Tonight is the final night for the first ever Halloween Movie Madness. I can’t believe it’s been 31 days already! I mean, it just doesn’t seem possible.
Since this is the last evening, I decided to have a special double feature. The movies? Ghostbusters 1 & 2. These movies (at least the first one) are classics. They have a huge following, they spawned a cartoon series, comic books, the best Hi-C flavor ever, some video games, a new video game that looks awesome, and rumblings of a third movie being worked on.
The first movie deals with Peter, Ray, Egon, and Winston starting the Ghostbusters and dealing with Gozer. Their first official job has the three-man team (this is before they hire Winston) going to a hotel to deal with a ghost. The ghost in question is Slimer. Slimer went on to become almost like another member of the team, living with the guys and going on jobs with them.
The main story of the movie though is dealing with Gozer. And the part with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. That is not only the best scene from this movie, but one of the most iconic movie scenes to be put to film. I’m not going to go into the plot too much with these two movies because, well, if you haven’t seen them, you need to ask your mommy to add them to her Netflix list.
The second movie deals with the Ghostbusters being put out of business because they were sued by the City of New York. Then, ghosts start appearing all over the place again, and this time the big baddie is Vigo the Carpathian.
The most notable part of the second movie? When they control the Statue of Liberty by using slime and a NES Advantage controller. Totally awesome.
These movies are both great, and IMO, a must-have! They are also must-watches around this time of the year. One thing though, do NOT watch these in Full Screen. Even though I don’t think anyone here would do that on purpose, sometimes it just can’t be helped. Like when they are on Cable TV. The last time I saw the first movie on TV, it was on Comedy Central, and it is completely horrible. There is a scene with Ray and Winston both in the Ecto-1, and they are both mostly off the screen. It is pathetic.
Halloween Movie Madness was kind of an experiment for me. I had never undertaken anything of this magnitude. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure I was going to stick with it the whole way through. I want to thank those of you who actually took the time to read through these and to share your thoughts on the movies covered. I am working on another series of…. Well… something similar. I haven’t quite decided what it is I am going to do yet. If I am feeling REALLY into it, I might start up Anime-a-Day. If I did Anime-a-Day, I would be watching one or two episodes of anime each day. The only thing with that is if I did one episode each day it would take me nearly two years to go through the collection I currently have. And that’s only if I don’t add anything to my collection. I have a few other ideas I am kicking around, but if I start anything else, it’s going to take a while because I need a damn break! I would also like to do another HMM next year, but with 31 different movies. We’ll see.
For now, this is Jeremy saying, “Screw you! I ain’t going into that basement alone!"
Tonight’s movie is The Monster Squad, one of my all-time favorite movies from when I was a kid. I really couldn’t tell you how many times I saw this movie back in the day. And it wasn’t until they finally released the DVD last year that I was finally able to watch it again. And watch I have. The fact of the matter is, I still love this movie.
The movie starts off one hundred years before the movie starts off. In this nifty little prologue, we get to see Dr. Abraham Van Helsing and a small group of people trying to destroy the eternal evil. Obviously, they didn’t. I mean, if they did, we wouldn’t have a movie. I just love how when the girl is reading the scroll, he is yelling things at her that only make her more nervous, like, “READ, OR WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” No pressure though, right Doc?
After Van Helsing’s EPIC FAIL, we jump to the present, where everyone says “rad”, the girls have really big hair, and you weren’t cool until you had your Member’s Only jacket. Here we end up in a school, in the Principal’s office, where we soon learn of our main duo’s fondness of supernatural creatures. Yep, these guys are the Monster Squad. There is also the token fat kid, the younger kid, and the “I’m too cool for everything” kid.
The kids end up against Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, and the Creature (of the Black Lagoon variety). There are a ton of great scenes in this movie. Like the scene with the fat kid kicking Wolfman in the nards. Or the scene where The Creature takes the kid’s Twinkie.
