Afterthoughts on the awesome Horrorthon 2007

In previous years I've noticed amusing commonalities between the movies I've viewed, and reported them at the end. If you like, you can read Horrorthon Fun Stats or Things I Learned from Horrorthon, both of which I posted last year although they actually collect incidents and observations going back to '04.

For some reason, I didn't have any such coincidences this year. In both the Hills Have Eyes remake and Hostel, for instance, you have people making it out a sticky situation but losing a couple of fingers. No such luck this time. I suppose I could note that Gojira and Godzilla had a number of similarities, but that would be cheating since they're the same movie. And really, I don't think I'll ever top the coincidence I encountered in 2004, during which I saw two people in different movies get stabbed to death by a statue of a unicorn head. You just can't make that stuff up.

Instead, I offer the following thoughts.


THE KARI WUHRER FILM FESTIVAL

I am so glad I finally got around to this, but having done so I wish the movies were better, or even awful enough to hit So Bad It's Good territory. I guess Anaconda is up there, but the rest were either "good but flawed" or just "meh." I'll think harder before committing myself to that particular kind of effort again.

It did get me through the Hellraiser and Prophecy series, and that's always good for the group. And I don't intend any kind of dis to the actress herself, who has a large body of respectable non-horror work, like video games and sexploitation movies. Okay, that was a little dis, but sincerely I mean her well. I'm glad HandsomeStan could vouch for her in-person hotness.


H.P. LOVECRAFT MOVIES
This will have to be an ongoing pursuit, as there are all sorts of short films and "inspired by" movies to check out. I also meant to view Dreams in the Witch House using Netflix's instant viewing option, only to find out too late it doesn't work on Macs. (Rat farts!) It was Stuart Gordon's entry in the Masters of Horror series, and despite his helming of Re-Animator, From Beyond and Dagon it apparently sucks (JPX's review is here).

I started reading H.P.'s stuff again after the 'Thon and I just like him more and more. If you want to check some out I recommend The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. It has the illustration above on the wrap-around cover.

Here's a breakdown of the Lovecraft movies I watched. Click on the title for the full review.

The Dunwich Horror Fairly straight Lovecraft-lite retelling but silly and sometimes boring.

Die, Monster, Die! More "inspired by" than straight story, but it has a well-interpreted mood. Good fun.

Re-Animator Fantastic, both as a Lovecraft movie and a horror movie. Classic.

Bride of Re-Animator Worthy sequel, but not as good.

Beyond Re-Animator See above.

From Beyond Decent adaptation, but sloppy.

The Unnamable Plays like an 80's teen slasher, not very true to its source.

The Unnamable II Unexpected improvement on its predecessor, goofy fun. Brave.

Dagon Excellent. Besides Re-Animator, the best Lovecraft you can see on screen.

Beyond the Wall of Sleep DO NOT WATCH UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. It will melt your dvd player and kill your pets. Seriously, avoid at all costs.

In the Mouth of Madness Not a Lovecraft movie but Lovecraft-ish. Worth seeing.

At some point later I may write more about the ups and downs of putting Lovecraft on screen; I have to mull it over for a while.


MONSTER MOVIES
I watched a good bushel of monster flicks this year and I'm going to think of more for next year. Too late I thought about screening The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which I just found out was an inspiration for Godzilla. (Apparently Ray Harryhausen hates Godzilla, since he went throught the painstaking stop-motion process and they just put a guy in a suit.)

The one lesson of monster movies is to make sure you remember to include the monster. The movies that forget this (Deep Star Six, Leviathan, The Host) always disappoint in the worst way.


YOU GUYS ROCK!
I can't say enough how much I loved the expansion of this crazy contest this year. JPX said it best when he noted that sometimes in previous years he'd come in on a Monday and be discouraged to see the most recent post would be the one he did before he left work on Friday. This year that never happened; the blog was fresh and lively all the time with new material. The only drawback was that there was less time to comment on stuff, and I intend to rectify that by going back and commenting on the stuff I was only able to quickly read. Comment dialogue is always best when fresh, but like I'mnotMarc I hope we may yet churn up some discussion. I recommend everyone skim through the October and November archives once in a while for new stuff; I know I will.


YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO ROCK
I want everyone to feel welcome to keep posting stuff. In the off season we do publish reviews occasionally (and I am hotly anticipating Jordan's thoughts on The Ring), but there's also lots of fun horror/sci-fi/pop culture shenanigans to observe and discuss. It's just slamtastic having our longtime readers as contributors, and I want that to keep going.

Horrorthon!