Remake vs Original – Halloween

By: Justin Hopkins

It is the most wonderful time of the year. Better than the rest of the holidays and most birthdays as well. That magical time of the year, where you try to cram as many horror movies into one sitting as humanly possible, while eating way to much candy. The Thing, Pumpkinhead, It… And the one you may have already seen. Maybe on the marathon or maybe on a loop from you personal collection. Of course, I am talking about the timeless classic, known as Halloween. A staple in most people’s horror movie watchlist for today, but I have a question; which one do you go for? John Carpenter’s 1978’s classic, or Rob Zombie’s brutal ride from 2007. With some pretty diehard fans from both sides of the fence. Let’s dive in shall we. We will take a closer look, separate pro from con, and declare a winner at the end. Like always, we will begin with the original.

Halloween 1978

The story starts off, with the death of Judith Myers at the hands of her Brother Michael. Watching her death through his eyes. On his way out, he is met by their parents, who take off the mask and we see Michael is just a small child. We then get a quick jump ahead. Where we Doctor Loomis and a Nurse on there way to the Mental Institution. Where they find the patients out and about. When Loomis gets out to investigate. Michael gets the nurse out of the car and escapes. Heading back to Haddonfield, with the good Doctor on his trial. Meanwhile, we are introduced to our Lead Girl, Laurie Strode. On her way from school. Stops at the Myers house to put the key under the mat. Unknowingly, catching the eye of Michael, and became his obsession. Following her throughout the town, as well as the little boy she was slated to babysit later in the evening. Along with her friends, Annie and Lynda. As nightfall takes hold, Michael begins to eliminate those around her. Till only his obsession remains, and Laurie must find a way to survive.

Story is simple, let intricately woven together, in a compelling manner. The shots were beautiful, especially the long shots used throughout. Creating an aura that they are being watched, even when Michael is not around, and early on, he is used perfectly to ramp up the tension. Seeing him in passing, or just standing off in the distance, or over there shoulder. Always, in a way, where he is watching, but they are not in position to see him. And what can I say about the score that you haven’t heard. It’s as iconic as this movie is.

The casting is spot on. PJ Soles and Nancy Kyes were excellent as Annie and Lynda. Two very important roles, since they were Laurie’s Best Friends and we spent enough time with each to have their deaths not only mean something, but be memorable in the same instance. Donald Pleasence is the best. Dr. Loomis is one of the best parts about watching this movie, and is a joy to deal with, and of course, we got Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. While, I do believe that she is not the best Final Girl, her performance here, created the formula for what a Final Girl should be, and all of us in the horror community do owe that to her performance here, but I will be circling back to her, in just a little bit.

Nick Castle did a fantastic job, portraying Michael Myers here. He is not a particular big man, at a lean five feet ten, but through his mannerisms and way he held himself. Didn’t have to be. His body language in the presence of someone much bigger. Not to mention the brute force Myers displays throughout.

Now, this movie does have a few minor flaws, and one of which, is with Laurie. It is one thing to fall down while running away. Not going to fault someone for that, but her constant desire to not only stop near the body, but discards her weapon gets infuriating. There are two occasions where she can escape, with the kids, but doesn’t take it. For someone who is supposed to be smart, makes a lot of dumb mistakes. Movie is slightly outdated, particularly around Annie’s death. Bit more tame than most horror movies we see today, but didn’t have to be. Psychological, suspense and characters added more then brutality. Final Grade: A

 

Halloween 2007

And on to the remake, from the mind of one Rob Zombie. Much like a good remake. He had put his own spin on the movie. We start off again, with young Michael, who kills his pet rat. Dad wants to get it on with Step-Daughter Judith, and both are… highly unlikable I’ll say for a lack of non swearing words. Both of which bully Michael, and gets the same from the bullies at school. Dad, Judith, and the bullies are ramped up to as far as they can get, in just about every despicable way. Leaving Mom to try and hold her family together, on top of stripping. Later, we find out Michael is killing all sorts of animals, and we get introduced to Dr. Loomis who is trying to evaluate Michael, but he runs off first. Killing the school bully. Then later on that day, kills the Dad, Judith, and her boyfriend. The later introduces the iconic mask to the equation. All three die in brutal ways. When Mom comes home, finds him covered in blood, sitting on the steps. Baby Laurie, cradled in his arms. We then take a jump to  him in the institution. Gets one last kill as a kid, and never speaks again. Mom kills herself. Then we jump ahead to him as an adult. Doctor Loomis saying his goodbye to him. Having nothing left to give, after years of attempting to reach him. Michael escapes, killing a wave of guards, and the lone worker who is friendly to him. Going back out, to find his sister. From here, we get into the Laurie part of the story. While a lot of it remains a homage to the first. Michael leaves a much bigger body count in his path. Every again, ramped up. Sex, hormones, violence. All turned way up. All leading up to a much more climactic finish.

