31 Days of Fright, Day 31: Lennon and Loaf review Halloween

In the final installment of our 31 Days of Fright series, we dig back into the RTM archives to bring you our failed television pilot that would, nearly 35 years later, become Driveway Video Discussions.

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31 days of Fright, Day 29: The Omen

Welcome to day 29 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, something frightening happened to Jonathan, he thought about it, and it turns out it was...

THE OMEN
1976
Rated R

I was rather stuck on what movie to review for today. Hundreds of movies were rocking around in my brain, begging to be chosen, when suddenly, Gabe mentioned that neither of us had done a review of an antichrist movie. So why not go with quite possibly the scariest one: The (original) Omen. It’s been about 9 years or so since I’ve seen this movie (although I have seen the remake quite recently) and even today it’s easy to remember why this film scared me half to death. It really is genuinely that scary. It could just be nostalgia talking, but this movie takes me back to my childish self, before I became so jaded and calloused, and that’s saying something.

It all starts with the newborn son of a couple dying shortly after being born. The husband is convinced by a priest to substitute the child with a baby born recently whose mother died right after she had him. He agrees without telling his wife, because he’s worried that she’d lose her mind if she found out. They happily decide to name the child Damien. And then shit gets weird (to say the least).

A lot of people today have either seen the original, the remake, or read the books, so many of you know what happens next. But, for the sake of people who haven’t experienced the grisly glory that is The Omen, I’ll stop there with my description. There are too many surprises and out-of-nowhere violence to go any further. And really, that’s one of the things that make this movie great. It’s creepy on two levels. There’s an almost timid, yet horribly unnerving, creepiness about Damien and the way he looks and talks (or doesn’t) and moves, and then there’s the in-your-face gore and mayhem throughout the movie (and trust me, there’s a lot of it). They balance so well, you have to give props to the director for pulling it off. It really isn’t easy to make a good horror movie that doesn’t feel one-note, because so many people stick to a set structure. This movie re-wrote said structure.

And it doesn’t stop there. The acting in this movie is superb, but I did have a few problems with how overly expository the dialogue was, but that’s a problem with the time period, not the writer (see my Exorcist review for more on this by CLICKING HERE). Also, they had the writer of the novel write the screenplay. I have no way to express how much I love when this happens. A lot of authors usually don’t write their own screenplays simply because scripts are an entirely different style of storytelling than books. There’s almost no room for description in a screenplay, and everything has to move a lot faster, and mostly through dialogue. There have been several flubs from authors who really just didn’t know how to adapt their own work, but in this case, it worked marvelously. David Seltzer (the author of both the book and the film) really kept to the story he wanted to tell in both formats, and it comes though extremely well. The music only adds to this. It’s ominous and creepy, yet strangely happy and upbeat at certain parts. It almost contradicts itself, but that really makes the viewer more aware of the terror right in front of them.

If you’re sick of the same-old and the mundane, I highly suggest giving this movie a try. It’s genuinely creepy and a really fun ride. It’s hard to find someone who has seen this movie and really didn’t like it, and it’s actually scary, much unlike all these crazy Japanese remakes and PG-13 horror made specifically to pander to middle-school kids. But if you’re curious, watch it for yourself and see, it scared me (and still does) and it’s a wonderfully made film, for you film buffs out there. So remember, “If something frightening happens to you today, think about it. It may be... The Omen”

9.5/10

-JONATHAN



Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. You can also check us out on Facebook (CLICK HERE) and Twitter (CLICK HERE). And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!

31 Days of Fright, Day 27: The Exorcist

Welcome to day 27 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Jonathan takes a trip down memory lane with...

THE EXORCIST
1973
Rated R

The first time I saw this movie, it scared the hell out of me. It was partly because of the movie itself (and the fact that I was about 12) but mostly it was the way in which I saw it. The scenario is this: I was staying at a friend’s house whose mother was notorious in our group for sleepwalking. My friend was asleep and so was his mother, and I was busy trying to navigate a Nintendo 64 game. Suddenly, the door to my friend’s mom’s room opened. She came out groggily, and I could almost immediately tell she was asleep (this sort of thing happened quite a bit). She wandered around for a few minutes, then came stumbling over to my game and suddenly shut it off. Then she promptly went back to bed. Guess what was on TV when she turned it off? That’s right, The Exorcist. I was far too scared to get up and turn it off, so I sat through the whole thing. I’ve never been the same again.

