pumpktoberfest #43 - treat yoself.

film: trick 'r treat
beer: midnight sun brewing T.R.E.A.T.

OMG it's our final horror film-pumpkin beer pairing & our final post of the 2012 pumpktoberfest season! get all the crying out now, dude. there's always next year & we've got things to discuss here, important things like trick 'r treat, a straight-to-dvd horror film that came out back in 2009. it's the only directorial effort from by some guy named michael dougherty, a creepshow-style anthology pic with four different horror-filled stories. unlike creepshow, the stories here are loosely woven together, resulting in a pleasing "ooh, i've seen this stuff before" sort of feeling by the end. each story also includes an appearance from the "sam" character, a tiny, boylike figure who wears a burlap sack over his head.

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pumpktoberfest #42 - creepy ass kids.

film: hansel & gretel
beer: elysian hansel & gretel

loyal eat!drink!snack! followers! in normal years (like ANY other year but this one) pumpktoberfest ends PROMPTLY after october 31st. NOT THIS YEAR, FOOL! you see, this year i was SUPER LAZY & at the end of the month, when i was planning on dropping my final four pumpktoberfest gems on yo ass, a stupid mutha fuckin' hurricane came rolling through. call me "crazy" but during & especially right after that shizz, i wasn't exactly in the mood for blogging. i've decided to get back on the horse today though...so pumpktoberfest ends on november 10th this year! decades from now, when historians write about my blog, this'll be one of those sweet ass barry bonds-type asterisk years.

SO! next up on the pumpktoberfest docket is a wacked-out retelling of a classic german fairy tale, the 2007 korean horror film hansel & gretel. if you're not familiar with the classic hansel & gretel story, you're probably an ALF & the fringe team is being sent to your door post haste, but i'll fill you in while you await their arrival. as the tale goes, a brother & sister head out into the woods & come across a cabin inhabited by a cannabilistic witch. since they're kids & she's just a crazy witch living alone in a cottage in the woods & noshing on children, they're EASILY able to outsmart her & burn her in the oven. so yeah...it's TOTALLY a kids story.

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pumpktoberfest #41 - home on deranged.

film: deranged: the confessions of a necrophile
beer: ithaca country pumpkin ale

today's pumpktoberfest pairing is one that was driven by the pumpkin beer, with its (in my mind obvious) play on the words "country bumpkin." with those two words in mind, i set out to find myself a sweet horror film set in the cutesy world of country folk. though i actually own a copy of children of the corn 666: isaac's return (thanks lil bro!), i decided against adding another children of the corn film to my pumpktoberfest resume (for now) & went with a cult horror film made in the year of my birth (1974)--deranged: the confessions of a necrophile. it's the only film ever directed by jeff gillen aka the guy who played santa in a christmas story...so, yeah.

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pumpktoberfest #40 - you so lycanthropic.

film: wolf
beer: elysian dark o' the moon

as far as horror films go, the werewolf is clearly one of the genre's classic characters, alongside faves like dracula & frankenstein. in recent days though, true blood & the twilight saga have changed the werewolf quite a bit, recasting the character as a heaving sex symbol. back in '94, before the werewolf had been perverted so, there was wolf, the mike-nichols-directed take on the werewolf story. with a cast featuring stars like jack nicholson, michelle pfeiffer, james spader, christopher plummer & richard jenkins, nichols does a fairly good job of putting a fresh spin on the werewolf tale.

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pumpktoberfest #39 - happy trails.

film: blood trails
beer: long trail pumpkin ale

i really DO love horror films. i'm willing to accept them in all their varied forms but still, i've seen some pretty awful ones in my day, films so ridiculous or boring or poorly-made that i instantly chalk them up as a waste of time & bury them deep within the recesses of my brain, never to be heard from again. this pumpktoberfest, i've already found one such film--the 2006 bicycle-themed horror film, blood trails. i mean, it's AWFUL & i'm not just saying that because i don't know how to ride a bike.

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