31 Days of Halloween: Silly Scares Night: A Self-Aware/Hilarious Twist on Horror Tropes

Tucker & Dale vs Evil - Eli Craig - 2010

 

★★★★★-Day 10 of the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge. Silly scares night. One of my favorite genres. This is an old favorite. Nearly an annual watch. Partner loves it as well. 

Gist is two well-meaning hillbillies, Tucker and Dale, are mistaken for killers by a group of college-aged dipshits. While the bumpkins are on vacation at their dilapidated cabin in the woods, a series of misunderstandings lead the students to believe they are being hunted by roughneck psychopaths. The bumpkins, meanwhile, think the kids are in some kind of suicide cult as attempts to “rescue” their friend Allison results in a series of gruesome accidents.

Alan Tudyk and ­­Tyler Labine star as Tucker and Dale respectively. Tudyk is always fun and his performance in this film is no exception. I mostly thinking of him from this role and as Steve the pirate in Dodgeball which I fucking love. 

Labine, for his part, has this comedic horror lane locked down. He had a solid run in the 2010s, starring in a couple of my favorite shows with Reaper and Deadbeat, but it appears he’s had some health issues in the last few years and taken a little bit of a step back. 

Hoping director Eli Craig gets to make many more movies in the future. As of this writing it just this and another comedy horror flick Little Evil. It’s no Tucker & Dale, but it’s not bad. Has a movie that is supposed to come out next year based on the YA slasher novel Clown in a Cornfield. I am so seeing that flick. 

The college kids all kind of blend together and just there to pad the body count save for the group’s alpha, Chad, and Allison, she’s the one Tucker and Dale “kidnap”, played Katrina Bowden. She is the incredibly hot receptionist in 30 Rock. I have a bit of a weird connection to her. A girl I dated briefly 20 years ago dated her ex-husband before we got together. He is the frontman for this emo band Armor for Sleep. She occasionally talked to him on the phone while we were dating just to make me jealous. I, however, didn’t give a shit. Our relationship was fucked.

Chad, love that the college douche is named Chad, is played by one Jesse Moss. He is the group’s self-appointed leader and the film's main antagonist. He seems like your average frat bro but becomes obviously more mentally deranged as his suppressed psychotic tendencies and prejudices towards hillbillies start coming out. Hadn’t seen him in anything else, but he is great in this. You can tell he is having a good time. 

The film is absolutely spectacular, subverting horror tropes and effectively blending comedy with gory. A fun twist on the typical horror genre, with plenty of laughs and unexpected turns. 

Inception - Christopher Nolan - 2010

★★★★★-Last movie from my Christopher Nolan rewatch before going into Oppenheimer. Saved my favorite, going in at least, for last. What a goddamned mindfuck of a movie. I LOVE Nolan. All of his films are spectacular. He is a true genius. One of only a handful currently making pictures. I believe this is his best movie. I watch it at a rate of every six years. Saw in the theater, in 2016, and just the other day. While I think I might understand it more, my brain can only take so much. That's what happens when we get dreams within dreams to the god knows what degree. 

The gist is Leonardo DiCaprio plays a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets. He's an international criminal who is offered the job of implanting an idea into the subconscious of a target (played by Cillian Murphy). In exchange, he'll have his record expunged. 

That's the short gist, of course. The film is extraordinarily complex with the thieves entering dreams, within dreams, within dreams. Like six levels of this. This flick is the ultimate mindfuck.

Written and directed by Nolan, who also produced the film with his wife Emma Thomas. Ensemble cast includes DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, and Michael Caine. What a crop.

Won four Oscars (Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects) and was nominated for four more (Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Original Score) at the 83rd Academy Awards. Lost out to The King's Speech, one of the many miscarriages of justice, that film winning. Was up against what I think is the second best film of this century in The Social Network.

Could have lived with this film winning as well. Can read it in about 10 different ways. What it means, how it ends, so forth. I find it incredible that this isn't at the top of everyone's list of best Nolan movies. However, I will grant that his top three are all unquestioned masterpieces, and all of his films are great. Off the success of one of those masterpieces, The Dark Knight, the emboldened Nolan went full Nolan.

High-concept, big budget, character-driven art house film that was the culmination of everything he'd learned up to that point. A master craftsman at the top of his game firing on all cylinders making a superb film that requires multiple viewings to appreciate. I loved it the first watch, my first IMAX viewing. I have loved it infinitely more with each viewing, and it's been a different watch every time. Challenging and rewarding. This is a top five film of this century. It is genuine movie magic. 

