FRIDAY FAMILY FILM NIGHT

On the twenty-third night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2017), screenplay and directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda from a play "Ghost in the Box!" by Ryoichi Wada.  We do not want to spoil this so we won't, other than to say, RUN DON'T WALK and check out this film.  The film clocks in at 1 h and 36 m, is unrated R and we caught the fi...

On the twenty-second night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing ROH (2019), written/directed by Rob Jabbaz.  After a year of downplaying a flu-like virus, the city of Taipei is suddenly plunged into bloody chaos as a mutation causes the infected to act on their darkest, most violent, and most perverse impulses.  The highly aggressive plague turns ordinary people into sadistic...

On the twenty-first night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing ROH (2019), written by Emir Ezwan, Amir Hafizi and Nazri Vovinski, the film is directed by Emir Ezwan.  In a secluded hut deep within the Malaysian forest, a single mother and her two children's isolated life is shattered when they encounter a strange, mute little girl covered in mud. The girl repays their kin...

On the twentieth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing PRESENCE (2024), written by David Koepp, the film is directed by Steven Soderbergh.  The film is shot entirely from the point of view of an unseen entity, which observes a dysfunctional family—a mother, father, and two teenage children—after they move into a new suburban house.  As tensions and secrets within the fam...

On the nineteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing THE DESCENT (2005), written and directed by Neil Marshall.  A year after losing her husband and daughter in a car accident, a grieving woman named Sarah joins five female friends for a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains.  Their trip quickly turns into a nightmare when a tunnel collapses, trapping them in...

On the eighteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing ODDITY (2024), written and directed by Damian Mc Carthy. A year after her twin sister Dani's brutal murder at a remote country house, blind clairvoyant Darcy becomes convinced the police blamed the wrong man. Darcy visits the house—now occupied by Dani's widower Ted and his new girlfriend—bringing a menacing...

On the seventeenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing SUSPIRIA (2018), directed by Luca Guadagnino, from a script by David Kajganich and characters by Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi.  Set in 1977 Berlin amidst political turmoil, young American dancer, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) joins the prestigious Markos Dance Academy, unaware it is a front for a coven of witc...

On the sixteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister and our buddy, Zack, join me in reviewing FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011) and THE FINAL DESTINATION (2025).   In  FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011), directed by Steven Quale, from a script by Eric Heisserer and Jeffrey Reddick.  In the film, a man's premonition saves his colleagues from a deadly suspension bridge collapse, only for the mysterious...

On the fifteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister and our buddy, Zack, join me in reviewing FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006) and THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009).   In FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006), directed by James Wong, from a script by Glen Morgan, James Wong and Jeffrey Reddick, a high school student's premonition of a catastrophic roller coaster derailment saves her and a group of friends f...

On the fourteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister and our buddy, Zack, join me in reviewing FINAL DESTINATION (2000) and FINAL DESTINATION 2 (2003).   In FINAL DESTINATION (2000), directed by James Wong, from a script by Glen Morgan, James Wong and Jeffrey Reddick.  The film follows a high school student who cheats death when a premonition prompts him and several classmates to get off a...

On the thirteenth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing 28 YEARS LATER (2025), from director Danny Boyle  with a script by Alex Garland.  Set nearly three decades after the Rage virus devastated the UK, the film focuses on a small, isolated community living on a fortified island off the English mainland.  Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) ventures onto the infected...

On the twelfth night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing 28 WEEKS LATER (2007), from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, with a script by Rowan Joffe, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Enrique López Lavigne.  Six months after the initial outbreak, the US Army establishes a heavily-guarded safe zone in London for repatriated citizens, believing the Rage virus is dead.  However, the v...

On the eleventh night of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing 28 DAYS LATER (2002), from a screenplay by Alex Garland, the film is directed by Danny Boyle.  Bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens from a coma 28 days after a hyper-contagious rage virus has been accidentally unleashed, finding London deserted and overrun by fast, homicidal infected people.  Jim joins a small ba...

On night 10 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020), from writer/director Steven Kostanski.  While playing a bizarre backyard game, siblings Mimi (Nita-Josée Hanna) and Luke (Owen Myre) accidentally unearth a glowing gem and release an ancient, malevolent alien overlord they dub "Psycho Goreman" (PG).  Mimi discovers the gem gives her absolute pow...

On night 9 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing SALEM'S LOT (2024), from writer/director Gary Dauberman, the film is based on a novel by Stephen King.  Author Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman) returns to his childhood hometown of Jerusalem's Lot to write a new novel about the notorious Marsten House, coinciding with the arrival of mysterious antique dealer Richard Straker (Pi...

On night 8 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS (1994), from writer Michael De Luca, the film is directed by John Carpenter.  Insurance investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) is hired to track down missing and hugely popular horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), whose books are causing widespread insanity among his readers. Following clues to the...

On night 7 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing SCANNERS (1981), from writer/director David Cronenberg. Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), a derelict man with uncontrolled telepathic and psychokinetic powers known as a "scanner," is recruited by the private security firm ConSec to track down Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside), a dangerously powerful, rogue scanner intent on...

On night 6 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing PHANTASM (1979), from writer/director Don Coscarelli. Following the death of his parents, friend and the fear of his older brother Jody leaving him, young Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin) becomes suspicious of the town's sinister mortician, known as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). Mike sneaks into the eerie Morningside Mortuar...

On night 5 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing SPIDER BABY (1967), from writer/director Jack Hill.  Loyal chauffeur Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.) serves as the caretaker for the three orphaned Merrye siblings, who suffer from a rare genetic disorder that causes them to mentally and physically regress into homicidal, savage children.  He attempts to conceal their murderous, childlik...

On night 4 of our #31DaysToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing THE STRANGLER (1964), from director Burt Topper, from a screenplay by Bill S. Ballinger.  Victor Buono stars as Leo Kroll, a lonely, mother-fixated hospital lab technician who secretly harbors a deep-seated rage against women, which he acts out by serially murdering young nurses and leaving broken dolls at his crime scenes. Krol...

On night 3 of our #CountdownToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), from director James Whale, screenwriting credits to William Hulburt, Edmund Pearson (uncredited) and Tom Reed (contributing writer - uncredited), Robert Florey (story - uncredited); adapted by William Hurlbut, John L. Balderston, Josef Berne (uncredited), Lawrence G. Blochman (uncredited), Ph...

On night 2 of our #CountdownToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing FRANKENSTEIN (1931), from director James Whale, screenwriters Garrett Fort and Francis Edward Faragoh, adapted from the play by Peggy Webling and originates from the novel by Mary Shelley.  Obsessed scientist Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) successfully creates a living man stitched together from dead bodies, but his creatio...

On the first night of our #CountdownToHalloween the Mister joins me in reviewing THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951), from John W Campbell Jr's novella "Who Goes There?", the film was directed by Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks (uncredited).  The screenplay is credited to Charles Lederer; although production records and later sources note rewrites and contributions (uncredited) from...

In which the Mister joins me in reviewing THE 39 STEPS (1935), from John Buchan's novel with a dialogue credit to  Ian Hay and an adaptation credit to Charles Bennett, the film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  The film centers on Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), a Canadian tourist in London who becomes entangled in a massive espionage plot after a spy (Lucie Mannheim) is murdered in his flat, l...

In which the Mister and Monsters join me in reviewing ROMANCING THE STONE (1984), from director Robert Zemeckis and screenplay by Diane Thomas. The film is a romantic adventure comedy about Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner), a timid but successful romance novelist who is forced to leave her quiet life in New York to travel to the Colombian jungle to rescue her kidnapped sister. Her only clue is a cryp...