Naked Nuns With Big Guns (2010)

Christmas. The one day of the year when everyone watches Christian films, and boy do we have a peach here! Naked Nuns With Big Guns is just what you need to celebrate the birth of the Jesus. Nun-boobs and big guns. Jesus would have wanted his birthday celebrated like this. I’d want my birthday celebrated like that!

The whole movie is a modern take on the old nunsploitation movies of yesteryear. It begins with us finding out that the priests are using the nuns to bag their drugs for them. There’s also a rag tag gang of thugs who are, well, thugs. Things get a little hairy when a drug deal goes wrong and a nun ends up being kept high as a kite in a brothel. Eventually she escapes, has a near death experience, and ends up a gun-totting vigilante.

I should also point out that I don’t think one woman in this film kept her top on. Oh, wait, the big fat Mother Superior one did, but that was a good thing. There’s titties and lesbo action everywhere. Usually when I do a review I’ll post screens of the boob-shots, but I can’t with this movie as the page would take forever to load due to it having a bajillion screens, but I’ll do my utmost to do a brief ‘best of’.

Our vigilante heroine is, even in lesbo scenes, on top...

The movie has a TON of action, also some rather awkward rape scenes, which make for nasty viewing. In one scene a mother is raped in front of her daughter and in the other an elder nun is raped by a big black dude. Most other (non-boob) scenes are people being shot between the eyes.

Even the motel owner is a lesbo!

There’s no major gore to speak of, but there’s plenty of blood squibs and even a penis being shot off!

The story is nothing ground breaking, but it has all the goodness that you’d expect in a nunsploitation movie, such as; boobs, guns, lesbo-action, boobs, more guns, more boobs, shootings, rosary beads, lesbo-action… all the stuff that Jesus told us not to do. Oh, and there’s an awesome nun-gets-tooled-up scene where she has guns and bullets everywhere. Friggin awesome.

She is indeed one bad mother!

This is definitely my favourite nunspoitation film. EVAR!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Trailer:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKYVtU7G0IA

P.S. I love you guys  & gals.  Give mad props to the author of this on youtube if you dig it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61RJGQcG_sM&feature=player_embedded

Futuristic blood harvesting at its finest

Daybreakers is the latest movie to hit theaters that is looking to stake a claim in the vampire media frenzy that has taken over both the big and small screens.  From Twilight (I need an acid bath every time I so much as type that name) to True Blood, the bloodsucking freaks have been a big hit with audiences looking for dark, but ultimately romance driven narratives injected with some supernatural herbs and spices.  Out of this pit of shallow pandering to the adolescent and deeply delusional, Daybreakers has come forth to deliver a vampire movie with a fairly metallic set of testicles with some brains to boot.  Extracted from the minds of the The Spierig Brothers (who made one of the best and funniest zombie flicks of  the oo’s called UNDEAD, a film I should definitely review for y’all!  Or fuck it, grab it now and watch it, it’s worth it!), Daybreakers throws us into the year 2019 (inferred from that fact that in the film they refer to 2009 as being 10 years ago) where vampires have become to dominant species on planet Earth, and the few pockets of humans who are left are on the run from the vampires military who hunt them down for sustenance.  The humans aren’t the only ones who are fighting for survival however, as it is made clear early on that without blood or a blood substitute, vampires devolve into these hideous, almost zombie like bat humanoid creatures who will feast on anyone or anything that they come across.  This is where Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) comes into play, as he is a brilliant hematologist tasked creating a blood substitute that will eliminate the need for widespread human re-population.  Sprinkle into this mess some interesting, albeit subdued, statements about the Big Pharma culture that is currently present in the United States as well as our military industrial complex and you have a nice little self-contained flick that doesn’t require you to completely shut down your higher brain functions in order to enjoy it in full.  Not to mention, it has a pretty nifty cast too.  Did I mention Willem Dafoe is in it?

Holy shit, they are arming Willem Dafoe. GET THE FUCK DOWN, NOW!