Interstellar - Christopher Nolan - 2014

★★★★★-More Nolan. Hard rain today so I'm knocking out three of his flicks. Feels a little weird watching this one right after submarine disaster. But at least these adventurers have a noble goal in mind. This is an intensely captivating, stunning, thought-provoking film. I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. 

Gist of the film. It's 2067. Future: dystopian. Humanity is going extinct from a global famine caused by ecocide. Like we are starting to face now, really. 

A team of astronauts embark on a space mission to find a habitable planet for humanity as Earth faces an impending implosion. They traverse through a wormhole near Saturn to jump across the universe where they encounter mind-bending phenomena and race against time to ensure the survival of humanity. Thats the short of it. It also explores themes of love, time dilation, and the exploration of the unknown. 

Something I've thought long and hard about is this: How does one navigate a wormhole? I'd think you just get what you get. Best case scenario. You go in. It doesn't kill you or drive you mad. You get crapped out wherever you get crapped out in the universe. That seems to be the way it works in this flick. 

Anyway, dude loves his daughter. Barely remembers he has a son pretty much, but the son is sort of an asshole. Doesn't really listen to her or care about his opinion though. Goes on an obvious suicide mission, ignoring all the red flags and what not. So, I use the laughing/crying gif a lot for my sad laugh. But this movie is a gut punch. 

Stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway (my queen), Bill Irwin, Ellen Burstyn (the mom from The Exorcist), Matt Damon, and Michael Caine. This was the first thing I ever saw Jessica Chastain and Timothée Chalamet in.

At the start of the movie, for a minute, at least, it sounds like the government is actually figuring shit out in this future. But “freedom” and what not. Lot of books are banned. Moon landing was faked. Food is scarce because of the “wastefulness” and greed of the people in the 20th century. 

“This world is a treasure and it has been telling us to leave for a while now. Mankind was born here, it wasn't meant to die here,” McConaughey's character says. I agree with the first part, biology has determined the second part was a lie. 

Anyway, lot of sacrifice. Go to a planet where every hour is seven years. End up spending 23 Earth years. It's Nolan, so you gotta expect a little bit of time fuckery. Grandpa's dead. Kids have grown up. Poor guy left on the ship also experienced the time jump. Poor fucker. Requires a lot of faith for the people left behind. Plan A is to turn it around on Earth. Plan B is to go elsewhere. Decades go by and they are waiting to see if we have a place to go. How we get there is a good question, but you know. 

Speaking of, we aren't leaving this planet. We might get to Mars, but no where livable. Have about as much chance of that as time travel. Shit ain't happening. Once we finally fuck this planet up enough, that's it. Doubt it happens in my lifetime, but we're already seeing the beginning of the end.

Great wrist watch flick. Features the Hamilton Khaki Pilot Day Date and the Khaki Field (Murph). Both are great watches. Hamilton might not be as great as it was 50 years ago (mostly uses the ETA 2824 if you know anything about watches and is now Swiss owned), it is still a solid brand. My next watch will probably be a Hamilton. Maybe one of these. 

For me, this is a better, more accessible version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I hated. Ambitious, exceptionally beautiful, insanely complex, this is fucking cinema at its best. How people go to this and don''t fall in love, I have no idea. This film moved me. Nolan, again, is a master filmmaker. 

Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan - 2017

★★★★★ - Christopher Nolan is an absolute genius. He is in my top five filmmakers of all time. I love all of his films. This might be his best.

Tells of the Dunkirk evacuation through the perspectives of the land, sea, and air. Chronology is all over the place before coming together at the end. Has what he calls a “snowballing effect” where everything connects but is made clear in the third act. This is something he does in most of his movies to great effect.

Stellar cast includes Aneurin Barnard, Kenneth Branagh, James D'Arcy, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Barry Keoghan, Jack Lowden, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles in his film debut, and Fionn Whitehead. Mostly character actors that you know, but not by name.

The film is the highest-grossing World War II film of all-time, which is nuts, earning $527 million worldwide. Dunkirk received praise for its screenplay, direction, musical score, sound effects and cinematography; some critics called it Nolan's best work, and one of the greatest war films. The film received various accolades, Received eight nominations for the 90th Academy Awards including for Best Picture and Best Director (Nolan's first directing nomination) and won three for editing.

What is crazy is Nolan conceived the film in the 1990s before ever making a feature film when he and his future wife Emma Thomas sailed across the English Channel along the path the small boats took in the evacuation. However, Nolan didn't set out to make it until he had acquired sufficient experience directing large-scale action films, wanting to do it right.

