RIP George Romero, he was the Zombie movie pioneer.

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It's that time of year again.

To start, shameless self promotion:

Let's kick off Halloween Month with a look at the Halloween specials from one of the greatest animated series of all time, The Simpsons. Here, I will discuss my top 10 favorite segments from the franchise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8iZPZZBEA

What movies have you either recently watched in anticipation for the month or plan to watch? I jsut completed a whole slew of Vincent Price movies and then watched Get Out today.

what halloween? I've been celebrating christmas and watching christmas movies since september.

lol

House on Haunted Hill - This is my second time watching this movie and it was even better than it was the first time. What's funny is I was even more engaged in the film despite knowing the twist. You know it's a great movie when that happens. There are some flaws in the plan though and I feel it should have been about 10-15 minters longer. 9/10.

The Exorcist - This was the first time I have watched this movie since 2001 and my feelings have changed on it, at least from a cinematic level. The first hour is developed quite well and I love the scenes that take place in Iraq. There are also a ton of beautiful shots to be had here. Unfortunately, things kind of dip in quality in the second hour when the possession actually occurs just because I find it to be utterly hysterical at how serious everyone is able to take this situation. The visuals remain top notch and the camera work is impressive, but I can not help but laugh every time possessed Reagan opens her mouth to say something. On one hand, I can understand why people were scared by this movie in 1974 as I'm sure having a 12 year old girl talk with such obscenities was shocking to many. These days, it's pretty normal. I also feel like the exorcism scene drags on for way too long. Still, it does a lot to make us really care for the girl's mother and the situation she is in, along with the frustration she feels when not a single doctor knows how to actually help her. I'm raising my original score of a 6 to an 8/10 and I also see its impact on the genre it made then.

BTW, I have a horror book that was actually published in 1974 and the author talks about how he hopes the gross body and gore this movie displays does not become the norm for horror. I wonder if he is still alive today and what he thinks about horror now.

^^^
While I overall like the Exorcist and respect its position as a classic horror movie I also have always found it to be overhyped in the actual scare department. If you're not a person with spiritual belief then the movie loses a lot of weight as a horror, it's still well made and everything but it's just not scary.

Cult of Chucky - I really liked Curse of Chucky, so I was expecting it to be more of the same, but maybe with some good twists or something. I have no idea what the hell I sat though, but it was as generic and cookie cutter as if it were aired on the sci-fi channel. What the hell was this? The movie looked so cheap, but not in the stylish horror kind of cheap. The plot, if that is what you can call it made no sense. The characters were nothing more than a body count, and the ending was just terrible. THe only parts I did like was when Chucky was creeped out by the schizo lady and then when he couldn't decide whether or not to kill the doctor dude. Other than that, this movie was garbage. Also, what was the point of even having the kid from the original in this thing? God damn that was utterly lame. Unless you have to watch every Chucky movie, skip it. It's a 4/10.

We also watched the first five episodes of Garo from Kraken's BD and the quality is exceptional. The audio really packs a bunch as my subwoover was constantly booming and the dialog is quite clear despite being only in stereo. The video quality is just as impressive and clean. Gone is the really blurry look, and yet, it still retains its atmosphere. My only complaints are with how generic the disc menu is (it's just the episode titles in front of some gears) and the English subtitles can not be turned off. Translations are spectacular and I haven't noticed any grammatical or spelling errors. In fact, it is pretty nice watching this series subbed again as I haven't watched it subbed since 2006 as I had always rewatched it through my Region 2 DVDs

As always, these episodes are a blast to watch with my favorite being the fifth episode (one that deals with a girl and two guys in a warehouse) because the Horror is so creepy. Although, my favorite design of the five Horrors so far is the chain lady one. So amazing looking. Too bad the second volume doesn't come out until Dec as it would have been nice to watch the whole series this month.

Too much film, not enough figures.

I have completed my Remco Universal Monsters set. Back row top are the glow, front row top are the non glow. Figures in the foreground are all of the Funko Universal Monsters. Now all I need is a decent Monsterizer.
https://i.imgur.com/GGpRrbf.jpg


CCC.

Those are kind of cool.

Sadly, I don't collect Universal monster figures. I had thought about the Diamond Select series, but decided I really didn't need another line to collect in my already crowded collection. The Creature from the Black Lagoon Gillman looked down right amazing though.

I was browsing the local action figure store the other day and stumbled across some Funko Universal Monsters ReAction figures. As I was flipping through them, I got a hearty laugh. The Invisible Man "figure" was strictly the card backing hanging on the hook.

I'm not sure if it was a joke by the store owners or if some prankster had been at work. Regardless, it gave me a good chuckle.

They Live - What can I say that I haven't been saying for the last few years of watching this movie? A solid 9/10.

Also watched the next disc to the fourth season of Tales from the Crypt and some Simpsons Halloween episodes.

