The October Challenge #2

Well folks, the the pain and suffering continues as October rolls along; so far I'm still alive! I've decided this week to break these challenge posts up because otherwise, you're going to have a HELL of a lot of reading to do on Friday! The truth is, I'm an addict. I make up this big song and dance about an October Challenge, but it's not that far from real life! So for today we have the next six entries into the challenge books! Cabin 12 has taken on the challenge, who else is brave enough to take part!

Reader beware: below be scares! (And crap!)

28 Days Later

If there's one thing I love, it's post-apocalypse settings. Death, carnage, despair, I eat it up! (No pun intended!) Now, many people will argue back and for on whether or not "28 Days" is a zombie flick or not. My official ruling is 'hell no'. That still doesn't take away from the atmosphere created in this flick! It boils down to your basic zombie fight in structure but there are technicalities that make it differ from the standard trope. Regardless, Cillian Murphy made great work of his debut and the view of life escaping from a deadly city was quite enjoyable.

Serial Mom

This oft over looked John Waters flicks really cracks me up. It had been quite awhile since I saw this last so some of it was surprising to me again. Such as Matthew Lillard in the cast as well as Ricki Lake. (Ricki Lake in a Waters flick really shouldn't surprise me.) There is so much to laugh at this film. Watching Kathleen Turner scream obscenities into the phone such as 'PUSSY FACE!' cracks me up every time! It's nice and campy as well. It's a pretty big departure from most of Waters films but it deserves attention. Where else are you going to get to see Kathleen Turner beat a woman to death with a leg of lamb?

976-Evil 2

Saturday was a lazy one, so I was able to gorge myself a bit on movies, so chalk up two for the challenge! In this sequel to the Robert Englund directed original, Jim Wynorski takes over the reigns. You may know Jim from such classics "Munchie" or the "Bare Wench Project"; he's a b-movie champion unlike any other! The man's put out so much b-movie fare it's scary. Unfortunately, "976-Evil 2" isn't going to the be the movie he's remember for. Spike returns to fight the evil telemarketer once again, the only actor gullible enough to come back for a second take. This one was a snoozer and hard to get through. It definitely lacked anything that made the original watchable.

And just to through in there, the lead actress Debbie James did happen to bring music to mind every time I saw her on screen: "Oh, my, god. Becky, look at her butt.
It is so big. She looks like, one of those rap guys' girlfriends."

Witchboard

Here's one I bet a lot of people forgot about! In theory, it seems pretty logical for a horror flick; A ouija board brings evil spirits to our world to mess with scantily clad women. Pretty easy to get on board with, right? Unfortunately it's not quite as effective in practice. Tawny Kitaen was a babe, sure, but she always worked much better on the cover of David Coverdale's car. The story's easy enough to follow but the crappy acting makes it a chore. Still, listening to the upper class twit go on about how he's into 'ouija and seances' is pretty funny. I have to admit though, my attention strayed alot through out the viewing. For instance, my most astute observation? "Wow, Tawny Kitaen has man hands."

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield

There's a fundamental problem with Kane Hodder playing Ed Gein; the real life accounts of Ed Gein were that he was a pretty quiet and simple man, not frightening or imposing at a simple glance. Kane Hodder pretty much throws that idea out the window. He's a big fucker and scary to boot. Aside from that, it was cool to see him tackle a different type of roll. He did fairly well for what he had to work with. The movie on the other hand was fairly uneventful. There's a handful of gore shots thrown in here and some decent tension, they just don't do much to make things exciting. Ultimately, a pretty boring flick. This movie also has the most bizarre music queues I think I've seen; there are all sorts of dramatic swells that would normal signal something bad coming. The problem is the music swells so many times in this movie only to lead to nothing. So confusing.

Feast II: Sloppy Seconds

I was a pretty big fan of "Feast" so I was pretty excited to hear I would be getting a review copy of "Sloppy Seconds". I wasn't entirely dissapointed but in some ways it's a pretty different beast than the first. This time around the primary focus is to be as gory as humanly possible and in that, they succeeded. There are so many bodily fluids thrown about in this flick, it's downright disgusting! (And pretty fun at that.) The problem is that there isn't much of a story to back it up. Much like the action in "Transformers", too much of a good thing becomes rather boring after a bit. With "Feast 2" you get into the territory that it is obvious that the film makers have a love and respect for the genre, they just concentrated on the splatter and too little of the story. They try for the first ten to twenty minutes or so at least. This movie just screams "I want to be Grindhouse!"

So there you have it folks, another five days of the October Challenge! Check back this weekend for entry #3 as me and my trusty DVD player continue to plug away until Halloween. Most of these selections are chosen on a whim based on what I'm feeling up to at any given moment. There's probably a psychological profile just waiting to be written in there somewhere!

Be sure to chime in with movie suggestions or your own challenge entries!