30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 30

There are many horror films that I would consider to be favorites. Many of them are already on this list. Others didn't make the list for whatever reason. One film that does deserve a special mention is Incubus from 1965. It is a horror film that stars William Shatner and does demonstrate what a good actor he can be, when not being campy. To create an other-worldly feeling for the film, the movie is done entirely in the universal language of Esperanto. The director forbid any dubbing for foreign markets and the movie was considered to be lost for many years. In 2001, a restored print was made from a vault find with French subtitles. There was really no place on this list for it, but I think everyone should see the film once.

As for my favorite horror film... everything was pointed in one direction. There are many movies that I revisit regularly, but only one tops the list indefinitely. It is a film that I consider to be as close to perfection as a horror movie can become. All the elements fell into place and a juggernaut was eventually launched. There have been a few that have come close to this film and a few times it has been almost equaled, but never surpassed.

Your favorite horror film of all time.

Halloween (1978)

What made Halloween so frightening was that there was no rational explanation for Michael Myers behavior. He was a good kid who one day decided to kill his sister, while his parents were at a party. There was no reason for the killing. It just happened. The thing that I both liked and disliked about the remake was the back story for Michael's behavior. It took away the mystery and made the character a little less scary.

A thousand and one movies have imitated Halloween, but there is no substitute for the original 1978 film. It's such a simplistic story, but that simple story makes the impact of what's on the screen stand out and excel past the basic plot.

The actors chosen to portray each character was right on the money. I can't imagine anyone else playing Dr. Loomis than Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis was absolute perfection as Laurie Strode. The actors playing the kids and teenagers felt genuine and natural. That goes a long way.

No one will ever duplicate the gait of Nick Castle as the Shape. Every nuance, every gesture, was brilliant. He was able to convey a childlike curiosity, a soulless killer and a frightened man who needs to hide behind a mask, all rolled into one. The choices he made defined the character of Michael Myers and everyone since has failed to imitate him in precisely the same way.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the film is the original score by director John Carpenter. It is now a staple of every Halloween celebration, but without it, this film would not have the same feeling of uneasiness to it. It is the most important element in the film. It ties everything together and makes it work.

I can respect the original line of Halloween films because it is the only set of films to have a precise timeline for each movie. Characters age properly and everything that came before is acknowledged in some way, up until H2O. Even that stuck to the timeline fairly well. The sixth installment could have been better and the bootlegged "Producer's Cut" is proof of that. Sequels aside, this is the best film in the entire Halloween line and everything begins here. Watch often and have fun with it.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 29

There are very few horror films where I can honestly say that I can't find something to like. Cheesiness, bad acting, suspect story and fake effects are trademarks of horror films without much of a budget. When done correctly, it can enhance the movie. Not every movie can be a well crafted extravaganza... and that's OK. Part of the charm of some movies is getting it done against all odds. You can see the love and care that was obviously put into making the film and sometimes that's enough to overlook the flaws. Then there are films that exist for absolutely no good reason.

Your least favorite horror film of all time.

April Fool's Day (2008)

Strike one, this is a remake. Strike two, plastic actors that detract from the story. Strike three, the movie is just a cash grab with no redeeming value. You're out!

The original 1986 movie wasn't the greatest, but it has its charms. This was a great opportunity to improve on the original, which was not popular. Instead of improving on the original, they took the ending and tacked it onto a completely different story. Uh, no thanks.

The original had stuck up characters, but they were also revealed to have a little depth to them. This film only has pretty people trying to get by on their looks. It doesn't work for the movie and makes me want to boycott anything else that the cast does in the future. Only Scout Taylor-Compton makes a case for herself and it's only a slightly more convincing case than the rest of the cast.

This was a direct to DVD movie that only exists to make a quick buck on unsuspecting horror fans. Horror film fans can usually smell BS a mile away. I can see the lack of care put into this project from thousands of miles away. This is a waste of space on the movie shelf. It's not bad enough to be considered good and it's certainly not good enough to watch.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 28

I have watched hundreds of horror films in my time. Horror movies can be made on the cheap. That is why there are so many of them out there. This means that a lot of them slip under the radar. This is one of the reasons why I loved old school video stores. I could spend hours in the horror section soaking up all the oddities. Even if a film was bad, it was still entertaining. Sometimes, you could find some gems that would have remained hidden if it wasn't for a mom & pop video store.

