The Dark Half, 1993 / Trick r’ Treat, 2007 / Dracula, 1931

31. The Dark Half, 1993 /  Trick r’ Treat, 2007 / Dracula, 1931

Alright Halloween night, watching horror movies and drinking and eating chips with -mo, and I wish we had candy corn and more things, but I’m so buying candy November 1st!
Lets start!

The Dark Half, was all kinds of boring! I wish I had the Stephen King Movie Adaptation Drinking Game at hand, we were just drinking like random and then we ran out of booze before we were half done with the movie. But yeah, the special effects were dated and the dialog was so forgettable I don’t remember anything BUT the police enforcement of that movie was particularly shitty and stupid. I can’t believe this was a Stephens King story AND directed by George A. Romero.

P.S. The story is about a writer (of course), and he’s confronted to sign a book with his pen-name, the photo on the back of the book is Stephen King himself.

Moving on!

Trick r’ Treat was FUCKING AWESOME, entertaining and fun and stuff.

The scares were fun and the story was creative and while it was at sometimes predictable, it was still very amusing and cool and I know I’m not making a lot of sense right now but it was fucking great, it reminded me a lot of Creepshow (a well done King/Romero project), the same feeling of good fun horror.

If you haven’t seen it, give it a watch, Halloween is the perfect time to watch this film. You can also go for it on Dia de Muertos on November 2nd.

P.S. Most of the Jack O’ Lanterns were made out of either foam or ceramic. An on-set joke was that no pumpkins were harmed during the making of this movie.

Last one (of the month)!

Dracula! Fuck yes Bela Lugosi kicks so much ass. It is now a tradition of mine to watch this movie every year in October, and I always watch the original version, two years ago I watched it on VHS, last year I watched it with Cinemassacre’s commentary on DVD, and this year I watched the one with the Philip Glass soundtrack.

I love this movie a lot, every time I watch it I notice something new and feels different with each ‘version’ I watch.

There is not a lot I am going to say about this movie, other than, if you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out.


P.S. I know a bunch of trivia about this movie and I don’t know what to say!
Let’s see… Here’s something, Lugosi wasn’t the first choice to play the part of Dracula, Lon Chaney was considered for the title role, but he died of throat cancer, then there were a bunch of other actors such as John Wray, Conrad Veidt, among others, Lugosi fought for the role he had mastered on stage, so he agreed to a contract paying him $500 per week for a seven week shooting. This was a small amount even during the days of the Depression. But still, he is Dracula and will always be.

The Black Cat & The Raven

A double feature starring two horror icons! Bela Lugosi & Boris Karloff!

I watched The Black Cat last night and The Raven Tonight, and I thought “well you can’t talk about one without talking about the other”.

7. The Black Cat, 1934

This film is awesome! This was the first that features both Karloff and Lugosi. Oddly enough, the black cat has little to do with the plot, but the idea of a a black cat representing pure evil sets the mood to the movie.

For it’s time it was pretty hardcore stuff, deals with death, satanism, necrophilia, murder and torture. Boris Karloff is just great, an all around badass here, he’s  the bad guy just for the sake of being evil. Lugosi’s character is a bit more complex, and his performance in this movie is just flawless.
Censors in Italy, Finland and Austria banned the movie outright, while others required cuts of the more gruesome sequences.



8. The Raven, 1935

This one was not as shocking as The Black Cat, but still it was pretty awesome, here the stories of Edgar Allan Poe have more to do with the plot.

The character Lugosi plays is obsessed by the Poe stories. Karloff has a lot less lines than Lugosi, but never the less he gives a great performance, you feel his emotion and at some point even sympathize with his character. Still, Lugosi is at his best in this movie, a lot of great deliveries.

Too strong for 1935 tastes, with its themes of torture, disfigurement and grisly revenge, the film did not do particularly well at the box office during its initial release, and indirectly led to a temporary ban on horror films in England.

The Corpse Vanishes

3. The Corpse Vanishes,  1942

Starring the always great Bela Lugosi! I gotta say it: the rest of the cast was great as well. There are a couple of cheesy lines and some acting misdelivers, but they feel natural and almost as if they were left there on purpose.

The entire movie seemed to me like the plot to a Batman TAS episode, the audience finds out who the bad guy is and how is he doing his deed, but you keep rooting for Pat Hunter (Luana Walters) to catch Dr. Lorenz (Lugosi) in the act.

Over all, a good fun movie, it is now public domain so if you have some time on your hands and you like Bela Lugosi, don’t doubt to check it out here.