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

My Favorite Childhood Comedy Actor

The list of 90s comedy actors is a damn good one, including the likes of Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Ben Stiller, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, & Robin Williams. But there is one actor who stood above the rest for me. Do you want to know who it is? Do ya? Do ya? Alrighttttyyyy thennnnn, it is the man of 1000 faces, the wild and energetic, Jim Carrey. During some time off in December, and the beginning of the New Year, I watched 19 of Carrey's movies. I thought it would be a cool idea if each month I watched a bunch of movies from a specific actor/actress/director and relived their glory days. This seemed like a great idea until realizing how long it takes to watch 10, even 5 movies. I probably went a little over the top with Jim, but he is my favorite. I won't have time to watch this many movies normally, so I think I may try to make this a quarterly event, or limit it to 4 movies per actor/actress.

Anyways, let's take a look at the 19 movies I watched and see if you recognize any of them, which I'm sure you will:

It is crazy to think that in 1994 Jim Carrey essentially launched his career with 3 top notch comedies: Ace Ventura Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber. His career stayed steady with pretty great films through the 2000s including The Truman Show, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Bruce Almighty. Although his films have declined in quality over the past ten years or so, he has made a plethora of hilarious stuff over the last 25 years. 

I'm going to start off with a bold statement, but one thing I noticed in almost all of Jim Carrey's films is that there is always a woman with large breasts that are presented to their fullest. I am telling you, almost every single movie of his, especially when he started to get hot, includes some big jugs. Perhaps it was written into his contract that he had to work with a large breasted woman? Or maybe it was just the 90s? Go ahead and think about the films above and recall any and all of those scenes. I'll put this seen from Liar Liar here for ya as a starter.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to some of my favorites. Of all of the movies listed above, I think my favorite movie of Carrey's would have to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This movie (2004) is classified as a romantic science fiction comedy-drama in which Carrey plays a shy character named Joel Barish. The all-star cast also includes, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson. Now I don't like spoiling movies for people, so if you haven't seen it, here is the description, "When their relationship turns sour, a young couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories." Highly recommend!

Two movies of Carrey's that will always have a special place in my heart are The Mask and Ace Ventura. I must have watched each of these at least 30 times each growing up. Often quoting them, "No. It wasn't me. It was the one-armed man.," "If I'm not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer," and "Do NOT go in there! Woooweee!" Ah just hilarious classics. 

My least favorite movie out of the films would have to be Dumb & Dumber To. Coming out 20 years after the original, it was a sad, 2014, sequel that should never have been made. Although they are essentially acting the same as they do in Dumb & Dumber, it just isn't funny watching two full grown men be idiots. But I won't lie, I did chuckle a few times throughout the movie, regardless I highly don't recommend watching. Just watch the original again.

Jim's most recent movie, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, really shined a new light on his acting for me. It brought to the attention his work on the set of Man on the Moon and his work as a method actor. Carrey only uses method acting in a select few of his films, but when he does, he goes all in. In this documentary, he also drops some philosophical knowledge during his interviews. This movie is currently on Netflix, and if you are like me, and haven't seen Man on the Moon, don't worry, you don't need to. I highly recommend checking this out.

There are a few movies of Jim Carrey's that I don't own and have never seen. Man on the Moon, A Christmas Carol, Fun with Dick & Jane, I Love you Phillip Morris, A Series of Unfortunate Events, & Once Bitten. If I haven't listed any other classic Jim Carrey films, let me know what I am missing out on.

And before we close this out, let's not forget about Jim Carrey's hilarious skits on In Living Color. In Living Color was a comedy skit series similar to SNL, that was on Fox and lasted five seasons in the early 90s. Nolan introduced me to these during college. Here are two of my favorite skits from that show:

Rachel and I have some ideas for which actors/actresses to take a deep dive into next. This includes Emma Stone, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Daniel Day Lewis or Will Ferrell. 

But I am curious who you think would be a good actor/actress, or maybe even director, to watch their films. Let me know!

"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

Happy movie watching

Josh