It’s the third week of September, and I have been looking for Halloween decorations for two weeks. It’s my favorite holiday, and I planned to decorate and enjoy it in September and October. Just like people who decorate for Christmas on November 1.
However, I cannot find anything. My local grocery store is the only place with decorations, but I want more variety. I want aisles of cool decals and props, masks, and costumes. So, that takes me here. Why do retailers stock Christmas decorations before Halloween is over, but I can’t find Halloween decorations six weeks before the day? I know many people love “the holidays,” but I don’t. October is my favorite month, and I want to celebrate!
Time for a Change
We need to bring back the fun in Halloween. It’s about scary movies, pranks, costumes and, of course, candy! By the way, you can find a $ ton of candy right now. And maybe that’s it. Retailers know we will buy 800 lbs. of candy in the fall, but we may not buy a skeleton or pumpkin. Maybe if we traded the 300-ounce bag of candy for a pumpkin to carve, we’d shed a few pounds and enjoy creating something.
Let’s save some money and reduce stress, too. Halloween is considerably less expensive than Christmas. You don’t have to buy a costume; you can use stuff around the house. You don’t have to buy anything for other people or face crowds of shoppers. There’s little traffic, usually the weather is warmer, and it’s the last fun holiday of the year. The remaining require lots of eating – which means more weight gain – and time with people you may or may not like.
It’s time to bring back Halloween! It’s time to buy a scary mask, and pop out at someone. Carve or paint a pumpkin for a cheap activity. Have movie marathons, decorate the house with lights, skeletons, witches, ghosts, and whatever else. Most importantly, have fun!
I did manage to find purple placemats to finish the table 🙂
Upcoming on RevPub
In honor of our Halloween traditions at RevPub, we’ve decided on our post theme for the October. We are discussing horror originals vs. remakes, and we are very excited to review them for you. Which ones we have picked are a surprise though. If you want to catch up on previous year’s themes, check out these posts:
The final girl is an often disputed topic, especially since the film industry has evolved her into a hero of sorts instead of a woman solely fighting to survive. When I first studied the final girl, I was in a film class about 10 years ago. This was before The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the other movies that redefined the female’s role. This was before the final girl seeped into other genres, and there were few final girl-guy combos. According to today’s views of the final girl, even Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz could rank high on the list.
Let’s look at the horror genre, and who the final girl is in a horror movie. According to Carol J. Clover, author of Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, the final girl simply possesses two qualities:
She undergoes agonizing trials
She virtually or actually destroys the antagonist and saves herself
With these rules in mind, here are my Top 3 Final Girls:
Four movies and 20 years later, Sidney Prescott may be the updated version of Laurie Strode, the final girl from Halloween. Because this movie spans several, the focus will be on the first.
Scream: Mostly a virgin in the first film, Sidney kicks and slams her way to survival. She’s the “more behaved” girl among her group, doesn’t party a lot, and it’s clear she begins as a virgin who’s fighting to keep her purity. Sidney is so smart she immediately suspects her boyfriend, who turns out to be one of the killers. As her friends start getting killed, her main goal is to survive but also protect others.
She kicks the killer down stairs, hits him, shoots him, cusses them, and ends up battered and bruised. Sidney beats the stuffing out of Ghostface over and over again. She runs a lot! Sidney finally submits to her boyfriend and loses her virginity. Afterward, he reveals himself as one of the killers. So in this case, the final girl is literally and figuratively devirginized, which instantly makes her stronger. She may cry, she may ask why, but she never stops fighting to survive.
Photo from: zuts.wordpress.com
2. Erin, You’re Next
The only nonfranchise and newest film on the list, Erin is well deserving of her No. 2 spot. She’s not pure, drinks whiskey, dates her ex-teacher, and hails from Australia. She’s almost the opposite of final girl 101, but that’s the beauty of her character and the evolution of the final girl. The definition has evolved to include a more realistic female, one who may be flawed, but it doesn’t stop her from kicking serious boo-tay.
You’re Next: A family has arranged for almost everyone to be killed, so two brothers can inherit the family fortune. Erin is supposed to survive as “a witness,” but because she serves as a threat, all the antagonists try to kill her at some point. She does everything she can to protect this family she barely knows, but when the truth comes out, so do the knives and blender. She reaches her breaking point, and her only goal is to save herself. And she does. She kills everyone – even the cop at the end, accidentally.
Photo from: herocomplex.latimes.com
1. Laurie Strode, Halloween franchise
No one beats Laurie. This buttoned-up virgin babysitter beats the crap out of Michael Myers a few dozen times. Sure, she has some breakdowns, but overall, her character grows into a mature, confident woman. Because the Halloween franchise expands eight movies, and Laurie is in many sequels and the remakes, I’m focusing on the original Halloween and Halloween II.
