Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

  I had a nice Halloween today. It was overcast here and a bit chilly, but when I went for a walk in my nearby park, there were so many leaves and pine needles on the little asphalt path I take, it definitely felt like fall. I took the day off and just enjoyed the day. My teenager kids came in on Friday with pumpkins so I carved jack-o'-lanterns which I'll add in this post and later watched Halloween as part of Joe Bob Briggs' Halloween Hootenanny, that happened just after the release of the 2018 film. So many YouTube takes on the entire Halloween franchise, lots of posts about the most recent film, which my wife liked and daughter loved, and every kind of video and Letterboxd review imaginable I've read and watched this month and up to October. I'm absolutely burned out and can say assuredly that I completely embrace retiring anything related to John Carpenter and Debra Hill's classic 1978 horror film. Let Myers truly stay dead for a while...pretty please?

Meant for Letterboxd, once again I got write-happy and perhaps put together too much of a novelization I had to segment. Here it will be in full as I close out October 2022: I like how while this is a follow-up to "Curse", Frankenstein (going by Dr. Stein) is somewhat different in how Cushing portrays him from the Baron of the previous Hammer success. The murdering adulterer willing to stoop to certain scummy levels seems a bit less hideous in personality. Though he's perfectly fine with a priest replacing him at the guillotine, assisted by Karl (Quitak), wanting his brain placed in a body put together piecemeal by Frankenstein and out of a disabled shell he finds cumbersome and ugly, "Dr. Stein" isn't as psychopathic, setting up a practice at Carlsbruk, three years developing his reputation even as he serves as a "voluntary charity doctor" for the poor and destitute (many of whom are criminals). Dr. Stein does take parts from them, surgically excu

 I had to shorten my Letterboxd review but I'll go ahead and add something on a film so often talked about in the past as I go through Hammer weekend now. -- I’m thinking when Father Sandor tells you not to go to Carlsbad, it’s best to listen to him. However, outsiders from England, The Kents, don’t, instead opting to travel to Carlsbad, left stranded by a refusing coachmen who will not look at Castle Dracula. Other horses with no coachmen arrive and the Kents decide to hop into the coach and position to drive to Carlsbad, taken to Castle Dracula, eventually endangered (or killed) by Dracula and his servant, Klove. Father Sandor, obviously, will have to match wits with Dracula, and either contain or destroy the evil before his vampire bite becomes an infestation threatening anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted. Klove isn’t the only one Dracula will use to gain advantage when available: Thorley Walters’ Ludwig, with troubled mind and feeble mental strength, has a home at Sandor’

Shredding: I grew up addicted to X-games and skateboarding/snowboarding content around 1998-ish. You know, following the exploits of talents as they travel from place to place living the dream. And, for some reason, Bitchcraft reminded me of The Donnas or something akin to maybe Hole. So this footage on a VHS tape had those kinda vibes. The converging of footage of the band looking to make it big and friends goofing off and looking for whatever next thrill might happen sort of made sense considering when there would be tracking/white noise “blips”, each would pop up and intrude on the other. It was inevitable the band might emerge as some type of zombies or ghouls (I just figured they sold their souls for success and maybe somehow died) ready to tear apart of the merry band of thrill-seeking youths intruding upon their former stage. I have to say that all of the cast look like TikTok Gen Z so that took away some of the authenticity, but minor grapes, I guess. The “Double Dare” Nick tee

 I used to just love Octobers and while the month is probably my favorite along with December, it can be a real nightmare. It's like I have all these movies that often remain mainstays and feel essential as annual watches within the month. And a couple of years ago during the Pandemic era I thought I'd just watch all of them prior to October and relieve myself of that burden. That I could just watch one film a night and not feel as if I was cheating on the month like   owing sex to someone via a contract or something. I am not OCD but first world problems I guess. There is just something in my brain, like these debates about enjoying the month and season without applying this insane expectation of getting all the shit in before the 31st. I have been trying to get my reviews in for all the classics in Letterboxd so I could start to watch first-time viewed horror films. It's just like so many others, it is quite a tall order to do. So eventually by the third week of the mont

The old box set. I thought I would post it for fun. I still have the Blair Witch emblem! I can't remember where the brown string went. I also took a pic while watching the film below.

 No matter where I am, I'm always a sucker for Halloweeny items!

