Horror Guy

An October Triple Feature

This being the greatest month of the year, I decided to kick back last night and celebrate the October-ness of it all with a triple feature of entertaining flicks. I kicked off the evening with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, a movie that has never failed to captivate me ever since I saw it in its original theatrical run in small town Texarkana, TX. If you haven't seen this gem from 1988, now is a great time to check it out and learn how Elvira earned her 'Mistress of the Dark' title. 

I followed up Elivra's ample talents with my brand spankin' new Blu-Ray edition of Trick 'r Treat. I've been waiting for what feels like forever to see this much-delayed Halloween-themed anthology flick. Was it worth the wait? Well...I'm gonna say 'yes'. The stories were interwoven in clever, if sometimes a tad predictable, ways and it has a handful of good scares in it. While it certainly was not breath-takingly entertaining, it was a quietly enjoyable horror flick (I guess maybe 'sleeper' might apply here?) that I get the feeling I'm going to enjoy more and more with repeated viewings. This is a good one that horror fans can share with their friends/family that are too feeble to handle the more hardcore stuff.

My final flick o' the night was the often-maligned Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Having no connection to the previous films beyond the title, this installment in the Halloween franchise is generally considered to be the worst in the series. Maybe it's because the first time I saw it I was still young enough for it to give me nightmares, but for whatever reason I actually like this film. I've taken my fair share of shit for saying so, but this one is a true guilty pleasure of mine. I'd say check it out if you've never seen it and decide for yourself. 

Hi-Def Deadites & Fast Fun Facts

So last night after Cridafer had fallen asleep on the sofa, I decided to slap my new Blu-Ray copy of Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn into the player because not only does this Horror Guy have a great big soft and mushy spot in my heart for the Evil Dead series, but I was really curious to see if after watching this flick so many times in standard definition if I would see any noticeable difference. (That might be the longest run-on sentence I've ever opened a blog entry with; keep track for me, would ya?) Great godz of the deep, did I ever see a 'noticeable difference'! It was almost like seeing it again for the very first time. The high def transfer was absolutely gorgeous and with the uncompressed PCM soundtrack playing, I'd swear on a stack of Necronomicons I could hear whispering voices throughout the film that I had never noticed on any of my previous repeated viewings! The scene with all the inanimate objects in the cabin laughing maniacally sounded as though it were all going on right in our living room. Cridafer actually opened his eyes a little bit, saw the cackling deer head on the cabin wall, muttered that it was 'too disturbing' and rolled over to face the back of the sofa!
About 10 minutes into the action, I started poking around with the various extra features (with the movie still playing; thanks Blu-Ray!) and ended up turning on the Fast Fun Facts feature, and leaving it on for the rest of the movie. FFFs are little stylized pop up windows that provide extra info about what you are currently seeing on the screen, such as how a certain special effect was pulled off, continuity errors and other movie gaffes, or other bits of trivia. One of the best movie mistakes it points out in Evil Dead II is when character Annie Knowby arrives at the airport in a small jet. Two members of the ground crew attempt to open the double doors on the plane to allow the passengers to exit but only one door comes open; the other is stuck and during the entire scene the actor continues to yank and pull on the door, obviously struggling and no one else in the scene ever notices!!! It's freakin' hysterical!
I'm not exaggerating here at all; this was a frightfully fun experience and seeing this classic horror flick in high definition for the very first time reduced this Horror Guy to the gushing geek you see before you. This flick alone is worth owning a next gen disc player for.