Your favorite horror film that no one’s ever heard of.

Blood Diner (1987)

This film is preposterous. Even so, it's deliciously fun! I remember watching the trailer over and over again when the short lived "Cable Video Store" was on our old cable system. Basically, it was an early version of pay-per-view. The trailer looked entertaining and when I finally saw it a few years later, Blood Diner lived up to everything I had imagined it to be.

Two boys are left alone when their mother goes to the store to buy maxi pads. During the mother's absence, their Uncle Anwar stops by for a short visit, while on the run from the police. He had just committed a massacre and the boys watch as their uncle is gunned down by police.

Fast forward twenty years later and the boys dig up their uncle from the cemetery, where they find his brain and eyeballs perfectly preserved. They plop their uncle, who they can hear talking, into a jar. The uncle instructs them to prepare a blood buffet to bring about an Lumerian goddess named Sheetar. The brothers kill immoral women, stitching body parts together to resurrect Sheetar, while feeding the rest to their customers at a health food diner. The goal is to have a blood buffet, where a virgin girl will be sacrificed and eaten.

During the quest to bring Sheetar to life, there are many over the top kills. One memorable scene includes shoving a freshly battered naked girl's head into a deep fryer. After her head becomes a gigantic breaded ball, she runs around panicking, while her muffled screams fill the air. She meets her doom not by the deep fryer, but by a broom. Did I mention the wrestling matches? Yes. This could quite possibly be the greatest movie ever made.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 27

There are countless films that could qualify for this category. My first instincts told me to go with movies like "Slaughter High", where the teens are played by people in their thirties and forties. Even films like "Popcorn", "Curtains", "Pieces" and "Hell High" have their place in my guilty pleasures list. Most of the Troma releases could easily fit into here, like "Redneck Zombies" and "Rabid Grannies". One movie trumps them all.

Your favorite guilty pleasure.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

I hear snickers when I say that I like this film. It came at the height of the 80s slasher craze. I can sit through almost any slasher flick, but this exceeded my expectations. For many years, I was oblivious to the ending because I had avoided this film. When the box set came out on DVD, I picked it up, expecting a few laughs. I hadn't heard anything about the films, except that they were kinda cheesy.

The two sequels are a bit cheesy, but still good. The original has the feel of a vintage slasher film. The setup is pretty basic. Kids are in the woods and there's a killer on the loose. The ending is one of the most original I have seen in a horror film. It's a genuine surprise and nothing, before 1983, like it was seen in a horror film, to my knowledge.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 26

Most likely because my family had cable starting in 1979, I was fed a steady diet of horror films from HBO, Cinemax and Showtime. This was a time where almost any movie could pop up on any of the movie stations, no matter what the time of day was or what the content of the film was. I would watch mostly R rated comedies and horror films. I can even remember a time where each of the three movie channels scheduled the same movie at the same time. I would flip the channels and re-watch the few lines of dialogue I had just seen on another station. This was before movie channels got exclusives. It was a much simpler time.

Your favorite horror film to watch as a child.

Terror Train (1980)

One of the movies that I kept watching, as a child, was Terror Train. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis and magician David Copperfield. It's an odd casting, but it works for the film.

The story starts off with a fraternity prank gone wrong. A girl is talking into luring a pre-med student into a darkened room for a fun night, but instead of the girl, the student ends up in bed with a corpse. The student is traumatized and is sent to a psychiatric hospital. Flash forward three years and the graduating students throw a costume party on a train, but there's an unexpected guest.

A unique feature of this film is that most of the kills happen off screen. There is very little gore, but it does enhance the scares. The killer dons the costume of the latest kill, in order to blend in with the other guests on the train.

One thing has bothered me between my original viewings and watching the DVD. There seems to be a scene missing where there was a compartment splattered in blood from a killing that was discovered. Eventually the blood is revealed to be red paint. The red paint scene is not on the DVD but was memorable enough that my parents remember watching it with me back then.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 25

It's rare for me to hate a horror film. I can sit through some of the most awful movies. Usually there is a redeeming factor somewhere in the film. Even rarer, is the film that I hated, but over time has grown on me, or I've taken a different perspective after a number of years. Most of the time, I can look at a film that I didn't care for and years later decide it wasn't as bad as I remembered it. I can only think of one film that fits the description of hate/like.

A horror film that you used to hate, but now like.