And while I your attention squarely on Mr. Dafoe’s general creepiness (read: AWESOMENESS), let’s take a moment to expand on how the acting helps to make this ride a bit more pleasurable.  Dafoe doesn’t get nearly enough screen time for my liking (although if I had it my way, it would be a one man movie starring Willem Dafoe), but what he does with him time is captivating, especially when you come to realize he ISN’T the bad guy for once.  His character is a southern man, nicknamed Elvis, and I’ll leave it at that.  Trust me, he just about makes it worth the price of admission.  Ethan Hawk, as mentioned earlier, plays Edward Dalton, a man torn by his sympathies towards humans and his obligation to his company and boss to find a solution to the blood scarcity.  Sam Neill is Charles Bromley, the hot shit head cheese of a major corporation that service specific vampire needs.  He also happens to be Dalton’s boss and is quite the motherfucker.  The rest of the cast is relative nobodies, but I found all the performances to be pretty on target in finding a balance between playing it straight enough to make this universe believable, but not overselling it to the point where it gets melodramatic and overly weighty.  There are even moments where some fun is had, and it seems like the Spierig Brothers haven’t lost that goofy and sharp sense of humor that is so evident in UNDEAD.  One thing that seemed to compress the acting was that 93 minute length of the flick, which meant that once the film really got its proverbial engines revved and red-lined, the sprint to the finish felt a bit too fast, and some of the richness of the characters was lost in the mad dash towards the endgame.  This most likely falls into the lap of the producers, studio, and editor however, not the actors and the Spierig Brothers.

Stuff bleeds real good in this movie.

Inside that hour and a half however, the Spierigs flex the muscles only people who have seen UNDEAD know they have.  Not only do they write and direct their movies together, they are also seasoned special effects creators, both of the practical and computer generated disciplines.  Often times, they will combine prosthetic effects and CGI (like in the scene pictures above) to create fairly convincing visuals that don’t look like too phony in either direction.  That being said, this film isn’t quite the gore show that UNDEAD allowed itself to be, but let it be known that there are some downright nasty scenes in this one, and when the blood does flow, it flows liberally.  Shifting from effects to lenses, the Spierigs also craft themselves a nice looking film, complete with lots of sterile looking scenes which paint the vampires, at least initially, as a much more organized and civil spin-off of humanity.  There is a lot of white and blue lighting and tidy organization to the environments the vampires have erected and furnished for themselves over the years, as if being orderly and docile in appearance and demeanor can make up for their savagery and nearly cannibalistic impulses they need indulge in for mere survival.  The film is paced pretty well, with my major grievance being that the finale is just a bit too rapid for my liking.  Some clever camera angles and flashy shots help to round out what otherwise is a pretty straightforward and smartly captured film.  Kudos to the Spierig for finding a middle-ground between the unabashed fun they had with UNDEAD, and the undoubtedly more restrictive world of “Hollywood” film making.

And you thought cocaine was expensive.

When Daybreakers came to a close, I felt like I wanted to see more from that vision, and that is normally a good thing in my book.  The world the Spierigs have shaped for themselves in Daybreakers is a really interesting one which I wouldn’t hesitate to dive into for a second time.  Granted, the story ends in a way where enough safe assumptions could be made and the book could be shut on the plight of the vampires, but there is enough stuff going on behind the scenes that it made want to see how far the Brothers Spierig could stretch out this idea.  As it stand now though, it is a find piece of quality mainstream horror/action/thriller fare that is very deserving of having genre vets and indie hounds sink their teeth into.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Although I began my serious horror junkie ways recently in 2007, my love affair with the Hong Kong horror flick began when a large group of friends and I got blindsided by the piss-your-pants-funny Mr Vampire on a baked potatoes movie night in 1996. As I was pretty much solely into kung fu movies at the time (OCD, anyone?), I didn’t begin to explore the world of Hong Kong horror until I started this blog. I needed to know: are all Hong Kong horror films padded with slapstick?

After watching the goofy ass yet still creepy Bless This House, which is considered to be one of the first serious HK horror flicks, I did a little research and found out that yes, at least in the 80s, most HK audiences preferred comedy. Now while I hate horror spoofs (Student Bodies, Return to Horror High) I do love a lot of comedy mixed with truly terrifying stalk and kill scenes. Simply put, In my journey through the world of horror as documented in this blog, I’ve found that I don’t like to get to the end of the movie and feel bad. Sue me, Eli Roth fans.

