Movies – Page 2 – An Unorthodox Halloween

Coping with tedium…

If you’ve been watching here, you’ve noticed we’ve been doing a LOT of paper mache this year.

Frankly, this is a tedious, boring task for the large part.

One needs things to keep them focused, and in the mood, to finish building whatever.

I, personally, love movies in the background.

Who wouldn’t love working on props whilst singing along with “you’ll be a dentist!”

From Halloween buildup 09

Or even “Feed Me”.

From Halloween buildup 09

An added bonus to this is Talia (3 years old) has come to LOVE watching “the monsters scary” movie. AKA Little Shop of Horrors. Outside of Kyle (who got a huge crash course in horror…), this has been the first ‘horror’ movie I’ve introduced any NUMBER of kids to. Beware anyone who drops off their kids for me to watch, they may come home afraid of plants…

Other favorites include Shrek and Shrek 2.

Talia, in fact, got to see Shrek 2 for the first time last night, and was rather upset the dragon was not in it. Oh, how the time flies whilst watching one of these and building yet another Bob…

From bob

What’s especially odd is I tend to lean towards comedies and musicals whilst building.

Ive spoken before about Clash of the Titans as well. This one is great for when I’m just not ‘feeling’ the whole concept of the yard. It puts me right back in the mood.

Others I’m currently lacking, but would love to have include Beastmaster, Krull, Legend, and Dragonslayer. Oh, crappy movies of the 80s….

Stardust

I recall barely anything from when Stardust came out.

Other than a faint impression I wanted to see it, it slipped away quietly with little to no fanfare. Few commercials marking it’s theater run. None that I can recall marking it’s DVD release. And, little to no critical acclaim.

A few weeks ago, however, I saw it was running, and set the DVR to record it.

This weekend, Kyle and I sat up late watching.

Not knowing what to expect, it was a pleasant surprise to find such a wonderful tale done in the lighthearted spirit of The Princess Bride.

The whole gamut of characters is well cast, and well performed.

What stands out best for me, however, was the witches.

These are the kinds of witches written of through the ages. Not corrupted by the more modern visions of crystal balls and green faced hags. These witches divine their magic through the entrails of animals, casting of runes, and voodoo dolls, for the use of spells has it’s price. And, at the end of the road, those witches are not all spells and magic, either. They can kick some ass in their own right.

Kyle has been, frankly, discouraged, by the whole idea of going the witch direction next year.

Thinking in his mind of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the fear I’ld dress him up all girly.

Once Stardust ended, however, he looked at me. “We GOT to do witches.”

All hail BMC! Crappy movies on demand.

Looking over the upcoming Crappy Movie Fridays on AMC this week.

(Wolf: A personal favorite among the werewolf flicks. Second only to the original Wolfman.

Frankenstein meets the Space Monster: Horrible, aweful, film. Funny as all get out. *waves hand in jedi motion* This is not the Frankenstein you’re looking for… In fact…there actually IS NO FRANKENSTEIN. ???)

And, I stumbled on BMC!!!

Oh, what sweet fun!

One has to give credit to Saga of the Viking Women And Their Voyage To the Waters Of the Sea Serpent. Not often do movies give you a plot synopsis in their title.

But, you want to hear about the Halloween films…

The Horror section is currently offering:

Asylum: I’m a sucker for the movies that mash short stories together. And this is above average as those go…

Corridors of Blood: Easily the best of the lot. Boriss Karloff and Christofer Lee together in a very moody piece.

The horror of party beach: This is a Mystery Science Theater quality film…

How to Make a Monster: Don’t cross your makeup artist!

The War of the Colossal Beast: …giant man in a diaper attacks mexico…what’s not to like?

And, What a Carve Up: Best viewed as “scary movie”, spoofing all those house on haunted hill type setups.

Meanwhile, UEN is showing Tormented.

Bad…BAD special effects in an otherwise interesting concept. The Podcast after the show could be quite interesting…

Monsters Vs Aliens

Really.

With all the crappy movies I promote around here, I would be remisce if not giving a nod to the movie coming out this Friday that spoofs SO MANY of those bad movies.

Zuvembie sighting!

A what sighting?

Zuvembie.

I was sitting down Saturday, scrolling through the channels, when I saw in the guide Snow White: A Tale of Terror.

I recalled it had not gotten great reviews, and it was on my ‘wait till video/tv’ list as a result. So, my PLAN was to record it and get off to bed (not wanting to stay up for the whole movie with the daylight savings time change and all).

But, the opening sequence just grabbed me from the get go.

Oh, I’ve read many folks claiming this is the Grimm treatment of the fairy tell. Don’t fool yourselves, this movies is as far removed from The Brothers Grimm as the Disney version.

But, it is certainly a dark look upon the tale. One that attempts to weave a sense of realism with the realm of the fantastic.

The greatest accomplishment of the film is the portrayal of the wicked witch. Of course, with Sigourney Weaver cast in the role, it is hard to expect anything less from the film. The witch is evil, vile, and utterly merciless in the pursuit of her goals. Yet, at the same time, QUITE human.

The movie just drips atmosphere with every scene. This is actually spurred on by the fact there are no fancy effects, no razzle dazzle. This is old school movie making, with the effects coming from well done camera fades and scene blends for much of the movie. This just adds to the charm of the movie.

They did pull ONE punch towards the end of the film that was a disappointment, detracts a bit from the witch, and left a plot hole that makes you scratch your head in wonder, however. It also comes in conjunction with some unfortunate stock Hollywood lunacy with ‘witchcraft’. Especially disappointing since they had taken care to steer clear of that for the rest of the film.

The second disappointment came in the finale of the film, when apparently they decided the old school techniques would not fit the bill and went with some (poorly done) of the razzle dazzle special effects. In 1997, they were probably adequate, at best. Today, they look very low budget.

So, what’s this about Zuvembie?

Well, see for yourself. The Witch, not satisfied with killing the servants, made them into Zuvembie. (Zuvembie sighting at 4:30, creepy Zuvembie baby at 7:00)