Evil Dead Franchise

Today's review for Halloween month is the Evil Dead series. I couldn't decide which movie to review, so I decided to look at them all.

The original trilogy (The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Army of Darkness (1992)) were campy Hollywood B horror movies that turned more to comedy by the end. They tell the story of the Necronomicon, or Book of the Dead, and Ash Williams' (Bruce Campbell) fight against the hordes of the undead, both in a cabin in the woods and in the distant medieval past.

The Evil Dead was soft rebooted with the film Evil Dead (2013), telling a similar story with a big-budget production and new characters.

A new TV series came out recently titled Ash vs Evil Dead (2015) that continues Ash's fight against the undead 30 years later. Bruce Campbell reprises his role as Ash, as Sam Raimi has said that the role belongs to Campbell and will never be recast. It's run for 2 seasons now with a third in production.

This series is excellent, only getting better with each movie. Bruce Campbell's style of humor really sells it and has made the series a cult classic. I'm doing a marathon of this series today and I highly recommend it. Only Bruce Campbell can take a male character named Ashley (a.k.a. Ash) and make him an icon for manliness.

The Mummy (2017)

My next review for Halloween month is The Mummy, the new movie, starring Tom Cruise.

This movie bombed in the box office, but I think it was mostly due to the memory of the Brendan Fraser films. Seeing what appeared to be a reboot - with Tom Cruise of all people - scared away a lot of folks.

But as it turns out, this is not a reboot. Nor is it a sequel. It's the first in a new series of horror films that Paramount calls the Dark Universe. It's essentially like the Marvel Universe, but for classic horror monsters instead of the Avengers. Their version of Nick Fury is Dr. Jekyll, who researches, contains, and/or destroys all evil in the world.

Overall, the film was actually pretty good. It wasn't incredible, but the idea of an expanded universe with all the classic monsters definitely seems intriguing. Their next film, Bride of Frankenstein, will further expand this Dark Universe in 2019 and I'm looking forward to it.

Little Nightmares (2017)

For tonight's Halloween review, I'll be looking at a video game called Little Nightmares.

Little Nightmares follows a tiny girl named Six in a yellow raincoat as she scurries around The Maw, a massive sea vessel of some sort. You control her as she tries to survive without being caught by the scary giant inhabitants of The Maw.

This game was pretty creepy. Definitely got your heart rate up with the deformed "people," all chasing Six as if she were a small rat on board. This is one of those games that doesn't offer any dialogue or explanation. You jump into the role of Six and start exploring, learning more about the world you're in through background interactions.

It was bad enough being seized by the creepy people of the ship, but the most terrifying (and trying) part for me was trying to run across a table as giant fat deformed people stuffed their faces with food, only to get too close to one and be grabbed and stuffed into their gaping mouth. If you like edge-of-your-seat tension, this game will do the trick. I really enjoyed it. Now I need to play the expansion.

Horns (2013)

Tonight's Halloween review is the movie Horns.

It's about a boy (Daniel Radcliffe) who's accused by his entire town of killing the love of his life. While trying to find out who the real killer is, he starts to randomly sprout devil's horns on his head. Then, things start to get real weird...

This movie is really trippy. It throws a lot of crazy surprises at you that keep you engaged and on the edge of your seat until the end. Even my wife, who typically stays glued to her phone through movies, kept putting her phone down to see what's going to happen next.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a little bit of supernatural WTF in their murder/mystery stories.

Hocus Pocus (1993)

I'm starting Halloween Month an hour early. Tonight, I watched Hocus Pocus.

Hocus Pocus is a classic guilty pleasure that most of us indulge in around this time of year. It has a pretty basic 90s plotline and not much else. But the three witches ham it up to the extreme, making this entertaining to watch, even with poor dialogue and cheesy storytelling. Definitely a must-see if you've been living under a rock and haven't ever seen it before.

It (2017)

Last year for the month of October, I did a Halloween Month Movie Marathon, in which I watched Halloween-themed films almost daily and posted summaries/reviews on Facebook.

This year, I'm too excited for my favorite holiday to arrive, so I'm starting a month early! I'll also be playing some horror video games and reviewing them as well.

Last night, I finally saw the new IT film. And it far exceeded my expectations. It's been a long time since I saw a horror flick that actually scared me without resorting to jump scares every scene. I definitely want to re-watch this one soon.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)

Halloween Month may be over, but the Movie Marathon continues! Because there are too many great horror films to squeeze into 30 days. (Also because I'm bed-ridden for the week while my leg heals and have nothing better to do)

I enjoyed the novel version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I was a little nervous about a movie version. I was afraid it would be a lot like the novel; the original text for the most part with some zombie scenes and dialogue worked in between the regular plot. But they did a great job making a terrifyingly immersive apocalyptic 19th century world.

I'm bored of "scientifically-accurate" zombies, so having supernatural zombies come back (in a unique time period to boot!) makes for some thrilling story. I've read Pride and Prejudice and seen several movie versions of it over the years and it's a great classic tale. But this was just the spooky twist I needed to see. I highly recommend this film!