A Lighter Twist on Halloween Traditions

As Halloween approaches, the anticipation of our annual horror movie marathon grows. However, this year, I find myself pondering a different approach, one that acknowledges the harsh reality we face outside the world of movies and scares.
It's no secret that the world has become a rather unsettling place lately. For that reason, this year, I propose we simplify and tweak our tradition to lighten the mood a bit.
Instead of delving too deeply into darkness and terror, let's have a little laugh here and then, in a “scary” context. This doesn't mean we abandon our love for horror movies altogether, but rather, we can infuse an extra dose of light-heartedness into our movie choices.
So, if you’re like me this year and want to watch horror movies but at the same time, you also want to have a good laugh, here’s a little list of suggestions.

If, however, you want a good scare, here’s a list I made a few years back, that I still find relevant today.

• The Cornetto trilogy : I’ve discussed these films extensively before (you can read about it here), but they are a must. Especially Shaun of the dead, which, in my opinion, is the better of the 3 movies.

• The cabin in the woods : a group of friends spend their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest, but the cabin actually turns out to be an underground laboratory.

• Zombieland : 4 strangers travel across the US, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

• The final girls : a group of friends attend the screening of a cult B-horror movie and somehow become trapped in it.

• Extra ordinary : a shy driving instructor reluctantly uses her supernatural talents to help a widow save his daughter’s soul from a has-been rock star who practices black magic to regain fame.

• The babysitter : a young boy spies on his babysitter one night to see what she does in his house once he’s fallen asleep, only to realize that she’s part of a satanic cult. There is a sequel, and although it has some good moments, it really is nowhere as good as the first one.

• Attack the block : a group of teens protect their South London block from an alien invasion. By far some of the coolest looking aliens I’ve seen in a while!

• Vampires vs the Bronx : a group of kids must fight to save their neighborhood from gentrification and vampires.

• They cloned Tyrone : an unlikely trio investigates a series of weird events in their neighborhood and stumble on a sinister conspiracy.

• Ghosbusters - Afterlife : finally a sequel to the original movie we all deserve.
  

The Classics

Need I say more? You have a great night just there, with the original Ghostbusters (the second movie was average at best and let’s not even talk about Paul Feig’s all female remake. For the record, the movie was bad period. Not because it was all female, which I thought was a gimmick, but because there was no story and despite the talented cast, it was very poorly acted), Beetlejuice and Clue. Clue might be a lesser known movie but it is worth a watch! It’s a great who-donnit murder mystery set in a creepy mansion.

TV horror comedies

• Truth seekers : A group of part-time paranormal investigators investigate a series of supernatural events. Starring Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Malcolm McDowell among others, this series was kind of fun to watch. It definitely deserved a second season but was cancelled instead.

• Community : not all the seasons, of course, but this series made some of the most iconic Halloween episodes ever! Check out these episode :

  • Season 1, Episode 7, "Introduction To Statistics"

  • Season 2, Episode 6, "Epidemiology" (my personal favorite)

  • Season 3, Episode 5, "Horror Fiction In Seven Spooky Steps"

  • Season 4, Episode 2, “Paranormal Parentage”

• What we do in the shadows : this TV adaptation of the movie by the same title surpasses by a lot its source material. One of the major reason is the addition of energy vampire Colin Robinson. The series (and the movie) revolves around a group of vampires who live together in a house in Staten Island.

There are a lot of other titles, of course, but these are the ones I really enjoyed, liked and recommand. Hope you have a great Halloween!

Underrated sci-fi movies everyone should watch

I want to talk about science-fiction movies today. There are some incredible and epic sci-fi movies, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner, The Matrix, and so much more, that will be remembered for generations, but I feel like there’s a whole lot of amazing science-fiction films out there that are not taken into consideration because they don’t have mind-blowing special effects or because they were not huge blockbusters. These little gems flew under most people’s radar and that’s a great shame. Five of such movies will be discussed bellow. Smart, innovative, prophetic sometimes, they deserve to be watched.