Halloween: She’s smart, unsure, pure, studies instead of partying, and serves as a good role model to teen girls. She doesn’t succumb to peer pressure, and her character still serves as a role model some 30-plus years later. She’s stalked by Myers throughout the entire movie, and he kills nearly everyone in his way. She is responsible for herself but has to protect the kids as well, which she does. She immediately directs them out of harm’s way. Laurie stabs Myers with a knitting needle (win!), a coat hanger, and manages to run and hide until Loomis shoots him.
Halloween II: Laurie has to fight to survive later that night! This sequel takes place only hours after the first; it all happens in less than 24 hours. She’s injured and exhausted, broken, but still strong enough to escape Myers while he chases her throughout the hospital and its complex. Laurie’s endurance and need for survival remains rare in horror movies, and she stabs and limps her way to safety until Myers goes kaboom!
Photo from: mestadelsbilder.wordpress.com
BONUS: Ellen Ripley, Alien franchise (courtesy of James)
Ripley also goes against the horror movie stereotype. In the first two films, she shows some exceptional horror movie common sense. She’s typically composed and level-headed.
Alien: She’s the one who reminds everyone how unwise it is to bring the unknown alien creature on board the ship. She advises against leaving the planet before the ship is repaired. She’s the one who finally decides on a plan of action to escape the xenomorph. Plus, she went back to save the cat!
Aliens: She is stunned at the short-sighted foolishness of the Weyland-Yutani corporate suits, refuses to participate in the mission until it’s promised the goal is the annihilation of the aliens, and she has to take command of the mission when the leaders prove too senseless to be effective.
Ripley is unique because almost never in the first two films (and only in the third due to the circumstances of the environment) is her gender ever discussed. She’s a flight officer, a survivor, a fighter, and leader. The only reference to her gender is made by another woman – in Aliens when Vazquez (who Jim Sterling calls “one of the toughest bastards ever”) asks who “Snow White” is. Ripley is a final girl because she refuses to let events happen to her. She affects events, and she determines the plot. She can also melee fight an alien queen and WIN.
Halloween more than any other holiday is a “pot luck” holiday to me.
This year rather than just do something store bought I thought I’d go all out and MAKE something. While I’m actually a pretty good cook, I’m a lousy baker, but I put that aside and decided to try my hand at making some cookies. I found some really clever Thriller style dancin’ zombie cookie cutters and thought I’d make a nice Halloween zombie horde.
Knowing my limitations I decided against making dough from scratch and bought some tubes of sugar cookie dough. I rolled it out and following the instructions got it to a certain thickness before applying the cutters. As soon as I removed the cutter, however, the cookie fell to pieces. I determined the dough to be too thin and re-rolled it a bit thicker. I applied the cutter again, and upon removing it only the head and arms and legs stuck this time, leaving just a zombie torso. . While dismembered would be in-theme, it seemed like too much of a mess up again and I decided to scrap those too.
At this point the dough started to get sticky so I re-floured it and put it in the fridge. After letting it chill I re-rolled it thicker and tried the cutters again. This time when I took the cookie cutter off the arms and legs stretched WAY out making an octopus-armed zombie. At this point I started to get angry. Like REALLY angry.
I re-rolled the whole batch SUPER thick and used the cutters finally having cookies survive the process:
I didn’t have a cookie sheet so I put six of them on a pizza pan, put them in the oven to cook, and continued to cut the rest of the dough, making 30-40 dancin’ zombies.
When the timer went off and opened the oven and found the six zombie cookies I was baking had merged into one GIANT cookie on the pan. Apparently cutting them thick enough to survive the cutters meant they were so thick they swelled and spread out while cooking!
They shattered into a mess when I took them off the pan and I tried to make only twoto see if they’d just swell without merging into a zombie-cookie-blob form. It made this:
I made Venus of Willendorf Cookies
Finally furious beyond imagining I yelled “F*CK THIS!” wadded the rest up into a bowl and bought some friggin cookies at the store on the way in the next morning.
Though admittedly the pics of my baking failure and the story was a bigger hit at the pot luck than any dessert I could’ve made.
Here’s hoping if anyone has to do any baking for the rest of the holiday season it goes better than my experiment and failing that you at least get as good a story out of it…
The best horror sequel stumped me: Friday the 13th part 2 or Halloween 2? Jason or Michael? Ginny or Laurie? Both are classic sequels to classic slasher movies. Most everyone recognizes the hockey mask or white William Shatner mask. I have seen both an equal amount of times and enjoy watching both every year. So, what’s a girl to pick?
In the end, Halloween 2 wins in my book. It was a week-long thought process that led to the decision, and in order to tell you lovely readers why, I must discuss both movies. If Halloween 2 is the best, Friday the 13th part 2 is runner-up. Here’s why:
Opening credits – From the very beginning music, the camera spans deep into the blank, black pumpkins eyes – dark holes if you will – which symbolizes Micheal’s character. Evil, dark, hollow. What I didn’t realize was that this foreshadows the point of view throughout the movie as the audience sees the killings more through Micheal’s’ eyes than in the first one. From the start, you already know things are going to be a little different.
