Volume 32 - October 2021
by Hunter Bush
Finally, the time has come! The spooky season is truly here! I know we crossed into "autumn" a few weeks ago, but it wasn't until now that I've begun to truly see the signs: My neighbor set up a giant spider on the front of their home, the local beer distributor has a bumper crop of seasonally spiced and labelled brews, and best of all, one day I pried the lid off my coffin and woke to find ...that it was chilly! So I spent the morning sipping coffee in my flannel robe! It finally feels like fall!
Did you see the Elvira 40th Anniversary special on Shudder? It was wonderful! I had actually watched Mistress of the Dark a few months back (and loved it) so I was primed for Elvira to invade my living room. She's so fabulous and pithy, and her horror host style included randomly popping into the movies to make the occasional snarky comment and I l-o-v-e-d it! I would love it if Shudder did two things: I would love for Elvira to get her own series a la The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs (and Darcy the Mail Girl), and I'd love for Shudder to give more horror hosts specials and expose them to a wider audience! I think those are very good ideas and I think Shudder should hire me. So three things.
But we're not here to talk about that, this is Everything Old Is New Again so we're here to talk about the Adaptations, Remakes, and Long-Gap Sequels based on other works that will be coming to screens great and small in the month of October, the year of our dark lord 2021. How I run things is: I watch the trailers, try to parse out what I think the movie/series is doing, and give my opinion on how it looks and if I'll see it. I'll also, down at the bottom include a few films that aren't new, but are still EOINA-friendly material that I'd like to shine a spotlight on.
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PREMIERS
All the brand new flicks and series coming to your eyes
1st
The Many Saints of Newark (dir. Alan Taylor)
Where: In theaters / HBO Max
All opinions expressed in this column are my own personal ones, obviously, AND I don't mean to yuck anyone's yum but before watching this trailer, I just did not get this. I enjoyed The Sopranos well enough (it has it's ups and downs for me) but at no point did I ever wonder "exactly how did Tony get into the business?" Not only because we've seen this concept explored in different mafia films, but even the show itself kind of covers it in degrees, right? You see characters coming up, finding their way, balancing their asperations with their ...desire not to be killed. It's, as the saying goes, a tale as old as time. BUT, there's just something about an organized crime story, which is a fundamentally American story, that appeals to most people. Add to that the candy coating of "IP characters I am already somewhat familiar with" and this seems like it'll be a hit. To be fair, it looks good. The use of The Flying Lizzards' song "Money" is a little jarring with the on screen visuals, which are largely of the '60s & '70s while "Money" was released in '79 and is inexorably linked to the 1980s. Having said all of the above, I think weirdly that now might be the exact right place for a prequel film to The (massively popular, but off the air for 14 years) Sopranos, which aired from 1999 - 2007, to drop: during the initial quarantine lockdowns, my social media feeds were awash in folks rewatching the series end-to-end, or finally finding the time to devote to the 86 episode juggernaut. So we'll see. I personally will give it a glance, but it's not super high on my list, especially heading towards Hallowe'en; it's just not the energy I'm after right now.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (dir. Andy Serkis?!?)
Where: In theaters
Meh. I never ended up seeing the original Venom (2018) so I'm not in much of a hurry to see Let There Be Carnage, both based on characters and storylines from assorted Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. I think I'm just extremely, bone-deep weary from all these CGI fight scene movies. If I'm looking at something and I know it's going to be nothing but a more expensive cartoon, I'm kind of bored of it. Granted, there's not really any way to do Venom, or Carnage for that matter, without a pantload of computer visualizations, so then the draw for me becomes the non-CGI monster-fight moments. I like Tom Hardy but this trailer doesn't make anything about this movie seem appealing to me. It seems to me to be about duality: Eddie Brock (Hardy) and Venom (also Hardy, but doing a Dr. Claw voice), or Cletus Kassidy (Woody Harrelson) and his hairpiece. Seriously though, the "humor" in this largely didn't work for me: Eddie sees that his ex is now engaged and that's, like, a thing? My dude, you have an alien monster symbiote that lives in your body and mind; you have bigger fish to fry. Get over yourself and get your whole alter ego thing straightened out. I did like that Venom is apparently afraid of Carnage because Carnage is a different species/breed of symbiote, but that's not enough to get me in theaters.
