1000 Piece Halloween Puzzle

This one only took two days. The pieces were cheap and it was not the fun I was hoping for.

Brosnan and Leah helped me finish this too, so it was as family affair AND I had room at the dinner table for all of us yesterday.

I am Legend

For day number 2 of this horror fest I am revisiting one of my favorite novels (though just barely) of all time. I am Legend is a masterpiece that I think may even be more powerful today. 

Evil

This show is full of the creep you outs. Possession, the devil’s plan, and religious dogmatically influenced mediums don’t do much in the way of scary for me, but I do often enjoy them and this was a ton of fun, plus I’m a huge fan of Michael Emerson who is an absolute monster in this. There’s a lot of scientific versus faith posturing and that is the most interesting part to me.

Vampire Hunter D

I haven’t watched this in probably close to two decades and was itching for a revisit.

My memories were not mistaken. The art and animation are magnificent, the characters rich and the story fascinating. I can’t wait to show this to Brosnan. I highly recommend.

Vittorio the Vampire

One day behind already. I will catch up. Vittorio may be one of Anne Rice’s lesser stories as far character’s and plot is concerned, but it is easily one of her most enjoyable books to read just because of the imagery and flow of writing. It’s beautiful.

Dj Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – A Nightmare On My Street

Back to the videos and I always feel like this is an overlooked song and video and is a great horror/Halloween themed bit. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince were a dynamic team. When you go back before MIB and Gettin’ Jiggy and check out songs like “You saw my Blinker” and more there was a wonderful mix of great rhymes and humor.

Scary Stories: The Documentary

By the time I had gotten my hands on this book as a kid I was under age 9 or 10, but I had already started reading Stephen King’s “It” because I “borrowed” a copy from under my Mom’s bed. I remember being more fascinated with the art than the actual stories, but I was engrossed with it.

30 Days Of Night

This is easily one of my favorite vampire films. The premise, the imagery, a fantastic cast and a diabolical trip from start to finish makes this an awesome and relatively terrifying flick. Did I mention Ben Foster? We should always acknowledge Ben Foster. Not a big gore fan, but this is gore done right with impact.

Roseanne Halloween Episodes

This years Spooktober is different from years past where I’m mixing up mediums (I can do WHAT I WANT) and part of that inspiration was the memories of sitcoms and shows that gave us exciting and often silly holiday themed episodes (Evil did a couple and they were fun) and the show that. I remember doing Halloween the best and doing it EVERY year was Roseanne. Perhaps you aren’t a fan of the show, but I was until the last season or so and these little specials were the absolute BEST.

The Faculty

I LOVE this movie and it needs more attention and respect. It embodies all of the late 90’s tropes in the best way possible. The cast is phenomenal with a very young and extremely awesome Josh Hartnett. This movie is funny, scary, and just awesome.

Interview with the Vampire

Anne Rice was my favorite author during my adolescence and I spent a great deal of time obsessing over The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches, but that seed was planted with this film. At this point, I knew Brad Pitt from Kalifornia and Cool World and I liked him….a lot.

The Haunting of Bly Manor

This started out strong for me, but is losing it’s momentum. I enjoyed the subtle scares in the first few episodes (the shot below is my favorite) and was prepared for a slow burn.

The Haunting of Bly Manor – The Conclusion

I can admit when I’m wrong. I prefer a slow burn when I can give it my attention. Yesterday was met with multiple pauses. This can make it difficult to invest where you need to give your full emotional attention. I rose at 5 and concluded the tale while working this a.m. and I thoroughly enjoyed the last 3 episodes.

Midsommar

Not a huge fan, though effective in it’s attempts to creep. The visual landscape was magnificent and easily the highlight with all of the bizarre architecture and contrast of colors. I struggle with people ignoring red flags in these scenarios, but the truth is people accepting twisted realities because that’s what they’re told is far more plausible than I’m comfortable admitting.

It was fine. Not remarkable or shocking, but effective.

1,000 Piece Halloween Puzzle

This was tough. It took all of yesterday and most of this a.m. All of the shapes were weird and the details were bananas. It was cool though. Mike has requested I glue this one. This was great inspiration for Spooktober 2020!

The Cabin in the Woods

I know this was on last years list, but I watched it again Friday and it’s becoming a regular getting cycled into my annual watching schedule. It’s just so much fun and so effective on what it does. It manages to throw typical horror movie tropes on their head while also still using them and making them scary and hilarious. I’ve been a fan of Drew Goddard for some time, but this is just more evidence that he’s a badass creator.

