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. 

I'm a music teacher, but I didn't always consider music my calling. Some of the professions I wanted to pursue (in no particular order) were: Writer Actor Singer English Teacher Psychologist The movie Split, starring James McAvoy, appealed to the version of me that would have chosen to be a psychologist. I've always been fascinated by the brain's ability to protect itself. From something as simple as justification for questionable behavior, to denial of reality, to projection, the brain really works overtime to ensure the survival (if not the thriving) of the human person. This can be a double-edged sword. In the movie, James McAvoy's character, Kevin, has Dissociative Identity Disorder, more commonly known as split personality. In most instances of multiple personality disorders, a person has two to four distinct and separate personalities . Our antagonist, Kevin, has 23.  Dissociative Identity Disorder, according to the National Institute of Health , is primarily...

  A long time ago, before streaming services, people were at the mercy of what TV stations and cable television providers happened to be showing at a specific time. My parents didn’t see the point in paying for TV, so we didn’t have cable. Our Halloween watching options were limited, but one that we watched with some regularity was Disney’s version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. I’m not sure if it ran every year or if my mom just recorded it on VHS so we could watch it, but it was a staple Halloween movie for us as kids. It was so much so that I know many of the songs by heart, even now that I only watch it around once a year. It wouldn’t be until a few years ago that I found out that it was narrated by none other than the Christmas crooner himself, Bing Crosby. I also had no clue until several years ago that it was made as a double feature, the second feature (Mr. Toad) of which I still haven’t watched. Even more surprising to me, I discovered just this year ...

I fell in love with my field and profession because of reading stories at an early age. I would immerse myself in Westerns during the long winters in North Dakota, favoring in particular stories by Louis L'Amour. An element of storytelling that has long held my fascination is setting. I've been known to choose a story and a movie just because of the setting. This purpose is exactly why I selected  A Haunting in Venice.  This movie is equally charming because of its lead actor, Kenneth Branagh. He stars in one of my top five favorite movies in  Hamlet,  so I was willing to trust this movie.  I'm not   exactly in love with  A Haunting in Venice. Interestingly, it's because we don't get enough glimpses of that setting. I wanted to experience more fully the darker side of Venice. Every place has a darker side ; it's a missed opportunity in a horror movie not to experience fully this darker side. When   drafting my own stories ,  I try my   v...

My family and I went to  Black Phone 2  last night at Meghan's request. It was Tuesday night, and in our town of Bismarck / Mandan that means "cheap movie night" at the local theater .  Meghan is the second oldest in our family and really wanted to see   this movie with us. Her   reason was because we had just watched the   first one as a family a week ago. She felt it fitting to watch the sequel as a family, although I now suspect her real motive was because she has a crush on one of the actors from the first installment of this horror classic. I really enjoyed the first one, so it didn't take much to convince me to go to this one. Only our youngest, Henry, couldn't go because he's a bit too young for horror movies that are rated R. My expectations were understandably low going into this movie, given the less-than-extraordinary success rate of movie sequels in our day and age. But I was surprised. In fact, this movie inspired a realization about sequels. S...

I tell people often (and mean it when I say) that I had the best childhood a kid could hope for. I mean, come on! I grew up on a farm with lots of trees, open spaces, and ample resources to adventure through my formative years. I built so many tree houses, forts, play weapons, and other-such products of my imagination that I still find myself missing those items. I had two parents who were together for us kids; I had plenty of siblings to challenge my view of myself as the center of the universe. I wouldn't trade anything from my childhood. Well, maybe I could have done with a few less chores. But even those chores likely had meaning--we know they do for everyone.  I am reminded of childhood because of the movie  It.  This movie takes me there, as it does all of its followers. There's a reason they've made so many different  It  movies. Our childhoods will always provide a needed adventure.      

As I was watching  Crimson Peak,  I was reminded that movies aren't just about their stories; they are about their awe-inspiring sets, too. I'm quite ashamed to make this observation, as it's quite obvious when you think about it. Yet, somehow, I tend to forget this. I think the obsession with visual effects over the past few decades has shifted my appreciation for effects to story. And while I still believe story matters more, I also want to be fair when I evaluate movies for their attempts at trying something different with their visuals.  Crimson Peak  checks all of the right boxes for visuals. It's an escape we want to make ourselves, even when there is danger everywhere in the movie.  I loved the visuals of the movie, yes. But what about the story? On its surface, the story should have also been a monument in film-making. We have an attempt to be original with a plot: a duo villain with clear, understandable motives. A female lead who's incredibly likeable....

