Twenty-five: House on Haunted Hill

When I picked out my movies to watch on Monday, I told David that I was looking for campy, fun- not so serious or gory. He handed me Creepshow and Piranha, looked at the copy of House on Haunted Hill in my hands, and replaced it with the RiffTrax version of the movie (from the guys who brought us MST3K). I would like to publicly express my gratitude for the fantastic recommendations, as they were all exactly what I was thinking of.

The original 1959 House on Haunted Hill stars Vincent Price as a rich guy with nothing to do with his money. His hot young wife throws a party and all sorts of crazy twists are revealed! But most importantly, this skeleton/marionette machine answers that age-old question about old movies: "Can't they see the strings????" No, apparently they cannot.

This movie is really enjoyable to watch. It had enough going on to where I didn't get bored, but still built up enough tension and was just scary and surprising enough. There are some pretty neat special effects, and Vincent Price's voice is just so tickling. This movie would have been great to watch just as is, but I have to say the RiffTrax version was so much fun... Like this line:

"She was innocently hanging herself when something went horribly wrong!"


Whichever version you choose, have a ghoulish stay at the House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price!

Twenty-four: Creepshow

Creepshow consists of five stories, written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero. It is heavily influenced by comics of the 1950s, as evidenced in the comic book that is seen as an interlude containing the five stories, as well as the style of shots and direction.

It's cheesy, yes, but since it obviously based on comics, it totally works. The stories are not incredibly inspired... but their short, fun, and offer different flavors of terror. A overbearing father returns as a corpse demanding his father's day cake; a dull farmer (Stephen King in a compelling role) discovers a meteor that spreads some greenery; a vengeful husband takes his wife and her lover to the beach and leave them buried; a hairy creature under the stairs gives a man the opportunity to get rid of his wife; and a wealthy, controlling businessman is done in by cockroaches. There is also a story that threads the five main tales together about a kid whose comic book ("Creepshow") is taken away by his father. He sends away for a VooDoo doll from one of the comic book's adverts and gets back at his dad.

This movie just pure fun, with some supernatural revenge. All the stories are well-written, though some are executed better than others (and some are just longer than they should be). It's obvious that King and Romero had a good time making it, to the point that it's just too much fun to be scary. And that's okay, as it mixes just the right amount of thrill into it.

Twenty-three: [Rec]

Why are people in movies so freaking stupid?! I found myself gripping the armrest of my couch and yelling, "NO YOU IDIOT, RUN!" or, "STOP BEING A WUSS AND KILL THE FREAKING ZOMBIE!" wayyy too many times during this movie. BUT I do give [Rec] a lot of credit for getting the handheld-camera style of filming right (unlike Blair Witch Project, which was cool for like, a minute, until we all started getting nauseous and making fun of it.)

[Rec] begins with Angela, a reporter for the late night show "While You're Sleeping," and Pablo, her cameraman, filming an episode at a fire department. They travel with two of the firemen to help with a woman locked in her apartment. It soon becomes apparent that the situation is a bit more complex than that and, less than 20 minutes into the movie, we get our first crazed loony attack scene! The authorities quickly quarantine the building, trapping the residents, firemen, a few police, along with Angela and Pablo inside with said crazed loony. Will they find a way out? Will they manage to keep themselves from being bitten? And what is that weird sound coming from the penthouse? Will they have enough tape to film all 70 minutes? Will they ever learn that zombies don't die until you lay some hurtin' on 'em?!?

You'll just have to watch and find out! I can tell you that you will definitely learn some Spanish swear words by the end of this movie. Which makes sense, given that they're trapped, have no idea what's going on, and are getting viciously attacked by their comrades. While this movie is a fairly two-dimensional view of the situation, it does stay fairly realistic, as far as human reactions are concerned. Until the end. I'm really not sure where all of that came from, but I guess they had to explain the virus somehow.

Twenty-two: Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps is a movie about sisterhood, growing up, and werewolves. Ginger and Brigitte are two teens in suburbia who like to pose in gruesome photos depicting their own deaths. They vow never to be normal and would rather die than become the typical high school "breeders."

But all that changes when Ginger is attacked by a vicious doglike creature in the woods. Using lycanthropy as an awesome metaphor for puberty, Brigitte watches as her sister changes daily before her eyes and the bonds of sisterhood are put to the test by hormones, boys, and hair in unusual places.

I really appreciate a movie with strong female characters, and I have to say that this movie attracted me because of that. Ginger kind of gets the short end of the characterization stick since she spends the movie morphing into a sex and violence-crazed monster, but younger sister Brigitte has a great role. As she watches her sister transform (both through lycanthropy and puberty), she shows her own fears of growing up, of losing her sister, of becoming just another typical and boring girl. Her relationship with Ginger is complex, and we understand that from her actions and decisions.

Don't get me wrong, I think the presence of "scream queens" has its place, but Ginger Snaps just proved itself to me in a lot of ways. It has a solid plot with meaning beyond the nightmarish werewolf-horror, a strong and complex lead (who is even a teenage girl. Bonus!), and good enough writing and filming to make me not mind the really horrible creature effects (Howling 3: The Marsupials almost had more realistic were-wallabies. But not quite.)

Joey and I both agreed that we really liked this movie beyond the realms of comparing it to other horror films. Thank you, Canada, for giving us Ginger Snaps!

Twenty-one: House

aka Hausu

aka my new favorite movie.

This movie is bananas! And I LOVE it!

I don't really know how to describe this movie. Neither does its jacket. Here's the summary given for its first-ever DVD and Blu-ray release (as a part of the Criterion Collection). They do a much better job than I ever could:

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 movie House? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby Doo as directed by Dario Argento? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home, only to come face to face with evil spirits, bloodthirsty pianos, and a demonic housecat. Too absurd to be genuinely terrifying, yet too nightmarish to be merely comic, House seems like it was beamed to Earth from another planet. Or perhaps the mind of a child: the director fashioned the script after the eccentric musings of his eleven-year-old daughter, then employed all the tricks in his analog arsenal (mattes, animation, and collage) to make them a visually astonishing, raucous reality. Never before released in the United States, and a bona fide cult classic in the making, House is one of the most exciting genre discoveries in years.

