Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Well, Halloween is about over. As I was writing my final review for Halloween Month, I once again had Carpenter's film in the background playing. That's it. This has been a fun month. I'm pooped. I hope you all have had a good month of horror movie experiences. I have. It seems like Ti West's The Innkeepers has been the movie of this month to kind of travel through the imdb horror board. There's always that film that is on the tips of the tongues and seems to be a topic of conversation and interest. Well, I'm done. Have a nice remaining Halloween.

I am of the opinion that Phantasm is a sort of dream adventure for Michael and Jody and Reggie. Mainly, it is a wish fulfillment fantasy for Michael, who had already lost his parents to an unelaborated death, getting to take on an evil figure known as The Tall Man with help from family pal, Reggie. The Tall Man fronts as a mortician operating Morningside Cemetery, using the bodies of the graves for his own use. With a kid as the hero and his brother as a sort of put upon paternal guardian (although it is established he’s planning to skip town soon and perhaps drop Michael off at their aunt’s house) trying to watch over him and keep him safe, both will eventually have to face The Tall Man, on his turf. Riding a motorcycle, driving his bro’s badass ‘Cuda, packing heat (either a shot gun or Jody’s Colt), evading little dwarf minions (crushed, “downsized” human bodies, forced into servitude for The Tall Man) and a dangerous flying silver sphere that seems to contain a spinning drill...

If there ever was a quintessential Halloween movie, festive and beautifully realized, it is Trick r Treat, a modern anthology that flat blew me away when I first watched it about three years ago. Warren Valley, Ohio is the setting and all of the stories (tied together extremely well, in fact, this is one of the best horror anthologies ever to involve multiple stories, linking them in various ways, sometimes obvious, other times surprising us) and Halloween in this town is kept dutifully and energetically. Leslie Bibb says, “I hate Halloween” and pays a heavy price for trying to remove the decorum populating her and the hubby’s yard, in essence, “breaking the rules”, and earning the ire of the “Halloween Spirit”. Oh, and how she (dressed as an old toy robot) bumps into Laurie (Anna Paquin) is one of the many subtle ways this movie ties all of the various stories. My dad taught me tonight is about respecting the dead because this is the one night that the dead and all s...

working draft Word of warning: this review contains nudity Damn kids. I think that energy can really translate well on screen. If those involved in a movie have enough talent and there’s a really strong joy involved in the making of a movie, not just going through the motions and trying to push out some sort of shit hoping to turn some sort of profit if possible , then magic might can happen.  You can have a cast that shouts dialogue and has overly animated performances, the movie burdened with obnoxious characters spewing rather earsplittingly garbage dialogue (shit like “dropping a load” and “playing with his pet snake”, “sun dried poodle turds”, and people calling each other pussies and bitches and whores), but if enough skill and fun can transport from their hearts to ours it can somehow persevere. It has remained a cult favorite. Well, we do have Linnea Quigley in a ballerina outfit, and her first scene has us looking right at her ass. She spends her time in t...