It's that time of year. What movies do you have planned and what else are you planning to do for Halloween?
This year we're planning on seeing Universal Horror's Mummy movies:
The Mummy (1932)
The Mummy's Hand (1940)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
The Mummy's Curse (1944)
Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
As well as Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
Recently got John Carpenter's the Thing in 4K so around la fête des morts should be a good time to watch it again. :P
Could start with la Nuit des masques (Carpenter's Halloween). Back then, late '70s, Halloween as a holiday was virtually unknown in France and other European countries.
Mubi has upbeat movies like Funny Games and The Girl Next Door (which is based on a really messed up real life case of mental and physical abuse leading slow, excruciating death and most people involved getting just a slap on the wrist).
Presumably not the one where Elisha Cuthbert plays a porn star?
Quote from: Eddie Teach on October 01, 2021, 02:30:34 PM
Presumably not the one where Elisha Cuthbert plays a porn star?
No this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Next_Door_(2007_film)
It's based on a novel inspired by this case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sylvia_Likens
Ghostbusters
The Worst Witch
The Halloween that ALmost Wasn't
The Halloween Tree
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Ghostbusters
Disney Halloween Treat
I forgot Beatlejuice!
THE PUMPKIN SPICE MUST FLOW!
At the grocery store yesterday they had pumpkins (jack o' lantern, mini and sweet varieties), pumpkin spice coffee creamer, pumpkin beer, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cinnamon granola, pumpkin spice cinnamon toast, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice cream cheese, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin loaf cake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin roll, and pumpkin pie. Does anywhere else go pumpkin/pumpkin spice crazy this time of year or is this only the United States?
The UK does :lol:
Starbucks was the initial entry but it's now spreading everywhere. I've never actually tried it myself but do generally think everything I eat in October should taste of cinnamon.
I also think every drink should be mulled in December.
Quote from: Savonarola on October 04, 2021, 12:34:24 PM
THE PUMPKIN SPICE MUST FLOW!
At the grocery store yesterday they had pumpkins (jack o' lantern, mini and sweet varieties), pumpkin spice coffee creamer, pumpkin beer, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cinnamon granola, pumpkin spice cinnamon toast, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice cream cheese, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin loaf cake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin roll, and pumpkin pie. Does anywhere else go pumpkin/pumpkin spice crazy this time of year or is this only the United States?
No. And no William Shatner masks to be found, as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1NIf8GeeY
Jack-o-pumpkin ale!
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 04, 2021, 01:50:59 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1NIf8GeeY
Jack-o-pumpkin ale!
They're my people.
Quote from: Savonarola on October 01, 2021, 01:31:13 PM
It's that time of year. What movies do you have planned and what else are you planning to do for Halloween?
This year we're planning on seeing Universal Horror's Mummy movies:
The Mummy (1932)
The Mummy's Hand (1940)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
The Mummy's Curse (1944)
Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
As well as Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
I've made it through the first three Mummy movies (as well as Hocus Pocus and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.) The original Universal Horror Movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Invisible Man) were all A pictures which were played completely straight. By the late 30s they had moved more into the B picture realm; but they still had high production values. By the 40s it had become more hit or miss and some of the movies started to adopt a jokey tone.
The Mummy is essentially Dracula with a better sound era director and Boris Karloff in the Bela Lugosi role. The Mummy's Hand was made on a shoestring budget (and reused sets from, of all things, the jungle picture Green Hell - creating a mighty lush looking Egypt.) That one is much more jokey as our intrepid archeologist and his wisecracking assistant journey to the dig site with a stage magician and his nubile daughter. The mummy has vanished, bodies and bodies are starting to pile up - as any scriptwriter will tell you that's an ideal time for a magic show.
The Mummy's Tomb has a somewhat larger budget; but the story is much weaker as the mummy has come to Massachusetts and seeks revenge on the men who violated his tomb, their descendants and/or close relatives. So mostly people just hang around waiting for the mummy to kill them until the end where the mob of concerned citizens gathers torches and clubs and hunts down the mummy.
In both The Mummy's Hand and The Mummy's Tomb the mummy is controlled by the high priest. In both films the high priest falls in love with the lead actress who has the mummy kidnap her in order that he may mummify her and they will be together
FOREVER! While I won't criticize the wooing techniques of either high priest (you know you could just ask her out, many chicks are into all that new age stuff) it's hard to imagine that working out well since she's going to get all leathery after a while :yucky: or, if you keep pumping her full of fluids, she's going to rot from the inside :yucky:.
Quote from: Savonarola on October 04, 2021, 12:34:24 PM
THE PUMPKIN SPICE MUST FLOW!
