Six Weeks of Halloween 2007Week 1 (first)
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (trailer)
Sexy Adventures of Van Helsing (trailer)
SNL: "Consumer Probe: Unsafe Halloween Costumes"
The Monster Squad (1987)
Best remembered as teaching us all a valuable lesson on werewolf anatomy, this is also a damned fun kid adventure. (8/10)
d. Fred Dekker
[Why don't they make movies like this anymore? The closest modern kid films I can think of are the Spy Kids movies. Those lack the cusp-of-puberty edge that films like The Monster Squad, The Goonies and Explorers have, however. There doesn't seem to be anyone making movies with realistic kids going on fantastic adventures anymore. Or I'm just too old to notice?]
Trick 'r Treat (trailer)
Two Thousand Maniacs! (trailer)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror V: The Shinning"
Masters of Horror: "The Fair-Haired Child" (2005)
A classically-constructed horror tale containing Crowley-esque demonology, excellent photography and a touch of extreme gore, among other pleasures. (9/10)
d. William Malone
Frailty (trailer)
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (trailer)
Merrie Melodies: "Pigs is Pigs"
Near Dark (1987)
Still my favorite vampire movie of all time; I'm a complete sucker for a horror-romance movie. (9/10)
d. Kathryn Bigelow
The Company of Wolves (1984)
A big stew of sexually-charged symbolism masquerading as a werewolf take on "Little Red Riding Hood" that my brain will be chewing on for a while. (8/10)
d. Neil Jordan
Capping off a weekend of old-schooling hanging out -- probably the last before my baby is born -- Chef Gregory and I enjoyed the above. It had been twenty years since my dad popped in a tape of The Monster Squad for us to watch during a sleepover. I remember the ten-year-old Chef being nervous at the time as the loud, introductory flashback played. "I don't usually watch movies like this," he explained. I was sure to bring this up two decades later. "You all right? Not too scary, is it?" I ribbed. He replied with a curse. We both were surprised at how well the movie held up. It has all of the elements necessary for a cool kid movie: a secret club, an absolutely bad-ass tree house, BMX bike transportation, a vague interest in the opposite sex, an adventure only the kids -- definitely not the adults -- can go on. Good stuff.
Grolschenstein Approves
[comment copied from old blog]
ReplyDeleteMy friend MC tells me that Monster House comes close to the color and tone of 80's kids movies, but I myself couldn't tell you if that were true or not.
Sunday, September 23, 2007, 20:08:48
[comment copied from old blog]
ReplyDeleteI'm getting the new "Monster Squad" DVD for Christmas so I still haven't seen it in years, but to answer your question as to why kids movies like that aren't made anymore?
Probably because companies are afraid of offending parents and parent's group and crap. The same group of people who tone down Saturday Morning Cartoons and encourage a lack of imagination and mediocrty in their kids.
I mean, "The Monste Squad" has kids shooting guns, swearing, and doing other mildly unexceptable behavior. That kind of stuff doesn't fly these days, sadly.
Monday, September 24, 2007, 18:46:10