October 2nd

J and C return for another Halloween Saturday of horror fun.  Earlier the day, a trip to the local farmer's market to buy a witch's hat for the eldest daughter and some pumpkin sugar cookies for myself.  Ah, autumn.


The Astounding She-Monster (1957) trailer
Monsters (2010) trailer
Happy Tree Friends: "Out of Sight, Out of Mime" (2004)


Tales from the Crypt: "People Who Live in Brass Hearses" (1993) directed by Russell Mulcahy
Seeing the credits rolls, we all got psyched.  Bill Paxton, Brad Dourif and great character actor Michael Lerner all star in this one.  Paxton is in full-on angry criminal Severen mode, Dourif plays a "slow" man with a poor understanding of restraint and Lerner is an ice cream truck driver with a surprising talent for puppetry.  The show took a little while to get going, but gets great towards the last half.  In particular, we were all surprised the show didn't take the expected turn of having Lerner's puppet come to life and take revenge for his murder.  The reality was much cooler and funnier and grosser than that.  This is Crypt at its best.


Three on a Meathook (1972) trailer
Hatchet II (2010) trailer
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror XIX: It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse" (2008)


Suck (2009) directed by Rob Stefaniuk
After watching the trailer for this one a couple of weeks ago, I shot it to the top of the Netflix queue knowing it would be a perfect Six Weeks movie.  Just as the trailer promised, it was a bunch of fun.  Somehow, Stefaniuk rangled himself up a great cast that includes Malcolm McDowell, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Dave Foley and Moby as the frontman of a metal band who likes to throw raw meat at his audience.  We follow a struggling rock band whose female bassist gets turned into a vampire one night.  Her vampiric presence on stage -- shot beautifully by Stefaniuk and digitally tweaked to make her look hyperreal -- helps explode their popularity.

It's a bit of the Spinal Tap of rock-n-roll horror movies (and, given certain references to drummers, the filmmakers were probably thinking that direction as well).  I found it very funny, well-shot and the music was actually pretty decent. (8/10)




Viewer Discretion Advised (1998) trailer
Carnies (2010) trailer
Dio: "The Last in Line" (1984)


American Psycho (2000) directed by Mary Harron
Is it just a serial killer movie, or an indictment of upper class America, or is it an exaggeration of how women view men, or a warped view of the 1980s, or is all the violence just a part of Bateman's imagination?  One hallmark of a great movie is its ability to be legitimately interpreted in multiple ways.  Myself, I lean towards the movie indicting the American upper class.  It' not just Bateman whose only apparent emotions are "greed and disgust," as that description seems to fit most of his friends as well.  He's also not the only one who appears to be "simply not there."  Given the interchangeability of the men in the movie -- everyone is constantly mistaken for everyone else -- no one seems to be really there at all.  No one can even be sure if Paul Allen is really in London or not.  More generally, everyone in Bateman's social circle seems to barely exist.  Their only concerns seem to be their status amongst their peers and satisfying certain carnal urges.  To those on the outside, they all seem to be psychos. (9/10)

I think this makes up for the loss of the Halloween Jones Sodas this year.