movie challenge 2005: chapter 1

way back in 2005, i was living in one small living room in davis, ca. i was doing little more than going to work, reading a lot of socio-political writing, walking around the city, and riding my bike. on may day, i decided i should spend my waking hours more efficiently. i decided to watch every horror film in blockbuster. in alphabetical order. by the time i moved, in june, i had only made it to “H”. but mark my words, if my life ever gets stagnant again, i will continue where i left off.

anyway… after every movie that i watched, i would write a small review. now i will share them with everyone!!!

May 1st, 2005:

i’ve decided to watch every movie in the horror section of blockbuster by the end of may. this includes those ones that you can tell are gonna be really shitty just from looking at the packaging. i don’t know if i can do it. i’ll probably go insane. or more likely, i’ll just end up hating the horror genre all together, and avoid everything horror related for at least 20 years. it’s a win win situation!!
i’ll try to post mini reviews of each one.

first up:
13 ghosts

- the original one from 1960. pretty much what you would expect it to be. it’s about this family who inherits an old mansion that was owned by a crazy uncle who was obsessed with the supernatural. not to mention, this uncle also had a treasure hidden in his house somewhere. old mr. crazy created a device used to see ghosts, and somehow captured 11 ghost from around the world and brought them back to his house. he got killed and is the 12th ghost in the house. someone in the house will soon be killed, and become the 13th ghost. the whole movie is black and white, except when ghosts appear. ‘why?’ you ask? well… the reason for this is that when you went to see the movie, you got a pair of “illusion-o” glasses. basically 3d glasses, but with one color on top and the other on bottom, so that you only looked through one color at a time. whenever someone in the film put on the ghost viewing device, you would follow their lead, and look through your very own ghost viewing glasses. if you were brave, you would look through one color, and the ghosts would appear, if you were scared and didn’t want to see the ghosts, you would look through the other. and basically the whole movie was just built around this gimmick. i didn’t have any glasses, so i didn’t get the whole experience, but it was still a fun movie.

ILLUSION-O GLASSES!!!

william castle’s introduction to the film:

May 2nd, 2005:

fuck blockbuster. they don’t open until 10:00. how am i supposed to get through every horror movie if i can’t watch one in the morning and at least one at night. i guess i’ll have to go at like midnight to get new ones everyday.

here’s a question about the movie challenge that i can’t answer myself for fear of cheating:
must i watch the movies that i have seen before? i’m not gonna re-watch the ones that i’ve rented over the past couple of months obviously, but what about the ones that i haven’t seen for a few years? it wouldn’t be a problem, and i’m looking forward to re-watching some, such as 28days later and dawn of the dead, but then i think about jeepers creepers and i start to hyperventilate. do i have to watch this again?! i’m afraid i might…. please let me know what you think.

***the general concensus was that i did not have to re-watch a movie as long as i could remember it well. and that jeepers creepers is a film that should never have been made.

scott