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!

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!