So the Coolidge Corner Theatre (ooh! British spelling! That's how you know it's an "art" cinema) is running their all-night horror movie fest next weekend. It's just crazy enough that I kind of want to do it, but I don't know if I might not be too old. I mean, I like my sleep. And I don't know a single other person dumb enough to want to do this with me. Well, anyway, I was going to write about some of these movies anyway, so here's the lineup.
1.The Monster Squad. I am very skeptical of this entry. It came out in 1987, during the years when I was an obsessive movie viewer and a bigger horror fan than I am now, and I totally don't remember it. Now, the charitable possibility is that it's for kids, and my 18-year-old self was too cool for it. The uncharitable possibility is that it's a piece of crap that's being dressed up as a lost classic to pump up the DVD sales. Still, it's presence in the rest of this rock solid lineup is enough to make me consider it.
2.Near Dark. Already wrote about this a week or so ago. Don't feel like linkin', but feel free to browse the archives!
3.Evil Dead 2. I wrote about this in It Takes a Worried Man, but briefly, a nearly perfect movie with a great balance of gross-out gore and laugh-out-loud humor. One of the best movies ever made.
4.Halloween. Much as Bob Dylan spawned scores of less-talented, unlistenable singer-songwriters, so this masterpiece spawned scores of barely-watchable slasher movies. But this particular one is great--suspenseful and spooky and not just gory. Great use of Blue Oyster Cult, too.
5.The Thing. Evil Dead 2 is a better movie all around, but this might well be the best pure horror movie ever made. It's also the only remake I can think of that's light years better than the original. It's an unrelenting tale of horror and suspense in the arctic, or possibly Antarctic. Who's really who they appear to be, and who's a bloodthirsty alien? Ack!
6.The Fly. Like most David Cronenberg movies, it's very well made, it's all about fear and horror of the human body, and having seen it, I don't feel like I ever need to see it again. I mean, it's really well done, but whereas I can watch Bruce Campbell fighting his own hand in Evil Dead 2 over and over again, I just don't feel like I need to watch Geena Davis give birth to a maggot again. But anyway, this one's running in the ten-to-noon slot, so I could duck out early and go to a kids soccer game or something. Ah, it's never gonna happen.
