1. What is your favorite scary movie?

That's a really tough one. I have a lot I watch quite a bit. I think The Conjuring is my favorite because it was the first movie to actually scare me in my adult life. Most horror movies scared me as a kid. But as an adult I could go back and watch anything that scared me as a kid, and be perfectly fine. The Conjuring was the first one that scared me in a long, long while.

2. What is the 1st horror movie you ever remember watching?

My earliest horror memory was one day when I was but a child and my mother thought I might like the movie Alien, the sci-fi horror film from 1979 starring Sigourney Weaver. I loved it. It didn't scare me, but it was 

3. What type of horror films are your favorite?

Seeing as The Conjuring is my favorite horror film, it may seem obvious that my favorite type of horror film is paranormal. That can encompass ghosts or demons. I find those the scariest because I believe ghosts exist. I've had a few paranormal experiences and I almost copied my wife and wrote a blog about it but I decided against it. Instead, I'll share Anne's with you, which you can find here.

4. What type of horror film do you not like?

Revenge style films based on rape. There are many reasons to not like a movie like that. The first and most obvious is that it's a horrid topic and a traumatic event is being used for shock value. Also, it's lazy writing. It's like killing a character when it doesn't serve the plot somehow. It's used to get a cheap emotional response. So not only can it be potentially triggering, not only is it a awful topic, but it's just plain lazy. 

5. What movie has given you nightmares?

The 1986 version of Invaders from Mars. Scared the hell out of me. The idea that all these people were getting taken over by Martian invaders and no one could tell was what really scared me. Especially the end of the movie when David wakes up and finds out it's all a dream and then sees the alien ship land just like he did when he was dreaming. THAT scared me. 

6. What is the last movie that actually scared you?

Annabelle Creation scared me. Best of all, it did it without a ton of jump scares. The first Annabelle movie was one of the weakest in the Conjuringverse but they really brought it back with the good sequels.

7. Who is your favorite horror movie villain, why?

Michael Myers. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. He's the most bad ass. He keeps coming back and he's not some dream monster like Freddy or some undead killing machine like Jason. He's a real dude in a mask and even though it may be far fetched, the ways they kill him are survivable.

8. Who is the worst horror movie villain, why?

I almost said The Babadook or The Entity (It Follows) but those weren't bad villains, their movies were just awful. I also almost said Chucky because come on! He's a doll. Kick him in the face and get the hell out of the house! It wasn't until my wife reminded me that we saw a film called The Bye Bye Man from 2017 that I had my answer. She was the real one with the answer, I'm just copying her homework.

The Bye Bye Man didn't actually do anything and he wasn't scary. Look at those jackets hanging on the wall. Guess who's going to show up there? The Bye Bye Man! Not only is the name stupid, but The Bye Bye Man doesn't really hurt you. He just makes you go crazy until you kill yourself and sometimes take others with you. 

9. Worst horror movie you've ever seen?

If I wanted to tease my wife I'd say Treehouse, a film from 2014 that was bad in so many ways, but the title of "the worst" should take more into account. So instead of some straight to DVD d-list horror, I'm going to name a popular one that didn't deserve the hype.

The Babadook was an awful film. I know, I know. I get what the film was trying to be about. It was trying to be about a mother dealing with an autistic child while working with dementia patients and how it all affects her mental state and how her mental state affects her child. But that's not what was promised by the trailer AND the kids mental illness was really just used for uncomfortable outbursts to add to the mother's depression. Couple that with the horrid ending and you get the worst film I've ever seen. I know the film was supposed to stand for more, but that doesn't make it good.

10. Favorite horror movie series

I kind of already answered this one so I'll just reiterate and say The Conjuringverse. Not only does my favorite horror film belong to the franchise, but there was only one movie out of the six (so far) that I didn't like. And it's not like I hated The Nun. I've seen worse horror films. But overall The Conjuringverse was the best. 

11. Which horror film do you think is underrated?

This was probably the hardest question of the bunch. So many movies that used to be made fun of or hated because they were bad or cheesy are no loved by film nerds because more and more people are realizing that you can like films that aren't "good." 

