13 Nights of Shocktober: Beetlejuice

by A.J.

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

“There’s a word for people in our situation: Ghosts.”

Beetlejuice 

Even though I've recommended well seen, popular, and classic movies for Shocktober before, I hesitated at including Beetlejuice for those very reasons. If you haven't already rewatched Beetlejuice because of the sequel released just last month, there's a good chance you've already watched it or are already planning on watching it for Halloween. However, if it's been a while since you've seen it or even if you just watched it, you can't go wrong with combining this horror comedy classic and Halloween. 

There's a certain fondness for this movie from people that grew up in the late 80's and early 90's. It's not really a family movie or a kids movie, but it is zany and silly and very funny. There is certainly horror movie imagery, including unsightly creatures from the beyond, but it’s not really a horror movie either. The heightened, cartoonish atmosphere makes everything about this movie, from the look to the subject matter, easier to take and easier to enjoy than if it had a serious, straightforward tone. Director Tim Burton’s distinct surreal, goth macabre style is fully on display and is really the only explanation for a lot of things in the movie. 

It's strange that Beetlejuice begins like a pleasant, wholesome movie about pleasant wholesome people living in a country house, and somehow ends as a movie about wholesome, pleasant people living in a country house, but some of the people are now ghosts. Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis play the pleasant and wholesome Maitlands, who are surprised to find out after a car accident that they are in fact dead. The real shock for them comes when their house is sold to a nouveaux riche couple (Catherine O’Hara and Jeffery Jones). Their death obsessed goth daughter, Lydia, can see the ghosts and she finds more sympathy with them than her father and eccentric stepmother. The ghosts are horrified by the changes the new owners are making to the house, a sort of avant-garde post modern look to match the stepmother’s sculptures, which are bizarre but perfect for a Tim Burton movie. They can’t scare the new owners out (because possessing them and making them dance around to “Day-o” is actually pretty fun for everyone), so they turn to a “bio-exorcist” named Betelgeuse. Of course, Betelgeuse isn’t trustworthy to say the least and has ulterior motives. And yes, even though the title of the movie is spelled BEETLEJUICE, the character’s name is spelled like the star, Betelgeuse. Since he can only be summoned by saying his name three times, this becomes a running gag with Baldwin calling him Beetlegeist and Beetlemeyer. 

It's crazy that Beetlejuice has not one but two signature performances for performers with impressive careers: Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. Keaton’s Betelgeuse is gross and decaying and obnoxious and lascivious, but Keaton also plays him like an undead Groucho Marx: fast talking, wisecracking, and scheming. He lets Betelgeuse really enjoy being Betelgeuse and that adds a very strange charm to the character. Maybe it is because of how he is introduced that we don’t really hold it against him. When he starts causing chaos after the Maitland’s summon him, your reaction is more along the lines of, “well what did you expect?” Winona Ryder does not have as much screen time as you might remember but she really brings substance to her character so she’s more than just a moody kid. She’s still mourning the death of her mother and is even contemplating suicide so she can join her ghost friends. The scene where they have to talk her down is brief but surprisingly poignant. 

The special effects and makeup are still impressive. The stop motion creature effects might seem dated at first, but this artificial animated look, then and now, adds to the movie’s surreal nature. The monstrous worm from Saturn is pretty unsightly and even frightening but impressive so you can’t look away. The score by Danny Elfman, a long time Burton collaborator, with its booming horns is very memorable. It’s likely that whenever you think about Beetlejuice, you’re also hearing the score in your head.

I don't think it's a stretch to call Beetlejuice a classic, neither the movie nor the character ever fully left the pop culture consciousness. It still feels as wild and zany today as it did in 1988. I was cynical about the sequel–which so far has gotten very good reviews from critics–thinking that the original would be buried or swept aside, but there is no need to worry about that with this movie. It will be around for as long as there are misfit kids, people that love spooky things, and people that love creative, crazy movies. Happy Halloween.

Beetlejuice is available to stream on Max.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

 by A.J.

Night 5: Vincent Price Night

“The incredible legends of the abominable Dr. Phibes began a few short years ago, all of them unfortunately true!”