I totally get why anyone who takes a chance on a little chiller that is barely over 60 minutes like The Vampire Bat might ask themselves what is the point. I realize there is a niche audience who just enjoys these 30s and 40s B&W horror films, many of them made with very little money, on borrowed or reused sets, with plots just piecemealing elements in the hopes of cashing in on successes that were currently or just recently very popular…sound familiar?  It is no surprise to find Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill, and Dwight Frye were cast in this 1933 cheapie since they had been so noteworthy for “ Doctor X” and “ Dracula ” just a year or two before. Frye, I think, is perhaps the reason to watch this ‘33 film, since a majority of the film takes place within the manor of Dr. Otto (Atwill), a mad scientist (obviously) keeping tissue living outside the body, using blood from victims to continue his experiments, arranging a ruse of the vampire bite (by hypnotizing his assistant and ordering h

 I looked at this on my Letterboxd and in its initial form went long, so I'll add it in its entirety here: It isn’t that I don’t have fun with this shot-in-Yuma “desert road vampire adventure” – this was one of the Movie Gallery shelf filler rentals that would have my fingerprints on the box due to dust collecting – it is just that The Forsaken doesn’t have an original bone in its entire skeletal frame.  Brendan Fehr’s Nick needs to find “an original vampire” turned by Abaddon (angel from the bottomless pit) in order to free himself of a curse he keeps at bay through medication in order to hitch and move during the day. He steals the wallet of LA film editor, Sean (Kerr Smith), taking a sweet ride to Miami. A blown tire is absolutely the worst thing to happen to Sean as this causes an eventual encounter with Nick, who drags him into the mess with original vampire, Kit (Schaech) and his gang (which includes “Okey dokey” doof, Pen (Rex, actually rather amusing and not as obnoxious t

I had a realization while watching this: this would be so much better as a Haddonfield anthology horror film that perhaps might have worked <i>after</i> <b>Halloween Ends</b>. See, I think this isn’t a bad idea if it wasn’t promising the ultimate MICHAEL MYERS VS. LAURIE STRODE showdown as its major headline. You know, I think a lot less flak would be dished at this if this happened when The Shape was out of the picture. We would have gotten that big showdown, it would satiate fans, and then you could try out this experiment. What hurts is that Halloween fans sort of have certain expectations. Now, I have already read reviews and watched videos from Halloween diehards who actually like that this tried something new. Dammit, I know this film isn’t what I was expecting either. Halloween is seen as Evil in the form of Michael Myers against Laurie or family. Even with Thorn and Dangertainment, usually Myers is after Laurie or those connected to her first. So this un

Riley is a pill-popping alcoholic on the mend trying to find some way of staying clean while feeding an addiction so Trevor gives her sex. Matt is her well-rounded, supportive, patient brother who has clearly tolerated a lot and given her a bedroom out of the goodness of a kind heart that is clearly fed up with the constant drama. Colin is Matt’s nice, live-in boyfriend and Nora is their friend. This is the Scooby Gang, I guess, of the Hellraiser “update”. Trevor pretty much plays Riley for a patsy, luring her eventually to “open the box”, that is the Lament Configuration, a paid prick by a depraved aristocrat in Massachusetts named Roland Voight. So what causes the puzzlebox to “cycle” stage to stage before HellPriest gets her victims? A little blade with a curve that pops out to slit the hands of those who happen to come in contact with it, sometimes by accident or by intention (Matt grabs it when locating his zonked-out sister in a pills-dosed haze spinning on a merry-go-round, Nora

So let me see if got this right. Let me see if I gleaned from this what I thought I did. Your art, craft, talent can conjure madness, perhaps this monster that will possibly or probably destroy you? Whether you are an actress with an opportunity to shine on stage with this acting teacher who spits and noises vitriolic techniques and challenges to his class to pull out of them a monster, descriptively quite hyperbolic, or a musician inspired by a bandmate to try out some new chords that would appear to actually draw out something quite menacing. Maybe you are a snobby painter quick to dismiss your girlfriend's desire to act, pretentiously weighing your work on canvas as more valuable than her passion to perform on stage...and after you challenge yourself in the mirror, asking who you are and if you are a fraud, the real art on canvas comes at your expense. Perhaps you are a novelist of gimmicky horror stories, eventually resting too comfortably on your laurels, resulting in the kill

This is the most pleasant surprise of the year for me personally. I do think West's two films were at the top with me, for sure, but I had NO IDEA this little FF horror satire on YouTube/Twitch/TikTok influencer culture mixed with demonic blood and guts possession comedy would just pop up and be so much fucking fun! Now I read from some of the LB reviewers I follow this had all the wonderful Evil Dead II vibes, and that had me VERY EXCITED, and, sure enough, they couldn't have been more accurate. Shawn can really scream, too! Now, I don't know how much influencers get paid, but, damn, this guy had all the nicest equipment for what looks like a JACKASS knockoff nutjob committed to doing crazy shit for likes, subscribes, and sponsorships.  What I thought was really cool is how those cameras are used, the way the dynamic duo directorial team of Vanessa and Joseph Winter have developed creative workarounds for what we horror fans (and I've done this a lot, I'm the first