Primer

Released in 2004, this low-budget movie is probably one of the smartest, most complex, mind-boggling time-travel films that have been made. Intended to be seen, then seen again to be thoroughly understood, Primer is about 2 friends, both engineers, who have managed to create a machine that can freeze objects from the effects of gravity. They soon realize that the objects were frozen from the effects of time as well. Using this construct, they built themselves time travel machines to get richer with stock exchanges. Of course, things get freaky when unexpected interference messes up their timelines. This brilliant film was shot over a span of 5 weeks, with a budget of 7 000$, and a crew of 5 people. Shane Carruth, who plays one of the main characters, is the film’s writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor and music composer. Primer went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance film festival. Despite that, most people have never heard of it.

Ex-Machina

This beautifully made film about artificial intelligence by Alex Garland is both fascinating and frightening. A programmer wins a contest for a one-week visit to the isolated home of his billionaire boss and creator of the world’s most powerful search engine. As it turns out, this stay is to test his boss’ new project, humanoids equipped with artificial intelligence. The young programmer is to spend time with Ava to determine whether she is genuinely capable of thought and consciousness despite knowing she is artificial. As the days go by, he grows more uncomfortable at the isolated location, not knowing his strange boss’ intentions and who to trust or what to believe.

Safety not guaranteed

A journalist and his 2 interns investigate a weird classified ad that reads: “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before”. The person behind the ad is Kenneth Calloway, a paranoid man who wants to go back to the year 2001 to prevent his then girlfriend from being killed. Darius, one of the journalist’s interns, gains his trust and becomes a candidate to follow him in his mission. Though not perfect, this 2012 sci-fi romantic comedy is funny, quirky, original, endearing and films like that are not made anymore.

Colossal

This film starring Anne Hathaway and Andy Sudeikis was not what I expected it to be, and it was awesome. Gloria, an unemployed young writer returns to her hometown after her fed up boyfriend breaks up with her and kicks her out of his apartment. Upon her return, she reconnects with her childhood friend Oscar who now owns a bar. After a while, she discovers that she is inexplicably linked to a giant monster who is wreaking havoc halfway across the world. The film makes us believe it will go towards some romantic comedy clichés before leading us in a whole other path. The ending is a bit disappointing but the film as a whole is refreshingly different and very entertaining.

Idiocracy

Far from being a perfect movie, Idiocracy should be seen as a brilliant sketch scifi comedy rather than a film as a whole. Though tanked by its own studio, the film, thanks to DVD viewership, became a cult classic. I want to mention it here because still a lot of people haven’t heard of it yet and it is a great shame. Funny then and prophetic now, Idiocracy is a time travel comedy about an average man who participated in a secret government experiment on hibernation and accidentally wakes up 500 years in the future. Society in the dystopian universe he wakes up in has degraded to a point where he, a man of average, if not below-average intelligence in the 2oth century, became the smartest man in the world. Hyper-commercialism, illiteracy, anti-intellectualism and just plain apathy has become the norm, and as a result, the world is falling apart. Idiocracy contains some brilliant flashes of comedic genius, and its actors are plain and simply incredible. Terry Crews as the president of the United States is hilarious. Though a laugh-out-loud comedy then, the movie has foreseen so many things back then that, sadly, it’s practically become a documentary. This is one of my favorite comedies of all time, despite all its flaws. A must for everyone. I included one of my favorite scenes from the movie, below.

If you haven’t seen any of the 5 mentioned above, please do and you will not be disappointed!

Horror films for a great Halloween movie night

Updated on October 30, 2021.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Not because I enjoy dressing up in costumes (I don’t), trick or treating (my parents never cared for it so we never participated in such activity) or putting up “scary” decorations around the house (such a hassle!). No. I like Halloween because I get to purchase then eat huge bags of mini candy bars and horror movies play non stop on TV. I love, love, love horror movies! There is nothing better than the thrill of getting scared. So, every October, we binge watch a whole lot of scary movies ranging from the all-time classics to the B-level types, to the laughably ridiculous. That’s the great thing about these films, even the poorly made ones are good!

If you’re planning a Halloween movie night, you could, of course, go for a marathon of the Halloween, Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. That’s always a winner. Personally, I feel like I’ve seen them too often now and grew a bit tired of them. I’m giving myself a break from them for a couple of years. If you feel the same way and are looking for something else to watch on Halloween night, here’s a small list of recommendations.