Dr. Phibes Rises Again

The Abominable Dr. Phibes is one of the best Vincent Price movies, if not the best. It is a totally fantastic, wildly entertaining movie that I’ve written about before and could write about even more. It has to be seen to be believed. Topping a movie like The Abominable Dr. Phibes is pretty much impossible, but the sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, comes very close. 

If you haven’t seen the first film, not to worry, as the sequel opens with a narration and recap. Dr. Phibes (Price) was an Egyptologist who was horribly disfigured in a car accident and presumed dead. He actually survived but wears an incredibly realistic mask of his former face and can speak only through a special device connecting his neck to a speaker. Due to medical neglect his beloved wife, Victoria, died, but Phibes has her preserved in a suspended state. The Abominable Dr. Phibes had Phibes taking elaborate revenge on the team of doctors who failed to save his wife. Dr. Phibes Rises Again has him seeking the hidden River of Life in Egypt that will revive his wife and give them both eternal life. 

Dr. Phibes’s rival in the search for the River of Life is an archeologist named Darrus Biederbeck (Robert Quarry) who steals an ancient papyrus scroll from Phibes. So, Dr. Phibes unleashes his elaborate wrath on Beiderback and everyone standing in his own path to the River of Life. Biederbeck is arrogant and suspicious, and while he eventually earns some sympathy he never quite comes off as a hero or protagonist. Phibes, of course, is a murderous mastermind whose preferred execution method is elaborate and ridiculous devices, but in this film he comes across as more of an anti-hero; in the first film he was a charismatic and sympathetic villain. The closing credits group Phibes and Biederbeck together under the heading “protagonists” but Phibes is the character you are rooting for, or at least find more entertaining.

Many of the distinct stylistic elements that made the original film so memorable are also in the sequel. The elaborate art-deco design of Phibes’s lair is replicated in his Egyptian lair. His band of automaton musicians, The Clockwork Wizards, are now The Alexandria Quartet. Phibes’s beautiful but silent assistant, Vulnavia (this time played by Valli Kemp), is once again ready to help. And of course, Phibes still kills with ridiculous methods. One of the simpler kills involves distracting a man with a mechanical snake while a real snake attacks. Other deaths include but are not limited to: a raptor pecking someone's face to death and Phibes and Vulnavia faking a sandstorm to cover up the sounds of a man being crushed in a box. Robert Fuest returns as director for the sequel and once again his background in production design provides an exquisite, fun, and distinctive look.

Dr. Phibes was one of Vincent Price’s favorite roles and it is easy to understand why. Phibes is technically a villain but is sympathetic; he is vengeful but not hateful. He is devoted to Victoria and thanks to Price’s performance, Phibes’s love comes across as genuine and true instead of obsessive. Phibes is also a silent character, sort of. Since he must be connected to a machine to speak, his lips do not move while he talks, meaning that Price acts along to a recording of his voice. If acting is reacting, then Price gets to do both with the same character in the same scene in the same performance. The phonograph crackle of the speaking machine adds a nice eerie layer to the dialogue and monologues delivered wonderfully by Price. Dr Phibes is indeed one of Price’s best performances. 

The Phibes movies are not scary but they are excellent horror entertainment. They are campy, pseudo-slasher movies. If you ever wondered what the SAW movies would be like if all of the gruesome gore and cynical dread was replaced with fun, you should watch The Abominable Dr. Phibes and/or Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Like the original, the Dr. Phibes Rises Again revels in the ridiculous, the baroque, the weird. In one scene, Phibes puts someone in a catch-22 torture device. In another Vulnavia is wearing a sousaphone for no reason. The first time I  saw The Abominable Dr. Phibes was on Halloween night in 2015. I watched Dr. Phibes Rises Again on also on Halloween night. Watching either film is a perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season.  

For a long time both movies were very hard to find but thankfully they were recently released as a double feature Blu-ray. Both films will air on TCM as part of a late night Vincent Price marathon beginning on Tuesday, October 24th at 11PM CT with The Abominable Dr. Phibes followed by Dr. Phibes Rises Again at 12:45AM CT Thursday, October 25th. Dr. Phibes Rises Again is also currently streaming on Tubi and Freevee.

13 Nights of Shocktober: My Best Friend's Exorcism

 by A.J.

Night 10: Teenage Horror Night

"Dollars to donuts it's demonic possession."

