Today's Pre-Halloween Horror Film Day was pretty decent, if not a little short. Dan, Charles, Carla, and Paul stopped by for the movies, though Dan left early to go to a play. It was significantly less productive movie-wise than last year's event, though its guest turnout was twice as many. That's a fair trade.

We began with Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo, 1964, Japan), another movie from Charles' collection that he'd never watched before. It was ... special. I wouldn't exactly call it the most interesting movie and, frankly, it wasn't entirely straightforward what the plot was, but it wasn't terrible. I mean, as far as Charles movies go. Paul and Carla didn't care for it at all, I thought it was generally lacking, but Charles remained optimistic about the film. It wasn't really what I would call a horror film and we all felt that it was greatly misadvertised, the whole thing being more of a period drama than anything.

Charles possibly made the best observation about Onibaba, and it's one I have to agree with. It's similar to Dreyer's Vampyr. I've already discussed on previous occasion Vampyr, which is an odd movie that requires several viewings to suss out what's going on ... and even then you're still left scratching your head. Paul and Carla haven't seen Vampyr yet, and I would be interested in their opinion. However, while I think Onibaba fits into this situation, I'm not sure my appreciation of this film will improve over time. Sorry, Onibaba.

It should be noted that Onibaba was not a total loss as it gave us a new unit of heat measurement. Zero Boobs means that it's cold out. One Boob means that it's pleasant enough out. Two Boobs means that it's hot out. You don't want to get into negative Boobs. Thank you Onibaba for making life that much stranger.

The second movie that we watched was the Halloween tradition, Event Horizon (dir. Paul W. S. Anderson, 1997, USA). There's not much to be said about this one, given that Charles and I have seen it dozens of times and already think highly of it, though this was Paul and Carla's first exposure. They received it nicely, both thinking it was a good movie. Maybe that's because we watched it in the wake of Onibaba, but I think Event Horizon holds its own.

We were about to watch Rosemary's Baby when Charles and Carla left, Chuck's illness having gotten the best of him. This is too bad because Mia Farrow in 1968 = Dang.

So that was our movie day!

Saturday, October 24, is being set aside for Pre-Halloween Horror Film Day. It's still a week from Halloween but that's okay. Halloween is on a Saturday this year so I'm relinquishing that day to other peoples' events.

WHAT: Pre-Halloween Horror Film Day
WHEN: Saturday, October 24 at 4:00
WHERE: It will be at Josh's house
WHO: Any of you people out there
WHY: Because it is so very festive
HOW: You come over to watch movies

Anyone who's coming should feel free to bring a couple of movies they'd like to watch. The movies can be anything from die-hard horror flicks to suspense thrillers. Doesn't matter, so long as they fit the creepy seasonal theme. After all, I'd hate for people to be stuck choosing between my not-terrible-horrific movies and Charles' disgusting collection.