The Laurie part of this story is great. Keeping Annie alive to bait Laurie in, showed he was more than a brutal killing machine.  Michael taking out her Step-Parents was a great touch. Really leaving Laurie completely alone by the end. Keeping Annie alive to bait Laurie in, showed he was more than a brutal killing machine. The acting was stellar as well. Danielle Harris was great fan service and a wonderful Annie. Kristina Kleb was a decent Lynda, but maybe needed a bit more screen time. Scout-Taylor Compton blew it away as Laurie. Had some massive shoes to fill, but I think in her own way, may have outpaced Jamie Lee Curtis. I know, made some of you.. alright all of you mad at that, but here me out. The reason, I am saying this, was that she was more of an active fighter at time. Bludgeoned, broken, and battered, but still going. Staring him down, ready to blow his brains out. That was really lacking in the first movie, and glad we got it here. I even liked Malcolm Mcdowell’s performance as Dr. Loomis. He was not Donald Pleasence, but played the Doctor role a bit more legit here. Donald’s character just wanted to kill him, while Malcolm’s wanted to still save him. Yes, he did shot him, but only because he was going to kill Laurie, and even after that. Unable to get up, he still clung on to Michael’s leg. Hoping beyond hope, to stop him. It is just a shame that so many good performance are wasted, because of how this movie started.

I don’t want to call it out right awful, cause in the right movie, could work well. If you take the entire front half and change the kid to Freddy Krueger, it would work out so much better. Cause that I believe is his childhood. That’s kind of my problem here. Take that childhood, it would be more of a surprise that he didn’t turn out to be a killer. His childhood is the stuff of several real ones. They try to sell you on him being pure evil, but he is not. Just a kid with an awful, awful childhood, who snapped. Nothing even inhuman about his strength, because they brought in Tyler Manes, who did a good job, but at his sheer size, you believe that he could easily do these things, because he is huge. The front half of this movie, just stole all of his mystique and turned him into just another bland killer, and the front half did a whole lot worse and hurt the back half in the process.

All the sex and nudity made sense in the second half of the story, because they are young adults, who just want to get laid and have a good time. However, because we had to deal with the likes of Roy who wants to sleep with a waitress and gets it on with Judith, and Judith and her boyfriend, and the bully who mocks Michael with a flyer of his Mom stripping and wants to know how much she would charge him or how much Judith is charging for this and that and goes on and on. By the time you get to the part where this all makes sense, you are just so tired and over it, and you still have an hour of it left to go. It is fine when it makes sense, but as a method to make you hate them, is just dumb and lazy way to go.
There is one more negative to go, and that is the way this movie closes. They tumble out of the window together. I like it. She is on top of him, gun to his head. Pulling the trigger, click, nothing. Again, nothing. His arm grabs hers, and another blank shot. All of which is great stuff, until the gunshot rings out, and she lets out a hellacious scream. Unraveling in front of us, and no. I will never be okay when the lead goes, crazy. It is lazy and ridiculous thing to do. After everything she did to survive. Just mentally break at the end, and I know the argument over realism of what she has been through and you are wrong. Michael eats bullets and knife wounds for breakfast. Can’t ignore that and use realism later on. Her unraveling at the end, is the only negative I have, around the back half of this, but it is a big one.

I may be a little more generous than I should. Scout, Danielle and Malcolm. Along with enjoying some of the later kills.  The second half of this movie, dug it out of a massive hole, and if I could forget the first hour or so. Then the grade would be much higher, but since I can’t. Final Grade: C –

Winner- The Original

At the end of the day, it’s not even really close. I do understand why people like the remake. It’s bold and brutal, and over the top. It had splashes of genius and great casting in Laurie, Annie, and Loomis. If more effort was put into the writing and pacing and a little restraint. Could have been a real challenger, but Carpenter weaved a simple story into a timeless classic. Everything flowed well, and let Suspense and Psychology add to the terror and built up over time. Do you disagree? Feel like I have overlooked or missed something? Let me know in the comments. In the meantime, Have a Happy Halloween and…

Thanks for reading.

