Shocktober: Monster House

Monster House (2006)

Ah yes, once again we turn ourselves to the world of Robert Zemeckis-produced spooky projects. I don’t know how we ended up in this pocket of Hollywood filmmaking in the ’90s and ’00s, but I guess the guy had his finger in a lot of pies and a lot of those pies were filled with ectoplasm. Today’s entry, Monster House, doesn’t feel so far removed from one of Zemeckis’s directorial efforts, The Polar Express, which had just come out a few years prior and used some of the same animation techniques. Much like that film, its animation doesn’t entirely hold up (though for different reasons). Still, luckily, it does have a slightly more enjoyable hook and screenplay that make it enjoyable enough in 2025. Continue reading →

Shocktober: Ghost Ship

Ghost Ship (2002)

Ghost Ship opens with a shipload of people getting bisected and ends with a profoundly unsatisfying explosion/sinking sequence that shows that five years of technological advancements was not enough to bridge the gap between a $20 million movie and James Cameron’s ten times more expensive Titanic. And, you know, right now, where I’m at in my life, that’s enough. Steve Beck wasn’t trying to be the next James Cameron, he just a guy who liked naked lady ghosts.

Continue reading →

C.A.T: Ace Frehley

Ace Frehley – Ace Frehley (1978)

The Spaceman has left us. Like E.T., he came into our lives, enriched them, got drunk, and returned to his home planet. “Space Ace” was a character. Everyone in Kiss was a character, but the Spaceman always felt like the most irreverent, carefree, and fun member of the band.

Continue reading →

Shocktober: I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

Every time a new Oz Perkins movie comes out, I get excited, and every time, I leave feeling like I watched a missed opportunity. I loved the look and style and dark humor of Perkins’ King adaptation The Monkey, yet it left me cold. The same goes for Perkins’ sleeper hit Longlegs, a dark, beautiful film with whispers of Fincher’s Se7en, dripping with chilly PNW atmosphere but ending in a ho-hum conclusion. Perkins gets so close to making classics, yet perfection remains elusive. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is no exception.

Continue reading →

Shocktober: The Frighteners

The Frighteners (1996)

It didn’t dawn on me until sitting down to watch this movie that I’m not all that equipped to talk about the career of director Peter Jackson. Outside of The Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the first Hobbit movie), I haven’t seen any of his earlier films in the horror genre nor any of his attempts at more serious filmmaking (Heavenly Creatures, The Lovely Bones). Heck, I haven’t even seen his remake of King Kong, which seemed like a really big deal in 2005. However, I have seen a lot of the work of our good friend Robert Zemeckis, whose fingerprints are all over The Frighteners, to the point where it feels like the kind of madcap film he could have made in the Death Becomes Her vein if he hadn’t taken a turn toward slight respectability after helming Forrest Gump. Continue reading →

Shocktober: Thir13en Ghosts

Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

The 13 Ghosts remake, playfully titled Thir13en Ghosts, is a challenging movie to rate. It’s a tight 90-minutes of campy, extremely 2000s filmmaking. It’s also a horror movie that’s not scary at all, with an objectively dreadful script. So what should I do with that? I guess it’s really all in that title: a silly leetspeak rendering of a cult classic gimmick movie. At the time, I could understand critics ripping into 13 Ghosts. But now? Now it’s a nostalgic link to the days when I would have maybe rented something like this for a sleepover.

Continue reading →

Shocktober: Sweet Home

Sweet Home (1989)

I was playing Resident Evil Village the other night, being chased around a spooky mansion by a giant, busty vampire lady, when I started thinking about the Resident Evil franchise as a whole. Since 1996, there have been ten core games, twenty-something spin-offs, seven live-action films (with a new one due next year from Weapons director Zach Cregger), and a ravenous fanbase ready to devour it all. And to think, it all began life as a remake of Tokuro Fujiwara’s 1989 horror RPG Sweet Home.

Continue reading →