At the grocery store yesterday they had pumpkins (jack o' lantern, mini and sweet varieties), pumpkin spice coffee creamer, pumpkin beer, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cinnamon granola, pumpkin spice cinnamon toast, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin spice cream cheese, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin loaf cake, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin roll, and pumpkin pie. Does anywhere else go pumpkin/pumpkin spice crazy this time of year or is this only the United States?
This week it was pumpkin spice yogurt covered pretzels in addition to all the things I listed before.
I have, for my sins, been working through the Halloween films.
I see it's not popular but I really enjoyed Halloween III and wish they'd gone down that anthology route - maybe even do a full-blown portmanteau film like creepshow :o
Halloween IV was competent. I think when a set of films reaches that level, it's only going downhill :ph34r:
Euros, be wary of the pumpkin spice. It is like Halloween - sure it starts off all innocent with kids getting hepped up on candy and psychopaths putting razor blades into apples, but soon it takes over and starts earlier and earlier. Next thing you know, you will be sipping a Pumpkin Spice Latte in August while looking at the first Christmas Decorations.
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 13, 2021, 01:48:06 PM
I have, for my sins, been working through the Halloween films.
I see it's not popular but I really enjoyed Halloween III and wish they'd gone down that anthology route - maybe even do a full-blown portmanteau film like creepshow :o
Halloween IV was competent. I think when a set of films reaches that level, it's only going downhill :ph34r:
Everybody lost their shit when they dared to declare Michael Myers dead when he burned to a crisp in Halloween II and dared to do something new and different in Halloween III.
Hollywood has never forgiven us for that and for our sins they will only ever do remakes and sequels forever more.
But I agree. No need to see any of the Halloween movies after III unless you just really want to see Jamie Lee Curtis kick ass in the 20th anniversary movie H20.
So actually I love the recent Halloween from 2018 - I thought it was terrific. It's just I hadn't seen anything between Halloween and that one - a mistake(?) I'm now correcting.
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 13, 2021, 02:11:38 PM
So actually I love the recent Halloween from 2018 - I thought it was terrific. It's just I hadn't seen anything between Halloween and that one - a mistake(?) I'm now correcting.
Ah. Fair enough I never saw that one.
I made a pumpkin pound cake the other day. It was good.
Halloween Season of the Witch was good, despite it having nothing at all to do with the Halloween series. Kind of like the Poltergeist and Friday the 13th TV series.
The best thing to watch for Halloween is a short animated series called Over the Garden Wall. I can't recommend this highly enough.
In terms of animation, it is an instant classic of dark absurd fantasy - in the vein of the early Fliesher shorts, but with hefty injections of folklore and whimsy. Manages to be absurd, moving, nostalgic and dark, but also strangely uplifting.
The rendition of "Potatoes and Molasses" in gratuitous operatic Latin is worth the price of admission!
Or the American version, Over the Hedge.
Where can I watch the original Halloween?
Quote from: The Brain on October 14, 2021, 10:21:58 AM
Where can I watch the original Halloween?
A cinematheque? A repertory cinema?
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on October 14, 2021, 10:57:55 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 14, 2021, 10:21:58 AM
Where can I watch the original Halloween?
A cinematheque? A repertory cinema?
Sounds like work. I want instant gratification.
Quote from: Savonarola on October 01, 2021, 01:31:13 PM
It's that time of year. What movies do you have planned and what else are you planning to do for Halloween?
This year we're planning on seeing Universal Horror's Mummy movies:
The Mummy (1932)
The Mummy's Hand (1940)
The Mummy's Tomb (1942)
The Mummy's Ghost (1944)
The Mummy's Curse (1944)
Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955)
As well as Practical Magic, Hocus Pocus and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.
While I've complained about Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy in the past; upon watching all of them I realize it's the second best of the series. After the original it has the best cast and best story (the mummy costume is chintzy in Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy, Universal didn't think they needed a convincing mummy for a comedy.)
In the original mummy; the mummy is named Imhotep. The author of "Bubba Ho-Tep" took its name from that. In the other films the mummy is Kharis (or Klaris in the Abbot and Costello film.) In The Mummy's Tomb and The Mummy's Ghost the mummy is brought to America and terrorizes Massachusetts. In The Mummy's Ghost he's chased down by a group of concerned citizens and burned to death (or is he?) Twenty five years later he awakens in a bayou where everyone speaks French (or at least with a French accent.) That struck me as a fate worse than undeath for Tyr. ;)
Quote from: The Brain on October 14, 2021, 11:02:40 AM
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on October 14, 2021, 10:57:55 AM
Quote from: The Brain on October 14, 2021, 10:21:58 AM
Where can I watch the original Halloween?
