Fall Favorites: Monster Movies

In lieu of music today, I bring you a couple of videos of my favorite monster movies! These are both in the comedic horror genre and are super silly and reminiscent of creature features of the 1950s and 1960s. 

Eight Legged Freaks is from 2002 and features David Arquette and - you guessed it - giant spiders! The spiders get exposed to toxic waste and become giant man-eating spiders of all varieties. David Arquette is the unlikely hero trying to squash the giant arachnids with the help of the town sheriff and her kids (daughter played by Scarlett Johansson).

Grabbers is about tentacled aliens that invade a small Irish town and are allergic to alcohol. What do the people in the know about the aliens decide to do to keep the rest of the townsfolk safe? Lock them in a pub for a party, of course! While most of the townspeople proceed to drink themselves silly over the course of the movie, the rest of the alien hunters defend the town from the aliens and try to figure out a way to take them out. 

Grabbers is currently streaming on American Netflix. Grab yourself a pint and get to watching!

A Month of Favorites: Days 26 & 27

You may have noticed that I'm lumping days together lately and all I can say is that I'm really tired and still recovering from my cold and my visitors and my birthday. My good friend, Monica, put together a birthday party for me last night at a local coffee shop/bar and I may have imbibed a bit too much of my favorite pumpkin beer (it was worth it). I also got a slew of gifts from my lovely friends who also happen to be knitters. I've known most of my knitting group since I started attending in late 2006 or early 2007 and I've become fast friends with them. We watched Labyrinth, which is my favorite childhood movie, and marveled at David Bowie and his, um, codpiece. If you've seen Labyrinth you'll know exactly what I mean.

I got presents!

Last week I received a tube of fancy shmancy lipstick from Jessica which I've been using practically every day (it's this one). 

 Jeanne made me some delicious apple cider caramels which I shared last night but am now hiding from my family so I can eat them all up myself. 

Monica gave me a skein of yarn all the way from Rhinebeck and a pair of Jennie the Potter earrings.

Hannah's present was an Italian silk scarf with an awesome red and white abstract print.

Abra made me a most delicious vanilla birthday cake with star sprinkles. She's my favorite cake baker because she gave me all the leftovers and I had some with my coffee this morning (way too early in the morning, I might add). 

Amanda promised me a future brunch date and she always takes me to yummy places.

Sharon gifted me (and the rest of the party) with some contraband Canadian Girl Guide cookies.

And Jodi presented me with a little pumpkin and a craft book for zombie felties. I made my way down to the local Joann's this morning and picked up craft felt and sequins and beads galore to make some of the projects. 

Due to my violent love affair with knitting I sometimes forget about the joy I feel when I'm crafting other things like teeny zombie cats.

I guess that's really two days of favorite things - a party with some of my favorite people and some non-knitting crafting just for fun. 

Do you have other crafts besides knitting that you indulge in?

A Month of Favorite Things: Day 2

If you've listened to my podcast or read my blog for a while you might know that I absolutely love horror movies. In middle school I would stay up late to catch old black and white movies on PBS, many of which were horror films and mysteries.

The Innocents from 1961 is a film adaptation of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. Creepy as heck!

Cape Fear from 1962 featuring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck.

Rebecca from 1940, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The book may have one of the best opening lines ever, "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again".

The Haunting from1963 based on the Shirley Jackson novel, The Haunting of Hill House.

Do you have a favorite scary movie? 

Horror with Humor

Happy Halloween! I thought I'd share the best of the best funny horror movies with you today. I've seen these movies so many times I've lost count and find them funny every time I watch them. Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness feature the adventures of Ash (played by Bruce Campbell) as he battles the forces of evil, his own hand, a demonic girlfriend, and traveling back in time. Seriously. These are cult classics and have a huge following so even if you don't normally watch horror movies I would recommend these since they definitely fall on the comedy side of the genre. I've left out Evil Dead even though it is worth a watch if only for the angry molesting tree and the fact that it is the quintessential "college kids at a cabin" horror movie. Did I mention that the director is Sam Raimi? Before there was Spiderman there was Ash and his boomstick and the forces of evil. Get all three movies, have a movie marathon, drink some sangria (which makes the whole thing better somehow), and laugh your ass off.

Horror with Humor

Dead Alive is Peter Jackson's campy cult horror classic about a controlling mother, her son Lionel, and the son's romantic interest, Paquita. On a trip to the zoo the mother gets bitten by a Sumatran rat monkey, dies, and comes back to life only to feast on small pets and her neighbors. Paquita and Lionel join forces to fight against the contagion (spread by bite) that spreads through the town. This movie is disgusting - I mean, really, really gross in parts so if you're at all squeamish about body parts falling off or death by lawnmower I would suggest passing it up. However, there are some incredibly awesome fight scenes, a handsome Fair Isle vest, and a priest who "Kicks ass for the Lord", not to mention the generally campy dialogue.

Horror with Humor

This is a new one, but a great one - The Cabin in the Woods. This film takes the traditional "college kids at a creepy cabin" theme and throws some wrenches into the works. It's got a lot of quotable dialogue and pop culture references and gives a refreshing new perspective on a fairly overworked plot type. Be warned, there is gore and blood and more gore and surprising deaths that may (in my case, will) evoke shocked laughter. If you're a Joss Whedon fan you'll be happy to know that he is one of the writers, and it shows.

Horror with Humor

You may be aware that I have a deep-seated fondness for Horror movies. I watch them all year long and don't mind the gore, the screams, the tension and everything that goes along with the genre. But sometimes I want a little more from my Horror movies...I want comedy. Inspired by Andi over at Untangling Knots who is doing a month of Horrible movies in the Horror genre I thought I'd post some of my favorite horror movies that are intentionally (or unintentionally) funny.

 

First on my list is Shaun of the Dead. It's a 2004 zombie movie starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two friends who somehow miss the impending zombie apocalypse and go on a quest to save Shaun's (played by Pegg) girlfriend and his mother. Gore ensues as Shaun and Ed travel through the zombie-infested city and hole up in a pub with their companions. While there is definitely violence and gore I find that the level of comedy does much to alleviate the ick-factor and the whole movie ends on a positive note.

Zombies + Yarn

 I've been feeling a bit stressed out lately and I'm not quite sure why. Passing the one year anniversary at my temp (yeah, right) job and getting my ducks in a row for my last quarter of school seems to have drained some of my energy. Guess what that means? Yep. Yarn. This isn't just any yarn folks, this is zombie yarn.

I found this etsy shop, Out of Step Dyeworks, via Erin of the Anatomy of Knitting videocast and scooted over there to poke around. Poke around means buying two skeins because I just couldn't help myself. Both skeins are an MCN (merino/cashmere/nylon) blend and enough for a pair of socks. That crazy bright one up top is called Atomic Zombie and it's BLACKLIGHT REACTIVE! I'm excited to knit up some socks and track down someone with a blacklight so I can take creepy zombie sock photos. 

 Below is a skein of self-striping sock yarn with the lovely name of Zombie Apocalypse Stripe, it will make 8 row stripes of red followed by 8 row stripes of red-flecked gray/green.

 Both yarns dovetail nicely with my reading of late which is Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. I finished the first book last night and requested the second from my local library - hopefully I'll get that before school starts again and I'm stuck doing assigned reading. In the meantime I'll be rewatching some Romero films and knitting away on my new yarn.