He Lives By Night is notable in the HK slasher genre because it borrows heavily from the giallo. However, where the giallo fills the running time with gratuitous sex or weird hallucinations a la Autopsy, He Lives By Night breaks up the scares with fat guys in glam makeup for no reason, three people eating $200 worth of tripe, chicken feet and dumplings for breakfast or a radio station security guard who keeps a box of weapons like spiky maces and brass knuckles behind the desk for employees to borrow. The film also does more than a little winking at Mr Hitchcock; when we first see the fat, pipe smoking police chief (Kent Cheng) we see a large silhouette of him alone in profile with his pipe.

Someone is murdering women by stabbing them and then strangling them with a white fishnet stocking, which is the killer’s fetish of choice. Now, I lived through the 80s as a young pop culture junkie, and the only pair of white fishnets I ever saw was in the ZZ Top video for “Legs,” but maybe they were a fashion staple in HK. Anyway, the film gives us a too-obvious choice of suspect in the obsessed fan of Sissy (Sylvia Chang) the late night radio host with the sexy voice and the face for radio. Because the fat police chief has the hots for Sissy, and his partner (Simon Yam) is an old classmate of hers, she helps the police with the investigation until of course the real killer is stalking her. It doesn’t help that she taunts him over the radio and figures out uncannily why he is killing. Just like in the giallo or the Hitchcock thriller, there is a damn good reason the killer went nuts.

The movie does have its disturbing parts, chiefly the scene in which a  young woman is brutally murdered in her own home while her friend hides from the killer and watches. Whether by reason of good old misogyny or morality, most of the victims are not very nice people (the Carrie syndrome). I actually rooted for the killer after he murders the shoplifters who carjacked him.

I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it, but I wish if the writer wanted to go Western he had kept the Italian/British convention of hiding the killer’s identity til the end. It’s just not as much fun to watch the cops try to catch the killer when we the viewer already know who dun it.

Want more? These movies are sometimes hard to find, so I’m taking viewing suggestions. Lets look at more HK horror to try to get a handle on it and put it in context. So get out your glitter makeup and join me for a mini HK film fest.

Midnightshowing.com Presents Alex’s Top 10 (+1) movies of 2009 (In no particular order except for the top 2!) from Alex S on Vimeo.

Coal is the least of your worries

In keeping with the seasonal theme, here is Tales From the Crypt and the quite festive episode they produced in 1989, I believe.  Keep a close eye on the credits, as Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, Monster Squad) wrote this episode, and Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away, Beowulf, dozens of other big budget Hollywood movies) directed it, with a who’s who list supplying the producing like Joel Silver and Richard Donner.  Also Larry Drake, the bad guy from the Darkman movies, plays Santa! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

On with the show, thanks to scary4you who put this on youtube!

(Chopped into three parts…)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHqyMUjOzLk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOgZk4ZH1LQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UeassKRlqE

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack!

First of all, how fucking AWESOME is that poster?

Anyway, to the uninitiated (and unintelligent) the Godzilla films are merely a man, in a rubber suit, demolishing a model town. To the more intelligent viewer it has a far, more deeper, meaning. Not only that, but the character of Godzilla itself has gone through several variations over the years, from being the bad guy, to the good guy, and back again, several times.

The story, (yes, there’s a story) begins with some strange goings-on which involve what people assume to be an earthquake, but it’s epicenter seems to be moving (which is a tad odd). Yuri, daughter of a military Admiral, is an intrepid reporter for a ‘bargain basement’ (as they call it in the film) TV network and is covering the story.

The source of the earthly rumblings is shown when up pops a giant horned version of Stitch (from Lilo and Stitch) called Baragon.

Baragon - one of the three Sacred Guardians

Stitch - from the Disnay movie, Lilo & Stitch

Baragon represents the earth, Mothra the water, and King Ghidorah the sky. Together they are the three Sacred Guardians who have saved Japan in the past. Once Baragon has reared his ugly head, Godzilla appears on the scene, for no real reason it would seem, other than to kick Baragon’s ass and destroy a bajillion Japanese folks along the way.