Wolfen (1981)

During the summer of 1981, I was four years old. I was a few months shy of my fifth birthday, which would be in October. My parents and I spent a week at a cottage rental. I learned how to fish there and can remember watching a tiny television in the early evening. For some odd reason, the only show I can remember watching was The Facts Of Life. I'm not sure why that sticks out, but memory is a weird thing when you think back thirty years.

One commercial that I remember seeing was for Wolfen. It looked scary, but I was into horror films, even at that young age. The commercial made quite an impression on me. I watched more early eighties sitcoms and then I went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, I woke up screaming. The image of a Wolfen smashing through a plate glass window scared the crap out of me. It might have been enhanced by my becoming sick on the trip, but that image scarred me for most of my childhood.

Years later, when I actually sat down and watched the film, I enjoyed it. It was a well crafted thriller with a few tricks up its sleeve. The movie Predator would be nothing without the camera techniques used here.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 24

I'm not the biggest fan of director's cuts, but most find a good balance between annoying and helpful. Usually restraint is a good thing for film. The scariest moments tend to be the ones that are left to the imagination. A director's cut usually is either a cash grab by a studio or in some rare cases, it can be used to effectively right a previous wrong. There are some infamous examples of tampering by studios. The most notorious examples are not in the horror genre and have been rectified with new cuts. That's not to say that horror films get glossed over. Friday the 13th films have been known by fans to have a lot left on the cutting room floor. Halloween 6 has a bootleg "Producer's Cut" which saves the movie from itself. Horror films do get the unrated treatment, but those only add alternate scenes or seconds of cut film, here and there. I'm still waiting for Paramount to properly raid their archives and give Jason fans a true unedited cut of each film instead of the teases that pass for Special Editions.

Horror film in which you prefer the edited version over the director’s cut.

Alien Vs. Predator (2004)

I'll start by saying that I'm not a fan of this film. I thought it was poorly executed and the buildup since Predator 2 made almost anything released with this title a sure fire miss. I dislike the director's cut even more.

I figured that the PG-13 rating was the reason that I didn't care for the movie. When the director's cut was announced, I figured that everything that was cut to get the movie a lower rating would be inserted and it would really flesh out the story. I was wrong.

What was put in? Added dialogue and character development scenes. This made the movie longer, but didn't help the story at all. All of it would have made it into a PG-13 film. There was really nothing to see here. What pushed it past a PG-13 rating? Blood.

To be specific, CGI blood. To be crystal clear, the worst CGI blood that I have ever seen. It appears as blurry stains on t-shirts. It appears on knives in such a way that the blood looks like it was on a plastic sheet in front of the knife. It drenches objects in an unconvincing way. It appears as if an editor's five year old found the day-glo red paint and a jar of petroleum jelly and went to town on the master print.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 23

Network television movies have pretty much died as an art form. The majority of television movies have moved to cable stations. Years ago, there would be movies of the week and epic miniseries that ranged from family entertainment to horror and everything in between. While I do enjoy some of the original television movies that are made for cable recently, I have a soft spot for old school TV films. They were big events and the stories were usually better, on average.

Your favorite made for TV horror film.

Salem's Lot (1979)

I haven't seen this one in a long time and that will have to change soon. It remains one of my favorite horror movies ever filmed for the small screen. This is what other television horror movies should strive to be like.

The film is moody and atmospheric. It has a pretty decent scare ratio. The acting is superb, despite what you may think of the cast before viewing. This movie shows that Tobe Hooper is not a one note film director. Watching Salem's Lot makes me believe that the rumors about his lack of directing on Poltergeist are false.

This film combines two staples of horror; the haunted house and the vampire. Both are used to great effect. The original source material is a Stephen King novel, so there was a great fleshed out story to begin with.

A young writer comes back to his hometown and discovers that the townsfolk are disappearing mysteriously. As the vampires spread, a showdown is inevitable. The town is destroyed, but did all the vampires die with it?

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 22

How do you narrow such a large category as television down to just one show? It's next to impossible. I really thought about what I loved to watch and what I watched only when there was nothing better on. When I narrowed the ones that I loved, I started to think about which show do I get excited about when I see it listed on television. Half of that reason is because I enjoy the show. Another part is because it's only sporadically on. The last part involved memories from my childhood. There could only be one show left after all of that.

Your favorite horror themed TV show.