My answer is House on Haunted Hill from 1999 with the stacked cast of Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Ali Larter, Peter Gallagher, and Chris Kattan. It was a critically panned movie, but remember that critics are movie hating jerks. This was a fun 90's horror that was over-the-top and tryhard at times, but it was enjoyable. It was also hated because it was a remake of a Vincent Price film from 1959, but we can love both!

12. What scenes have grossed you out the most?

Anne just made me watch a film called Would You Rather and there's a scene where a dude has to cut his eye with a razor blade. That was super SUPER hard to watch.

13. If horror movies were real, would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse, an alien abduction, or a haunted house?

Easy! Haunted house! Zombie apocalypse would just mess up the whole world. Alien abduction you have the worry about how to get back home if they take you back to their planet. But with a haunted house you have many ways of making it out alive. First and probably easiest, you can leave. If it's a localized hunting the ghosts won't follow you. If it's demons or something a church and an exorcism sounds right up your alley. Either way it's a lot more promising than either of the other two options.

 Yay! We're still going strong. It's time for the next five movies I've watched this Halloween season. There's a fun mix so you may just find your next spooky watch.

Cursed

This is a film from way back in 2005 starring Christina Ricci, Jessie Eisenberg, Milo Ventimiglia, Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer, Portia de Rossi, and Shannon Elizabeth. It's about a pair of siblings who get cursed by a werewolf and have to figure out what to do to avoid becoming werewolves themselves.

This was a truly fun movie. Werewolf films are fun but not nearly as popular as zombies or vampires, so it's always nice to find a new one. It's especially nice if it's a good movie. This film here may seem like a 90's cheesey horror holdout, but it's really a fun and cleaver film that wasn't entirely predictable. 

This isn't a perfect film, but it's good enough to be entertaining and stands the test of time. There's nothing hugely problematic or cringey that would keep me from rewatching it so this will now go on my yearly rewatch list. The few times they use CG is obviously outdated but practical effects are used to which keep this from being hard to watch.

Cursed gets an 8 out of 11

The Forest

A woman goes into Japan's Suicide Forest to find her missing twin sister and confronts a supernatural terror (Premise from IMDB) This stars Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones.

I had been wanting to watch this one for a while. Since I'm half Japanese, I'm quite interested with anything having to do with Japan. Asians don't get a lot of love in Hollywood in general so I'm jump at the chance to see anything with Asian representation (unless it's an awful remake of an Asian film). But for one reason or another I never got around to this one but this year I finally did.

And it was okay. It was just okay. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't particularly enjoy it. The acting was fine, the plot was okay, but it never quite clicked. The characters were a big let down in this film as Sarah was the biggest idiot ever and everything bad that happened in the forest was her fault. I won't say to much so I don't spoil it, but when you go somewhere and experts are telling you not to do something and you go and do it anyway, you fully deserve your fate.

There were also too many jump scares and dream sequences. It was hard to feel any fear when you knew the jump was coming because they were setting you up for it, and also some of the scares had no effect because they ended up being dreams and thus the fear didn't carry over into reality. 

This isn't a bad film, like I said. This was just a mediocre at best film. The Japanese Suicide Forest still has a lot of potential that someone else can try and work with later.

The Forest gets a 5 out of 11

Don't Knock Twice

A mother desperate to reconnect with her troubled daughter becomes embroiled in the urban legend of a demonic witch after her daughter knocks on the witches door, incurring  her wrath.

I had no idea what to expect from this film. I had never heard of it. But my wife wanted me to watch it and she knows my tastes pretty well. What I eneded up watching was an interesting B list horror movie. It has an interesting plot with a little bit of mystery thrown in. Though I could see what the red herring was, I didn't see the ending coming and that served as a nice surprise. 

This movie had good characters who didn't make stupid decisions, which is always good to see in modern horror. The acting was good, better than you'd expect from a non-artsy indie horror. This stars Katee Sackhoff who is no stranger to horror and Lucy Boynton who has been in more well received movies than I had realized (and she was good in them too). So this film has a good plot with a twinge of mystery, good characters, and good actors playing said characters. So all in all, this is a fine horror that I wouldn't mind adding to my yearly rewatch list. 

