Halloween Movies (part 1): My Favorite Yearly Re-Watches

October 8, 2018April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

During the month of October, I watch as many Halloween movies as I can. Here are six of my favorite movies that I love to rewatch.

Category: Zombies

28 Days Later (2002)

A modern classic, 28 Days Later is about Jim (Cillian Murphy) waking up in the hospital only to discover the UK in a full apocalypse-like state after a virus outbreak. I consider this movie a modern classic for a number of reasons but the main two are the acting and the cinematography. I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves a good zombie film.

Category: Witches

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015) — imdb.com

The Witch (2015)

What a thriller, this movie gets down into the bloody, gritty works of witches in the great era of settling protestants hundreds of years ago. The synopsis: A young girl finds herself under the inevitable sway of evil forces after her family moves to a desolate area near the edge of a creepy forest. I love this movie because I felt like it took those strange stories about witchcraft and the devil from this time in history and made them a literal “what if?” scenario. Yeah, what if the devil does take the shape of a black goat and recruits young girls into witchcraft? what if there were actual witches who that stole babies? A great scary movie and it will keep you on your toes. The only recommendation that I can think of that has a similar witchy vein would be The Witches (1990) but this one is actually kid-friendly…kinda.

Category: Psycho Killers

Halloween (1978)

The beginning of one of the most iconic classic horror movies, the first Halloween is a treat worthy of having over and over again. It’s a great family film that gets into the disturbing relationship between Michael and his sister. The story continues still to this day (40 years later) Halloween 2018 and I am stoked! I recommend this movie to those that love a good slasher flick, nothing’s scarier than a psychopath on a killing frenzy.

Category: Psychological Suspense/Thriller

Split (2016)

I was initially surprised by this movie because it was actually good. I kept waiting for the cheesiness to creep in and take over the film but it didn’t happen (for me). I think this has to do with the A+ acting of James McAvoy who plays a man with multiple personalities (9 in total). The synopsis: A young girl and her friends are abducted by a stranger who is more terrifying than he actually seems. I thought this movie was a great ‘scary’ movie because it remained suspenseful throughout and kept my attention the entire time. If you like the classic Psyscho (1960) you should love this.

Category: Sci-fi

Annihilation (2018)

A great freaky sci-fi movie that is definitely disturbing enough to watch as a Halloween flick. The synopsis: Lena, played by Natalie Portman, signs up for a suicide mission after her husband returns strangely messed up after a secret mission he disappeared on. The ways in which reality is torn apart and mushed back together again is truly unsettling. I would recommend this film to anyone that loves a gory sci-fi movie. Note: I felt like Annihilation was the exact opposite of Arrival (2016) but with a similar feel.

Category: Vampires

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) — imdb.com

Nosferatu (1922)

This is an oldie but in my opinion, it really could never be replaced. The gist of it, Nosferatu is a German retelling of Dracula. It is actually scary, compared to the 1931 American version, and contains the most disturbing vampire I have ever encountered in cinema to this day. Count Orlok has pointy ears, two huge fangs instead of buck teeth, and fingers than taper off into six-inch-ish looking talons. Same as Dracula, Count Orlok decides to move and leaves a path of destruction and death on his journey. Truly disturbing, I doubt anyone could forget the imagery from this movie even if they tried. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves the type of vampires along the lines of 30 Days of Night (2007).

Thanks for reading! If you like this list or think it’s lacking or have a suggestion please feel free to leave a comment below!

Coming up next: Halloween Movies (part 2): The Classics

A Vampire Mockumentary: “What We Do in the Shadows” (2014)

May 13, 2018April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet

“What We Do in the Shadows” is a mockumentary film that takes the classic vampire tropes in horror and sheds a little bit of humorous light on them.

I recently watched this film for the first time (can’t believe that I haven’t seen it earlier considering my taste in movies) and I thought this film was amazing.

I am a big fan of the classic horror monsters such as Dracula, Nosferatu, Wolfman, Frankenstein, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon…just to name a few. And I loved that this film really pulled from the different classics.

There is a Dracula-esque character, Nosferatu, and the Victorian vampire (I am thinking like Louis from “Interview with the Vampire“). Not only did the creators pull from classic vampire tropes but new popular ones as well such as the young vampire bad boy and the pitting of vampires vs. werewolves which have become more prevalent in the last ten years.

Image result for nosferatu — “Nosferatu” (1922) source: Flickr

A few key aspects that stood out to me while I was watching the film includes the use of the documentary style (acting as if vampires are real and giving them cultural credit), the relevance of the ending and how it critiques the “usual” endings in horror films and lastly the popular pairing of werewolves and vampires in a single story that has taken off since the infamous “Twilight” phenomena.

