Well, today is the day! Happy Halloween, y'all! It's also my wedding anniversary. We not only got married on Halloween, it was a Blue Moon too! Oh, and we were married in a castle. For real. :) Today, our marriage is fifteen years old, and our relationship is twenty-two. We don't have very exciting plans. (We rarely do.) We did the dinner and a movie thing this weekend, and it was lovely. Tonight, we're going down to Avenue F and see the wonderful decorations, watch spooky movies on Turner Classic Movies channel, and try (in vain) not to eat the candy that we never give away. Happy Anniversary, my love! Here's to the next fifteen years! May they be filled with even more love and humor. I love you! xxxooo!

Anyway, let's talk about this last batch of films, shall we?

Sadly, with the drop out mid-month, I missed talking about quite a few films. (My list is far longer than I thought.) I never even got to mention the old stand-bys like Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Last Man on Earth. Nor did I get to talk about The Fearless Vampire Killers and its connection to Charles Manson. I didn't even get to mention Edward Scissorhands, Hammer Horror films and so many others. But there's always next year, right? The first of today's movies is based upon another Stephen King story: The Mist.

Well, hey. Here we are, the day before Halloween. And now we'll talk about one of my favorite True Crime novels--In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. If you've never read the novel, you absolutely should. It's stunning and creepy and the first of its kind in the sense that it blends fact with fiction and focuses exclusively upon actual events while doing the impossible--delving into the minds of those who were present. (If you don't count Moby Dick, that is.) It centers around the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. I won't go into details. I'll leave it for you to explore. In any case, this is another set of films you should see back to back. The first is the movie, In Cold Blood (1967.)

Every time I think I'm not going to be able to keep this up, my memory burps up another ten movies. It's kind of funny. Anyway, today's list is the vampire edition--yes, in spite of the fact that vampires are so over done that they tend to bore me. :) I think largely I'm merely super picky. First up: Byzantium.

Today is the last day for serial killer movies. I have kind of watched a ridiculous number of them. (And I didn't give you my list of true crime novels either. Heh. Writers have unusual reading histories. It goes with the turf, really.) The first film I want to discuss today is called Perfume: the Story of a Murderer.

Welcome back, y'all. Hope you're having fun preparing for Halloween. I know I am. My wedding anniversary is on the 31st. I mainly did this due to a previous relationship with someone who didn't do holidays. I wanted an excuse to make a big deal out of Halloween every year. Once it was done, I started to regret that choice. It put us in the place of having to decide whether or not to celebrate Halloween *or* our anniversary. However, now I see it differently. It actually gives us an excuse to celebrate twice. I kind of love that now. :) Anyway, shall we continue with the serial killer films today?

First up today is From Hell.

Yesterday was werewolf day. Today, let's talk about a kind of related monster movie...serial killer films. I don't know about you, but they've always scared the crap out of me--generally because they tend to target women. There are a lot of films that I've enjoyed in this genre. Therefore, I'm going to spread this one out over a couple of days. So, off we go to the first part...

Let's talk about... Citizen X (1995.)

Sorry about yesterday, bats and ghouls. I had some trouble accessing my website, and thus, couldn't make an entry yesterday. But that problem is resolved now. (Yay!) I put my time away from the blog to good use, though. I voted early this year. I voted in the primary last year and polling site was beyond packed--which was a great problem to have. (Usually, I go to my polling place every year and find it empty, unless it's a presidential election. That's bad, because the important, life-affecting politics happens on the local level and rarely on the national level.) As it happens Fiesta Market has an area set up for early voting. So, I went there. It was crowded. (Wooohoooo!!) But I was in and out in under an hour. While I was there, I picked up some Dia de los Muertos sugar skulls for my Vincent Price altar. (Yes. I have a Vincent Price altar/ofrenda. If Chewy's restaurants can have an Elvis altar, I can damned well have a Vincent Price altar. :P) The photo is a bit dark because that corner of the house doesn't get much light.

And now...back we go to our regularly scheduled Horror film recommendations.

Today, let's talk about Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte des Loups.)

Happy Sunday, y'all. Well, here we are on the final eight days of October. Like when I read a totally enthralling novel...I'm not looking forward to the end but at the same time, I'm enjoying myself too much to slow down or stop. Best to savor it, really. Anyway, here we go...

I don't often watch films about witches largely because they are far too steeped in misogyny, bigotry, religious intolerance, and agism to filter out anything worthwhile from the story. Too often, they're so offensive that I can't even get through the opening credits without wanting to stab someone repeatedly with a spork. And well...that's never conducive to a good time. The only reasons I'm able to make the exception in these cases are because...well...at least 2/3rds of the films are actually fun in spite of themselves. 

First up: I Married a Witch. (1942)

Today, I'm going to start with an older classic, The Shining.

Happy Friday, y'all! Today, I'm going to break my rule about not talking about a movie I've already mentioned. However, one of the things that indicates to me that a piece of art is worthy is that when you re-visit it, it tells you something new. Yesterday, I re-watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the movie) after I wrote about it. Check out this exchange between Buffy and Pike:

Pike: I saved you a dance.
Buffy: Are you going to ask?
Pike: I suppose you want to lead?
Buffy: No.
Pike: Me neither.
Buffy: This is a good thing.

Now, combine that with the earlier exchange: 

Pike: Buffy, you're not like other girls.
Buffy: Yes, I am.

It occurred to me that that dialog exchange says a great deal more than it does on the surface. It illustrates a romantic relationship between equals. It highlights the thing that is most likely bothering conservatives who are against gay marriage and even...I'm willing to bet...Hillary Clinton--real equality between all genders. Those same old assumptions and questions crop up. If everyone is automatically equal, who'll be in charge? How will decisions be made, if no one person over-rides the other? Can we think about that a moment? Romantic relationships should be partnerships, not dictatorships. That was a revolutionary idea in 1992. It still is.[1] Anyway, I wanted to call attention to that.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Halloween movie recommendations...