Employee Picks: Halloween-Themed Alternatives To Every New Release
By Jacob Knight/Oct. 12, 2018 2:00 pm EST
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. (Welcome to Employee Picks, a series where Jacob Knight uses his day job expertise as a video store manager to recommend unique and often overlooked alternative options to the big movies hitting theaters and home video.)
Seeing how October’s my favorite month of the year (Season of the Witch!), you can expect some extra spooky selections in this edition of Employee Picks, which will pair well with that Pumpkin Ale you just picked out at the liquor store (no judgement, enjoy that themed brew, baby). Now, enough with the chit chat. Let’s pick up our weapons of choice (be it axe, pick, machete or chainsaw) and start tearing victims apart…
The Major Release: Venom
The Major Release: A Star Is Born
Your Alternative: Black Roses (1988, d. John Fasano)
While certainly not playing in the same arena rock venues as Bradley Cooper’s big, muscular directorial debut (which features a killer Lady Gaga performance), Black Roses is the metal horror movie that you’ve probably never seen (and should seek out ASAP). Directed by self-proclaimed thrasher king John Fasano – who’d just helmed the Jon Mikl Thor freak out Rock ’n’ Roll Nightmare the year before – and featuring a soundtrack filled with bangers from the likes of bands such as Lizzie Borden, Black Roses is an insane, Canuxploitation love letter to the Satanic Panic era of the ’80s. The plot (regarding up-and-coming rockers who are also demons) is the thing of distorted lore, but what you really sign up for here is the go-for-broke exploitation attitude that’s cemented Fasano’s sophomore feature as a stone cult classic. If you haven’t seen it yet, go get your face melted this Halloween.
Black Roses is available on DVD, courtesy of Synapse Films.
The Major Release: Bad Times At the El Royale
Your Alternative: Identity (2003, d. James Mangold)
Much how Bad Times At the El Royale finds a group of mysterious strangers all converging on the titular glorious rest stop of old, James Mangold constructed a rather twisty, Agatha Christie-inspired whodunit fifteen years ago with Identity. Long before he was helping (re-)legitimize comic book cinema with Logan, Mangold made this nasty little horror movie, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem. Though the shocking ending may be a bit too much for some folks (note: this writer loves it), there’s something refreshingly mean-spirited about this studio horror picture, which dares to kill off almost all of your favorite characters in brutal fashion. Plus, you get Jake Busey full-on channeling his dad’s characteristic crazy, while John Cusack tries to hold it all together as the ex-cop straining to keep everyone alive. This is a rather superlative, rain-soaked piece of pulp fiction that might’ve flown under your radar upon initial release, but is well worth a watch on a chilly October eve.
Identity is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The Major Release: Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
The Major Release: First Man
The Major Release: Halloween
Your Alternative: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, d. Dwight H. Little)
David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s Halloween is a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original. However, fans of the OG slasher franchise will feel like they’ve seen this trick before, as The Return of Michael Myers came hot on the heels of the monumental failure that was Season of the Witch; an attempt to course correct the series from its failed anthology left turn by bringing slayer supreme Myers home to Haddonfield yet again. For returning fans, a re-watch before heading out to see Green’s latest canon-ignoring sequel will reveal many structural similarities between The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween ‘18, including a rather ambiguously unsettling ending. For newcomers, Halloween 4 is arguably the best installment in a terrifying run that almost made a conscious effort to keep fucking up its own mythology, mostly because its merely a back-to-basics body count picture that embraces the subgenre tropes the ‘78 all-timer helped set in stone. Is it a classic? Hell no. But it’s certainly a treat for dead teenager cinema aficionados.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is available to stream on Shudder.
The Major Release: Suspiria
Your Alternative: Der Fan (1982, d. Eckhart Schmidt)
Eckhart Schmidt’s Der Fan is an odd beast: cold, aloof, alienating and relentlessly nihilistic, it’s also a wholly affecting treatise on the hypnotic state of obsession. For Simone (Désirée Nosbusch), there’s only ‘R’ (Rheingold vocalist Bodo Steiger), the slick, gangly front man for her favorite pop group. Infatuation gives way to fixation, as she withdraws from her friends and family, strolling the streets with headphones glued to her ears. Her sun rises and sets with the singer, every hour filled with possessive fantasies of the love they’d enjoy should she just be lucky enough to get in the same room with him. Her bunk is plastered with his pictures, the crooner’s dark eyes looking down on the sick girl as she sleeps like some sort of Kraftwerk angel. So, when a chance encounter leads to an actual flesh and blood relationship between the two, you can bet that it ends in even more awful fashion than you originally predicted. Sporting a chilly synth-pop score and one of the grisliest endings ever committed to film, Der Fan acts as an unsettling companion piece of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, as they both become German-set studies of what happens when you lose yourself completely to the music.
Der Fan is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Mondo Macabro.
Wide Release: Hunter Killer
Employee Picks: Halloween-Themed Alternatives To Every New Release
By Jacob Knight/Oct. 12, 2018 2:00 pm EST
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. (Welcome to Employee Picks, a series where Jacob Knight uses his day job expertise as a video store manager to recommend unique and often overlooked alternative options to the big movies hitting theaters and home video.)