Friday the 13th: The Series (1987 - 90)

I can remember staying up late on Saturday nights to watch this. When SNL was a rerun or it was a week that wrestling was on NBC instead, I turned to the new Fox affiliate, WFLD. Before then, it was a local UHF station and despite brand new Fox programming, it still ran like a UHF station.

I watched this syndicated show pretty faithfully, even though it was bumped around the schedule quite a bit. I initially tuned in because I wanted to see Jason. When Mr. Voorhees was only found briefly in the opening credits, I found myself hooked on this Canadian shot show.

“Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store... and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back and the real terror begins.”

Each week involved a new cursed object. Even though this was made for television, there were some very gory moments and clever writing for the premise. The actors portraying the main cast were likable and believable in their roles. The people who used the cursed objects for evil almost always met their doom in the end. It was a treat to watch each time to find out what each object's evil power was. I still watch it whenever it pops up on the schedule of Syfy or Chiller. It's amazing to see how many talented writers and directors worked on this series.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 21

A hospital or some other medical facility is usually a great backdrop for a horror film. Sometimes the focus is on individuals instead of a generic theme. Occasionally the patients get the star treatment on screen, but more often than not, it's the medical personnel.

Your favorite medical horror film.

Re-Animator (1985)

I have been a fan of this film since the mid-eighties. I was too young to see it in the theater, but luckily my family had cable, and we had three of the four movie channels (yes, kids... I'm over 30 and we only had four premium mainstream movie channels back then), so I was fortunate enough to watch a lot of unedited horror movies. Re-Animator wasn't on often, but I made it a point to either stay up and watch it or set the VCR timer and put a piece of transparent tape over the punched out tab to record over some other movie that I no longer wanted to keep.

How many did I lose after that last sentence? A bunch? Thought so.

The coolest thing about this film is that it is based off of a long out of print story by H. P. Lovecraft. The story could have been comic farce if put into the wrong hands. Jeffrey Combs plays Herbert West superbly and without his performance, this might be a staple on MST3K.

The film concerns itself with West tinkering with a serum to re-animate the dead. He revives his professor, but gives him too large of a dosage and unexpected side-effects occur. When he furthers his studies, West runs into Dr. Carl Hill, who stole his professor's theory on brain death and therefore finds an enemy.

The rest of the movie finds West being screwed over by his new enemy and testing the serum secretly. The most memorable scene happens after Hill's decapitation and re-animation. This movie is definitely something that every self respecting horror buff needs to see.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 20

Animals can be the perfect killers on the screen. They are primal, cunning and no one ever suspects them. Animals can blend in to the surroundings and sneak up on you. They can also be nice one moment and turn unexpectedly the next. There have been so many killer animal movies that now filmmakers combine two or more animals to make something scary and laughable.

Your favorite horror film involving a killer animal.

The Birds (1963)

Much like Hitchcock's other movies from this period, the film starts out in one place and ends up in a completely different direction. What is more commonplace now, caused a sensation in the early sixties. Unlike Psycho, there wasn't a misdirection of a character and story. This time only the story took a turn.

If you just came for the Hitchcock cameo, it's in the first few minutes. He leaves the pet shop with two white terriers. If you stay, you'll be treated to a strange and beautiful tale. Strange, as it doesn't have a proper ending. Beautiful, as in the crafting of this story.

The inspiration for this film came from a real life incident in California where residents awoke to find their rooftops and the streets covered in dead birds. The puzzling spectacle was half explained away as shellfish poisoning. Hitchcock kept the birds, left out the poisoning, and ran with it.

Over the course of a few days, residents of a harbor town in California are attacked in separate incidents by birds. The attacks start escalating in frequency and in violence. The survivors must band together to save themselves. While the ending answers no lingering questions, it does provide a breathtaking scene.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 19

Some of the best horror films are based around the perceived evil of Satanism or how corrupt and powerful worshiping the devil can bring. Most modern concepts of Hell and Satan come from the first part of a 14th century epic poem called Divine Comedy (Inferno) and Anton LaVey (the founder of the Church of Satan). The structure of Hell is cribbed from the poem and the current look of Satan is based on LaVey's distinctive Vandyke and shaved head. The powers that can be gained in these types of movies is almost limitless, but usually evil is defeated at the end.

Your favorite horror film involving the powers of Hell or Satanism.