Don't Knock Twice gets an 8.5 out of 11 

Hubie Halloween

Despite his devotion to his hometown of Salem (and its Halloween celebration), Hubie Dubois is a figure of mockery for kids and adults alike. But this year, something is going bump in the night, and it's up to Hubie to save Halloween. (Premise from IMDB). This stars a lot of people so to keep this short I'll just mention Adam Sandler.

TLDR for my longer review:

The best thing about Hubie Halloween is the strong seasonal atmosphere of the film. Just like Hocus Pocus or Trick 'r Treat, this is a great film if you're really wanting something full of the Halloween spirit. As for the plot? It's mediocre at best. It has promise but is just not very good. Also, is Adam Sandler's Waterboy style voice still okay? Isn't he doing an impression of someone with a mental illness or birth defect? 

Hubie Halloween gets a 5 out of 11

Would You Rather

Desperate to help her ailing brother, a young woman unknowingly agrees to compete in a deadly game of "Would You Rather," hosted by a sadistic aristocrat. (Premise from IMDB). This stars Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect), Jonny Coyne (Alcatraz), John Heard (Home Alone), Eddie Steeples (My Name Is Earl), Logan Miller (Love, Simon), Robin Lord Taylor (Gotham), and porn star Sasha Grey.

Have you ever wondered what kind of movie someone would make if they just kind of watched Saw once and thought they got the general idea then tried to remake it with an evil Rich Uncle Pennybags as the villain? You'd get Would You Rather! Yay!

This film had a lot of promise. It was an interesting idea that felt like it never got fleshed out. It feels like the script was going through rewrites and they just ran out of time and submitted something half finished. There's a gem of an idea hidden somewhere in the mess that was presented. The cast wasn't bad except for Sasha Grey who felt like a dollar store Megan Fox. 

Would You Rather gets a 4 out of 11

 Anne and I have decided to watch at least one movie each day in October to at least get 31 flicks in this season. Early on in the month is when we branch out a bit more and watch new movies or movies that may be "scary" but not doesn't really put us in the holiday mood. We like to watch the same old reliable movies. So what have we watched so far? Here are the first five.

The Visit (2015)

This is a film by M. Night Shyamalan about two siblings who are sent to stay with their estranged grandparents who they have never met. During their vacation they become increasingly frightened by their grandparents disturbing behavior. 

Being a Shyamalan movie you know there's going to be a twist but I must admit that I saw this one coming right away. If I ever do guess the twist of his movies it's usually near the end, but this one I guessed in the first quarter of the film.

It still wasn't bad though. It was creepy and the documentary style way the movie was filmed suited it quite well. The main two kids were good, which isn't easy for a non-kids film with children main characters. 

So The Visit was enjoyable but ultimately predictable which could hamper any reewatchability. It wasn't bad at all but it lacked that special thing to put it anywhere on my yearly rewatch list.

The Visit gets a 7 out of 11

Child's Play 2019

I already wrote a review for this movie which you may, or may not, have seen. If you haven't read it and would like to, you can find it here. But if you want the very short cliff notes version, here it is.

This is a great example of a movie that was doomed from the start. It has a good cast but that did little to save it. The fact that Chucky was a rogue AI instead of being possessed by the soul of a serial killer took away a lot of the inherent evil from the doll and, in fact, made Chucky the sympathetic character. 

Child's Play (2019) gets a 4 out of 11

The Bye Bye Man

Wow, where to start. Maybe with the premise and then I'll talk about my disappointment? Sure. Here we go:

Three friends move into a rundown house and stumble upon a name that, once said, will haunt you until you die. Don't think it, don't say it, don't talk about The Bye Bye Man. 

This had so much potential. It could have been really cool, but it makes one too many mistakes. The first is the characters are idiots AND the woman who plays Sasha was horrible. It's like someone took a real person and sucked their soul out and still made them act in a movie. She's as uninspired and boring as Elle Fanning and Jennifer Lawrence but without the fame. The other actors were just okay and not enough to save a poorly thought out film.