A cinematheque? A repertory cinema?
Sounds like work. I want instant gratification.
This to me is the problem with the demise of Blockbusters and the rise of streaming sites. If you want to find back catalogue movies, it's really, really hard.
Looking at Amazon Prime. There is a 2007 Halloween remake by Rob Zombie. Anyone seen it? He also did a sequel.
BTW BRain, Amazon Prime, at least in Canada, has the original Halloween for rent.
Halloween Kills is in cinemas as of now so I will try to catch it despite the not so good reviews (meaningless and unimaginative gore).
Quote from: Savonarola on October 25, 2021, 02:27:08 PM
In the original mummy; the mummy is named Imhotep. The author of "Bubba Ho-Tep" took its name from that. In the other films the mummy is Kharis (or Klaris in the Abbot and Costello film.) In The Mummy's Tomb and The Mummy's Ghost the mummy is brought to America and terrorizes Massachusetts. In The Mummy's Ghost he's chased down by a group of concerned citizens and burned to death (or is he?) Twenty five years later he awakens in a bayou where everyone speaks French (or at least with a French accent.) That struck me as a fate worse than undeath for Tyr. ;)
:lol:
I guess they did not go for real(istic) cajun accents à la Southern Comfort? :P [spoiler]even Brion James made an effort[/spoiler]
Southern Comfort was so great. At least that's the way I remember it from TV all those years ago.
Quote from: Duque de Bragança on October 26, 2021, 06:33:53 AM
:lol:
I guess they did not go for real(istic) cajun accents à la Southern Comfort? :P [spoiler]even Brion James made an effort[/spoiler]
They didn't come up with a reason that the mummy had been moved from Massachusetts to Louisiana; authenticity wasn't something they were going for.
They do sound vaguely French-ish (most of the "Cajuns" were foreign, though not necessarily from French speaking countries.) There were actually some scenes where the actors do speak a bit of (un-subtitled) French (same with Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy :o); but at the time almost every educated person would have spoken some French.
We got only two Trick-or-treaters last night. I even had to prod them to say "Trick or Treat" (they were teenagers.) We had gotten about six last year, but it rained and the Covid restrictions were (sort-of) being enforced (by Florida standards). I was expecting a lot more this year.
Did anyone carve a pumpkin? Here it's so warm and humid that unless you make it Halloween Day, it will start to rot. People have to put their pumpkins in the refrigerator until the evening; so we don't bother.
Quote from: Savonarola on November 01, 2021, 01:48:20 PM
We got only two Trick-or-treaters last night. I even had to prod them to say "Trick or Treat" (they were teenagers.) We had gotten about six last year, but it rained and the Covid restrictions were (sort-of) being enforced (by Florida standards). I was expecting a lot more this year.
Did anyone carve a pumpkin? Here it's so warm and humid that unless you make it Halloween Day, it will start to rot. People have to put their pumpkins in the refrigerator until the evening; so we don't bother.
We carved several pumpkins. We did them almost one week before but I think it was too early - they were looking kind of soft last night.
We have the opposite problems - the freeze-thaw cycles around this time of year makes them go all soft if you leave them outside.
Ended up re-watching Carpenter's Christine at a cinema and Hugh Grant's masterpiece, the Lair of the White Worm. :)
Not so a masterpiece for Ken Russell though I suppose. :hmm: His style is pretty recognizable there though.
We watched Jaws.
No pumpkin carving this year as they were gone from supermarkets by the time I wanted to buy one (we also suffer from a fair bit of humidity).
Quote from: Savonarola on November 01, 2021, 01:48:20 PM
We got only two Trick-or-treaters last night. I even had to prod them to say "Trick or Treat" (they were teenagers.) We had gotten about six last year, but it rained and the Covid restrictions were (sort-of) being enforced (by Florida standards). I was expecting a lot more this year.
Did anyone carve a pumpkin? Here it's so warm and humid that unless you make it Halloween Day, it will start to rot. People have to put their pumpkins in the refrigerator until the evening; so we don't bother.
I got about 80 trick or treaters between 5 to 7 pm. I ran out of Candy at that time. Got maybe 20 more trick or treaters shooting their shot until 9pm. It rained all night.
Next year I'll buy more candy.
I had a pumpkin, it wasn't carved.
I got about 10 trick or treaters.
I now have about 40 small bags of chips and 40 small chocolate bars.
I watched Train to Busan which was very good.
Watched the Rob Zombie Halloween remake which wasn't so good; or even necessary.
In Kent. Got three gangs of kids and parents - did pumpkin carving. Got trick or treat stuff from an old school sweetshop. All very wholesome :)