Halloween Watch: Hocus Pocus (1993)

Watched:  10/03/2018
Format:  Amazon Streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1990's

Millennials, I feel like we need to have a talk.  I understand that you were mostly raised by distracted parents who left you with a VCR or DVD player and no limit on the number of viewings you could take in of any movie, so long as you didn't interrupt whatever your parents were up to.  And, believe me, I understand the power of nostalgia and re-enjoying a movie that takes you back to your past, when things were simpler and life was all Capri Sun pouches and sugar cereals.  But right now, the two movies I keep seeing you defend - arguably unironically - are Space Jam and Hocus Pocus. 

In 1993 I was 18, adjusting to college, trying to land a date with the girl in the Italian class I was busy failing, and didn't make time to leave campus to see Hocus Pocus. The movie has appeared as a streaming option every year, and I've considered it.  Lately - as noted above - the kids have rallied around this movie, naming it a Halloween holiday classic.

The thing, tho, is that Hocus Pocus (1993), sux.

PODCAST! SIgnal Watch Halloween Horror Watch: Horror Express and Death Line (both 1972)

Watched:  09/08/2018
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  First
Decade: 1970's

In the spoooookiest of all Halloween themes - SimonUK and Ryan settle on "Christopher Lee + trains + 1972".  Two wildly different takes on the horror genre from the same year, each with a lot to offer, but offering up chills - one featuring a drunk Donald Pleasance as a policeman, and one Telly Savalas as a vodka-swilling Cossack.  But, honestly, both well worth a viewing this Halloween season.




Music:
Bride of Frankenstein Theme by Franz Waxman
Crazy Train, Ozzy Osbourne
Bound for Hell, Love and Rockets
Swan Lake - Act 2: No. 10 Scene - Tchaikovsky

Playlists:

Featured:  Signal Watch Halloween 2018



More Playlists:

PODCAST! WEREWOLF WATCH! a Signal Wach Halloween! "Late Phases" (2014) and "Dog Soldiers" (2002)

Watched:  08/18/2018
Format:  DVD
Viewing:  First (both)
Decade:  2000's and 2010's

SimonUK and Ryan go to the dogs with two monstrously good films set to make anyone howl.  We talk the werewolf genre and the troubles which ail it, but also what goes right in two movies sure to transform you into the Halloween mood.  It's two modern-era movies doing something a bit different with an age-old idea, and maybe coming out the top of the pack?

And, of course, there's a detour into discussing Sean Connery for absolutely no reason.




Music:
Bride of Frankenstein Theme by Franz Waxman
Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran Duran
Wolves (radio edit), Wu-Tang Clan
Swan Lake - Act 2: No. 10 Scene - Tchaikovsky

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PODCAST! A SIGNAL WATCH HALLOWEEN! "Psychomania" (1973) w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched:  07/21/2018
Format:  BluRay
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1970s

Watch ALL of Psychomania!

A Signal Watch Halloween BEGINS!

 SimonUK brings Ryan a spooooky film of his youth. The Easy Rider scene reaches the British suburbs as a crew of hooligans cause mischief, dabble in the occult and plan for world domination by generally making a nuisance of themselves. Frogs, the undead, shallow graves, lousy hippie music, motorbikes and locked rooms converge in a film that dares to ask: are you really going to watch all of this?




Music:
Bride of Frankenstein Theme by Franz Waxman
Psychomania Theme by John Cameron
Riding Free from Psychomania
Swan Lake - Act 2: No. 10 Scene - Tchaikovsky


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ANNOUNCEMENT! PODCAST SERIES! A Signal Watch Halloween 2018!

Coming Soon (like, this week) - The Signal Watch will begin a series of PodCasts for the Halloween Season!

Here's our 90 second promo!

     

I'm assuming some of these movies will be unfamiliar to viewers - they were to me.  But we hope you can find them and watch along with us!

In the can:

• Psychomania!
• Late Phases and Dog Soldiers
• Horror Express and Death Line
• Isolation
• Ghostbusters (1984)

and more to come!

Music by Franz Waxman from The Bride of Frankenstein

Halloween Watch: War of the Worlds (1953)

It's kind of funny that in this post and the last, I'm referring to movies referenced in my own title banner, but there you have it.

I checked, and it has been a while since I last watched George Pal's 1953 movie of War of the Worlds.  A number of years now, in fact.

