October 22nd

Tonight was J's horror movie night at his place, complete with expertly crafted intermission material for the between-movie times.  Sweet Dagon, that Beyond Re-animator video was awful!  Seven full-fledged horror movie geeks tore into these gems:


House (1977) directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
Or, How-Soo, as we like to say it.  One of the most insane horror movies ever made.  The director based it on ideas his 7-year-old daughter had.  Awesome.  Essentially, it's a haunted house / body count movie in which a bunch of teen girls are killed.  There's lots of those, right?  Yeah, but probably not a lot with a piano that eats a girl, but then the girl's body parts continue to play the piano anyway.  Doubtful there are any at all with a cannibalistic ghost who uses her fridge as a shortcut to the rafters, or a naked schoolgirl swimming in a enormous pool of blood, or a girl getting killed by pillows or a man turning into a pile of bananas. Colorful, unique and entertaining as hell. (8/10)




Trick 'r Treat (2007) directed by Michael Dougherty
My second Halloween watching this movie.  I think it's definitely on the "must watch every year" list now and I really like Sam as a mascot for the season. I'm still not a fan of the comic book transitions, for which I can see no real point. This time around, I noticed that it cleverly covers every age group's celebration of the season.  We've got kids trick 'r treating (and scaring each other), teenagers drinking and partying (and eating each other), middle-agers retiring early (and failing to have sex with each other) and an old person being grumpy about the entire day.  It's neat that every way people generally celebrate the day gets some representation, though they were missing the movie geeks doing a horror movie marathon (my people).

But, damn, I wish I lived in a town that had such an insane Halloween parade in the streets.  Seriously, what town does this?  I want to move... (8/10)




The Dark Side of Midnight (1984) directed by Wes Olsen

There was a call for something silly for the last movie of the night.  Luckily, I never go anywhere without my TDSoM DVD easily accessible.  Written, directed, produced and starring Wes Olsen, a self-described "sex maniac" and "regular Don Juan."  Watching a truly horrible movie with a bunch of people is always fun.  There always seems to be one little thing in a bad movie that cracks everyone up and becomes a long-lasting joke.  Tonight's: the word "crawlhole."  For some reason, this is how one of the characters describes the hole in the ceiling that leads to the attic.  I think he might have meant crawlspace, but who knows?  Anyway, it got a huge laugh and everyone was using the word "crawlhole" at every possible opportunity ("How many people can they fit in that crawlhole?", "Always check your crawlhole for creepers," etc.).  Also amusing: the preponderance of mustaches in the movies.  We determined that a drinking game based on seeing a mustache in the movie would shortly result in death.

Kinda draggy after they decide early on not to try any more gore effects, but bad movie gold for a group to riff on. (6/10)