Halloween Watch: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Watched:  10/17/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Michael Dougherty

I'm always surprised you don't hear more about Trick 'r Treat (2007).  It's kind of the *ideal* Halloween horror movie, but it just seems to float around the periphery.  

It has it's own little mascot fellow, just like a Friday the 13th or, I guess, Terrifier (I haven't seen those).  It's very much *about* the season while also telling tales for the season.  It has an all-timer sequence with Dylan Baker, the most under-appreciated actor of the last forty years.  

It plays with multiple horror genres, including kids telling a story about a tragedy, a maniacal killer, girls who maybe should be in peril, and a vicious little demon.  And manages to run strong threads to pull it all together.

It's well-shot, has a black little heart, and everyone gets the assignment.  

I don't have that much to say about it at the moment.  I was positive SimonUK and I had podcasted it, but apparently that was a no-podcast hang?  Oh, yeah, it was way back in 2015.  

If I go on, I'd likely spoil the whole thing.  But if you don't want to just watch a horror movie you could watch any old time, and you want one for the spooky season?  This perfectly fits the bill.

I do remember being much more aware of who much of the cast was in 2015, but watching it now...  I remember the name Leslie Bibb, but had to look her up to remember why.  The movie was also produced by Bryan Singer, which may be why there has not been a follow up.

Crampton Watch: Stay Out Stay Alive (2019)

Watched:  10/16/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Dean Yurke

Well, Barbara Crampton was not in this one enough to really justify the viewing, but I still watched it.

Stay Out Stay Alive (2019) is a spring of a short story stretched out well past the point where the coil lost all its tension.  It's borrowing from Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the last ten minutes of Last Crusade, 10,000 cheap horror films, and spooooky ghost stories, I guess.

It's hard not to acknowledge that horror films are (and have been) a way for would-be filmmakers to get noticed.  Some folks stay in this lane and just keep making cheap horror movies as there's apparently an audience of eternally-hungry horror fiends who will watch just about anything if you put Barbara Crampton in it.  Oh, wait... while we pause for station self-reflection.

But, yeah, that's another cheap movie trick.  Just hire a name talent and have them show up in a supporting role.  It's not the worst trick, certainly.  

Horror Watch: House of the Long Shadows (1983)

Watched:  10/16/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Pete Walker

Like a dork, I saw who all was in this movie, got excited and hit play.  

And then the credits started with with "A Golan/ Globus Production" and I died a little inside.

House of the Long Shadows (1983) is like an aging musical super group.  Imagine you just got Jagger and Richards, paired them with Townsend and Stuart Copeland on drums, but then fronted by, like, the talentless child of Donny Osmond.*  

Anyway, the movie features my boys Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, along with John Carradine.  And then the movie stars Desi Arnaz Jr. for some reason.  It's a very Gothic, Poe-esque, Old Dark House sort of movie, which is usually a solid set-up to begin with.

In this case, our framing device is that Desi Arnaz Jr. plays a popular American writer in London to promote his novel.  He's a supposedly cynical fellow, and after a debate about the writing in things like Wuthering Heights (which makes him sound like a douche canoe) he agrees to go out to a Welsh Manor where he will write a whole novel in that style in 24 hours (the balls on this douche canoe).

Soon after his arrival, he discovers two housekeepers in the form of a elderly John Carradine and Sheila Keith.  Then, his agent's secretary shows up (Julie Peasgood) followed swiftly by Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and then Christopher Lee.  

What spills out is a good sort of locked-room, decaying-family mystery that unfolds with great performances from the older actors just enjoying a good hang together.  But it feels like they're dragging an anchor meant for a cruise ship taking Desi Arnaz Jr. along for the ride. He'd have fit in well in a sitcom in 1983, been good, even.  He just has no gravitas, and in this company, he's just out of his weight class.

SPOILERS

The movie is also a tad predictable.  You kind of know at the beginning "everything we see will be what's in his actual novel'" and despite two fake-outs, yeah.  That's it.

