Category Archives: Halloween Horror Month

It's Not All Fucked: A "28 Days Later" Tribute

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Frank lives by hope even if his daughter Hannah has no hope thanks to the death of her mother, and his is infectious as he spreads this radio frequency offering salvation to survivors to his new friends begging them to believe in this new world, and they have no choice but to seek it out or remain in this city where hope has all but deteriorated in a sea of dead bodies, and massive skyscrapers that now look like tombstones for the dead. Frank’s entrance in to the fold is true heroism and one that is based around his hope for life in a world void of it and hoping to gain their trust allowing for caretakers in the event of his demise. For a man whose seen nothing but chaos, he is shockingly high spirited and provides his new guests with smiles, pats on the backs and giggles because it’s about all he can do to keep up the morale of his daughter who has seen the world die before her eyes. He even keeps their gold fish alive in the wake of their clear lack of any water, in spite of his best efforts to grab some on the knowledge of a television show he’d seen one night. Jim and Selena can’t help but be charmed by his determination and unflinching grasp for some new world out there beyond their reaches, and they go for it with an old taxi Frank claimed in the midst of the carnage.

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It's Not All Fucked: A "28 Days Later" Tribute

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Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” came along at a very tough time in my life. Like most movies that are around during difficult periods in your life, they tend to have a very important impact and influence on your mood and overall outlook on your fate. Around the time “28 Days Later” was released, I was about to go in to open heart surgery. And while my survival rate was very high we were all considerably on edge. I remember that year my dad took us to see “Terminator 3” in theaters to cheer us up, and on the way home we bought the bootleg VHS for “28 Days Later” which didn’t work. Days later I was able to obtain another copy with crisp quality and indulged in one final incredible horror movie before I went under the knife and endured an excruciating week in recovery that involved sleepless nights, aches, and a hospital ward waiting to see if I’d slip in to an infection or heart failure at any minute.

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The Loved Ones (2009)

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the-loved-onesIf John Waters and John Hughes ever conceived the idea for a modern day “Misery,” we’d essentially get this Australian horror gem known as “The Loved Ones,” a movie that’s centered around an impending prom and two rather demented love stories that concern fractured love and new relationships. After accidentally crashing in to a tree Brent kills his father and six months later is a train wreck committed to smoking pot and putting himself in as much danger as possible. He also makes a hobby out of cutting himself and inflicting pain.

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Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010)

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Lost-Boys_The-ThirstAfter the disastrous and god awful “The Tribe,” which was just a remake of the original film, “Thirst” takes every chance to link to the original film convincing audiences that it really is an honest to goodness sequel and not just a wannabe of the “Lost Boys” variety. In its essence though it’s still just nostalgiasploitation, as it takes every precaution to connect to the original movie trying to create a fluid sense of continuity. We hear the classic theme song played in the opening, there’s a re-make of the vampire train track diving scene in the original, Edgar has flashbacks (i.e. clips) of his fighting days with Sam and Alan, Edgar and his brother take the time to explain to one another what happened to the rest of the characters (Corey Haim who died before the film, is told to have suffered a slight case of vampirism and staking), and Alan re-appears as a supporting character now in vampiric form.

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The Addams Family: The Complete Series (DVD)

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There will always be a place for America’s ghoulish family The Addams and I assume in lieu of the proposed Tim Burton re-launch, the Hanna Barbera animated series from the early seventies is something of a necessary property to re-live the nostalgia for fans of the franchise and help them hunger for Burton’s new vision. Featuring the entire series in a four DVD set, “The Addams Family” is quite a departure from the normality of the creepy Addams Family this time venturing out beyond the series to offer up some Scooby Doo mystery solving.

One of the highlights of the series is the discovery that a young Jodie Foster (Yes, that Jodie Foster) voices Wednesday Addams. Beyond that this is a typical cash in from the Hanna Barbera legacy. Instead of leaving them in one place to cope with everyday life, instead the Addams take their show on the road driving around in a humongous Victorian Mansion/RV that brings aboard all of the Addams for the fun.

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Altitude (2010)

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A4e8gLBOne of the elements I truly loved about “Altitude” is that director Kaare Andrews manages to convey a sense of isolation in the open skies. He constantly zooms back upon open spaces and landing strips mountain ranges, all of which are dwarfed when the people inside the small aircraft find themselves in the middle of a mysterious nowhere land in the sky being terrorized by unexplained phenomenon threatening to throw them in to oblivion. Andrews who has a past in comic books really knows how to express a sense of the EC Comics atmosphere where every scene is painted like a graphic novel, especially when the group of friends venture in to the blue sky to be confronted with a black cloud that brings them in to an endless abyss of lightning, darkness, and zero answers for survival.

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Our Top Ten "Treehouse of Horror" Episodes!

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Treehouse_of_HorrorIn spite of what you may think of the current state of “The Simpsons,” the fact remains that the show is a dynasty and the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes however bland or mediocre they have become are a tradition and one that garners good ratings for FOX every year. “Treehouse of Horror” began as a little nod to Halloween with spoofs of The Twilight Zone and classic urban legends and soon rocketed in to something of an event for the entire crew of The Simpsons to satirize and poke fun at classic horror movies to great episodes of The Twilight Zone. Zombies, King Kong, Robots, Monkeys Paws, Aliens, Witches, Frankenstein, haunted houses, nothing was off the table, and this allowed the creators of the series to throw a party every year for us horror fans to show us what they can do when they rode off the rails of the storyline and allowed for some fun to be had and blood to be shed.

Though none of the new installments have actual tree houses, the origin of the yearly gimmick began with “Treehouse of Horror” where Homer, deciding to scare Bart and Lisa, begins listening in on separate horror stories told by Bart and Lisa in a treehouse, both of whom tell the scariest stories they can think of in an attempt to scare each other. What begins as mocking laughter soon transformed in to Homer going back to bed that night realizing he couldn’t quite go back to sleep thanks to the effectiveness of a good horror story, properly told by two little children with a lot of imagination. While none of them are at all really disturbed by one another, Homer has learned that a good horror story can do wonders for inducing insomnia. Horror is best when imagination is at play, and “Treehouse of Horror” took what was a one and done little nod to Halloween and turned it in to its very own gimmick going balls to the wall every year devising some of the best moments in the series barnone.

Here are ten of our favorite moments from “Treehouse of Horror,” episodes brilliant, hilarious, and just plain memorable.

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