This isn’t a slasher movie for adults, but it’s great fun. If you have kids, this is a great soft-scare movie to share with them. I am really looking forward to watching this with my son when he gets a little older. I already have him turning into a great little gamer, and he is totally into watching the original Voltron, Transformers, and Robotech cartoons with me. He’s even a little rocker. This movie will be the next step to molding him into a perfect Mini Me.
Now, that’s not to say that there isn’t any gore, because there is. I mean, yeah, it is very, very little, but it’s there. All of the effects are superbly done as well. I know this might just be nostalgia talking, but this movie still holds up great to this day. In fact, I showed this to a friend of mine who had gone his whole life without seeing it, and he really liked it.
Go check it out if you have never seen it.
Tomorrow night, it’s Halloween! This means it’s the final day in Halloween Movie Madness. Also, a double-feature! The movies? Well, that’s a secret. You can find out in about 24 hours!
Tonight's flick is the final zombie movie in this year's Halloween Movie Madness. Return of the Living Dead was written by John Russo, who co-wrote Night of the Living Dead with George Romero. After the two parted ways after NotLD, Russo retained the rights to "Living Dead", while Romero was free to use "of the Dead" in his titles. This has caused a bit of confusion in the past and has caused people to believe that Return of the Living Dead was a sequel to NotLD. However, once you actually watch the movie, you find that to be false - mostly.
Return starts out with a great screen:
That screen right there does a great job of setting the tone of this film. It's supposed to be a HorCom. Yes, HorCom. If they can call Romantic Comedies RomCom, then dammit we can call this type of flick a HorCom. From here, we see two guys working in a medical warehouse: Freddy and Frank. This is also Freddy's first night on the job. We then get a cut to Freddy's girlfriend & friends trying to find someplace to hang out and have fun. They decide to go pick Freddy up from work. Anyway, back to Frank and Freddy. Frank starts tekking Freddy about the strangest thins he ever saw at the warehouse. He takes him into the basement to show him some special canisters. What's inside them you might ask? Why, zombies, of course! It turns out that the events in Night of the Living Dead were based on a true story. They tried to cover up the events that happened, and they stored the zombies in canisters. Somehow, this warehouse got a few of them. Freddy is scared that they might leak after seeing a corpse in one of them, so Frank decides to show him how sturdy the canisters are by giving one a nice thump on the side of it. This causes the canister to crack and release the reanimating culprit, 2-4-5 Trioxin. Frank and Freddy pass out, the glass on the canister breaks, and the body inside starts to melt.
We go back to the punks, and they are going to check out the cemetary near where Freddy works.
When Frank and Freddy make it back upstairs, they hear a dog whining. It's half of a dog, something that would be used in a science class. Thanks to the gas, it has come back to life. They try to smash it with a crutch. The dead butterflies start flapping their wings again. Then, a screaming from the freezer.
I don't want to give too much away from here, because it's all pretty cool and gory. And freaky. Oh man, out of all of the zombie movies I have, certain zombies in this movie freak me the hell out. Like the Tarman. That creature design and how he acts freaks me out every time. Especially when he is trying to eat the brains of a girl who shut herself in a supply closet. The way he is looking in at her, trying to get her... oh man.
Oh yeah, the zombies in this movie? They can talk. They also retain most of their motor skills. And they eat brains. Why? Well, it's eases the pain of being dead and feeling your body rotting. At least, that's what one zombie tells people in this movie. They also don't die just by destroying their brains or removing the heads. You have to burn or electrocute them.
One of the best features about the version of the DVD that is currently available right now is the Zombie Subtitles. They come up whenever zombies are on the screen. There are some great lines that come from this. They really add to the film.
Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend this movie. Like I said before, there is some great gore in this movie. If you like HorComs, this is one that won't let you down!
Okay, first off I am sorry that this didn't get posted last night. Normally I have them up by 2 AM EST, but last night I fell asleep. So, I had to wait until today to write this up. And, this would have been up this morning, but we wanted to take our son to go do something today, so I had to suffer through the movie Igor. I guess it's a fitting punishment. Seriously, don't go see Igor. Of course, I could have ended up sitting through Beverly Hills Chihuahua instead, so I am thankful for that.