It's not often anymore that where I watch a movie matters more than what the movie is about. When I was a kid, where I watched a movie probably did matter more. Watching a movie at a friend's house, for instance, was probably far more important than what the movie was about. This has not been true for many years in my life, however--until this weekend.    This weekend my wife and I adventured to Sica Hollow State Park in South Dakota for a late October camping trip with my sister. It was 29 degrees when my wife and I settled into our tent for that night. We watched our latest horror movie,  The Burbs,  on our laptop as the temperature continued to drop. The wind was quite strong, and somehow this felt like the perfect setting for a horror movie. Our choice of horror movie was not anything too exciting, of course. But that didn't matter.  What a great place to watch a movie!  Just prior to watching our movie, we had enjoyed a campfire together with some grea...

  A recurring theme in many horror movies circles around whether something is real or imagined. The movie 1408 with John Cusack, for example, causes the audience to wonder how much of the events that take place in the room are actually taking place or if he is slowly descending into madness. This theme is echoed in other movies like The Shining, Event Horizon, and the film du jour, The Babadook. When we started this movie, I deeply empathized with the main character, single mother Amelia. Amelia clearly struggles from PTSD, grief, depression, and possibly even paranoia/schizophrenia. When a mysterious book titled The Babadook appears on her 7 year old son's bookshelf, terrifying events begin to unfold. The longer Amelia tries to ignore the creature, the stronger he gets, rendering poor Amelia nearly unrecognizable. She becomes vicious, angry, aggressive, and abusive towards her son. When the Babadook chases her upstairs and Amelia shouts loudly that he's not really there, the B...

For this post, I have elected to apply a strengths / weaknesses approach to reflecting on our latest installment for this blog. The movie we watched, Weapons, invites this approach for several reasons: STRENGTH: I love how this movie reinvented the zombie-like creature. Having zombies run with their arms straight and eyes wide open is an element of horror in and of itself. No makeup is needed. WEAKNESS: There is an unimaginative reason for the trance that our zombie characters are in. I'll let you watch the movie to figure out what that is. No spoilers here. It's not a bad reason, just an unexciting one. Can we say  deus ex machina? STRENGTH: I enjoyed following each of the characters in this story. They were interesting and endearing enough to keep my interest. I also found them relatable: teacher, father, principal, child. WEAKNESS: I dislike having stories that are fragmented; I don’t like going back and forth in time throughout a story. Pulp Fiction is the exception...

I do appreciate the supernatural element of some horror movies. The underlying element of the supernatural in The Shining, for instance, is one of the reasons this movie rests in my top five horror movies of all time. Last night, I was excited to see a newer horror movie classic, The Black Phone, experiment with a backdrop of the supernatural. It appears our main character has the ability to communicate with the dead. Who can really say whether or not this is not possible or is? As a lifelong Catholic, I was heartened by the element of prayer as the foundation of being able to communicate with the dead--at least by the sister.  Another strength of this movie was the main character. He draws on voices from the aftermath to find his strength. That strength is enough to defeat a larger-than-life villain. The creepy elements of the movie, such as the villain’s mask, are also to be appreciated. The subtleties of wardrobe in horror movies is not to be undervalued. It has been a gre...

I have long recognized the theatrical nature of conversation. This recognition has saved me countless times in small talk; this recognition has saved me countless times in socializing with people. It is because of this recognition, furthermore, that I detest the labels “introvert” and “extrovert.” Come on. I sometimes need to recharge by being by myself. So what? Sometimes I prefer to recharge by being with people. I’m literally fifty / fifty on this one. I bring up the theater of conversation because one recent horror movie from our October list is Speak No Evil. Our bad guys in the movie seem to feed off the theater of conversation; it’s their motive. Our other characters, the female heroine excluded, just don’t seem to get it. When we socialize with others, there is a sense of theater that the very best speakers recognize. It’s this recognition that makes them so great at conversing. Our female hero in the story knows this well, and it keeps her alive. She sees through the hollowne...

  The movie Us, from Jordan Peele, takes uncanny to a new level. One of the biggest themes that it asks us to ponder is, what are we tethered to? Not only that, but what do we lose ourselves to? What do we sacrifice of ourselves (and others) in the pursuit of comfort, happiness, or social expectations? What idols are we creating that take time away from what it truly means to be human so that we can have what we are TOLD we need to consume to be human ? And do we even know where the line between truth and our perception of what's important lies? -Becki

  Haven't we all wondered what would happen if we had the ability to turn back time? What could one moment in time change about our lives or the lives of those around us? SPOILERS AHEAD..... DO NOT READ PAST THIS IF YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THE MOVIE DONNIE DARKO ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ ...__________________________________ Donnie Darko gets to find out when he accidentally misses his own death. A series of events unfold that destroy so many lives around him; when he realizes that the airplane engine that crashed into his empty bed came from a wormhole - and if he stayed in bed that night, he could save others by dying himself - he goes back and remedies (?) the situation by being in that fatal position.  T...

