Halloween Marathon 2019 - Week 3
It’s time for week 3 of our Halloween picks! Are you getting tired of these yet? Because we sure aren’t! (Well, maybe Team Up is)
If You’re Still catching up you can check out week 1 by clicking here, or week 2 by clicking here.
Derek’s Picks
Goosebumps: Stay Out of the Basement
The Haunted Mask for many is the magnum opus of the 90’s Goosebumps TV series, but I disagree. In my humble opinion, you can’t do better than the absolute classic that is Stay Out of the Basement. This episode plays out like a kiddie version of a 1950’s B-movie, and honestly, a really good B-Movie at that. Our lead characters - an annoying little brother and the too-cool-for-this big sister - are left home alone with their kooky botanist dad when their mom heads off for the weekend to visit a relative. As the dad leaves to bring his wife to the airport, he ominously warns the kids to stay out of the basement. Well, like any other kid since the beginning of time, our leads naturally disobey orders to try and figure out what's really going on. This leads to a lot of tense scenes of the kids exploring a humid, tropical plant filled basement all while trying to avoid their father who has been getting weirder by the hour. I don’t want to give away much more of the plot here because I do think it is one of those rare Goosebumps episodes that’s good enough to watch as an adult. It’s got a lot of cool lighting effects, surprisingly tense scenes, and a pretty darn fantastic finale. I recommend giving this one a whirl, and while it is still streaming on Netflix, if you can manage to hunt down the old VHS I recommend watching it that way. There’s just something about the way everything looks in old, crappy standard definition video that really adds to the atmosphere.
The Monster Squad
You like the Goonies, right? Of course you do, everyone likes the Goonies. Okay, now what if you took the Fratelli’s and swapped them out for the Universal Monsters? Sounds pretty great, right? Well then you need to check out The Monster Squad, because that’s exactly what you get here. I don’t think I can recall another movie that's as much fun as this. The Monster Squad is a group of pre-teen boys who are obsessed with monsters and who have the most kick-ass club house to hold their meetings on all things scary. When we find out that monsters are real and armed with a plan to lead an evil uprising, the Squad is the last hope to defeat evil for good. If this film does nothing else, it was the first movie to address whether or not the Wolfman has genitalia (he does) and it deserves recognition for it. This movie is quick, clocking in at a brisk 82 minutes (including credits) so you should have no problem including this in a mini marathon with the aforementioned Goosebumps episode. I really genuinely think that this movie has the potential to make it into your yearly Halloween marathons, if it already hasn’t. It’s a perfect, lighthearted movie to stuff between your more hardcore horror films to give you a bit of a breather.
Team Up’s Picks
Sabrina the Teenage Witch: Movie
I hope that any one who reads articles on this website knows how much we love the year 1996 as far as movies go. One more to add to that list is Sabrina The Teenage Witch! Yeah, that’s right, there is a Sabrina The Teenage Witch movie staring Melissa Joan Hart, unfortunately its not up to snuff with the TV show that soon followed. Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching this movie, but all I could think about was how much better the TV show was. With this movie coming out a few years after Hocus Pocus, there are definitely some things that were ripped from that movie and placed into this one. Salem having a bad English accent would be the biggest example. His voice actor in the show is so much better, and a major part of the draw of the show. But I will say that the unveiling of the truth about Sabrina’s past was way more interesting and gripping than the quick “oh by the way” that the first episode does. Also, the female bully role of Katie La More is way more sinister and vindictive than Libby ever could be.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch: TV series
One of the shining television shows of my youth is hands down Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Based (sort of) on the character from the Archie comics and set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Westbridge, the show came out shortly after the movie of the same name. While many of the characters shared the same names, the only two actors that crossed over were the star, Mellissa Joan Heart, and her friend played by Michelle Beaudoin who only lasted the first season. The first episode of the series definitely rushes the reveal that Sabrina is a Witch but it definitely changes some of the “rules” established in the movie that really made no sense. Especially ones involving her parents. But it is great that the show really goes into how magic works, Like how she cant conjure up brand names, the roller blades are a classic gag. On that note, if you want a nostalgic trip down memory lane then you should absolutely check out this amazing late 90’s early 2000’s tv show.
Optimus_Grime814’s Picks
Letterkenny: The Haunting of Modeans II(S3E7)
Bar owner Gail invites Wayne (Kared Keeso), his sister Katy (Michelle Mylette) and two pals Daryl and Dan (Nathan Dale's and Trevor Wilson) over after noticing that a gallon of pig hoof hops ale has somehow moved from a shelf unexplainably. The ale belonged to Wayne's 90 year old Uncle Eddie, whom Gail was intimate with and had been asked to drink the concoction while in bed together the night he passed away. The gang then invites, one by one, each suspect who they assume would play such a trick. If you've never watched an episode if Letterkenny, be prepared for the most hilarious banter. At the beginning of the episode, there is a rant between Wayne and Daryl at their produce stand where the show typically starts. Wayne disapproves of Daryl backdooring trick or treaters and Daryl disapproves of Wayne handing out full sized candy bars. This inspired me this year to buy full size candy bars. Thanks, Letterkenny.