Features an economy of dialogue instead creating suspense from cinematography and music. Historically accurate, apparently, if you care about such things. However, the characters were fictional.

My overall takeaway was the film is truly breathtaking. Wish I would have seen it in IMAX. It might be my favorite WWII movie. I was glued to the screen the entire time.

Doctor Sleep - Mike Flanagan - 2019

★★★★★ - God, I love this movie. Liked the book a lot. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the movie. What an experience though. Jesus. Making this a sequel to both the book and the movie is just genius. Takes the best from The shining both in movie and book form. Flanagan makes peace with both groups, fans of the novel and fans of the movie, and completely knocks it out of the park. Grand fucking slam.

There were of course some things I liked in the book better, but overall, man, this movie. The last half hour when they are in the Overlook is just incredible. More on that later. I think it is as good as The Shining and Carrie. At worst, the very best Stephen King adaptation sense the early 80s. 

I love Wendy. Reminds me so much of my own mom especially in this movie. When I was growing up my mother was the spitting image of Shelley Duvall, much to her chagrin, but I always loved Shelley Duvall because of that. As an INFP, I relate to a lot of King’s protagonists. See a lot of myself in Danny Torrance for sure. At least when life was hard. 

The True Knot is insanely terrifying. Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) is an incredible villain. Type of chick I’ve always done well with and found super attractive. A hippie/gypsy type of gal. She’s trouble though. An evil Rachel (my female companion). A top King big bad. The actress that plays her gives a performance that is not to be forgotten. Hard to outshine Ewan McGregor. This whole cast is crazy good but she is on another level.

Good old fashion high octane Stephen King horror. The shit with the little kid Brad is fucked. It is hard to watch that as anything on Dahmer. I feel most kids are terrible actors but that one was really moving. And as he is dying and Danny’s chalkboard cracks and he says “REDRUM” in the mirror. Incredible filmmaking. The main girl is GREAT too. 

Random note: When I go, I want a sweet, beautiful cat to comfort me and lead me to the other side. 

Minimizing Crow Daddy was a good call. Just seeing his name made me grown in the book. 

The scene where she tries to ambush Abra is incredible. Especially when Rose gets trapped and then is thrown back into her body.

The last half hour of the movie is unreal. It’s what separates the book from the movie and what makes the movie just an incredible watch. Going back to the overlook is more than I could’ve ever hoped for from a movie pretty much. All builds to this reunion. Once they hit that gas station that Dick Halloran was at it is fucking on. You see it, recognize it, then the music kicks on, and we get the drone footage except at night. Incredible. It does not disappoint. Some hottest take territory stuff, but I might like it more than The Shining.

It Comes At Night is the greatest movie of all time

It Comes At Night. "You can't trust anyone but family." Well, that was about the bleakest fucking movie I've ever seen. Did not like watching during a pandemic. Basically, everything that happens in the movie is for nothing. Humans are the worst. Can't trust each other especially when it comes down to survival between families. Even the fucking dog dies. A solid movie, great even, but holy fuck, man. Never watching this shit again. 

Rotten Tomato Consensus: It Comes at Night makes lethally effective use of its bare-bones trappings while proving once again that what's left unseen can be just as horrifying as anything on the screen. Read critic reviews  

Written and directed by one Trey Edward Shults, who must be disturbed as shit. My man has some fucking talent. Barebones, effective as shit storytelling. The film is about a family (mom, dad, adultish son) hiding in a forest after society has collapsed following the outbreak of a highly contagious, deadly disease. Things are pretty shitty but they are surviving when a dude suddenly tries to break in. Turns out he has a wife and little one. He desperate as shit while the other one is just trying to keep his family safe. 

Only two people I recognize, neither by name. They are Riley Keough (Elvis's granddaughter who was in Mad Max: Fury Road) and this Joel Edgerton (mostly think of him as Hugo from Smokin' Aces). Only other people that are in it enough to have lines are Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo (she was in True Detective: Season 3), and Kelvin Harrison Jr. The fams are Edgerton, Ejogo, and Harrison, then the others are a clan. 

I think what I really don't like about the way this movie made me feel, without giving too much away, I 100% would have done exactly what either of the dads does, especially Edgerton. But no one was right, nor wrong. Just fucked.  

While the movie has a high critical rating, audiences hated it. Probably because it was such a bummer, no doubt. I mean, we are watching people living in a world filled with fear, sickness, fear of sickness, pain, distrust, and desperation. Sort of like IRL but also with way more death and isolation. It's fucking terrifying and prophetic--the film came out in 2017, before the shit. 