Like, as you watch the movie you think "this won't be what it looks like" and sure enough, they went for both other options.  By 1983, we don't want our horror uncles and grandpas to get bumped off, even if that's the better version of the story.  

Anyway, I certainly don't regret watching this movie.  It wasn't great, but it was fun seeing my guys.

*I don't know if the Osmond children exist and/ or are talented or not.  Stick with me. 

Dracula Watch: The Horror of Dracula (1958)

Watched:  10/13/2026

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Terence Fisher

Part of the Hammer horror explosion, The Horror of Dracula (1958) may be a horrendous adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, but it is a banger of a movie.  And as Hammer knew immediately, Peter Cushing could flip the evil intensity he'd shown as Victor Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein the year prior and create a bonafide horror hero out of Van Helsing, while Christopher Lee looked at Bela Lugosi and said "hold my beer".  

This Dracula is not some smooth bastard here to make off with your virgins, this is the first in a series of movies where Dracula is a straight up menace who is not going to do a bunch of magic tricks to scare you - he's just going to murder you with his bare hands and scary eyeballs.

It has bits of the book, but feels like someone forced to tell the story of Dracula who saw the 1931 movie once while blitzed and is cobbling pieces together as they go.  I have to accept that that's fine as I do like the movie for what it is - an earnestly told story with the actors leaning into it.

Storywise, subsequent installments would build out what an absolute bastard this Dracula is, and Cushing would delight as the iron-willed Van Helsing.  The follow up doesn't even have a proper Dracula - it's a different vampire.  

Anyway, if you're looking for a bit of Dracula that isn't all cheesy melodrama, this is your choice.  No romantic subplots here, no oceans of time.  Just vampiric dickery and a Dracula who loves making a dramatic entrance.

I may just feel compelled to watch these Draculas again.

Noir Watch: Loophole (1954)

Watched:  10/12/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  First

Director:  Harold D. Schuster

I dunno.  

I hate to speak ill of a movie with Dorothy Malone and Charles McGraw in it.  But Loophole (1954) didn't make a lot of sense.

Our set up:  Barry Sullivan plays a bank teller.  Clean as a whistle.  A war vet. 

One morning, the bank is visited by a fleet of bank examiners - 10 arrive at one time to perform a surprise exam.  But a clever fellow, Tate (Don Beddoe), slips in behind them as if he's part of the group.  He manages to blend in and while his accomplice (Mary Beth Hughes) distracts Sullivan, our crook snags almost $50K from Barry Sullivan's drawer - roughly $621,000 in today's dollars.

To make the movie happen, our hero doesn't tell anyone.  He just goes home for the weekend, like that money is going to just show up.  

I don't buy it.  If you saw that money was missing, it clearly has legal implications and will cost you your job.  You're telling your boss, or calling them at home and absolutely not leaving the bank.  You are removing any hint of suspicion.

Then, Charles McGraw is assigned the case - and he's a hard nosed detective for the bond company.  He thinks Sullivan did it, and even after it's clear Sullivan didn't do it - months later - he still thinks he did, and is trying to cost Sullivan every opportunity for work by telling employers Sullivan is a crook.  It's *clearly* slander, opening McGraw and the bond company up for a lawsuit.  I mean, I've seen real life detectives refuse to believe they're wrong no matter what evidence is there, but McGraw is a private detective, not a cop.  He's got no coverage.

Dorothy Malone plays Sullivans very, very, very supportive wife.

The last 1/4 is just as messy as Sullivan tracks down Beddoe and makes horrible choice after horrible choice.  Like I said, I just didn't think this movie made much sense.  The best part of that section of the movie is Hughes turning on Beddoe and trying to take control.  She's an absolute gem here.

