So last year I experimented at attempted to do 31 posts on horrifying films and TV episodes everyday in October, Horrorfest. I had so much fun doing it and it really got me into the Halloween spirit that I decided to bring back this year. Hopefully I can think of another 31 films. So here’s to 31 days of terror, woe, suspense, thrills, monsters, ghouls, and ghosts!
Happy Horror Days!
Vote? Voting? But hasn’t November 6th already passed? Isn’t all elections over?
Well you are wrong. There is still voting to be done!
Go to Horrorfest Hangover and let me know which posts where your favs, which you hated, and what films you hope to see next year.
But what if I don’t know all the issues? What if I haven’t read all the posts?
Well don’t fret just go here and read through them all.
Remember your vote does matter and makes a difference. Exercise your freedom of speech and let me know what you want!
Please!
Horrorfest has ended. 😦 I am actually very sad that it is over. I thought I’d be a bit relieved to have the pressure of posting everyday be over, but I actually kind of miss it. I toyed with the idea of doing a Thank-o-Rama: the 4 Thursdays of Thanksgiving and posting a fav TV episode or movie that revolves/has Thanksgiving in it (I had to include TV Shows as I can only think of three movies with Thanksgiving; Holiday Inn, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and Miracle on 34th Street. Holiday Inn and Miracle on 34th Street don’t even really count since they are Christmas movies.) Then I thought of doing War Writings: 11 Days to Honor Armed Forces for Veteran’s Day, but I thought it would be far too soon to commit myself to another everyday project. I need to take a momentary breather.
I am considering doing something like The 12 Posts of Christmas and something like Lovetales: 14 Fun-filled Romances for Valentines Day. Also Viva Mexico: Cinco dias de los Chicanos for Cinco de Mayo. I’m still working on the actual titles for these. I thought about doing Pot o’ Gold: Seven Irish Tales for St. Patrick’s Day because I don’t think I can think of 17. The only films I could think of that I have seen that revolve around Irish people/Irish flavor are Rudy (Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish), Luck of the Irish, Gangs of New York, Far and Away, A Leprechaun’s Christmas (doesn’t really count as it is a Christmas movie), The Fighter, and Under the Waterfall. That’s exactly seven.
Doing this whole project was completely different than I expected. I planned to do posts for all the Universal Monster Movies ; like The Mummy, The Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera; along with all their remakes, to you know compare and contrast, but I just ran out of posts to finish them all. I also really wanted to do posts on Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, like The Birds, Psycho, Rebecca, and Strangers on a Train; but also wasn’t able to get to them. I really, really, really wanted to do Vincent Price films; like House on Haunted Hill, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Pit and the Pendulem, etc.
I noticed that a lot of posts I chose to do really depended on how much time I was able to devote a day to a post; along with what I was in the mood for to write about. Sometimes I started a post, but never finished it as I wasn’t in the right mood.
I also wrote posts on films I just happened to watch at the time like Perfect Stranger, Aliens in the Attic, Hallowe’en Party, The Black Cauldron, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; those were not films I had seen before or planned to write a post on. They just kind of happened along the way. Well I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did making them.
I’d like to know which were your faves are so vote, vote, vote! If you are unsure which to pick then why don’t you pop over and start at the beginning. Also I’d like to know what you wish I had posted on. Just leave a comment at the bottom of the page! 😀
To start Horrorfest from the beginning, go to I Don’t Belong in the World
For more on Horrorfest, go to Horrorfest II: The Oddities of October
Or check out my leatest Horrorfest postings, Horrorfest III: The Revenge
It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.
Let’s face it, you all knew this was coming. I mean how could I not end Horrorfest without ending on Halloween, literally.
I saw this movie during my quest to view the Big 3. I saw Nightmare on Elm Street first, which I was very disappointed in. Then I saw Friday the 13th, which wasn’t bad, but not super scary. Needless to say, when I got around to watching Halloween I thought it was going to suck. I had seen one of the many spanned sequels when I was flipping through channels, and that was absolute rot.
