October Movie Ritual: Tradition, Timeline, Themes

I don't see  Sleepy Hollow  by Tim Burton as much as a movie as I do a work of art--a painting you could spend a fortune on and hang up in any prestigious gallery or estate. I don't often have this feeling about a movie. Burton's masterpiece is a rare exception. It's likely matched in its cinematic artistry only by another Burton work:  A Nightmare Before Christmas.  The great ones know their style;   Burton is proof. Yeah, sometimes his movies falter ,  especiall y  when we fast-forward to more current times. But  Sleep Hollow  is Burton at his best, a Jordan figure in his time.  As has been my practice for this blog, I try to find a greater message with every movie we watch in our tradition. About Burton's classic book adaptation I can only offer this: Cherish the movies that move you to think of paintings. They are the movies that will live with you.    

I know. I know. I know. We're supposed to read into the ghost plot that's right there.  Carnival of Souls  is a brilliant invitation to reflect on the afterlife. What happens when we die? In my forties now, I certainly spend more time than usual contemplating this question. I think it's healthy to do so, of course. I shouldn't have waited until my forties to obsess over it. We should all. At the very least, thoughts of the afterlife can compel is to make better decisions now. Perhaps that's what the movie wants us to see? Well, I just see a lot of people manipulating a poor girl. Sorry. Cannot escape this. My wife and I rarely align on our movie takeaways, but we did on this one. That next-door neighbor in particular infuriated me--and my wife. He was somewhere between child and harasser. Either way, I couldn't help but feel sorry for our main character. She had to put up with him. He represented temporary safety and companionship.  Even as a ghost, we deserve m...

One thing I've noticed about the added tradition of completing a blog with "October Movies" is that I can have conversations about characters, rules of conduct, everyday life, and underlying motives as I would have otherwise never had. I have been excited to have these conversations because of the movies my wife and I have watched together this month and in previous renditions of this October tradition.  Last night, we discussed the classic Night of the Living Dead.  The discussion was all about what makes a character likeable or not. I was originally mistaken about motive when I claimed I did not like our main character in this movie. I thought he made an execution without giving it much thought. I was wrong! I had left the room (full confession) when it was clear that our "Cellar Lover" was bitten by his daughter. Therefore, our main character had no choice but to shoot him. I walked back in when the shooting took place, but I had missed the critical scene tha...

Sometimes I forget why I love horror movies so much, and then a movie comes along that reminds me. That's what  The Substance  did--and did unapologetically. When I finished surviving (not just watching) this movie, I was grateful that my life's decisions had not yet doomed me to the same fate our two protagonists met. The movie also raised an interesting question :  What unnecessary choices do we make in life that needlessly grasp at youth?  With a question like this, I'm not suggesting we should never make choices to grasp at youth. We can all revisit those childhood memories and locations that provide us a sense of peace. We can also maintain friendships with people who have long since moved away. There's also nothing wrong with continuing to maintain our health and fitness to become the best versions of ourselves. These are all fine practices that we should feel encouraged to maintain.  The key is "needless." What are the needless attempts we make to grasp...

I love this movie! From plot, to actors, to setting, to conflict, this movie has it all. I think what I love most about this movie is that the idea behind it grips me at the outset. It is a simple idea, but is a widely entertaining one. Throughout, we watch our actors bring to life a story that makes us laugh, gasp, and cheer. If you have not read any of the posts on this blog to this point, that's okay! What you will find if you do is that there is a recognizable pattern to them. I enjoy finding a larger truth in each movie that I watch and post about.  Shadow oft he Vampire  deserves no less.  My humble point of wisdom to offer here is to love your craft. Love your craft completely. Love it like you love nothing else in life--well, perhaps with the exception of family, of course! We have a director in this movie who loves his craft completely. The actors are the same. Our legacies in life are established through the crafts we commit ourselves to. In part, I find this mo...

Stories that immerse us immediately in settings we recognize and value are stories I can get behind. The same goes for supernatural occurrences. That’s the idea with the  Haunting of the Queen Mary . I can say I enjoyed this movie for more than its wise borrowings. I loved the main character; the premise of writing a story is always one I can endorse. I also found myself reminiscing on my own failed relationships due to the main characters’ struggle. That struggle, more than anything, is why I found myself watching this movie with anticipation. The human struggle always sells.  I realize that one of my reasons for loving movies so much is because they often provide me a chance encounter with a buried emotion. Sometimes I need to be reminded of those emotions, and movies refuse to let me ignore those feelings. Horror movies in particular have a way of fronting me with buried emotions.