As Noir Alley host Eddie Muller pointed out - the highlight here is really the two women in the movie who kind of keep it going.  I've seen Sullivan in several movies now, and he's... fine.  He's just never my favorite.  But he is a good choice here - his height working as a defense against McGraw's intensity.

I've seen worse, it's just not a movie that is so bad it's memorable or good enough to think about by the end of the week.

Mod Horror Watch: Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1962)

Watched:  10/11/2026

Format:  YouTube (watch it here)

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jack Hill

Usually the way Halloween-time spooky-movie-watching occurs is I pitch a few movies and Jamie picks one based on how well one of them suits her mood.  But this time I said "your challenge is to pick a Halloween or horror movie without any input from me".  

Not too very much longer after, she said "Spider Baby".  And I said "beg pardon?"  For I had never heard of Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1962).  

Jamie put on a trailer for the movie, and I groaned when I saw Lon Chaney Jr.  But, still, it wasn't Glenn Strange, so we take what we can get.  But then, Jamie said "it has an 88% critics rating on RT, and a 75% audience rating", so we fired it up.

This movie was a delight.  It made me think of JeniferSF repeatedly.  She'd enjoy this one.

It's a sort of riff on the Old Dark House motif, of a house full of weirdos living their lives in a ramshackle place, unsuspecting travelers drop in, and things get crazy.  

Horror Watch: Carnival of Souls (1962)

Watched:  10/10/2026

Format:  Criterion Disc

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Herk Harvey

I'm the guy who thinks Carnival of Souls (1962) is a great movie.  I liked it so much after the first time I saw it, I bought the disc.  I sent money to star Candace Hilligoss and got a signed picture.

For me, this is a terrific, gothic American horror story.  And (spoilers) I dig that the explanation leaves more questions than it answers.  

Hilligoss is *great*.  With a camera shoved in her face almost non-stop, she carries the film with a mix of bewilderment, iciness, and desperation.  She's not an easy heroine.  She's not likeable.  She's not a final girl.  But she's *compelling*.  

The script places Hilligoss's Mary Henry with feet in the world of the mundane and the spiritual - she's to be an organist at a church.  She declares it's just a job, it has no religious significance to her - and whether that was her stance before or after she went in the water, we don't know.  

But now she's a lost soul, slowly realizing she's a spirit among the living, her human wants and interests dissipating - knowing she should want human contact, but spinning away from even the sleazy kindness offered her, as well as the friendship of the church.

It's sort of a great novella or short story of a film.  No, the budget isn't spectacular, and you have to accept the limitations, but it's nonetheless effective.

Anyway, I know this is one that a lot of people came to thru Riff-Trax or whatever, but that's because it was out of copyright.  There are weaknesses aplenty - only Hilligoss and Sidney Berger were regular talent.  And this was Hilligoss's second time on screen.  I dunno, I find the stilted delivery of everyone around Mary to feed the vibe.  

If you tell me it's a bad movie, I'll say "it's an inexpensive movie, sure" but would defend what it's doing as what I find interesting in horror versus someone slashing kids at a summer camp.  

Horror Watch: A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge (1985) / Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2020)

Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge 

Watched:  10/09/2026

Format:  HBO

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jack Sholder

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street

Watched: 10/10/2026

Format:  YouTube (link here)

Viewing:  First

Directors:  Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen

My guess is that because A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) is kind of interesting and tries to do character stuff, the fans hate it. 

I'm first to confess, I really don't know the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.  I've seen the first one a few times now, and the third one once.  But I just wasn't terribly interested in horror growing up.  At the time kids are getting into it, I was like "gimme Dracula or I have no time for your tomfoolery".  And then, when I was 14 and finally rented The Exorcist and The Shining, was like "Hey, THIS is horror?  These movies are great".  

My tastes have shifted, and I've come around on some of this stuff.  

Crampton Watch: Fraternity Vacation (1985)

if the poster gives you a sinking feeling, that is the right reaction

Watched:  10/08/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  James Frawley

This movie is bad.  

