The Signal Watch

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Halloween Watch: Monster Squad (1987)

Watched: 10/31/2018
Format: Amazon Prime Streaming
Viewing: 6th or 10th
Decade: 1980's

I've written about Monster Squad (1987) before, so I won't cover it again this time around. But after covering horror movies since about July in order to have PodCasts ready to go and then watching a lot of stuff once we hit October - the mix of classic monsters, scares, jokes, the 1980's and coming of age digging monsters all in one place seemed like a good way to put a button on my Halloween movie watch.

Now get out there and enjoy some perfect Stan Winston make-up and terrific monster performances by catching this movie if you haven't already.

Oh, and apparently this exists:

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Halloween Watch: Scream (1996)

Watched: 10/30/2018
Format: Amazon Streaming
Viewing: third or fourth
Decade: Oh, so 90's

Ah, the 1990's. A time when we were all intensely media saturated thanks to home video, cable and plenty of multiplexes, but had a minimum of internet. At the time, we were all very concerned with whether things were postmodern and metatextual, and, really, Scream (1996) may be the ideal example of what we were all on about. Can you tell a story by deconstructing the very genre you're working within?

"Why, yes! You can!" said Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson.

Watched: 10/29/2018
Format: DVD
Viewing: Unknown. 10th?
Decade: so, so 1980's, and, yet, timeless

I still think this movie is hilarious. I dunno - my sense of humor has always run sort of toward the "Bugs Bunny"/ Marx Bros. school of comedy, and so a movie about a wise-cracking horror movie host as fish-out-of-water in small-town uptight Massachusetts is more or less my sweet spot. I like me some double-entendre, visual gags and Edie McClurg.

Halloween Watch: Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Watched: 10/28/2018
Format: BluRay
Viewing: Unknown - but, a lot
Decade: 1930's

Halloween Watch: Frankenstein (1931)

Watched: 10/28/2018
Format: BluRay
Viewing: Unknown. well into double digits
Decade: 1930's

I'm a Frankenstein fan. Maybe not as much as other people, and I got a late start. I didn't watch the movie until 1997 when I rented it during a blitz into Universal's horror offerings that, if you know me a little, you know had a deep impact that resonates to this day.

Growing up in the wake of the 70's monster-craze, the Frankenstein monster's image was everywhere, from kid's cartoons (including the Flintstones for some reason), but I don't remember ever seeing Frankenstein offered on TV, nor do I remember tapes available at the local video store. Austin and Houston didn't have latenight monster movie hosts, so... the availability was pretty low.

So, yeah, I rented it from the I Love Video near my apartment and gave the 1930's movie a spin, genuinely concerned that after all the hype, I might not like it (I'd seen Dracula in high school at a local cinema, but that's a different story). While the movie only borrowed from the book, the movie was so much it's own thing, and so weird and creepy and heart breaking, what wouldn't I like about it?

I've written plenty on this movie, and every time I watch it, I'm stunned by the storytelling, the design of sets, creature and sound. It "transports" me, and I genuinely find the movie electric, so to speak. There's so much to love in Whale's picture.

I won't belabor it all here - this is a checkmark on my 2018 Halloween movie watching, and I'm on to The Bride of.