Haunted Movie Marathon 2012 - Week 2

I can't believe it's already mid-October! Time certainly flies. It's finally cooling down in San Francisco, and nights are feeling spookier and spookier! As always, first viewings are in orange, rewatches are in black. (May contain light spoilers.)

October 8th

Perfect Blue (1997)
A true anime horror/thriller classic. I've always been very fond of this film, and everything from Satoshi Kon. This was the first movie of his that I watched, and it's still amazing every time I see it.

October 9th

Trick or Treat (1986)
This movie is way too much fun. A violent rock star gets resurrected when his album is played backwards and wreaks havoc, culminating in an explosive Halloween night concert. I'm just about dying to see someone pull off a Sammi Curr costume. Cameos from Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne just sweeten the utter delight that is this movie.

October 10th

Hellraiser (1987)
I wasn't intending to include Hellraiser in this month's films because I already did so last year, but seeing as how it's one of my all-time favorite movies, it made its way onto the list. I don't have much else to say about it...just watch it if you haven't already. And if you have already seen it, watch it again.

October 11th

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)
This was my first time watching any of the other Hellraiser films. I've heard a lot of mixed things, but figured the second one was at least worth a shot. I actually really enjoyed it. There are a lot of great gory scenes and the plot at least somewhat holds together. I tried to watch Hellraiser 3 later on and deemed it literally unwatchable after about 15 minutes. I rarely turn movies off, but yeah, definitely skip that one.

October 12th

Dreamaniac (1986)
Ugggh, god this was bad. It's full of unsexy sex scenes and side ponytails. (I'm pretty sure they spent 80% of their budget on hair scrunchies.) It's so shittily acted and shot that even the 3-4 gory death scenes couldn't redeem it for me. I actually spent most of this viewing Skyping on my phone so, uh, yeah. Don't watch it.

October 13th

Halloween (2007)
I'm very fond of the original Halloween, so I was highly skeptical about watching this, but my roommate kept insisting that it was excellent. After watching it, I do not disagree at all. It's beautifully shot, well-acted, and true to the original, while at the same time adding a ton of new stuff. I loved it.

October 14th

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
It's pretty much my mission in life to get people to watch this movie. I've seen it quite a few times (and I listen to the soundtrack pretty often) and it never gets old. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly recommend it. And if you don't like it, you are dead to me.

Hope you enjoyed week 2! Tune in next time when I will probably make up some movies that I didn't actually watch because I'll be on a road trip for half of next week.

Haunted Movie Marathon 2012 - Week 1

Yes, it is that time, finally! I have to admit, I got pretty antsy during the last week of September. I did actually sneak in a few warm-up horror movie watchings (which I may rewatch and review here later.) As always, first viewings are in orange, rewatches are in black. (May contain light spoilers.)

October 1st

Re-Animator (1985)
I decided to start with a classic. Re-Animator has a firmly-fixed spot on my "movies I could watch forever and never tire of" list, and this viewing certainly did not disappoint. I am not ashamed to admit how sexy I find Jeffrey Combs.

October 2nd

Prince of Darkness (1987)
I'm just going to copy pasta the Facebook status I made about this film for this review: Prince of Darkness has everything I have ever wanted in a film: Victor Wong, Alice Cooper, people exploding into bugs and puking into each other's mouths, a decapitated corpse picking up her own head, and a guy getting stabbed by a bicycle.

October 3rd

Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
As much as I love Re-Animator, I had never bothered to watch the sequels (I have Beyond Re-Animator on my list for later), so I was eager to fire this one up! I, of course, completely fell in love with it. I think my favorite part was the creature made of fingers and an eyeball, and the dog getting a human hand grafted onto it. Greatly looking forward to finishing up the trilogy later this month.

October 4th

Monster Dog (1984)
Put Alice Cooper in anything and I will watch it. Monster Dog is a terrible, terrible movie starring Alice Cooper as Vincent Raven, the world's most popular rock star. Don't get me wrong here: it's a shitty movie. The plot makes absolutely no sense, jumps around everywhere, the acting is atrocious, and the dubbing never syncs up. That said, I greatly enjoyed it. The best part by far is the opening music video, followed by the second musical number somewhere in the middle. Highly recommended for Alice Cooper fans and/or a bad movie night selection.

October 5th

Madhouse (1974)
It's no secret that I adore Vincent Prince. I feel like the Halloween season cannot truly start until I hear his voice, ideally talking about murdering some blonde tartlet. I actually thought this film was really well-done, and it had a cool plot twist at the end. It's a very meta film; Vincent Price is practically playing himself, and they even show clips from several of his films. Very fun.

October 6th

TerrorVision (1986)
I cannot believe how incredible this movie is. It's a sickeningly colorful, hilarious, over-the-top cheesy, awful-but-fantastic-at-the-same-time alien invasion film where the day is saved with the power of heavy metal (seriously.) Please trust me when I say you really will not regret watching this movie.

October 7th

Slither (2006)
Slither has been on my list for quite awhile, and I'm thrilled my roommates agreed we should all watch it Sunday night! I never actually saw the appeal of Nathan Fillion before, but now I have a full-on crush on him. Slither is gross, freaky, scary, and funny. Highly recommended.