I honestly don't know what to say about it. I giggled throughout the entire movie, beginning to end. I was also pretty scared by parts of it. It was a series of "What the f*#@" moments, both gleeful and terrifying. My favorite things about this movie:

-The soundtrack. 70s pop. Funk. Sticky-sweet piano. Random, wind-machine fueled songs with translated lyrics that are sooo ridiculous.

-The characters' names. Each of the 7 girls is aptly named for her personality: Gorgeous, Fantasy, Sweet, Melody, Prof (the brain), Mac (the "fat" one?), and Kung Fu (obviously my favorite). Kung Fu even gets an awesome fight scene in the end.

-Animation. No amount of CGI or 3D could ever top the inventiveness of this movie.

Oh, and most of the random comic relief moments involve only the male characters. Actually, I'm pretty sure all the scenes with the male characters are intended solely for comic relief.

I hope this movie trailer will help you understand-no... No, there's no way anyone could ever truly understand this movie. But it's still awesome.

Number Twenty: Army of Darkness

I know I just laid on the praise for how much I adored Evil Dead II. Oh and by the by, I realized that I have indeed seen The Evil Dead; it was that movie I knew I watched and really really loved but I couldn't really remember anything about it except it was zombies in a cabin. That's super embarrassing, especially since figuring out what "that movie with that guy who was in that other thing with that lady" is what I do for a living. So, I loved both Evil Dead movies. The third installment, Army of Darkness, just didn't quite muster the feelings in me that the first two did- which is not to say I didn't like it.

While the first two Evil Deads are pretty basic zombie flicks with low-budget charm, the third takes off where Evil Dead II left off- Ash is transported back in time and must lead an epic battle to fight off the undead "Army of Darkness" (hey that's the title!). Immediately noticeable are several inconsistencies with the previous installment. For some reason, footage from Evil Dead II was not used in the recap, so scenes were reshot with a different Barbara. I can handle that. What I couldn't take was that they took out the best scene from the end of Evil Dead II- when Bruce/Ash shoots down a giant monster with his shotgun, thus proving how awesome he is. I think this probably got cut to make taking Bruce prisoner more believable.

This movie is much less gory than the first two. Bruce gets to be a huge chauvinist, there's more time for characters to get some development before they get killed off (well, not much), and the slapstick comedy is pretty heavily relied upon. While it is a sequel to the first two Evil Dead movies, I really wouldn't consider it a trilogy. Army of Darkness can totally stand alone. Actually, any of them could stand alone. But this one really stands apart. (Not necessarily in a better way.)

Interestingly, there are two different endings to Army of Darkness. According to that ever-honest source, Wikipedia, Universal wasn't happy with the original ending, so they reshot a happier one during post-production. I guess Sam Raimi didn't have a problem with this. He's quoted as saying, "Actually, I kind of like the fact that there are two endings, that in one alternate universe Bruce is screwed, and in another universe he's some cheesy hero."

Number Nineteen: Dagon

I didn't think I was going to have any lingering fears after the two movies I watched yesterday, but after a sleepless night, I can tell you that I had some pretty spooky visions of fanged mermaids and possessed maidens.

I started off the day with H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon. It started off a little cheesy, with not so great acting, the usual set-up ("Something's... in... the water"). But it got better. I ended up liking it, I think.



The monsters were creepy, until they reveal themselves completely. In the beginning, we see just enough of them to know they're NOT normal and the prosthetics are hidden just well enough to let us believe that they're not, well, false parts put on the actors. But in the big reveals.... ugh let's just say CGI has come a long way. The chase scenes were also pretty lame, but that's mostly because Paul, the main character, is such a freaking dork. A good drinking game could be created here for every time he loses his classes or talks about having "two choices." Unfortunately, anyone playing probably wouldn't make it to the the third act, which is where the plot actually gets weird.

I liked the plot twist at the end, even if it was a bit contrived. It really came out of left field (NOT a positive aspect), but it did allow for what I think was the eeriest ending possible. I also dug the religious aspect of the movie. It's hard to pull off a movie with idol-worship without getting to preachy, but this movie doesn't try to push Jesus in your face at all. In fact, it's barely even mentioned- only to show that the island used to be Catholic before they started praying to the fish god.

I would say definitely stick with this movie for the final few scenes, where Paul goes to rescue Barbara. The effects of the big monster are awful, but that's only a few seconds and I really like where the movie ends up. It definitely sticks out in my mind as something totally different than any of the movies I've watched so far.

Number Eighteen: Evil Dead II

I decided not to watch the first The Evil Dead movie and just go straight for Evil Dead II. After watching, and loving, this movie, my next rental is going to be the first movie.

My first impression of Evil Dead II is that it's like Beetle Juice on steroids. It's totally campy, Bruce Campbell is totally cheesy, and the animation/claymation is totally, awesomely low-budget (especially noticeable on Blu-ray). I love everything about this movie. Very gruesome and darkly funny. And, like Murder Party, it involves a chainsaw, which is my personal favorite weapon-of-choice in over-the-top horror movies.

Another Sam Raimi horror film that is definitely worth watching is Drag Me To Hell. It has much better effects, but is still self-aware of its own cheesiness and humor.

My head has been filled with snot and decongestants the past few days, meaning I am incapable of coherent thoughts, so here are some relevant photos that I thought were awesome. Thanks, Google image search!

My favorite zombie- the mounted buck head on the wall of the cabin comes alive. I could not stop laughing for a good five minutes after I saw this scene.

Lego version of Ash (Bruce Campbell).

The world's ugliest dog is really one of the zombies from Evil Dead II. Who knew?

Time for some more decongestants and the third installment, Army of Darkness.

Number Seventeen: A Nightmare on Elm Street

Just finished the classic slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street (the original of 1984, not any of the sequels or the newly released remake). It was pretty much what I expected, and by that I mean that I wasn't really impressed, but I was satisfied.

I've always associated the words "horror" or "scary movie" with slasher films from the late 70s through the 80s. Movie enterprises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and of course, Nightmare on Elm Street. I grew up in a time when not only did these films already have a following, but they had many many sequels to back them up. I always assumed they'd be way too scary for me to watch and stayed away from them. Two years ago, I finally got up the courage to watch Friday the 13th. It scared me a little, but mostly, it was all the build-up from years of avoiding it that made it scary for me. Now that I'm sixteen movies into the horror-fest, I don't want to say that I'm impervious to horror films, but I definitely am not as intimidated by this particular type of movie- the teenage slasher flick.