6th
Where: Shudder
The V/H/S anthology series began in 2012, with 2 further installments in 2013 & 2014 respectively. Now, after a 6+ year gap, we're getting another. The framing device here seems to be a SWAT team entering some cult-ish compound and (I presume) finding a bunch of videotapes, which will contain short found footage horror stories in bite-size installments from the directors listed above who are responsible for such flicks as Knives & Skin, The Guest, The Night Comes For Us and tons more. The cut up nature of the trailer doesn't give me a ton of idea what the shorts will be about, though one seems to be set in a funeral home during a black out, there's one that seems heavily medical in nature (and may be linked to the bit near the end where someone affixes an Mega Man-style arm cannon to themselves), and there's some good, old fashioned creeping through some underground tunnels with a monster nearby. All in all this looks really fun, though the nature of all anthologies means that there will be ups and downs. Personally, I'm super excited!
Aside: Last year I began a tradition in my house - Mt. Mausoleum - of picking themes for each day of October, to guide our spooky viewing. I made a new one for 2021 and was sure to include one spot specifically for a horror movie from the current year and I think, this time, I'm going to vote for V/H/S '94. I've included this year's in case you'd like some ideas:
8th
Muppets Haunted Mansion (dir. Kirk R. Thatcher)
Where: Disney+
Do I need to explain much about this one? It's the Muppets in a spooky Haunted Mansion (I mean, it's specifically the Disney one, but I've never been so I don't really care about the specifics of that)! It's got Will Arnett sporting a w-i-l-d moustache! It's got Taraji P. Henson moving around ethereally! It's got Danny Trejo winking at you! I guess the plot is that if Gonzo and Pepe can last all night in the Mansion, they'll get something (unclear) but if they fail they'll be trapped in the Mansion forever! The assorted other Muppets are playing various ghost parts. It's seems adorable and I'm sold.
Joe Bob's Halloween Hoedown (dir. Austin Jennings)
Where: Shudder
I have, of course, been a vocal proponent of Joe Bob Briggs and his return to screens in the recent years. In short he is someone I grew up with in reruns late night on the USA Network or TNT, and he helped open my eyes to genre cinema's highs and lows. I've diligently watched along with all of his specials and regular episodes so far on his Shudder run and even went to see the in-person Last Drive-In Mutantfest at the Mahoning Drive-In over the summer with some fellow mutants and MovieJawn Jawnies. No idea what films he'll be screening, but I will be there!
12th
Where: SyFy / the USA Network
This weekly series from Chucky originator Don Mancini starts with the premise that Jake (Zackary Arthur) finds a vintage (or "retro") Chucky doll at a yard sale. He brings it home to discover that even though it's talking and moving, it doesn't have any batteries! You see, as you may know and Jake will surely discover, Chucky is the spirit of a serial killer contained via voodoo in the form of a child's toy. I remember hearing some time ago that this series would continue where the films had left off, which involves a lot of hide-the-soul and even multiple dolls! And Jennifer Tilly! I don't want to spoil anything, even by theorizing, but the Child's Play/Chucky franchise has never failed to throw curveballs and surprises at fans, of which I'm firmly one. So if you're tuning in as I am, expect some big swings. Plus: Devon Sawa!
15th
Halloween Kills (dir. David Gordon Green)
Where: In theaters / Peacock
There once was a disturbed young boy named Michael Meyers. In 1979 he escaped containment, killed several people and attacked a babysitter named Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) who managed to fend him off. Then - if director David Gordon Green's timeline is the one you prefer - for a long time nothing happened. Until 2019, when the Michael escaped containment again and went to find Laurie. But she'd been ready and had filled her house with boobytraps, ultimately caging him in the basement and burning the house down around him. Somehow, he survived and, in this sequel which picks up immediately after the first, is still gunning for Laurie, but now also her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and, according to some expositional dialogue in this trailer, all the other people who narrowly avoided being killed by him on that night 40 years ago. I personally really enjoyed DGG's Halloween 2019, but didn't feel the need for sequels. But since we are in fact getting two, what I'm interested in is not mucking around in the tropes of the past by bringing back characters from the original. What I want is new cannon: have Laurie, Karen & Allyson work together to bring Michael Meyers down! I wanna watch Judy Greer whoop his big, mute ass with a fireplace poker! Let Andi Matichak whallop him all day with a surgical 2x4! And then let Jamie Lee Curtis pull his mask off and end this thing. I'm personally not going to theaters right now, but this is one of the films I'm most excited to see.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (series)
Where: Amazon Prime
This looks... fine. In a real case of "It Is What It Is", this is exactly what you expect from a TV series aimed at youths based on the book and movie of the same title. A group of friends on the eve of graduation accidentally kill someone with their car and dispose of the body. A year later however, someone begins taunting and tormenting them with knowledge of their crimes. As this is a series, these events will unfold slowly, across many weeks and occasionally be shoved to the wayside as these kids deal with interpersonal troubles (there's some voice over in the trailer of some female voice saying "You're totally fake. Sociopath. Drug addict. All you do is lie." before culminating with "You had sex with the one person I love." and while, yeah, that sucks, in a similar vein to Venom: You've got bigger fish to fry! This looks trashy in a way that appeals to me, but there's a lot of other series in a similar vein, so this one is low on my list unless I end up hearing great things.
