Goosebumps (2015)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

What “Goosebumps” accomplishes, is not just paying homage to the joy of “Goosebumps,” but to the joy of reading and writing as well. It’s not many movies that can convey the idea of writing as something purely magical, and “Goosebumps” pinpoints how books can be a portal in to something entirely otherworldly, especially if you’re a fan of the world RL Stine has built for his fans since the 1990’s. More of a meta-horror comedy than an actual series of tales, “Goosebumps” is set in Delaware where Zach and his newly widowed mother are preparing to start their lives over. With Zach trying to adapt to his new school, he meets the gorgeous Hannah (Odeya Rush), a neighbor who is home schooled by her reclusive and strict father.

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Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

The good news is that “The Ghost Dimension,” the alleged final entry in the “Paranormal Activity” series answers most of the questions fans have had since the first film. The bad new is that “The Ghost Dimension” doesn’t answer all our questions. It actually glosses over the finer details in exchange for a broader explanation that conveniently misses out on telling us what a lot of the details meant. Like, what relevance did anything that happen in “The Marked Ones” have to the overall arc? Why didn’t Katie and Micah find out they were living next to a coven of witches? And why did Hunter suddenly go missing and get adopted by an unwitting family? Also, how did Katie find Hunter?

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Ash vs. Evil Dead, Season 1, Episode 1: El Jefe

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Here were are many years later, and Ash is finally finding a life for himself that he’s happy with. Granted he lives in a trailer, picks up sleazy women at bars, and works at a store where he’s despised by his boss Mr. Roper, but it’s a life he’s comfortable with at least. After hiding out for many years from the deadites, they’ve finally found him and are hell bent on destroying him and the world. And it all happened because of Ash and a pot fueled bender with a gorgeous woman one night that caused him to irresponsibly read from the Necronomicon in an effort to impress her. All roads begin to converge as Ash begins getting horrifying signs from Deadites, causing him to pick up and move his trailer once again.

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Rankin/Bass Festival Of Family Classics: Jack O Lantern (1972)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I grew up watching Rankin Bass cartoons. I loved them, and watched mostly around the holidays. So every single Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were spent with the folks at Rankin Bass. Someone somewhere would air one of their numerous specials every year, so I love this company. “Jack O Lantern” though is very new to me, and one I was never really familiar with. Which is shocking considering “Jack O Lantern” is really quite a good adventure tale that I would have loved as a child.

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Gary Larson’s Tales from the Far Side (1994)

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Enjoying “Tales from the Far Side” is based on whether or not you enjoy Gary Larsen’s original comic strip. I’d go so far as to say that the original comic strip was never this dark or surreal. I definitely wouldn’t call the animated special from Gary Larson funny, but it definitely succeeds in irony and some very morbid animated pieces. Rather than a fluid narrative, “Tales from the Far Side” shifts from scenario to scenario, all of which are interconnected by some circumstance.

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Fanged Fucks: Top Five Favorite Vampire Movies

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

This Halloween I’m celebrating the holiday by re-visiting some of my favorite vampire movies. Vampires have been one of my favorite monsters, and I’ve seen every title I could get my hands on from Dracula 1931 to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have typically have a soft spot for vampire movies, and have quite a large list of films about bloodsuckers that I can’t boast about enough. While I have a large library of films from the sub-genre I’d love to re-visit someday, I narrowed it all down to five of the best vampire movies I’ve ever seen. These five have constantly popped in to my repertoire time and time again, and never wear out their welcome. These are my five best vampire movies of all time.

What are some of your favorite vampire movies?

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Celebrating Neil Marshall’s “The Descent”

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I don’t consider it a far off notion to call Neil Marshall this generation’s John Carpenter. The man has delivered his own twisted and original visions of various genres that have ended in some of the most riveting movie experiences I’ve ever had. I first discovered Marshall with “Dog Soldiers,” which successfully combines the werewolf sub-genre with a war movie, resulting in a quite obvious homage to “Assault on Precinct 13.” I’m also a humongous fan of his post apocalyptic tale “Doomsday,” which is his loving ode to the post apocalypse sub-genre and zeroing in on a heroine that’s basically Snake Plissken, even missing one eye, to boot.

Marshall at his best is a raw and relentlessly brilliant filmmaker who can muster up some unique emotions and arouse hot debates among the horror and science fiction community. Marshall’s masterpiece is his odd form of “The Thing,” in where he casts a predominantly female cast, all of whom are confined to one location, forced to fight off delirium, and mistrust, and becoming victim to their landscape, which is harrowing and dangerous no matter where one turns.

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