You go into it knowing it's bad.  But then it's very bad, and there you are.  But you were the one who hit play on the movie, so you have to just sit with who you are and what you're doing with your life.

Fraternity Vacation (1985) is part of the horned-up young adults having wacky misadventures films of the 1980's.  But it comes along at a point where there were so many of these dumb things, there's a punchlist of things that need to happen more than there needs to be a plot.  

Crampton Watch: Dead Night (2017)

Watched:  10/07/2026

Format:  Amazon?

Viewing:  First

Director:  Brad Baruh

Someday I should go to Fantastic Fest here in Austin.  JAL does it every year, and it's a whole scene.  I guess a decade ago Dead Night (2017) was included, and co-star Barbara Crampton was actually there with some of the rest of the cast.  That would be great.

Dead Night seems like a movie that made sense on paper, and would work great as a horror comic book.  As a movie, it has some structural issues that maybe keep it from knocking it out of the park, because it's well acted, had a good location/set, and - in the end - the overall concept is something I liked.

But I didn't think much of the movie for maybe the first thirty minutes.  As we made the turn into the last ten minutes or so I thought "well, that was kind of clever".  It didn't knock my socks off, but I was impressed with the notion of the movie.  

Horror Watch: Backrooms (2026)

Watched:  10/04/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Kane Parsons

During lockdown, I went down a lot of YouTube holes.  One of the ways I wasted my hours was watching "urban exploration" - videos of people going into facilities and structures which have been abandoned.  

These videos cover everything from empty hospitals with equipment collecting dust to prisons with rotting bars to defunct mega-construction projects in China.  Some folks hit old forts and underground military bunkers left over from the Cold War.  And houses - often mansions, that have simply been left to rot.

The videos are always marginally disturbing.  Buildings are *designed*.  They have purpose where form meets function.   You can see the massive expense for these places, from the labor needed to build them to the equipment and furnishings.  And then... something happened and everyone went away.

The buildings, tunnels, etc.. are left to decay.  America's former malls are a wild thing to behold.  Nature reclaims what it can, rain comes through ceilings, vines and mold grow in odd places.  a layer of dust a half inch thick may have formed in the older examples.

Sci-FI Watch: Project Hail Mary (2026)

Watched:  10/03/2026

Format:  Amazon Prime

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Lord & Miller

I've already seen Project Hail Mary (2026) once in the theater this year.

The book and movie are favorites here at League HQ, especially with Jamie.  She wanted to pick a movie, it had been six months since we'd seen this one, so I was in agreement.  

I will say, as much as I enjoyed this movie again, it was one I'd say should have been seen on the big screen.  It's a sensory experience from the elaborate visuals to the sound to the score.  It's good at home, but it was something else in an auditorium.  

I have heard the social media chatter around this movie is very weird, with edge lords who are mad that our lead character is a relatable human being instead of a gritty kick-ass guy, and then the folks who can only relate to media by turning it into wank material frustrated that there's no one to "ship" Grace with other than a rock.*

Sigh.

Anyway...  I am not going to write up a movie again that I liked perfectly well, already discussed, as well as discussing the book.

*apparently a kick-ass, brilliant woman (with a lovely shade of hair) who gets shit done is not an option

Horror Watch: Weapons (2025)

Watched: 10/03/2026

Format:  HBOmax

Viewing:  First

Director:  Zach Creggar

Y'all, I did not think Weapons (2025) was a good movie, so if you love it, you might as well either close this post or leap to the comments to tell me I didn't get it.

Weapons was a big f'ing deal when it came out.  Horror fiends lauded it, and it's still tracking at an 81 on Metacritic.  So, I know that much like Taylor Swift, it's me.  I'm the problem.

Horror Watch: Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Watched:  10/02/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Hiltzik

So, all I knew about Sleepaway Camp (1983) was this image:

And that 43 years later, it seems like this movie still has an enthusiastic cult following.  

