October: 31 Days of Horror

[Martin]

Finally got back to the Universal Classic Monsters set.

Disc 4: The Invisible Man
I had actually seen this movie a few months ago. I found it was available on demand. This has always been one of my favorites from the Universal Monster movies because it blends the monster theme with humor real well.

Extras:
Documentaries:

• Now you see him: The Invisible Man revealed:
  • Really enjoyed this one. It delves into the changes the movie made from the original book. A book I have to admit I have never read. They explain how they achieved the visual effects which were very advanced. Brief reviews of all the sequels was included. I had no idea there were that many sequels, I had not heard of many of them.
• 100 Years of Universal Characters:
  • This one was a waste of time. It shows a few seconds of several Universal movies with a voice over talking about the characters. Basically it was an ad for Universal DVD/Blu Rays.

Trailer Gallery was rather disappointing as it only had trailers for 'The Invisible man Returns' and 'Invisible Man'. Neither made me want to see the movie and the second one look atrocious.

Production Photographs contained stills from the movie. Nothing of real interest.

The extras on this one was disappointing with the exception of the first documentary.

[Martin]

Universal Monsters Disc 3: The Mummy
I do not think I have seen this movie since I was a child. I think my memories of The Mummy are tainted by the sequels as I found the movie to be better than I expected.

Extras:
Documentaries:

• Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed
  • This one is about the Mummy franchise and re-enforced why I did not like most of the Mummy movies. Mummy burned to death in the last movie. No problem, he is back for the sequel with no explanation.
• He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce:
  • Very informative piece about the creator of the most iconic monsters in history. Great documentary.
• Unraveling the Legacy of The Mummy:
  • An analysis of how the early Universal monster movies brought us to the current Mummy movies. Interesting doc.
• 100 Years of Universal: The Carl Laemmle Era:
  • Interesting piece about Carl Laemmle.

The Mummy Archives: Photos of The Mummy promotional materials
Trailer Gallery: Original trailers for all Mummy movies from universal.

[dannyboy121070]

Days eighteen through twenty-one:

Work and home life have kept me from posting and/or remembering what I watched/read/listened to over the past few days, so this may be missing a few things.

I finished A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS. Very well-written, but failed to raise one single goosebump. I feel like I missed something, especially with all of the praise this one has gotten.

Finished UNTCIGAHUNK. The short stories are excellent, the novel dreadfully boring. Oddly enough, you get more of the title creatures in 100 pages of short stories than you do in the 500 page novel.

Finished THE MOUNTAIN KING. Nowhere near as good as the high-water mark for Bigfoot novels, DEVOLUTION, but worth reading. I'll say this for Huatala...He gives zero fuck about endangering and/or killing kids. NO ONE is safe in his stories. There's some really nasty, horrible stuff in this book that will stick with me for a LONG time.

Continued on with THE BIG BOOK OF NECON, and I'm amazed at how many non-Horror stories are in this one. Jack Ketchum's story is one of those non-Horror entries, but his mundane little tale hit me like a kick in the sack. God, that man could write.

I started IN THE SCRAPE, by James Newman and Mark Steensland, and I was duped! I assumed this was a Horror novella, and it isn't. The fact that it is an amazing coming of age tale is easing the pain, though. Anything Newman touches is well worth reading, and this is no exception.

I floated back over to the first book of WE ALL HEAR STORIES IN THE DARK, and read the creepy story BLOOD, that was, as usual, excellently written, but left me unsettled and bewildered in the end. I've been reading these three books since July, and I just hit the 1/3rd mark....onward.

My wife and I are about halfway through THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, and I don't get the hate that this one had heaped on it. We're both enjoying it, although some of the acting choices/tics of the main actress are getting on my nerves big-time. My poor wife is absolutely terrified by stuff like this, but HILL HOUSE, MIDNIGHT MASS, and DOCTOR SLEEP made her a fan of Mike Flanagan, so she keeps watching.....