Everyone probably knows the plot by now... Freddy Krueger, who was killed years ago by some parents of children he killed, now stalks again in the dreams of his future victims. He only hunts in dreams, but the killings are very real and very, very bloody. Poor Johnny Depp really spewed blood everywhere when he was killed. OOPS that was a spoiler. But I'm pretty sure we already knew that was going to happen, right?

Anyways, this killer is pretty sassy and likes to taunt his victims. He's not particularly agile or fast, but he's maniacal and perverse, which does make him creepy.

The final scene though, when we think he's been vanquished, but then it turns out he's not? I really didn't like it. I don't know what I'd do differently, but it just seemed so damned cheesy and stupid. Like, "We couldn't think up a good ending that would still leave room for a sequel, but we've hit the 90 minute marker, so here's a pile of shit for you to leave the theater with. See you next year!" Lame.

I did, however, like the ugly red and green-striped top to Glen's convertible. Nice touch, Freddy.

Number Sixteen: The Devil's Backbone

My two favorite Spanish-speaking filmmakers bumped into each other at a film festival and decided to make a baby together. That baby would become Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone, produced by Pedro Almodóvar.

I've noticed that a lot of my favorite Spanish cinema takes place during the Spanish civil war. This film follows that pattern. It focuses on a boy's school, many of whom are orphans or whose parents cannot keep them safe due to the war. Carlos is the new boy, and is given a bed that used to be occupied by Santi, a boy who has disappeared recently. There are rumors of a ghost- the ghost of Santi.


(art courtesy Emma Coats)

The movie is more about one person who uses those around them to get their way, hurting and killing if need be. I feel like this is more of a drama with ghosts than a horror film, although some of the acts performed in the movie are definitely horrific. I really loved this movie, and I highly recommend it. If you liked Pan's Labyrinth, it's pretty much a guarantee you'll enjoy this one, too.

Number Fifteen: The Thing

On Saturday night, I spent the evening in bed, eating soup, watching John Carpeter's The Thing. Mostly suspense with a little bit of gross alien, I really enjoyed this movie. The film deserves another viewing, as I was exhausted with a cold and dozed off a couple times, but I pretty much got the gist of it, which is that it's good.

The movie takes place on Antarctica, where Kurt Russell and some other people are working in a base camp. They have a helicopter and dogs for a dog sled, and their neighbors are some Norwegians. The beginning of the movie sees some Norwegians in their helicopter hunting a dog. When they can't shoot it from above, they land and chase it on foot and come upon the American's camp. The Americans naturally freak out, shoot back, and the Norwegians are killed. The dog is saved! No one knows why they were shooting at the poor dog.

Well, it turns out there's an alien shape shifter running around that can take the form of whatever it has killed and mimic it perfectly. The crew checks out the Norwegians camp and discovers no survivors. As crew members disappear and are alone for enough periods of time to possibly have become the shape shifter, no one can be trusted and all members must fight for their own survival.

*SPOILER ALERT* I think what I liked best about this movie is the ending- no one is saved. We are left with only two people remaining, and we have no idea what will happen to them. We are pretty much positive that Kurt Russell is not the alien, but we really don't know about the other character, but it won't really help if Kurt kills him, as he'll still be trapped in the Antarctic. There is no relief.

For your enjoyment: one of the creatures that the Thing becomes. It has no shape itself, but whatever it kills/infects/takes over will become "the thing" and can then kill again. You can buy this beauty for your own collection!

Number Fourteen: Thir13en Ghosts

It would have been better if I had watched this on the 13th as my 13th movie, but I guess numerology isn't my strong suit.

Also, yes, I realize I am still behind on my movies, but it's the weekend now! (That means that yes, I will be watching more movies).

I spent most of the time while watching Thir13en Ghosts rewinding (what an archaic term) and rewatching scenes with Matthew Lillard, aka "Dennis," the psychic ghost-hunter, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar. I recognized Tony Shalhoub (Monk, in the tv show of the same name), but it took me awhile to realize it was in SLC Punk that I'd seen that goofy smile of Matthew's. This has nothing to do with Thir13en Ghosts, but I thought it was funny to think about Stevo growing up, moving out of Utah, and becoming a ghost hunter, like maybe all the acid finally caused a massive hallucination that resulted in the making of Thir13en Ghosts.

Anyways, the movie had me at "Matthew Lillard." I instantly liked it. They even gave him some really terrible puns, which made me happy. The plot is a little generic- father of two with recently deceased wife inherits awesome house from crazy relative, obviously house is cursed in some way- but it's still well-done and a fun movie. Instead of the house being cursed or haunted, we are immediately introduced to the idea of ghosts being intentionally trapped, and there is some sort of mastermind ploy for control of the underworld going on.

Anywho, the house is freaking AWESOME, the ghosts are super-cool looking, there's a good amount of suspense and fear, an only SEMI-predictable twist, and a nice gory death scene or two. Here's a super adorable version of the ghosts:



They're a lot scarier looking in the movie.

Number Thirteen: House of 1000 Corpses

aka Movie of No Plot (or as Joey calls it: "House of 1000 Poopies")

Actually, we both kind of liked it.

Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses really has no plot. It often cuts between random montage-like scenes shot in negative. There's a lot of random images thrown around, and it's not really scary or suspenseful.

But it is just so much fun.

I think about halfway through the movie, I realized that House of 1000 Corpses would be the perfect background to any Halloween party. Just play it on the t.v. or a projector in the background with the sound off. It's basically just eye candy and you don't need to hear anything the characters say to enjoy it.

Here's my favorite character, Captain Spaulding:



For a scary looking clown, he's actually quite personable. Except for the evil clown thing.

So, for a good time, call House of 1000 Corpses. You can turn your brain off, enjoy the pretty lights, and please, I cannot stress this enough: don't try to figure anything out. I wasted a good 40 minutes of this movie trying to figure out why two women who clearly hate fun and travel would ever want to take a road trip. It doesn't matter because 20 minutes later, I totally forgot that they were even trying to do something other than wear weird costumes and be covered in blood.


P.S. This movie does, however, answer the question, "I wonder what Rainn Wilson did before he got the role of Dwight Schrute on 'The Office'?"

