Spooky Movie Season Round Two (2020)

Back by popular demand, SpOoKy MoOvIe SeAsOn. As you may remember, last year during October, I watched a bunch of spooky movies. <— Click to read that real quick. In case you don’t know, I spend all my free time in the month of October watching as many “spooky” movies as I can. Some a little scary, others suspenseful, some even a little humorous, but all based along the horror/scary/halloween spooky movie genre.

Now that it is Halloween, the 31st of October, 2020 aka All Hallow’s Eve, with a full moon in our graces, I present you with this blog for a second straight year.

This year I’ve decided to compile a list of my Hot or Not “Spooky” movies by theme. You can see the full list of 60+ movies below.

Creepy Kid Spooky Movie
Hot: Us - Love the twist and story line behind this one. Jordan Peele is back at it again after a top finishing movie “Get Out” last year, Us is based around a girl whose family gets impersonated and haunted. Spooky.

Not: Children Of the Corn - While the story line is pretty classic and the movie was a bit spooky, the 1984 film just couldn’t hang with 2020. The children are definitely spooky, but almost too real.

Kidnapped Spooky Movie
Hot: Better Watch Out - Christmas, meets baby sitting, meets a series of murders. I liked the originality of this film and despite it being spooky, it was kind of fun. Beware Babysitters!
Not: Kidnap - Interesting concept and decent storyline, certain scenes just lasted too long, like the 30 minute car chase.

Magical Spooky Movie
Hot: The Prestige - My favorite movie of all time, how could I not add it on this list? Tesla vs Edison, plus Christian Bale does an amazing job as usual. This is a must watch for those fond of magicians.
Not: Practical Magic - 90s film that just didn’t do it. Maybe it was good when it first came out, but it was just so cheesy watching in 2020, the list of eye rolls is endless. A sad magical love story.

Sequel Spooky Movie
Hot: Doctor Sleep - The Shining sequel. Stephen King always kills it around Spooky season. Despite this movie being 2 1/2 hours long, it keeps your attention the whole time and goes quick. Great sequel! Definitely watch the Shining first for the full experience though.
Not: Men In Black: International - new cast, but kind of the same story line, just wasn’t the same without Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones. Fourth movie in the series, it just didn’t do it knowing the originals exist. I appreciated the homages to the original films though.

Animated Spooky Movie
Hot: Monsters Inc - Pixar, spooky and animated classic with James P Sullivan and Mike Wazowski. We Scare Because We Care!
Not: Welcome to Monster High - children’s movie. Didn’t realize it was a Matel, barbie brand film. A spooky girl starts a spooky high school. Mehh. Pass on this unless you are five years old.

Spooky Spooky Movie:
Hot: As Above, So Below - “Found Footage” type of film from the Catacombs of Paris, really left me chilled and spooked throughout. Great film. Chillllllssss galore.
Not: Hubie Halloween - Adam Sandler is back at it again! And in true Adam Sandler fashion. The movie was a nice throwback to the classic 90s films, but really was kinda lame. Good netflix movie, that’s about it.

Here are the spooky movie films I watched in order:

Gone Girl
Onward (disney +)
Little Nicky
Murder on the Orient Express
Beetlejuice
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
A Perfect Getaway
Club Dread
Before I Go To Sleep
Secret Window
Halloween Town (rented)
Clue: The Movie
Hubie Halloween (netflix)
Inception
Zombieland 2: Double Tap
Us (rented)
The Ones Below
Nosferatu (amazon)
Welcome to Monster High
Cabin in the Woods (amazon)
Children of the Corn (amazon)
The Prestige
The Belko Experiment
The Burbs
Super 8
Ghostbusters (2016)
Better Watch Out
Zodiac
Kidnap
Scream
Stoker
The Ring
The DaVinci Code (amazon)
Men In Black 3 (showtime)
The Addams Family (amazon)
The Pagemaster
The Strangers (rented)
Scary Movie
Knives Out
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Angels & Demons
Hocus Pocus
Hellboy
Hereditary
Paranorman
Inferno
Doctor Sleep
Scary Movie 3
Saw
Practical Magic
Men In Black: International
It
Monster Inc.
Monsters University
The Nightmare Before Christmas
As Above So Below
The Lighthouse
Psycho
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Young Frankenstein
Coco

I hope you enjoyed this spooky blog, were able to watch some spooky movies this season, and be sure to let me know what spooky movies I missed out on this Halloween season!

Happy Halloween!

Josh

Spooky Movie Season

I own a decent amount of movies, like over 1000. So at the beginning of October, when I went through and pulled all of my spooky movies out of my collection, I asked “the people” if they thought I could get through them all. Many doubted, just a few had hope, and some said it couldn’t be done.

