Horror Classics Worth Revisiting This Halloween.
A rare list that has a film I’ve never seen.
Will have to check out Hรคxan. Looks cool.
Movies
Umbus
Seen’t it. It is abysmal. Tonally confused, bad acting (even from good actors) and just a mess. Do not recommend. It’s not even funny bad.
The Juice
That is exactly what is fun about Beetlejuice, though. It’s not like any other movie ever made. It is very difficult for a film to be wacky and also disturbing, but that one manages it scene after scene. And it all still holds up, too.
I Will See Nothing
I have absolutely zero interest in the You Can See Everything film.
Fraudsters and scammers don’t captivate me at all. Just pointless.
What Did They Do To Andrea?
A claimed good use of AI.
(This is marked NSFW for a reason; if you click on that, you will see someone something naked.)
But it’s not a good use of AI? I’ve seen that film. It’s decent. Better than the reviews indicate. And that nude scene works in the context of the film rather well. That bit is in black and white.
In the “improved” AI version Andrea does not even look human. That is fucking not a good use of AI.
Once But Not Again
And what a damn fine way to go out; great film. I wish I’d seen it in the theater.
8mm
8mm movie – was a scene cut out recently?
Indeed, that scene has been excised in later releases. Too intense for modern sensibilities, I guess.
I remember it clearly because it was so effective and disturbing. Some of Nic Cage’s best acting, too. You don’t see what happens to the girl on screen but Nic’s acting sells it hard.
Very disquieting scene that should’ve stayed in the film.
Obsession (2025).
I watched Obsession (2025).
It was a very good film, though I almost couldn’t finish it because so many of the behaviors wish-controlled Nikki engaged in to manipulate her partner strongly resembled many of the things a terrible ex did in an attempt to control me.
Yes, I know in the film Nikki is under a curse and that Bear is an absolute evil shit for not getting her help, but nevertheless how she was actually acting (and how fucking good Inde Navarrette was in the role) made it a difficult watch. Nikki was like a more violent version of my horrid past girlfriend, even eerily using many of the exact lines my ex-gf did.
I bet the writer had a past partner like that too. They seem to have a script they follow.
But, incredibly effective film. I recommend it, with the caveats mentioned above.
Rogued
Goddamn, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is such a great film.
If you think you do not like Star Wars, get the fuck over yourself and just watch the movie. It’s a great work in any genre (and I am not a Star Wars fan). It’s one of the few films I think about a few times a week. And Felicity Jones is so very great in that movie.
Why can there not be more movies like that one?
Mystical
What’s your go-to comfort movie?
I don’t have a “comfort movie” in the sense this person or likely anyone means, but Mystic Pizza is the closest thing for me.
Julia Roberts as Daisy is perfect, and the whole cast seems like real people dealing with life as it comes. It does not feel (as many do) like a movie being made to have some point, but like you dropped in and are observing these people trying to figure things out.
I only watched Pretty Woman back in the day because I’d already seen Mystic Pizza on VHS. Pretty Woman is entertaining, but Mystic Pizza is a better film.
I chose it because it is one of the few movies I can and have watched more than once. Highly recommended.
Vada
What is one movie you cannot watch without almost crying? For me itโs the polar express movie.
My Girl.
Everyone cites the funeral scene and Vada’s “he can’t see without his glasses.” For sure, that’s a damn good scene. Anna Chlumsky absolutely nails that one and in fact the whole film; she’s amazing throughout. But the part that got me is when Dan Aykroyd with the best acting of his career as Vada’s father comes to tell her that her best friend has died and her realization of that over the course of the conversation.
Seeing her face change from childish innocence to disbelieving grief so subtly yet so effectively…that is what really got to me.
I think I have a special connection to that film because it wasn’t all that long before that my family had concealed my close friend’s (and cousin’s) death from me for weeks. I did not get to go to his funeral. I did not even know he’d died or have any confirmation of it until I basically went on a hunger strike to force the truth out of them.
When I watched My Girl, I was envious of the respect and tenderness with which Vada was treated — that everyone deserves — that was never afforded to me. Vada was surrounded by people who loved her, who cared for her, who would fight for her and be there when needed. And I was not.
Tronic
44 years ago today! On July 9, 1982 – “Tron” premiered in theaters.
This was like the third or fourth movie I saw in the non-drive-in theater as a kid. I was seven years old.
LB
Louise!
She’s my favorite silent-era movie actress. Cool to see a random mention.
Hopeful
A connection I’d never made before. Hope Sandoval is the real-life version of how Galadriel should’ve been portrayed in the LOTR films: fey, distant, ethereal, disconnected from mortal concerns.
I don’t mean Hope’s appearance. In the books, Galadriel is canonically described as tall with golden hair; Hope is quite short and very much dark-haired. I mean how they feel as personalities, as beings in the world.
Of the characters in the films, if it’s not obvious I was most disappointed by Galadriel1. She just lacked the gravitas and remoteness that are both well-described in the written version and that would befit someone who is about 8,300 years old. And I don’t think it was Cate Blanchett’s fault. She had poor direction and poor writing to work with. Though other parts of those films were excellent, the writers of the LOTR films just did not know what do with Galadriel.
The films completely miss her power, her pride, her strangeness, the fact that she’s one of the most dangerous beings in the world, no matter what her intent is. She seemed there like a lugubrious Renaissance fair refugee rather than someone who could’ve potentially taken on Gandalf and triumphed.
And that was a real failure.