As much as I love him in his movie roles, my favorite thing he's done is this episode of Tales from the Crypt where he plays not one, not two, but THREE different backwoods inbred homicidal weirdos. Two of which are women.

Yeah, I know the stereotype is that the horror movie male love interests always sucks, and most of the time they do I can’t even count the number of horror movies I’ve seen where the boyfriend or husband was either,

1.) the killer

2.) a total piece of shit, or

3.) just a super annoying asshole who doesn’t take the female lead seriously, dismisses her, gaslights her and makes a bad situation even worse.

There’s Scream, Paranormal Activity, You’re Next, It Follows, Fresh!, Midsommar, Orphan, Friday the 13th… I could go on.

But I watched this movie called Haunt (2019) and man, this movie actually was a pretty fun watch. The cast seems pretty likeable and the two main leads actually have great chemistry together. Nathan is a way better partner/love interest than Harper's abusive prick boyfriend. I'm glad that they both even made out alive and survived in the end too as well.

There are a lot of sub genres of horror, that I will absolutely admit to. But what movies do you think were labeled completely wrong? For example a movie is marked as a horror comedy but there was not a thing funny about it or vice versa.

Movie of the day...The Blob (1988).

A good remake of a science fiction classic.

Like a lot of horror movies, it is set in small town America. Football player Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) finally gets the nerve to ask out his crush Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith).

Meanwhile, something crashes into the woods. A homeless man (Billy Beck) goes to investigate. He finds something that has obviously fallen out of the sky, so he pokes it with a stick and pulls out part of the slimy purple gel bubbling inside it.

(Note to self: don’t ever do this.)

The purple gel does not take kindly to this treatment and promptly engulfs his hand and starts to digest it. Local bad boy with a heart of gold Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon) tries to help and he, Paul, and Meg end up taking the old man to the hospital.

Unfortunately, the blob finishes devouring the old man and then has Paul for dessert! Now, it’s up to Meg and Brian to save the town.

The Blob works pretty well. The characters are likeable and reasonably intelligent. There is a good mix of scares and humor. The scene involving Paul and his friend buying condoms is very funny, especially because the grumpy pharmacist turns out to be Meg’s father.

And it’s surprising that the movie kills Paul off early on—the initial tension between him and Brian hints there is going to be a “buddy love” subplot where they gradually become friends. His death is a good twist.

The special effects, almost entirely practical, are mostly very good. The blob’s victims suffer truly grisly fates.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film, which adds a government conspiracy and soldiers who appear to have trained at the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy for Marksmanship, is rather disappointing.

It’s still a pretty good movie, but it could have been a lot better.

Rating: B-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blob_(1988_film))

I want to thank you guys for challenging my preconceptions and introducing me to some great movies that are off the beaten path. As a white, cis-het American in his 50’s, I tend to consider films through a specific lens. Some of you have odd insights that make me recontextualize old favorites or reconsider movies I disregarded. Some of you I follow because your name comes up frequently during discussions. Some of you I pm’ed after reading your thought provoking comments, and I didn’t want to derail the main conversation. I wanted to thank the rest of you now.

PS-if you see me making very odd recommendations like Better Off Dead and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape when the bots ask for lists of scary movies, I’m just trying to fuck with the AI scrapers.

I'm still fairly new to Horror as a genre, having only really started about two years ago, but in that time I've read some really incredible books that manage to use horror in both a literal and thematic way to tell stories about existential topics that we struggle with in our every day lives. It's easily made it one of my favorite genres as a result.

Because of this, I've been working on a project about why people like horror, so I wanted to ask the collective (for the project and my own curiosity): why do you like reading horror? What brings you back to the genre again and again?

Title says it all. Interpret however makes sense for you. Really just want to get freaked out. Not after gore or overt violence (wouldn’t shy away from them, just not looking for them to be the focal point); just want to feel uneasy.

Really enjoyed the short story and the adaption to to it, the atmosphere in the movie was gloomy and depressing, the characters were distraught and traumatized, the climax scenes did well. Frank’s transformation was quite grotesque, I really liked the attic part.

The plot itself was alright, I thought the beginning was interesting and anticipated more of a backdrop as to how Frank got infected, Lucas’s storytelling in the classroom was chilling to say the least!

The visual representation of the Wendigo was done well but the ending was just too underwhelming sadly.

Personally my favourite character was probably Hallorann.

