Halloween!

Today and tonight, we had family visiting and at least 4 sports games were watched on the giant TV. We got enough trick-or-treaters that Jason had to shut off the porch light at 8:15 (we still have a few pieces of candy left, but obviously we need those for our own treats).

It's 50-some degrees outside, and clear. I can't remember a single Halloween when I didn't need my winter coat and usually an umbrella, too! Lucky kids this year.


I made brie with pecans, chicken tortilla soup (quite spicy! It made me sweat.), hamburger tortilla pie (not quite spicy enough), a jack-o-lantern, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Plus we had chips and queso and salsa and lime beer. We are stuffed.



Usually in October, I watch lots of scary movies, and I had looked forward to it this year, too. But somehow I only managed to watch 1.7 scary movies and they were not very good! Quarantine looked interesting -- it stars Jennifer Carpenter, who you may know as Dexter's sister or one of the skinny friends on the Wayans brothers' White Chicks. It's a little Blair Witch-ish, in that it's filmed in all camcorder-style. I give it a MEH and a shrug. It didn't grab me.

I watched 7/10 of The Wicker Man, from Scotland circa 1973. A Scottish policeman receives a letter stating that a 12-year old girl has disappeared from a small, weird island known for its fruits and vegetables. He flies out to investigate, but finds the locals to be exceedingly unhelpful. Soon he discovers that they're all pagans! He thinks they're going to sacrifice the girl because they had a bad harvest! They have sex in the cemetery! He himself is like 38 years old and is waiting until he gets married to lose his virginity. Then it's May Day, and they're teaching the children -- the GIRL children -- that the Maypole is a phallic symbol, and he's trapped on the island because they did something to his plane, and then I didn't see the end. So. If it were more engaging, or if there wasn't QUITE so much folk music, or if it were funnier that he was such a prude, I would have finished watching it.

Ooh, I just read a spoiler, and it turns out that the locals need to sacrifice a virgin to appease the crops gods, and HE IS THE ONE! And, I see that the actor playing the virgin cop was 43 at the time. So, there you go. Oh, plus there is a kid named "Myrtle" but with the Scottish island accent, it took me like 8 times of hearing it to figure out what the heck her name was. So there's that. Accents always add something to scary movies.

Today, on Halloween, I thought lots of channels would be playing scary movies while I carved my pumpkin, but nope. "America's Next Top Model" had a marathon. "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" was on (which could definitely be a nightmare under some circumstances).

So, I've left the menfolk to their many sports events and am typing away while I watch the original Friday the 13th. Finally, life seems to be in order. October = scary movie. Or, in horror movie terms: Ch, Ch, Ch, Ch. Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Today I took a break from horror (sort of) to watch 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' There are two great instances of actors working together in this movie and in later movies or t.v.

Jack Nicholson is the star, and Scatman Crothers plays the night guard. They appear together in 'The Shining,' in which Scatman is Dick Hallorann and Jack, of course, is Jack. Jack gets to cause trouble for the working man in both movies!

Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd both play mental patients in 'Cuckoo,' and later appear together in the show "Taxi." Lloyd's "Taxi" character, Jim, used to give my sister nightmares. He acted crazy on "Taxi." It's a good thing she never saw 'Cuckoo!'

Now I kind of want to watch 'The Shining,' to see Jack and Dick Hallorann (Plus I LOVE it when that kid talks with his finger!), and I kind of want to watch 'An Angel At My Table,' to continue the mental hospital, electric shock, lobotomy theme. What will I choose??

Land of the Dead

I watched this one last night (again). So, this one is from 2005, and its premise is that the dead have been turning into zombies for a few decades, so the living have isolated themselves in walled cities. When someone dies, they must destroy the bodies immediately. So, these people don't make anything, grow anything, or do anything productive. They go out of the city to scavenge for food and other supplies, which they bring back into the city.



The rich live in luxury, shopping and eating well. The poor live in slums around the city. All the people have to keep them busy is vices: gambling, drinking, fighting, watching zombie fights, etc....

They've become so worthless that in this movie, the black hero is Big Daddy, the leader of the zombies! The zombies are remembering more things, and they're able to communicate, and to use tools. One of my favorite moments is when Big Daddy finds a jackhammer in the street, and he realizes what it is and how to use it. He yells, "Hah HAH!" and triumphantly waves it high in the air! My other favorite scene is when he realizes that the river bordering the city really isn't a deterrent like the humans think. He walks (with hundreds of zombies following) right into the water, and right across the bottom of the river and up the other side. The visual of all those heads calmly surfacing on the city's side of the river is so good!