Happy Halloween

Have a happy halloween.

Copyright issues is the Issue!

By Paul Anthony

It’s no secret that we live in a time where reboots and remakes is the standard but there was a time where ideas were fresh and money making was a new thing and many people wanted in. Writers started to write materials for movies that they hoped would make them money and life would be set. One of the bigger names in the game is Friday the 13th which means Jason Voorhees. See when you are creating materials for books and movies and even music, sometimes you have sell the rights to get somewhere. What are rights? Well say you write a movie and you can’t afford to make it without help, well you can sell the rights or in better terms you start a company but you need to sell percentages of the company to keep it going, though you founded it you are no longer the sole owner. Screen plays and other written materials is the same way. Now Victor Miller wrote Friday the 13th but sold the rights away to get the movie started which, we know became one of the biggest horror franchises

Last year, because of a copyright act that came about in 1976, creators who sold their work after 35 years can challenge to get their work back and Victor Miller won his case but the battle was far from over because he only got the rights to original film which doesn’t include Jason Voorhees because that is something Sean S. Cunningham made when his company got the rights from Victor Miller. Which a Judge ruled on the side of Sean’s side regarding that. Now the frustrating part is that we all know you can’t have Friday the 13th without Jason. The battle could go on for years because there can’t be a winning unless these two parties agree to do something. Now Can this rule affect any of the other big horror franchises in the game?

Nightmare on Elm Street film rights went right back to Wes Craven’s estate where it belongs without a fight since this year since it marked 35 years and because of another copyright law they have control of it for the next 70 years, good to say at this point we will see a remake of Freddy before we see another Jason film.

We know Halloween is doing just fine with two movie sequels in the works and the same goes for Child’s Play, since they just had a reboot released this year. We all know things can change and so do people minds if they see the money is there to be made. Which doesn’t make sense regarding Jason because if the film is done right then the money will be there!

Box Office Rundown!10/28/19

By Paul Anthony

Welcome to another week of looking at the numbers over the weekend and once again we have new number 1 film and once again it is the R rated film Joker which is still going strong with many people believing this could be the first R rated film to reach a billion, the verdict is still out on that because the next few weeks the road gets a lot tougher. Disney’s movie Maleficent 2 is barely trending water and this could be a lost for the Mouse in the long run so let’s look at the rest of the top ten!

1. Joker , 18.9 million
2. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, 18.5 million
3. the Addams Family,  11.7 million
4. Zombieland: Double Tap, 11.6 million
5. Countdown, 9 million
6. Black and Blue , 8.3 million
7. Gemini man, 4 million
8. The Lighthouse, 3 millon
9. The Current War: Director’s Cut , 2.7 million
10. Abominable, 2 million

Let’s give the biggest jump to The Lighthouse which was number 15th last week and jumped all the way up to 8th and the biggest fall goes to Abominable which fell from 6th to 10th. How will the current top ten deal. There are going to be 7 movies released next week with 4 of them being wide releases and including Terminator: Dark Fate.

1. Terminator: Dark fate
2. Joker
3. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
4. Zombieland: Double Tap
5. Harriet
6. Countdown
7. Black and Blue
8. Gemini Man
9. The Lighthouse
10. The Current Was: the Directors Cut.

I am not sold on my number 5 and 6 but I am pretty sure Terminator should take number 1.

Sequel Saturday Presents Strangers: Prey at Night

By Paul Anthony

Welcome our Saturday night blog and for the last Saturday night blog before Halloween, I had to figure out which scary sequel should I do. Now the easy choice was to do Halloween 2 from the 80’s but I decided to go away from that and go with a film that I wanted to see but never got around to it. As you can see by the title we will be reviewing Strangers 2 Prey at Night. This movie was released in the March of 2018 and it was a sequel was ten years in the making, which may have been some of it’s downfall.

The Budget was very small for a big time release at just 5 million which was 4 million less then the first film. Now the first film made a little over 80 million, however this film just made over 30 million. Usually when a sequel takes ten years to come out and they have it in March which is a grave yard month there really isn’t much hope but was the film that bad to warrant those numbers?