I LOVED Halloween though. I thought it was pretty creepy. I mean some parts are a little dumb, like the fact that you can’t kill Michael Myers, because “can’t kill the boogeyman”, but overall it was a very well done film.
The story is of a young boy, Michael Myers, who murders his sister. I hate how they never explain why he murders her. There are “theories”, but John Carpenter really should have given us a reason why Myers became a murderer. What was his stressor? What triggered him to this kind of response? I know you all think why I should care, but it concerns me as I took this quiz, Which Horror Movie Slasher are You?, and got Michael Myers.
Anyways he is sent to a sanitorium, where he is taken care of by Dr. Samuel Loomis. On October 30, Loomis and nurse Marion Chambers are preparing to take him off to be tried at court. Myers gets away and Loomis heads to Myers’ hometown Haddonfield to track him down.
Carpenter really liked Alfred Hitchcock movies, especially the film Psycho. He pays homage to the film throughout this movie; two of them being Dr. Samuel Loomis and Marion Chambers. In Psycho, Marion Crane is played by Janet Leigh, the poor women who ends up not living through her night at the Bates Motel. The man she loves and is hoping to marry soon, is Sam Loomis, played by the Very Handsome John Gavin.
We now are transitioned to the cute ’70s suburban town of Haddonfield. There we are introduced to straight A, good girl, Laurie Strode. Laurie Strode is played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and this was her first film and it really got her career going. The only reason why she got the part was because Carpenter thought it would be awesome to have Janet Leigh’s, the star of Psycho, daughter be the star of his film. Janet Leigh had been knows as the “Queen of Scream”, a title that her daughter Jamie went on to also earn.
Laurie is planning on baby-sitting that night, watching scary movies, and carving Jack-o-Lanterns. Her two friends Annie and Lynda are much more wild and eagerly hoping to have wild nights with their boyfriends. While Annie’s plans fall through and she is going to be baby-sitting a girl down the street from Laurie, neither are as serious about it as Laurie.
From Laurie, we see that she has a problem connecting to others. She is quiet and reserved. She is also very wistful that she doesn’t have a date to the dance on that Friday, the night after Halloween. Her friends eagerly make plans for Friday, plans that get changed by Myers.
Laurie spends Halloween in a fog, as she keeps seeing someone watching her, but can’t tell if it is in her head or if someone is out there. No one else manages to see him, as just like in the Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, he always slips away.
I mean I totally relate to her in this film. When you are out walking around all the time like her, a lot of weirdos come around and you never quite know whether one is a safe weirdo, or one who might possibly do something.
Loomis meets up with the local sheriff, who is also Annie’s father, and the two search for Myers. They spend most of their attention focusing on the Myers’ old house. Neither is aware that Myers has already chosen his victims and is stalking them right now.
Laurie gets to the house and is a good baby-sitter, paying attention to Tommy Doyle. He is pretty much focused on the monster movie marathon. Two of the films he watches that night are The Thing From Another World (my favorite horror movie), and Forbidden Planet (my favorite scifi film). I recognized the scenes from them right away when I was watching it, and started screaming out their names. Carpenter redid The Thing From Another World, titling it The Thing. Kurt Russell stars in it as he was a fan of the original film. I thought the remake sucked! They changed EVERYTHING. But I’ll save that for another post.
Myers’ bloodbath begins! I don’t want to ruin the film for you guys, and say too much more as I think it should be watched. It is really good and has some definitely creepy music, which Carpenter wrote himself. I’m serious that music sends chills down my spines when I hear it. It totally creeps me out.
I will say one thing. I really liked how Laurie’s character fights back. She is pretty tough, and usually women don’t have that role in a horror film. Definitely check this out!
Also Carpenter references another Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window, when the boy witnesses something, but Laurie fails to believe him.
The only thing I wish we had to make the movie better is why Michael kills and why he choose those specific people to be his victims. Alas, we may never know.
When your done watching the film, watch this.
Sadly this ends my Horrorfest. There are now 31 Tales of Terror and Woe, which I suggest you read and watch.