While investigating this bizarre scene, Yuri meets the (inevitable) crazy old man who whines about doom and gloom and mentions the Guardians. Yuri mentions this to her father who suspects that she’s gone crackers, and who can blame him. But, once Godzilla dispatches of Baragon, up pops (or, from a cocoon, out pops) Mothra.

Mothra attacks from the rear.

Things are looking pretty bleak for Japan as the third quarter of this game approaches. But *fanfare* Ghidorah is awakened from his (or her) ancient slumber to grapple with the big G.

End of the third quarter and it looks like Godzilla is the winner but, never fear, thanks to various bits and bobs here and there, Ghidorah is reborn as KING Ghidorah, all gold and glittery.

King Ghidora AWAKENS!

It’s now up to Glitter King Ghidorah to save the day.

Costing a mere $9.5m to make, this film is friggin gobsmacking. It uses men in suits for the monsters, some unobtrusive CGI for the odd impossible-to-do-otherwise scene and awesome monster fights. $9m well spent methinks.

Godzilla, in this movie, is truly evil. Not only do we see him kill many people (killings are usually off camera, or suggested) but we see one scene (clip below) with a little girl in hospital, all bandaged up and feeling sorry for herself. On seeing Godzilla approach the hospital she sits up and screams. Fear not little girl, as Godzilla has passed and you live… until Godzilla side-swipes the hospital with his tail, obliterating the place. Nasty! Who says Godzilla isn’t bad ass?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOjr_jBuKj0

There are times when I watched this film and could easily believe it was a real city. The models are amazingly detailed and explode just like the real thing.

This is an awesome Godzilla/monster flick. Yes, the story is ridiculous, but it’s just an excuse to get some good monster action, and that is exactly what I want, and what this film delivers. Watch it now, to witness the ineptitude of Hollywood, and what a PROPER film maker can do with just $10m.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

You just know someone will make a zombie themed amusement park now.

For those who may have missed the internet hype machine for this flick, Zombieland is a zombie comedy (a Zombedy if you will) that mixes in some elements of the romantic comedy genre while telling the tale of a pair of polar opposite men who are doing the best they can to stay alive despite almost everyone else being undead.  Thin as it may sound, Zombieland manages to hit a fair amount of crisp, clean chords throughout its lean 88 minute run time and balances its humor, softer moments, and balls to the wall action set pieces well enough that the transitions between each never seems jarring.  Throw in a dynamite performance from one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets, none other than Woody Harrelson, and some really neat gags and gimmicks that put new spins on old mechanics of zombie cinema, and you have a flick that will have even the most cynical and jaded of genre fans cracking a smile.

I would give up a testicle to be half as cool as that man.

Zombieland’s greatest strengths come from unlikely sources, especially considering that the trailers and marketing used to promote the flick seemed to have won everyone over on first impressions alone.  The acting was the first aspect to jump out at me, quickly followed by a plot that, while without a definitive end, still managed to feel like it had a solid three act arc that moved alone at just the right pace.  Woody Harrelson is obviously the man in Zombieland, even though it’s up for debate as to whether or not he is the leading man or not.  The comedy swings back and forth from above-average to downright hysterical, but thankfully it never slips down to “Apatow, Will Ferrel and the rest of the people who have ruined comedy for the last 10 years” level.  It is relatively smart with some quick wit thrown in for good measure and it all flows very nicely, which is the core X factor to any good comedy.  The directing (handled by Ruben Fleischer in his first big mainstream directing gig) is swift and to the point.  His eye is always in the right place to catch all the action, and he doesn’t press to many buttons on the camera or fiddle with his images in post beyond adding some blood or the clever little “Rule” banners that pop in he film and pretty much explain how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse.  Across the board, all of my major concerns were really unfounded, and I was pleasantly surprised with how pleasant, professional, and refreshingly fun the whole movie felt.

Good rule dude!

