31 Days of Horror - Day 8

I'm not feeling particularly profound today as far as horror goes.  It's an off day, I'm tired, and the story telling drive feels like it's escaped me for today.  I've also watched a crap load of bad movies this month, so may it's just a temporary stomach ache from too much Cinema Fromage.

Today found me at home, working away while movies played on in the background.  At one point, while flipping channels, I thought back on the article I posted earlier this week and our plethora of choices in the digital age.  While yes, I do enjoy the wealth of choice available to us, sometimes I miss the simpler days where the choices could be made for us.  I miss the days of a dedicated horror movie channel that wasn't censored.  I miss Monsters HD! 

Somewhere in the early 2000's, Dish TV offered a special HD package called Xoom.  It was the early days of HD, the TV's were huge and expensive, and all your local carriers weren't quite carrying HD content yet.  Xoom offered an assortment of high definition channels that covered the gamut from horror movies to golf.  The channel was solid, with a rotating line up of uncensored films that changed from month to month.  During the day, you were treated to lighter fare when the kids were awake, things like "Godzilla" and "Gamera" and "Mad Monster Party".  As the evening hours drew near, you might receive a few episodes of a genre TV show, but then around seven PM the movies would kick in. 

The beauty of Monsters HD at the time, was that it was all horror, all the time.  And they didn't cheap out and give just bottom shelf direct to DVD titles either.  Sure, those titles were on there, but there was so much more.  They ranged from "Friday the 13th" to "Night of the Demons", even the original Italian "Demons" would show up from time to time.  These movies were always commercial free too, which was nice.  Sadly, the parent company Xoom eventually broke down, and our HD channels were taken away as carriers world wide began carrying HD content regularly. 

Today, we have some options.  Things like Chiller exist, yet its programming is censored and cut down.  It's far to safe and vanilla and just not very exciting.  Plus, the films that they show are just not very good.  There was an attempt at a full fledged and eponymous "Horror Channel" for awhile, but their launch day came and went and soon their website faded and they were never heard from again.  Fear.net was our closest venture, a channel existing on On Demand offering up random horror films at the push of a button.  They sometimes brought some good choices, but often there were the third sequel in a series that you might not have heard of.  Still, they had the strongest potential, yet sadly, they no longer exist in Video on Demand.  In Digital Cable land, channels such as HBO and Cinemax have their own horror channels, but unless you wish to pay the premium for their sub par selection, you're out of luck. 

Thankfully, as I said before, we don't have to worry to much about options.  It's the digital age and we have movies everywhere.  There are times though where making a choice is hard.  I miss a channel that I could leave on and have a better than 75% chance of something good coming up on the rotation.  Instead, I'm left scrolling through Netflix and Plex with a constant stream of "Hmm, maybe next time" running through my problem. 

Granted, it's a good problem to have!  Sometimes, we movie nerds can just be lazy though. 

Night of the Demons

Oh Angela, oh Linnea, oh "Night of the Demons"!  Truly a formative part of my growing up to say the least!  The movie was always fun in it's cheesy little way with a story that was a nice change from your standard slasher fare of the time.  Sure, Jason, Michael and Freddy were great, but Demons, that's a whole other brand of evil.   

Some of the effects in "Night of the Demons" were fantastic in their own right, such as that quintissential Linnea Quigley lipstick scene.  Many of them still age well and hold up to today, if the jokes and fashions don't. 

Night of the Demons 2

As much as I loved "Night of the Demons", I was never truly aware that there were two sequels to the film!  After watching the sequels...they were probably better off forgotten.  But, they still had their charm.  "Night of the Demons 2" takes a weird turn to a catholic school, yet still finds its way to Hull House from the original.  The outside of the house still appears to be the same as well!  The interior shots are quite a bit different, but the iconic furnace door in the basement makes a return.  

This film arrived six years later, but they still got the original Angela to return with it.  Which is cool, as she's pretty great.  Also worth a chuckle here, Christine Taylor of "Brady Bunch" fame makes an appearance here.  From looking at her IMDb page, this isn't even her first feature, so she chose this on purpose! 

Night of the Demons 3

We're back at Hull House once again, this time the story setup is back to basics, but a bit more contrived.  We have a group of troubled teens who accidentally shoot a cop hiding out at Hull House until the heat blows over.  Which is of course, a big mistake beacuse Angela still live there.  The Angela.  The same actress!  Kudos to her for coming back for all three flicks.  Otherwise, the action, story and gore are all rote repeates of the first two movie, so nothing new and or exciting in that vein.  The show carries on a bit too long and after a while, it because a phase as my eyes begin to blur. For this movie, we get to see a very very young Kris Holden-Reid who now appears as a regular on Syfy's "Lost Girl" and the recent zombie flick "The Returned" and various "Underworld" flicks. 

Freddy Vs. Jason

You could argue that "Freddy Vs. Jason" isn't exactly 'canon' for either franchies, but I say bully to that.  Why not enjoy the ride?  After all, we dreamt through the entirety of the 80's for these two juggernauts facing off.  Surprisingly, it turned out quite well!  The film works as both a Freddy AND a Jason movie, which is an impressive feat.  It has some fun kills from either side and made for a good time at the theater.  Here, we see a young Jason Ritter and Katherine Isabelle, though it's not quite as surprising because Ms. Isabelle was already known for "Ginger Snaps" by now and Jason Ritter, is just now coming to his own.  Dude looks a hell of a lot like his dad though!