The event in the film takes place ten years after the events in the first film. Here the film the story focuses on family traveling in Ohio to take their teenage daughter to boarding school because I guess she did something bad ass but the family giving up everything to do this. Once they arrive, they stay at a family trailer overnight, that where the Strangers start to show and begin to torment the family and kill off the parents leaving the kids by themselves to fight off the strangers which they do successfully or so we believe because the film ends in the hospital where the daughter hears a sound that she heard in the trailer park. Though the only one that could have survived was the Man in the Mask but even then he took a very bad better and got stabbed and burned.

Now I can say that I did find this film a slight more enjoyable with the pace and the music did make the film more entertaining then the first but the acting and even the script was just horrible, they could have said nothing and it would have been better. Now the acting was so bad and I get these people needed to be on the low end of the budget but just seems like they were trying so hard to be in character that it felt so fake.

Now in the end I have to say because of the acting and script I was very disappointed in this film. It could have been better even with the low budget, the fact that they took ten years to make this and they missed the target. In the end what would I grade this film? Well sadly I have to give this film a D even for a low budget horror film this was bad but if you are a fan of the first film and want to see the second just to complete the series then be my guest!

 

Friday Roundabout 10/25/19

By Paul Anthony

Like any other week we are faced with so many stories and just not enough time to write about them so let’s get down to it and go through a few stories that we just couldn’t cover. One of the biggest stories was of course the annoying Cardi B who we know was a stripper turned to a no talent rapper and now has one film to her credit and now another film because she will be now in Fast 9, well I know Vin wants all the star power in these final two films but this is something that is not needed and Cardi B is more famous for her looks rather then talent and this casting could set the female film way back, I could be way wrong but we will see soon enough.

Now this this isn’t a movie thing but I do find it entertaining but Edward Snowden, yes the famous hacker who decided to leak our security systems because he didn’t like, he went on a podcast and announced that the moon landing was indeed real and it did happen, well there you go people it was all real.

Okay that was stupid I know but let’s get back to some serious business here, the Joker now has become the highest R rated film now, which means it did even better then Deadpool. The next question is when will the money stop or even slow down and predictions are putting this film back in the top stop, could we see a 1 billion R rated film? Who knows!

Now let’s cover some Star Wars news here, we now know how many episodes we are getting in the Obi- Wan series which takes place 8 years after Revenge of Sith. I still don’t how I feel about this show with Obi-Wan story pretty much being over when he defeated and nearly killed Darth Vader and pretty much did nothing in the 20 plus years that he went into hiding but we do know Disney is creative with adding and making stuff up, I know I am sounding like I am bashing the series but I am looking forward to watching it to see where it goes.

Keeping in the Disney umbrella, they are in fact making another Pirates of the Caribbean film, yes it is a reboot so there is a good chance we won’t see Johnny Depp, which isn’t a bad thing because the truth be told the fan base wasn’t thrilled with him anymore, just look at the numbers, though what worries me is most of the crew behind the camera which means they might not offer us anything new but still this movie is a long way from happening.

Justin will most likely going to review the Shinning sequel Dr. Sleep but what are other people saying? Well the reviews have been positive and even calling it the best King movie if not one of the best.

Now You ever wonder if actors get hurt on location when they do awesome fight scenes. Marvel’s Netflix show The Punisher which broke the character back from the dead, but what injuries did he suffer, well a broken hand, got knocked out, tore ligaments, dislocated his thumb but despite all that he is willing to come back as Frank Castle if or when he is summon again to play the role and I think he is the best one we had so why not bring him back!

What Is Cinema?

By Paul Anthony

When you on on top of the world and you are making the most money and you keep producing hit after hit you will have your haters and now Disney and Marvel is facing that from some pretty big names but who is bashing the machine that marvel has become? Some of those people well the biggest names is Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.

Here is the thing that bothers me the most with those two speaking out against Marvel and don’t get me wrong they have every right to do so but Scorsese said that Marvel films aren’t cinema but my question is what is cinema? We know there are several genres of film and the best description of the word is art of motion picture. Now through the years we can say its a film that tells a good story and deliver all the elements of literature and most of all it entertains us and keeps us hooked. I have watched many movies of Martin Scorsese and I do enjoy his work and many of his films I do own. But Is he right for calling a genre trash?

Scorsese and Coppola were some of the directors that started the new wave in Hollywood and changed the game, Some of Scorsese’s films include gang violence of the mafia or just gangs outright but they always had a little of everything but yet many people don’t like them as well but no one called it trash.