The Bye Bye Man never felt like a villain. All he does is make you start to see things so either you kill yourself or you start killing others. He could be replaced by a new street drug and the movie wouldn't change. His appearances were never scary and he felt like a half hearted Candyman rip off that was written to be PG-13. 

The movie wasn't scary it wasn't thrilling, it was boring and had a ton of wasted potential. 

The Bye Bye Man gets a 4 out of 11

Halloween 2

Yes, this is an old film and it's the first rewatch this season. We always rewatch quite a few Halloween films but this one is usually left behind. We watch Halloween 1 and the reboot, we watch 4 and 5 because they're the Jaimie movies. We watch 3 because it's rediculous and funny, but 2 gets left behind. We even make a point to watch H20 because it's my wife's favorite one.

If you're not familiar, Halloween 2 takes place right after the first one and has Michael Myers hunting for Laurie Strode as she's laid up in a hospital. this is the film where we learn that Michael is Laurie's brother. This is also the first film cut out in the new cannon by the 2018 reboot, which was still a really weird choice.

It's not as good as the first, but it does help make Michael a slasher legend as it ups his body count by 10. The best thing about Halloween 2 is that it's not the Rob Zombie version. Rob Zombie is highly overrated.

Halloween 2 gets a 7.5 out of 11

The Boy

An American nanny is shocked that her new English family's boy is actually a life-sized doll. After she violates a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive. (Premise from IMDB)

I had wanted to watch this one for a while but never got around to it. Thanks to the wonders of streaming services, I got to watch this and was pleasantly surprised. Though the film is 4 years old, I will avoid spoilers which means that this will be a short wrap up.

This movie impressed me because it was quite creepy, had good characters, AND it even surprised me with the direction it took. I like it when a horror movie can surprise me and do so in an interesting way. After the ending of this book I'm still surprised they did a sequel, but it may be worth checking out.

The Boy gets an 8 out of 11.

 My love of movies has been a constant my whole life. My top movies, however, are always in flux. Some movies have been on my list for a while but others are new. Since I’m looking for blog ideas for blogtober, I decided to discuss some of my favorite childhood movies. Some of them are still on my favorites list while others have fallen from my good graces for one reason or another. Here’s a look back at some of my old favorite movies.

Ghostbusters

This one, I’m happy to say, is still on my list of favorite films. I watch it (and the sequel) at least once a year. Ghostbusters isn’t perfect, but there’s no big reason to “cancel” it or to be hesitant to claim to still love it in our modern and more "woke" world. The biggest problem is the lack of representation for Black people. True, Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zedmore is in it, but he has since said that he wished there was more to his character than just someone wanting a paycheck. Also, there are a few times, especially in Ghostbusters 2 where he’s mysteriously missing for no good reason. He was at the trial but didn't help fight the ghost. Second, Dana Barrett only really seems to be there to give the Ghostbusters a job and be the damsel in distress. It does help that she has a personality and doesn't take crap from Peter. Also Winston and Dana aren't on the poster!

Those two issues can be written off as a sign of the times and do little to hamper my enjoyment of the film. It could really be worse, as the next movie on the list will show you.

Ghostbusters is a fun 80’s film that captures the imagination and gives us a likable group of heroes who want to save us from any specter problems we may have.

Revenge of the Nerds

I loved this film. It can even be looked at as one of the earlier examples of nerds being cool. But unfortunately there’s some issues in the movie that are hard to overlook. We have a film about a group of nerds who are allowed to join a Black fraternity because the members of Lamda Lamda Lamda see the nerds getting harassed and see them as kindred spirits. Can assume that this film is comparing the Black and nerd experiences and somehow saying they’re equal? So right off the bat, we have a potential issue. And to be perfectly honest I didn’t even realize this could be an issue until I started writing this blog. You can’t compare jocks being aholes to nerds to the centuries of oppression the African American community has experienced.

