Halloween 'Grab Bag': I checked out some 'new' movies

Well, I can hardly believe it, but Halloween is 11 days away. I took a trip to the craft store to pick up some things that I needed, only to find that most of the Halloween merchandise has been marked down for clearance. That made me a little sad. It won't be long until the stores are cleared of wonderful Halloween merchandise, only to make room for that other holiday, Christmas. Although if the stores in your area are anything like the ones around here, you probably know that the Christmas stuff started oozing out two weeks ago. I try to ignore it as best as I can.

Anyway, I've still got some Halloween art to complete, a costume to work on, and other random Halloween things. I'm trying to hold onto the moment as long as I can. I thought I might take the day off, but decided instead to share some of my recent horror film viewings. I conveniently copied the descriptions of the films from Wikipedia, rather than trying to write my own (lazy), but I've got Halloweenin' to do.

These are all films I'd never seen before and I actually enjoyed all of them.

'The Skeleton Key', 2005 – From Wikipedia:

'The film centers on a young hospice nurse who acquires a job at a Terrebonne Parish plantation home, and becomes entangled in a supernatural mystery involving the house, its former inhabitants, and the hoodoo rituals and spells that took place there.'

I remember when this came out. I thought the trailer looked pretty interesting and I was curious to see it. But then I kind of forgot about it. When I saw it pop up on the Netflix recommendations, I decided to give it a watch. I rather enjoyed it and I'll probably add it to my regular rotation of 'Horror Films for Summer'.

'Dolls', 1987 – From Wikipedia:

'A violent thunderstorm strands six people in the gothic English countryside including Judy, who's traveling with her father and her cold, self-centered, stepmother. They are accompanied by a kind, modest, and mild-mannered businessman Ralph, who has picked up two hitchhikers, both British punk rock girls. They all wind up at a mansion inhabited by Gabriel and Hilary Hartwicke, charming elderly people who appear to be toy makers; their house literally abounds with dolls, puppets, and other beautifully detailed toys.'

I actually liked this film a lot more than I expected to. It's a horror film, but it plays more like a dark fairy tale. I didn't really know anything about this film before I watched it, but it was directed by Stuart Gordon, who is probably best known for his film 'Re-Animator'.

'The Resurrected' aka 'Shatterbrain', 1992 – From Wikipedia

'Claire Ward hires private investigator John Marsh to look into the increasingly bizarre activities of her husband Charles Dexter Ward. Ward has become obsessed with the occult practices of raising the dead once practiced by his ancestor Joseph Curwen. As the investigators dig deeper, they discover that Ward is performing a series of grisly experiments in an effort to actually resurrect his long-dead relative Curwen.'

And so it's a Lovecraft film. I like those when they are done well. According to Wiki, this was a direct to DVD film, which might explain why I kept thinking it was a made for TV movie. I thought this was quite good & Chris Sarandon does a great job. One other thing that I kind of like about it is that it is very much a early 90's movie. I can't really explain it, but it sent be back on a fun little time warp. This film was directed by the late Dan O'Bannon, writer of the 'Alien' screenplay & director of the cult classic 'Return of the Living Dead'. 

So I watched some fun new movies. I still haven't taken time out to watch old favorites that I like to pull out this time of year. Although I picked up the new blu-ray anniversary edition of 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch' and I'm looking forward to watching that, along with the new extras that are included on the disc.

Well, that's it for today. I will have a food (or at least a coffee) related post tomorrow.