75 Movies! 31 Days! Assured Insanity!

The spirits of pumpkin flavored everything and hoodie weather have taken hold of me once again and I've decided that I need to watch as many horror movies in October as humanly possible. My goal this year is to watch 75 horror movie that I haven't seen before. This averages to roughly 2 or 3 movies a day and although that will definitely be a challenge, I feel like it's a challenge that I'm ready to face head on! I will try to update the blog every day with the movies I watch and a little something about how I liked or did not like them. The beer scale will remain in effect and as with last time, if I watch a video nasty it will receive it's own separate entry. I barely reached 50 last time so I'm not entirely sure I'll make it to 75, but I'll certainly have fun trying!

The Disco Exorcist / Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter

(2011)
Director: Richard Griffin
Writers: Tony Nunes, Ted Geoghegan


 The Disco Exorcist is not a magnificent movie that will garner critical praise, it is destined to become a cult movie; Unheard of by most, ravenously worshiped by a select few. The Disco Exorcist is the tale of Rex Romanski, a seventies ladies' man who scorns disco princess Rita Marie in favor of porn actress Amoreena Jones. Unbeknownst to Rex, Rita Marie is a practitioner of Voodoo and the dark arts. When she uses her nefarious resources to curse Amoreena, Rex is forced to fend off evil forces in order to save his soul starlet.

The Disco Exorcist combines all the best elements of post Exorcist rip-offs (of which I am becoming increasingly fond of) and sleazy 70's porn. Not only is it very ambitious and well done, it's also pretty hilarious. Most of the low budget movies that have come out in the wake of Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse have kept up with the whole "grindhouse" editing bit for a few minutes at most and then reverted to just being a goofy horror or exploitation film. The Disco Exorcist retains it's grindhouse front for the full duration of the film. I'll admit, the whole "scene missing" thing ruins it a bit, but for the most part it does a fantastic job of making the movie feel like a legitimate horror/exploitation film from the 70's. And I won't lie, with a few beers, this movie was fantastic.

The ambitiousness of The Disco Exorcist reminded me of another great film that my friends and I used to frequent in our college days that I felt obligated to follow the viewing with... 

(2001)
Director: Lee Demarbre
Writer: Ian Driscoll

Full disclosure: When I was in art school, I smoked a lot of pot. I know, it's a big surprise. However, during this time I also lived no more than a few steps away from a Tower Records. At a time when the only feasible way to view a movie was through physical media or the theater, this was a very dangerous thing for someone whose horizons were just beginning to expand. One of my friends spotted a VHS copy of Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter and based on the title alone, he purchased it. It became an instant classic. With such a bold title, one would reasonably expect a movie that gets by on shock value alone, but JCVH doesn't rely on this crutch. Instead, it's a cleverly orchestrated and intelligent film. It also doesn't hurt that it throws in the character of superstar luchador El Santo. Let's be honest, the budget on this movie shows, but the things that they pull off with it is incredible. The fight choreography is admirable, the soundtrack is great, and the characters come off as legitimately charismatic even though all the audio is done in post-production.

As a personal side note, I had a few friends throughout my time that flat-out refused to watch Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter because they felt that it was sacreligious. In it's defense, I have to say that JCVH, while being a dumb action movie, remains true to the core ideals of christianity. The "Jesus" in the film kicks many an ass, but still preaches tolerance and acceptance of all. Even those that more radical christians might shun for their outward appearances or personal preferences. As the Jesus in the movie proclaims "Don't follow me, follow my teachings. It's the message that counts.". If you think this is just another dumb movie, You're all up in the Kool-Aid, but you don't even know the flavor.

The Disco Exorcist- 10 out of 12 beers.

 

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter- 10 1/2 out of 12 beers

 

The Ghosting

(1992)
Director: Walt Hefner
Writer: Walt Hefner

The Ghosting begins with a waitress moving into an abandoned church with her husband, a Vietnam veteran, and their two children. The husband buries a drifter that died in his back seat who, unbeknownst to him, is also the ax murderer that slaughtered his own family years before in the church they're now living in. Naturally a series of unexplained ghostly phenomena, or ghostings, begin terrorizing the family.

While The Ghosting does quite a few interesting things visually, the plot seems to be pretty generic and borrows heavily from better movies such as House, The Exorcist, and The Shining. Most of the actors, especially the father, are hilariously awful. The plot takes bizarre turns that don't make much sense, and other seemingly important plot points are immediately forgotten. In one scene, the daughter appears to be violently raped by a ghost. Yet, in the next scene she seems perfectly okay, goes on a date with a boy, and the event is never mentioned again. Also there's a great scene where the father fights a giant rubber dragon head. A lot of these inexplicable plot developments are very entertaining but at almost two hours long, the movie begins to drag a lot.

I picked up a VHS of The Ghosting because it was cheap and it does have a pretty badass cover. Thankfully there was no actual ghosting in the movie. All in all, I can't really recommend it as a good movie, but with a few beers and some friends it could be a good time.

5 1/2 out of 12 beers