A Remembrance of Halloweens Past

Every Halloween season, for over two decades, I, Dan, have invited friends over for an annual horror double feature. It is by far the most consistent tradition in my life. In fact, it’s gone on for so long now that I have trouble remembering which films I’ve already screened.

To combat my terrible memory, I recently put together a Letterboxd list of my double feature picks. And since The Flop House (the other most consistent thing in my life) is about to celebrate SHOCKTOBER, I thought I’d share a semi-annotated list of these titles with you, dear listeners, in case you’re seeking something fun to watch this Halloween season.

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that there are 36 movies, and if they’re all ½ of a double feature (they weren’t, but we’ll get to that later) that only makes 17 years of these, not the 2+ decades I mention above. What happened to the others? Well, I had to dive DEEP into my emails to recall these titles, and I started these parties so far back that I was originally using Evite (ask an old person) so I have no record of what I screened back then. Consider this a SPOOOOOOKY cautionary tale about the impermanence of the digital age!

My philosophy for these movie nights is to show one movie that’s “good” (or has redeeming features) and one that’s “bad” (or silly enough to goof on with a crowd) but both movies should be FUN. This is a social event! In a theater I want y’all to shut up and put your phones away, but for a friendly screening you want movies that won’t suffer in front of a rowdy crowd.

I don’t have full records of which movies paired with which, so I’ve just put the titles into some loose groupings:

Crowd Pleasers! Night of the Demons (1988), Trick ’r Treat (2007), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Society (1989), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), The Monster Squad (1987), The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (Sleepy Hollow segment) (1949), Creepshow (1982), The Blob (1988), Slither (2006), Night of the Creeps (1986)

These will likely be hits with horror fans and general audiences alike. Lotta horror comedies, and while some (like Slither or Society) go pretty far with the goopy effects, even the grossest stuff is played pretty silly.

The Good-Bad: Jaws: The Revenge (1987), Rock ’n’ Roll Nightmare (1987),  Shakma (1990), Sleepwalkers (1992), Nightmare Weekend (1986), The Mangler (1995), Grizzly II: Revenge (2020), Pieces (1982), Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995) 

 The nutty garbage that’s a hoot and a half to watch!

The Good-Bad: Advanced Studies: Things (1989)

I love Things. I think it’s good-bad. But if you haven’t worked up to the raw, uncut, weirdo fringes of cinema, Things might be too much — not because it’s too horrific, but because it’s confusing and dull. Much of Things (shot on Super-8, released straight to VHS) is just a couple of Canadian non-actors in mullets sitting in a house, drinking beers, eating sandwiches, and having long, mumbled conversations. Eventually (very eventually) “things” appear from the basement and one of the dudes wanders around with a drill looking for them. It’s probably too much for the casual viewer, but if you’re ready for it, Things is a vibe.

The Bad-Bad: Monster Dog (1984), Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985) 

Sometimes I take a chance on a pick I haven’t seen and it doesn’t pay off. I thought Monster Dog would be great, since it’s from the director of Troll 2 and stars Alice Cooper, but it was pretty dull (though there are some fun Cooper songs). I think I fell asleep during Howling II. Both have their fans, but they weren’t for me!

Outliers: M (1931), The Descent (2005), Prince of Darkness (1987)

It took me a while to perfect the kinds of movies that are good to watch with a crowd. These are three excellent horror movies, but they’re either too serious or too reliant on sustaining an eerie atmosphere for a party.

I Actually Remember This One! Piranha 3D (2010), Creatures from the Abyss (1994)

Separating this into its own category, because I actually remembered two movies that went together! It’s a double feature of killer fish movies! Piranha was also notoriously the movie we saw with Elliott the morning of his wedding! And Creatures from the Abyss AKA Plankton is a total bad movie delight!

Know Your Audience: Brain Damage (1988), Scream for Help (1984),  Xtro (1982), Mandy (2018), Boardinghouse (1982)

When you’re a horror/cult movie freakazoid like me, you may sometimes forget that other people aren’t like you. I recall screening Frank Henlotter’s wonderful-but-tasteless 1988 movie Brain Damage, and getting to the point where a woman accidentally performs fellatio on the sentient brain worm that’s infected our hero, and meets a gory end. The response from the room had me thinking, “Okay, this one… wasn’t for this crowd. Oops.” These days I’ve assembled enough like-minded weirdos that I know they’ll go along with the sleazy vibes of Scream for Help, the nihilism of Xtro, the psychedelic violence of Mandy, and the excessive hot-tubbing of Boardinghouse. But if you’re playing to a less jaded crowd, keep your audience in mind!

Mixtape! Body Bags (1993), Cat’s Eye (1985), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

I’m fond of horror anthology movies, but they are, by their nature, uneven. So one year I decided to make one of my “features” a mixtape of only my favorite segments from three anthology films. So I screened an edit of “The Gas Station” (dir. John Carpenter) from Body Bags, “Quitter’s Inc.” (dir. Lewis Teague) from Cat’s Eye, and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (dir. George Miller) from Twilight Zone: The Movie. It was a hit! I should do this again sometime…

Live Shows

As of this writing there are still tickets available for our late show (9:30pm on 11/16) at Chicago’s “Sleeping Village,” where we’ll be discussing K-9, a movie about a cop and his slobbering dog of a partner, Jim Belushi. We hope to see you there!

But if you like your live shows experienced from the comfort of your own home, you can always get tickets for Flop TV, either as individual shows or a season pass! So far we’ve already covered The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) and Jack Frost (1998) as we flop back in time, decade by decade — but you don’t have to worry about missing anything if you didn’t catch us live, because your ticket also gets you access to a recording of the show, to watch at your leisure. Next month’s show will be Xanadu, on November 1, at 9pm Eastern, 6 Pacific.

Next on the Podcast

10/11 - We catch up with a much-requested SHOCKTOBER picture that we neglected to cover last year — IMAGINARY, the movie that dares to ask “Do you find this teddy bear scary? No? What if we cover it with a towel?”

10/18 - Tuboy returns to talk tube to two dudes. (Today? Okay!)

Plugging Away

Max Fun members can hear Elliott on the Jordan Jesse Go! bonus feed talking about Godzilla vs. Kong on their members-only show Podcast Movie Movie Podcast. You can also pre-order his book Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense!

Dan’s a writer and contributing editor for Deathbed - “Horror Stories by Comedy Writers” — why not check it out this Halloween season? (And beyond!) He also writes a personal newsletter called Special Interests, and the most recent installment recaps his trip to LA. Are all these unpaid newsletters keeping him from paid work? Hard to say!

Stuart paints models and chats with viewers most Fridays on his Twitch channel. And if you’re in Brooklyn, check out Hinterlands; Minnie’s Bar; or Jiggle Studio, the body-positive exercise space!

You Made it to the End!

Here are a couple of images from the most recent FlopTV!