Posts Tagged ‘#31HorrorFilms31Days’

The Last #31HorrorFilms31Days Post (plus event recaps)

I did it. Oh yes. 31 Horror Films in 31 days, and man, what a ride. I feel….all caught up on my horror films. Now if only I could say the same thing for my reading pile.

THE LAST OF THE LIST (Films marked with * indicate a film I had never seen before)

24. THE POSSESSION* – once again, a demon targets a tiny little girl. Come on demons, go infest The Rock or Vin Diesel. Make it interesting. Bonus: Kyra Sedgwick, a.k.a. Mrs. Kevin Bacon, gets to play it really, really clueless as the mom.

25. THE THING* – the 80’s one, not the one with Scott Pilgrim’s girlfriend. Lots of fun with steroids-au.com defrosted aliens in the isolated arctic. Lucky for the aliens, these people have severe trust issues, and are horrible at not becoming infected.

26. ANNABELLE* – Creepy doll. The initial satanic home invasion was the scariest thing about this. And I couldn’t stop thinking of the spoof in A Haunted House 2, where Marlon Wayans bones it.

27. FRIDAY THE 13TH* – I kept waiting for some prime Kevin Bacon full frontal, but I guess he had to warm up to it. Fine. This was his first movie. Also, man, this final girl deserved to die. Stop just briefly incapacitating Mrs. Voorhees!

28. HALLOWEEN* – Very enjoyable yarn about inept people chasing a superkiller, and a little boy who just can’t articulate what the Boogeyman looks like, dammit.

29. HALLOWEEN II* – Because the first one just wasn’t finished. Thank god we stopped before Season of the Witch.

30. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5 – Did not mean to watch this. Got sucked into a marathon on IFC.

31. NEW NIGHTMARE – I love this movie. So meta. And I had to end on Wes Craven. I only wish he’d had the courage to ask Johnny Depp to appear in it, like he wanted.

For the last two nights, I’ve been on the ILLUMINAE Tour with Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, as well as fellow local guy Shawn Speakman (THE DARK THORN, set in Seattle! Check him out, he’s got rad tales), and man it’s been fun. First stop was at University Bookstore, which is always fab, and where I finally found my heart’s desire, a copy of Milan Kundera’s THE FESTIVAL OF INSIGNIFICANCE. Me and a bottle of wine have a date with that book. There will be weeping. And joy. And inappropriate touching.

Anyway, night two was in my old stomping grounds: the Lynnwood Barnes and Noble!  Another great panel. Amie and Jay tell the best stories. If you can get your butt to one of their stops, I recommend it. And if you haven’t read ILLUMINAE yet, stop reading this and go do that instead. Then come back and we can talk about my love of AIDAN.

This weekend, I’m in Portland to hang with April Genevieve Tucholke, McCormick Templeman, Cat Winters, and many, many others at Wordstock. Fun times will be had. Come on out, if you’re around. It’s at the art museum.

Now, it’s back to the THREE DARK CROWNS grind. Did I mention I saw the flap copy? Did I mention that it’s bitchin? Cover should be coming soon.

 

#31HorrorFilms31Days (Part Two)

If you read the last post you know I’ve been participating in the #31HorrorFilms31Days challenge, because any excuse to watch horror movies is good with me. Though at the outset I feared being able to complete it, due to lack of time, or lack of interest in 31 different and mainly unseen films, I think I’m going to pull it off. Horror flicks are generally short, too, so that helps. It’s not like I’m trying to watch The Lord of the Rings movies 31 times.

PART TWO: Films 11-23 (those denoted with an asterisk are ones I have never seen before)

11. THE WOMAN IN BLACK 2: Angel of Death* – Look, spoiler alert, this broad killed Harry Potter in the first one, and I wanted to know what somebody was going to do about it. Such things are not allowed.

12. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE* – Stephen King directed it and Lisa Simpson screams a lot in this “asteroid caused our machines to turn murderous” flick. Fun. And nice stunts!

13. DON’T LOOK NOW* – Okay, more an art house thriller than horror, I still find all the Donald Sutherland nudity to be plenty horrifying. Good acting though.

14. THE FINAL GIRLS* – Friends trapped in one of their favorite horror films and have to survive it? Sign me up! The Adderall-fueled striptease was hilarious.

15. THEY LIVE!* – Rowdy Roddy Piper finds sunglasses that let him see the alien invaders around him. Spoiler alert, they’re everywhere. Double spoiler alert, Rowdy Roddy Piper has come here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and he is all out of bubblegum. (seriously, is this where that phrase came from?)

16. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS* – More John Carpenter, this one played out like Stephen King’s wet dream where everything he writes comes to life. Sam Neill grounds this picture but it’s still a fairly wild ride.

17. 7-Below* – what the hell is this shit? Seven people trapped in a murder house where Ving Rhames tries to be terrifying and someone asks for more sex from Val Kilmer. Look, he only has so much sex to give, all right?

18. SCREAM 2 – Dylan had never seen it. And honestly, it’s a pretty decent movie. Particularly compared to the rest of the Scream sequels.

19. OUIJA* – I like movies about Ouija boards. Don’t judge me.

20. THE LAZARUS EFFECT* – Like a heartless, updated Flatliners, where you just want everyone to turn slap happy.

21. CRIMSON PEAK* – This was a beautiful film. As expected. Unexpected was the sight of Tom Hiddleston’s hiney. I think I made a little noise in the theater. Do note that this is more gothic romance than horror. The scariest thing about it was seeing it an an actual theater, and keeping an eye out for potential mass shooters. Thanks for ruining the movies for me!

22. DELIVERANCE* – Recommended by a friend who loves hillbillies. Dylan noted that Angelina Jolie must get her long legs from Jon Voight.

23. HELLRAISER* – Wanted this to be scarier. Wanted it to have less boning. It was sort of 50 Shades of Pinhead.

On the writing front I’m still working on THREE DARK CROWNS. I did see the flap copy for it this week, and loved it. It’s always weird when that first piece of a book arrives that I didn’t actually work on. Like, other people are working on this. It’s going to be a book. That remains very, very weird. And cool.

Speaking of that, time to get back to it. Word to your mothers.