What I Watched In October

There’s always the fear when a beloved property gets a new interpretation that the new version will fumble the ball. That it will focus on the wrong elements or that the flavor of the entire affair will somehow be off in a way that undermines the original intent destroying the chance for a new audience to experience the idea. I’m happy to report that THE ADDAMS FAMILY (2019) successfully gets things right in bringing Charles Addams’ creepy creations to the world of big budget animation. Pulling ideas from the original magazine cartoons and the live action television show from the 1960’s the film keeps the joy of the darker side of life centered as it tells multiple interlocking stories of the Addams crew getting to know their new neighbors down the hill. The movie starts with a slightly unnecessary origin story about Gomez and Morticia’s wedding but serves as a nice amuse bouche before settling in for the entire meal. The film is scary and funny in the way fans have come to expect and the voice talent is top-notch bringing fantastic nuance to the relationships of the family and the situations that propel the narrative. Good fun all around and I hope it does well enough for a sequel!

Some might think that was pretty audacious to assume that it would be possible to make a successful sequel a full decade after the original film came out and was an unexpected worldwide hit. But the fact is that the people who made the first Zombieland film had no idea that it was going to be a massive hit and really had no idea for a direct follow-up in 2009. Of course, the franchise hasn't been totally moribund in the past 10 years. There was a failed TV series pilot done for Amazon that showed promise but garnered little interest. That could have taken the idea into a potential fun area but maybe the concept requires more than weekly TV can allow for. Now I think we can be very happy that, if you were a fan of the first movie, the writers had as much time as they did to come up with something as fun as this sequel. ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (2019) picks up right after the first film and follows our mismatched but loveable quartet to the White House where they set up safe residence and then slowly become bored. In fact, the group dynamics eventually sends the youngest off on her own to find a romantic entanglement that home-life cannot provide. And then the happy couple of the team suffer a crisis of the marital kind making a cross-country journey necessary again. This leads to meeting new survivors in Zombieland and further funny adventures trying to keep everyone alive. This one is at least as fun as the first movie and may actually be better thought out and emotionally satisfying than its predecessor. If they are going to make another one, I hope it happens before 2029. 

The List 

THE MASK OF SATAN (1960) – 9 (rewatch on Blu) 

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

THE DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE (1974) - 7 (rewatch on Blu)

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) -6 (rewatch) 

MUMMY’S BOYS (1936) – 3 (sad attempt at comedy) 

ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949) – 7 (rewatch) 

INSEMINOID (1980) – 4 (rewatch on Blu) 

THE BLACK ROOM (1935) – 7 (Karloff period horror) 

THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) – 8 (rewatch on Blu) 

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1960) – 8 (rewatch on Blu) 

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (2019) – 8 

BEETLEJUICE (1988) – 9 (rewatch at Drive-In!) 

SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) – 9 (rewatch) 

EL CAMINO (2019) – 8 (solid coda to Breaking Bad) 

IN THE TALL GRASS (2019) – 7 (well done King/Hill adaptation) 

CONTAMINATION .7 (1993) – 3 (a.k.a. The Crawlers) Euro-trash plant monster mess) 

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTIEN (1942) – 7 (rewatch) 

ALIEN (1979) – 10 (40th anniversary rewatch on the big screen) 

MARK OF THE WITCH (1970) – 5 (OK reincarnated witch tale) 

SLEEPAWAY CAMP III: TEENAGE WASTELAND (1987) – 5 (silly but fun) 

SATAN’S DOLL (1969) – 6 (fairly sloppy Italian gothic thriller) 

THE CORRUPTION OF CHRIS MILLER (1973) – 9 (rewatch on Blu) 

MALEVOLENT (2018) – 7 (solid British ghost tale) 

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

THE ENDLESS (2017) – 7 (well done sci-fi looper) 

THE FOG (1980) – 9 (rewatch) 

THE MUMMY (2017) - 7 (rewatch) 

RETURN TO HORROR HIGH (1987) – 3 (pretty bad horror/comedy) 

BOO! (2018) – 3 (dull, slow horror tale) 

THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) – 8 (rewatch on Blu) 

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (2019) – 8 

THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN (1966) – 8  (rewatch) 

HOUSE OF THE WITCH (2017) – 4 (mediocre, tame haunted house movie) 

THE MUMMY’S CURSE (1944) – 6 (rewatch) 

THE INVITATION (2015) -8 (very good slow burn drama/horror) 

ELVIRA’S HAUNTED HILLS (2001) – 7 (rewatch)

THE UNCANNY (1977) – 6 (not bad anthology horror)