cornetto — TV and MOVIES

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!

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are, in my opinion, the best modern-day comedy duo that we have. They have worked on a total of 8 movies together and the incredible chemistry they share with each other probably stems from the fact that they are long time best friends in real life. Add Edgar Wright to the duo and you get comedy gold like the Cornetto trilogy. The movies were co-written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, directed by Wright and co-stared by Pegg and Frost.

While none of the films are about ice cream, the frozen treat is a running gag in all 3 movies, hence the Cornetto trilogy. It's also, according to Edgar Wright, the best hang over remedy there is. Three movies, three flavors: strawberry for Shaun of the dead (red for zombies), the original blue wrapper Cornetto for Hot fuzz (blue for the police reference) and mint for The World's end (green for aliens). The Cornetto is also among the few elements binding the three movies together because there are no recurring characters despite the fact that Pegg and Frost star in all three films. In each feature they play different characters, with different names and different personalities, living different lives. And yet, you could watch them all in one sitting and find nothing wrong with it. Why? Because the movies are hilarious, extremely well-written and produced, and the strong bond between Frost and Pegg make their characters exceptionally endearing.

Shaun of the dead

Shaun of the dead is a romantic zombie comedy about Shaun, an unfocused salesman who is trying to win his girlfriend's love back in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Along the way, he also has to drag around his deadbeat friend, his girlfriend's annoying roommates and save his mother from zombie attacks.

The idea for the film originated during the production of episode of Spaced, a British TV show Wright, Pegg and Frost worked on. During that particular episode, Pegg's character spent the whole night playing video games and started hallucinating that he was fighting zombies for real. It was at that moment that Wright thought of doing a whole feature about zombies. It was a brilliant idea because the film became an instant hit and cult-favorite. Though a comedy, Shaun of the dead is one of the best homages to the classic post-apocalyptic zombie movies like Night of the living dead. The film itself became, in my opinion, a classic.

Hot fuzz

After the hit that was Shaun of the dead, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg teamed up again to write Hot Fuzz.

Hot fuzz is a buddy cop comedy about Nicholas Angel, a Metropolitan police officer who is so good at everything that he makes his colleagues look bad. To remedy the situation, his superiors decided to "promote" him to the position of sergeant and transfer him to a small village, Sandford, in Gloucester. Sandford is statistically known as the safest village in the country. They hadn't had a murder in over 20 years and their biggest problems seem to revolve around a swan that's escaped. Angel had trouble adapting to his new slow-paced environment when he noticed something extremely odd about his new home: while the murder rate is very low, the accidents, on the other hand, are suspiciously frequent. No one wants to believe his conspiracy theories, except for his action-movie-obsessed partner. Together, they investigate the recent strings of fatal "accidents" that seem to befall on some residents.

Although I consider this film the weakest of the three, I must admit that it does possess a few comedy gems and is still worth a watch.

The World's end

The World's End is the final installment of the Cornetto trilogy and by far the most "meta" of the 3 films!

The World'd End is a science-fiction comedy about Gary King, a depressed middle-aged man who is trying to reconnect with his estranged friends by revisiting the glory days of their childhood. To do so, he convinced them to return to their hometown in order to complete the "Golden Mile", a pub crawl of 12 pubs. One pint of beer in each pub.

Upon their return, they couldn't help but feel like strangers in their own childhood village. At first, they thought that it was because they hadn't been there in a while, but they soon realized that it's because the village's inhabitants were all taken over by blue-blooded robot-like aliens. Despite this traumatizing discovery, they are still trying to complete the Golden Mile. While they're there, why the hell not?

While Shaun of the dead is an homage to the post-apocalyptic zombie movie, and Hot fuzz to the buddy-cop movie, The World's end pays reverence to body-snatcher films. It is also the movie that demanded a much bigger dramatic performance from its actors. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost delivered effortlessly.

Reccuring themes

The Cornetto ice creams, obviously. In Shaun of the dead, Nick Frost's character groggily requested a Cornetto at the beginning of the film and Simon Pegg went out to purchase one at the convenience store without even once realizing that there are zombies around him. In Hot Fuzz, the 2 cops would often snack on these cones. And in The World's end, a Cornetto wrapper briefly flies in front of the characters towards the end of the film.

Fence jumping, for some reason. Poorly executed fence jumping, to be exact. The characters often try to jump over a fence as a short cut and fall over or break the fence.

Edgar Wright often explained that his 3 movie are about the dangers of perpetual adolescence. The theme is portrayed by Pegg in Shaun of the dead and The World's End, but it was Nick Frost's character that embodied the theme in Hot Fuzz.

And finally, gore. The murder scenes and fight scenes are all extremely bloody. But when it's well done and fits the context, I'm fine with it.

All three movies are exceptional and deserve to be seen, remembered and appreciated.