I’ve watched this film about thirty times since that first viewing, and I can see why I was so deathly afraid. I know it will never hold that same intense feeling of fright it did when I first saw it, but there are certain parts that still chill me to the bone. And now that we have the new uncut edition (which is the version I watched for this review) we have a chance to experience parts of it for the first time. That was really exciting for me. This film is sort of the genesis of my horror movie experience, and it remains a classic in the genre as well as my own life, for many reasons.

The direction is spectacular. Every scene has obviously had quite a bit of care put into it, because they all cut extremely deep. And, in my opinion, any director who can get a child to act that insane and scary deserves a ton of recognition. I also highly enjoyed the writing. While some of it seems very overly expository, it gets the story across well and conveys the horror that everyone involved is feeling. The problems with the dialogue don’t seem like problems in writing. It all feels very natural. I think the problems are with the way people spoke during that time period: a little clunkily, and with too much explanation.

Despite all its good points, there were a couple of things that didn’t really impress me, the biggest of which is how slowly the story moves. Especially in the extended cut. It crawls at a snail’s pace for quite a while, and I can see why I remember almost nothing at all about certain parts of it from when I was young. They’re easy to simply ignore. But when it picks up, it really picks up. It almost goes nowhere at all for an hour, then it goes everywhere all at once, in the best way possible. There’s really not a whole lot that takes you out of this movie that can’t be blamed on the time period rather than the filmmakers themselves.

In short, this is a near perfect horror movie, not because it is a classic and not because everybody’s heard of it, but because it’s genuinely scary and the story is truly involving. The characters are acted almost perfectly, and it’s directed with such vision that one can’t help but appreciate the care put into it. The filmmakers obviously approached this film with one goal in mind: to scare the pants off anyone who watches it. They’ve accomplished that, and still do almost forty years later.

9.5/10

-JONATHAN


Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. You can also check us out on Facebook (CLICK HERE) and Twitter (CLICK HERE). And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!

31 Days of Fright, Day 23: Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except

Welcome to day 23 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Gabe takes stalking to a new level of laziness with...

THOU SHALT NOT KILL... EXCEPT
1985
Not Rated

I have a love/hate relationship with movie trailers. I’ve been burned far too many times to ever fully trust them, and I genuinely think that I should be able to sue movie studios for releasing trailers that spoil the films they’re advertising. However, if it weren’t for trailers, I might never have discovered so many of the movies I’ve come to cherish so much.

Seven years ago, a movie called The Man With The Screaming Brain was released, and I was there. I’m up for just about anything Bruce Campbell related, and he not only starred in this movie, but wrote and directed it as well. Needless to say, I didn’t need to be convinced. I bought it the day it was released.

In addition to a surprisingly good movie (surprisingly, because it was released by The SyFy Channel, back when they were The Sci-Fi Channel), I saw a trailer for a movie I had never heard of but became instantly infatuated with: Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except. The ellipses alone would have been enough to sell me on this flick, but it actually looked pretty cool, in a so-bad-it’s-good kinda way.

The movie tells the story of a wounded Vietnam vet who survives the war only to find himself at war with the deranged, murderous cult that rolls into his rural town and begins laying waste to its inhabitants - not the least of whom is his girlfriend and her father.

I went straight to my local video store (yeah, we still had one back in’05, but its days were numbered), only to find that they didn’t carry it. I checked at Hollywood Video and Blockbuster too (they stuck around a little longer, but they’re all gone now), but it was a fool’s errand. Those guys never did have a decent selection.

Eventually I stopped looking. I got Netflix not too long after that, but they didn't have a copy at the time, so Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except just sort of got forgotten in the constant shuffle of newly discovered movies.

Cut to this week. I was at the last video store in town (not a proper “video store” at all, really – one of those “entertainment megastores” with a rental section) with my Road To The Movies co-host, Jonathan, when we happened across a copy of Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except, which looked to have only recently been released on Blu-Ray. Needless to say, after a short recounting of my experience trying to find the movie, and after a quick look at the case, we had to see it.

We were not disappointed.

It was everything I’d hoped for. Violent, gory, corny, absurd, funny, schlocky, over-the-top – this movie has it all. I’m a dedicated fan of bad movies, and this is one bad movie that hits on all cylinders. The acting makes porn look like The Royal Shakespeare Theater. The shameless use of stock footage would have made Ed Wood proud. Sam Raimi’s performance as the hippy cult-leader – yes, that Sam Raimi – is so grotesque, so excessive, so hilarious that it’s worth the price of admission alone.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, as watching it for the first time is truly an unforgettable experience, but I will say that if you’re a fan of insanity like The Evil Dead trilogy or wonderful schlock like Troll 2, then this is the Vietnam movie you’ve been waiting for. Your best bet is to get a crowd of like-minded friends together, crack some brews, and enjoy.