My Best Friend’s Exorcism

This is a nice blend of horror and comedy though it leans firmly towards comedy. It might not be exactly scary, but it is fun. The story begins as more of a light comedy about teenagers Abby and Gretchen, best friends despite their different socio-economic backgrounds. Gretchen (Amiah Miller) is from a well-to-do family. Abby (Elsie Fisher) attends their private parochial school on scholarship. Gretchen's family is preparing to move and that makes Abby anxious about their future as friends and her future without Gretchen by her side. 

Those concerns get pushed to the background after a terrifying night in the woods. Along with their friends Glee (Cathy Ang) and Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu), and Margaret's obnoxious boyfriend, Wallace (Clayton Johnson), they take LSD, but Abby and Gretchen wander into a dilapidated cabin, rumored to be haunted. Gretchen is attacked by someone, or some thing, but they are not sure what was a hallucination and what was real. 

After the attack, Gretchen's behavior changes and this is when the movie switches gears to horror. At first Gretchen is withdrawn and strung out, then she seems to gain confidence and a new mean personality. The change in her personality and the cruel, hurtful acts she inflicts on her friends happen gradually and believably in scenes that add tension and the supernatural, specifically demonic possession to the story. The final act, that is the exorcism, is horror-comedy and even gets goofy thanks to Christopher Lowell as Christian Lemon, the youth minister bodybuilder performing the exorcism. This gear switch will either work for you or it won't. By this point I cared enough about the characters to want to see their story through and hoped things worked out for them (you can never tell with horror, even a horror comedy). The few scenes with special effects are well done. One CGI effect in particular is as strange as it is grotesque.

Setting this story in the 1980’s is not exactly a weakness but it is unnecessary. There are the benefits that a pre-internet and pre-cellphone time period affords a horror movie and Abby and Gretchen would have more of a challenge remaining in touch if one of them moved away, but the 80’s setting seems mostly for superficial throwback nostalgia. Also, none of the characters speak or act like teens from the 1980's (except for Wallace, whose gross sex-obsessed dialogue is spot on for that kind of character). However, aside from the soundtrack, the other elements of the film (script, production design, costumes) do not revel in nostalgia. The epilogue cards for each character at the end of the movie, are probably the most blatantly 80’s throwback element, but they fit with the movie’s fun nature. 

Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller have great chemistry and their performances are the highlight and greatest strength of the movie. Fisher is great as the shy and meek Abby, who has such a big heart she can never fully give up on her friend. The real tension of the exorcism is how she is going to stand up to an evil demon and save her friend. Amiah Miller does a good job of playing Gretchen at every stage: good natured teen, a person in distress, and demon possessed. 

My Best Friend's Exorcism belongs in the same vein as the meta-horror movies Happy Death Day and Freaky (Christopher Landon, the director of those movies, is a producer here), though it lacks the self-awareness that helped make those movies so much fun. Here, the fun comes mainly from the performances and a willingness to be silly in certain scenes. Director Damon Thomas and writer Jenna Lamia, adapting the Quirk Books published novel by Grady Hendrix) have made a movie that is most of all about friendship and that is why it works no matter the genre. 

My Best Friend's Exorcism is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Freaky

 by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 11: Meta Horror Night

"Great. We're gonna be killed by Murder Barbie."

Freaky

Freaky is not a scary movie but it is a very entertaining one. There is enough here to satisfy any horror fan and the comedy angle is likely to bring in some viewers wouldn’t typically watch a horror movie. The premise is so simple you wonder why it hasn’t been done before and the result is so fun you’re glad it was finally done. A big, hulking serial killer and his intended teenage victim switch bodies by way of a plot devise in the form of a mystical dagger. A body switch movie needs excellent leads and Freaky certainly delivers on that front with Vince Vaughn as the killer known as The Butcher and Kathryn Newton as Millie, the unfortunate teen.

A title card with a familiar font informs us that the date is Wednesday the 11^th. A group of teenagers talk about murders that supposedly happened but also comment that those urban legends are invented to scare teenagers out of having premarital sex. These teens meet with gruesome and overly elaborate deaths: a wine bottle down the throat, a broken tennis racket slammed back together with someone’s head in the middle (this teen was on a tennis court so what else could they expect to happen). The killer wears a mostly featureless mask reminiscent of Jason from the Friday the 13^th Part 2 (before Jason donned the famous hockey mask in part 3) and Michael Myers from the Halloween movies.