Seeing how October’s my favorite month of the year (Season of the Witch!), you can expect some extra spooky selections in this edition of Employee Picks, which will pair well with that Pumpkin Ale you just picked out at the liquor store (no judgement, enjoy that themed brew, baby). Now, enough with the chit chat. Let’s pick up our weapons of choice (be it axe, pick, machete or chainsaw) and start tearing victims apart…
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.
Seeing how October’s my favorite month of the year (Season of the Witch!), you can expect some extra spooky selections in this edition of Employee Picks, which will pair well with that Pumpkin Ale you just picked out at the liquor store (no judgement, enjoy that themed brew, baby).
Now, enough with the chit chat. Let’s pick up our weapons of choice (be it axe, pick, machete or chainsaw) and start tearing victims apart…
The Major Release: Venom
Your Alternative: Shivers (1975, d. David Cronenberg)
The Major Release: A Star Is Born
Your Alternative: Black Roses (1988, d. John Fasano)
While certainly not playing in the same arena rock venues as Bradley Cooper’s big, muscular directorial debut (which features a killer Lady Gaga performance), Black Roses is the metal horror movie that you’ve probably never seen (and should seek out ASAP). Directed by self-proclaimed thrasher king John Fasano – who’d just helmed the Jon Mikl Thor freak out Rock ’n’ Roll Nightmare the year before – and featuring a soundtrack filled with bangers from the likes of bands such as Lizzie Borden, Black Roses is an insane, Canuxploitation love letter to the Satanic Panic era of the ’80s. The plot (regarding up-and-coming rockers who are also demons) is the thing of distorted lore, but what you really sign up for here is the go-for-broke exploitation attitude that’s cemented Fasano’s sophomore feature as a stone cult classic. If you haven’t seen it yet, go get your face melted this Halloween.
Black Roses is available on DVD, courtesy of Synapse Films.
Black Roses is available on DVD, courtesy of Synapse Films.
The Major Release: Bad Times At the El Royale
Your Alternative: Identity (2003, d. James Mangold)
Much how Bad Times At the El Royale finds a group of mysterious strangers all converging on the titular glorious rest stop of old, James Mangold constructed a rather twisty, Agatha Christie-inspired whodunit fifteen years ago with Identity. Long before he was helping (re-)legitimize comic book cinema with Logan, Mangold made this nasty little horror movie, where nothing and nobody are quite what they seem. Though the shocking ending may be a bit too much for some folks (note: this writer loves it), there’s something refreshingly mean-spirited about this studio horror picture, which dares to kill off almost all of your favorite characters in brutal fashion. Plus, you get Jake Busey full-on channeling his dad’s characteristic crazy, while John Cusack tries to hold it all together as the ex-cop straining to keep everyone alive. This is a rather superlative, rain-soaked piece of pulp fiction that might’ve flown under your radar upon initial release, but is well worth a watch on a chilly October eve.
Identity is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Identity is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The Major Release: Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
Your Alternative: One Dark Night (1982, d. Tom McLoughlin)
The Major Release: First Man
Your Alternative: Event Horizon (1997, d. Paul WS Anderson)
The Major Release: Halloween
Your Alternative: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, d. Dwight H. Little)
David Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s Halloween is a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original. However, fans of the OG slasher franchise will feel like they’ve seen this trick before, as The Return of Michael Myers came hot on the heels of the monumental failure that was Season of the Witch; an attempt to course correct the series from its failed anthology left turn by bringing slayer supreme Myers home to Haddonfield yet again. For returning fans, a re-watch before heading out to see Green’s latest canon-ignoring sequel will reveal many structural similarities between The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween ‘18, including a rather ambiguously unsettling ending. For newcomers, Halloween 4 is arguably the best installment in a terrifying run that almost made a conscious effort to keep fucking up its own mythology, mostly because its merely a back-to-basics body count picture that embraces the subgenre tropes the ‘78 all-timer helped set in stone. Is it a classic? Hell no. But it’s certainly a treat for dead teenager cinema aficionados.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is available to stream on Shudder.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is available to stream on Shudder.
The Major Release: Suspiria
Your Alternative: Der Fan (1982, d. Eckhart Schmidt)
Eckhart Schmidt’s Der Fan is an odd beast: cold, aloof, alienating and relentlessly nihilistic, it’s also a wholly affecting treatise on the hypnotic state of obsession. For Simone (Désirée Nosbusch), there’s only ‘R’ (Rheingold vocalist Bodo Steiger), the slick, gangly front man for her favorite pop group. Infatuation gives way to fixation, as she withdraws from her friends and family, strolling the streets with headphones glued to her ears. Her sun rises and sets with the singer, every hour filled with possessive fantasies of the love they’d enjoy should she just be lucky enough to get in the same room with him. Her bunk is plastered with his pictures, the crooner’s dark eyes looking down on the sick girl as she sleeps like some sort of Kraftwerk angel. So, when a chance encounter leads to an actual flesh and blood relationship between the two, you can bet that it ends in even more awful fashion than you originally predicted. Sporting a chilly synth-pop score and one of the grisliest endings ever committed to film, Der Fan acts as an unsettling companion piece of Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, as they both become German-set studies of what happens when you lose yourself completely to the music.
Der Fan is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Mondo Macabro.
Der Fan is available on Blu-ray, courtesy of Mondo Macabro.
