31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 13: Friday the 13th Part III

Thirteen sentence review:

Is there any franchise more appropriate for today’s festivities than the one that made Jason Vorhees a household name? No! Of course not. Today we celebrate hockey masks and burlap sacks and machetes and Crazy Ralph and Corey Feldman and uppercuts that knock off heads and cryogenic freezing and so much more. But specifically today I’m celebrating my favorite entry in the series: Part III. 

The third installment is the first to feature Jason’s hockey mask. It has an awesome opening credits song that perfectly sums up 80s horror. Plus, it came out as a 3D experience back when that didn’t mean shelling out an extra $4 and had everything to do with being gimmicky. Throw in a good axe to the head and a seemingly misplaced but totally necessary biker gang stand off and you’ve got yourself a hit.

I recently found a DVD copy of Part 3 at a badass antique shop that has two great horror themed booths. The DVD was only $3 and included TWO PAIRS OF JASON THEMED 3D GLASSES. That is what we in the thrift shop biz call a “come up”. 

Hopefully your Friday the 13th is filled with merriment and joy. And hopefully Jason’s is ripe with sinful camp counselors. 

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 12: IT (2017)

Three sentence review:

Yes, I did see IT the weekend it was released and yes I’m thrilled that it just passed $300 million domestically and YES – I have two more run-on sentence thoughts. Bill Skarsgard is a fantastic Pennywise, but the BEST thing about Andy Muschietti’s IT are the kids – particularly Finn Wolfhard who plays Richie Tozier and had me howling laughing in the theatre. I loved Chapter One of IT and think Muschietti’s vision did Stephen King proud, yet I wish Mike would’ve gotten more attention,I wish the leper looked realistic instead of hyperbolic, and I hated the literal floating kids. 

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 11: Boy Meets World “And Then There Was Shawn”

This episode premiered in 1998 – you can tell by the number of South Park references and the Jennifer Love Hewitt appearance. Up for consideration as the best horror movie inspired sitcom episode of all time. So good!! Watch it on Hulu!

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 10: The Creature from the Black Lagoon 

Three sentence review:

I hate admitting that I’ve seen so few horror movies that were made before 1960 but I’m remedying that this year. The Creature from the Black Lagoon was released in 3D in 1954 and I have to imagine that being pretty cool despite the fact that 3D was losing popularity that year (I guess 3D has always been divisive). The Universal Monsters are all obviously super cool but to my surprise there was one scene where the Gill Man is lurking underneath a dock and I was genuinely creeped out! 

31 Nights of Horror VI, Night 9: The Houses October Built

Three sentence review:

To be honest, the only reason I’m going to watch the sequel is to see if they explain whether or not everyone died at the end of the first one. I thought The Houses October Built had a cool premise: a group of friends go on a road trip in search of the most extreme haunted attraction in the country. However, by the time they actually found what they were looking for I was so bored and I truly believe the movie should’ve been 15 min long and it would’ve been so much better. 

31 Nights of Horror, Night 8: The Devils Candy 

Three sentence review:

An unrecognizable Ethan Embry is fantastic as a metal loving Dad who moves into a farmhouse with his family that may or may not be a portal to hell. It is not a typical possession movie, however, and includes some truly creepy scenes involving the possessed former resident of the house who has his eyes set on Ethan’s teenage daughter. Ninety percent of this movie is  excellent- especially if you’re a fan of metal- and my only critique is the unfortunate inclusion of some meh CGI towards the end.