Number Twelve: Alien

I hath returned after a couple days of break. I had a few really long days and didn't get a chance to watch anything, so I'm back today with two movies. The first I watched this afternoon: Ridley Scott's Alien. Maybe I watched it wrong... because I didn't really like it.

I've been scolded several times for not having seen Alien and Aliens, but to be honest, I was never really that interested in watching them. The movies were made and became icons before I was born, so I've grown up watching parodies and copy-cats. As a kid, my brother was pretty into the horror/sci-fi genre, but I wanted no part of it. Now that I'm actually interested in it, Alien is obviously something I must see. It's a classic movie that is referenced in plenty of pop culture and other movies, but that doesn't mean I thought it was great.

I can totally see where this movie was a huge hit. It is by all means a wonderfully made thriller. There's not too much going on- all we find out is that there's a commercial mining ship on its way home that gets an S.O.S. call en route and goes to check it out. From there... well I think we all can guess what happens. The crew doesn't really know what's going on and therefore we never really find out what's going on. We just know that the crew is a LONG way from home with something potentially dangerous (this is confirmed partway through the movie with the most parodied scene of the alien bursting forth from a poor schmuck's belly) on board the ship. We never find out where the alien comes from. Ash/aka Bilbo Baggins/aka Vito Cornelius figures out the creature is perfect and hostile, but that's about the most we ever learn about it. This leaves room for all the tension and suspense required to enjoy this movie. I will say that the sets and the design of the alien itself are pretty awesome- dark, scary, and hostile. Really, just perfect.



The one thing I learned from this movie is that Sigourney Weaver (I mean her character- Ripley) is a badass. I also learned that effects have come a long way since 1979. I'll still give Aliens a chance... but I really didn't think the first was as awesome as everyone said it'd be. Just sayin.


Anyway, I'll be back in a few hours with another review.

Day Eleven: The Frighteners

My bizarre, late and sleepless nights are finally taking a toll on me, so this is going to be a short post before so that I can get a couple hours of sleep. Which is really okay because I don't really have too much to say about The Frighteners.

I love me some Dead Alive, another earlier work of director Peter Jackson's, so I was excited to watch The Frighteners. I got even more excited/slightly nervous as the beginning credits rolled and Jake Busey's name popped up. He really is an under-appreciated actor who doesn't get the credit he deserves for having such large teeth, bleached hair, and a creepy stare. As expected, he plays the rarely-seen villain of this movie as well.

But you know what? You don't have to be afraid of Jake Busey, because Michael J. Fox is here to save the day! He can talk to ghosts but he still doesn't know how to drive without running over every fence and mailbox in the neighborhood.

I know it's a Peter Jackson movie, but the special effects kinda bummed me out. The awesome thing about Dead Alive and Bad Taste is that their special effects suck in a totally non-computer generated way. The puppetry is so fantastically B-quality that it takes on its own sort of badassness. The Frighteners, with a bigger budget and more computers, fails in that it looks like a cartoon. Remember Casper with Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman? (Yeah, I love that movie, too!) So, the ghosts in that movie were supposed too look like cartoons because, well, Casper was a cartoon.

I won't take back my criticism of The Frighteners, but I will admit that I still liked it. It's a fun movie and not very scary. Also, the R rating is totally unnecessary. I don't remember there being too much bad language, no sex scenes, and the violence we see is non-fatal (most of it, save the last scene, is slapstick). I would treat this one as a PG-13 horror comedy. Peter Jackson has definitely made mention of the MPAA's decision in some making-of docs about the movie- The Frighteners was intentionally a little lighthearted (two ghosts seem to serve no purpose other than comedic relief) and the violence and blood was kept to a minimum, yet the board refused to change its decision even after cuts were made to the movie. As a sort of "f you" to the ratings board, Peter Jackson made one of the final death scenes extra gory in post-production - a shot to the head instead of the chest - but it's CGI and definitely no worse than anything a teenager will see in a video game. I remember playing Duke Nukem at age 10 and it having way more realistic violence than this movie does. If you're into ghosts/serial killer horror movies, but can't find a good one to watch with the whole family, I definitely think this would be a fun movie if everyone is of the appropriate age.

Day Ten: Ju-On: The Grudge

Yay I finally watched a movie that will give me nightmares! I definitely was kind of afraid to open the door to my bathroom in the dark after finishing this movie. After reading other reviewers' comments about Ju-On: The Grudge being a rip-off of Ringu, I feel validated in my pansiness. I was kept awake for nights by the American remake- The Ring. (I was even vaguely creeped out when I moved to Seattle as a teenager because our lovely city is the setting for the movie.) What creeps me out about all these movies is the notion of some abstract and distant force of death and horror lurking out in the shadows, that because of some absent-minded and normal act- like entering a house or watching a video- a person could be bringing about a terrible curse that will haunt them until death.

The premise of Ju-On revolves around "the grudge"- a force that stays with the physical location of a death that ended in rage. A mother and son are brutally murdered by their husband/father. The house the crime occurred in remains haunted and death befalls all who enter. Besides death, trespassers (or even those invited or who live in the house) are subjected to hearing the obnoxiously odd "death rattle" of the deceased wife, along with a creepy kid staring at them.

Ju-On has an American remake as well, called The Grudge. I haven't seen it, so I don't really know how it compares. Also, I have not seen Ringu, just the remake. So I will not be comparing the two beyond what I've said above. I did think that Ju-On was much better and scarier than The Ring, but this may not be a fair comparison.

The movie has a good pace, though there is never really a climax to speak of. I suppose the second-to-last scene could be considered a climax, as it contains what seems to be the main character, Rika, confronting the grudge. Also, the movie does not take place on a linear timeline, but rather each chapter tells the story of different characters in different times who are all related to each other (through the grudge or otherwise). This results in each story being unique and interesting, even though they all follow a similar pattern. The audience delves deeper into the grudge with each story and we see more of the history and the background of what has happened in the house and to the original family.

