I think it's fairly safe to assume most people haven't seen the majority of the Night of the Living Dead sequels, Dawn of the Dead being the exception. That's just kind of how it goes, right? Tell people the upcoming Hellraiser film is the 11th in the franchise and their eyes go wide. Even I haven't seen most of these zombie films before watching them for October of the Living Dead. But I found myself surprised at how much I liked Day of the Dead! The zombie costumes looked better, the pacing was better, and Bub was a precious cinnamon roll that I would die for. Who's that? Well...
drama
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Welcome to October of the Living Dead! In keeping with my tradition of devoting the spookiest month of the year to a film franchise--in 2020 it was October of the Corn and last year it was The Hellbound Halloween--this year I'm focusing on... Night of the Living Dead and Return of the Living Dead? Okay, sure. Those are closer to a top tier horror franchise than, say, any of the Children of the Corn films. And who knows, maybe by the end of this I'll like zombies more! Probably not, but it could happen!
Highlander (1986)
Some movies become so ingrained in the cultural collective that we almost forget they're a movie. Like, my friend had never seen Highlander and knew next to nothing about it, but even he had heard, "There can only be one." But Highlander is indeed a movie, and one I hadn't seen in something like two decades, so I figured it was time to rewatch it. And it was totally worth it, if no other reason than I got to see goth biker Mr. Clancy Brown. You can see it, but I'm swooning.
Devour (2005)
Even with Movie Night taking a hiatus and then back with a relaxed schedule for a while, I still watch a lot of movies in a year. I don't mean that so much as a brag, but as a defense in this case. Devour is a psychological horror film starring Mr. Jensen "Dean Winchester" Ackles, and its poster caught my eye enough that I put it on for Movie Night. Simple enough, right? Well, turns out we had watched it back in 2018 and none of us remembered a single detail about it. Not the best look!
Becky (2020)
I feel like I usually have a fairly good idea on what a movie is about just from the premise. Not specifically every twist and turn, but for the most part I can watch a trailer and figure out if the movie's going to be a trainwreck or not. And I absolutely expected Becky to be a disaster. All you have to do is look at Mr. Kevin James and the swastika tattoo on the back of his head! Paul Blart as a neo-Nazi, trying a serious role? Bound to be a disaster. So imagine my surprise when this movie was not only not bad, but actually kind of good...
Twisted Pair (2018)
I honestly don't know what to say about this movie. Neil Breen is an auteur with a specific vision on the merging of humanity and advanced technology, and he wants to share that vision with us. Doesn't matter that he's an awful filmmaker and his movies are utterly incomprehensible, I guess.
Purple Hearts (2022)
Updates are gonna be spotty for a while. Such is life. But Purple Hearts pissed me off enough that I had to take time out of my actually busy schedule to rant about it.
Time Bandits (1981)
You know it's been a hell of a week when Movie Night is just dedicated to actors who have recently died. Case in point, Mr. David Warner passed away at the age of 80, just shy of his 81st birthday (which is today, by the way). There were so many things we could've watched to remember him--one friend suggested Tron, I had In the Mouth of Madness queued up, and there was the possibility of just watching several episodes of Batman: The Animated Series that featured Ra's al Ghul. But in the end it turned out that most of us hadn't seen Time Bandits, so we went with that. And it was goofy fun!
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
COVID fucked up a lot of stuff. Case in point, Marvel celebrated the release of Thor: Love and Thunder because that meant they had finally caught up with all the projects announced at San Diego Comic Con 2019 (that had a release date). November 5, 2021? Whoopsie! But it's here now, and it's getting... very mixed reviews. And I kind of agree. To an extent, at least.
Arrow – Season 2, Episodes 1-2
Oh man, it's been a minute. Remember back when I would occasionally talk about TV shows? I mean sure, I did wrap up Centaurworld after coming back from my hiatus, but it's been a year since I last talked about Arrow. Similar to how my work schedule has made it hard to watch movies while giving me time to read comics on the clock, squeezing in a 42 minute TV episode isn't too difficult. And so I'm continuing my coverage of the expansive Arrowverse! But first, a recap of season 1.
Chwineka Watches 