Ladies and gentleman, Rin & Len Kagamine!
Well, it's once again Halloween, and this year I'm just not that into it. I haven't made a single jack-o-lantern this year. Of course, that's mostly because I forgot about it this year. Plus it's a lot of work. I think that if I remember to do it next year, I'll only do one. In the past I've done three. Anyway, the reason why I'm just not into Halloween this year is that the horror movies that have been shown this month have been kind of a disappointment for me. Usually what I do on Halloween anymore is just watch at least one horror movie of some kind, and October is usually when you'd expect to find the best horror/sci-fi movies on TV. This year has been kind of a letdown. Last year was too a little, but not as bad as this year. The Syfy Channel hasn't shown anything good, but then the Syfy Channel has gone way down hill over the years. That's a different topic altogether though.
Then of course there's AMC. They've shown two or three okay horror movies, but most of what they've shown are zombie movies. Why the heck are zombie movies so big? What ever happened to good old-fashioned vampire or werewolf movies? Do people no longer think they're scary because of that Twilight *bleep*? It has seemed like vampires and werewolves have been romanticized a bit over the last decade or so. Or at least are now portrayed in a more positive light, and that's okay. A couple of good vampire heroes that spring to mind are Miyu from Vampire Princess Miyu and Moka from Rosario + Vampire. Not that Rosario + Vampire is my favorite anime/manga series. I read the manga for awhile, but got tired of it. Anyway, a vampire still makes an awesome villain, and werewolves still make formidable movie monsters. A few examples of good werewolf movies I can think of off the top of my head are the original Howling, Stephen King's Silver Bullet, and Project Metal Beast. Actually Project Metal Beast is kinda cheesy, but it's an interesting concept. A military experiment gives a werewolf metal skin.
Anyway, it all seems to be about zombie movies these days. What is the big deal about zombies? Every zombie movie is the same, a virus kills off the majority of the human race, reanimates the corpses as flesh-eating monsters, and the few humans who are left try to fight off the zombie hoard. It's the same story every film, and it's depressing. I don't like depressing movies. Granted, few horror films have happy endings, but zombie movies go over the top with it. As I've said, it's the same story every film, yet they're so popular. There are even TV shows about zombies now. There's that show called The Walking Dead on AMC, and then there's the anime series High School of the Dead. How do you end shows like that? I find it hard to believe that they could have a happy ending.
Okay, so maybe vampire and werewolves are a little out of style these days when it comes to horror, but there are other options than zombie movies. Like Alien movies for example. Thanks to the old War of the Worlds radio broadcast and The Simpsons Halloween specials (Tree House of Horror), aliens have been a part of Halloween for years, and there are a few really good horror movies featuring aliens. The best examples would of course be the movies Alien and Aliens. There are other alternatives too, like movies about ghosts. The best examples I can think of are the first two Poltergeist movies. Another alternative would be a movie about demons. One year I saw the last half of the movie Hellraiser. That film looked interesting to me, and the gore was fake enough not to bother me. I don't like horror films with too much blood and gore. Anyway, the puzzle box that brought forth the demons, or whatever they were, was a nice touch.
So that concludes my little rant I guess. This year's batch of horror movies have been a disappointment, but I still have some stuff to watch. Last year I recorded some of the Friday the 13th movies and never got around to watching them. I'll never understand why it never occurs to the characters in those types of movies to just cut off the head of the unkillable psycho killer, other than the simple fact that it would end the series. Obviously, none of the people in those movies have seen Highlander. Anyway, I also actually have both Alien and Aliens on DVD, so I could just put those in I guess. I just needed to get this rant off my chest. Thanks for reading.
~Darkarax
