Crush your head!

Last night I did get to watch Scanners and Scanners II and I most certainly affirmed that I do indeed love the second film. It's great. I also found out that the protagonist is the guy who plays Dr. Rodney McKay in the show Stargate: Atlantis which I have just been able to watch on local US television. So that was a surprise. Now, today I got my private Halloween homepage up for my friends and fans and anyone who can divine its location. That's why I'm running so late on this blog entry. I had to do a pretty hefty search to find the stories I wanted to include for this years festivities. I knew exactly which stories but the names escaped me and so did their location in my files. I wrote these two trying to explore the usefulness of Flash Fiction. Not so useful in my opinion especially since you need to fit the idea in such a small space and describe as much as you can in a little words as possible and still paint a broad and vibrant picture.

Before I start talking about today's suggestions I'd like to point out that a number of my horror favourites aren't necessary all that straight horror alone. A number of them, especially tied to the monster type of movie, actually have a high incidence of being just as much sci-fi films. The Scanners trilogy is a good example. Another good example is my first suggestion today, which I might watch this week, Critters. Not much more sci-fi and horror than that. Carnivorous aliens land in rural Kansas (Oy! Everything happens in Kansas) and start terrorising a family. It's also another film with a bunch of sequels. I always suggest people also watch Critters II because I am very enamoured of it as well. The third I could do without, and a channel difficulty prevented me from seeing the fourth installment for nothing so I still haven't seen it.

These are all well enough known titles. Now I think its time to look toward something a little higher on the horror food chain. Hi-dee-ho ha ha ha! It's Chucky. That's right, Child's Play, an obvious classic. I was always conflicted over whether I liked the first film or the second one best. My favourite part of those two films is the sheer utter relentlessness of Chucky; not bleeding gunshot wounds, ripped off hands or--well let's not throw out any more spoilers--can keep that nasty little rubber-headed maniac down. The third installment in the franchise didn't do much for me at all. Now, Bride of Chucky, that was coolness exemplified. As always, being behind, I have yet to see Seed of Chucky.

Turning in a slightly different direction, how about something a little off the beaten path? Something not everyone will be aware of, and seen suggested by everybody and their horror movie watching hamsters. Everybody knows who Robert Englund is and has seen him countless times under layer upon layer of latex rubber sporting his red and green sweater, dirty old brown hat, and finger-knives. Not everyone knows though that Robert stepped behind the camera and directed a film. It's called “976-EVIL” and its about an evil phone service, and no I don't mean porn. Hell has a horoscope service, conveniently giving out what it calls horrorscopes. There's a fair bit of negative chatter about this film, but that is par for the course with anything that doesn't spawn sequels or gain full-blown cult status. I love it, it's a great flick. I especially love the work of the lead actor, Stephen Geoffreys as Hoax. Look for the cameo scene with Robert Picardo, whom I'll tell you about another day.

Again tomorrow, my fresh little corpses.

Mood: Fergusony
Music: Love You to Death by Type O Negative and Cold Ethyl by Alice Cooper