The Ninth Gate (1999)

As a rule, I try not to let real life interfere with reel life. I don't concern myself with how famous someone is or things that they have done away from movies. This allows me to still enjoy the Naked Gun comedies with O.J. Simpson and films written and/or directed by Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, to name just a few. I do not condone anything that these people may have done in their private lives. It also has nothing to do with the movies they make or have made. Life's too short.

Johnny Depp has impressed me in countless movies. I will give anything that he is in a chance. He has that good of a track record with me. I have generally enjoyed the films of Roman Polanski. So when I heard that the two were working on the same project, I was intrigued. I was not disappointed.

Depp plays a rare book dealer who is looking only for a profit. A book collector brings him a copy of a book that was supposedly authored by the Devil. Engravings inside the book, when interpreted correctly, can summon the Devil. Two other copies of the book are known and the collector suspects his book may be a forgery and needs it authenticated by Depp.

The rest of the movie deals with uncovering clues to the true origins of the three books. The film is full of shady characters and double-crosses. This is more of a noir film than a horror film, but the end goal is to summon the Devil, which may or may not happen at the end. I won't spoil it for you.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 18

I have seen my fair share of excellent horror movies that were made outside the United States. I adore the Italian horror movies of the seventies. Hammer films are a great pleasure to watch. I have seen top notch horror come out of almost every country in the world. Sometimes I'm not aware of the country of origin until well after I have watched the film. It doesn't matter to me where a film comes from or what language it is in. All that matters is the film itself. If the story is good enough and the other parts of the film from cinematography to acting are well done, it will transcend any language barrier.

Your favorite foreign horror film.

Let The Right One In (2008)

I liked the remake, but this film is far superior. The story is compelling and the story unfolds subtly. It is a touching tale of adolescence which is at the heart of the story. This could have easily been cheesy, but the acting is dead on. Everything about this film is near perfection.

A twelve year old boy befriends the girl next door, who turns out to offer many unexpected surprises. The biggest of those being that the new kid is not a kid at all, but a 200 year old vampire. The movie is rooted in horror, but what elevates it is the relationship of the two children. I won't give away any more plot details, as not to ruin any surprises for new found viewers. This is one film that everyone should see, regardless if they like horror films or not. It transcends the genre.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 17

As a rule, I generally dislike remakes. Rarely do they offer any value other than to provide jobs for out of work actors. The recent trend of remaking any film that has ever been mildly successful makes me want to vomit. Some of these remakes are tolerable, but most I can definitely avoid. The remake of Halloween was tolerable. I liked the back story angle to flesh out Michael as a child, but it also took away what made the character scary. The Friday the 13th remake was pretty decent, but I would have rather seen the story continue on Earth 2. I couldn't make it through the Texas Chainsaw remake. The Elm Street remake was very decent, but Robert Englund's shoes are really tough to fill. To make a remake work, it has to improve upon a bad film. Otherwise, what's the point? You're better off watching a sequel.

Your favorite horror film remake.

The House On Haunted Hill (1999)

The original movie was a little boring and the story was a little cheesy. The only thing that the original had going for it was Vincent Price. I love Vincent Price, but let's face it, he's been in his fair share of stinkers. The original wasn't his worst film, but there was a lot of material that needed improvement.

The remake takes the original premise, recasts it and updates the story to modern day. In and of itself, this is not a drastic improvement. What works here is the special effects. The original would have been a much better movie if there was an effects budget that didn't smell of a seventies UHF channel Saturday matinee movie.

Inspired casting choices include Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator), Geoffrey Rush (Quills), Peter Gallagher (American Beauty) and yes, even Chris Kattan (SNL). The film takes place in an abandoned asylum with a shady past. Of course someone want sto throw a lavish party in the location and a million dollar jackpot is offered to anyone who could stay the night.

Each guest was invited for a specific reason, but not to attend a party. The party is locked inside for the evening and the fun ensues. Who's responsible? Does anyone get the million dollars?

"Congratulations. On a scale of one to ten on the perversity meter you just hit a seventy three."

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 16

There have been a good number of horror films that exploit our childhood. It feeds on our innocence and squeezes every last bit of precious memories. It's also a lot of fun, which is why themes of childhood playthings and adolescent pleasant moments are so easy to make scary. These are times in our lives where the whole world was simpler and there were monsters under the bed. Things were scary, mostly because we didn't understand the world yet. These movies can shatter happy thoughts of early days and take us back to a time where our biggest concern was homework.

