Quick recap: A group of friends  stay in a cabin for a weekend and have a lovely time. They learn about themselves, each other and most of all the evil demons that surround and inhabit them. Literally.

I appreciate a title that just cuts to the chase!

Fun (?) fact: During filming, Bruce Campbell had several of his teeth knocked out as well as suffered a twisted ankle. Things of that nature are bound to happen when you make a film with your best friend as director and have next to no money in your budget.

evil Homer, evil dead…shut up and let me enjoy this gif. It’s mesmerizing.

My thoughts: Hey, Bruce Campbell is in this movie! If I had to choose one takeaway from Evil Dead, it would be that. He starred in another low budget film, Bubba Ho-Tep,  and at one point visited my college town. My husband interviewed him for the paper since he always had a thing for him or something. I,however,knew nothing of him and didn’t understand the hype. Now I get it! Well, not really because this is the only movie I’ve seen of his but I at least have a point of reference in case he ever comes up in conversation. It’s the little things, you know.

how is Ash still alive?? HOW?

Evil Dead is not the sort of movie I would seek out normally. Gross out, buckets of blood kind of horror isn’t my thing mostly because too much of it desensitizes me to the scary parts and I just become bored. This movie was different because I already knew the insane amounts of blood and gore beforehand so I couldn’t be disappointed later on. Plus, the title Evil Dead just screams B-movie horror film, which are usually full of that sort of thing. What surprised me was that there were some legitimately scary scenes mixed in with all of the gross stuff. The first time one of the girls is possessed was creepy, really creepy. In fact, all of the demons freaked me out, I think because of the voices changing. They stopped being so scary once the blood starting pouring  but it was still impressive for quite awhile.

One thing that dawned on me while watching the movie was how insignificant the characters were to the ‘monster’. I’ve never really thought about it but that’s true for most horror films. The 5 friends in this particular movie have little to no personality which made it easier to watch them be mutilated in various ways. The beginning of Evil Dead was SO SLOW that by the time the horror started, I was ready. Bruce Campbell’s character Ash survived longer than anyone but I cheered him on much like I would watching a random marathon on tv.

Final review: 4/5. Scary in some parts and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Up next: I’m nearing the end of Horrorfest, but I still have a few left!

Quick recap: Years afters burning to death from a mob, Fred Kruger haunts the dreams of teenagers and murders them while they sleep.

Freddy’s here…..for hugs

Fun (?) fact: The idea of Nightmare on Elm Street comes from a real story in which 3 men from Cambodia had a nightmare and then refused to sleep. When they did finally sleep from exhaustion, the men simply died. The phenomenon is now called Asian Death Syndrome, which also sounds like a cool band name. 

SO 80s

My thoughts: I find it fascinating how, in the horror genre, it is the monster who people end up rooting for instead of the victim. Whether it be Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or Freddy Krueger, they all have some sort of a fan base. Based solely off the first Nightmare on Elm Street, I can sort of see the allure although not that much because he’s a child murderer and basically spends his time popping out and slashing teens. Busty teens, I might add.The final scene where everyone is back alive and piled into the car (which turns out to be Krueger) was the perfect amount of dark humor that made me begin to understand why so many people gravitate towards this movie.

Comparing it to Halloween, which I do because it was also about murdering teenagers, there were more scenes that creeped me out during Nightmare on Elm Street. The ‘scariest’ for me was probably when Nancy fell asleep in school and dreamed that she followed a trail of blood to the boiler room. Seeing her friend in the body bag was also sufficiently creepy. The actual murder scenes weren’t scary so much as gross. Once again, buckets of blood just doesn’t do much for me, horror wise.  I also felt a little more threatened than I did watching Halloween because everyone has nightmares so I could certainly relate to that. Luckily they don’t happen as much anymore because my mind is usually occupied with something else…….

Final review: 4/5. Also worth watching if you are into nostalgia because this movie screams 1980s!

Up next: Horrorfest…..

Quick recap: A young girl undergoes a personality change and after several tests, the doctors conclude she is possessed because that’s how medicine operated back then, I suppose. A priest performs the exorcism and everything returns to normal. Or does it???

Yes. Yes it does.

Fun (?) fact: In order to give the actors genuine reactions of fear, director William Friedkin would shoot a gun into the air right before filming.

My thoughts: Although I stand by my last post, I feel sort of silly for being so afraid of The Blair Witch Project. I’m proud to say that my fear only lasted until daybreak and then it was gone completely,so in order to make up for my scaredy cat ways, I decided to go and watch The Exorcist on the big screen, arguably one of the scariest movies every made. This is the movie that many people flat out refuse to see for fear of,I don’t know, being possessed themselves? Or maybe these people already have a phobia of split pea soup and have no desire to sit through two hours of scenes featuring it. Whatever the case might be, I was ready to scare myself silly and live to brag about it.

….And I wasn’t scared. Like, at all. I’m not really sure I believe in people being possessed to begin with, so that might have something to do with the lack of fear. Or it could be because when I look back at Regan’s transformation into demon, the first word I think of is gross, not scary. Honestly, the scariest parts for me were the hospital scenes when Chris is trying to figure out why her daughter’s personality has changed so much. As a parent, that’s a top fear of mine (no, not demon possession), that my son could get sick and I would be powerless to help him. Beyond that, though, I just don’t get the hype.  Torture Porn (think Hostel and Saw) has been a big thing for awhile, meaning the more gore, the better. A girl projectile vomiting is gross,  but not an image that would keep me up all hours of the night. After about an hour and a half of The Exorcist, I sort of became desensitized to the whole thing. I knew that even if I dwelled on a scene too much, it wouldn’t matter because it would soon be replaced by an even more horrifying scene.

Even though The Exorcist wouldn’t make my top 5 scary movie list, it’s hard to ignore its impact on society. There is such a stigma to this movie, to the point that people feel they are committing blasphemy by sitting down and watching it. If anything, however, this movie is a champion for the Catholic church, who stepped in and saved a little girl’s life. There are several scenes that would offend most people and that’s what causes the stigma, but as a whole, the movie is rather hopeful since it shows good triumphing over evil.

I’d also like to add that, minus all the gross out/blasphemous scenes, the movie is fascinating. It made me want to research the history of people believing they are possessed as well as the Catholic Church’s stance on exorcism. I loved the character of the priest Demi and his crisis of faith. I believe that alone would be a compelling enough of a movie. On the other hand, the gross scenes are an art of their own, showcasing techniques that no one had ever done before. I was absolutely shocked to see that The Exorcist came out in 1973 because it seemed so modern, compared to other films around that time.

Final review: 4/5. I watched the director’s cut at the Alamo Drafhouse and I have to say, I disagree with putting the ‘spider walk’ scene back in. It doesn’t fit and just seems to be thrown in there for one last scare.

Up next: more Horrorfest