I also saw it was part of Prime, so... why not?

Well, the "why not?" is probably good taste and better judgement, but this is The Signal Watch, and we're in short supply on both.  

Totter Western Watch: The Vanishing American (1955)

Watched:  10/01/2026

Format:  YouTube

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Kane

The Vanishing American (1955) is based on a Zane Grey novel that is supposed to be pretty good.  The novel is about a Navajo kid taken from home, raised by White folks, sent to college and the collision of his worlds.

This movie uses a tad of that as background for why it's male hero is more relatable to our female lead (Audrey Totter) but focuses on... the hot blonde and her land dispute.  Because it's 1955, people, and we don't want to make the audience feel things when we could just be having a rollicking adventure.

Happy Birthday, Angie Dickinson

Today is the 95th birthday of screen legend Angie Dickinson.

Because of my personal tastes, my favorite of her movies is Point Blank, which I saw at the Castro in San Francisco many years ago with Jenifer, Dug and K.  Dickinson was in attendance and kept the audience of about a thousand enthralled.

As a Rat Pack adjacent young star, Dickinson is sort of the avatar of the connection between mid-Century American cinema and what would come after in film and television.

If you've never seen Point Blank, fix that.

Horror Catch-Up Watch: Obsession (2025)

Watched:  09/28/2026

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Curry Barker

I only knew a few things before going into Obsession (2025):

• It made an insane amount of money (~$520 million) on a modest indie-horror budget
• I knew Inde Navarrette from the excellent Superman & Lois where she played the daughter of Lana Lang

I guess I also knew that Navarrette's character, Nikki, was obsessed with some guy and magic was involved.  And the audience was primarily young people and a few older horror-heads who wanted to see what the fuss is about.

Obsession (2025) isn't just a young person's movie, it's a young person's movie of the modern age of young people.  

Forgot to Post Watch: Miller's Crossing (1990)

Watched:  09/09/2026

Format:  YouTube Movies

Viewing:  ha ha ha ha

Director:  The Coen Bros.

I forgot to post that I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago.  I don't even know which day.

So, no post.  Here's my podcast on the film from a few years ago when we were podcasting.  Thanks, JimD, for the excellent time back in the day.

Marvel Watch: Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019)

Watched:  09/26 and 09/27

Format:  BluRay and Regal Cinemas in 3D

Viewing:  Unknown/ Unknown

Director:  The Russos

I don't know that we've ever truly reckoned with what Marvel pulled off across 22 movies between 2008 and 2019.  Instead, we've spent the post-Endgame years grappling with how Marvel seemed to overproduce Marvel content leading to a lack of cohesiveness as the films and shows became uneven and diluted. 

For the youths who are now young adults, what bugs me the most is that they take what Marvel did between 2008 and 2019 *for granted*.  

Look, in no way was it obvious that one could make almost two dozen movies, each film working independently, but also all building to some capstone movies that had a complete and character driven arc for their lead characters while making more money than the GDP of many countries.  

Stanwyck Watch: Jeopardy (1953)

Watched:  09/23/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First

Director:  John Sturges

I don't know how you can't be blown away by Barbara Stanwyck.  Just an incredible talent.  I might be a fan of, say, Marie Windsor, but I know when someone got Stanwyck, she was going to deliver in a way maybe only 1 or 2 of her contemporaries could.*

It's not like our preferred mode of horror and thrillers these days isn't "nice suburban people suddenly confronted with someone who will kill them".  And Jeopardy (1953) is absolutely in that mode.  

Anyway, this isn't a deep drama.  It's a fast-moving noirish thriller with a small cast, life or death stakes, and proof that kids are just bent on self-destruction, and keeping them safe is probably more trouble than it's worth.

Stanwyck co-stars with first Barry Sullivan, who plays her husband.  They're on a roadtrip from southern California into Mexico to go fishing with their young son, do some camping in a remote spot Sullivan found long ago.  

SPOILERS