Your favorite childhood themed horror film.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

My fiancee loves this movie. She will watch it every time that it plays on Svengoolie and will bug me to pop it into the DVD player. One of my longtime friends hates this movie with every fiber of her being. She is terrified of clowns and is frozen with fear every time her boyfriend watches it on their DVD player.

This is the two extremes of clowns. Some are frightened by the thought of them and others haven't a care in the world. This movie concerns itself with aliens, who look like deranged clowns, hellbent on enslaving humanity. What a cheerful little film!

The story is hokey. Some of the acting is thin. It's a good thing that the film doesn't hinge on those performances. The acting performance that holds the most weight is that of John Vernon, who most people know as the dean from Animal House. His role as Sergeant Mooney is John at his snarky best. Perhaps his best scene is where the alien Klowns turn him into a ventriloquist dummy.

The bread and butter of the movie is the special effects and the design. The look of the clowns is unique to this movie and it has achieved cult status. Any film where humans are encased in a giant cotton candy cocoon in order to prepare them for harvest has to be the stupidest and most brilliant thought ever put to screen. It's a fun time, if you aren't terrified of clowns.

"What're ya gonna do with those 'pies', boys?"

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 15

Demons and monsters can be scary, but if you really want to scare people, you need to base the horrors on the screen in reality. That's where the serial killer comes in. A person among the living killing other people really hit close to most peoples fears. When the lights come on after the movie, all the ghosts and zombies and such all disappear. Serial killers are human beings. They could be your neighbor. They could be your co-worker. The scary part is not knowing who or where a serial killer may be. As seen too many times on the local news, it can end up being the person you would least expect and it could be the person that everyone suspects. You just never know.

Your favorite horror film involving serial killers.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1963)

The first Brazilian horror film is a landmark achievement for it's star, writer and director, José Mojica Marins. Filmed on the cheap, the first Coffin Joe movie is quite effective at capturing mood. Everyone in a small town fears the local undertaker named Joe (also known as Zé do Caixão), but is it because he deals with death or is it because he brings death?

In an extremely religious town, Joe is an atheist who rarely shows emotion. He killed his first wife because of her infertility. Joe's life long quest is to find the "perfect woman" and have her bear him a superior child. He kills any woman who is deemed inferior and anyone who gets in the way of his goal.

The bodies start piling up and Joe is starting to gain more suspicion for the increasing number of violent deaths. He remains unpunished for his crimes due to lack of evidence linking Joe to the murders. A gypsy tells Joe that the ghosts of his murdered victims will come back to claim his soul. Will the gypsy's prediction come true? Or will Joe succumb to his own demons? Or will Joe be free to pursue his quest for the perfect woman?

This is a film that will slowly grab you until you are fully invested in the story. The pacing can be a little slow at times, but it creates a chilling tension that propels the film to more than the sum of its parts.

"What is life? It is the beginning of death. What is death? It is the end of life! What is existence? It is the continuity of blood. What is blood? It is the reason to exist!"

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 14

There are so many different ways that zombie films have been portrayed on screen, it borders on the ridiculous. Each movie seems to have its own canon and set of rules. Some are based in a realistic setting. Others force you to suspend your beliefs to maximum limits. Almost all of them have their own merits.

Your favorite zombie film.

The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

In the United States, zombie films were mostly known as George Romero creations. This movie does have some ties with Romero. When Romero made Night Of The Living Dead, he had a partner named John Russo. When they parted ways after the film, Russo retained the rights to the "Living Dead" name, so he wrote a novel called "The Return Of The Living Dead". Romero was free to make sequels, but couldn't use the "Living Dead" name.

After Tobe Hooper bowed out of the production to make Lifeforce, Dan O'Bannon was brought in to punch up the script. Eventually, he was offered the job of director. O'Bannon accepted, on the condition that he could radically rewrite the script. The result hardly resembles Russo's novel, but instead of the social commentary of Romero's films, the finished product relied on comedic elements and creativity.

The film starts off with a medical supply foreman showing off to a new employee. He shows the newbie a drum containing the mummy of a failed military experiment. The seal ends up being broken and toxic gas escapes leading to a reanimation of everything deceased.

There are many classic moments in the film and there are more than a few fan favorites from this film, such as the "Tarman" and a half woman corpse explaining the dead's fixation on brains. It's a great escape movie with a great punk rock soundtrack.

"What? What the hell are you doing with a bunch of rabid weasels?"

