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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pumpktoberfest #21 - lakeview.

film: friday the 13th
beer: lakefront pumpkin lager

since it's officially wednesday the 13th, today we're going to take a look at a film named for the day's evil cousin--1980's friday the 13th. it's the first in a horror film franchise that has since spawned twelve films & gone on to become one of the best known names in the horror genre. despite its prominence, i've somehow never seen any of the films. sean s. cunningham directed the original & basically created the friday the 13th franchise, coming up with the idea after being inspired by halloween, which was released two years earlier. while all the actors in the film are virtually unknown, it is one of the first films that kevin bacon appeared in, so if you're playing "six degrees of kevin bacon," you can link, um...robbi morgan to jack nicholson in only one step.

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pumpktoberfest #20 - la tête de citrouille.

film: pumpkinhead
beer: shipyard pumpkinhead ale

they sure don't make horror movies like they used to. these days, they're all about gore gore gore but back in my day, horror movies were chock full of ridiculous killers & creatures who preyed on teens. perfect example: the 1988 film pumpkinhead. it's the directorial debut from stan winston, who's better known as a special effects expert. dude's been nominated for TEN academy awards for his work, winning for aliens, terminator 2: judgement day & jurassic park. pumpkinhead stars lance henriksen, who's acted in a ton of notable sci-fi & horror films over the years (close encounters, the terminator, aliens), as ed harley, a storekeeper who lives with his son & their dog in a cabin in the backwoods. it also features a bunch of teens who basically went on to do nothing spectacular with their acting careers.

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