Nothing brings a family together better than the holidays. Unless it is a deranged alien bent on destroying eveything. That will united even the most dysfunctional familys.

 

Read Time:2 Minute, 50 Second

Shocktoberfest 2021, Yuletide Edition

What do you do if you are into horror films but none of your family is, yet they insist you put together a list of holiday favorite movies because you are also the designated AV and IT guy? You can apply yourself to coming up with a bunch of family favorites guaranteed to warm their hearts or do such a terrible job that they will ask nothing of you ever again.

This situation does not warrant compromise. Either everyone will gather with cups of warm cocoa in their best Christmas sweaters and chuckle at the hijinks of whatever nightmarishly wholesome story of family bonding they settled on while you sit off to the side in your Nightmare on Elm Street —Dream Warriors hoodie, praying for a zombie apocalypse, or they glare with hatred at you as they pack up their still wrapped presents and leave.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 FINAL EDITION -SLASHTASTIC!

Jason and Me

How I caught air in the theater.

Slashers were once unwelcome companions on my horror movie journey. The stories about the deaths of obnoxious teenagers seemed more like pointless exercises in sadism than genuine horror. But they would do in a pinch. When I was a freshman in college, my girlfriend and I went to see Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. It was hard to keep my opinion quiet about how awful the movie was. Everything from the terrible choices the characters made to the predictable jump-scares were cause for complaint. Most irritating was the scene where Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) returns to the dark basement where she just witnessed Jason kill Rob (E. Erick Anderson). What was she thinking? Rob was dead and Jason was still lurking in the dark. When she turned to run back up the stairs, I whispered to my date, “Watch, he is going to grab her!”

Watching a good scary movie can be a real physical experience. Releasing intense emotions causes an equal release of energy. As my prediction came true and Jason grabbed Trish, my words were lost in the loud scream that came out instead and  I vaulted over the divider and onto my girlfriend’s lap.

Obviously, there was much to learn about the power slashers.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 - WEEK 3 - IT'S HENENLOTTER WEEK!

HENENLOTTER WEEK!

Everything Old is New Again

For the third edition of this year’s Shocktoberfest, I found a link between a contemporary film and a filmmaker rooted The Golden Age of Exploitation.

James Wan, a modern filmmaker whose hits include The Conjuring, Saw, and Insidious, heads in a new direction with his latest film, Malignant. The movie has been making waves in the horror community since its release. Stephen King himself extolled it in a tweet, heaping the highest praise on it. While looking forward, Wan's film rely's on the dirty DNA of Frank Henenlotter’s gory masterpiece, Basket Case.

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021 WEEK TWO, THE PIZZA RITUAL

 

The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show cast – Bob “Hoolihan” Wells, “Little” John Rinaldi, and “Big Chuck” Shodowski

Ever since I was old enough to stay up late and use the stove by myself, Friday nights were all about eating frozen pizzas and watching horror movies on TV. Before the Internet and VCRs, I was limited to the choices of whatever the local stations had on hand. Right after the nightly news, The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show would start its weekly program of movies, silly skits, and PSAs for activities in Cleveland. Eventually, my parents bought a VCR, and the local video stores expanded my access to horror movies.

Now, nearly four decades later, I celebrate my love of horror movies and frozen pizzas whenever I can. Here is the lineup from my latest Friday Night Pizza and Horror Movies ritual:

SHOCKTOBERFEST 2021, WEEK ONE!

 

Let’s get this party started! Time for this year’s round of Shocktoberfest mini-reviews!

I believe that horror can save us. Horror makes sense of the chaotic, unpredictable modern world. It provides solace to our stressed and grieving hearts. Horror paints vibrant colors over darkened existences. Horror helps us discover the best in all of us.

The stories themselves bring these changes. Discovering the strange and unusual helps us to bond with others. It encourages trust-building, attachment, vulnerability, and empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand and even feel what another person is experiencing. To paraphrase The Prayer For Peace, also known as the Prayer of Saint Francis, it is better to understand than to be understood*. Embracing the unknown brings us knowledge.

Of course, in horror, everything becomes subverted and twisted. A wily serial killer may use empathy to get closer to their victim. In the first Shocktoberfest 2021 movie, failing to understand can be a lethal thing.

Have the lambs stopped screaming yet?