pumpktoberfest #26 - the body's the point.

film: jennifer's body
beer: blue point pumpkin ale

while this year's pumpktoberfest season has definitely been horrorific enough & pumpktastic enough, i was getting kind of worried that it hasn't been sexy enough. with that in mind, the other night i decided to up that sexiness with a viewing of jennifer's body, diablo cody's 2009 follow-up to her debut screenplay, the indie darling juno. her career thus far: juno, showtime's united states of tara & jennifer's body, which stars megan fox as jennifer & amanda seyfried (the daughter in big love) as her friend needy. yep, that's her name..."needy." the film's a first for me, as up until watching it, i'd never seen megan fox "act." why's that word in quotes? i think you know why.

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pumpktoberfest #25 - you so crazy.

film: the crazies
beer: chelsea brewing co. pumpkin pie ale

for the next film of the pumpktoberfest season, after an evening out last friday, i sat down & watched a zombie-esque picture that came out this past february called the crazies, a remake of the 1973 film with the same name by horror legend george romero. while the original didn't do too well at the box office, it eventually became a cult classic & people are going nuts for zombie-esque creatures these days, so a remake was in order. it's directed by breck eisner, who's best known for directing one of the worst flops in hollywood history, sahara. at the moment, he's on board to direct the 3D version of flash gordon, so maybe things are turning around for him. it stars timothy olyphant (justified, deadwood) as sheriff david dutton, radha mitchell (the non-ally sheedy star of high art) as his wife judy & joe anderson as deputy russell clank.

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pumpktoberfest #24 - works on wood!

film: saw
beer: woodchuck pumpkin hard cider

other than a few exceptions here & there, over the last decade i've pretty much ignored new horror releases. in that time, one of the most successful horror franchises has been saw, the 2004 film that began as a short & six feature length films later has made almost $750 MILLION worldwide. if you've somehow avoided the films like i have, here's the premise: they all revolve around a "killer" named jigsaw who never actually kills anyone. basically, he puts people in situations where they have a certain amount of time to figure out traps & puzzles & junk. if they don't figure them out in time, they end up killing themselves. if they do figure them out, they endure a bunch of psychological & physical torture but supposedly come out with a greater appreciation for life...so he's a samaritan or something. the media LOVES to focus on the torture part though, consistently categorizing the films as "torture porn." i can say, after seeing the first one, that that categorization is way off.

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pumpktoberfest #23 - down with the king.

film: the dead zone
beer: southern tier pumking

since i'm a child of the 70's & 80's, celebrating pumpktoberfest without paying a visit to at least one story by one of the true kings of horror, stephen king, would be absolute blasphemy. with that in mind, for today's pumpktoberfest installment we're taking a look at the dead zone, the 1983 horror film based on one of his earlier novels. while i read a lot of king's books as a plucky teen, i never got around to reading the dead zone, so i was going in blind. it's one of the first few books of king's that was adapted into a film & was directed by david cronenberg, who's made a name for himself over the years with a number of largely-psychological horror films, films like scanners & the fly.

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pumpktoberfest #22 - crazy pants island.

film: dark island
beer: fire island pumpkin barrel ale

i'm not entirely sold on the whole "sci-fi horror" genre. much of the time the plots are absolutely ridiculous & not all all horror-inducing. case in point, dark island, a recent entry to the genre which came out earlier this year. it's the next film in the oeuvre of screenwriter simon boyes, the man who's brought us such gems as blood river & the devil's chair. it stars a bunch of people i've never heard of, including australian actor jai koutrae, who won an australian screen actor's guild award for his role in the 2007 short film death's requiem. didn't see it? neither did i.

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