The teenage actors overall are pretty convincing as teens, especially Millie and her friends. Kathryn Newton plays both of her roles very well. Millie has the standard traits of a horror movie protagonist: dealing with grief and trauma (the death of her father and her mother’s new dependence on her company), struggling at home and at school, shy, and bullied, but with a few loyal friends. Newton is able is bring some spark and real sympathy to what would be a cliched character. After the switch, Newton as the Butcher projects the right amount of menace and glee at his newfound situation. The Butcher’s menace is mistaken for Millie's newfound confidence and leads some to amusing moments. There’s nice and subtle dark humor in watching the Butcher (as Millie) scan a room for the best way to kill someone. It’s also refreshing to see that the Butcher’s strength did not transfer, so he becomes frustrated with Millie’s petite body and lack of strength. This forces the Butcher (as Millie) to be more creative with his kills.

The casting Vince Vaughn was a very shrewd and wise choice. Vaughn is an all-around solid actor, has well proven comedic talents, and has a very imposing 6’5” figure. Vaughn is excellent as Millie, humorous but believable. Millie in the Butcher’s body has what ends up being an emotional conversation with her mom and Vaughn is believable in this moment too, which never really sheds its comedic setup. As Millie gets used to her new oversize body there are some funny moments and Vaughn plays a gentle, clumsy giant well. A scene of Millie in Butcher’s body getting to know her crush is what you’d expect but it works: the humor leads to tenderness which leads to humor which makes the characters more sympathetic and relatable.

Freaky is a self-aware horror movie that thankfully never stoops to pandering in place of cleverness. There are visual references to other horror movies like Halloween, the Friday the 13^th movies, Hellraiser, The Shining, but aside from the font of the dates resembling the Friday the 13^th font, the movie doesn’t make a big deal about them. The characters are aware of horror movie tropes and Freaky is better for it. When Millie’s friends are being chased by the Butcher (unaware of the body swap) Josh (Misha Osherovich) shouts to Nyla (Celeste O'Connor), “You’re black, I’m gay. We are so dead!” Her friends don’t exactly have inner lives but they feel like full fledged characters thanks to the young performers.

Freaky has plenty of bloody violence. The kills are graphic and over the top, another nod to the slasher genre (the later Friday the 13^th movies in particular), but doesn’t revel in them. Freaky is something pretty rare, a character driven horror movie more concerned with its characters than kills. Director Christopher Landon, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Kennedy, blends comedy and horror in just the right way. There’s a definite love for the genre running through every scene. Freaky understands that horror movies can be fun and puts that front and center.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Body Bags

 by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Anthology Horror Night “Ah, body bags. You see, if it's murder, suicide or a nasty accident, they put them in here.” Body Bags

Body Bags is a 1993 anthology horror movie produced by Showtime. It was originally meant to be an anthology horror series, likely to compete with the hit HBO series Tales From the Crypt. When Showtime did not continue the series, the episodes that had already been filmed were put together and aired as a single movie. Regardless of the reason for its cancellation, Body Bags is an entertaining anthology film thanks to the talent involved. 

The setting is the overnight shift at a morgue where a ghoulish, corpselike coroner examines different body bags and shares the details behind the gruesome deaths. John Carpenter directed the first two stories and also plays The Coroner. You can’t help but compare him to the Crypt Keeper from Tales From the Crypt, even though one is a person in makeup and the other is a puppet. The Crypt Keeper is far more decayed and has a bigger personality but both are high energy characters that love death, gory details, and making jokes. There is hard rock music playing in the background of the interstitials with The Coroner and you can tell John Carpenter is having fun with the character.

In the first story, The Gas Station, Alex Datcher plays a young woman working the overnight shift at a gas station. At first she only has to deal with odd customers. Then she finds herself being stalked by a deranged psycho killer played by Robert Carradine. The second story, Hair, stars Stacey Keach as a man obsessed with stopping his hair loss. He seeks out a radical hair growth treatment that actually works but has sinister side effects. In the final story, Eye, directed by Tobe Hooper, Mark Hamill plays a baseball player that loses an eye in a car accident. He undergoes an experimental eye transplant but soon begins to have macabre and murderous visions.

