The Nicsperiment Halloween 2020 Recap
Yesterday, as I ran 11 miles around the city of Baton Rouge, I felt a strong pang of loss as I saw numerous houses taking down their Halloween decorations. We took ours down right before I left to run.
It's over.
Halloween is over.
One of the few cool things 2020 has allowed us has run its course. I almost jumped off a couple of bridges I ran over, but decided it was more important to make it home, so that I could write a recap of The Nicsperiment's big 2020 Halloween Horror marathon.
* * *
I kicked things off by reviewing Sam Raimi's original 1981 Evil Dead film, which is a ton of fun.
After that, I reviewed the okay sequel to the okay Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Part 2.
Keeping with the sequel fun, I watched the very disappointing, batshit sequel, The Exorcist II: Heretic. The locusts and sets look cool, though. I guess you could watch it for that?
After watching all these older franchise horror flicks, I felt like watching a new one, so I ventured into the ultra-violent, ultraviolet, Bliss, which is definitely a worthwhile watch for vampire and avant-garde horror flick fans. It's not a worthwhile watch if you get queasy watching someone bump the bottle of a Heinz bottle with the palm of their hand to loosen some ketchup coagulation.
Then I dove right back into classic franchise horror, with the surprisingly solid Halloween II.
I decided to mix my artistic formats, and in preparation for Netflix's new Haunting season, listened to and reviewed the Recorded Books, Inc. Audiobook version of Henry James' Turn of the Screw...which I ended up liking far more than the Netlix series (more on that later). If you think 19th Century prose is arcane, listening to this at 1.5x speed will do the trick (more on that later too!).
From there, it was a giant leap to John Carpenter's 1988 film, They Live, which I enjoyed, but feel like could have been better.
I then watched Scream 3, which I seem to like more than most people. I'm not going to correct the previous sentence.
Hanging out in the 2000's, I then finally checked out 2007's The Mist, whose brutal ending did not disappoint. No matter how dire things seem, like when Halloween is over for a whole year and you just want to jump off a bridge, wait at least five minutes before you do something rash.
After The Mist, I realized I wasn't giving zombies enough love, so I also finally watched George Romero's Day of the Dead. Not my favorite movie in that series, but I still enjoyed it.
With the current reassessment of 2009's Jennifer's Body, I also felt I should finally watch that. It's pretty good.
After that, I reviewed the okay sequel to the okay Friday the 13th, Friday the 13th Part 2.
Keeping with the sequel fun, I watched the very disappointing, batshit sequel, The Exorcist II: Heretic. The locusts and sets look cool, though. I guess you could watch it for that?
After watching all these older franchise horror flicks, I felt like watching a new one, so I ventured into the ultra-violent, ultraviolet, Bliss, which is definitely a worthwhile watch for vampire and avant-garde horror flick fans. It's not a worthwhile watch if you get queasy watching someone bump the bottle of a Heinz bottle with the palm of their hand to loosen some ketchup coagulation.
Then I dove right back into classic franchise horror, with the surprisingly solid Halloween II.
I decided to mix my artistic formats, and in preparation for Netflix's new Haunting season, listened to and reviewed the Recorded Books, Inc. Audiobook version of Henry James' Turn of the Screw...which I ended up liking far more than the Netlix series (more on that later). If you think 19th Century prose is arcane, listening to this at 1.5x speed will do the trick (more on that later too!).
From there, it was a giant leap to John Carpenter's 1988 film, They Live, which I enjoyed, but feel like could have been better.
I then watched Scream 3, which I seem to like more than most people. I'm not going to correct the previous sentence.
Hanging out in the 2000's, I then finally checked out 2007's The Mist, whose brutal ending did not disappoint. No matter how dire things seem, like when Halloween is over for a whole year and you just want to jump off a bridge, wait at least five minutes before you do something rash.
After The Mist, I realized I wasn't giving zombies enough love, so I also finally watched George Romero's Day of the Dead. Not my favorite movie in that series, but I still enjoyed it.
With the current reassessment of 2009's Jennifer's Body, I also felt I should finally watch that. It's pretty good.