Horror comedies

Let’s start light. Horror movies can scare you as well as make you laugh! Who ever said it should one or the other? There’s a whole bunch of great horror comedies out there. Click on the link to see a clip:

• Bettlejuice : a classic!

• What we do in the shadows : a film crew follows four vampire roommates who share a house in New Zealand and documents their daily life and struggles.

• The cabin in the woods : a group of friends spend their weekend at a seemingly deserted cabin in the forest, but the cabin actually turns out to be an underground laboratory.

• Zombieland : 4 strangers travel across the US, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

• The final girls : a group of friends attend the screening of a cult B-horror movie and somehow become trapped in it.

• Happy death day : a college student relives her birthday (and her murder) again and again until she figures out who’s trying to kill her.

• Extra ordinary : a shy driving instructor reluctantly uses her supernatural talents to help a widow save his daughter’s soul from a has-been rock star who practices black magic to regain fame.

• The babysitter : a young boy spies on his babysitter one night to see what she does in his house once he’s fallen asleep, only to realize that she’s part of a satanic sect.

• Save yourselves! : a couple decides to go on a technology-free retreat only to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no survival skills, in the midst of an invasion by a strange pouf-like alien species.

But my personal favorite will always be Shaun of the Dead! I’ve written a post about the Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the dead being the first installment) some time last year, so you can read about the film here.

Found footage

This is probably the category I like the least (along with slashers), because the moving camera makes me dizzy and nauseous all the time! That being said, I included it anyways because some films are worthwhile:

• Rec (the original Spanish version) : The military decided to seal off an apartment building after an elderly woman, afflicted with a strange disease, attacked and bit the neck of a policemen. Residents, firemen and a camera crew following the firemen, are all stuck inside.

• Unfriended : this is not technically a found footage horror but it’s more like an adaptation of one. Live screen shots are used as a group of friends skype while being taunted online by what appears the ghost of a friend who committed suicide after a humiliating video goes viral.

• The Visit : a brother and sister spend a week with their maternal grandparents, whom they’ve never met before, while their mother is on vacation with her boyfriend. This is another adaptation of the found footage genre, where the sister films everything as part of a documentary she wants to make. The grandparents are beyond creepy.

These films are fine and have their moments, but none of them are as effective and memorable as Paranormal Activity (the first film). I am not easily scared by horror movies but this one stuck with me. This film understands that you do not have to show the monster for an effective scare, quite the contrary! Leave everything to the viewer’s imagination! The Blair Witch Project is not in my list. Despite the fact that it started the whole found footage movement, I never liked that film.

B-Horror movies

Now these movies are the most fun to watch because most of them (but not all of them!) are so bad they’re good. Bad acting, illogical plot, pointless nudity, cheap special effects… what’s not to like?

• Chopping mall : a group of friends spend the night partying in the shopping mall where they work. Unfortunately for them, the mall’s new high-tech security system is turning on them. Shopping, chopping… get it?

• They live : the ruling class is actually made of aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and live in subservience with subliminal messages in mass media. The only way to see things as they really are is by looking through special sunglasses.

• Patrick (1978 Australian version) : Patrick, a murderer in a comatose state, terrorizes a hospital staff with his telekinesis abilities. The guy’s pretty creepy.

• The Stuff : a former FBI agent is hired to investigate a highly popular but mysterious yogurt-like and addictive product called The Stuff. He soon discovers that the substance is actually a living, parasitic, and possibly sentient organism that gradually takes over the brain. The film started out great but kind off fell through at the end. Nonetheless, a very entertaining film!

• Zero boys : this film makes no sense what so ever! But at the same time, it’s one of the most entertaining movie I’ve seen in a while! It’s basically about a group of paintball champions who make a trip into the forest with their girlfriends. They heard a woman scream and followed the noise to an empty cabin where a killer (or killers) is waiting for them.

All the above mentioned films are extremely entertaining and guarantee a great night. But my personal favorite is The Re-Animator. Cannot get more B-Horror than this! It has everything: a brilliant mad scientist, fluorescent green liquids, zombie killers, over acting, gore, and of course, nudity!