The time frame – Halloween 2 takes off from the exact moment the first one ends. There’s no waiting, no anniversary, nothing to trigger it. The first one might as well have ended with, “To be Continued…” This is pretty cool because not many, if any, good horror movie sequels take place the same day/night, continuing the story. This adds a different element because as you think it can’t possibly be worse for Laurie, it gets much worse and a whole new cast of characters will become victims as the manhunt continues. The setting is also different. Halloween 2 takes place in the hospital where Laurie is taken, whereas Friday 2 is set at a camp again. The setting almost makes it feel like a different movie and not a sequel based on the setting change alone.
Micheal’s development – In the sequel, he pops up and stalks his victims more. It seems like a game to him, and he becomes a better killer. In Friday the 13th, Mrs. Voorhees is the killer, and Jason appears in the sequel to avenge his mother, which does take the story to the next level. However, he seems to already know how to kill, whereas Michael develops the game of killing. He becomes a predator instead of just a slasher.
The final girl – Both final girls are epic, however Laurie deserves a deeper admiration because she is a teenager. We often forget that Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is 17 years old because she looks much older. Ginny (Amy Steel) is in college and studying Psychology, so she has the upper hand on Jason. She knows behaviors and how to manipulate Jason, even if only for a short time. Laurie struggles more and has no idea why things are happening. You see her broken, tired, and weak, yet she has the energy to survive and fight back. She’s already beat him once but has to continue to fight him. She is a stronger final girl.
Photo by: jennyshouseofhorrors.blogspot.com
If you haven’t watched this yet, I recommend you pop some popcorn and watch all four to compare and enjoy. Both are fantastic sequels, so you can’t go wrong!
If there is a cardinal sin the makers of a horror movie can commit it would certainly be making their film boring. When deciding on what film to declare my “least favorite” horror movie I debated on whether I could even include this film…as most of the film is a courtroom drama…with little bits of horror thrown in. After much consideration I decided this was the worst horror film to me…and not for the reasons many expect.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose is the movie I always return to when I think of the “worst” horror movie. No it’s not as atrocious as many of the cheesy horror fare, it has very strong performances from its cast, and when the film does horror it can actually achieve a very creepy mood and contains a lot of elements that stick with you (watch this movie and try waking up at 3 am without feeling a bit creeped out). So how does it fail so spectacularly?
Here’s how:
Pacing and Tone: The movie is very slow. That doesn’t have to be bad. The original Dracula and Frankenstein films were slow. Many great films have used a slow pace to build to a crescendo. And certainly the exorcism we see toward the end of the film is the most interesting part of the movie, but the pace of the film didn’t build to it. And its portrayal underlines the principle problem of the movie. The main story isn’t really Emily Rose’s exorcism. The movie should be called The Trial of the Priest Who Performed the Exorcism of Emily Rose. Since the story takes place during the trial, after the exorcism, the result of eponymous exorcism is known from the film’s first scene. The rest of the possession narrative is told in retrospect. And since the people telling the story are around to tell their part it robs the demon segments of the story of any suspense. This leaves the tension of the story resting entirely on the outcome of the COURT CASE. In a movie about an exorcism our interests are supposed to be vested in the result of a trial. This cuts down on the horror tone exponentially and just as you start to get that nice, horror movie feeling you’re ripped back into cross examinations and plea negotiations. In fact the film is so wrapped in the court case all of the character development and story arcs revolve around those involved in the case, using the exorcism as a set up for a narrative rather than the central point of it. It’s almost as though the filmmakers set out to make a courtroom drama about an exorcism, then toward the end of production decided to throw in some horror elements (some are quite good, some horribly clichéd and have been done so much better by The Exorcist and The Omen.) This “last minute” horror feel is what makes Emily Rose feel like a movie that almost doesn’t belong in the horror category at all…
Skeptics vs True Believers: This may be the biggest opportunity missed. The film makers set up a fascinating dichotomy of a “true believer” lawyer prosecuting the priest and an agnostic defending him and his exorcism. The prosecution goes on about psychiatric and medical conditions that can cause possession-like states, and all are FAR more convincing than the demon parts of the story. It sets up what could have been a “let the audience decide” story of “was it or wasn’t it” a possession. BUT the narrative shows you that according to the movie it was a demon. We see her getting “possessed.” We see the shadowy demonic activities impacting the agnostic prosecutor. We hear testimony from a friendly, smiling, peaceful, attractive pseudo-scientist who talks about how real possession is in direct contrast to the testimony of a doctor played by an actor so known for his slimy characters he played a rogue government official in a friggin Jack Ryan movie. I would have loved to see the evidence presented evenly so both sides are shown as plausible. It would let an audience think and decide what they believe occurred. Instead this film skirts with “here’s a possibility for the skeptics” but then, like the ending of Clue says, “now here’s what really happened.” In the end the “skeptic” part of an exorcism story was done better in The Exorcist when Father Karras declares the demon possessing little Regan identifying itself as “the devil” is as crazy as if she said she was Napoleon Bonaparte. One line. Just as effective. Leaving more screen time for the tense horror for which that film is known.
