It’s Friday…
Ahem…I mean Frightday…
And I have some recommendations for you to enjoy this weekend…
Okay…This Frightday’s theme is…
3 Is A Magic Number.
There you go…
Just in case the title of today’s list of film recommendations didn’t get the song stuck in your head…
So what is it about the number 3…
That makes it so…
Well…
Um…
Magical?
There is no reason for the third film in a series…
To wind up being even mildly entertaining…
Or even halfway decent for that matter…
But for the third film in a series…
To occasionally rise above not only its predecessor…
But sometimes even the original?
I know…
It seems outlandish…
But in the countless horror films that have earned sequels…
There are…
A surprising number that happen to be the third in the series…
That stand out…
That showed us something different…
That forced us to pay attention…
Now…
This phenomenon translates to a lot of other genre films as well…
Many would argue that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is the best in that series…
And that Die Hard With A Vengeance is leaps and bounds beyond its predecessor…
Or the fact that Thor: Ragnarok, is the ass-kickingest, balls-to-the-wall wild-ride of the entire Thor series…
For me…
The first time this happened in a series…
Horror or otherwise…
Was Halloween III: Season of the Witch…
To this day…
Regardless of the vitriolic feedback that I receive…
This film did just what I described…
It stood out…
It showed me something completely different…
And forced me to pay attention…
And…
Hopefully…
The films that I am recommending to you today…
Will do the same.
So, let’s take a chronological look at the best, most frightening, and possibly even unknown to you, 3 Is A Magic Number Movies…In the years following Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Day of the Dead (1985) – Following the passing of Joseph Pilato…I was reminded of his standout performance as Rhodes…And I gave the film another watch…It is a delightfully subversive film that makes the military even scarier than the zombies…Hell…Sherman Howard’s likable performance as Bub, is still one of my favorite portrayals of a zombie…And yes…That’s what I said…A likable performance of a zombie…But that was always what the great horror filmmakers did…They always had something to say…And George A. Romero says it so well in this one…We as humans are in constant battle within ourselves…Logic battles incessantly against primal urges like violence…And those two sides are represented within the confines of that Florida bunker…The scientists…Searching for a cure…And the military…Thirsty for blood.
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987) – Next to the original…This is the one from this franchise that I visit most often…It is a perfect horror film in my humble opinion…I wouldn’t change a hair on its wee little head…The cast is phenomenal…The bringback of Heather Langenkamp as Nancy…Adds a shit-ton of street cred as well…Some absolutely incredible dream-killing-sequences in this one too…The self-sculpting little clay Freddy golem that turns Phillip into a marionette is a personal favorite of mine…Not to mention being the origin of the most quoted Freddy line in the history of the franchise…Yeah…That’s right…You know the one…”Welcome to prime time, bitch!” I’m sorry folks, but when I’m looking for a fun horror romp and it’s like two-in-the-freakin-morning…Every time…This is the one I choose.
The Exorcist III (1990) – Not just a standout film compared to its predecessor…This film is a standout…Period…Written and directed by William Peter Blatty…Yes that’s right…The guy who wrote the original source material for the first film in the franchise…This film was one of my favorite horror films from the 90’s…It was darker…Creepier…And got all up under my skin…More than most films coming out around that time…I mean you’ve got creepy-ass Mary Jackson skittering across the ceiling like a fucking water-bug…You’ve got Brad Fucking Dourif…Oh man…Oh geez…Oh come on…I forgot about that one scene in the hospital…Never mind…Those of you that haven’t seen this film yet…Take this recommendation…And when that scene comes…Let me tell you, buddy…You’ll know it.
Alien³ (1992) – I am a huge fan of David Fincher…And no…I did not become a fan of this film after watching Se7en…Or even Fight Club…I was, and am, a fan of his because of this, his first film…I found it to be unique to the other two that preceded it…This film was gritty…And dirty…And raw…And Ripley was a bald-headed bad-ass walking around a bunch of convicted rapists and murderers with a fucking baby alien queen incubating in her chest…She as a character…And Sigourney Weaver as an actor…Was at her absolute best…She had more meat to chew on in this one than any other film in the franchise…And the setting was harsh…Because Fury 161 wasn’t just a prison colony…But it was a foundry as well…Adding to the grit…Was the supporting cast of a veritable who’s who in British character actors…You had Paul McGann (Doctor Who)…Brian Glover (American Werewolf in London)…Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects)…And Phil Davis (Quadrophenia)…Just to name a few…I can’t say enough good things about this film…I recently watched the remastered Assembly Cut, on the blu-ray box-set…And gawdamn if it isn’t better than the theatrical version.