I've been catching up on this season of ELI ROTH'S HISTORY OF HORROR, which I'm enjoying very much, and I watched BURNT OFFERINGS on TCM, which made a big impression on me as a kid. As an adult, I found it very slow and overlong, but shit, did it kick into high gear at the end. A nasty piece of business, this film. Oliver Reed is a blast to watch in anything.

[mhatchett]

Finishing up A Night in the Lonesome October. Usually I pace it out all month, chapter a day. Couldn't wait LOL!!

[dannyboy121070]

Day seventeen:

Slow Horror day! I read some more UNTCIGAHUNK and A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS (See above post for my thoughts), and continued the interminable shadow-creature vs giant scorpion in the CONAN omnibus. Nighttime brought a new OSBOURNES WANT TO BELIEVE episode, featuring a decent little video of my favorite Cryptid, Bigfoot.

The month is almost over...I need to pick up the pace. More Horror!!!

[dannyboy121070]

That's too bad HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS didn't do it for you. That one was my favorite of the year I read it, and it remains one of the few books in the last couple decades that actually periodically gave me chills...very rare occurrence after reading this horror stuff for 30-plus years. Notably, Scott Smith's THE RUINS did it as well last year...but that's, what, two books in the last half-decade...? I get it, though...I often seem to be at odds with what's popular and hyped at any given time. Case in point: Tremblay's other book, THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD -- while I generally enjoyed it, I didn't quite get the adoration this book was getting at the time...even still, it is, for me, a lesser work than, say, HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS or SURVIVOR SONG, but I can appreciate why people loved TCATEOFTW...just wasn't my kind of book, I guess.

Having finished A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS on my lunch break today, I have to again shake my head and wonder what I missed. I keep hearing fans talk about how scary/creepy/chilling it was, and I didn't get any of that. I will say that it was a very readable book, and I blew through it in no time at all. So would I tell people to read it...? Yeah, probably. It was well-written, engaging, I cared about the characters...It just didn't wow me the way I had hoped.

To add to my disappointment.....when I read on my Kindle, I always keep an eye on the little corner clock that tells you "1 hour, fifteen minutes left in book". The counter said that I had sixteen minutes left, and I turn the page and....the book was over! The rest was a preview of another Tremblay book. So I was expecting to get some kind of semi-concrete answer, and book just stopped. I don't really have any ambiguity about what I believe occurred, but I was hoping for some validation. I would LOVE to get into the weeds with people about this book, because there sure was a lot to chew on.

[RonClinton]

Day sixteen:

I read a chunk of A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, and it still hasn't really grabbed me, so I suspect that ship has sailed. Very readable book, but it hasn't enamored me the way that it has so many other people.

That's too bad HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS didn't do it for you. That one was my favorite of the year I read it, and it remains one of the few books in the last couple decades that actually periodically gave me chills...very rare occurrence after reading this horror stuff for 30-plus years. Notably, Scott Smith's THE RUINS did it as well last year...but that's, what, two books in the last half-decade...? I get it, though...I often seem to be at odds with what's popular and hyped at any given time. Case in point: Tremblay's other book, THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD -- while I generally enjoyed it, I didn't quite get the adoration this book was getting at the time...even still, it is, for me, a lesser work than, say, HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS or SURVIVOR SONG, but I can appreciate why people loved TCATEOFTW...just wasn't my kind of book, I guess.

[dannyboy121070]

Day sixteen:

I read a chunk of A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, and it still hasn't really grabbed me, so I suspect that ship has sailed. Very readable book, but it hasn't enamored me the way that it has so many other people. I also started CONAN THE BARBARIAN: THE ORIGINAL MARVEL YEARS OMNIBUS, VOL. 3. Not strictly Horror, but so far Conan has fought a giant scorpion idol and a shadow-creature, so...I'll allow it!

Last night we decided to watch GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH with our son, to try to get him into the Halloween spirit. (Also because I bought him a Gremlins advent calendar for December...). He got a kick out of it. I loved seeing Dick Miller and Christopher Lee, and the wonderful practical effects.

