast, Ben Talbot is bitten and left for dead.  Some time after, he begins to change into something monstrous.  While I can’t say that the 2010 film is better than the Lon Chaney film, I actually found this one to be more entertaining.  It has some interesting twists and turns woven into it that make it a little more interesting.  It’s not a perfect film, but I really dig the setting and the atmosphere here.  The gore and creature designs don’t hurt, either.

Underworld

While Underworld isn’t the first film to bring the two legendary monsters together, it’s definitely the most stylish.  The film follows a group of vampires led by the beautiful, yet, deadly Selene as they hunt down their enemies, the lycans, or werewolves.  The two species have been locked into a never-ending war for the last 1,000 years.  After the success of The Matrix, a lot of movie studios that it would be cool to have their heroes dressed in black and wearing a trench coat.  In the case of Underworld, it kind of works.  It’s not by any means a great movie, but it has a lot of good things going for it.  The creature designs are really cool, as the werewolves are generally done with men in suits, making them seem real.  The fight sequences are pretty good, if a bit generic.  What really sells this film is the cast.  You have Kate Beckinsale as Selene and she is fantastic.  It also doesn’t hurt that she’s a stunning woman and she looks even better clad in black.  Bill Nighy is simply fantastic as Victor, a vampire Elder.  Michael Sheen also does a good job as Lucien, the leader of the werewolves.  The film does blur the line between who are the “good guys” and who are the “bad guys.”  Say what you will about the sequels to Underworld, but the first movie is one of my favorites.

30 Days of Night

I actually reviewed this one a little while back, so if you want to check out my review of 30 Days of Night, you can hit the reviews tab at the top of the page.  Based on the graphic novel of the same name, 30 Days of Night is set in Barrow, Alaska.  During winter at one point, the sun goes down for 30 days, leaving the town in perpetual night.  During this particular event, the town is beset by a group of ravenous and vicious vampires that lay waste to what’s left of the population.  To say that this is a brutal vampire movie is an understatement.  As I stated in my review, these vampires are a far more vicious kind of beast than you see in other movies.  They behave more like animals and that makes them even more terrifying.  The leader, Marlow, is one of the scariest vampires I’ve ever seen in a movie, and Danny Huston just brings the savagery to the character.  It’s bloody, violent and dark.

Dog Soldiers

While I mentioned Dog Soldiers in my post about the best British horror movies, the film still belongs on this list.  Director Neil Marshall’s first feature-length film is a horror movie knock-out.  Not many directors can say that their first movie will go down as one of the best horror movies of the early 21st century.  The film follows a group of British S.A.S soldiers as they are being stalked by a group of gigantic werewolves.  The effects of the film are outstanding, as they are all practical.  It’s a gory movie for sure as one guy is disemboweled and still lives.  It’s bizarre, but it works.  The werewolves themselves are like something of a goddamn nightmare.  They’re like 10-11 feet tall and they are massive.  But they can also move.  The cast includes Sean Pertwee of Event Horizon and Liam Cunningham of Game of Thrones.  It’s an incredibly wild film that no horror fan should miss.

From Dusk Till Dawn

If, for some reason, you knew absolutely nothing about this movie going in, without seeing trailers or any kind of marketing, you might be forgiven for thinking that this film starts out as a crime thriller.  Yeah…..no.  It starts off that way, but it turns into something even more crazy about 30 minutes in.  From Dusk Till Dawn follows two hardened criminals as they kidnap a family and make their way towards Mexico, only stopping at a bar called the Titty Twister.  Stopping here turns out to be a mistake as the owner’s and employees turn out to be demonic vampires and basically slaughter all the customers.  This movie stands out for a number of reasons.  First of all, the cast is incredible: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Cheech Marin, Salma Hayek, and the legendary Fred Williamson all have outstanding parts in the film.  It is absolutely one of the most bonkers vampire movies I have ever seen in my life and we have Robert Rodriguez to thank for it.

Those are some of my favorite vampire and werewolf movies.  Halloween is literally two days from now, as of this writing, so I will be wrapping up this series tomorrow.  I will also have something special for you folks on Halloween day, so be sure to stick around for that.  This has absolutely been one of my most satisfying projects that I’ve done for this site, and I hope you all feel the same way.  So…stay tuned as I wrap up this special series of The Best.

With Halloween less than a week away, I think it’s about time we talk about the supernatural aspects of Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, as it was once called way back in the day.  One of the stories about Halloween is that the reason why people dress up at this time of year, is because the line between this world and the next is thinner and basically allows spirits from the next world to come into ours.  Dressing up as ghouls and goblins was supposed to protect people from evil spirits while also allowing people to remember those that have passed.  While most people would associate Halloween with Trick or Treating and parties, the actual meaning of the holiday was far more spiritual, especially for the Celts in ancient Ireland.  It is very much a religious holiday for certain groups.  That being said, the element of the supernatural has permeated many things including literature and film.  For this post, I’m going to be going over my favorite supernatural movies.  These tend to include all aspects of the supernatural including magic, Hell, demons, angels, possession and all other sorts of good stuff involving the supernatural.  So…let’s conjure up some fantastic movies.

Warlock

My first true introduction into the horror genre actually belongs to Warlock’s sequel, The Armageddon, but this is the better film.  While it’s not a absolute classic by any stretch of the imagination, Warlock definitely has its fans, with me among them.  In Warlock, a 17th century warlock is transported to the 20th century to find the Grand Grimoire, the bible of black magic.  On his trail is a witch hunter named Redferne, also from the 17th century, who is trying to find and kill the warlock before he destroys the world.  The setup for the film is pretty unique, and it really toes the line between fantasy and horror.  The two standouts of the film are Julian Sands as the warlock and Richard E. Grant as Redferne.  Julian Sands makes for an incredible villain and Richard Grant actually plays a good guy this time around, and he’s very convincing.  The film definitely has a sense of humor, because of the whole “fish-out-of-water” thing, but it’s done in a way that feels real and not winking at the audience.  The visual effects, while not overly grand, are still pretty good even nearly 30 years later.  It’s a pretty solid film, if flawed, that fans of the genre should check out.