At about this point, I definitely felt the season, even if I was the only person on my street to put out my decorations.
I didn't think I'd get to Netflix's The Haunting of Bly Manor during this marathon, but I did, and (as I hinted above) I HATED IT!!! So glad I found 1.5x speed to power through it. Otherwise, I don't think I'd of made it. Yes, you can 1.5x speed a show on Netflix. I'm finally starting to see the benefits of streaming.
I somehow also found the time to finish the ultra-hard Nintendo Switch platformer, Slain: Back From Hell, which I enjoyed more than the masses. Again, I won't correct the previous sentence.
Since I was about to talk about Peter Jackson a lot, I watched his 1992 nutty splatstick flick, Braindead (aka., Dead Alive), and found one of two new favorites I acquired this Halloween.
In further talking preparation (you'll see why), I watched and reviewed 1994's super goofy creature-feature, Mosquito. Don't confuse it with Skeeter. That's a different movie.
All that talking prep was in the service of this month's Filmshake, my 90's movies podcast with Jordan Courtney. This episode, we had Good Times Great Movies' Doug McCambridge on, to talk about Mosquito and Peter Jackson's The Frighteners. Listen right here!
I wrote a review for The Frighteners too. Gotta be thorough.
Instead of stopping to sleep, I just kept on going, watching and reviewing Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which I really wanted to like more than I did.
I also wanted to like 30 Days of Night more. Twofer bummer!
After all that insanity, I thought, how about I watch and review all of the Paranormal Activity movies I haven't seen in one day?!
I somehow also found the time to finish the ultra-hard Nintendo Switch platformer, Slain: Back From Hell, which I enjoyed more than the masses. Again, I won't correct the previous sentence.
Since I was about to talk about Peter Jackson a lot, I watched his 1992 nutty splatstick flick, Braindead (aka., Dead Alive), and found one of two new favorites I acquired this Halloween.
In further talking preparation (you'll see why), I watched and reviewed 1994's super goofy creature-feature, Mosquito. Don't confuse it with Skeeter. That's a different movie.
All that talking prep was in the service of this month's Filmshake, my 90's movies podcast with Jordan Courtney. This episode, we had Good Times Great Movies' Doug McCambridge on, to talk about Mosquito and Peter Jackson's The Frighteners. Listen right here!
I wrote a review for The Frighteners too. Gotta be thorough.
Instead of stopping to sleep, I just kept on going, watching and reviewing Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which I really wanted to like more than I did.
I also wanted to like 30 Days of Night more. Twofer bummer!
After all that insanity, I thought, how about I watch and review all of the Paranormal Activity movies I haven't seen in one day?!
So I did!
Here are reviews for Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, and lastly, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (which features zero ghosts).
That night, after all that activity finally ended, I took my wife to a drive-in theater showing of The Exorcist, on of the greatest horror films of all time. She loved it, and it was a total blast. I reviewed that film several years ago. Also, I used "on" instead of "one" there because during trick-or-treating this year, someone left a note on their outdoor candy bowl that said "take on please," so my son shrugged and took ten, and I just let it happen.
I kicked off All Hallow's Eve with a review of Random House's Salem's Lot audiobook. Salem's Lot is one of King's more frightening novels, with one of his best endings, though it seems like at this point he still hasn't met a real, live woman yet (at least not while sober).
I then made sure my penultimate review was a bit different: I reviewed Shirley, a non-horror film about horror icon, Shirley Jackson.
Finally, to close things out, I reviewed the 2013 Evil Dead remake, which along with Braindead, I am placing into my pantheon of favorite horror flicks.
* * *
After I finished the marathon, I watched, for a South Louisiana boy, the most horrifying thing ever: the 2020 LSU vs. Auburn football game. Then I took my kid and nieces (mostly socially distanced) trick-or-treating. I was surprised and happy to see most of my neighbors had left giant buckets of candy outside their doors. My kid racked up, as usual ("take one" indeed).
The next morning, after a daylight-savings induced coma, I woke up in the cold light of day to see my decorations waiting to be packed up and stored in the attic for another year.
I hate 2020.
But this was fun.
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