Welcome to HPL's film and television blog, highlighting staff-recommended movies or television.
STAFF CONTRIBUTOR:
Mariah, Youth Services Librarian
If you prefer a little humor with your horror, check out some of these hilariously horrifying movie selections this spooky season.
Classics: These modern classics helped shaped the horror comedy genre into what it is today.
| Tucker and Dale Vs Evil The ultimate misunderstanding, Tucker and Dale are two well-meaning hillbillies just trying to fix up their new cabin, when a group of college students mistake them for killers, leading to a lot of messy and avoidable deaths. Relying on classic horror movie tropes, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil subverts all the viewers expectations to create a hysterical parody of the genre. |
| The Cabin in the Woods Beginning like all typical horror movies, a group of college kids heads to a cabin in the woods for a weekend getaway, only to find something mysterious in the basement that kicks off a paranormal killing spree. The Cabin in the Woods takes a very strange turn when a deadly force field is discovered around the cabin, leading to the discovery of an underground laboratory full of scientists trying to complete a ritual that follows all of the typical horror movie tropes. An entertaining commentary on the uniformity of the genre. |
New: Enjoy some freshly absurd scares with these choices released this year.
| Death of a Unicorn Starring Paul Rudd as Elliot and Jenna Ortega as Ridley, Death of a Unicorn immediately kicks things off with a bang as the father and daughter duo hit a young unicorn on the way to the remote estate of Elliot's employer and he decides to put the unicorn out of its misery by bashing its head in with a tire iron. Little do they know, the unicorn's horn has powerful healing properties that, once discovered by Elliot's employer, lead to an absurd and gory murder spree by the unicorn's parents. The horror can't be denied, as characters are impaled, crushed, and torn apart, but the fact these horrific acts are committed by unicorns feels ludicrous and comical. In the end, Death of A Unicorn is a scathing social commentary on the entitlement of humans, particularly wealthy ones. |
| The Monkey Even higher on the absurdity scale, The Monkey follows twin brothers, Hal and Billy, who discover a toy monkey in their father's things that when turned on leads to someone's horrific death. Starting out slow, with only a few deaths during the boys' childhood, things really ramp up 25 years later, with almost all the residents of a small Maine town, where the boys lived after their mother's death, ending up dead by the end of the film. There is no shortage of blood and gore, but the deaths are so ridiculous and so impeccably timed that you will be laughing faster than the monkey can bang his drum. |
'Tis the Season: Try one of these horrifyingly well-timed choices set during fall holidays.
| Beetlejuice Beetlejuice A follow up to the legendary 1988 film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice leans significantly toward comedy over horror, but the exceptional costumes of the dead would spook just about anyone. Lydia Deetz is tormented by visions of the demon Betelgeuse when she returns to Winter River for her father's funeral, along with her mother and teenage daughter, Astrid. But when a cute boy ghosts tricks Astrid into trading her life for his, Lydia calls on Betelgeuse for help, which he, of course, is only willing to give if she agrees to marry him. Typical Betelgeuse hijinks ensue, leading to Astrid's rescue, but then Lydia has to pay her debt. Will Lydia finally have to marry the demon, more than 30 years after her initial escape from him? |
| Thanksgiving Opening at a department store on Black Friday, a large crowd spots a group of teens inside the store early, causing them to riot and force their way inside, leading to several gruesome and outrageous deaths. The following Thanksgiving, a revenge seeking slasher, aptly nicknamed John Carver, begins to take out those he deems responsible for the Black Friday deaths, and gathering them (or pieces of them) for a Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving is a surprisingly enjoyable film that reminds us of the dangers of consumerism. |