Imagery is everything in Ju-On. The little boy just stares at the characters, and yet I keep feeling afraid that he might be staring at me the next time I turn around. It's not like he's going to hurt me, but he does represent a terrible force that has the power to kill me in horrendous ways. As with many curses, the victims seem to become insane before their deaths. They cover their windows in newspapers so the dead cannot find them, they stay locked up in their rooms where they are safe. (And yet they still investigate weird noises in attics!!! WTF have these people never seen a horror movie before!?) The lack of gore or graphic killing doesn't matter in this movie- it's the lasting imprint of the dead ghosts that stays with us, making us paranoid and fearing an encounter with the cursed.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit, but it really did scare me a lot. I don't think I'll be watching it again anytime soon, though I would definitely recommend it and would love to watch it again someday... For now I'm sticking with my cartoons to help me fall asleep. Here's hoping I can get a few hours of sleep in tonight!

Day Nine: Murder Party

I picked Murder Party to watch tonight because it was late already and I wanted to actually be able to fall asleep afterwards. Um... I don't know if that will be happening. Murder Party scared me, and I'm not too proud to admit it. It also made me laugh out loud- hysterically at parts. Its plot is ridiculous, but its humor is witty and its violence is gratuitous.

The summary and review I'm about to give you doesn't really matter. Honestly, just stop reading now and go get this movie. But if you want to know what it's about before you make a decision, here ya go: Loser/nobody Chris finds an invitation to a "Murder Party" on Halloween. Having nothing better to do, he resourcefully creates a sweet cardboard knight costume and heads to the party- in a deserted warehouse in Brooklyn. The party, hosted by a dysfunctional art collective, soon turns homicidal and Chris must figure out a way to survive.

The New York (or any similar urban city) art scene amuses me to no end. The caricatures in Murder Party are so absurd, and yet not unrealistic of aspiring artists, who seem to be willing to do practically anything to get a gallery show or some grant money. Another good movie that mocks the art scene is (Untitled), which just came out on September 21st. The characters from Murder Party are shown in a humorous light much more often (the writing is brilliant), however, which makes this one scary movie that I would LOVE to watch again just for the sheer fun of it.

Graphic violence makes me uncomfortable- as it should, I think. Some of the shots in Murder Party linger just a wee bit too long to draw out that nasty, kicked-in-the-gut feeling. In addition to all the blood, the visuals in this movie are stunning. It's bright, detailed, and colorful; creative Halloween costumes abound (I mean they are artists, right?). Another thing that makes me really uncomfortable (and scared and, later, paranoid) is human disfigurement. This movie's got it! I won't give it away because it's kinda crazy (and hilarious in a terrible way), but let's just say one of the characters really gets into his costume.

The gore and fright in this movie is perfectly balanced with humor and the fact that our "hero" is a total loser. He's a meter maid- he issues parking tickets for the NYPD. He lives with his cat. The artists originally think he might be handicapped because his costume is so lame (I thought it was badass, but I also like anything homemade from cardboard). And yet, we are rooting for him. We can relate to him and he is, after all, innocent. My favorite scene of this movie is after the major bloodbath is over and Chris (and the audience) are decompressing after so much blood and tension: Chris approaches the subway turnstile. He stops, digs in his pockets, and his shoulders slump as he (and the audience) realize that his captors took his wallet hours ago. The scene is shot just perfectly, allowing for a return to reality, to remember that this is just some average guy who now has to walk home because sadly, not even one thing in his night can go right.

The writing is clever and the gore is well executed. Murder Party would be great to watch with a group of people- unless you hate violence and/or horror films, I don't think you will dislike this movie. Just check out the cover art. So appealing... even though he's covered in blood and wielding chainsaws. Go rent it! Now! (You can find it on the Perfect List at Reckless Video. Yeah. It's loved that much.)




See you tomorr-later today!

Belated Day Eight: Nosferatu

I have just (finally) watched Nosferatu the Vampyre from beginning to end, and it was great. I haven't seen Dracula with Bela Lugosi in at least 5 years, but Nosferatu totally reminded me of it. The movie moves slowly, but it doesn't lose excitement or suspense one bit. Master filmmaker Werner Herzog keeps the movie very close to the original 1922 gothic style film. I watched it in German with English subtitles, but it was also filmed in English (no dubbing).





I have to mention that the clips of kittens and bats (though, thankfully not in the same sequences) totally reminded me of the iguana shots in Bad Lieutenant.



The movie is a version of the Dracula story (with Klaus Kinski as the Count). Jonathan visits Count Dracula as a real estate agent, and, inspired by a photograph of Jonathan's wife, Lucy, Dracula decides to move to their town. Decay and death follow him wherever he travels, and soon the town is overrun by a plague. Jonathan falls very ill after his stay with the Count, and Lucy decides to take action against the Count. Dracula, however, has his own plans for Lucy.

Nosferatu is successfully creepy without being graphic. I think we only see one person get bitten, and there's really not any violence on camera. Characters do not jump and scream in fear, but rather cower and raise their hands in claw-like motions with their elbows out. Much like this:




This movie is beautiful. I will be watching it again. And again. And again.

Oddly enough, I had previously seen Shadow of the Vampire, which is sort of based on the filming of Nosferatu. I highly recommend it. John Malkovich is the director, with Willem Dafoe as the actor portraying the vampire- an actor who is known for getting very much into character (a little TOO much into character). Eddie Izzard also makes an appearance. I recommend it, though it's obviously not as good as the movie it's based on- more like a humorous side-note for fans of Nosferatu.

I'll leave you with a lovely shot of our favorite ill-tempered German, all dolled up with ears, teeth, and claws.

Sleepyheads make bad movie watchers.

I was so pumped to watch Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre last night. I, like many of my fellow employees at Reckless, have a giant crush on/have much admiration for Werner, and I couldn't wait to see Klaus Kinski portray Count Dracula. Unfortunately, I had a very long day yesterday which, combined with the past few nights of restless sleep due to too many horror movies, caused me to fall asleep about 20 minutes into Nosferatu. I would wake up every 45 minutes or so and try to rewind and watch what I'd missed, but then I'd just fall back asleep again. Finally, around 3:00 AM, I woke up to what must have been a scene near the end and decided I'd just have to try again later.

When waking up in the middle of the night so often, "waking up" is a relative term. I never really felt awake, and I never really fell into a restful sleep. This resulted in some very very strange dreams...

Anyways, sorry for no update yesterday, and I'm going to ACTUALLY watch Nosferatu later today. Don't worry, I'll also watch another one! Thanks for reading and I'll be back this afternoon with more.


P.S. I'm at Reckless Video watching Monster House and absolutely loving it.