For all my hemming and hawing, Zombieland has turned out, for me at least, to be one of the most enjoyable films of 2009 from top to bottom.  From the comedy, highlighted by a great cameo that doesn’t outstay it’s welcome, to the action (which could have used a touch more gore, but I understand it was not needed with the more lighthearted nature of the picture overall), to the more touching moments where the films raises a few interesting questions about humanity when it is faced with what amounts to its own extinction.  Zombieland is proof positive that big budget movies can tap into that indy spirit that drives movies like Dance of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead to become some well received cult classics with a fairly wide and timeless appeal.  Zombieland may not be the biggest and best roller-coaster in the park, but it’s the one your going to want to go on at least a few times and tell all your friends about.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Get 'em Woody.

As you can see, they put a ton of effort into the dvd box art.

Who knew the Mexicans pumped out some horror films in the late 80′s and early 90′s?  Well, I guess it should have been obvious that they did, but up until now I can’t remember seeing many that were worth remembering or writing about, that is until I watched Grave Robbers of course.  Robbers isn’t something you necessarily write home about, but its cheesy charm, above average gore, and unintentional humor make it a descent way to lose 90 minutes.  The movie takes places somewhere near Mexico where a graveyard is the home to a victim of the Spanish Inquisition.  The victim was a devil worshiper who was killed with a gigantic axe to the chest when he was caught in the act of trying to impregnate a virgin and bring about some kind of crazy devil spawn that would probably ruin a few peoples days.  When some tomb-sackers stumble upon the catacombs hidden beneath the graveyard, they are pleasantly surprised with all the gold and jewels they find, until their greed gets the best of them and they remove the sacred axe from the Satan guy’s chest cavity.  Now, with the axe removed, Satan guy is on a quest to finish the ritual he started all those years ago after being so rudely interrupted during his initial attempt.  Part slasher film and part supernatural ga-ga “stop the guy before he undoes the world with his generic demony bad stuff”, Grave Robbers managed to keep me entertained enough to not turn it off, despite being in another alnguage and having to put up with some wonderfully poor subtitles.

Who took my Goddamn axe? FUCKKKKKK!

So we get predictable 20 something hi-jinks, with one group being tomb raiders (like Lara Croft, but without pixelated boobs) and another group of chirpy gals who are going out into the nearby woods to do some avian photography.  There is a priest, the hero cop old guy, and some other meatheads who are all lambs for the eventual slaughter, and that’s about it.  Apparently, once you’re outside of Mexico proper, all towns have a population of about 18 people, despite cars being parked everywhere in the streets.  In their defense, the acting seemed palatable, and when the translation was legible and on point, some lines of dialogue weren’t actually half bad.  But who am I kidding, we all just want to see people get cut down in their prime and a mummified disciple of El Diablo run amok before meeting his over-the-top end, right?

Good thing plastic surgery is dirt cheap in Mexico.

In that case, you’re in luck.  There are some nice scenes of gore, many people die, and right as it is about to get dreadfully boring, it wraps things up with some quick editing which spares us the arbitrary “driving to the bad guy’s hide out” scene like we don’t already know the hero will make it in time.  I have to give props though to Ruben Galindo Jr. who, despite having a name that should belong to a major league baseball pitcher, manages to actually create some snazzy little scenes out of what is so obviously a fairly modest budget.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. GO AWAY! Sounds official enough for me.

If you’re in the mood to see how the Mexicans throw down some gore, or if you want to see what a supernatural slashery film is like when you combine it with some hysterical subtitles, Grave Robbers is your bag.  If you need some extra incentive, the awakened mummy guy is wearing wrestling tights in the third act during his fight scenes.  I believe my work here is done.

P.S.  This movie can be watched on Youtube for free.  Just do some searching for both the American and Spanish titles, and voila! trash on demand!

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Built tough. MEXICAN tough.

Majestic.

