Halloween Horror Marathon: What Have We Learned...?

If you spend an entire month watching movies from one genre, you start to pick up on a few tropes. Yeah, I recognize that as the staggering understatement that it is. That you caught that doesn't make you better than me! Y'know...that was combative and I'm sorry. The truth is you build such a familiarity with the usual markers that each of these stories hit spanning across sub-genres that you could practically write your own paint-by-numbers movie after a while. In some cases, it shows that the film-makers did exactly that. But I digress...

I telegraphed that joke as much as you telegraphed your ending!

The more exposure to tropes of any genre you have just makes their absurdity more apparent, and that's why I'm here. Because absurdity is hilarious to me. That, and there are plenty of tropes or "rules" that most people already know about the horror genre thanks to Scream. But let me assure you that there are even more that those movies completely missed, the writers had no knowledge of, or they simply wound up playing into themselves. There are a variety of ways to survive a horror movie (living it or watching it), but they vary as much as the genre itself. And it always requires a legit assessment of the situation. So, where to begin...?

Well...

Halloween Horror Marathon 2016: Stranger Things Will Have to Wait...

Getting started a little later than I would've hoped, but I've got a good reason!*

I'm here now though, and ready to put in that work. I'll keep the intro brief. You know why we're here. Here's the breakdown. Below are the horror movies I've watched this year for my annual marathon in October as well as a brief comment, thought, or micro-review. This year, I'll also conclude with the recommendations and condemnations from this batch of films.** The criteria is...

• No Prior knowledge of the movie
• I have to have never seen it OR not seen it recently enough to form an opinion
• Once the credits start (or I pass the 1:30 min. mark), there is NO TURNING BACK...
• No David DeCoteau movies

No retreat, no surrender, no stops 'til November. Let's do this!