Anyway, last night's movie was Dead & Breakfast. It is a parody on horror movies, and therefore is very odd. A quick copypasta of the plot of the movie: Six friends on a road trip stop for the night at a bed and breakfast in the sleepy town of Lovelock. After a night that leaves both the inn's owner and chef dead, the gang finds themselves under suspicion by the local Sheriff. But that's only the beginning as nearly all of the town's quirky residents become possessed by an evil spirit and pin down the friends inside the B&B. A mysterious "Drifter" (played by Brent David Fraser) is the only person who knows how to fight the evil spirit.
The zombies retain all of their ability to speak, sing, and line dance. Yep. There are line dancing zombies in this movie. And the narrator/bard is played by Zach Selwyn. He leads the zombies in their line dancing through the song "We're Comin' to Kill Ya."
To prove that I am not making this up, I give you a NSFW clip from the movie:
There is also a scene where a zombie uses a decapitated head like it is a ventriloquist's dummy. Seriously.
This movie is something that I don't watch very often, but it is somewhat enjoyable. I would tell you to rent it, but you can probably do what I did and buy it from Hollywood Video for $3. If you like movies that are just weird, this one would probably be right up your alley.
The Final 4:
The Return of the Living Dead
The Monster Squad
And the Grand Finale Secret Double Feature!
Tonight’s film, Land of the Dead, garnered very mixed reactions from viewers. Personally, I love it.
The movie starts out well into the zombie outbreak. In fact, the first shot after the credits is of a small town completely overrun by “stenchers” (the term used in this movie). We see them going about mindless activities, including what I am assuming was an old ragtime band trying to play their instruments. It is here that the ideas of zombies who can almost think. We see a zombie step on one of those cords at a gas station that rings a bell, and the zombie attendant comes outside to… well… attend. This is this movie’s main zombie, Big Daddy. After he comes out and grabs the gas pump and notices there is no vehicle, we see two humans scouting the area. They are discussing how the zombies are pretending to be alive. Then, Big Daddy notices the humans. He calls out to the teenage zombies who are holding hands. The two guys leave, and we find out that they are part of a raiding team out for supplies. We find out that one of the guy’s names is Riley (pretty much the main human here). We meet Cholo (John Leguizamo) and Charlie. The party of humans figured out that they can shoot fireworks up into the nighttime sky to distract the zombies. They are all distracted except for Big Daddy, who starts to figure out the trick. He even tries to push other zombies out of the way of the raiding party’s gunfire.
Some people are killed, some supplies are gotten, and the raiders leave, noticed by Big Daddy. Yeah, you can tell where this is going. The raiders end up back at Fiddler’s Green, a safe haven, a fortress if you will, where people are trying to live normal lives. There is a huge class division here too. The rich live in the fortified skyscrapers, and those who don’t have money live on the streets. They have parties too, full of depravity. Like zombie cage fighting. Run by a midget pimp. They even have a couple of zombies chained up and you can get your pictures taken with them. These chained up zombies also happen to be Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. How cool is that?
Anyhow, backs get stabbed, zombies attack, and it’s a whole lot of fun. There is even a cool scene with a man who hung himself then turns into a zombie.
In case you couldn’t tell, one reason people were split on this one is because of the inclusion of thinking zombies. This isn’t the first movie to introduce this concept. Hell, it isn’t even Romero’s first stab at it. Remember Bub? Return of the Living Dead, another great zombie movie, has zombies who can think. They even have their memories. And they can talk. More on that soon, as Return of the Living Dead is coming soon.
Anyway, if you haven’t watched this yet because you aren’t sure about it, go rent it. You will at least get some satisfaction out of it, and I think at the very least, you won’t hate it.
Coming Soon:
Return of the Living Dead
Dead & Breakfast
The Monster Squad
Double Feature Finale!
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
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