Wishmaster

It’s not very often that you get a film about an evil genie.  Wishmaster is about a Djinn, an ancient demonic entity, who can grant wishes in a very twisted way, but only granting three to the one who woke him.  On the granting of the third, the gates to the Djinn’s world will open and the apocalypse will begin.  Wishmaster differentiates itself from other slasher films in a number of ways.  The Djinn has unlimited power, but he can’t use it unless someone wishes for something.  He grants it, but in a very gruesome way, and takes your soul as a result.  Andrew Divoff just nails it as this evil genie.  The film also has cameos from other big-name horror icons like Tony Todd, Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, and Ted Raimi.  The effects are mostly good, with some really questionable CGI every once in a while.  The opening scene of the film is absolutely bonkers.  This is a franchise that really could have taken off if it had gotten more attention.  As it stands, the original Wishmaster and the sequel are pretty good, and come highly recommended.

End of Days

Now, some people might wonder why I’m putting an Arnold Schwarzenegger film in a post about supernatural movies.  Shouldn’t Schwarzenegger movies belong in the action genre?  Yes, and no.  This one definitely belongs in this list because Arnold Schwarzenegger is going up against the most powerful villain, Satan.  The film is about Satan being released from Hell every 1,000 years to hunt for a woman that will give birth to the Anti-Christ.  Doing so would unlock the gates of Hell, destroying the world.  Have you noticed a particular theme about the supernatural and the end of the world?  While I wouldn’t say that End of Days is a classic Schwarzenegger film by any stretch, it’s still a pretty different film for him, given the complex themes that are involved with the story.  He actually plays a relatively normal person in the film.  However, it’s Gabriel Byrne that steals the show as this film’s interpretation of the Devil.  He delivers that swagger and charm that you would expect from the Devil taking human form, while being extremely threatening at the same time.  While this is definitely an action film, there’s more than enough dark religious imagery that sets this apart.  Some critics who like the film have tried to compare the film to The Exorcist.  It’s not even close.  Speaking of which….

The Exorcist

I don’t what it was about the 1970’s, but the horror movies released during that decade were insane.  The Last House on the Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Alien were absolutely incredibly terrifying horror movies.  The one that stands above them all in my opinion is The Exorcist.  Released in 1973, this shocker followed a woman whose daughter’s behavior was getting stranger and stranger as time goes on, to the point where she thinks the girl is possessed.  As a result, she requests an exorcist to help.  What makes this film so unique and special is in its approach to exorcism.  Any Catholic priest, when confronted with the idea of a possessed person, would tell the family of that person to seek a psychiatrist first.  The first half of the film builds tension to the point of it becoming unbearable, and then the film really goes bat-shit crazy.  It’s all handled in a way that’s done realistic.  The make-up effects are incredible and Linda Blair’s performance is extraordinary.  The reaction to the film was as shocking as the film itself with a lot of people really loving the movie and others fainting or vomiting because of it.  Others took to threatening Linda Blair and her family.  When things settled down after, a lot of people would agree that The Exorcist is one of the greatest horror films ever made.  It has made such an impact that nobody has dared to remake this film.  Somebody made a TV series a couple of years ago, but it’s not the same.

The Omen

While I wouldn’t put The Omen on the same level as The Exorcist, it’s still a pretty solid thriller in its own right.  While the events in the film seem to indicate a supernatural presence, the film actually goes out of its way to answer those questions directly, instead relying the audience to come to its own conclusion about what’s going on.  Are the murders the result of some demonic presence trying to protect Damien, or are they just a series of random coincidences?  This is definitely more of a psychological thriller, but it does leave you questioning how much of the supernatural is involved.  While the film does point to the supernatural at certain points, you’re never 100 percent sure.  It’s that level of uncertainty that really ups the tension in the film.  How they managed to get Gregory Peck involved in the film is beyond me, but it works.  It’s a pretty dark ride.  Definitely recommended.

The Witch

The best horror films don’t rely on jump-scares to scare the hell out of people.  It’s often the slow-burn, tension-building, and atmospheric detail that gets under people’s skin.  Unlike End of Days, I would actually compare The Witch to The Thing in certain respects, especially about the unknown.  Is it better?  No, but in some ways it’s on the same level of power.  The film is about a Puritan family so extreme that the other Puritans have exiled them to the country side, leaving them to fend for themselves.  While out in the wilderness, the family begins to notice strange things happening, and when the baby goes missing, all fingers are pointing to one of their daughters, event though an actual witch may be involved.   The isolation, paranoia and the danger of religious fundamentalism all play a part in the film’s events.  I’ve only seen the film once, but it definitely left an impression.  It’s an incredible thriller, but you have to have patience.  It’s slow-going, but it is outstanding.  I would actually argue that The Witch is the best film of its kind since The Exorcist.

While there are other movies out there that deal with the supernatural, these are the ones that I think are the absolute best.  Four days, folks.  Four days until the big day itself: Halloween.  I have to admit, I’ve had a lot of fun with these October posts.  I’ve actually had more fun making these ones than some of the posts I made earlier in the year.  I’ve got one, maybe two more Best of October posts in me before I wrap all this up.  For Halloween, I’m planning a special review.  I don’t know what it is yet, but it’s going to be good, so stay tuned.