pumpktoberfest #22 - crazy pants island.

film: dark island
beer: fire island pumpkin barrel ale

i'm not entirely sold on the whole "sci-fi horror" genre. much of the time the plots are absolutely ridiculous & not all all horror-inducing. case in point, dark island, a recent entry to the genre which came out earlier this year. it's the next film in the oeuvre of screenwriter simon boyes, the man who's brought us such gems as blood river & the devil's chair. it stars a bunch of people i've never heard of, including australian actor jai koutrae, who won an australian screen actor's guild award for his role in the 2007 short film death's requiem. didn't see it? neither did i.

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pumpktoberfest #21 - lakeview.

film: friday the 13th
beer: lakefront pumpkin lager

since it's officially wednesday the 13th, today we're going to take a look at a film named for the day's evil cousin--1980's friday the 13th. it's the first in a horror film franchise that has since spawned twelve films & gone on to become one of the best known names in the horror genre. despite its prominence, i've somehow never seen any of the films. sean s. cunningham directed the original & basically created the friday the 13th franchise, coming up with the idea after being inspired by halloween, which was released two years earlier. while all the actors in the film are virtually unknown, it is one of the first films that kevin bacon appeared in, so if you're playing "six degrees of kevin bacon," you can link, um...robbi morgan to jack nicholson in only one step.

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pumpktoberfest #20 - la tête de citrouille.

film: pumpkinhead
beer: shipyard pumpkinhead ale

they sure don't make horror movies like they used to. these days, they're all about gore gore gore but back in my day, horror movies were chock full of ridiculous killers & creatures who preyed on teens. perfect example: the 1988 film pumpkinhead. it's the directorial debut from stan winston, who's better known as a special effects expert. dude's been nominated for TEN academy awards for his work, winning for aliens, terminator 2: judgement day & jurassic park. pumpkinhead stars lance henriksen, who's acted in a ton of notable sci-fi & horror films over the years (close encounters, the terminator, aliens), as ed harley, a storekeeper who lives with his son & their dog in a cabin in the backwoods. it also features a bunch of teens who basically went on to do nothing spectacular with their acting careers.

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pumpktoberfest #19 - take me to the river.

film: mega piranha
beer: river horse hipp-o-lantern imperial pumpkin ale

when it comes to making a horror film, sometimes it helps to serve it up with a big ol helping of cheese. when it comes to movie cheese, the asylum, a movie studio that's known for films such as transmorphers, titanic II & mega shark vs giant octopus, takes the proverbial cake. one of their latest gems is their 2010 film, mega piranha, which shows what happens when piranhas mutate & grow to ridiculous proportions. it stars paul logan as special forces member jason fitch, former teen pop star tiffany as genetics researcher sarah monroe & barry williams (greg brady) as secretary of state bob grady. it premiered back in april on syfy & due to its high quantity of awesomeness, it got the channel's highest ratings of the year, as 2.2 million people tuned in. oh snap, ghost hunters! you got beat by a bunch of fish!

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pumpktoberfest #18 - zombified!

 

film: zombieland
beer: buffalo bill's brewery pumpkin ale

dude. why are people so friggin obsessed with zombies? i mean, these days peeps organize "zombie crawls" in cities all across the country, events where people dress up like zombies & roam the city "looking for brains." there was a bunch of buzz last year when pride and prejudice and zombies, a novel which puts the classic jane austen tale in a world filled with zombies, was released. over the past decade, there have been a ton of zombie films made, stuff like 28 days later and shaun of the dead. i don't get it really. i guess zombies are kinda cool, but if i'm picking something to obsess over i'm going with ninjas or pirates.

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