Leviathan

This came out the same year as “The Abyss” and “DeepStar Six”. The Abyss is a magical piece of film making and Leviathan is not, even though both films begin with parallel plots. Underwater drill teams find Russian subs with bad stuff. A Hurricane is coming. Something goes terribly wrong.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episodes

One of the more clever little bits of the Buffyverse is that Halloween is a notoriously dullsville evening for spooks, vamps and supernatural badness. They think the holiday is lame and take the night off. But in the world of Buffy exceptions are made.

“Halloween” in season 2 is one of the best episodes of the entire series and fully captures the Halloween spirit. “Fear Itself” in season 4 comes in a close second while the Buffster is in college and we learn Anya is terrified of bunnies. The season 6 Halloween episode “All the Way” is mainly focused on Dawn, Buffy’s obnoxious younger sister so it is one of my least favorites of the series.

The “Office” Halloween Episodes

The Office parties were always something I looked forward to and Halloween was usually the apex of ridiculous fun on the show. Still funny, but also totally full of Halloween spirit. This is what Spooktober 2020 is all about.

The Craft

“We are the weirdos.”

I love the 90’s and this 1996 flick couldn’t possibly be any more 90’s angsty weirdo magnificence. I had fell in love with Fairuza Balk in Return to Oz and watched anything that she was in after. She is on fire in this. Is it a great movie? Nah, but it’s a ton of bloody fun.

28 Days Later

The first time I saw this I was pregnant with Brosnan and had nightmares every night about a baby screaming and alerting all the infected that run really, really fast in this flick. The first 2/3rds are super effective and while the end loses some of it’s momentum it’s still one of my favorite scary movies and it lingers well after watching.

Poltergeist

This is my favorite horror movie of all time. I watch it every Halloween season and it is just as effective every single viewing. It was one of the few movies that scared me as a kid and still gives me the creeps as an adult.

They’re heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere.

Se7en

I wouldn’t circulate this as a Halloween season flick and don’t even necessarily identify it as a horror film, but most people do. This is a movie that’s gotten even better with time. It’s in my top ten movies of all time and each viewing there is always some little idiosyncrasy that I missed. It’s absolutely perfect and psychologically terrifying.

Funny Games

The most polite murderers you may ever run into. I still can’t decide whether or not I love this movie and loathe how much it hates it’s audience. It’s been a long time since I watched it and either way I’m glued to the screen from start to finish and just miserable with tension and anxiety. Hateful? Perhaps, but it is 100% effective. Bonus is Naomi Watts and Tim Roth.

Fallen

Tiiiiiiiiiiiime is on my side. Yes, it is.

I haven’t watched this in many moons and it’s so, so creepy. Denzel is one of my favorite actors on the planet and he’s perfectly matched with John Goodman. This movie is outstanding and deserves some more love, especially for it’s very clever ending.

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken

This was an absolute favorite of mine when I was a kid and there just aren’t many people that have ever been funnier than Don Knotts. The Incredible Mr. Limpet is wonderful, but I think The Reluctant Astronaut may be my favorite, with Mr. Chicken right there.

The Worst Witch

I have somehow never seen or heard of this movie, even after years of serving time in multiple video store chains AND adoring Fairuza Balk and Tim Curry. Add Diana Rigg and Charlotte Rae (who is so wonderful) and it was a hoot. Full of 80’s nostalgia and I know how much I would have adored this as a little girl. This was a happy Spooktober 2020 surprise.

Urban Legend

This was another product of the late 90’s horror scene and it had just about everybody in the cast. Rebecca Gayheart, Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid and even Robert Englund. It was NOT good and doesn’t get mentioned often behind the I know what you screamed last summer mrs. tingle with idle hands to the final destination of fear of the craft movies.

Fear

This movie will forever be footnoted in my memory. First off, it was the first “R” rated movie I saw without my parents. I went with my friend and we were 16. Then there was the infamous ROLLERCOASTER scene….which in fairness was pretty hot. The cast was fantastic, but the movie was ridiculous and I’ll never forgive Mark Wahlberg for what he did to that dog.

Hocus Pocus

Each Halloween we have the tradition of watching Hocus Pocus after trick or treating and this year was (or will be) not different. It is the most “Halloweeny” of all Halloween themed films. The music is delightful and Bette, Sarah, and Kathy are just magnanimous. It is a WONDERFUL and fun family movie to watch. We love it. It is easily the best way to end “Spooktober” 2020.