[dannyboy121070]

Day fourteen:

I finished off the two-part EXPEDITION X episode about the haunted Civil War fort. Snooze-fest. The stars of this show are a frustrating lot....Phil believes nothing, and Jessica believes everything. I watched a couple of UNEXPLAINED CAUGHT ON CAMERA, read some more of the above-mentioned books, and I read BALTIMORE, VOLUME 4: CHAPEL OF BONES. I really can't recommend the BALTIMORE series highly enough. Excellent, creepy story, perfect art....it's the whole package. At night, I took advantage of the warm weather to hit the sunroom and watch the first episode of season three of ELI ROTH'S HISTORY OF HORROR and the new WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS. I also finished the AVENGERS/DOCTOR STRANGE book.

Day fifteen:

I read a huge chunk of A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS....Tremblay has a very readable writing style. This book is flowing well and easy-to-read, as opposed to UNTCIGAHUNK, which is a chore to read, but the story is just not grabbing me, and I WANT TO BE GRABBED. I'm giving myself over, and nothing is happening. As I read, I wonder what everyone else sees in this book that I don't. I read a few more BIG BOOK OF NECON STORIES, and...This could have used a little more editorial supervision. I finally got to the fiction section, and the first two stories were autobiographical slice-of-life stories starring the authors. This is supposed to be a Horror convention! Les Daniels saved the day with a shocking little ditty, but I hope this improves. A lot.

I read two comic collections that had Horrific story elements: KING IN BLACK: THUNDERBOLTS and REED GUNTHER, VOLUME 2: MONSTERS AND MUSTACHES!, both of which were excellent. The highlight of the day was HALLOWEEN KILLS. I subscribed to the truly awful Peacock just to watch this film. (I unsubscribed this morning...there is NOTHING there worth paying for.) The film itself was a wonderful continuation of the franchise. Not as good as the last one, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'd say a six or seven out of ten. Very faithful and reverential to Carpenter & Hill's original vision.

[dannyboy121070]

Last my creepy book is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of the more unique members of the genre, and definitely worth a read.

It's not as in your face scary as some other books are, but the language and page structure function to cultivate a sinister and mildly disorienting experience.

This is a book that I have picked up dozens of times in Barnes & Noble, and I've always put it back on the shelf. I WANT to read it, but my radar is pretty good for books that I don't think I'll like, and that radar goes off STRONG for this one. It seems like something that would frustrate me and have to many bizarro aspects.

[mulleins]

Watched original Halloween Monday, Halloween II Tuesday, original The Fog Wednesday, The Fog (remake) Thursday, Original The Shining last night, watching The Shining (remake) tonight and tomorrow night.

The fun will continue into next week.

Mulleins

[Martin]

Last my creepy book is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of the more unique members of the genre, and definitely worth a read.

It's not as in your face scary as some other books are, but the language and page structure function to cultivate a sinister and mildly disorienting experience.

At some point I will get around to reading that one.

[paulag]

Last my creepy book is House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of the more unique members of the genre, and definitely worth a read.

It's not as in your face scary as some other books are, but the language and page structure function to cultivate a sinister and mildly disorienting experience.

______________________________
https://printsbery.com/planner-templates

[dannyboy121070]

Day thirteen:

I watched en episode of TERROR IN THE WOODS....My God, when will people learn to just stay out of the woods? There's nothing good there. Really.

I continued on with the same books as the previous day. (These are some long-ass books!) I can say with certainty that I like Rick Huatala's short fiction better than his novels. The ancillary stories in UNTCIGAHUNK are excellent so far. We wrapped up the day by watching episode 2 of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, and a few old TREEHOUSE OF HORROR episodes. I'm sad that we're almost halfway through my favorite month already......

[dannyboy121070]

Agreed. My wife, who admittedly is not the horror fan that am but by default has become well-versed in the genre through over sixteen years of marriage, did not pick up on the clues. I told her after the first episode because I thought it was obvious, and I kinda blew her mind.

I agree with your spoiler tagged comment. It’s one of the things the show does that separates it from the pack of similar films and stories. I just wish the last episode had been given a little more time to let those moments breathe, to explore if just for a moment more.

I thought they were going to have a longer final episode...I was surprised to see that it was the same length as all the rest. They squeezed a lot in, but I do wish they had taken a little more time.