Day Seven: The Descent

Just rounded off the first week of horror movies with a truly scary movie: The Descent. Right away, in the second scene of the movie, tragedy befalls Sarah when those close to her are lost. A year later, her and her friends get together to do what they all love, go explore some caves in the Appalachian Mountains! Many in the group are not even American, so I'm not sure what drew them to this locale, but as with my other favorite horror film from hillbilly country, I Spit On Your Grave*, the setting proves to be occupied with aggressive humanoid life forms.

I should note that I am claustrophobic. So really, even if there was no monster in the dark in The Descent, I still would have thought this was a scary movie. The first half of the movie establishes that the women are trapped. The second half establishes that there is a lot of blood. I meant that they're being chased. And there's a lot of blood. Sorry- I don't want to ruin movies for anyone who happens to be reading this, so I apologize that sometimes these reviews get a little vague. I will talk about the elements of the movie that I liked a lot, though:

1. The setting- most people do not go caving. There are narrow passages, dead ends, darkness, and a lot of physical stamina that makes me exhausted to just watch.
2. Mind games- Sarah has experienced intense trauma and loss, and we're never sure if she's just imagining things or if her panic attacks are warranted.
And 3. Badass women.

All six of the main characters are women. They are all strong and have distinct personalities. What a crazy concept for a movie! And they seriously are awesome... the stunts while caving/climbing that these characters do are awesome. And dear lord, when the horror starts... well let's just say that a couple of them just have that killing instinct.

I think this is the scariest movie I've watched so far this month. It ranks up there with The Exorcist and 28 Days Later for my favorite so far... but it's only been a week so I don't want to get too hasty.


*I Spit On Your Grave is an incredibly graphic rape/revenge movie. I stumbled upon a VHS copy in my college library and, having no clues as to what it was about (the case had only a typewriter font title), brought it home to watch. It was... enlightening? No. It was scarring. And yet a fascinating chapter in the grindhouse genre. In any case, there's a remake out in theaters... tomorrow!


On one final note: after I watch these movies, I usually need a buffer of warmth before I can sleep. So I'll pop in a DVD of Arrested Development or something similarly comforting. Tonight I'm watching this:

Day Six: Below

It might be kind of difficult for me to really take Below seriously yet because I was so surprised and amused to find Zach Galifianakis in it. And his character's name? Weird Wally. No, seriously. Like, they don't actually call him Weird Wally all the time, just Wally, but his character's credit is definitely "Weird Wally."

I'm just so tickled by him being in this movie because it was a good movie. The last movie I saw where Mr. Galifianakis made an appearance? G-Force. So unfortunate...

Back to Below... This didn't even seem like a horror movie at all until about halfway (or maybe more) through. It captivated me and kept me totally on edge. It had ghosts, but it didn't talk about them blatantly. It actually let me try to make connections without spelling everything out. For example, where a character could have said, "OMG I just saw our dead captain's face in the mirror!! HE'S STILL HERE AND HE'S GOING TO KILL US!" they instead see a flash of said creepy apparition, then continue to run from their terror by flinging themselves out the door of the submarine- while it's submerged. I just think this type of thing actually illustrates fear; rather than telling us we should be scared, it scares us. This movie was definitely a thriller and I liked that. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but that wasn't because it was poorly made, it was due to a well-paced reveal.

I should get to the plot, just to let you know what it was actually about. In 1943, an American submarine takes on three survivors of a destroyed British hospital boat. They are led to believe it was sunk by a German U-boat. They then think the boat is following them. Weird things start to happen. For no reason, the ship seems to be faltering. Some say the boat is cursed; Weird Wally suggests that maybe they are actually all dead and that all the weird sounds are people trying to save them, but they cannot communicate back because they are all dead. He also collects Cracker Jack prizes, which makes me really freaking jealous of the Cracker Jack prizes from back in the day. Now it's just a stupid piece of paper with a lame puzzle on it or something. But I digress.

The submarine might be haunted, or maybe the whole crew is going crazy. Maybe both. But a lot of weird things are happening and people are keeping secrets. Oh and did I mention that they're trapped on a submarine that is submerged? I get claustrophobic just thinking about this situation. Submarines just creep me out.

Definitely glad I chose this movie over The Lost Boys for today. No offense, Corys, I just needed something a little more scary for tonight. There were quite a few gasps, a couple jumps and yelps, and I'm pretty sure during one scene Joey actually hid behind a blanket.

Day Five: The Faculty

I know this is only the fifth movie I've watched (or six, if we count Splice), but so far, I haven't been nearly as scared as I thought by watching a horror movie every day. There was one morning when I got a little paranoid to close the medicine cabinet and look in the mirror (embarrassingly, that was the morning after watching Phantasm). Maybe I'm not getting scared enough because I'm watching movies like The Faculty.

The Faculty is one of those great movies about high school that just also happens to have an evil force besides acne. Something is wrong with the faculty at school... but will Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Jordana Brewster, and friends have time to stop them from taking over? You'll have to watch to find out. Just know that it's kinda hilarious and has a scene that looks something like this:

Well hello children-students. I am Mr. Furlong, the biology teacher. You have discovered something? But what could it be? I'll call the university!



Now what's this? What has happened to my hands? Bwahahaha.








*fizzle fizzle fizzle*










A fantastic piece of work from Jon Stewart. Thank you, sir.

Yeah... I think this is why I haven't gotten too scared yet. I was going to watch The Lost Boys today... Maybe I should try to top that on the fear-o-meter.

Four Days Later

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post last night! I DID watch a movie, though. (You didn't think I'd give up after only a few days, did you?)

28 Days Later pretty much rocked my socks off. It had tenderness, violence, British accents, and zombies... a recipe for awesomeness. I didn't have to use my brain too much, and yet my heart had feelings and there was so much eye candy. The landscape - first, desolate London post-zombiepocalypse, and then the English countryside - beautifully illustrated in a quick minute the disaster and loneliness after the virus (which caused infection- of RAGE!!) took over. Human bonds are hyper-charged with distrust and desire, which came through in the dialogue: it was short and got to the point of what the characters felt, without being too cheesy, and left time for the movie to focus on what's really important. Which, of course, is ZOMBIES!

