Crazy Movie Weekend: Halloween Horrorfest 2!

After a date kerfluffle we managed to gear up another Crazy Movie Weekend - this one the second (annual?) Halloween Horrorfest.

It was another great weekend, it seemed to go well for everyone - across another golden chain of  thirteen movies there was much laughter; a lot of salty talk; some eyes averted; scads of salty snacks; not surprisingly only a little sleep each night; and a S'mores dessert pizza. What more could anyone ask?


The shindig kicked off Friday night with my movie pals Sandra and Ray as the first attendees. I wanted to start the weekend off with a trip to Haddonfield - as a Halloween movie is the right way to get his kind of film fest going. I was thinking of starting with Halloween III: Season of the Witch (I know - it doesn't take place in Haddonfield) but Ray and I had taken in the 34th anniversary showing of John Carpenter's Halloween the night before on The Big Screen - and with the brand new Blu-Ray edition of Halloween II newly arrived in the video vault - it got an encore screening - it was also featured in 2011's CMW:HH! - but for this year's show it was the first feature.

Our second annual Papa Murphy's Take-n-Bake Jack o'Lantern Pizza was our main munchie Friday night.

Halloween II (1981)

Michael Myers himself and Ray's good friend Jack herald in the start of the 2012 Horrorfest Body Count - with that Myers lad hitting double digits in his sophomore effort. This one went over well, especially in the pristine new Blu-Ray edition.

Waxwork

Next up was 1988's Waxwork - and we were joined by my nephew and movie pal James near the end of this one. This one racked up a HUGE body count - and was well received by the crowd with its practical makeup effects and sense of humor.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

My wondrous wife Suze joined us for some classic horror comedy - and Mr. Lawrence Talbot himself showed off the movie's amazing Body Count of one - the new lowest record, by the way, which I hope it holds onto for a long time...(of course, I could always show Poltergeist III next year, which will take the record with its groundbreaking Body Count of ZERO.)

 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

We wrapped up Friday night with the always polarizing third entry in the Halloween series - would my crew go for its one-off story of mad mask maker or would the lack of Michael Myers mar the massacre? Well, I'm happy to report that it got pretty positive reviews all around!

Intermission

I was really nervous about this whole thing - because in the days leading up to it that nasty Hurricane Sandy was making her way right towards us. I was hoping the forecasts were correct and that the storm would skirt around us - because trying to watch movies with the power out due to a big storm is really a bummer.

Thankfully, the storm did completely miss us - we got a little wind and a little rain - but nothing big at all - how I wish it could have missed the Northeast as well - and I'm very sorry for all they had to go through (and are still going through). I've been through a few serious hurricanes here, they are scary.


We had the windows open in the late morning as the winds picked up a bit and the rain was picking up a bit - and we suffered our only storm related damage:

Michael Myers was taken out. Look at his little knife laying off to his side...

On with the show!

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Saturday morning we kicked off bright and early with James and Sandra as the view crew for feature one - George Romero's classic zombie apocalypse sequel. Sadly, this one did not go over all that well, scoring a little better with James. It tanked with Sandra.

Amusement

This was went over exceptionally well. We were joined by new movie buds Andy and Melissa near the end of this one. Mmmm...Fritos....

Dead and Buried

Sandra becomes the first human Body Count Model after 1981's Dead and Buried, which was a hit with the crowd. Ray came back by in the middle of this one.

Bikini Bloodbath

I had picked up a movie called Bikini Bloodbath Christmas for cheap earlier in 2012 - and the box art made the movie look like a lot of fun. I consequently tracked down the other two movies in the series - the original Bikini Bloodbath and Bikini Bloodbath Carwash and added them to the video vault. This one was meant to be our big Boobs-n-Blood feature - much like Zombie Strippers had been the previous year. Sadly, the movie was not as much fun, and rated poorly around the room - with Sandra being its harshest critic and calling it the single worst movie in Crazy Movie Weekend history. Body Count Model Ray didn't mind the movie - but then as you can see by this point he was feeling no pain.

When this picture made the rounds - someone commented on it - "you're watching movies and drinking with Oliver Reed? Wow!" which I thought was hilarious. I'm not sure I even mentioned it to Ray!

Hatchet II

A much better experience came with Adam Green's sequel to his horror hit - which had been well received in 2011's CMW: HH. Hatchet II was a crowd pleaser - and afterwards Body Count Model Melissa made fun of star Danielle Harris's constantly raised eyebrow which had annoyed her and Sandra. Strangely, none of the guys in attendance even knew Danielle Harris HAD eyebrows.

Blood Cult

Our VHS entry was the legendary first movie released direct to video - the incredible shot-on-camcorder Blood Cult. And by incredible I mean crappy as hell. Still, this is a good crowd flick - as it allows much bonding over the non-stop insults directed at the movie. Body Count Model James does his usual "dead guy" shtick - which when posted around prompted famed author (and co-writer of Scalps) T.L. Lankford to comment: "Looks like 142..."

From a Whisper to a Scream

We closed out Saturday night with the anthology flick also known as The Offspring. In addition to its gory thrills, this got us another classic horror icon with the appearance of Vincent Price in the framing story. I was thrilled that everyone still awake liked this flick. And although he didn't appear in the Horrorfest (THIS year), my Marx company Creature from the Black Lagoon waves a jaunty hello as the model for this shot.

2000 Maniacs!

We kicked off Sunday with a couple of Elvira movie trailers - to allow her to appear somewhere in the weekend. I had hoped to show Elvira: Mistress of the Dark - but time was running at a premium with people having to gear up to head home and James jonesing for his weekly football fix. So we got her in with a couple of previews, then moved on to some Herschell Gordon Lewis gore. Ray came back in the middle of this one, and gave us our largest group - me, James, Sandra, Andy, Melissa, Ray, and my wife were all taking this one in. Blood Feast had been a crowd pleaser the previous year - this one was only a modest success with the viewers this year. Body Count Model Andy gives a cheeky grin in Melissa's hat. At least, they said it was Melissa's hat...

Feast

We ended on a high note with John Gulager's smartass creature feature - I knew the movie's attitude would go over well with this bunch, and it did. It also topped us off on bodies to 175 - beating last year's 137 by a considerable margin in the same number of movies. I jumped in as the last Body Count Model even as Feast's credits were rolling up the screen.







And there you have it - good old fashioned horror bumping up against the splatter of recent times - and a good time was had by all - until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!