It’s Friday…
Ahem…
I mean Frightday…
And I have some recommendations for you to enjoy this weekend…
Okay…
This Frightday’s theme is…
They Did The Monster Mash.
It is a rare and wonderful thing…
When more than one type of monster…
Can be found within the confines of a single horror film…
The first time I experienced this…
Was in Fred Dekker and Shane Black’s creation…
The Monster Squad…
There…
I was able to enjoy modern versions…
Of the monsters that my parents watched…
In black and white…
But here they were…
In living color…
And all in one place…
There is something genuinely groovy about a multi-cultural monster mash-up…
It’s the way these very different creatures interact with each other…
The way they get along…
Or…
The way they don’t…
Either way…
For us horror fans…
It is a truly awesome experience to behold.
So, let’s take a chronological look at the best, most frightening, and possibly even unknown to you, Multi-Cultural Monster Mash-Up Horror Films…In the years following The Monster Squad.
Waxwork (1988) – This film marks the feature film debut of prolific horror writer/director, Anthony Hickox…And what an ambitious debut it was…You’ve got a bunch of unlikable yuppie teenagers played by Dana Ashbrook (Twin Peaks), Michelle Johnson (Blame it on Rio), Zach Galligan (Gremlins), and Deborah Foreman (April Fool’s Day)…Who enter a wax museum run by David Lincoln, a sort of deranged, secondhand Willy Wonka…Played to perfection by the perpetually creepy, David Warner (Time Bandits)…Lincoln’s museum is filled with a multitude of multi-cultural monstrosities like…Zombies…A werewolf…A mummy…The Phantom of the Opera…And even…Count Dracula! Now this may seem like a rip-off of The Monster Squad…But trust me…As these spoiled brats breach the barrier to their respective displays in the museum…The journeys that each one of these douchey teens goes on…Sends them to a destination where they are immersed in the world of that specific monster…This is a fun 80’s horror-comedy that I revisit fairly regularly.
Nightbreed (1990) – In this multi-cultural monster movie from the macabre mind of Clive Barker…We meet Boone, played by Craig Sheffer (Hellraiser: Inferno)…A cat who dreams of Midian…A mythical city where the monsters go…Boone was at one time under the psychiatric care of, Dr. Phillip Decker, a man we discover is an artery-frosting, masked slasher…This cold, calculated character was portrayed, like no one else could have, by the King of Body Horror himself…David Cronenberg…I did a list of the scariest Masked Killers Who Weren’t Jason Voorhees once…And this creepy motherfucker made it all the way to the top…Once Boone is manipulated and framed by Decker…He finds his way to Midian…A seemingly abandoned graveyard…That in actuality is a network of catacombs filled to the brim with every monster imaginable…This monstrous community is led by a messianic monster named Lylesberg, played by Doug Bradley who stars in a Clive Barker film without a single pin sticking out of his head…This film was completely shat upon by both critics and viewers at the time of its release…But you know what I say…I say…Fuck those guys.
Undead (2003) – Before the Spierig Brothers made their highly original vampire film, Daybreakers…Or their critically acclaimed time-travelling paradox-play, Predestination…They made this super-weird, dark, gritty, totally original, sometimes funny, mega-cheesy Aussie zombie flick…Everything about this one is over the top…The performances…The gore…The zombies…The aliens…That’s right, I said it…Aliens…The mash-up here is zombies and aliens…Stellar performances from the two leads…René, the former beauty queen, played by Felicity Mason, and Marion (an obvious nod to John Wayne), the gun-enthusiast/prepper/sasquatch played by Mungo McKay…So if you haven’t seen this one…Which has made it into quite a few of my lists of recommendations…Then…1) You haven’t been listening to me…And 2) You are definitely missing out.