I really like it and frankly if they were lazy and repainted it in black and white I would buy it again. I'm upset that they seem to have stopped the classic monsters line, an updated Invisible Man would have been great for me.
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Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about the movie now...I find myself engrossed in the story due to the cinematography and acting. The fx spectacle stuff kind of intrudes on all that in a way but, I still find it entertaining and some of it disturbing.
I grew up deathly afraid of this movie from my mom telling me she had nightmares for weeks after seeing it and classmates talking about it so it was a huge deal for me to watch it at the time.
Also, I visited the staircase a couple of years back...and I find the fact that a stuntman tumbled down those steps (albeit padded) quite impressive cause its practically a sheer vertical drop.



I only had the glow in the dark versions of the Remco figures and only saw that in the stores (the Phantom of the Opera languished at my local Kmart for years) so I never realized those were variants.

Interesting as my mom said she laughed her ass off the entire movie when I was growing up.

"I've seen the Exorcist about a hundred and sixty-seven times and it keeps getting funnier every single time" -Beetlejuice

lol

Anyway, I finished Tales from the Crypt Season 4 today.

Paramount planned to end the Friday the 13th franchise with The Final Chapter, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut it made too money. Thus, the franchise continued despite Jason's apparent death. Is the latest installment a grand new beginning, or should this series have stayed buried six feet under? Watch to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN8Vrsqha00

Night of the Living Dead - This is one of the few remakes I think outdoes its predecessor. Tony Todd does an awesome job, but Barbara is actually a character in this thing instead of just a damsel in distress gimmick. It's far from a perfect movie, but it is an entertaining one. 8/10.

Today we finished the first disc to Garo Season 1 and watched Treehouse of Horror IV.

"Mr Simpson, I'll be defending you. Matlock was on at the bar last night, sound was off, but I think I got the gist."

The Fly - Such an intriguing movie with a well told story and as always, Vincent Price is excellent. Actually, the entire cast is great. It's not a perfect movie, yet, I can't really explain its flaws. I give it a 9/10.

Also know as Frankenstein Conquers the World. Back in the 60s Toho was given the opportunity to use the Frankenstein monster around the same time they were able to use King Kong. Thus, a plan was set in motion to pit the two monsters against each other until Godzilla was thrown into being Kong's adversary. This caused ideas to be bounced around until Toho finally released a movie in 1965 starring the undead Prometheus while also pitting him against a new monster named Baragon. Is Frankenstein vs Baragon as lively as the creature's heart, or should it have died with its creator? Watch to find out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZUfVK_a-o

The Return of the Fly - Good god was this a snoozefest. The only positive I can give it is that it was at least better than the Phibes sequel. For a movie that clearly has to be like 10-15 years after the original, Vincent Price sure didn't look like he had aged more than a day. Not to mention the many contradictions it made to its predecessor. Like the wife says she erased the chalk board in the lab, and she did, but Andre's kill me stuff is still on it in this movie. Not to mention Andre destroyed all of his notes, yet, his journals are all lying there on the table when Philippe walks into the lab. The cookie cutter treacherous friend was pretty damn predictable, but then they had him deal with some funeral palor dude without even giving the guy an introduction. He just walks in there and all like, "I'm going to sell you stuff to make money," and he's all like, "Cool." Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "Who are you and how does this guy even know you?" None of this made sense. The ending was also quite abrupt as if Price told them to just stop filming. Overall, another lackluster horror movie sequel that tries to be bigger than the original by missing everything the original was about. OH, and putting the movie in black and white was just stupid and made it feel even more cheap than it was. A generous 5/10.

Well we watched the first disc today of Stranger Things and damn, this show is what American Horror Story should have been. It's pretty enjoyable thus far with a great mystery, conspiracy theories, a possible monster, and a Silent Hill-esque alternate world. Love the constant X-Men remarks the toothless kid makes towards 11.

The one thing I want to see more than anything is Edward Cullen... I mean Steve, having a slow and painful death at the hands of whatever the monster is.

The music rocks, although, the Blu-Ray is probably one of the worst Blu-Rays I have ever encountered. Unskippable trailers at the beginning of the disc (one of which is like a 4 minute trailer for Season 2, which makes no sense to put on for Season 1). Secondly, they didn't bother to put a chapter stop after the opening credits to the show, so you either have to sit through the credits every time or fast foward through them, which can be annoying depending on the player. Thank the gods the PS3 makes fast forwarding simplistic.

If we didn't have friends coming out in the next hour, I would totally watch the other disc right now. Oh well, I can wait until tomorrow.

The Thing - 10/10

So we finished the first season of Stranger Things just a few minutes ago and I really don't see a need for there to be a second season. This was just perfect. There is no way another season is going to be on par with this one. I loved every minute of it. The bits in the alternate world were down right phenomenal and the payoff to the monster was well worth the build up. Just absolutely wonderful. This may be Netflix's best show ever.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, since there IS a second season, HOLY CRAP I NEED TO SEE IT NOW!!! IN FACT, FORGET STREAMING IT NETFLIX, JUST GIVE IT TO ME ON BLU-RAY RIGHT NOW!!!! I WILL BUY IT WITHOUT WAITING A SECOND!!!!!!!!!