See it doesn’t make sense to me for him to call it trash, maybe it’s sour grapes or something because of the money Marvel. Scorsese highest grossing film was Wolf of Wall Street which grossed 392 million dollars and is a great movie to watch. When you look Marvel Studios movies that number would rank on the low end of list, still once again no need to trash something and it’s not like these films are poorly reviewed either so a lot of people don’t think this type of films are trash. Now I know a bunch of actors have came out and said hey they can say whatever they want to say and indeed they can, take nothing away they are legends but even legends can be wrong and in this case I have to say they are wrong but have the right to say that.

Now maybe behind the scenes Scorsese is feeling the pressure to make a mega hit like avengers type of gross and it’s not his style. In the end Marvel films are very much cinema, it is a modern art and they do get a lot more praise for their films then most other comic book films do. I am sure a lot of people are feeling the pressure to maybe put up Marvel like numbers for their studio but money isn’t everything. Maybe one day Scorsese could do a comic book film and with his style it would actually be a great if not the best comic book film ever!

Top 8 horror characters to never appear in a movie

By: Justin Hopkins

Saved this for last. Mostly, because I think it took years off my life. Every time I thought I had the list the way I wanted, found a movie they had been in, and while I have watched way too many horror movies. My knowledge of horror games, comics, and everything else are all over the place. Some more then others, my fault. Ever growing to do list, but alas. Proved to be a very difficult as far as picking out 8 good characters to feature on a list, but I was determined to see it through. Try and give you list you won’t see a dozen of everywhere else. With that said, let’s get down to it, with number 8, from a storied franchise.

8. Twin Victims – Silent Hill 4: The Room

It would be almost wrong to not include a Silent Hill creation on a list like this. While the movies wisely used the big popular ones. There was still a few to be utilized and for my money, it’s got to be the twin victims. Their unsettledness upon first meeting them. A giant black cloak, walking on two massive arms and dueling masks looking back. Stopping to point directly at you, trying to run away when you get too close and swing defensively. Due, to you playing as the man who killed two twins early on in his life. Psychologically hitting you with not only their look, but the fact they are killing them all over again.

7. Grey Jack – Resistance: Fall Of Man

This guys were a nightmare to contend with. Racing full steam ahead at you, and even if you knew they were coming. If you blink they were on you and resulted in heavy damage. There long elongated bodies were stood to the husky and thick bodies of the rest of the Chimera you have been dealing with. They were not even armed, but no matter what you were doing. They took top priority due to how fast they can end you.

6. Baron Of Hell – Doom

Whether he is pixelated or towering monster of hatred. The Baron stands out in a seas of just awesome designs. Was amazed by his design when I first saw him in Doom 2016 right to the point where he knock me silly and send me running to the cave. Being among the highest ranking members of hell and fighting process to back it up. May have fallen from grace a bit from their final boss status, but can end you quick if you are unprepared and still a force to be reckoned with.

5. Alma Wade – F.E.A.R.

Kids will always be creepy, and Alma is one of the few to ever make me jump during gameplay. Just a google search and you’ll see why.  Her just popping up and disappearing within a moment. Wondering if she was even there or if it has happened so much and you are starting to see things. Being a powerful psychic who tortured and drove the scientists mad was chilling. Yet, when you learn more about the awful things done to her. Start to understand her rage a bit. Even if it is directed at you in the process.

4. Witch – Left For Dead

If you ever played Left for Dead and heard her crying. Did you avoid at all cost and immediately run up and cause your own demise. I was the second one exclusively. The witch baited in unexpected survivors during their escape from a zombie infected area, and those who stumbled upon her, or inadvertent flashlight beam would soon be staring down and at the incoming missile on two legs. Knocking you down with a swipe of her claws and killing you, and if you did not preemptively strike or start blasting away the second she got up. There wasn’t much you can do to stop her. While there are many threats lurking in Left For Dead. None were as lethal, as the Witch, and the thing was; You were the one who caused it.

3. Lisa Trevor – Resident Evil

Among those to appear on this list, or in general really. None are more sad, then that of one Lisa Trevor. She was forced to be the lab rat of the Umbrella Corporation  at a young age and began to develop horrific mutations. Her Mother was as well, but when her Mother tried to escape and was killed and replaced by an imposter, to appease Lisa. Under the impression that the imposter stole her Mother’s face. Leading Lisa to ripped her face off. Dead set to return it to her Mother. Her terrifying appearance is matched only by the fact she is unstoppable enemy who will kill you even if you try to fight.