Casper (1995)
Furious and flustered Carrigan, played by Cathy Moriarty, is left nothing but an old house, the Whipstaff Manor, in Maine through her fathers will. Her assistant Dibs, played by Eric Idle of Monty Python, finds a map with a note that hints to a treasure inside the old house which, naturally, peaks Carrigans interest. After many failed attempts at ridding the house of ghosts (even our Ghostbuster pal Ray Stantz, played by Dan Aykroyd, tells them to call someone else), Carrigan hires ghost psychiatrist Dr. James Harvey to talk the ghosts into crossing over. Dr. Harvey and daughter Kat, played by Christina Ricci, meet a young friendly ghost named Casper (voiced by Malichi Pearson) and his three wicked uncles Stretch, Fatso and Stinky (voiced by Joe Nipote, Bradd Garret and Joe Aleskey). Dr. Harvey works with the three uncles while Kat and Casper form a friendship. Carrigan feels Dr. Harvey has taken too much time and, with Dibs help, decides to take matters into her own hands. While the main struggle of the film is taking place, there is also a Halloween dance, which a student at Kats school suggests having at the spooky old manor, happening in the background. I have to say, the end where the ghost uncles are partying at the end is my favorite scene. Also, the fact that they did bring Dan Aykroyd to play a Ghostbuster is phenomenal.
Zach’s Picks
Regular Show: Terror Tales of the Park VI (S8E19)
Ah Regular Show, I’ve been dying to write something about this gem. This is one of those shows where, despite airing on a kids network and being made age-appropriate for children, I think would appeal more to people closer to college age. Putting that aside for now, they’ve had some pretty great Halloween specials, many of which are done in the vein of The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror (the classic ones, at least) where they would make an anthology combining parodies of Horror movies with spooky (mostly) original stories and wrap them up together with a framing device, usually a premise for the characters to tell the story. Most of these are great, and my favorite segment was in the 3rd one, but the 6th and final one is the one I have chosen for this year’s list. The reason for this is simple, I’d say that it’s the most enjoyable of the Halloween specials overall.
The first story sees the main characters running out of gas in a part of space (the last season is set mainly in outer space) with the only gas station they can reach in time being on a planet that manifests everyone’s worst fears as reality. It’s cool to see what some of these characters are actually afraid of, and watch some of the least focused people you can imagine try to apply the principles of mind over matter while trying to get what they need to get off the planet.
The second story is the weak link in this episode, although it’s still pretty decent. It’s more of a standard vampire story, but it’s got enough going for it to keep people interested, not to mention some of the funnier jokes in the episode. Imagine getting dragged off by vampires because you accidentally grabbed instant mashed potatoes with chives instead of ones with garlic… Anyway another neat touch with this one is that this story is told by Eileen and they actually took the time to make sure the story was told in the way the character would tell it. That all being said we should move on to the main event of the episode, segment three!
The third segment, which is my favorite one of the movie, is a straight-up parody of the movie Alien, but it’s about a bad roommate… that also happens to be the alien from the movie. It’s pretty wild and hilarious, probably my second favorite Halloween segment they ever did, right behind the third installment’s Jacked-Up Jack-O-Lantern which seemed heavily influenced by the Goosebumps episode The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight. If you’ve ever had a terrible roommate, this one’s probably for you.
Another thing to note about this special is all the great costumes the characters are wearing, which is a recurring thing in the Regular Show Halloween specials. We get to see Mordecai and Rigby dressed as Kaneda and Tetsuo from the movie Akira, Eileen is dressed as Samus Aran from Metroid, Pops is dressed as Joel from MST3K, Skips is the 3-boobed alien from Total Recall, and so on. Plus in the second story we get to see the characters in even more costumes, so that’s a bonus too. Really though, Regular Show is great and if you’re in your 20s or early 30s and you still like cartoons, this one is definitely worth a watch. If nothing else the Halloween episodes stand on their own really well so you can even just watch those if nothing else.
Evil Dead (2013)
The Official artwork is great, but this fan made poster by PID_NYC is better, wish I had a link I could give you.
Here’s a movie that I feel never gets its due. The 2013 remake of Sam Raimi’s classic Evil Dead may not be the scariest movie you’ll ever see, but it more than makes up for it with how batshit fucking bonkers it can get. It’s viloent, gory, and most importantly gross on a level that matches the original, if not exceeding it. For those of you that have never seen any of the films in this staple of a horror series, first I have to say shame on you, next I have to say there are worse places you could start than this one.
*LIGHT SPOILER ALERT* It’s an absolutely wild ride that centers around a group of 20-somethings getting together at an old abandoned cabin in the woods to help one of their friends/sibling, Mia, detox and overcome her heroin addiction. Things go astray when they discover the Naturom Demonto, a book of demonology containing all manner of spells and rituals. After accidentally reading one of the spells out loud, something evil is summoned to the forest. Things get weird for a bit, with only Mia really noticing at first and her friends all believing it’s due to her dope sickness… That is until all hell breaks loose. *END SPOILERS*
All in all, the movie is intense and gratuitous almost to the point of being over the top. While you won’t probably experience much in the way of terror, it’ll definitely make your skin crawl several times. Perhaps most importantly, this film does exactly what a good reboot should, it hits all the familiar plot beats of the original, but makes each of them its own, and then adds more to the story on top of that. I will say the only drawback for me really was they really worked in a lot of Exorcist-esque demon dialogue, which isn’t entirely untrue to the original, but something about it’s use in this movie feels a bit tacky and unnecessary at times. All in all, this movie is really entertaining, has some decent performances, will make you cringe in discomfort at some points, and by the end will leave you having a hard time grasping what exactly it was that you just watched… in a good way, of course.