28th
Horror Noire (series)
Where: Shudder
Hot on the heels of the 2019 documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, this anthology series is bringing more eyes and greater exposure to black voices in the milieu of horror. I unfortunately couldn't find a trailer for this series, but it's still supposedly dropping on the 28th. Here's hoping!
29th
Antlers (dir. Scott Cooper)
Where: In theaters
Originally set to be released in April of last year, and having endured two release date reschedulings, it seems Antlers is maybe finally perhaps ready to be seen. Based on Nick Antosca's story The Quiet Boy, this is a take on the myth of the wendigo, a hungry spirit that targets people in lonely places. Antlers is focused on Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas) who seems to be caring for someone or something that may be infected by the wendigo. When it gets loose, everything goes right to hell and local law enforcement (Jesse Plemons) and a teacher (Keri Russell) get involved, as well as a local man with knowledge of the wendigo (Graham Greene). I've written about Antlers before (maybe multiple times?) and have been eagerly awaiting seeing it, but at this point I can wait a little bit longer for VOD.
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SPOTLIGHT
A few EOINA-friendly entertainments to spookify your October.
11th
Nosferatu, the Vampyre (1979) (dir. Werner Herzog)
Where: Shudder
Actually the first version of Nosferatu I ever saw (having confused it on the video store shelf with the original), Werner Herzog's loving tribute to Murnau's 1922 silent film is beautiful. Nosferatu was based on Bram Stoker's story Dracula, but was made without rights, so the names were changed. Herzog allegedly began production on his on the day that Dracula entered the public domain so he would be able to use all the original names, and tread as close to the original text as he'd like. Klaus Kinski plays the titular vampyre with pathos and depth. While Herzog saw Nosferatu as a metaphor for change, Kinski viewed him as sympathetic and drives by forces out of his control. I haven't seen it in approximately a million years but I'm really interested in viewing it now that I have more familiarity with Herzog.
18th
Children of the Corn (1984) (dir. )
Where: Shudder
Based on the Stephen King story and co-starring friend of MovieJawn Courtney Gaines, Children of the Corn follows an unlucky couple (played by Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton) whose car breaks down in a small middle American town where a cult of children kill any and all adults, in service of their spooky eldritch deity He Who Walks Behind the Rows. This is pretty high on my list of ideal spooky season group viewing: it's the right vibe, has plenty of fun and scares and, most important to a group viewing experience, downtime in which to goof on the movie. This is classic, pre-meta horror stuff: these characters are undeniably in a horror movie and yet they remain blissfully unaware until it is almost entirely too late. Absolute chef's kiss of a movie here, folks.
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That's as good a note to end on as any, I suppose. If any of these flicks are on your personal watchlist, let me know what you think of 'em, and if you've got an October watchlist, share it my way, why dontcha?
Thank you for reading this, as always, and if you'd like more from me - aside from the many articles I have floating around on MovieJawn - you can catch me on Hate Watch/Great Watch the podcast I cohost, where we've got episodes on the Brucesploitation flick The Dragon Lives Again (a.k.a. Deadly Hands of Kung Fu) (1977) and the film that all but defines the phrase "troubled production" Wes Craven's werewolf mess Cursed (2005).
Until next time, stay spooky and Long Live the Movies!