The zombies of 28 Days Later aren't really the "undead" so to speak... As mentioned before, a virus spread over the U.K., causing its victims to be infected with RAGE!! It's all explained in the first scene of the movie, when a bunch of no-good animal rights activists set some monkeys free. What they don't know is that the monkeys are infected... with RAGE!! Once bitten or contaminated with the infecteds' blood, it takes about 20 seconds to turn into "one of them." In other words, if you see someone become infected, you have 20 seconds to kill them easily before they're infected with RAGE!! and try to attack you. The dead do not become zombies; they are dead. The zombies do not seem to have any motive for eating brains, or any other part of the uninfected human body for that matter. They do not move slowly. They actually move quite quickly. Probably because they are infected with RAGE!!

Danny Boyle made an awesome movie. It has a plot, which is interesting and way more fun than just having an excuse to make your characters run around (I'm talking to you, Zombieland), but I'm not going to pretend like it's all that deep. In the end, having the characters run around and kill zombies in cool ways and triumph in all the disaster is really all we want anyways.

On that note: Here's a video of the characters doing a lot of running around.. It's the entire movie, but in only one minute.

Day Three: Freaks

Horror definitely was defined much differently back in the 1930s. Joey and I just finished up the 62-minute long Freaks. I shouldn't be so tough on it: Tod Browning (director of the acclaimed Dracula starring Bela Lugosi) was forced to cut out almost 30 minutes of his original film to make it "appropriate" for audiences. At an early screening, one woman even claimed to have had a miscarriage due to the disturbing images. But honestly, even though the ending is pretty creepy (and would have been scary if they had left the original footage in), this story is really just heart-wrenching.

Freaks takes place in a circus. Cleopatra is the beautiful trapeze artists, but we soon find out that she's a huge bitch. She's using Hans (a dwarf) for his money, while cheating on him with the strong man, Hercules. Hans swoons and dumps his fiance and fellow dwarf, Frieda. The rest of the "big people" laugh at Hans, but he marries Cleopatra anyways. She and Hercules make a fool of Hans at the wedding reception: after the rest of the "freaks" start chanting in a ceremony to accept Cleo as one of them, she throws her drink them and tells them all to leave. Obviously, she does not want to be one of them. Naturally, they take revenge. I won't give away the ending, but lets just say they succeed in making her "one of them."

The DVD includes a prologue, telling the audience about how side show freaks, deformed people, have struggled for centuries. Browning obviously has a soft spot for these people, and used real circus performers for his cast. As the story goes, Browning at one point worked in the circus as a boy and made friends with many side show freaks. While I'll never get to see the deleted footage, I've read that much of it was just depicting the "freaks" as normal people, going about their daily lives. Truly terrifying to the normal looking masses of 1932, apparently.

It also includes an epilogue that I'm not too fond of. As the DVD bonus feature "Additional Endings" points out, the ending was originally much more vicious and scary (though nothing compared to our modern day blood and gore: think more in the style of a tame version of The Birds, without any actual physical harm on camera). Audiences were terrified, states required footage to be removed before they would allow screenings. In an effort to make Hans seem less vengeful, we see a scene where Frieda consoles him, that it wasn't his fault, what the others did to Cleo. This ending is lame. I recommend watching the alternate endings bonus feature to find out more about the lost footage (they don't have it anymore, but the commentator talks more about what it was). There is also a lot of cool trivia on IMDB.

It's really fascinating/terrible that the movie seems to have been billed as a film about a normal woman stooping to a midget's level and how she's punished for it. Like Cleo and Hercules were just trying to get by and these awful people did this to them. Um WRONG they are giant douchebags FROM THE START. Anyways, I obviously teared up a bit when Frieda gets her heart broken.

This is a very cool movie and, as with all movies that date this far back, an interesting look at cinema of the time. We thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite scene: when Prince Randian, "The Human Torso" (a man with no arms or legs), lights his own cigarette. Truly badass.




Seriously... he's shaving!!! This man is awesome.

Early Review of Splice

Splice hits the shelves this Tuesday, and I just got a chance to watch it. You should watch it. Everyone should watch it. It's awesome. Get it at Reckless Video.

In the interest of everyone seeing this movie, there will be no spoilers in this post except that everything goes wrong. Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) are genetic engineers working for a big pharmaceutical company. They splice DNA from different species together in order to find proteins to create drugs blah blah science blah. This is all interesting and topical and brings up a cornucopia of moral and ethical dilemmas to play around with as is, especially when they decide they want to use human DNA as well. Of course, the company that funds them puts the ol' kabosh on going forward with tampering with human DNA. And, of course, the scientists do it anyways.

This is a classic Frankenstien's monster situation. Elsa and Clive have created something they know relatively nothing about. They have also created something with human characteristics, so the lines between experiment and love child are kinda iffy. We also find out that Elsa has some intense mommy issues that play a huge role in her motives. As one of the people working on the movie says somewhere in the special features, this movie isn't about a monster doing terrible things to people; it's about people doing terrible things to their monster.

I really like all the suspense this movie creates. It takes us on a journey- there's a real plot and real characters that we actually care about, an interesting story line and subplot revolving around the characters' goals, motives, and relationships. But eventually, we end up alone in a dark, cold forest being chased by an angry monster. It's a comfortable place for a horror movie to wind up. I don't want to give away too much, but it also ends with the wonderful feeling that it's not really over, that some other terrible thing could happen in the future. Actually, the last line of the movie is, "What's the worst that could happen?" Duh-duh-DUHHH!!!!

So, if you like scary movies (which I guess would be why you might read this blog), if you like dramas, if you like moral conflict and thrillers, DEFINITELY see Splice. I should also add that this movie was written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, the same guy who brought us Cube. I personally have not seen Cube, but I know a lot of people who totally geek out over it, so I dunno if that means anything.

I was planning on watching another flick today, the 1930s film Freaks. Stay tuned, we'll see if I get a chance to watch it later on.