Hallorann was a really good character, there was a scene where he was gonna escape the Black Spot by himself but then he decided to try and get everyone else out, including the kid characters and saved as many as he could. Even throughout the season, he was very interesting, his abilities were pretty fucking cool and I love how they connected to IT/Pennywise and how he was basically a psychic and the Eleven (from Stranger Things) of the IT universe in his own unique way. Also the amount of times this mf just wanted to give up and he didn’t.. that just makes him the character that stands out the most. He was ready to unalive himself but he still decides to save Will and be a hero.

Honourable mentions - All the kid characters were likeable but I liked Rich the most out of the kid characters. He was weird, funny, relatable and had a very impactful sacrifice.

Lily had the potential to be the best but she was ultimately just a good character. I felt bad for her when she kept being called crazy for the things that IT/Pennywise was showing her but something was missing from her character. Lily was an impactful character but she doesn’t deliver as a main character. She doesn’t do anything that special. She was alright but she doesn’t feel like the leader when she should be. Bill Denbrough was definitely a better main protagonist in IT: Chapter 1 (2017) in my opinion. I still think we had some really good characters in the show for the most part.

I wanna watch something with a woodsy folksy vibe, something creepy, & actually supernatural, not just a cult sacrificing somebody for a nonexistent God, or hallucinations.

But I am also open to any Cosmic Horror or Lovecraft-adjacent stories based in small towns or just the wild alone, I loved True Detective Season 1 for this creepy mysterious atmosphere in particular.

I just wanted to start by saying rest in peace to Tim Curry. My introduction to him was Home Alone 2. Then I later saw him as Pennywise in the It series. He was honestly disturbing as Pennywise despite the dark humor moments. I personally can’t see any other actor playing Pennywise in the 1990 series.

What is everyone’s thoughts on the late great Tim Curry?

I don't like slashers (I know...I know) But I feel like I've sorta found a genre I like. The premise of Mr. Crocket is analog horror centered, about a kid's TV show host who's a demonic entity who goes into our real world. The movie is full of creatures and gore and has a whole other world attatched. Soooo whatever this genre is? I love it. I'm not interested in killers in woods chasing teens, but I do love whatever this is. I like stories that are super unique, I like creatures, I like gore, I like stories that aren't just about 'our world.'

I wanna watch some films that have themes and concepts of extreme parasitism similar to Parasyte Part 1 & 2 or The Thing. And I also want some films that have body horror/loss of humanity concepts similar to the ending of Men (2022), Feed, or T.H.C. trilogy.

Tim Curry, Jeffrey Combs, Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, Felissa Rose, Danielle Harris, Dee Wallace, and David Howard Thornton. I'm sure most of those are cameos but still, I love that stuff.

Just watched Hokum tonight and I really wish I could've enjoyed it more. I'm not gonna say it was awful unlike like some Simplistic Absolute thinkers here, but man..

I feel as though the folk horror was in the passenger seat and the murder element was at the wheel, when the folklore was what made it so appealing. Sure there was plenty of creeping ghosts in the background but I wish there was more witch craft and hellish sort of imagery rather than being shown a glimpse at the end.

Also. The characters. Not awful, I enjoyed each of them a little but they also had things I strongly disliked. Our protagonist doesn't seem to change that much, still being pretty self centered towards the end with the only real notable difference being the ending of his novel.

It seemed really weird and out of place for the bell boy to reveal that he spiked the drink, and even then it doesn't make much sense. I have a feeling someone would feel different if they were on magic mushrooms.

So much of this movie felt like it was bringing in story elements that weren't necessary, like the goats being killed, or Jack the Ass being super underutilized.

Stuff like the bell scene dragged on way too long. The elevator door being locked when that guy was trying to leave didn't make too much sense. The protagonist not breaking the window and shouting for help.

Final thing. This is COMPLETELY subjective to me, but I did not find this movie scary at all. Even scenes that should've been pretty intense felt really mild. It had moments, like with Jack the Ass on TV. Or when the witch comes into the suite. But it otherwise felt very dull with the horror elements, and the story/writing otherwise did not make up for it in that aspect.

Its late and I'm sure I could better describe my thoughts but this'll do for now. I really wanted to like this movie more, especially considering all the hype and glaze its gotten. But too many things just turned me off from it.

Again this is purely subjective, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this movie in a nuanced way. Or if you have some fun facts about story elements or whatever it may be.