There is a little kid zombie, who reminded me of Eddie Munster. He distracts a human on a skateboard so that a CLOWN zombie can come from behind and grab the human. Kids and clowns = superscary!

Since I don't have 'Day of the Dead' (which fits between 'Dawn' and 'Land'), I'll be moving on now from zombies. In 'Day of the Dead,' some military team is in an underground bunker doing experiments on zombies. They discover that zombies can remember things from before, but also that they can LEARN new skills, even if slowly. I don't remember if there are any kids in that one; it seems unlikely.

Tonight Jason and I are planning to go see the Supersuckers play at the Bluebird in Denver. A local band, The Railbenders, is opening. It should be fun. The Supersuckers are a great live band.

Ah, October!

Well, you know I was resisting the end of summer, but now I'm on board for October.

I love the tree that's in front of our house.

I love how excited I get about cooking! I want to make butternut squash pie, and squash curry, and bake pumpkin cookies, and make soups and stews, and bake bread. After a hot summer of cold meals and salads, I am always ready for hot, homey food in October.

My other October love, which you may already know, is SCARY MOVIES!!!! I love to watch them all month long. This year, I started with zombie movies.

1. 'Shaun of the Dead.' This is pretty much a British spoof of a zombie movie, but it is awesome. At the beginning, the zombies haven't even come into existence yet, but we see the people in the city as zombies, going through their boring lives without noticing anything, and living in a daze. This is absolutely an homage to George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' series. Romero liked it so much that he let the two stars of it make cameo appearances AS ZOMBIES in the newer 'Dead' movie: 'Land of the Dead.'



2. The original, 1968 'Night of the Living Dead.' I love this movie so much. One thing I love about all the Romero 'Dead' movies are that the hero is always a black man. In the 60s, that was very unexpected. The black man is always the bravest, most levelheaded, and smartest person there. He is completely disinterested in, even disgusted by, the white woman. This totally undermined all the racist expectations of the 60s. The older, white man is the biggest jerk, the most selfish, the least courageous, and the one with the worst judgment.

This movie begins with a brother and sister in a cemetery, putting a wreath on their long-dead father's grave. A man comes lurching slowly toward them, and Johnny teases Barbara, who is freaked out in the cemetery. "He's coming to get you, Bah-bah-rah! They're coming for you, Bah-bah rah!" in an ominous voice. Well, that lurcher IS coming for her! He grabs her, and Johnny has to fight him off. Once the zombie gets Johnny's glasses off, it's all over for him. In 'Shaun of the Dead,' the two guys are going to rescue Shaun's mom, so they call her up to tell her they're coming. "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" yells Ed. :)

There is a great scene near the end of 'Night' with a little child zombie! Kids are so great in horror movies. They can always take the creepy up a level or two!



3. 'Dawn of the Dead.' Now it's 1979, and the zombies are coming (but it doesn't carry on as if they've come 11 years before -- it's like: what would happen if they came in 1979 instead of 1968?) So, our human protagonists are two white guys, a white woman, and a black man. The men are two military members and a pilot, so they're able to stay pretty calm and make strategies and use weapons.

They decide to hole up in a shopping mall, which were kind of new then. Zombies are flocking there, since they vaguely remember loving to shop. They just want to do things that they like, and also kill people and eat their flesh.

The humans find a way to live safely for months, and they VERY much enjoy stealing tons of stuff from the mall, until a traveling army of humans comes and wants to pillage the mall. But first, the army plays with the zombies. They steal a zombie woman's jewelry, which makes her scream instead the usual "unnh." They find cream pies and throw them in zombies' faces! They spray them with seltzer! What the heck, Romero? This one is obviously a jab at Americans for being so consumption-driven, so why the slapstick comedy?

My favorite zombies are a nurse, who keeps her little white hat on her head and CLEAN for months, and the Hari Krishna monk who tries to kill the human woman. I love the zombies riding the escalators up and down, and trying to ice skate. I love the zombie who goes to the pay phone, picks up the receiver, and then just looks at it sadly.

This one has a brief appearance by TWO zombie kids, taking it up a notch.

I'll be back with more movie-watching updates soon.