I spent basically all of my free time in the month of October watching over 60 of what I deem to be “spooky” movies. Some a little scary, others full of suspense, some even a little funny, but all based along the horror/scary/halloween movie genre.

Now that it is the 31st of October, 2019 aka All Hallow’s Eve, aka Halloween, I present you with this blog.

Instead of breaking down each movie as I’ve done with my actor of the month blogs in the past (Russell Crowe, Emma Stone, Jim Carrey), I’ve decided to compile a list of my top 5 best “SpOoKy” moovies and my bottom 5 worst “sPoOkY” moovies. You can see the full list of movies I watched in the image below, and make sure you let me know which spooky movies I am missing out on at the end.

Let’s get right into it with the bottom of the barrel films.

Bottom 5 Worst “sPoOkY” moovies

#5. Disturbia (2007) - You know, I used to really like this movie and thought it was good, but it is just so cheesy and takes forever to develop. Shia LaBeouf spies on his neighbors when being on house arrest, and finds out one of them is super creepy! Decent spookiness level in the second half of the movie, but stick to the original, Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) instead.

#4. The Crucible (1996) - The acting is pretty good with Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor & Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams in this movie. The story line, The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 was solid, there just wasn’t enough action for me. The book by Arthur Miller is probably a better option for this one.

#3. Bedazzled (2000) - This was actually the first spooky movie of the season that Rachel and I watched. It has a somewhat similar plot to The Butterfly Effect (2004), which we watched immediately after. Anyway, it involves Brendan Fraser selling his soul to the devil, Elizabeth Hurley, in exchange for seven wishes. Although you can’t usually go wrong with Brendan Fraser, and Elizabeth Hurley is quite the good looking devil, I would have to say this film is a pass during spooky movie season.

#2. Scream 3 (2000) - As if the first two movies weren’t good enough, they had to go and extend the series into a trilogy. We’ve already seen this movie with this plot, and the third proved to not be necessary as it was a movie about the movie about the first two movies. What!? Although it was great seeing where the parody Scary Movie (2000) franchise came from, I vote a no for this one.

#1. Freddy vs Jason (2003) - You may have noticed that none of the other Freddy Krueger or Jason movies were on this list. I know, that was my first mistake, but for some reason, I only own this one…. I know, my bad. In this movie, the two iconic horror villains meet face to face in an often “unrealistic” battle in a race to kill as many kids as they can. Lots of teens were sacrificed in the making of this film. I would avoid this film in the franchise and watch the other versions.

Now that you know which spooky movies to avoid, let’s get into which movies you should be watching first!

Top 5 Best “SpOoKy” moovies

#5. Scream (1996) - Wow. I cannot believe that I had gone my whole life without seeing the original Scream. I used to dress up as the killer for Halloween back in the day. Scream lived up to its name by being the only movie that made Rachel actually scream out loud, helping edge itself into the top list. As you may know, the plot involves high school students who try to escape phone calls, stabbings, and more from a killer in the now famous scream mask. Watch it!

#4. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - The only animated movie to make the list. In this stop-motion film produced by Tim Burton, Jack Skellington of Halloweentown stumbles upon Christmastown and brings a little bit of Halloween to Christmas. Lots of sign-along songs in this classic that will get you coming back for more. This is Halloween, This is Halloween….and if you haven’t seen the movie, you need to go do that.

#3. The Shining (1980) - Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, the author and now caretaker of the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. He brings along his wife Wendy, and son Danny along with him to watch the hotel over the winter season, only to discover the dark secrets and haunting past to the hotel. Lots of unsettling and iconic scenes in this movie with great character development and spooky vibes. Can’t go wrong with a film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on a Stephen King novel!

#2. The Exorcist (1973) - The oldest movie on the list, and one of the spookiest. I actually had never seen this movie until I watched it and was super spooked. Although some of it may seem unrealistic now, the performance by the little girl Regan was exceptional and unnerving. A little girl becomes possessed by the devil and it is up to the priests and church to save her. They even say this is based on true events, and to think the soundtrack, acting, and storyline are nearly 50 years old makes it even better. A must watch this spooky season.

#1. Get Out (2017) - The newest movie on the list, and one of the most thrilling! Written & directed by Jordan Peele, this movie is based around an interracial couple and meeting your girlfriend’s family for the first time. The emotional qualities of the characters, the spooky soundtrack, and the constant plot twists and turns make this movie exceptional. It has the perfect amount of scary, jumpy moments to go along with a riveting story line that leave you with a lasting spooky impression. This is a must see and my number one SpOoKy Moovie.

I hope you enjoyed this spooky blog, are able to watch some spooky movies, and be sure to let me know what spooky movies I missed out on this Halloween season!

Happy Halloween!