So we’re not off to a good start. But could we look at it a different way to excuse it? Maybe we can say that the films isn’t trying to compare anything and that the Tri-Lambs just took pity on the nerds and that it has nothing to do with comparing the plight of the two groups. Sure. We can look at it that way.

But we have another issue. What we can’t overlook is the treatment of the women in Pi Delta Pi. Sure, they were part of the problem as they helped the Alpha Betas (the mean jocks) make fun of the nerds, but what the nerds did back was out of line. They put up spy cameras in the sorority and spied on the women naked, they made copies of and distributed naked pictures of the women, and then there was the thing with Betty. Lewis dressed up the same Halloween costumed used by her boyfriend and had sex with her all the while she thought it was her boyfriend until he took the mask off. So Lewis raped Betty. It's a horrible thing to do and the fact that Betty was okay with it just sends a dangerous message. 

With that many problems I can’t still love this film like I did when I was a kid. Things like that make me sad. Just like no longer being able to support or publicly love Harry Potter. Thanks Rowling!

The Goonies

The Goonies is about a group of kids who find an ancient map and set out on a quest to find the treasure of the legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to ruin Goonies like I did Revenge of the Nerds. As far as I can remember, there’s nothing horribly problematic with the film.  None the less, this movie isn’t on my favorites list anymore. Why? The easy answer is that as my movie horizons have expanded, I found more and more movies that I loved and this one was bumped off the list. Do I go back and watch it every once in a while? Of course. Do I want to buy every special edition that comes out? Yes. But whenever I think about my top 5 or 10 films of all time, this no longer makes the cut. 

The only issues the film had were stereotype characters that may be far from good representation, but aren’t awful. Rosalita and Data are stereotypes typical of the time, but not outright offensive. Are there a few jokes about Data’s broken English? Sure. But at least he wasn’t played by a white person with their eyes taped back like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Some people have issue with the character of Sloth who some think was born with deformities, but Sloth's problems were due to being dropped on his head as a kid and that's the official explanation from the film.  

The Goonies is still a fun film that I wouldn’t hesitate to show my own children one day but as for it’s place on my list, it just couldn’t stand the test of time.

The Police Academy Series

I used to love these films. I taped them when they came on HBO or, in the cast of Police Academy 5, I bought it on VHS. But this is another case of my tastes changing. I used to watch these films so much that the tapes broke. Remember when that would happen? That's why I like DVDs and Blu-rays.

But I'm going to be honest here. I don't remember the films enough to remember any potentially cringey elements. The only think I can think of off the top of my head is that cops don't hold the same place they used to in popular culture and that the butt of quite a few jokes was sending the straight cops to a gay bar called the Blue Oyster. 

Though the point of this blog isn't only to point out the "non-wokeness" of old movies. It's to talk about films I used to love as a kid and if they're still favorites or not. The fact is, I just don't have interest in rewatching these films.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

This is a movie from 1993 that was a remake of a flick from 1963 simply called The Incredible Journey. This is about a family that moves to a big city and can't take their pets with them. So the dogs Shadow and Chance along with the cat Sassy are left with a family relative who owns a ranch with plenty of room for the dogs to run around and a big house for the cat. But they're not happy, so the three embark on an quest to reunite with their owners and must survive in the wilderness. 

This is another film that I just stopped watching. There's nothing wrong with it as far as I can remember. It's a wholesome Disney film free from anything that wouldn't fly by today's standards. It's cute and funny. It features the voices of Michael J. Fox and Sally Field, what's not to love? It has dogs AND a cat so both sides can watch the film.

In fact this is still a much loved film, but due to time and the broadening of my horizons, it simply fell off my top ten. I still remember watching this with my parents for the first time and how much we laughed. My dad especially loved the scene where Chance has his head out the window, his ears flapping in the wind, and he says "Batdog!" Wow, that joke did not translate well to the written word, but trust me, it was funny. 

If you've never watched this film, do so. It's available on Disney + right now.

So that's it, those are 5 of my favorite films from childhood.  What are some of your favorite movies from when you were young? Have you lost anything due to problematic elements? Or are you like me and most of the films just fell off your list because you've just watched a lot more movies?