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 13

Horror and comedy are pretty well intertwined nowadays. Even the straight horror has winking nods at humor. Usually comedy is in a horror movie for one of two reasons; to mislead or as an inside joke. Very few comedies used to attempt horror, but in the past three decades, that number has steadily risen. The majority of recent horror comedies have been made on the cheap for fast cash. They have almost zero redeeming values and it is quite obvious that a "cash grab" is being made to anyone who is paying attention. There have been a few classic horror comedies and I chose one that only recently has gotten the appreciation that it deserves.

Your favorite horror comedy.

Student Bodies (1981)

I put this movie on for a group of friends last year and within minutes, the entire group went from feigning interest to laughing hysterically. The plot is pretty standard for a horror film and if it was just a straight horror movie, then it would be pretty bad. Luckily, this perfectly parodies the rash of cheap interchangeable horror movies that were coming out in the late seventies and early eighties. In essence, this was the first horror spoof.

From a virginal heroine to a creepy janitor to a heavy breathing killer, this was a movie that took all the stock horror film characters and tweaked them for laughs. A killer is on the loose called "The Breather". The evidence mounts up against the virginal girl, named Toby. One by one, the body count rises, followed by an on-screen counter. Laughs and bodies pile up and things go from ridiculous to ludicrous.

The production was made during a writers strike, so there are many non-union people working on the production, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. The mostly unknown cast just adds another dimension to the film, as many of the original movies and situations that it parodies use unknown actors in the roles. It feels like a horror movie from the time period and that is this movie's greatest strength. It can mimic those situations so well that when the comedic elements arrive, they are magnified.

To fund the film, the producers used a lot of product placement. It is very apparent and is used to enhance the comedy. I still want to know who "The Stick" is, who plays Malvert the Janitor. He is perfectly cast in an oddball role. I can never think of horse head bookends again without thinking of this movie. This is a film that you will definitely be quoting afterwards.

"Sometimes Malvert pee red!"

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 12

This category usually overlaps into many other categories. The occult can involve supernatural elements, satanic rituals and many, many other horror staples. In fact, most horror films can slip into the occult, even slasher films. Even your favorite slashers have had the occult thrown into the story. Michael Myers, Chucky, Jason Voorhees and even Freddy Krueger have storylines mixed in with the occult, which makes this one of the most difficult choices. I decided to leave the slashers to the other days and focus on something that is entirely cult based.

Your favorite horror film involving the occult.

The Skeleton Key (2005)

I was a huge skeptic of this movie, until I actually saw the film. It is my belief that the PG-13 rating is the death knell for a horror movie. Rare is the film that can be effective in modern horror that is less than an R rating. Studios are looking for the largest demographic and horror movie directors are forced to trim important scenes in order to achieve a bankable rating. In reality, it most often sanitizes a horror film. There are reasons to make cuts to a film. Pacing is an acceptable reason. Story is another. A more accessible rating is not.

This film did get very mixed reviews. In fact, they were pretty low, on average. Maybe because of my lowered expectations, this struck more of a chord with me. I thoroughly enjoyed this film.

A hospice nurse, named Caroline, takes a job at an old New Orleans house. She explores the old house and finds a secret room filled with dolls and other assorted items used in magic. Caroline uncovers stories about previous owners and other occupants involved in Hoodoo.

Back and forth mayhem ensues, and in the end there are double crosses, unexpected twists and a creepy recording from the 1920s. It's all there to set the tone of the film and build up to the big reveal. I won't spoil the ins and outs of the movie for you, nor will I reveal the ending. Suffice to say, I was surprised at how engrossed I became in this movie.

30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 11

When you combine the elements of horror and science-fiction, wondrous things can occur. It's the horror equivalent of PB&J. It just goes great together.

Your favorite science fiction horror film.

They Live (1988)

Yes. There is a wrestler as the star of the film. John Carpenter is involved. Special sunglasses are required by the cast. It also sports the longest one on one fistfight scenes in the history of film over the stupidest topic, which was parodied to great effect on South Park.

Aliens are taking over, but they are disguised as humans. The only way to detect who is an alien and who is human is to put on special sunglasses that allow you to see their true selves along with subliminal advertising that they have been using to control the human population. The rest of the movie concerns itself with bringing down the signal that masks the aliens' presence.

This is one of those movies that you will find yourself quoting endlessly afterwards. It's a fun escape, if you let your guard down and just go with it.

"I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."