Josh

Homecoming 2016

On Saturday October 29th, we woke up at Jackie's in Morris and headed out for U of I at 7am. A solid 4 hours of sleep was going to be promising for a day full of drinking, eating, and having fun! We got to U of I just after 10am and I dropped Rachel off at Kam's, drove our car to the classiest of housing, Days Inn, and then took an Uber to Kam's to start the day off. Most of our friends had gotten there the night before so everyone was there when I arrived, Torie, Tim, Mary, Jeff, Aly, Matt, Caitlin, Ashley, Corey, Michelle, Jordan, Matt, and other friends! Here is a quick summary, the video does the days events more justice for the most part.

We had Blue Guys and beers before heading over to the Stadium Inn at noon to join the Mug Club for our second time! First time for Rachel as a Maluta. Chug! By then we were feeling pretty hungry for lunch so we went to Firehaus to get burgers at 1pm. After lunch Torie gave Tim, Rachel, Caitlin, and I a tour of the campus. Tour guide Torie lead us to Brothers, the Alma Mater, the quad, AOII sorority house, and more telling "old" college stories along the way. The tour ended at Red Lion where we met up with the rest of our group and Rachel showed off her amazing dance moves on stage with some Chewbaccas. The dancing ended around 4:30p and everyone headed back to our Days Inn where everyone took a nap.

I wasn't tired and neither was Jordan so we walked over to Hunter's Haven. We were walking through their shop which consisted mostly of model cars/planes and things like that. Finally we found the shooting range in the back and Jordan convinced an employee to let us shoot some arrows. The place was closing in about 15 minutes so we got to shoot for free. We first used these green plastic bows which were alright and I managed to shoot down range, but very hard to use since there was nothing to balance the arrow on. Then Jordan said we needed something better so came back with a compound bow that was super hard to pull back. I pulled it back, locked my elbow out and bam, the string from the bow ripped across my forearm and left a huge red mark that eventually turned into a pretty brutal bruise. It kinda burned but actually wasn't as painful as it looked. I think for my first time shooting a bow I was doing great... Finally the owner came out. It was probably 5:15 by now, and he brought his compound bow out. This one was lighter and easier to pull back. That's what I am talking about. I managed to shoot this one down range without slamming my arm (don't lock your elbow friends! Keep a little bend in it) and actually hit the target. Woo!  Mark then showed us how it was done and hit a bullseye. We finally left Hunters Haven probably around 5:30p and were the only ones there with Mark the owner, who was a nice guy, but definitely going to vote Trump if you know what I mean.

We walked back over to the Days Inn and grabbed a few brews and sat on a table in the courtyard talking hunting and other random stuff. Then a door behind us opened and a guy who looked like a crackhead came out smiling. His teeth were all yellow, spaced apart, decaying and kinda nasty, like a crackhead. He creepily asked for a cigarette from Jordan and he gave him one. Then he looked at me and said nice beer (budwesier), I said thanks and then regretfully shook his hand when he offered it out for a handshake. Ugh. Before he went back into his room for good, he grabbed a similar bud from his room and raised it up as if we were now buddys. Yikes. He had a rather large friend sitting on a bed with him in the room. These are definitley people who live at the Days Inn. Also since it was homecoming, this Days Inn which usually runs for $49 a night cost us $180. Inflation Nation.

Around 7pm we woke everyone up and walked over to Dos Reales Mexican for dinner. I had a delicious burrito and Rachel and I shared a giant Coronarita. For some reason Rach's skin broke out which was kinda weird, but no harm done. We then jumped in an uber and headed back to the campus to hit up the bars. We start at Legends where we have some drinks, and watched a bit of baseball. It was pretty crowded.

We went to our favorite bar, Brothers, around 9:30p. The Cubs lost game 4 while we were there. After brothers we went to Cly's for some dancing and then tried to go to Joe's. The line at Joe's was extremely long and after waiting for 20 minutes, Rachel and I decided to head somewhere a little bit chiller. We walked over to Murphy's and ended the night talking to students Harold and Kumar to close the night out. It was Halloween weekend after all. We ubered it back to Days Inn at 2:15am where we crashed on a blow up mattress. College.

Happy 5 Year Dating Anniversary to Rachel and I! Our first ever time hanging out was actually on Halloween weekend of 2011 at Champaign. It was amazing and visiting U of I brought back so many great memories. Much love Rachie! Here a few pictures from our first Date together!

The next morning Sunday October 30th we woke up around 8:30a. As we got McDonald's breakfast, we saw that crackhead from the Days Inn picking up cigarette butts off the ground. Crackhead confirmed. The drive home somehow only took 2 hours and we got Jimmy Johns for lunch then took a 3 hour nap. We woke up, did some things around the apartment, and had Papa John's for dinner. I watched the Walking Dead and the Cubs won game 5 at Wrigley. Still Down 3-2 in the series though.

Being a college student is exhausting, but homecoming alumni weekend was a blast!

Josh