My interest was piqued by the idea of a Martian invasion in 6th or 7th grade when I learned about Orson Welles' and the Mercury Theater's 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast - which supposedly caused a panic (sort of, but not really).  Click on the link and listen.  It's a hell of a show.

Shortly after all this, around the age of 12, The Admiral found out I wanted to watch the original movie, and so he and I rented it and I think it was just the two of us who watched it.

Honestly, despite the fact it was not a gore fest or built on the tension-making trip wires of, say Ridley Scott's Alien, that movie scared the hell out of me.

Halloween Watch 2017: The Mummy

I didn't mean to watch all of The Mummy (1932), but as so often happens, I did.

This Universal monster movie was one that, the first time I watched it, I loved the first ten minutes and then felt waning interest in everything but Zita Johann.  But, the past two or three times I've given those first few minutes a shot (because I love the opening), I've really changed my tune.  And, in fact, have to retract initial statements made about dull camera-work in comparison to the grand, gothic guignol of Dracula or the surrealist landscapes of the first three Frankenstein films.

The lighting, sets, and FX employed are far more deft than I'd originally wanted to give credit, and leave you in a murky place where you know Bey is employing mystical shenanigans, but it's hard to put a finger on what and how.  Add in Karloff's performance, as well as that of Johann, and you've got something that's been aped more in vampire movies than anywhere else the past 85 years.

Karloff is actually terrific as Imhotep/ Ardath Bey, and the overall effect of the picture is not so much horrifying as it is eerie and uncanny.  Unraveling the machinations of what he's up to (ripped off for the past thirty or forty years of Dracula movies), and it's good stuff.

Weirdly, TCM rated the movie TV-14, and for the life of me, I have no idea why.  This is one I'd watch with a kid aged 10 or up.  There's no blood, minimal on-screen violence, a lack of nudity or sexual innuendo...  But Mummies are scary, I guess.

Halloween Watch 2017: Theatre of Blood, Altered States, House of Dracula

Well, it's that time of the year, and we're watching movies about monsters and murders and transdimensional-psychotic states brought on by a rich cocktail of hallucinogens.

Halloween Costumes for The Ladies - 2017 edition

The past decade or so, the Halloween costume industry had really doubled-down on the idea of "sexy" iterations of popular culture characters and icons, often gendered flipped for women.  I was a bit unclear who was buying, say, Sexy Thomas The Tank Engine, but they had so many of these costumes up for grabs, I assumed there were phenomenal Halloween parties happening all over the place with Sexy Pac-Mans and Sexy Lassie, and I was simply not on the guest list.

Here's the last time I looked into this, way, way back in 2011 (my, how the sands of time move more quickly).  Offerings included Sexy Clockwork Orange, Sexy RoboCop and - most baffling - Sexy Michael Meyers. 

I am not kidding.

Well, flashforward to 2017, and that trend seems to have slowed.  A quick perusal of Halloween costumes will tell you that there are still plenty of "flirty" or "Sexy" costumes, but not no much with licensed characters that were never intended to draw the gaze in quite that way.  Well, at least they no longer require mini-skirts and prodigious decolletage.

But let's start with my favorite costume I've seen this year.

Barb.  From Stranger Things. 

The great thing about going as Barb is that it looks pretty comfortable, but everyone will still love you and know exactly who you're supposed to be.

Happy Halloween from The Signal Watch! (The Finale!!!)

As has become our tradition, we're closing out this spookiest of evenings with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (aka: The Queen of Halloween).

I hope your Halloween has been spooktacular.

Happy Halloween, every buddy!

She's Alive! ALIVE!!!

Halloween Watch: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988)

In some ways, there's no way in hell this movie could have been made any other time than a certain window post 1985 or before 1991.  In other ways, this world is just now catching up to what Cassandra Peterson and company were saying, and an idea that I suspect people of my generation (and older) have a harder time grappling with than the kids today.

I'm not here to argue that Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) is a bleeding edge comedy, because it has more in common with a sort of groan-inducing shenanigans with a sort of Looney Tunes style of thinking, topped with a winky, we're-not-taking-this-seriously vibe that lands pretty squarely in my wheelhouse.

War of the Worlds - Halloween Broadcast from 1938

A great way to get spooky on your Halloween!

*thanks to Stuart for the inspiration

100 Floors of Frights

couldn't not

Halloween Real Life Terror! Creepiest Thing I Can Think Of: Numbers Stations!

Cold War spy transmissions? Secret messages from underground organizations? Alien broadcasts? Something from beyond?