2. The Darklings – The Darkness.

If there is one on this list that I am shocked they have not used in a movie let, it is The Darkness. With how popular Comic Book Movies have been and more turning towards a darker tone. The Darkness seems ripe for the picking, but their loss is this lists gain, because the Darklings are terrifying horde. Don’t let their short, over the top antics fool you. They are lethal as they come, who not only will kill you, but keep the onslaught going after your demise, for nothing more then  sheer enjoyment. The fact that they are creation of whomever is wielding the power of the Darkness, is irrelevant, because they ultimately take their marching orders from the Darkness itself. As long as they remain bathed in darkness. There is little they can’t do.

1. Huntress – Dead By Daylight

This is an absolute, personal choice, and you can at me all you want, but it will not stop her from being top of the list . For all Dead By Daylight’s faults, and their lore is tremendous to read, and Anna’s stands out among the rest. After the death of her Mother, Anna was left to fend for herself at a young age, not much older then seven, in the wilderness. She has never mentally aged beyond that moment. Growing into a hulking, hunting goddess. Taking out everything from deer to bear and later humans, with nothing more then her instincts and trusty ax and hatchets. Except little girls, needing to protect them from the dangers out there. Leading to their death of illness or hunger. Even her mori, one kill shot to the head, and two to the chest. Like a little kid celebrating over their downed victim. She is a raw nerve that can’t be reasoned with, because she doesn’t know she is doing anything wrong. The moment in the game, when you first hear her humming lullaby. The entire game changes, because the moment a chase begins. You have to ready for incoming hatchets. All of your usual tactics go right out the window and even when you are unhooking or out in the open. Never knowing when a hatchet will come from nowhere.

And that is all I got. I hope you enjoyed. As challenging as it was, had a good time trying to find the best that I could find. Now is the real fun part. Do you disagree? Have one that I left off? Are you Sally Smithson, blinking over for daring to put Huntress on over her? Let me know in the comments. All for conversation and love to know more about horror characters that I don’t know about. In the meantime;

Thank you for reading.

Monday Numbers! 10/21/19

By Paul Anthony

After a week off to move the office to a new location, I am back at the blogs and like any other Monday, I am back looking at the numbers. This past weekend we had Zombieland 2 and Maleficent 2 go up against Joker and with 3 big names in the game who would come out on top? Well let’s look at the numbers!

1. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil at 36 million
2. Joker at 29.2 million
3. Zombieland 2 : Double Tap at 26.7 million
4. The Addams family  at 16 million
5. Gemini Man at 8.5 million
6. Abominable at 3.5 million
7. Downton Abby at 3 million
8. Judy at 2 million
9. Hustlers at 2 million
10. It Chapter 2 at 1.5 million

 

Now I don’t see Fridays’s new opening films really making a impact. The Horror film Countdown could crack the Top 5 at best but here we go

1. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
2. ZombieLand: Double tap
3. Joker
4. Countdown
5. The Addams family
6. Gemini Man
7. Abominable
8. Downton Abby
9. It Chapter 2
10. Hustlers

 

With it being October I do see It and Countdown keeping the fort down with the horror movies, with this being the final weekend before Halloween, they should get a good boost from the fan base.

 

8 B-Movies to watch before Halloween

By: Justin Hopkins

I know, it’s Sunday and this is not the normally B-Movie Review, but wanted to mix it up just a little bit, and in line with the rest of the lists I have put up this month. It would be almost a shame to not make one up for these as well. After all, this is the season of gory slashers, monsters, ghosts and all things that go bump in the night. It can be easy to get lost in the big three, Stephen King, and various others that might sneak onto TV, but these 8 can mix it up a little bit. While they may or may not hold up to the norm. They are still entertaining and is good to mix up your usual watch list from time to time. However, I have changed some things up, and a few important things to note before I begin. Number 1, being the obvious, I have had to of seen the movie to make the list. I don’t want to B.S a about a movie that I have never seen before. I am sorry, but wouldn’t be right to you and I am not going to do it. So, movies like Dead Alive or Terrifier or Satan’s Little Helper may be excellent movies, but haven’t seen them. So, they are not here. 2, I normally go for B-Movies that don’t have a theater run, but have lifted that rule, just a little and have allowed for limited runs to be present. Number 3, this is not a normal ranking, from worst to best kind of deal. Don’t take the numbers to literally. It’s just 8 suggestions that I feel can be fun to kick back and watch. Nothing more than that. With that said, lets get things rolling.