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (2007) – Hands down the best Plumber-Turned-Monster-Slayer movie that I’ve ever seen…What’s that? Oh, sorry…Apparently, this is the only Plumber-Turned-Monster-Slayer movie that has ever been made…Anyway, this is the first film from director Jon Knautz (The Cleaning Lady) who co-wrote the script with ol’ Jack Brooks himself, Trevor Matthews…This is a delightfully cheesy horror comedy…And Jack Brooks is the perfect anti-hero…For all of his angst, and anger-management issues, he is somehow still a likable cat…And he genuinely tries to make his three-car-pile-up of a life work out…He suffers through therapy that doesn’t help…He remains loyal to his annoying pest of a girlfriend…Attends a slumber-inducing class that he takes to “better himself”…A class, by the way, with a very special instructor…One that pushed this film way over the top…And it does deserve a bit of a nod…The amazing Robert Englund stars as Professor Crowley, who unwittingly awakens the evil source of an ancient curse,…Which subsequently causes the monster shit to hit the slayer fan in the third act…And that’s when the main character comes into his own as a rogue kicker of monster ass…I both love and respect that the monster and gore effects are practical and not CGI…Pffft…As if I needed another reason to love this one.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) – This film marks the directorial debut of the highly prolific screenwriter, Drew Goddard (Bad Times at the El Royale)…Who got his start in the business writing shows for the dude who shares the screenwriting credit with him on this one…That dude is, Joss Whedon…And those shows were Buffy and Angel…He has gone on to write a number of successful screenplays…But this one…Is a tongue-in-cheek meta horror to end all meta horrors…We follow two intersecting story lines…The first is the standard horror movie set up for a film that carries this title…A group of attractive young people climb into an RV and head out to the titular cabin for a weekend of debauchery…At the same time…We follow two employees of an organization that both monitors and controls the events of the first story line…These employees are hilariously played by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford…And bring enough levity to put the spotlight on the comedy in this horror-comedy in so many of their scenes…I was amazed to find out that this film sat on a shelf for two years before it was released…I can tell you…It never stays on my shelf for that long.
Freaks of Nature (2015) – In this cartoonish 80’s throwback film we get to see what it would be like if we lived in a place where humans, zombies, and vampires all coexisted together harmoniously…The place is Dillford, Ohio…And the harmony…Is interrupted by a full scale alien invasion…Now this film comes out of the gate like a bolt of lightning…And is loaded with equal parts hilarity and fast-paced, action-packed horror sequences…As well as a whole slew of delicious cameos like…Keegan-Michael Key…Patton Oswalt…Joan Cusack…Bob Odenkirk…And everybody’s favorite A-S-S-H-O-L-E…Denis Leary…The three leads were outstanding and are a representation of the town’s population…Nicholas Braun (Red State), plays the human…Mackenzie Davis (The amazing Black Mirror episode, San Junipero), is our vampire…And the hilarious physical comedy of Josh Fadem (Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters), is our lead zombie…Now to be fair…This film struggles with an identity crisis in the final act…It sorta becomes an angsty, mildly Hughesian teen drama…And sadly leaves behind a lot of what I enjoyed in the first and second acts…But still…Even with that being said…I sure did dig it.
The Monster Project (2017) – My good buddy, Jason and his wife, Cheryl turned me on to this one…And in this found footage horror film that they put on my radar…A couple of aspiring horror filmmakers decide to make a documentary about real-life monsters…They actually do a casting call…Asking any monsters to come forward and be filmed…And that’s when these fellas run into a bit of trouble…They get a crew together…Rent a spooky old house for the night…And invite three self-proclaimed monsters to join them…A Navajo skinwalker…A vampire…And a girl possessed by a demon…All three are being filmed under the skeptical guise that they “believe” that they are monsters…But in the burgeoning light of the lunar eclipse…Their beliefs become far too realistic…And this amateur film crew finds themselves fighting for their lives……And by the time the end credits rolled…I felt confident saying…This one here…Is found footage done right.
Slice (2018) – Here’s a “slice” of 80’s throwback horror for ya…In the bizarre little town of Kingfisher…A town with a gate to Hell…A section of town where all of the ghosts live…A coven of witches…And a werewolf…It is almost surprising that things could actually get more strange there…But with a mysterious slasher murdering pizza delivery drivers…Somehow things just got more strange…This film is a schlocky good time…With terrific visuals…And some top-notch B-Movie performances from Zazie Beetz…Chance the Rapper…Paul Scheer…And many more…This is a film that made it’s mark as a cheesetastic cult classic…I had never heard of first time writer/director Austin Vesely…Who has a brief cameo as the killer’s first victim…But I can tell you right now…That after watching this film…I will be keeping my eye on him.
Blood Fest (2018) – When a group of friends attend this year’s Blood Fest…They are expecting some scares worthy of hardcore horror fans…But what they get…Is a whole lot more than they expected…The horror film festival has been transformed into the love child of a theme park and a slaughterhouse…Where fans and celebrity guests alike…Have to fight to stay alive as they are being aggressively pursued by all manner of sub-genre villains…Zombies…Vampires…Masked slashers…And killer clowns have joined forces in an effort to spill the blood of fanboys, and fangirls alike…Dax, played by Robbie Kay (Heroes Reborn)…And his closest friends Krill, played by Jacob Batalon (Spiderman: Homecoming)…And Sam who was played by Seychelle Gabriel (Falling Skies)…Use their vast knowledge of the various genres…To navigate their way through the equivalent of an elaborate corn maze designed by a psychotic farmer who lives on the tenth ring of Dante’s Inferno.
The Video Store Clerk 