I don't know! I don't want to know! They're creepy as hell, and will send you down a terrific rabbit hole of Halloween paranoia!  Because somebody is saying something to us and who knows what the hell it is?  It's just terrifying Chtulu language presaging the endtimes and great calamity!

Halloween Watch: The Uninvited (1944)

It's been years since I've seen it, but once upon a time, I loved the 1940 movie Rebecca.  And, yes, should my ship come in, I am absolutely naming my expansive estate "Manderley".  I expect to be very unhappy there and hire extremely creepy staff.

The Uninvited (1944) is not Rebecca, but it feels very much of the same mindset and era, like someone took the basic work and pitched it up in some places, toned it down in others and added some layers of complexity while removing some of the scale.  Also - ghosts.

That doesn't mean I didn't like The Uninvited, but it's hard not to see some parallels between stories of lovely seaside houses and the mysteries they hold about their former mistresses.  A good PG-sort of fright fest, The Uninvited has genuinely creepy moments and does a pretty good deal on a World War II era budget and with the limited casting options.

Halloween Watch: Drag Me to Hell (2009)

Despite endorsements from multiple trusted sources, somehow I'd never gotten around to watching Sam Raimi's post-Evil Dead horror film, Drag Me to Hell (2009).  Which is too bad.  I wish I'd gotten to it sooner.

If you're a fan of Raimi's other horror work, this is more or less in line (and possibly in continuity) with the world of Ash and the deadites.  I was surprised how much it shared both aesthetically and in spirit with the Evil Dead franchise - mixing the horrific with the grotesque with slapstick.

I don't want to oversell the movie - it's not a life-changing experience, but it was perfect for a bit of Halloween spookiness and mayhem and everything it was trying to do worked for me.  And, coincidentally or otherwise, the movie feels a bit like an old school Universal horror film in some ways, which is all right as the movie was at least released through the studio.

Hammer Watch: Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

A few apologies to my brother and Jamie who watched this movie with me.  While technically a horror movie, this one moves along more like a 19th century novel reflecting upon injustices until the last third.  I'm not sure that last third is actually scary - it's more interesting from a science-fiction/ fantasy point of view.

I selected the movie in part because I've been trying to get my head around what Hammer was doing with it's Dracula and Frankenstein films back in the day, and in part because it's the closest to a Bride of Frankenstein film I've noted the studio producing.  It is, of course, absolutely nothing like Bride of Frankenstein, so that was a wash.

Halloween Watch: The Old Dark House (1932)

For years I'd heard of the James Whale movie The Old Dark House (1932), and seen a few seconds here and there in documentaries and whatnot, but I'd never come across a copy of the film itself.  So, anyway, as captain of my own destiny, this October, I finally bought my own DVD of the film.

If you're a fan of what James Whale brought to the screen in Frankenstein and, in particular, Bride of Frankenstein, this is a pretty darn good supplement to those movies.  Not exactly a haunted house movie so much as a "maybe we shouldn't have stopped here" movie, like Frankenstein in particular, it feels almost more like a filmed stage play than a modern film from the blocking to the set design.  It's got some great talent in the movie from Karloff to Ernest Thesiger to a very young Charles Laughton.

This movie is batshit.  Batshit in the best way possible, but batshit.

In short, I'm a fan.

Frankenstein Watch: Son of Frankenstein (1939)

The third Frankenstein movie in the Universal Monsters line of films is not terribly well known among the normals but it's a staple for monster kids.  People who don't know the movie often ask "why is Frankenstein wearing that furry shirt?" when they see pictures from the movie, and - honestly, it's a legit question.*  Son of Frankenstein (1939) picks up a generation after the events of Bride of Frankenstein, when the literal child of Henry and Elizabeth Frankenstein returns to Frankenstein castle to reclaim the family homestead, and, as it turns out, help restore The Monster to fighting form after finding him in a catatonic state.

The movie is not directed by James Whale, and of the original cast, only Karloff returns.  It lacks some of vision of the prior installments, but picks up on and expands some elements, visual and otherwise.  It also softens the story a bit more, providing us with a more sympathetic Dr. Frankenstein in the son of the good doctor.

Overall, it's fairly watchable with some pretty great bits, and at least tries to maintain some level of A-list distinction before the Frankenstein movies would descend down the slope to matinee material.  It's not exactly the world's best movie, but it's still a Halloween-worthy treat.