Day Two: Phantasm

Just finished watching the second movie: 1979's Phantasm. I agree with other reviewers that some of the scare factor of this movie is lost in the dated hairstyles. It definitely could have been executed better; some of the effects and ideas are really really cool. But most of it is honestly just uninteresting. **Watch out for this post, because I think I might give away a few spoilers.**

The story begins with Jody and friends mourning the death of their friend Tommy (whose death scene we also see). Jody's little brother, Mike, has been banned from the funeral, since he fell apart at the last funeral they took him to- his parents'. (Seriously, you'd think they'd be a bit more understanding.) Mike follows Jody everywhere and we find out that he's totally paranoid about his older bro leaving him to pursue his musical career. This later becomes unimportant. Anyway, I guess Mike likes to hang out at the mausoleum/cemetery because he witnesses the undertaker stealing coffins before they're put in the ground.

OH and by the way, the funeral home is completely marble and granite with a lot of pillars and busts of ancient Greeks. It makes a pretty fantastic juxtaposition with all the blood. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

So Mike continues to follow Jody as well as creep around the cemetery. He sees the undertaker around town. Waaaay too much creepy rock music is played. The same track. Over and over. It reminded me of how often "Shake Your Tail Feather" was used in Bad Boys II. I guess it was to suggest something eery or creepy or mildly scary was coming up... but usually the acting failed to make anything seem eery or creepy.

(SPOILERS START HERE) Anyways, we find out that the undertaker, or "The Tall Man," is turning the dead into zombie dwarves to send to his home dimension. They use them as slaves there. (It makes total sense! Because of the gravity! And the heat!) The scene in which they find all this out is one of two cool scenes of the movie. Mike, Jody, and their ponytailed ice cream man/friend Reggie enter a completely white room with blue barrels stacked to the ceiling and two chrome poles about waist high. They discover the zombie dwarves in the barrels and Mike falls into another dimension through the two poles. This other dimension setting is generally bleak and pretty badass to include in the movie, much like the land outside the house in Beetlejuice, you know, with the giant worm thing that tries to eat Geena Davis? I wish they had included more of the other dimension as well as more scenes in the marble/granite mausoleum. These settings were sterile and creepy and really did much more for the movie than that terrible guitar riff playing over and over again ever did.

The best part of Phantasm was the silver orb that flew around killing people. It definitely took some awesome special effects skills to pull this off and was also seems to have paved the way for some more complicated killing techniques in horror flicks to follow.

Basically, this little guy flies around like an unassuming, unmanned futuristic handball until WHOAH ARE THOSE SPIKES?!?!?! It attacks its victim's face, then sticks out the little drill between the victim's eyes and sucks out their blood.



Like this:


Judging from photos I found while searching for those above, Phantasms II-IV continue the use of killer orbs of doom, which is the only thing Joey, my boyfriend, had remembered from when he saw Phantasm IV as a kid. He actually described this series as, "the one with that guy who had the scary orbs." You'd be amazed at how well that statement sums up this movie.

BIG SPOILER: This movies uses the lamest ending EVER- the "It Was All Just a Dream... OR WAS IT?" ending. *sigh* The only way this ending ever works is if the character's sanity has somehow been in question all along. The best example of this is Rosemary's Baby, which also happens to be the one movie guaranteed to always scare the shit out of me. Of course, we actually find out in the end whether or not Rosemary's paranoia is founded in reality. The makers of Phantasm did find a way to make three sequels to the movie, so maybe we find out what the hell actually happened in this first movie in one of those.


Oh, and did I mention that The Tall Man can change into a beautiful, blonde, large breasted woman at will? Just... wow.

Day One: Let the terror begin!

Hello and welcome! You've somehow managed to find "Greta Scared Stupid"- a blog dedicated to documenting my month-long introduction (and possibly obsession) over the horror film genre. I, Greta, will be watching (at least) one horror movie per day throughout the month of October. I've never really been big into scary movies, probably in part due to being absolutely terrified when I was taken to see Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in theaters at the tender age of six. Realizing that of the few horror flicks I've actually seen, I really enjoyed a lot of them, I decided to dedicate the month of October to expanding my horizons in the genre.

I've been collecting suggestions from friends for the past few weeks and the day has finally arrived. I didn't get a chance to get to Reckless Video today, so I had a limited selection of movies to choose from my personal collection. I've decided to only watch movies I have not seen before (I'm sorry, Troll 2), so that really limited my options. Luckily, I bought The Exorcist a few years ago for $3 at a post-Halloween sale. Being the scaredy-cat I am, I never got around to watching it. Lo and behold, it became my first movie. Might as well start of with a bang, right?

My mother told me once that she saw the trailer for The Exorcist and had nightmares for a month (I guess it runs in the family). It has quite the legacy as being the scariest movie of all time (or rather the best horror film of all time, which is a somewhat different description). I found a pretty awesome website with its own list of the 100 Best Horror Films, and The Exorcist is ranked numero uno.

So what did I think of it? With my very inexperienced lens of horror films: I liked it. I was nervous that I might scare myself too much too soon by watching this one first, but it turned out to be much less creepy than my expectations (honestly, the music was the scariest part to me). It also had much more background and character development than I expected. The famous scenes are definitely gruesome, most notably when Regan (Linda Blair) stabs herself with a crucifix and then later attacks her mother (Ellen Burstyn) with her crotch and a bureau (ouch!), and of course, the infamous split-pea-soup vomiting. Beyond the main plot of sweet little girl possessed by the devil, there are definitely other stories going on: Father Karras is grappling with the loss of both his faith and his mother; Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is totally failing as a single mother/actress by getting her director killed and letting her daughter become possessed; and for some reason Lieutenant Kinderman is way too forgiving in his murder investigations (wow didn't see that one coming with a character name like that!).

Probably the weirdest side-plot in this movie, however, is the interplay between neurobiology vs. psychiatry (followed closely by psychiatry vs. religion). When Chris first takes Regan in for a check up on her new-found defiant and hyperactive behavior, the doctors prescribe Ritalin, saying they're not really sure what's wrong, but it's totally normal for kids to act this way and it seems to get better with a healthy dose of stimulants. Could the filmmakers possibly have been predicting the future overuse of ADHD meds in kids way back in 1973? Unlikely, but this part of the movie totally had me unintentionally amused. Maybe we should have just hired more priests for our ADD diagnosed kids.

Now that I've got the ball rolling, the blog up and running, and the boyfriend somehow convinced (manipulated?) into keeping me company during my scare-a-thon, I have to say I'm really excited. Stay tuned for a new entry for each day this month, and please suggest your favorite horror movies! I definitely am no where near having 30 more to watch, and I'm totally open to suggestions.

Until tomorrow!