Halloween Haunters 2013 Roundup

It’s November 2nd, and the last straggling Halloween Haunter meandered in yesterday (one of my “Catching the Classics” articles at Fogs’ Movie Reviews). It’s finally time to close the door on this year’s month-long horror-thon. I’m taking things easy here for a couple days, taking a couple non-review days since I had reviews for 31 days straight — and actually, plus some considering the FMR reviews. A little down time is needed, but there will still be content, just not content that requires me to watch something. Reviews will probably resume Tuesday, but we’ll see.

Up for the month of November is pretty much whatever flies onto my radar. I will be looking to cross a few more of 2013’s films off my list before the year ends, but just being from the current year won’t get something watched (lesson learned from Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie last year). There are a few independent 2013 films that have shown up that I’ve passed by already simply because they didn’t interest me. No worries there. And of course, come December, there will be some Christmas Cinema sprinkled in there. Probably not the full month — it’s so hard finding Christmas movies that aren’t made-for-ABC-Family — but there will be some.

But that’s for the near future. Today, it’s time for the Halloween Haunters roundup.

Carrie (1976)
Psycho (1960) — Catching the Classics @ FMR
The Thing (1982) — Catching the Classics @ FMR

Best Worst Movie
The Cabin in the Woods
Children of the Corn
Christine
The Conjuring
The Evil Dead (1981)
Evil Dead II
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Jaws — Catching the Classics @ FMR
Madhouse (1974)
Mad Monster Party?
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Gammera the Invincible
I Bury the Living
Little Monsters
A Resurrection
Saw
Soul Survivors
The Witches of Eastwick

The Amazing Transparent Man
Ghoulies
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia
Hellraiser
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Resident Evil
Teen Wolf Too
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) — Catching the Classics @ FMR

Troll 2
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

During this year’s Halloween season, we had five Monday Music Videos, a look at the Top 10 Iconic Horror Movie Franchises, and a Favorite Films examination of Young Frankenstein. Beyond that, there were 31 Halloween Haunters reviews here, plus 4 Halloween-appropriate films reviewed as part of Catching the Classics at FMR. 36 films (counting Young Frankenstein) is a lot to cover in one month, and I managed this largely by building up a buffer well in advance. Even so, I have to admit it got a little wearying. My intention this year was to use MMV and News Bite days to give myself a break. This wound up not happening because I simply wound up with so many things I wanted to cover. Either I need to be more particular, or I need to spread some of these out more around the year… or next year Halloween Haunters might start in September.

I checked out a lot of “big name” titles this year, and only a couple lesser-known items. Strangely, this didn’t always equate to good films. A lot of the big names wound up being 2-star films. On the other hand, the three 5-star films are all acknowledged classics (and, oddly, have all received remakes that are not so well regarded).

There’s a curious localized valley in the middle — there aren’t as many 3-star films as there are 4-star or 2-star films. It’s possible that I was being harsher towards mediocre films toward the end of it due to fatigue, I don’t know… but honestly, there’s not anything in the 2-star field I feel inclined to bump. Lot of good stuff in the 4-stars, though — in fact, there are more 4-stars than 1- and 2-stars put together. Anything there or above is highly recommended, and there are a few I’m likely to rewatch in the future (caught one of last year’s 4-stars, Monsters vs. Aliens, a second time on Halloween night this year and loved it even more.)

At any rate, this year’s crop of pumpkins is all harvested. It’s been fun, but once again I’m glad to get back to having some variety in my film viewing for the near future. At least until everything gets covered in fir needles around here.