Any horror anthology is likely to feel uneven and Body Bags is no exception. The Gas Station is a well-made but basic slasher story. It's not fresh but not stale either. Things pick up with Hair, which leans heavy into comedy. Naturally this story about a hair transplant gone wrong delves into body horror but it’s watchable because of its fun tone. Though it is not especially explicit with visual or makeup effects, it feels more graphic than it actually is due to the subject matter. Keach, who usually plays a heavy or tough guy, does a good job playing a lighter, insecure character. Eye is similar to The Gas Station in that it is a well-made short film that covers familiar territory, but this story is more of a psychological horror, with some gory effects too. The reason Eye holds together and feels as dramatic as it does is thanks to Mark Hamill’s solid performance. 

Body Bags uses some early CGI effects, which like most early CGI effects do not hold up, but the rest of the horror sights are practical visual effects and special makeup effects which go a long way. It might not be for everyone, either because of its light but macabre tone or the horror visuals, but it’s clear that Body Bags wants you to have as good a time as The Coroner is having. Watch for cameos and appearances by: Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Debbie Harry, Twiggy, Tom Arnold, Charles Napier,  Tobe Hooper, David Naughton, David Warner, and legendary B-movie producer-director Roger Corman. I love horror anthologies but I’ll admit that most are made up of more misses than hits. Body Bags is better than most and makes for spooky fun Shocktober viewing.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Death Becomes Her

by A.J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween
“'Til death do us part! Well, you girls are dead. And I'm parting.”
Death Becomes Her

You’ll find few horror comedies as absolutely fun and satisfying as Death Becomes Her. This is due in no small part to the stellar performances from Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis, and Isabella Rossalini and the filmmaking wizardry of Robert Zemeckis. As with the Back to the Future movies and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Zemckis mixed cutting edge visual effects with a fun story and lively characters to create a wonderful, delightful movie.

Death Becomes Her opens on a fabulous note; actually, several notes. The year is 1978 and we see fading theater star Madeline Aston (Meryl Streep) in her new play, Songbird, a disco musical of Sweet Bird of Youth. Streep is dressed in a sparkling gown and boa and surrounded by male dancers. The audience is either walking out or bored and falling asleep except for Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis), much to the chagrin of his fiancé Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn). The dowdy Helen and glamourous Madeline are supposed to be friends, though frenemies would be a polite way to explain their relationship. Sure enough, Madeline steals away Ernest and Helen goes in a downward spiral that includes some pretty funny scenes of her gaining a ridiculous amount of weight, being evicted from her apartment, and being put into an institution. Then, she comes up with a plan for revenge.

Years pass and image conscious Madeline can no longer hide the effects of aging. She is introduced to the beautiful and mysterious Lisle Von Rhuman (Isabella Rossellini), who provides Madeline with an elixir that will give her what she wants most: eternal youth. She also gives Madeline a stern warning, after Madeline has already drunk the elixir, to take care of her body. Madeline is indeed rejuvenated but doesn’t have much time to enjoy it since she finds out that Ernest and Helen, now thin and glamourous, are plotting to kill her and run away together. It turns out that Madeline can’t be killed, but her body can be broken and still, mostly, work. So, when she falls down the stairs and twists her head totally around, she’s still alive and feels, mostly, fine. When Madeline blasts a hole through Helen’s stomach with a shotgun, Helen is also still alive and, mostly, fine. They continue to inflict damage on each other while Ernest, shocked and confused, is caught in the middle.

The effects may have a slightly dated look now, but were remarkable for 1992. Frankly, even with the dated look, the visual effects are still impressive. It’s no surprise to learn that Death Becomes Her earned an Academy Award for its visual effects. Watching Madeline’s head spin around after Helen hits her with a shovel or water spill out of a hole in Helen’s stomach is so much fun. It’s like watching a live action Looney Tunes cartoon. As their bodies become more and more broken and they hobble around after each other, the humor goes over the top and absurd in the best way possible. It is obvious that Zemeckis loves using visual effects, computer created or practical, whenever possible. His willingness to experiment with visual effects would be to his detriment later in his career, but unlike in his later films, the effects in Death Becomes Her enhance the story instead of overtaking it.