There’s a famous piece of advice given to writing students that goes something like this: Is what we’re seeing the most interesting part of the story? If not why aren’t we seeing that instead? This concept is at the heart of the problem with The Exorcism of Emily Rose. We have a story about an exorcism. A story with some of the best possession visuals seen to date, thanks largely to the terrific performance by Jennifer Carpenter as Emily. Great horror visuals. Creepy themes. All this crammed into about 20-30 minutes sprinkled throughout the film. We see a courtroom drama unfold. And one that is so wooden, gray, and dreary that it can’t hold a candle to other films in that genre either. Yes A Few Good Men is almost science fiction in its portrayal of courtroom activities, but it’s a hell of a good story and builds to a rousing conclusion. Emily Rose, though it had the acting chops with Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson, instead goes for a somber, quiet tone in the courtroom. It’s a horror movie without much horror and a courtroom movie with dull courtroom scenes.
And it COULD have been so much more. It had all the right elements to be a horror classic, and instead is a compromised drag so ponderous and flatly presented it could’ve been directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Because of this I see this movie as one of the biggest missed opportunities in modern horror history, and a dull, flat horror movie to watch. It’s not even fun to mock as so many other so-called bad horror movies are. Making it my choice for Worst Horror Movie.
It’s Halloween and we at RevPub are doing our own horror movie retrospective. Not a list of favorites or least favorites, but specific categories each week! This week I’m taking a look at what I think is the most underrated horror movie in recent memory…
Event Horizon: Do You See?!
What makes a great horror film? Mood, build of tension, and good characters are definitely on the list. Many will point to successful other horror movies, Carpenter’s Halloween, Hitchcock’s Psycho, as achieving these things, but the overlooked gem Event Horizon does them as well as any horror film I’ve seen.
I won’t go into the plot beyond the set up: Sam Neil stars as Dr. Weir, a scientist accompanying a mission to investigate the ship “Event Horizon,” which vanished years ago and he had a hand in designing. Lawrence Fishburn is Miller, the captain of the salvage team which is also full of great character actors and diverse personalities within the film from a no-nonsense pilot, flippant rescue tech, and a motherly XO.
While this all sounds traditionally sci-fi, the film actually belongs more in the haunted house genre, and is one of the most effective in that category. Mixing equal parts Aliens, Hellraiser, The Shining, and Amityville HorrorEvent Horizon succeeds where so many genre mash ups have failed. Yes, it’s set in space, but the scares are psychological. It has as much in common with Poltergeist as it does Alien 3 and the nature of the scares is actually more personal than many modern horror movies. Since it was in all the adverts for it I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to mention that the ship left space and ended up in a horrifying dimension, an excellent concept and one used to perfect effect. No creepy monsters or aliens here…all the scares and all the evil is cerebral and comes from people… It is terrifically subtle. Yes there are jump scares, but they mostly occur early and due to sound so it gets you tense early and then never uses the “cheap” jump scare tactic again. It also has gore but it is either seen in quick flashes or is obscured by the scene so it never loses its impact.
Add to this the excellent set and sound design and superb cast and you have a perfect storm of horror film-ology. So why isn’t it considered a modern classic instead of a lost treasure? One reason is probably the casting. The actors in the film are terrific character actors known for intense and effective performances and likely cast because they fit the roles perfectly; this rather than shoe horning in some marquee draw who has no place in the film and is only there to sell tickets. There are also no eye-candy characters (see THIS post…), everyone looks like they belong to a crew of a salvage team. And finally, the premise: a space ship that creates a black hole and ends up in another dimension doesn’t sound like horror potential. So many of the slasher (and later torture) fans gave it a miss. And what a tragedy as it does horror far better than many of the movies in those genres have.
The very well-designed and creepy gravity drive.
If you look at it’s the success of its descendants it makes me wonder if the film may be on the verge of a renaissance. Games like Dead Space lifted its premise, tone, and environments whole-cloth. Even my beloved Warhammer 40k, though it predates the film, borrowed some of the concepts in its later editions. I’m hoping, as the audience has matured and become more sophisticated (strangely because of movies like Event Horizon) the progenitor of so much of modern sci-fi horror will finally get its due.
I’m holding out hope the next time I exclaim “Do you See?!” to a room full of horror fans the response from the vast majority will be “Yes……I see….”
Revenant Publications 