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| Oh shit, was that a rooster just now? |
I hope everyone had a safe & happy Halloween! For the day itself I took some relatives trick or treating which was a lot of fun. But as I consider Halloween more of a month-long festival (hey if Xmas can do it so can we) I've been trying to celebrate all month, as you can probably gather from this blog. This is more a personal list/reference but also includes one or two line thoughts on all the films I saw and things I read in celebration. I may give a more full examination to any of the media listed here later.
Movies Watched:
In a nice departure from last year I watched all of these films with my girlfriends. I'd seen almost all of these movies before but I believe it was a first-watch for Valerie and Chelsea for all of them. I include their impressions in some of the entries below:
Frankenstein (1931) - Classic, Val and Chelsea agree that it has some pacing issues from a modern perspective but still excellent and deservedly iconic.
Bride of Frankenstein - Probably the best universal monster film if I'm being objective. A masterpiece.
I believe this is the one that got Chelsea really interested in the universal monster canon.
Son of Frankenstein - Karloff's last appearance as the monster manages to set a tone all its own. With sets even more stylized and impressionistic than the first two films and the addition of Bela Lugosi as the murderous Igor this is a must see.
Ghost of Frankenstein - The first time we saw someone else under the monster's make-up in a universal film (in this case Lon Chaney Jr.) the quality was obviously starting to slip here but this is still very enjoyable.
Young Frankenstein - Val loved this one. Better than I remembered. A classic parody.
The Wolf Man - I've seen this movie dozens of times, it was my first universal monster film and I can't look at objectively. Fun but flawed.
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man - Fun movie. Val noted how it was a bit disappointing the actual confrontation between Frankenstein and The Wolf Man is so short, I think everyone who's seen it can agree with that.
The Howling - A lot slower and duller than I remembered, I still like the werewolf effects but this movie has gone down a lot in my estimation.
American Werewolf in London - Probably the best werewolf movie ever made, even if I personally prefer more "half-man half-wolf" style wolves. Definitely one of the greatest horror comedies. Val and Chelsea enjoyed it but they both HATED the ending feeling it way too abrupt.
Bad Moon - Awful, just awful. No character in this movie acted consistently much less intelligently, to the point that it was a major annoyance.
Beetlejuice - Fun, but me and Chelsea agree it's kind of a slow burn.
Deadtime Stories - Fun premise, weird execution, a solid B+ for what it is and sets out to do.
Touch of Satan MST3K - Slower than I remembered, bearable only with the riffing.
The Undead MST3K - Better than I remembered, a good episode.
The Devil's Wedding Night (with host segments by Elvira from the original run of Movie Macabre) - Chelsea: "Why does every horror movie have to have soft core porno in it?" Me: "Well uhhhhh, it made more sense before the internet."
The Creature from the Black Lagoon - Also slower than I remembered, but deserving of classic status.
Revenge of the Creature (1955) - A little better than I remembered it being.
The Mummy (1931) - Slow but with a dreamlike quality, one of the true gems of the universal monster library.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949) - The classic Disney short. Fairly faithful to the source material for what it is.
Nosferatu (1922) - Featuring one of my all time favorite monster designs. Keeps in line with what seems to be a theme this year of me noticing films are slower than I used to think.
Nosferatu (1979) - A weird but enjoyable re-imagining of the original. Val and Chel weren't quite sure what to make of it.
Clue - I finally got them to watch it! Val enjoyed it, I think Chelsea had more mixed feelings. As a rare movie (especially rare for a mystery) designed to be watched more than once maybe they'll enjoy it more the 3rd or 4th time. It's both a superb example and send-up of the "Old Dark House" murder mystery genre.
Dracula (1931) - Classic, though as ever the best parts are the opening in Transylvania.
Dracula's Daughter - Fell flat with my girlfriends, Gloria Holden is good in the lead role but isn't given enough to do. One really wishes they could see the James Whale version that almost was.
The Batman vs. Dracula - This is the only one we watched on Halloween itself. I was impressed by the animation and level of action in this, a good film. Like most people I still vastly prefer the earlier "Batman the Animated Series" incarnation in all respects to the newer "The Batman" cartoon, which from what I've seen aside from this movie is merely decent.
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Books read:
To be honest I was more distracted by D&D books this month than anything, so I didn't read nearly as many spooky things as I had planned.
The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (1910 novel) - Enjoyable, atmospheric. With that (sometimes) charming innocence of so much pre-WW1 European literature.
The Phantom Rickshaw, by Rudyard Kipling (1888 short story) - Eh, it was ok. Fairly typical of the time and genre in structure and finger-wagging moralization.
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And now we've only got 364 days left to plan for next year, we've gotta hurry!
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