Spooky Season Movie Reviews

Spooky Season has come and gone…

(Warning – in some cases there may be some mild spoilers. Nothing too bad, but you’ve been warned!)

1. The Candyman – Jordan Peele does it again. Wonderful, poignant sequel to the original.
2. Malignant – Hurts my brain that someone gave the green light to release this in theaters. Saw it for free and still felt ripped off.
3. Dracula – To see Bela on the big screen was an amazing experience. I noticed so many small details about this movie and Bela’s expressions throughout. The GOAT
4. Frankenstein – The other GOAT. On the big screen I noticed the nuances so much better. Boris Karloff does a spectacular job emoting as the Creature, even under all that makeup. A masterclass in how to build sympathy, even for a monster.
5. The Fog – A tradition that has carried on for years. One of my favorite ghost stories.
6. The Thing (John Carpenter version) – Another yearly tradition. This movie is beyond spectacular. The setting, the atmosphere, the characters, the lines.
7. The Craft: Legacy – Should have been called “The Crap: Legacy” and yes I actually liked the original.
8. Prom Night (Remake) – Totally missed this when it came out. I love anything with Idris Elba in it and I actually like this better than the original.
9. Underwater – Take the Descent and put it at the bottom of the ocean, stir in some Cthulu for good measure and serve. Intense, fast paced story that hits the ground running. I dug it.
10. The Mummy – Another great turn by Boris Karloff as the Mummy. I did notice this time that the Mummy sort of plays like Dracula but in Egyptian cotton, but it’s still great. Karloff is extraordinary.
11. Halloween – Original – Another yearly tradition. This is on another level good. It’s the one that put slasher films on the map, and for good reason.
12. Halloween – 2018 – I think this is a great sequel / reboot. I wish they hadn’t written part 2 out of the canon, as I think it’s a great sequel. But this one does a good job of modernizing the story. Even in old age Michael is a killing machine.
13. The Darkness – Kevin Bacon movie that slipped through the cracks. It’s okay, but nothing memorable. I had to look up the trailer to remember what it was about and I only watched it a few weeks ago. It does do a good job of doing what it does with a next to nonexistent budget. But mostly it’s just meh.
14. Attack of the Crab Monsters – The Professor from Gilligan’s Island goes to an island infested with weird Crab Monsters with the ability to absorb people’s minds and personalities after they eat them. And the crab’s have weird humanoid faces. This was Amber’s induction into the weird world of Roger Corman and it’s all the cheesy goodness.
15. Halloween Kills – It’s Michael vs the World, and for the looks of this film, he has a fighting chance. It’s the transition film of the trilogy so not a lot of plot needle gets moved. But there is a ton of fan service and I loved it.
16. Dracula Has Risen From The Grave – Christopher Lee takes the strong, silent approach to Dracula in this Hammer sequel. After watching this I would say two things keep Dracula alive, blood, and vengeance. He gets plenty of both in this one and the ending is very clever. I love British Horror.
17. The Creeping Flesh – Speaking of which, I had never seen this one. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing continue their run of successfully creepy British Horror films. Although, once he cuts off the monsters finger and starts carrying it around it just looks like a… Well you watch it and decide for yourself.
18. Phantasm II – I’ve never seen this sequel and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand it incorporates a lot of the over the top craziness that the first one used so well. On the other hand, they replace the child actor with a beef cake, more adult version of the same character and it totally changes the dynamics of the movie. It’s like if they did a sequel to Home Alone but recast Kevin with Sly Stallone.
19. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare – Deliciously meta film that serves as a good sign of where Wes Craven was going in future films such as Scream. Basically Wes Craven appears to be writing this movie as it takes place in the “real world”. Don’t think too hard, your brain might explode. Very clever, if sometimes clunky.
20. Prom Night (Original) – Jamie Lee Curtis builds on her scream queen success. This movie is basically Halloween mixed with Carrie. A lot like other horror films from this time, there is a whole lot of nothing going on for most of the movie. I prefer the remake which has better pacing. Also Leslie Nielsen is a major character in the movie and halfway through just disappears. Even the characters in the movie mention that no one has seen him. I wonder if they could only afford him for part of it?
21. You Should Have Left – We should have, but instead we stayed and watched this movie. It’s like the Air BNB version of Ghost Rider. It knows what you did and it will find you and punish you. Kevin Bacon does a good job of looking exasperated for most of this. Of the two Kevin Bacon movies we watched this year, it was my favorite, but the bar was kind of low…
22. The Funhouse – Just one year prior to directing Poltergeist, Tobe Hooper released this hidden gem. I love 80’s horror and this one ticks a lot of boxes. You can also see his signature style, whether it’s creepy characters and settings that keep you properly unnerved, or the lighting effects that would be used to perfection in Poltergeist. I had never seen this before and had a great time.
23. The Mummy (Hammer Studios) – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are at it again. This time as adversaries in the Mummy. Lee does a great job as the mummy Kharis. As he does with Dracula, Lee uses his large frame to imbue a certain animalistic physicality to his character. His eyes also tell a great story of internal conflict during the climax. Have I mentioned, I love British Horror?
24. Friday the 13th part III – Pure nostalgia trip. We taped this off of a TV station when I was young and I’ve seen it probably a million times. The 3D camera angles are hilarious since we didn’t see it in 3D. But this movie is most known for as the movie where Jason finally dawns the hockey mask. And the rest was history… At least until you get to some of the really horrible sequels.
25. The Horror of Dracula (Hammer Studios) – The original telling of Dracula with a few big twists and a rearrange of characters, with wonderful gothic sets and gorgeous outfits. Go out of your way to find this one to see Christopher Lee at the height of his menacing powers.
26. The Cabin in the Woods – I hadn’t seen this one in a really long time. Very clever movie, although watching it now, I think they telegraphed it a bit. Still, it’s a very original take and some of the explanations as to why things happen in horror movies are hilarious.
27. Creature from the Haunted Sea – Why oh why. Roger Corman does a spoof of James Bond spy thrillers mixed with Creature Features. What could possibly go wrong? More like what could possibly go right?
28. Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth – Ah the 90s… This reminds me of my nightclub does, minus the flesh getting peeled off and the buckets of blood. It sort of reminded me of Aliens, in that it took a creepy first movie (In this case two movies.), and made introduced a bit of an action movie element to it. It’s still a really good entry to the Hellraiser series with a very original concept. Too bad the series went off the rails with later entries…
29. Rifftrax: Amityville 4 – The Rifftraks crew rightfully shredded this horrible sequel to Amityville where the evil from the house escapes into a really ugly tree lamp. It’s then gifted a miserly old woman where it proceeds to terrorize the family and attempt to possess a little girl. It’s finally defeated when the old lady finds the strength to throw the lamp out the window and down a cliff. No really, that happened. I wonder if they ever found the plumber’s body?

Well, that’s it for this Spooky Season! As always, I enjoy watching all of these and then giving my thoughts to you. Do you have any suggestions for more spooky movies for us to watch? Send me an email and let me know what we should watch next! Hope you had a great Halloween! Stay spooky everyone!