Halloween Horror Marathon: Deathgasm

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We were supposed to review Spookies today, but two things conspired against that happening: 1) The copy we were able to get our hands on had audio, but not video and 2) We got a screener of Deathgasm in preparation for an upcoming From & Inspired By podcast. So, given the chance to watch this movie we’ve been jonesing to see for AGES, we lept at the chance.
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Halloween Horror Marathon: Psycho

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Each week, Halloween Horror Marathon does some themed posts. We kick off the weekend by seeing a movie in the theater. We call it Cinematic Saturdays. We were supposed to see Eli Roth’s new cannibal flick, The Green Inferno, with our brother, but he’s in Wichita watching a couple exchange tungsten rings for a wedding. Rather than sit by ourselves and feel grossed out, we’re going to talk an upcoming cinematic screening.
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Halloween Horror Marathon: Tourist Trap

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We’re not off to a good start with this year’s Halloween Horror Marathon. I basically haven’t been home any night this week before 6:00pm, and there’s been something waiting for me every night. I barely watched Tourist Trap in order to get this written, and I feel like I’m basically trying to write about something only vaguely half-remembered. That said, I love this movie, and I need to watch it more often than I do.

Why more often? Because I can’t remember character names or any of the particulars right now, but suffice it to say, Tourist Trap is a movie that I both can’t believe isn’t bigger than it is, while also being confused that as many people know it as they do.
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The 2015 Halloween Horror Marathon

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The Halloween Horror Marathon returns to Rock Star Journalist, starting this Thursday. Once again, we’re doing a weekly team-up with Liam O’Donnell of Cinepunx for his Journal of Fear. You can find the complete list after the jump. We’re doing some thematic things this year: Resurrection Sundays, with zombie movies; New Movie Mondays, covering films that were released in the last year; Fulci Fridays, where we do a Lucio Fulci film with Liam; and Cinematic Saturdays, where we cover a film we saw in an actual movie theater the night before.

GET HYPED.
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Halloween Horror Marathon: Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein

poster - Frankenstein (Boyle)
A little something different for this second-to-last installment of the Halloween Horror Marathon. Last night, the wife and I took in a theatrical rebroadcast of the Nation Theatre’s 2012 production of Frankenstein. Directed by Danny Boyle, this was a production starring Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch, which repeatedly sold out its stagings. Part of that was due to the fact that, each night, Miller and Cumberbatch would switch the roles of the creature and the doctor.

The version we saw last night featured Cumberbatch as the doctor and Miller and the creature. It was absolutely wonderful. It’s not an easy watch, given that the creature raises horrible questions about the nature of man, given his immediate abandonment upon birth, followed by people treating him based on his looks, rather than the content of his character.
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Halloween Horror Marathon: Pumpkinhead

poster - PumpkinheadAn unjustly overlooked classic. A strange film that manages to be a creature feature, revenge flick, and supernatural horror picture all in one. My mom’s favorite horror movie. These are all apt descriptions for Pumpkinhead, Stan Winston’s 1988 movie starring Lance Henrickson.

It’s funny — I know I saw this movie over and over when I was younger, but I might as well have never seen it, for as vague as the plot was in my memory. I don’t remember it being as hallucinatory and freaky-looking as it is. There are angles and elements of Pumpkinhead‘s shooting that make it look like Sam Raimi had control of the camera. They contrast nicely with the almost pastoral scenes early on, before everything goes violent and revenge-y.

In addition to the crazy camera movement and light streaming through backlit fog for its nighttime shots, Pumpkinhead looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre during its daylight scenes. I watched this on a full-screen, untouched DVD from 2000, and it still managed to look frickin’ great, despite the fact that Scream Factory put out a pretty excellent reissue of this on Blu-ray earlier this year. Honestly, though, the grainy, slightly blown-out look of the release I have only lent to the terrifying, awful aspect of everything.
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Halloween Horror Marathon: Bay of Blood (with special guest!)

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Today’s post features special guest commentary from Cinapse’s Liam O’Donnell. He and both do this “watch a shit-ton of horror in October and write about it” thing, and so we’ve decided to team up on a few films this month. His column his entitled “Journal of Fear,” and you should totally read it. He also does a podcast called Cinepunx with Joshua Alvarez, and it’s super-fun. Go listen. On to the film …
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