As important as the impressive visual effects are to the macabre plot, Death Becomes Her would be nowhere near as fun or good without its killer stars: Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. Both actresses play their parts with total glee. They go from zero to camp and back again at all the right moments. No matter who is mutilating who, thanks to their natural charisma they are both enjoyable characters. There’s no argument that Meryl Streep is one of the best actresses, ever, but she is so lauded for her dramatic work, that it’s easy to forget just how good she is at being funny. After the wonderful misfire of the opening song and dance number, we get a quick moment of her in her dressing room rehearsing different greetings for Helen. It’s a small moment but brilliant comic acting. Goldie Hawn plays both the dowdy frizzy-haired Helen and the elegant, fabulous Helen with equal ease. It’s easy to forget that before Bruce Willis became an action star, and then a self-serious action star, he started in comedy (Moonlighting), and is really good at it. He’s fantastic as the meek and high-strung Ernest. Willis acts as an audience stand in, having the appropriate freak out reactions to everything happening on screen. Isabella Rossellini is perfectly cast as the mysterious and alluring Lisle. She wears an elaborate necklace as a top and has silent muscle-bound man servants in spandex do her bidding. Everything about her character and her performance is everything you never knew you wanted to see.

Death Becomes Her plays like a classy but still campy episode of Tales From the Crypt, which Robert Zemeckis directed three episodes of and executive produced. Despite all of the damage Madeline and Helen inflict on each other’s bodies, there’s no graphic or explicit violence, so this movie could be easily enjoyed by anyone looking for something fun to watch this Halloween. “Easily enjoyed” are the key words. Just sit back and have a Happy Halloween! 

13 Nights of Shocktober: Stay Tuned

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 12: Spooky Fun Night
“666 channels of heart pounding, skull blasting entertainment.”
Stay Tuned 

Not long ago, when I worked the dayshift at Vulcan Video during Shocktober and needed something daytime appropriate (not rated R) to watch, I would often put on the 1992 horror comedy Stay Tuned. It usually drew amused reactions from customers. Stay Tuned has gone out of print on DVD but it is still available on Blu-ray and is currently available on some streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video. This is a very broad, goofy, and fun movie. If you’re looking to watch something light but still horror themed, I recommend Stay Tuned.

John Ritter plays Roy Knable, an average middle class man whose midlife crisis has him watching TV nonstop, even over the shoulder of his wife, Helen (Pam Dawber), while she tries to talk to him. Their marriage isn’t doing too great and she is ready to leave when she comes home and finds that Roy has bought a massive satellite dish from a travelling salesman. They don’t have much time to argue however because it turns out the salesman was an agent from Hell and the dish sucks them into a hellish TV world. The catch is that if they can survive 24 hours living through TV shows that are literally trying to kill them, they’ll be released from the contract.

It turns out that Hell is corporatized and run like a TV network complete with a broadcast control room and slimy executives. Eugene Levy is great comic relief, as always, even in his small role as Crowley, an obsequious, wise cracking executive. The whole organization is run by Spike (Jeffery Jones) who likes to ensnare souls is the most extravagant, showiest way possible. Why not make it entertaining? he says. The new intern, Pierce (Erik King), is disappointed by the lack of subtext in Spike’s methods. Spike, annoyed, asks Pierce if he is a film school graduate. Pierce then launches into his thesis on Kurosawa and Spike Lee. As a former film student, I found this bit particularly amusing.

This fun comes in Roy and Helen making their way through the hellish channels. They end up on a game show called You Can’t Win! (which Helen is clever enough to win), a wrestling match, a generic Film Noir, a western, and other Hell themed parodies of TV shows and movies. One of the best scenes comes when Roy and Helen end up as cartoon mice being hunted by a killer cat robot. The animation style and humor are in line with the Chuck Jones Looney Tunes cartoons, and at one point Mouse Roy sends away to ACME for a crazy contraption. The climax includes a montage of Roy and Spike stumbling through different channels. They end up in a swashbuckler movie, a hockey match between devils and angels, a movie called “Driving Over Miss Daisy,” a parody of Star Trek, and, best of all, a Salt and Pepa music video. Ritter is dressed in a yellow suit and turban, Jones is a DJ, and each are after the remote control, the key to Roy and Helen’s escape. The dancers, some representing good and some representing evil, pass around the remote, and Ritter tries to casually dance his way to the remote instead of just grabbing it. This doesn’t make any sense but it’s fun to watch.