Talking about the cultural phenomena of vampires in the form of a documentary fits the trend in horror and suspense films of “found footage”. A popular style that really began to pick up with the “Blair Witch Project” (1999). It is refreshing and at the same time provides the audience with the “behind the scenes” look at vampires, making them more silly and relatable than I think audiences would care to admit.

Image result for Blair witch project — “Blair Witch Project” (1999) Flickr

It was great to watch vampires have to fight about chores and see them deal with the mess of murder. I appreciated the Master/Slave dynamic that was used in this film as well (the old concept of vampires having human slaves that take care of them in the daylight). I get the impression this little detail among others when it comes to the vampire tropes have been neglected in recent years.

Although this mockumentary provides a lot of laughs it doesn’t actively seek to paint vampires in the popular morally-conflicted-“good”-guy-who-kills-people light. There are no blurring of lines, the vampires in this film talk about killing and we see them kill brutally. We get glimpses of their terror (and love for torture) and can imagine just how horrible it would be to come across a vampire. Overall, great movie and I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants a laugh and isn’t repelled by vampires.

Side Notes: The special effects for transforming, flying, and werewolf stuff was not that bad. I was impressed by the quality and effort that was given in making these little details “good”.

Alina’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Bats

“What We Do in the Shadows” is available for free with AMAZON PRIME

Thank you for reading! I hope you will return in the future! Please follow or subscribe to read more of my work!

-Alina

A Review that Bites: “Dark Shadows” TV Series(1966-1971)

April 21, 2018April 2, 2022 Alina H. Hansen Writer & Poet2 Comments

For the last couple of months I have been completely obsessed with the classic TV series “Dark Shadows” that originally ran from 1966 to 1971. I was skeptical of “Dark Shadows” at first since I was one of those people that went and saw Tim Burton’s revamped movie that came out in 2012. I remember having my hopes up pretty high that I might like this Burton movie but by the end of the film I was completely let down, rolling my eyes at the over-the-top silliness that I was witnessing. Now I have begun to think that the silliness may have been on purpose.

I decided to start watching the TV series after getting tired of re-watching my favorite shows on Netflix. What a ride! This show is a horror fueled soap opera that has too many plot lines to sum up in one sentence. So far I am on season four which involves some time travel (hahaha) but I plan on finishing the series in the next few weeks.

Main Story Line

In the town of Collinsport, the Collins family is the oldest and probably the wealthiest with a family history that is unsettling and mysterious. The series starts when Barnabas Collins (a family member who was turned into a vampire at the turn of the 19th century) is released from his imprisonment (chained up coffin) with the help of Willie (a criminal of sorts with loose ties to the current Collins family). The first few episodes establish the Collins family, the current family members and characters that are key to the main story line.

Note: An interesting parallel that I noticed in the first season is the “Dracula-esque” vampire elements. Barnabas’s attire, history, and mannerisms all reflect the classic vampire icon Dracula played by Bela Lugosi in 1931. Just goes to show that the vampire’s traditional qualities were really cemented into popular culture.

Image result for bela lugosi dracula — Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Each episode is about 30 minutes long with anywhere from 3-5 minutes of introduction with the standard opening credits including an update from the latest episode. In these short episodes the mysteries of the Collins family and the evil-doings of Barnabas are slowly unraveled.

Acting and Overreacting: The Humor of the Scary Soap Opera Drama

The acting is usually over the top, and the camera work is not the greatest. I often noticed that the camera will jolt left or right suddenly when trying to follow characters moving around the room, or will even go out of focus sometimes. These aspects add to the series cheesy and campy feel, and while at first this drove me nuts now it keeps me laughing and on the lookout to notice these consistent mess ups.

WIKIPEDIA INFO ON DARK SHADOWS SERIES : SEASON BREAKDOWNS AND RECEPTION

Image result for why the camera work sucks in the original Dark shadows series — Character: Angelique Photo Source: pinterest.com

Conclusion: I’m Not Done Yet

Since I am not done with the series yet and I have become aware there are actually a few feature-length films that were released as well I might take my time deciding on a definitive rating. If anything I would say my rating will only be based on the plot structure and coherence of the main story.

If there are any fans of campy horrors films I would definitely recommend this series.

And if you are familiar with this show and you want to start up a convo or want me to talk about some aspect in particular to “Dark Shadows” leave your comments below!

Liked this post? Try these:

Sabrina & Hill House: Perfect for a Spooky Netflix and Chill

A Vampire Mockumentary: “What We Do in the Shadows” (2014)

Halloween Movies (part 1): My Favorite Yearly Re-Watches