Oct 29, 2020
The Exorcist Was On, It Got Me Thinkin’ Of You
Hello, hi, happy Halloween, boils and ghouls!
Quarantine has me pretty slowed down, surprisingly enough, on movies and wanting to write about them. So I figured I’d write a little love letter to my favorite time of the year, and my favorite things, Halloween and horror movies. Do you remember the first horror movie you saw? Or even your first encounter with horror? I have a very hazy memory of what mine was, it was with Scream. I remember seeing the opening scene, being terrified, and my dad turning the movie off to put me to bed. Scream is considered the best horror movie by a lot of people, myself included. And I’m absolutely willing to admit that my love for it stems from my fever dream idea that was the first time I saw it.
I remember bits and pieces of other things as I grew up. I was afraid of a scene in the original House on Haunted Hill at the age of five, I was convinced that the layout of my house in Wooster was both the cabin from Evil Dead(cellar door leading into a creepy basement), and the house from Halloween(the wraparound landing that Michael leans over). I hadn’t even seen Leprechaun, and the poster was enough to scare me. I remember good memories, ones that didn’t make me piss my pants, too. I remember watching the Alien quadrilogy, a lot. I remember lying to my parents that I was old enough to watch anything remotely scary, including Halloween specials of whatever sitcoms ran on NickAtNite(thank you, childhood insomnia for seeing every fucking episode of Full House and Fresh Prince). By the time I was 11, I was attending late night movie marathons with my dad and being exposed to various degrees of the horror world. My first marathon turned me on to From Dusk Til Dawn, Black Christmas, Rabid, and even Bird With The Crystal Plumage. At this point I wanted to dive as deep as I could. I was begging my parents to let me see anything I could, it didn’t matter if it was good or bad, I wanted horror whenever I could get it.
I learned that I was fucking terrified by home invasion movies, thanks to Halloween, Black Christmas and the likes. Stuff like that led me into my interest in slashers, and particularly my current “artistic outlet” that is griphook, and the imagery. Face your fears head on right? Portray a masked killer and write songs about being one to get over childhood fears of such. What I’m trying to say is that I love horror very much. And I love Halloween just the same. The overall ideas are always holding near and dear places in my heart. If, for whatever reason, you read my writing and aren’t hip to the things I rant about in posts, I would love to be of assistance in the horror world! If you just want some recommendations on what to watch as the holiday season comes to an end, and Thanksgiving faintly flickers under that fat man’s Christmas belt, here are some of my go to picks:
Black Christmas, the OG home invasion movie. Fuck Halloween, fuck any 80s slasher, none of them hold a Canadian store bought candle to this masterpiece. And, it was directed by the dude that made A Christmas Story.
You’re Next, a fun movie all about spoiled rich kids and their parents’ anniversary. Barbara Crampton returned to acting for this, Ti West made a cameo where he talked about Ohio, and AJ Bowen is in every B grade horror movie you come across these days.
Rear Window, Hitchcock’s best. Perfect for quarantine and living through a pandemic, it really captures being stuck inside and watching the world turn from your window.
Dude Bro Party Massacre 3, a ridiculous and fun time. The best parody of horror around, and a movie worth repeat watches. It has good cameos, good jokes, and good lines to repeat to your very annoyed family.
Blood Rage, twins, Thanksgiving, low budget. This shitshow has it all. I love holiday horror, and I love poorly executed concepts, this one is the best Thanksgiving movie I’ve seen. Home Sweet Home is a rough and dragging experience, and Thankskilling is fine. But neither seem to capture the same campy perfection like this bad boy.
Cuddle up with a bowl of Frankenberry, and plop down in front of that doublewide. Before you know it, it’ll be snowing and all of our allergies will get the best of us. Once again, happy Halloween, and a special thanks to my parents and good ol’ Joe Neff for bringing horror and I together!