The classics

These are the timeless masterpieces that are, for the most of them, considered among the best movies ever, all genres considered, not just horror. You can see the movie’s trailer by clicking on the link but I didn’t feel that summaries are needed here, as they are quintessential works of art that are probably already known by everyone.

• The Shining

• Psycho

• Poltergeist

• Suspiria (original version)

• The Thing

The one classic that has a special place for me is The exorcist. It’s by far one of my favorite movies of all time and it triggered my lifelong fascination with possessions and the paranormal.

More scary movies

So I tried to bundle my movie recommendations by genres but some movies don’t exactly fit just one category and then I got tired of trying to figure out how to organize them. So here are a few more horror films that are worth a watch. Though they all do have flaws, they also provide some very efficient scares.

• Insidious : a couple originally thought their house was haunted until they realize that it’s their son. The movie has some seriously scary scenes but it kind of fell flat towards the end. The sequels are really not worth a watch.

• The Ring : a journalist investigates a cursed videotape that seemingly kills the viewer seven days after watching it. The movie did not exactly age well but I still remember the first time I saw it at the movies. It seriously creeped me out!

• The Exorcism of Emily Rose : a young woman died in her parents’ home after a failed exorcism. The priest who performed the exorcism was arrested and the film is about his trial. We see two very different interpretations of the same event : was Emily Rose really possessed by demons or was she an epileptic who was the victim of an extreme case of negligent homicide?

• Jacob’s ladder : I only saw Jacob’s ladder once, several years ago, when I was still little, but the film has a long lasting effect on me. For a long time, it gave me nightmares. The film is about a Vietnam veteran who’s afflicted with strange and nightmarish visions and hallucinations.

• The 6th Sense : a child psychologist tries to help a young boy who sees dead people. The film was great but the down side is that once we know the twist at the end, it’s hard to watch it again.

• The lodge : after their mother’s suicide, two children have to spend the holidays with their soon-to-be step-mother, in the family’s remote cabin.

• The Invisible Man : a remake of the classic where a woman is convinced that the abusive tech tycoon boyfriend she ran away from is stalking her, even though everybody thinks he died of suicide.

• Fear street : This trilogy is not perfect but it was still a thrill to watch. The story goes back and forth in time to tell the story of a witch’s curse on a small town and its inhabitants.

Finally, my favorite recent horror film has to be It Follows. It is a slow paced, creepy and original movie about a young woman who is pursued by a mysterious supernatural entity that was passed on to her after a sexual encounter. This is the sort of psychological thrillers we don’t get much of nowadays.

TV shows

While we’re at it, why not add a few TV shows worth your while?

• The Haunting of Hill House : The story takes place in two timelines, depicting the characters’ childhood in Hill House and then the effects their experiences in that house had on their adult selves. The ending was pretty terrible but the first episodes had some terrific moments and awesome effects that make the series watch-worthy.

• Castle Rock : The story takes place in Castle Rock, Maine, and borrows multiple characters, storylines, and concepts from the vast works of Stephen King.

• Stranger Things : With the much anticipated 4th season coming up in 2022, Stranger Things was an instant classic. They almost lost me with a very weak second season, but the follow-up was very strong and exiting to watch. Can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

• What we do in the shadows : there’s nothing scary here but this sitcom about a bunch of vampires living together is probably one of the best comedies I’ve seen in the past few years. This is the TV adaptation of the movie by the same title, mentioned above, in the comedy horror section.

• Evil : this show is not very good but it’s a guilty pleasure of mine!

• And of course, let’s not forget some of the classics : The X-Files, The Twilight Zone, Unsolved Mysteries.

Well, I think that’s it! You must have noticed that a whole lot of films were left out. I purposely did not mention slashers and gore movies because they really are not my cup of tea. Torture porn is not what I consider good horror.

Having said that, hope you'll have a terrifying yet entertaining Halloween night!

Top 5 best alien invasion movies

Alien invasion movies, along with ghost stories, are my guilty pleasures. I love them because they are highly entertaining but also because a part of me really wants to believe in their existence. When we think about alien invasion movies, the first titles that come to mind usually are Independence Day or Men in Black, both great and enjoyable blockbusters, but there are other movies, better ones, out there for us to enjoy.

