The reason I haven't posted much lately is because I was really not doing much horror activity. I went to Walla Walla last weekend with my dad, where the closest I got to seeing a horror movie was when we almost watched "Ugetsu" and then didn't because it was too late. Since I got back, I haven't been watching as much horror as I wanted to, but that was for a reason... sort of.

The "reason" is because I watched an early 80s horror comedy called "Student Bodies," and that got me in the mood for a ton of trashy 90s movies like "Scary Movie" and "Not Another Teen Movie," which I've been watching online just for fun. As for "Student Bodies," I didn't think it was all that great but I also didn't think it was awful. There were some parts that were downright funny and then there were parts that were so over-the-top they weren't even funny anymore. I thought they tried a bit hard with it. It really is an 80s "Scary Movie," but there weren't all that many movies for them to make fun of so they made fun of "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th." It was made in 1981 and I think that it would have done better if it had been made in the mid-to-late 80s because the slasher genre was really still just developing in 1981. If they had made it later, they could have parodied more movies and altogether made a better film. On the other hand, it wasn't terrible. Some parts were genuinely funny, and that Malvert guy was SO WEIRD!!!! He looked like he had no bones!!!

Yesterday I watched a couple of movies. The first was "The Monster Squad," which I LOVED (and loved even more when I found out it was directed by Fred Dekker, who also did "Night of the Creeps," which is AMAZING. "The Monster Squad" was a lot like "The Goonies," but for some reason I didn't really like "The Goonies" when I saw it for this first time last winter. It was too long and intricate. "The Monster Squad," on the other hand, had everything "The Goonies" had but in a much shorter time frame, which meant they had to cut out all the shitty parts, haha. I also thought it was funnier and certainly more up my alley than treasure-hunting is, although I admit I was put off at first by the traditional monsters, since they're so basic. But it was done really well and I would certainly show it to my children (assuming I ever have any, of course). It's very straightforward, a good way to get your kids familiar with their monsters. Dracula hates garlic and can be killed (along with other vampires) by a wooden stake. Werewolves can be killed by silver bullets (and the werewolf was played by Napoleon Dynamite's uncle, which was funny), and Frankenstein... well, just treat him nice and he'll be eating out of the palm of your hand. Awesome movie.

The second one was the original "Dracula," which I'm ashamed to admit I'd never seen until last night. It was between that and "Eyes Without A Face," which I think I'll watch right after I finish this. My friend told me that Bela Lugosi can only be watched in the dark, so I watched it around midnight in a pitch-black room. She was right. I mean, I'm sure this must have been a real shocker when it came out. Nowadays it's pretty silly, and so is the original "Frankenstein" (which I HAVE seen, heh), but in the dark it is still pretty effective. At the end when I turned the lights back on all the scariness seemed to go away and that's when I realized that I actually had been fairly frightened by it, though mostly by that crazy guy's laugh. He reminded me a lot of Peter Lorre. This movie is certainly not frightening at all by today's standards, but I think it's aged pretty well (the quality wasn't the best). Of course, I think that about everything I see because I'm really not a typical 90s child. I grew up on Buster Keaton, not Full House. The point is, I liked this.

And now I'm off to watch "Eyes Without A Face."

Friendly horror quote before I leave:

"I don't know how much movies should entertain. To me, I'm always interested in movies that scar. The thing I love about "Jaws" is the fact that I've never gone swimming in the ocean again."

-David Fincher