Special Features is a regular column in which MCG team members discuss projects they’re working on, interesting MCG activities, or things that inspire their work. This column was written by Monte.
Halloween, of course, was last weekend. I love Halloween. Scares, pumpkin carving, candy, costumes—what’s not to like? Coupled with Daylight Savings Time Fall back (the day in which we are gifted with an extra hour!), it was a great weekend.
To celebrate Halloween this year, I spent the entire week preceding the holiday watching various horror films. This is something that I do most years, when I can. Most of these were movies I hadn’t seen before. I did a little research ahead of time, and tried to get some good recommendations. The following are my impressions of those movies. No real spoilers, as I don’t give story overviews, just opinions.
With the lead up of a week, and a marathon on Halloween itself, I ended up watching 13 movies. Well, sort of. You’ll see what I mean.
Halloween Movie #1 this year was Crimson Peak. This was the only movie of the week that was in a theater, rather than at home. It’s an old school gothic romance rather than a horror film, but that’s okay. Gorgeous visuals. Good cast. Pretty good story.
Halloween Movie #2 was Lazarus Effect. Great cast—surprisingly so, in fact. I enjoy the work of pretty much every actor that showed up on screen. Unfortunately, it had a very disappointing, muddled script. The film never really went anywhere. And it wasn’t terribly scary.
Halloween Movie #3 was Below, a WWII submarine ghost story. Overall, I’d say this was above average. The plot was predictable, but tight, so that’s okay. I like how everything pretty much came together in the end. There weren’t a lot of surprises, but I don’t need those to enjoy a film.
Halloween Movie #4 was The Shining, which I thought would be the only movie in the week that I’d watch that I’ve already seen. Turned out to not be true. Still, it’s one of my favorite movies, period. Jack Nicholson is just so creepy from the moment he shows up on screen, and the child actor is so good, that I’m happy to rewatch this movie frequently.
Halloween Movie #5 was surprisingly scary. Surprising, as it was a documentary. It was called The Nightmare, and it was about real life night terror experiences that people have had. It creeped me out.
Halloween Movie #6 this year was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a film from Iran. Interesting from a cultural point of view, but as a horror film? Slooooow and dull. Its use of over-saturated blacks (in a black and white film) made the movie very muddy, I thought. Hard to focus on, actually. It sort of made me sleepy. I can’t really say that I enjoyed it.
Halloween Movie #7 was Intruders, with Clive Owen (an actor I normally enjoy). I like the idea of a monster given life by stories (that’s not too much of a spoiler), but overall a sort of muddled mess.
Halloween Movie #8 was Insidious. I liked everything about it very much, except the very end. Not because I need a neat and tidy, happy ending, but because it was ham-handedly done. Disappointing for an otherwise great film with some real scares.
Halloween Movie #9 was Sinister. I liked it. Ethan Hawk, a fine actor, rounded the sharp corners of some typical, unbelievable horror movie clichés that show up in horror movies (people doing unbelievable things, mostly to keep the plot moving). Creepy.
Halloween Movie #10 was The Others. This was the other movie I’d already seen. I had intended on this slot being taken by a movie called The Orphanage, which I still plan on seeing, but I was just in the mood for this movie and it was available on Netflix streaming. It was just as good as I remembered it. Excellent film.
Halloween Movie #11 was V/H/S/2. I couldn’t even be bothered to finish it. Can’t remember why it was recommended to me. A couple of interesting takes on the found footage genre, but overall low budget and sloppy.
Halloween Movie #12 was House of the Devil, a film that gets a lot of praise as a throwback to slow-build horror films from the late 70s and early 80s. I guess I get what it’s trying to do, but didn’t really work for me. The slow build up was too slow. The payoff at the end wasn’t interesting enough to justify sitting through the prior hour and a half.
Halloween “Movie” #13 was It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. So yeah, not really a movie. But if I can, I watch it every year for nostalgia. Loved it as a kid, and loved it now.