Army of Darkness (1992) – If this isn’t one of your favorite films about Ashley J. Williams…Than you are a primitive screw-head…This highly quotable followup to 1987’s Evil Dead 2…Picks up the story right where that film left off…Ash and his ’73 Olds Delta 88 go flying through a vortex to the middle ages…And that’s where this horror franchise takes a slight left turn and becomes a fantasy film…For a little while…But by the time Ash enters the windmill in the haunted forest…It delves down deep into the type of horror-comedy that we’ve grown accustomed to…In fact…It is some of the best physical comedy from any of the installments including the short-lived but awesome series on Starz…You’ve even got Ash battling a horde of tiny Ashes…Which leads to a shit-ton of hilarious hi-jinx…Gawd…I love this one…It’s goofy…It’s ballsy…It’s…It’s…Well…It’s…Groovy.
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993) – After the enjoyable…But unquestionably more mild-mannered follow-up to Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 cult classic…There was no reason at all for the next sequel to have any value at all…But it did…It even recaptured a bit of the punk swagger of the original…And it all came down to Melinda Clarke’s performance as Julie…And man…What a chick Julie is…I mean seriously…As far as girlfriends go…They don’t get much better…You see…The reason Julie looks the way she does in the cover art…Is because…To prevent herself from snacking on her boyfriend’s brains…She realizes that extreme pain takes away her urge to gorge on his medulla fucking oblongata…So she pierces herself…All over…With every fucking pointy thing that she can lay her hands on…Yep…That’s right…Julie’s a beast.
Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004) – Following the subdued sequel, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, which was heavy on the Brigitte, and light on the Ginger…This prequel…Which takes us back to the early 1800’s…Gives the audience a whole lotta Ginger this time around…And as a fan of Katharine Isabelle’s work…In my opinion…You can never have too much Ginger in your Ginger Snaps movie…This film is incredibly well shot…And recaptures that magical bond between the sisters that we experienced in the first film…That total, “it’s you and me against the world, kid” vibe that made them such a strong duo…And it is in full effect in this really cool, and totally original concept for a horror prequel…It’s almost like an alternate reality origin story…And I dug it.
Final Destination 3 (2006) – Now I love this franchise…The films in this series give you exactly what you ask for…Time and time again…Legendary kills…But the third film in this series was one of my favorites…Mary Elizabeth Winstead (10 Cloverfield Lane) stars as Wendy…She is this film’s Alex…And her vision makes people already scared of roller coasters shit their ever-loving shorts…After the initial amusement park nightmare…This one follows the standard path…Each of the survivors take turns either dodging the swing of Death’s scythe…Or letting it land squarely in their faces…Even though it is a predictable journey…There are a ton of twists, turns and unexpected setbacks along the way…Leading up to a killer climax…And an even better final scene…Give this one another look…It’s worth it.
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) – This film holds a special place in my heart…When my daughter was fifteen…We were eating dinner at a BBQ joint…And when my wife and I witnessed her devouring a piece of cornbread like she was making out with a Jonas brother…We realized that she was stoned out of her gourd…We said nothing…But following dinner we treated her to a movie night…I bought three tickets to this film…At about the halfway mark…Whilst she was pulling into the stop for Pee Pee Pants City…I leaned over and whispered…”We know that you’re high.” It was one of my most evil and proudest moments as a parent…Besides the torturing of my weed-addled daughter…This film was an unexpected treat…It is a prequel of the events of the first two films…This time…We learn about how this whole nightmare got started…And it actually started almost twenty years earlier…This one was the most frightening entry in the series, in my opinion…It’s because of the kids, man…There is something about when kids are the ones in danger that the stakes are always just a bit higher…I enjoyed the first film…But with the second installment, I started to feel like the excitement that I felt with the first film could not be recreated…I was dead wrong…This third film had me, and my stoned daughter, on the edge of our seats the whole damn time.
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) – This third film in the Insidious franchise marks the directorial debut of Leigh Whannell…The man responsible for writing not only this series…But also the first three Saw films…He followed this film with his sophomore effort as a director…Upgrade…And has already proven himself a worthy filmmaker…This film is not only a prequel to the first two films…It also marks the introduction of our trio of supernatural soldiers…This is the one where ghost whisperer extraordinaire Elise, played by Lin Shaye…Meets up and joins forces with Tucker, played by Angus Sampson, and Specs, played by the writer and director himself, Leigh Whannell…For this franchise…This trio is our Scooby Gang…Our Winchesters…And peering through the window, parting the curtains, and watching their introduction was…Well…It was kinda fucking awesome.
Naked Lunch (1991) – Here’s my bold statement of the day…This is 
The Video Store Clerk 