The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

Haunted house movies are probably one of the leading staples of horror stories and films outside of the masked killer.  How many times has someone written about the dark and dreary old house that everyone avoids?  Hundreds of times?  Thousands?  Heck, if we count all the variations (the deserted mansion, the abandoned hospital, the creaky old school, the ghost ship, the ghost train, the dark spaceship (yes Alien and Event Horizon are haunted house movies)) there might even be millions.  Haunted buildings are versatile because there are several accepted and established rules for what a possessed or haunted place can do to the people who are hapless enough to wander inside.  Perhaps too, that is why haunted houses are almost a constant in horror stories and films for children.  It is very easy to write a scary (but not life-threatening) situation that features kids who are menaced by the ghosts of a building.  Ghosts, beyond being able to knock thin...

Film versions of television shows and cartoons are hit and miss.  For ever The Fugitive there is a Starsky and Hutch and so on and so forth.  These adaptations are not easy to praise or slam either, for one person's trash is another person's treasure (I for one adore Bewitched though I realize it is much maligned...probably because people were paying attention to Will Farrell and not actually watching the movie).  However, there are some adaptations that manage to be largely well-liked in the overreaching community if not considered classics, and one of those is a spooky yarn that takes place during Halloween.  It also features one of the cartoon and comic book world's most beloved characters (with one of the most hummable theme songs) and some terrific genre vets doing what they do best.  Now lets head over to Whipstaff Manor and have a Halloween party with Casper . Carrigan Crittenden, a neurotic and spoiled heiress, has just inherited an old mansion from ...

As you've already seen this week, television specials make up a great deal of the Halloween programming for children and families out there...many of them from yesteryear.  The 1970s and 1980s were some of the most prolific decades for making these specials and also where some of the most memorable shorts and specials come from (not discounting anything from earlier decades of course).  Some of my absolute favorites were the specials that were shown on The Disney Channel in the 1980s, because these were the ones I grew up on watching every year...and two of these I want to discuss today.  The first is a live-action special that focuses on classic monsters and Halloween traditions to imagine a world where Halloween might not exist and the second is a clip-show by Disney that showcases some of their scariest moments in their animation while also offering up some new items as a treat.  So lets all become kids again and watch The Halloween That Almost Wasn't and A Disney...

Family films geared toward Halloween are often whimsical and heartfelt, featuring tales of coming to appreciate one's differences and also to accept the wonder and magic of Halloween.  However, they can also be a gateway drug.  Yes friends! (spoken like a minister) I am speakin' NAWT of cocane, NAWT of mary JAwana, NAWT even of the sweet sweet wine the Lawd asked us to remember him with....I am speakin' of FEAR!  Yes, an addiction to suspense and fear ladies and gentlemen!  Ok ok, enough of the playacting (though I did enjoy it)...but yes, many of these films geared toward children are simply Horror films diluted down and made more palatable for younger and more impressionable minds.  The writers and directors who make these films use the same suspense set ups and chase scenes that are popular in R rated scary movies, but they use no gore or death (usually) and typically surround said scenes with jokes and gags to lighten the mood.  It was something I never...

So I've already lamented on the fact that they simply don't put enough original Halloween programming on television anymore, particularly on series'.  But did you know that at one time studios used to commission short works to be shown only on Halloween?  Sure, everyone has heard of the "Charlie Brown" cartoons and the Rankin/Bass stop motion and animated shows for Christmas (cause Christmas is the only holiday that really gets any original programming produced anymore)...but they used to make cartoons for Halloween too.  Really, I'm not lying.  Today I want to talk about two of my favorite Halloween themed specials that aired back in the 70s and were still in rotation when I started watching television in the 1980s.  In fact, Halloween wasn't complete until I watched them (on the tape we recorded them on when they were aired...yes friends, we had a Halloween tape and two Christmas tapes full of TV specials we snagged from The Disney Channel).  The first d...

In the 1940s, when World War II called on everyone to ration and sacrifice, everyone including Hollywood felt the pinch.  Walt Disney, who had not seen financial success with a film since Snow White in 1937, was not exempt and found himself scaling back his filmmaking to accomidate rising costs and lack of resources (and also because the Army had commissioned the making of many propaganda films and Disney was already stretched thin with many of its animators fighting in the war).  The first film he released during this time of cutting costs was Saludos Amigos , a package film featuring a central theme and several short subjects that addressed it.  It was centered on Latin America and the life and culture there.  This was followed by several package films in quick succession (because they were easier and cheaper to make), those included: The Three Caballeros (another Latin American themed film), Make Mine Music (a musical anthology focusing on familiar son...