8. House Of The Dead

It would almost be a mistake to no include a Uwe Boll. To be fair, despite some over acting and cheesy moments. This zombie packed film isn’t a bad one. Bringing the arcade game to life, in gory fashion. Some fun characters in the form of Kirk and Skipper, and over the top zombie kills. Particularly enjoy the montage to the song Fury, where you get a long action sequence of the survivors taking out waves of zombies, with bits of gameplay weaved throughout. It’s a fun movie, not to be taken seriously, and in an over bloated genre such as zombies are now a days. That is all I am asking for.

7. Python

There is always room for giant man eating monsters, and while we have the likes of Anaconda and Boa floating around. Python has been my go to for a long time. Really enjoyed the characters throughout the story. The little town setting and the issues they were having, that did not revolve around the giant snake. Of course, having a horror icon Robert Englund goes a long way as well. The CGI snake didn’t look to bad and the kills were fun and because of the attention they had on building characters. The deaths felt like they meant something to the story. All big pluses and a reason to give it a watch.

6. Killer Klowns From Outer Space

I mean, do I really have to give a reason to watch this. It’s killer aliens designed as clowns. It’s great fun from start to finish. Kills are over the top and fantastic. Being as creative as they could with stuff you’d find at a carnival to weaponize. I did a review on this a few weeks ago, and if you haven’t watched it. Now is the best time. If you have watch it again. Can never have enough of this one.

5. The Stuff

This is still one of the most bizarre movies I have ever scene. Right from the start, where the two men find white stuff coming out of the ground and eat it and turn it into a food craze that the world loves, and turns people crazy and under mind control and slowly eating them alive from the inside. With an investigator trying to sabotage them and later stop them before it is to late. Crazy ride from start to finish.

4. Black Sheep

This tongue and cheek, gore fest of a B-Movie is brought to us from New Zealand and is tremendous. It’s so hard to look away, no matter what craziness they throw at you. From flocks of deranged, scientifically altered sheep, Weresheep, and stupid one liners. The actors were top notch, characters were a joy to watch. Felt sorry for the main and his genuine fear of sheep in seriously traumatizing moment and enjoyed Angus get his comeuppance. And for those who like bloody and extreme death scenes. Black Sheep has you covered.

3. Sharktopus

I want to remind everyone, this is not an official list. Sharktopus, is one of my favorite shark movies and movies in general. Do I think of it as the best of either category, no of course not, but I find it to be one of the most fun movies I have watched, and it is hard to explain why. The story is as out there as they come. Think the actors had a good chemistry together. The main characters took the situation seriously, while the side characters and those meant to die, were goofy and over the top. I enjoyed the look of Shaktapus himself. Crack up every time I watch him using the tentacles to walk across the beach and through the resort. Why do I suggest this, because with all the serious and dark movies to watch during Halloween and on this list. Sharktopus has a light heartedness to break them up and give you a bit of a break between them.

2. Hatchet

Speaking of dark and gritty, we land on the love letter to the 80’s Slasher Genre, Hatchet. Telling the story of the deformed Victor Crowley and his sad demise and vengeful return and my god they do not hold back on anything in this. Victor rips and tears people apart with his bare hands and chucks body parts at poor Ben. This movie gets you from the start with some fun moments of mardi gras and solid character build ups before a rather great introduction to Crowley himself. This should be a regular Halloween watch, but if it’s not. Then do yourself a favor and add. It is well worth the time.

1. Evil Dead

Could it be anything else. The King of the B-Movies. Almost hard to think of something new to say here that hasn’t already been said before. It’s not a particularly scary movie, but gave us a wild tale, of Ash becoming the least likely hero of all time. Everyone involved loved this movie and wanted it to be successful and showed first hand how well a B Movie can do. Of course you have seen it. If you ever needed a reason to watch it again. None better then now.

And that would be that. My 8 B-Movie suggestions to watch for Halloween time. Tell me what B- Movies you like to watch in the comments below. Be back next week with our regular scheduled B-Movie review and in the meantime.

Thanks for reading