I’ve decided to compile a list of my top 5 favorite alien invasion movies for you guys to enjoy this summer.

Edge of Tomorrow

Not only did Edge of Tomorrow manage to pull off the “Groundhog day” gimmick but it is also a complex and highly entertaining movie. Starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, the film takes place somewhere in the future, where an alien race has invaded a good part of Europe, and the weary humans are quickly losing the battle against these seemingly undefeatable extraterrestrials. A PR officer is forced into battle and despite having been killed in combat, he wakes up to find himself reliving the events of the previous morning, leading up to his death. Stuck in a time loop, he must find a way to improve his fighting skills and kill the invading aliens.

Signs

Say what you will about M. Night Shyamalan, but the man knows how to build up a suspense. Signs is the second movie he released after The Sixth Sense, probably his last hit before a long drought, and although The Sixth Sense is his most popular film, I tend to prefer Signs because the whole story almost entirely takes place inside the house or on the property, which is quite a feat. The tension and the build up, intertwined with brief moments of humor, as well as the family dynamic brilliantly portrayed by Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, make this film pretty complete. The story is pretty simple: a widow wakes up one morning to realize that crop circles appeared on his corn field over night. Believing it to be a prank by the neighbors’ kids, he quickly brushed the anomaly aside. It did not take long, though, for him to face the hard truth that there are other-worldly visitors on Earth, and that he, his brother and his children, might be at risk.

District 9

District 9 is a masterful metaphor for the segregation, xenophobia and apartheid taking place in South Africa. Presented in a found footage format, the film is about the tension between the people of Johannesburg and the millions of stranded aliens whose ship broke down in this area of the Earth. The aliens, derogatively called Prawns by the locals, were placed in a camp called District 9 but, over the years, the zone becomes a slum and the people of Johannesburg are increasingly less tolerant of this alien species they consider pests. For that reason, the government decided to relocate the Prawns to a new camp, further outside of the city. Wikus, the main character, works for the company hired for the task, and, after an altercation resulting in an injury in one of the alien’s shack, he slowly starts to mutate into a Prawn. Taking refuge in District 9, he finally understands what it’s like to be segregated, mistreated, disrespected.

The World’s End

The World’s End is the third and final installment of the Cornetto trilogy, and also the weirdest film of the three. Unlike the previous movies I mentioned, this one if a full blown comedy, directed by Edgar Wright, written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, and starring, among others, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman and Rosamund Pike. A lonely, depressive and suicidal man convinces his four estranged childhood friends to return to their home village to complete “the golden mile”, a beer binge throughout 12 pubs, ending with The World’s End. Upon their return, they realize that all the villagers had been replaced by blue-blooded robot-like creatures. The film may not be as good as Shaun of the Dead but it does guaranty a good time.

Attack the Block

Now this is my new favorite alien invasion movie! I kept the best for last with Attack the Block. Starring, among others, John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker in their debut film, the story is basically about a group of teenagers protecting their South London neighborhood from a brutal alien invasion. It may not sound like much but the dialogues are witty and harsh, the alien monsters are impressively made and the whole film is everything it should be: entertaining, enthralling and exciting.

The Classics

The five movies mentioned above can be considered my top 5 favorite “new” alien invasion movies, but there are, of course, the classics, the ones that never go out of styles, the ones we can always go back to.

• The Thing

• Invasion of the body snatchers (1978)

• Alien (though not technically an alien invasion movie since it takes place in space…)

• They live (just for the incredible one-liner!)

The runner-ups

There are a few movies I did enjoy but not exactly made the cut, either because of the terrible ending or plot holes or whatnot. They nonetheless deserve a mention here:

• Arrival (kudos for the originality of the aliens and their language)

• 10 Cloverfield lane (should have stayed with the “is there or is there not an alien invasion” plot line)

• War of the worlds

So this should cover a summer’s worth of alien movies, and of course, you should top it all off with Men in Black and Independence Day (just the first movies of their franchise!). They are, after all, really good summer blockbusters!