Two Mini Horror Reviews for Your Halloween Pleasure

Happy Halloween!  From its pagan origins to its crass commercialism, it's a great holiday for both kids and adults. Think of how strange it is: children dress up in costumes and go door-to-door demanding candy from strangers.  A kind of forced fellowship with one's neighbors until November 1, when we can go back to politely ignoring each other. I love it.

Breadhead Friday's canceled because of Halloween and the nasty cold I've gotten as a Samhain present from my little boy.  I'm at that apex state of the cold where my head's full of stuff and everything tastes terrible and I feel like hell, but it's Halloween, so I'll eat a lot of chocolate, not taste it, and put up the last few decorations outside.  We're going with a skull and skeletons theme this year.  

Yesterday, I felt too awful to write.  So for the first time in years, I sat, did nothing, and sucked on the glass teat all day.  It's not an experience I want to repeat for a myriad of reasons, but I was at least entertained.  This is what I watched:

V/H/S

Like all horror anthology films, this one was a mixed bag.  It was entertaining for the most part, and had some particularly creepy moments.  The unifying plot (Tape 56) of getting some secret VHS tape from the old man was kind of silly, though.  It could have been done better.  The best segment was Amateur Night: nothing in it was terribly unexpected, but it was done well, and had some horrifying moments.  Second Honeymoon had two particularly disturbing moments that saved it from its pedestrian execution.  Tuesday the 17th tried to turn the typical slasher theme on its head and utterly failed: it was easily the weakest of the segments.  The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger tried too hard to create a twist ending and ended up overcomplicating itself, but was pretty watchable.  10/31/98 was good: the characters were realistic, the situations were frightening.  Overall, V/H/S/ is worth a watch.

Hemlock Grove

I watched the first two episodes at my wife's request so we could watch the rest together.  I quite like it.  There're some story elements that have so far elevated it above standard vampire/werewolf tropes.  Lili Taylor isn't annoying, but Famke Janssen's English accent is.  I'm looking forward to the remaining episodes, once this rhinovirus lets me stay up past eight.

Have a fun Halloween!

Oh, I almost forgot.  Dreadedin Chronicles: The Nameless City is still free until tomorrow, so get it while supplies last. Free shipping!  Thrills don't get cheaper than this.