31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 2

John Agar leads a team of archeologists who discover a living, subterranean, lost civilization of albino humans who brutally enslave a race of non-human creatures to do their hard labor in The Mole People (1956).

This is one of Universal's last, and least interesting of their long run of classic horror and science fiction movies which ran from the 1930s-1950s. It's actually more of a fantasy/adventure than anything else. The creatures in this movie are never referred to as "mole people" and in fact the title could just as well be referring to the albino humans. Either way, the creatures are pretty neat looking, and like all of Universal's monsters, inspire more sympathy than fear. They actually seem more timid and intelligent, beaten down and enslaved by their cruel human masters, and are only vicious when ordered to be, or when rebelling. There are also a lot of these creatures to be seen at any one time, which is a treat in itself.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie 1

In Tremors (1990), a small, isolated, desert community finds itself under siege by giant, subterranean, worm-like monsters that track their prey through vibrations.

I've never seen this movie before, so it was a pleasant surprise. With a very strong sense of humor and a very likable cast led by Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon, this movie wound up being a lot of fun. The monsters were pretty cool, and there was a lot of inventiveness in the various means that were presented on escaping them and fighting them, and the worms had some pretty good tactics of their own.

My only issue is that the DVD I have (which came as part of the 4 movie Tremors Attack Pack) had some heavy glitches in one section of the movie. I have no idea if this issue is common.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Mask of the Day

After offering up a Hellboy paper mask in yesterday's post, I thought you might want some monsters for him to fight, or simply want some monsters. So for today's print, cut-out, and wear paper masks I unleash this assortment of monsters, fiends, weirdoes, ghouls, and creeps.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27

  
 In  2010 and 2011 I posted some of the most Halloween-like houses from movies; those that require no decorating in order to get them ready for Halloween and make them the spookiest house on the block. This year I ventured a bit outside of standard horror fare for a couple of examples.

The Ghost Breakers (1940)

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Paperhouse (1988)

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

Dracula (1979)

The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

Lady In White (1988)

The Woman In Black (2012)

Babes In Toyland (1961)

Hold That Ghost (1941)

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Monster House (2006)

Psycho (1960)

The Great Race (1965)

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Tales of Terror (1962)

Frankenstein (1931)

The Captured Bird (2012)

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Beetlejuice (1988)

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Dracula (1931)

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 2

Even more maligned than Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween was his sequel Halloween II, which except for a brief visit to a hospital has nothing to do with Halloween 2 (1981) - at least in my memory. I haven't seen it since 1981 and have no plans to revisit.

Picking up, right where Halloween (2007) left off, this movie is more concerned with the psychological and physical effects that the events of the first movie had on it's survivors, with Michael Myers really taking a minor, but hugely impacting, role in this outing. The link between Myers (Tyler Mane) and Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is heightened through a series of visions that depict something of an unholy trinity with Myers' mother (Sheri Moon Zombie) young Michael (Chase Vanek) and adult Michael.

This movie is as brutal as the first, though the physical violence takes a back seat to the emotional. Zombie displays a lot of creative choices in the story as well as the filmmaking, and in a moment that is sure to have had die hard fans of the John Carpenter Halloween and its conceit that Michael Myers may very well have been THE bogeyman, a supernatural cypher, Zombie has Myers remove his mask during an important confrontation reminding us that for all his power and violence, he's still just a man. I thought this was a wise choice since Zombie's two Halloween movies are about the people caught up in this chain of violent events (like these people, or not, and except for Brad Dourif, it's hard to like most of them), especially Michael.

The movie does run a little long, again the characters aren't the nicest group of people ever put on screen together, and unfortunately Chase Vanek taking over for Daeg Faerch as young Michael Myers doesn't have his presence. Overall though, I liked it quite a bit.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie 1

Back in 2007 I watched Halloween (1978) as part of my Halloween countdown and compared it with the, then, new Rob Zombie remake. You can read that here, and may want to do so before continuing with this post, since it covers a lot of what I would have to say here now.

Today, I rewatched Halloween (2007) which is the much maligned Rob Zombie remake. My opinion has not changed significantly in the five years since I last saw it, except that I probably liked it a little more. It's not quite apples and oranges when it comes to comparing it to the original, but in many significant ways these are very different movies. I honestly have to say that much of the vehemence towards Zombie's remake is simply that it is a remake of a movie many consider to be sacred.

Unlike the clean, polite world that Carpenter's Halloween was set in, Zombie's version is dirty, ugly and populated by a lot of mean and damaged people struggling to get through day to day life where the creation of a monster like Michael Myers is inevitable. And here, he is a monster. To me, the 1978 Michael Myers was never particularly scary, or intimidating. He looked like an auto mechanic wearing a mask. He was clumsy, not too big, and didn't know how to hold a knife. I could have beaten him in a fight if it came down to it. The 2007 Michael Myers is brutal even as a ten year old boy, and far worse as a massive sized adult. Against him, nobody stands a chance, and he doesn't even grant mercy on the people who have treated him kindly. By understanding him as a kid he becomes sympathetic, even when he's fear inducing, and I think that sympathy carries through a bit even when he's an adult. This was once a regular kid whose environment finally caused his mind to snap into something that dished out the hurt that he was forced to feel every day. The violence is certainly mean and nasty, and some of these scenes seem to go on just a bit too long in order to make the pain and suffering on screen seem all the more real and upsetting.

The filmmaking itself is also sophisticated, and Zombie wisely plays with the audience by having Myers drop in and out of frame so that we're not really clear on just where he is, or how close. I maintain that this is a good movie, and is more sophisticated in its approach to the subject matter than the original.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Mask of the Day

Today's print, cut-out and wear mask is Hellboy.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26

Here's some more seasonally appropriate material from Read magazine. The following comes from the October 19, 1973 issue and the October 17, 1979 issue.