When I think of Ray Bradbury, I usually think of his more adult-centered work like Fahrenheit 451 and "A Sound of Thunder" .  But you'd be surprised how much young-adult work that Bradbury has done in the past, like his haunting but older-kid friendly Something Wicked This Way Comes and "The Magic White Suit" which is something of a fairy tale.  It just goes to show how versatile an author can be.  In 1972, Bradbury wrote a fantasy novel geared toward children and young adults that celebrated the best kid-holiday of the year and also endeavored to educate those young minds that would eventually devour the tale.  It was dark like most of Bradbury's work, but it was also touching and informative in a way that only the best young adult work can be.  In 1992 he would write and adapt a feature-length television movie of the novel for which he won an Emmy Award, and it is this film that I want to talk about today.  It isn't as well known as other cartoons ba...

I can remember a time when film studios and television networks really got into Halloween.  I mean, sure, we always get the obligatory horror film (or films) that are released in October but I can remember when studios used to make Halloween programing for all ages, not just teens and adults who can get into an R rated movie.  When I was little, 20-22 years ago, I remember how much there was that was Halloween related for kids.  The Disney Channel would play all of their more macabe offerings, like "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Child of Glass" while Nickelodeon would have Halloween themed episodes of their regular shows and "Nick or Treat" where you could win prizes by answering the phone at the right time.  It was a great time to be a kid and really amped me up for the excitement of Halloween night when I'd dress in a costume I'd spent all month getting together and trick or treat in our neighborhood (which was one of the best for trick or tr...

By 1982 the horror/sequel boom was in full swing with Friday the 13th and Halloween already having had successful returns to the box office and several more original films were cementing themselves on the public consciousness.  Paramount knew that Jason had been a success once, so naturally he could be again if he were somehow resurrected.  The un-killable monster angle had worked for Halloween so why couldn't Jason be similarly impervious to wounds that would kill a normal person?  But wait!  We don't want to simply do another rehash...that won't work at all, they must have thought.  So this film, rather than changing the formula (because why fix what isn't broken?) adds a gimmick.  When Part 3 opened, it opened in "bone-chilling 3D"...hence it's title Friday the 13th Part 3 3D . Would the gamble pay off?  Let's see shall we? When we last joined our heroes, Ginny Field had taken  Jason out with his mother's machete at the end of Part 2 and had...

If there's anything that is a constant now in the film world, it is this...if a film is financially successful and obviously a genre picture (action/horror/scifi/comedy) you can usually expect a sequel within a few years.  It's kinda like death and taxes...but it wasn't always that way.  Before the 1980s most successful films were stand-alone successes and sequels were usually only made for low-budget drive-in fare (such as the myriad of films in the Universal Monsters category).  Sequels just weren't considered viable.  However, all of that changed with the advent of the slasher film.  Suddenly, studios realized that they could repeat their financial success with a horror film by simply copying the basic formula of the first picture (Robert Shaye, producer of the Elm Street films and owner of New Line Cinema often equated it to the recipe for a good fast food cheeseburger...low substance and cost, but high customer satisfaction and turnaround).  This was p...

There are certain mediocre films that, due to public consciousness and popularity, can actually achieve classic status after their time.  Many of these are sci-fi or horror films that had one eye-catching original film and then a vast set of diminishing sequels, like the film I wish to discuss today.  In the late 1970s, Sean S. Cunningham, who had not achieved much success with his more family-oriented features, saw John Carpenter's Halloween and was amazed at how effective this low-budget chiller was (and also how financially successful it was).  He took this 'slasher' concept and decided to make his own version.  This was going to be a real scary movie, but also be shocking and graphic in a way that Halloween wasn't.  The script by Victor Miller then began as "The Long Night at Camp Blood" but Cunningham insisted in a title change that reflected Halloween ...and horror history was born.  So let's pack our bags and head to camp as we go through Friday th...

Hah!  Fooled you!  You thought I was gonna talk about Mel Brooks didn't you?  Ok, I'm not going to go on and on over my own cleverness (or lack thereof if you prefer) but I did feel the need to be a little silly today on account that I got terrible news yesterday.  A treasured colleague and friend from Theater West Virginia was taken from us before her time Sunday night and all of us who knew and loved her are still reeling.  I was pretty depressed when I found out, especially since I hadn't spoken to her in a long while and know I never will again, and so I tried to think of a way that I could honor her memory while also trying to keep myself from dropping into that unpleasent dark place known as despair.  I remembred that she was always smiling and always joyful, so I tried to find some films to watch that would make me feel the same way and it actually worked.  One of those is the one I intend to write about today.  I'd like to say first that I...

Sometimes, you need a certain kind of movie to perk up an otherwise dull evening.  Of course, its hard to tell what that movie will be until you choose it.  You might be in the mood for a scary film, or maybe you want something silly and stupid.  Perhaps you are interested in indulging in nostalga and watching something mediocre from your childhood, or perhaps you want something that will make you think.  Friday night, for some reason, I needed to see a chick flick...and not just any chick flick.  I needed one that was about getting even.  Before you ask, no I had not been spurrned by someone and no I wasn't acting out any aggression at anyone specific...it was just what I was in the mood for.  That's kind of the beauty of having a lot of fiction in the house, because I have a film for every mood.  But I digress...Friday night I needed a time waster that I'd seen a lot (because I was gonna be running back and forth from the kitchen and wouldn't mi...