I’m so sad that it is over, but it has been a lot of fun. I already can’t wait until next year to do it again.
Have a scaretastic, terrorific, horrifyingly amazing night. Eat candy, watch movies; just have fun. And be safe in anything you do. I just started getting readers and would hate to lose any of them. Happy Halloween! 😀
So this artist José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros did a series of disney mash-ups, my favs being the horror films. To see more go to Disnified Horror.
He’s climbin’ in your windows
Here’s a facebook cover page I made for my facebook as part of my countdown to Halloween.
To start Horrorfest from the beginning, go to I Don’t Belong in the World
For the previous post, go to When the Itsy-Bitsy Spider Is No Longer Itsy-Bitsy
For more on psychopaths, go to I Can Be Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy
For more slasher flicks, go to Camp Blood
For more films influenced by Alfred Hitchcock, go to Whatever You Do Don’t Fall Asleep
For more films that have spanned sequels, go to They’re Coming to Get You Barbara
For more on The Twilight Zone, go to Surviving the Worst
When the itsy-bitsy spider is no longer itsy-bitsy
I used to watch this movie all the time as a kid; I remember there being only a few scenes freaking me out. My older sister is arachnophobic, and she would always FREAK-OUT when she watched it. Like a mega, huge, freakout. But I did not remember it being too terrifying.
I rewatched the film and this movie is truly terrortastic!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was so freaky the way the had the spiders; because they actually described how they really act. Just like in Jaws and Them! when they add in all the scientific facts, you learn how freaky things can be.
The film is about a doctor moving his family from San Francisco to a small town to be in a safer area. He’s supposed to be taking over the previous country doctor’s practice, but the doctor doesn’t want to give it up.
That’s not the only problem he’s facing; his house has rotted wood, no one trusts him in the town, he only has one patient, and the barn on his property has spiders.
What else could go wrong?
Dr. Ross Jennings hates spiders. He has arachnophobia.
The other doctor is spreading lies about him. And then his only patient winds up dead. Pretty soon other people who were perfectly healthy wind up dead.
Sound suspicious
A young photographer who died in South America and body was shipped back to his hometown, is realized to be the source of the problem. He carried a spider that is now breeding and sending his young out to attack other. He is the general and has a large supply of troops.
When the spiders attack, it is really, really, creepy. They just come out of everywhere.
What does the evil general look like? Where is his lair? Can they destroy him?
If you want to be scared you should definitely watch this film and find out!
Just a side note here, I have always wondered why they don’t make a film connecting Vampires and spiders. I mean the two are so similar
1) A Vampire is able to trick people by zombifying their mind. They put others in a trance and controlling their minds
A) Spiders paralyze their victims, being able to control them
2) Vampires suck the blood of their victims, usually when they are still alive.
B) Spiders suck the blood out of the insects and creatures that enter their web while they are still alive.
3) Vampires only come out at night, they can’t live in the daylight. They hate light.
C) Spiders don’t like the daylight either. They like to hide away in dark areas.
4) Vampires put their coffin and home base somewhere hidden away so that people won’t find it,
D) Spiders may have a web out in the open to catch things, but they like to live in tucked away areas where people can’t find them.
5) Vampires scare people and can look gross or cool.
E) Spiders scare people. More people are scared of spiders than they are scared of dying. Spiders can also look gross or cool
I mean these two are a match made in heaven. They should have Vampires control the spiders or turn into them.
That’s the 30th post! So sad it almost over. To go to the previous post click here. One last post to come. 1 Day ‘Till Halloween!
Here’s a cover page/poster I made for my facebook page as part of my countdown to Halloween.
To start Horrorfest at the beginning, go to I Don’t Belong in the World
For the previous post, go to Whatever You Do Don’t Fall Asleep
For more on monster movies, go to They’re Coming to Get You Barbara
For more on vampires, go to A Halloween Hello From the Austen Men
For more on zombifying the mind, go to When Potatoes Go Bad
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