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Rewatched the original Halloween. A great classic, but best watched by horror newbies. Folks like me have seen way more terrifying and tense fare. Definitely a perfect choice for your kids or niblings on their first Halloween after turning 13. A rite of passage, if you will.

Wonder if my brother's ex-girlfriend and ex-wife will let me show this to their kids this Halloween. Aside from the infants, the kids are 6-11. Maybe the boys are too young, but their girls are possibly old enough.

If you want tense nightmare fuel I'd recommend the avant-garde film Decasia.

Some letterboxd reviews of it:

This film feels like a nightmare where you are forced to watch all you surroundings, memories and dreams succumb to the inevitably of deterioration.

All the footage is slowly being engulfed by the darkness soon to be completely unrecognizable.

I tried to watch it last night but got freaked out and turned it off ten minutes in. That's usually how we treat our favorite art on first encounter, right?

A beautiful and absolutely terrifying reflection of the passage of time.

The soundtrack is a bit too much at times, but Decasia is more terrifying than half of the films I watched for Hooptober.

Yeah, this was not a good choice for before-bed viewing.

Decasia is almost too distressing to bear. It’s a shot of harsh reality right in your ass. Whatever notion you have about the beauty and magic of the cinema? Yeah, well, movies are just made of film. Film is stuff. Stuff rots, burns, gets torn up and thrown away. The end.

Of course, it can be seen as lazy, as it's really just a montage of film clips edited together with a score, but if you think about it, he probably had to go through hundreds of hours of footage to make this, so it's actually a lot of work.

Moana



This was a really fun movie. It has a rather nice moral message. It leaves you feeling good and it's full of beautiful moments, visually speaking. It's damn funny too. The songs are catchy, my favorite number being the one involving Tamatoa and also the one with the You're Welcome song. I actually found myself interested in the lore and mythology of this world too. I could see other cool movies being based on it.

I think some people don't take kid friendly, family movies seriously, but I love the ones done well, even as an adult. I still enjoy watching the final act of Kung Fu Panda 2 or re-watching the How to Train Your Dragon and Despicable Me movies.

This movie is quality, and it comes from people who did Frozen so that shouldn't be a surprise. There's a funny post credit scene, so it's worth sitting through them

Bill & Ted Face the Music



I really enjoyed this. In fact, I'd say it was better than Bogus Journey. The writing and the jokes felt a bit smarter. It's still a Bill & Ted movie though, so a lot of what happens is utterly ridiculous and nonsensical, and that's a good thing. Interesting seeing Mr. Wick fall right back into being Ted so effortlessly. The girls did a pretty great job of essentially being female versions of their fathers. Samara Weaving is gorgeous by the way, no matter what role she's playing. I know there was some concern that this movie was just about replacing Bill & Ted with two women, something a lot of franchises are doing lately (see 2016 Ghostbusters or the awful new Netflix He-Man series from Kevin Smith that is essentially just one big tribute to Teela). I will just say that it is handled well and while there is definitely a bit of a passing of the torch story here, Bill & Ted are still very much a focal point of the plot and it very much feels like THEIR movie. We also get to see Bill & Ted mature just a little bit in this movie, but they are still very much the two guys we loved in the last two movies.



Face the Music does retread some plot elements from the last two movies, but it feels nostalgic. I smiled a lot while watching this. It has feel good moments, good comedy (with the kind of quirkiness that is very Bill & Ted), shows respect to the last two movies, and I always love seeing comedic movies play around with the insanity of time travel. Time Travel is just so absurd when you try to wrap your head around the idea that it is just rife with comedic potential.

Basically, this feels like a proper Bill & Ted movie and with all the reboots, sequels, and nostalgia fueled cash crabs these days, this is one of the good ones. It gives the series a nice sense of closure too.

Rewatched Halloween (2018) a little bit ago.

For those that don't know, it ignores all the Halloween films after Halloween (1978) and explores the long-term effect on that night in Haddonfield. Laurie Strode has become a recluse with a strained relationship with her daughter and granddaugther, due to her obsession with preparing for Michael's return into her life. But soon, a botched transfer allows Michael Myers to escape.

There's a forthcoming sequel, Halloween Kills, that literally starts right where H'18 ends. Honestly can't wait for the sequel.

New write-ups from the last....two weeks.

(I'm getting marginally better)

X-Ray



A woman goes into the hospital to get the results of a routine physical, and finds herself trapped by doctors and staff who refuse to tell her what's wrong with her, and all because some psycho has tampered with her results and intends to keep her trapped there...and he'll use any method necessary in order to do it.

This one was odd. I know, I know. Most of what I watch is odd. But this one feels especially so. Some of the stuff going on is so ridiculous that I'm not sure whether or not they were trying to make a comedy, or if they just completely botched the horror elements. It's got some nice medical-related deaths, but most of the characters are bonkers, the killer attacks a woman with a sheet, and the plot is confusing as hell. The main horror is supposed to be that this woman is being stalked by a deranged, murderous stranger, but the real horror seems to be how easy it was for the hospital to essentially take a grown woman hostage without giving her any recourse.


The Sleeping Room



An English call-girl is sent out to service a client who's restoring an old home that used to function as a brothel. But while he's busy showing her around, they stumble upon a hidden room and a photograph that may unlock some of the call-girl's deep family secrets.

Interesting little slow-burn horror outing from across the pond. The pacing is a little wonky, with the middle part being a bit of a drag, and some plot elements feel unfinished, as if they were meant to be fleshed out, but the filmmakers never got the chance. But my biggest gripe is the ending. They spend so much time on the build-up, that by the time they get to the end, it feels like they rushed right through it. And the ending itself ends up being both disappointingly anti-climactic AND overdone. Bah. At least the acting and visuals were nice.

Knives Out

Finally a movie that is made more on the art side of things than "aim for max. profit" . Does not follow the usual formula and actually has some thought put into it and try to be unique. Reminded me of movies from 1999. I also appreciate the fact that they jut did not call it Cluedo 2 , and tried something new instead of using the franchise as a quick money grab.

Major Spoiler

"Dude, Where is my car?" - I always wanted to watch this movie but never got around to since I ever saw its poster on video shops back in 2000. I was not really sure what to expect

The 90s really had that lighter feeling to it.

A few nights ago I rewatched Trick 'r Treat, which should be required watching every October. And yes, I know it's still September.

We’re also starting scary movie month a month early this year!

Last night, we watched The Fly (1958). It was not very scary, but it was still a solid 1950s six-fi film.

Tonight, we watched CAM (2018). It was an engrossing psychological horror film about a cam girl who finds herself locked out of her account and replaced by a doppelgänger. It’s excellent, with a terrifying, believable “villain”. I really can’t recommend it highly enough to my fellow horror fans. (Available for streaming on Netflix.)