I suppose could be room for debate in some people's minds as to whether or not this is a horror movie at all, but not in mine. We have characters we care about (or, at least, we're meant to care about) put in truly horrifying situations by some really horrible people who commit some extremely horrifying acts (well, acts that would be horrifying if every scene weren't so absurdly over-the-top). If this had been done seriously and had been helmed by a competent director, it would be one deeply disturbing piece of cinema. And I know that there are people who claim movies like this and movies like The Devil's Rejects or Silence of the Lambs aren't horror, but all I can think to say to someone that jaded is, If stuff like that doesn't horrify you, you should probably seek professional help immediately.

Like I said before, I love bad movies. I’m actually trying to start a local bad movie festival. This one is a prime candidate; so good at being bad that it’s downright awesome.

8/10

-GABE


Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. You can also check us out on Facebook (CLICK HERE) and Twitter (CLICK HERE). And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!

31 Days of Fright, Day 22: Tucker & Dale vs Evil

Welcome to day 22 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Jonathan can't find anything but good things to say about...

TUCKER & DALE VS EVIL
2010
Rated R

Let me start off by saying this movie is phenomenal. I know that’s a bold statement, and a bold way to start a review, but it really is that good. It’s your classic hillbilly horror story turned on its ear (with hilarious results). It follows the hillbillies, rather than the college campers, who happen to be two normal guys making an innocent trip to restore an old lake cabin together. Once there, they go fishing and witness one of the college kids falling off a rock and nearly drowning. They save her, but all her college buddies see is their friend getting taken away into dark territory by two weird men.

I won’t go any further into the plot, because that’s the point where things get awesome… in a BIG way. It’s hard to call this movie "horror" because it’s so damn funny, but it also takes it all the way. It’s gory, violent, funny, weird… everything I want in my horror. The story is great too, as is the (sometimes hilariously ridiculous) dialogue, which is, in my opinion, flawlessly written. The characters were absolutely off the wall and extremely cliché (in a great way) but the hillbillies were deep and sensitive. While the writing was amazing, the acting was even better. Each character was based on a specific type of person, and all the actors pulled them off perfectly. There is little room for error when making a movie that completely exposes the ridiculousness of a certain genre, and this movie did it perfectly.

This is normally where I’d talk about what I didn’t like about the movie. But, honestly, there really isn’t all that much to dislike. I won’t go too into detail because of spoilers, but the end does get a little convoluted and starts to drag, but that really fits in with the genre they’re parodying. Actually, all the things I didn’t like I also don’t like about other movies in the genre. Obviously, I don’t have much of anything but good to say about this movie. You might not want to watch it if you’re uncomfortable with blood and guts (and a lot of it) or a ton of swearing, but if you’re a horror, action, or comedy fan, this is one to watch. I would go so far as to say it’s an instant classic among horror and comedy buffs alike.

10/10

-JONATHAN


Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. You can also check us out on Facebook (CLICK HERE) and Twitter (CLICK HERE). And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!

Sinister (Full Review), 31 Days of Fright, Day 16

Just past the halfway mark in our 31 Days of Fright, and your hosts GABE and JONATHAN head to the theater to check out the newest movie from the producers of Paranormal Activity and Insidious. Is that an endorsement or an indictment? You'll have to watch and decide for yourself!





Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, and don't forget to keep checking back every day in October for more 31 Days of Fright!

31 Days of Fright, Day 11: Lo

Welcome to day 11 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Jonathan falls in love with...

LO
2009
Not Rated

I’m a sucker for horror comedies. There’s something about the mixture of these two completely opposing genres that really intrigues me. Now, I’m not talking about horror movies that are so un-scary that they’re funny, but actual horror comedies. Shaun of the Dead, anything by Sam Raimi (before he forgot how to make movies), and Fido are excellent examples of what I mean. I could watch these movies hundreds of times (and I have) without getting the least bit sick of them. So when I saw Lo on my Netflix queue, I knew I had to watch it. And as with any horror comedy, my expectations were fiercely high. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews, you know they’re not that easy to meet. Lo met my expectations in about ten minutes, and then introduced expectations I didn’t even know I should have for this hybrid genre. Now that’s saying something.