At times Stay Tuned is clever, at other times it’s hokey. Casting notable TV stars like John Ritter (Three’s Company) and Pam Dawber (Mork and Mindy) is one of its clever strokes. The hellish TV parodies are pretty enjoyable even when they’re dumb: Three Men and Rosemary’s Baby, Northern Overexposure, Duane’s Underworld, Sadistic Candid Camera. There is even a parody of the Maxell cassette tapes commercial, for those old enough to remember the variety of blank cassette tape choices, myself included. One of the parodies has Ritter wearing a Hawaiian shirt stumbling over a couch with two women (one blonde, the other brunette) staring at him with a familiar song in the background (familiar, if, like myself, you’re old enough). He screams and immediately changes himself into another channel.

John Ritter had a great career in comedy and more serious roles like the miniseries of Stephen King’s IT. He was a talented physical comedian and gets to show off that talent a bit here (if you want to see more of John Ritter as a physical comedian, please watch Peter Bogdanovich’s They All Laughed). Is this a secretly great film deserving of cult film status? Perhaps, perhaps not. Is it better than it has any right to be? Yes, firmly yes. The approach by Peter Hyams, both the director and cinematographer, and the talent of the cast are what have made this film worth watching and re-watching for me, and I hope for you too.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Goosebumps

by A.J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

Viewer Beware, You’re in for a Scare

Goosebumps (2015)

Even if you weren’t into horror as kid, chances are pretty good you still knew about the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine and maybe even read a few of the spooky children’s books. When I was a kid in the 1990’s, it was impossible to avoid Goosebumps. The books were at every book store, library, school book fair, and there was also the TV series on Fox hosted by Stine himself. Long after I lost interest in the books, Goosebumps continued to be a presence in kid’s pop culture and finally made it to the big screen in 2015.

Goosebumps, the movie, isn’t a specific adaptation of any one of the 60 plus books, but It incorporates elements from several books into an original story. The books were most memorable for their monsters and plot twists, and the screenplay by Darren Lemke and Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski uses a clever device to put the most memorable monsters together in a universe with new characters, including Stine himself. The result is a smorgasbord of monstrous spooky fun.

Teenage Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan), move to a small town where she will be the new high school vice principal and he’ll be the new kid whose mom is a vice principal. One bright spot for Zach is meeting the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush), who he comes to believe is being held prisoner by her mysterious and reclusive father. Zach and his self-appointed new best friend, Champ (Ryan Lee), break into her house to attempt a rescue. Once inside they learn that Hannah’s father is author R.L. Stine (Jack Black) and unknowingly unleash the monsters trapped within Stine’s original manuscripts. The teens, along with Stine, have to recapture the monsters before the town is destroyed.

Jack Black’s highly stylized performance as Stine sets the tone for the whole movie: over the top but with just the right amount of self-awareness. Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell, as Gales’ sister, are a welcome presence, as they would be in any movie. The teen actors do a good job playing believable teens and carrying the action of the movie.

The monsters are nearly all CGI and fit right in to the movie visually. Since the monsters are all creations of Stine’s imagination, their artificial look actually works to the movie’s advantage. The Werewolf of Fever Swamp has a memorable sequence chasing the kids around a grocery store and the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena rampages through the town, but the main villain is Slappy, from Night of the Living Dummy. Slappy has a malevolent and devious personality. He is intent on getting revenge on Stine for locking him away; the fact that he is a ventriloquist dummy also makes him inherently creepy. Zach and his mom and the other teens are not especially memorable characters, but they service the story adequately. It’s Jack Black that loads up the fictionalized Stine with so much personality that it brings the whole movie to life.

The Goosebumps books introduced a whole generation of kids to horror and I think movie will serve as a good entry point for kids to (age appropriate) horror stories. Goosebumps is a smorgasbord of horror themed fun and though it still retains some of the dark edge of the books, it never gets too intense or scary. This is a great movie to watch with kids that are interested in horror, or kids that just want to watch something spooky for Halloween or a stormy day. And if you’re a grownup, it’s still a spooky fun time.