I watched  Donnie Darko for the first time last night. Like most movies that have a lore about them, I had certainly heard about this movie and seen excerpts from it. However, I had never watched it from start to finish until last night. Throughout the movie, I didn't know what to think. The characters endeared themselves to me. I loved our protagonist, and I was even drawn to the relationship he experienced with his love interest. It was a strange movie, certainly. It was an enjoyable movie--for sure.  What this movie ultimately reminded me of is that moment in my life when I experienced full regret. This wasn't just any sort of regret. It was such a difficult, challenging moment that I was purposely trying to wake myself from this nightmare. It was a nightmare. How could it possibly be reality? This difficult moment ultimately cost me more than I was willing to pay, so I was right to try to wake myself from it. Of course, the universe had a different plan--a better plan--fo...

Movies punctuate milestones in our lives, and that is true whether we want it to be or not. Event Horizon represents the milestone in my life that was living independently. This movie is one of the first I watched while living on my own. It was a movie I could rent without feeling others in my house would question my choice—especially because of that R rating. I think this movie deserves that rating, even all these years later. As far as the movie itself goes, I find its story a model for grabbing an audience’s attention. Seriously. Are there movies that do much better with their opening 5-10 minutes than Event Horizon ? The fright of this movie plays around with the unknown. The unknown spaces in our world work well with instilling fear and wonder in audiences.  

  I’m a big dialogue person when it comes to reading stories. As a kid, I used to skip all the description in my favorite novels and just read the dialogue. I guess it’s for this reason that I loved reading Shakespeare. It presented no trouble for me while some readers can, understandably, stumble.  I bring up my appreciation for dialogue because I’m surprised how little I need it in Nosferatu. The movie Nosferatu is a marvel in movie making because it focuses the audience on images alone. And does it! Arguably the most frightening scene in cinema is when we open a door to glimpse Count Orlok down a hallway staring right back at us. His white face and skeletal hands shock and horrify us. The isolated castle we find ourselves in furthers the fright of this moment.  Nosferatu is horror movie lore for a reason. It stands near the top of any list of all-time best horror movies— and even without dialogue!     

My favorite novel is Frankenstein . This has been true since I first read this story, and it will likely continue to be true. One of the reasons I love this work so much is because I feel the experience of Victor Frankenstein. The regret he endures for creating his monster is a sensation I have never felt before when reading a work. I think this is because I know this feeling well. We all do. Everyone makes a big mistake at one point in their life and suffers because of it. We are forever changed through our slow recovery. That is the story one relives in reading Frankenstein , and that is the story one witnesses in Bride of Frankenstein .  There are a lot of strengths of this movie, and its glimpses of regret are at the forefront. I’m biased, of course, since I love this story so much. It’s hard to do any wrong adapting this classic work of Romantic literature. Perhaps what I love most about this adaptation is the scope of each setting. They are small, humble, abbreviated settin...

Sometimes we watch movies by ourselves, and other times we watch them with others. When we watch them with others, the experience is somehow different. We have all noticed this. In fact, the revelation is a relief in most instances, as it affords us the opportunity to revisit our favorite movies and watch them from a different vantage point.  Last night, with Meghan and my wife, we watched  Monster House.     This movie was, to be generous, quite awful. It had its share of creepy elements, but none of those elements were strong enough to save this disaster.  Thankfully, we don't always watch movies   for the movie alone .  Sometimes it's more important to give someone the shoulder-glance and know they're invested in the movie as much as we are. We look, also, to see how they are reacting to the same scenes.  What does this say about us? I think it says that we get to watch our favorite movies (and our least favorite movies) more than once for...

  Movies, though a form of entertainment, have since their inception cemented a place in homes and theatres as a staple of American culture. Sometimes, we watch movies to feel something deeply; other times we watch to escape feelings that are too raw. Sometimes, we watch movies to learn about a different place or time; other times, we watch to feel connected to our own place in the world. Sometimes, we watch movies to challenge ourselves intellectually; other times, we watch them to simply sit back and enjoy. Sometimes, we watch to be scared; other times, to be comforted. Imagine my delight in finding a movie that somehow checks all the boxes! There is a both/and to the Ryan Coogler movie, Sinners, and to say there is a LOT to unpack is an understatement. One could talk about the cultural impact of missionary Christianity on enslaved peoples. One could talk about vampire lore. One could talk about love and sex and the relationship between those two things or of the sacrificial natu...

 When I was a child, I loved Halloween.  In general, I've always appreciated autumn; the world seems like it is withering away, yet there's a graceful poetry to it. It's as though the earth knows she must let go of the past to transform in the spring, but first she grieves through the winter.  As a kid, of course, I had no such eloquent musings, just the joy of the traditions. Dressing in costume, attending Halloween parties with family, carving pumpkins, and sipping hot apple cider on cold evenings (from our special Halloween mugs) created a magic in October that stays with me as an adult. There aren't specific memories, but more imprints; they come back as feelings, thoughts, smells, and sights that warm the edges of the season. These family traditions can be attributed largely to an intentional effort on the part of my parents, particularly my mom. They happened every year because she took the time and effort to make our childhoods special and we happily obliged. Now...

