October Goal: Second Sequence

It is October 14th, very much the midpoint until the end of Halloween. My goal of 31 movies is still going strong. Here is the updated movies seen, and the previously seen ones as well.

1. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
2. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning
3. The Funhouse
4. An American Werewolf in London
5. Dracula
6. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

And here are the movies being added to the list:

7. Frankenstein (1931) -- A
Already having watched Dracula and being somewhat disappointed, I turned to another classic monster movie, this time Frankenstein. I was pretty much taken in from the first scene. This is just a masterpiece of its time. The sets are amazing, and the acting is perfect. When I think of what a classic monster movie is, this is it.

8. City of the Living Dead (1980) -- B
I wasn't too sure what to expect seeing this one, having not heard much about the movie at all. Its an Italian movie directed by Lucio Fulci who also did more many more horror movies. The movie has great atmosphere and some great gross out sequences. I liked the ending and how they vanquish the priest, a steak to the groan is always an instant kill!

9. Planet Terror (2007) -- B-
I decided to re-visit the Grindhouse movies, but this time split apart and with the extra footage. Planet Terror comes off as a good little zombie movie. Nothing new here (and that was the point) but director Robert Rodriguez pays great homage to the zombie movies of old. I didn't see anything in this new cut that made me feel like the movie was a better flick this time.

10. The Video Dead (1987) -- B
If you want to see this movie, its either find an old VHS copy or get netflix and watch it on the instant watch feature. I thought it was cool that netflix was able to have this movie even available to watch. So I thought it was a perfect time to check it out. I believe the idea of the movie has been thought up by every kid who has ever seen a horror movie. The premise is that a TV somehow only shows a zombie movie and those zombies are allowed to go from the TV to the real world. The acting is pretty bad, no one famous at all in the movie but that's not the real point here. The ideas behind the movie are well done. You think this person will live because he is a main charter? You are in for a surprise. I enjoyed that the zombies would act normal if you didn't show them fear, something that sort of pays of for our main heroine. To see what happens, you should check out this cult classic.


11. Death Proof (2007) -- C+
This was hard to give the movie the grade because Quinten Tarantino is one of my all time favorite movie makers. I was also revisiting this movie. The first time I felt the movie was slow and had way too much talking for talking sake. It was also the second half of the double bill with Planet Terror, which was a much more exciting movie. I thought maybe breaking up the movies and watching this special edition would push this movie over and give it that extra kick I missed out on the first time. And well, the movie starts out promising. I think I really enjoyed the first set of girls, they seemed to have a lot more appeal and mystery surrounding them. The first acts culminates in a head on collision for the ages. The second set of girls seem to just talk like anyone else would, which I just couldn't get into. I love the Tarantino dialogue, I would say Inglorious Basterds had a lot of long dialogue but I felt that was building up to something or had conflict. The girls in the second half of the movie added characterization but I just found myself saying, why am I listening to this? And yes again ,there is an amazing 18 minute car chase but Kurt Russell has almost no screen time before the car chase. Anyway that's some reasons why this movie just didn't do it for me. It seems like it could have been cut in some places and been a more successful movie.

12. ThanksKilling (2009) -- D+
Now here is a movie that know what it is. A movie about a a turkey that comes alive every 505 years and kills kids in crazy ways. The turkey actually talks, and yes it is as hilarious as it sounds. This turkey also offers sex for a ride and rapes the town slut, uttering "You just got stuffed!" afterwords. Movies like this are a fun when in the right mood. It made me long for a Thanksgiving movie (a great grind house trailer by Eli Roth).



13. Day of the Dead (1885) -- B
Having seen Night and Dawn of the Dead, I wanted to finish off the series with Day of the Dead. The movie starts off from what was hinted at in Dawn of the Dead. A small group of survivors in an underground military base. The movie really delves into how to deal with the zombies. A mad scientist feels they can be trained, and he works one on one with a zombie he calls Bub. The leader of the base is huge asshole named Captain Rhodes who of course disagrees with everything the other people want. I was surprised how in depth the movie goes how the people should deal with the zombies, But of course at the end you get the classic Romero style kills when the zombies are some how allowed into the base. Just some amazing special effects by Tom Savini here. This is a nice follow up to Dawn of the Dead.


Now I just have to keep up the goal!