It’s about a man who’s girlfriend has been taken to Hell by a demon, so he summons another demon named (take a wild guess) Lo to help bring her back. This spirals him into a surreal and sometimes genuinely scary journey through his memories with the demon as his guide, and opens his eyes to a world he never knew existed right under his nose. That’s all you’re gonna get for plot, because this is one of those movies that deserves to be watched rather than simply described. The whole film takes place in one single spot, a small pentagram made out of chalk that our protagonist must sit in (lest he desires to become demon fodder). This type of filmmaking can be largely hit-and-miss, depending on how well it’s executed, and this one nails it right on the head. It maintains its intrigue and mystery despite the lack of mobility for the main character which is largely attributed to the talent of the actors involved. It’s obviously an indy film with a limited budget, but they completely embrace this as opposed to letting it hinder the film. The way they portray the main character’s memories is ingenious and absolutely hilarious (again, you’ll have to watch it to find out exactly how).

Most importantly, to me at least, this movie looks and feels like a genuine piece of art. It is well-crafted, well thought out, well-written, and directed superbly. It’s so unique that, even if you don’t find the storyline interesting, I’m confident you’ll be blown away by its refreshing originality. And it really fits all types of people. It will have you laughing, scared silly, and extremely emotionally involved.

Even if you’re not a horror fan at all, this is one to watch.

Part horror, part comedy, part romance, this movie has a little something for everyone. And a lot for people who consider themselves seasoned film buffs. It’s one of those movies that will instantly become a cult classic, and inspire young filmmakers everywhere to do the best with what they have. This, my friends, is as close to perfect as it gets…so give Lo a chance, and you’ll be extremely happy you did.

10/10

-JONATHAN

Thanks for riding along! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!

31 Days of Fright, Day 2: Eraserhead

Welcome to day 2 of 31 Days of Fright here at Road To The Movies! In today's episode, Jonathan delves into the mystery of the David Lynch classic, Eraserhead.


ERASERHEAD
1977
Not Rated

With all these sequels, remakes, and adaptations it's easy to forget that movies used to be considered a very intriguing art form. We're constantly bombarded with unoriginal ideas and storylines we've seen a billion times but with different characters. It's when I feel overwhelmed by this fact that I go back to the films that I truly feel are their own piece of unique art. Eraserhead is one of those movies.

There are so many hidden themes in this movie, and that's done very purposely. There are millions of interpretations of what it's about. From the dangers of recreational sex vs. re-creational sex, to the sweet allure of suicide, to a straight-out-of-the-bible message of consequence for one's sin, people are constantly trying to figure this movie out. David Lynch himself (despite years of prying from reporters and movie-goers) has never offered an explanation of the meaning of the film, but has said there is only one right interpretation. I feel this is what maintains the film's integrity as a work of art. It can never be recreated or re-imagined because no one knows what it's about. It is one man's vision put on film exactly the way he wants it. It will always be picked apart, studied, and obsessed over, and as long as we have cinema, this movie will remain a mysterious classic. A uniquely horrifying piece of art.


Now, Eraserhead isn't considered a horror movie by a large group of people, but a deep psychological drama. I, however, have always been severely creeped out by this movie. The tone throughout is so quietly eerie that almost every scene gives me goosebumps. While the symbolism is very vague and confusing at times, one simply cannot shake the feeling that it's hinting toward something sinister and depressing. The feelings of loneliness and despair that permeate the whole film are made much more powerful by the fact that David Lynch chose to present it entirely in black-and-white. But the one thing (in my opinion) that makes this movie so scary is that David Lynch lets the emotion of the characters tell the story. The viewer is forced to feel what these unfortunate people feel, because there's hardly any talking at all. If you were to take all the dialogue in this movie and put it together, it would equal less than ten minutes. It's a long story, told almost completely through action. And that, my friends, is my type of horror movie.


Forever studied, never repeated, Eraserhead is the type of classic that will chill you to the bone and leave you struggling to find just what, exactly, is going on. One will never know if they've found the correct interpretation, because every interpretation is as unique as the film itself, and every time you watch it, something new will expose itself, causing a whirlwind of fresh thoughts and ideas. And, much like a brilliant painting or sculpture, the interpretation you find will be inescapably personal...solely based on your own experiences in relation the characters' experiences. And it will remain, forever, the beautifully elusive piece of work it was in 1977. If you've never seen this movie, I highly recommend it...and get ready to ponder your ass off.

10/10


-JONATHAN


Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to click on the banner below to check out our YouTube channel, where you can watch our videos, "like" them, subscribe to the channel, leave a comment or a question, or even suggest a movie for future review. And don't forget to check back every day in October for a new installment in our 31 Days of Fright!