Hard to pick an MVP, the performances and film are so great. Leaning toward the director, Shults, or Harrison. I'm gonna default to the director though since this was a nearly perfect unwatchable movie. Check it out, sure, but it is not a pleasant watch for a movie with no gore and no truly evil characters. 

Blade Runner 2049 is the greatest movie of all time

Blade Runner: 2049. You newer models are happy scraping the shit... because you've never seen a miracle. Fuck, man. One of my favorite movies of the decade. Sequel to a top 10 of mine from all time. Totally does that film justice and stands on its own. I fucking loved it. 

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Visually stunning and narratively satisfying, Blade Runner 2049 deepens and expands its predecessor's story while standing as an impressive filmmaking achievement in its own right.

Basic gist is that K, a police officer/blade runner/replicant, discovers some crazy shit when putting down a rogue replicant working on a protein farm. Buried on the farm is Rachel, Sean Young's character in the original, who it is discovered had a child, which should be impossible for a replicant. Thinks would give the replicants hope or something. They would realize they have souls and rise up and smash their oppressors. Fuck to the ye... So, K finds a little bit of evidence, goes to a place where a false memory of his actually happened (whoa), thinks, “hey, I'm that kid.” Spoiler, he is not. But it leads him to the real chosen person... Harrison Ford. Rick 'fuckin' Deckard. Who unlike Hans Solo doesn't yuck it up.

A lot to unpack here. First, the cinematography is incredible. Won Roger Deakins--his previous work includes most Ethan and Joel Coen bros movies, Kundun, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Shawshank Redemption, and a bunch of other stunners--an Academy Award. You need two watches for this movie just to take it all in. It's sick. In addition to Ryan Gosling and Ford, the movie stars Ana de Armas, Dave Bautista, beauty Mackenzie Davis (lots of pretty ladies in this), Sylvia Hoeks who plays Luv, Carla Juri, and lovely Robin Wright. Was a little nervous going in about Leto but this flick has a tolerable amount of Jared Leto though he says a bunch of nonsense and does weird shit... as he does.

You need two or more watches because there are things that change depending on your mood or what sticks out to you on that watching. For example, like the original Blade Runner, it is unclear whether Deckard is a replicant or not. It doesn't matter, this film says. Still human. Not the most original message, you know, but still one that we need to be reminded of in 2019, don't ya know. By the by, the first watch I was sure that he was a replicant. Thought they even said as much. The second, yeah, not so sure and what I heard was much more ambiguous. 

Then there is Joi, played by the lovely Ana de Armas (Knives Out) who comes up just short of winning the movie. Joi is the holographic girlfriend of K, whom she has dubbed "Joe", designed and sold by the Wallace Corporation, the bad guy in the film. On one hand, she is something like we think of TV wives from the 1950s. She brings him food, lights his cigarettes, makes him drinks, and listens to his retelling of the day while not sharing any of hers. On the other, there is definitely some connection and meaning there, though she may be programmed to make it seem like there is.  She seemed special. So did Joe, for a while, when he thought he was Deckard and Rachel's love child. So did their relationship. But she was wrong about him, he was not in fact the kid of replicants, and he was probably wrong about her and their relationship as well. She is the only "person" who doesn't think he is a piece of shit in one way or another. First viewing I thought that relationship could be meaningful. She seems as real as the replicants, at least. Feel it when she dies and says she loves him. Second time, she is just there to be what he wants. Programmed as such. After she dies, Joe/K walks by a Joi advertisement saying "Everything you want to see. Everything you want to hear." He realizes as much... Or maybe not. Suspect I might feel differently the next time I watch it. Next time it may seem that he is sad for the loss. Even though he has the opportunity to try again with another Joi, she won't be the same. Deep shit. That's what is so great about this movie.

Winning the movie, in my opinion was Ryan Gosling. Lot of depth with this character and his performance is moving. Joe, like Joi, is programmed a certain way. Can't really overcome that, or can he? Once he figures out that he is not Deckard's child, he still makes the decision to help Deckard find her. His experience gives him the tools to make that decision based on his emotions, rather than programming. It is quite powerful. I have a coworker who didn't want to watch the film because he didn't want to see Gosling "crying in the rain." He had also never seen the original. I told him there was an iconic scene in that film known as "crying in the rain," but he wasn't phased, saying Gosling does that in every movie. No, there is no Gosling crying in the rain. But the part and the film was more powerful than such a cliche. Great shit.