It's rare that one watches a move that no one can find much wrong with. Yeah, the circus scenes can feel a bit strange, but even those glimpses somehow fit with what we're seeing in  Coraline.    Whatever movie "Top   10 List" I could   settle   on,  Coraline  would be in it. There's something about the style and tone, the story,   the mystery of this movie that endears itself to me. If I were to speculate about why I love this movie so much, it's likely because I love Coraline's spirit so much. She's a tough character, and I am drawn to these kinds of characters more than ever these days. I see enough hardship in the world around me. I don't need to see it defeat the characters I love, too.   One of the main reasons I watch and read stories is to feel larger than life. Coraline's spirit gives me this moment of strength.      Meghan, the second oldest in our family (now 14), has long claimed that this movie is her favorite...

My wife and I watched  A Field in England  for the first time, and we're still unpacking it. We probably always will be. I'm just not sure what we watched. I can't say I enjoyed or even disliked this movie. It definitely made me intrigued. What it ultimately fronted me with is the question that's the title of this post: What story elements should a movie play around with? This question is an attempt to determine what elements of a story an artist can (should?) play around with. I'm not a reader or viewer who doesn't appreciate having my story elements upturned. I'm okay with irony, sarcasm, and simple settings. I'm okay with dialogue-driven movies. I'm even okay with returning to black and white. What am I not okay with leaving out of a movie?  A Field in England,  more than anything, fronted me with this question. Here's a list: Movement . I need to know the story is moving forward. If it takes a faster pace to accomplish this, so be it.  A main...

I admit it. I'm a sucker for setting. Novels I read, poems I love, movies I watch all have me in the first moment when they draw me into a world that I romanticize. And it doesn't have to be an exotic place. A coastal town, for instance, is enough. In fact, a coastal town will draw me in each time and not let me go. It is for this reason that one of my favorite places to travel to is the North Shore. I'm talking about Minnesota and the towns spread along the shore of Lake Superior. Duluth has long been a special place to me, as well as Grand Marais. I readily admit that being born and raised in North Dakota is probably the reason I love coastal settings so much. I dream about those places I don't regularly visit.  The reminder of my interest in coastal cities is Jaws.  This was the movie my wife and I watched last night as part of our October tradition. It is one of those movies I've watched only once or twice before, but each time that setting just draws me in. Of ...

  It can be hard these days to branch out and try new movies. I think I've seen so many movies over the years that it takes something special to truly impress me. Movies have held a special place in my heart and in my life since I was a kid and my parents brought home that first VHS. The movie was the 1954 film  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  I couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 at the time. I was all in. This movie was just a rental. I think a gas station rental? There was this small gas station as you left Dickinson that I'm confident my parents rented from. I'm going off memory here, as I was just a kid! The first VHS my family actually owned was  Beauty and the Beast.  This animated gem was one we watched over and over throughout our childhood--although I would fast-forward through many of the songs, such as "Be Our Guest." No thank you. My teenage years is when I really, really go into movies. They became the best part of a Friday night growing up on the...

   The year 1999 was a big year in my life. It represented my transition from high school to college. It was that magical year when I was suddenly an adult. It was also the year of some pretty darn good movies! Don't believe me? Here's a quick list of the many brilliant movies that came out in 1999, starting with the feature movie for this October-themed blog:  The Blair Witch Project: The Matrix Gattaca  Fight Club Being John Maclkovich  Eyes Wide Shut  Sleepy Hallow  Office Space  You can also research it for yourself! I'm here to write about Blair Witch,  though. This was our second night watching a horror movie in our ritual of one horror movie for every night in October. As I'm watching this movie for the hundredth-or-so-time, it hits me kind of hard that 1999 was a long time ago. For me, it doesn't seem like that, of course. I can still visualize clearly that last year of high school and that first year of attending college in my hometo...

    Can you remember the last moment you wanted to slow down time for? It is that moment you want to last longer than others, a humble glimpse at the fragility of life’s all-too-quick cycles. Picture that moment, and you have a sense of the goal of this blog. This blog is an attempt to live more fully those October memories, those fall experiences that go by far too quickly. The experiences that my wife and I want to slow down time for are all those fall memories. They are those moments we spend visiting Papa’s Pumpkin Patch in Bismarck. They are those moments we spend carving pumpkins and watching Henry’s soccer games. They are those moments we spend watching Coraline (“NOT Coraline at all!”) for the hundredth time. Our message to revisit with this annual post is a humble one: Writing while we experience is how we experience more fully; we should write! The tradition we want to slow down time for is one horror movie for every night in October. Simply, we watch one horror movi...