Tim Burton has had a rough decade.  He is under fire from both critics and fans alike for failing to hit a major cinematic home run since he gave birth to Big Fish which despite having Burton attached, still won over many as something of an “indie darling” motion picture.  Being a fan of Burton myself, I can’t quibble with those who have leveled their legitimate complaints since all of his films in the 00′s, including Big Fish, have failed to resonate with me on the level his work used to.  But to say that a handful of “meh” flicks have bludgeoned his legacy beyond recognition is more of a reflection of the poor memories of those decreeing it has.  Right before the turn on the century, and the turn of Burton’s luck, he cranked out what might be his most definitive and certainly most riveting and gimmick-less film to date.  Enter Sleepy Hollow.  A “remake” if you will of the 1921 picture bearing the same title, it is an onscreen adaptation of one of the most classic horror stories ever put to paper.  Burton’s penchant for Gothic romanticism and mature playfulness paired with his innate ability to both modernize and cherish his own unique brand of neo-classical Victorianism was, and still is, the perfect fit for such a grim and mystical tale.  With a cast that is as breathtakingly talented as it is ridiculously appropriate and a presentation that still has yet to be surpassed in it’s faithfulness to the period and atmosphere, Sleepy Hollow stands as one of best movies to indulge in around All Hollows Eve as well as one of the best examples of Burton not only as a clever niche director, but a phenomenal directing talent period.

Unmistakably Burton-esque.

The mere mention of Johnny Depp is more often enough acting cred to get most people interested in seeing a movie, but group him in with such widely recognized, and severely underrated in some circles, talent such as Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Gambon, Christopher Walken and Christopher Lee and you have a recipe for a movie with a lot of intrigue from the cast list alone.  Hell, even Casper Van Dien is in this and proves his role in Starship Troopers wasn’t a complete fluke.  To go into detail about how everyone on screen is magnificent would be almost unfair to their work and to me as one man trying to encapsulate such performances in a concise set of sentences.  Depp is however, if there was any doubt, masterful as Ichabod Crane, and Ricci is the standout lady, just by a hair, as Katrina Van Tassel.  Walken plays The Headless Horseman in scenes where they establish his back story as a Hessian and for those short moments when he is doing his thing, he is as intimidating and magical as he was in Pulp Fiction when he stole the show with one monologue.  Speaking too much about what other talent plays whom, and to what degree of great their performances are would bring me be dangerously close to spoiler territory, and since this revamped and slightly reworked version of Sleepy Hollow brings a mammoth amount of depth and conspiracy to an otherwise fairly straight forward yarn, I dare not ruin any of the twists and turns that await if this is indeed your first trip to The Hollow.

Fun Fact: Walken actually didn't need ANY make-up for his scenes.

Burton’s job directing Sleepy Hollow mus have been quite a pleasurable task by my estimation though.  Surrounded by some of the most professional and well-known actors and actresses in the business, both circa 1999 and in present day, Burton and his cohorts probably had an easy time focusing on getting the mood, tone, and atmosphere just right for a film that, at its very soul, is a period piece taking place in the autumn of 1799.  With longtime friend and brilliant musician and composer Danny Elfman at the helm of the soundscapes, Burton really managed to capture both the historical themes and architecture quite well, while still leaving room for putting his trademark style into every nook and cranny he could find without spoiling the richness and charm the period brings itself.  On a more intellectual level, there is even an undertone running through the film which presents some interesting viewpoints and debates about science vs. the supernatural.  For those who are uninterested or unimpressed with this kind of depth can take solace in knowing that it only pops up intermittently, but never the less impressively.  Getting back to what is on screen and not simply implied or inferred, the sets, lighting, the brisk and fun pace, and the score (which I believe is one of Elfman’s absolute best) all work in harmony to really bring the fusion of history and vivid imagination alive without becoming overbearingly childish or shallow.  Burton does use some of his classic tricks like angled shots and shadow/silhouette play, but he keeps his flashier side well restrained, and instead lets the locations, mood, and dynamite atmosphere do a bulk of the talking while he frames and observes it all without much visual interference.  Oh, and there is quite a copious amount of gore in this one as well, mainly be-headings with a few “surprise” kills I wouldn’t dare ruin.

How about a little steampunk with your Burton?

For those who have lost faith in Burton and possibly skipped out on his rendition of Sleepy Hollow due to his recent missteps or just never being overly thrilled with his late 80′s/early 90′s work (Batman, Beetlejuice, Nightmare before Christmas), you are seriously missing out on one of his most complete and well conceived pieces of work.  Burton and crew aren’t just sitting on their hands and relying on their laurels, reputation, and charm to win people over.  They have managed to fuse a strange sort of modernity and timely relevance to the yarn while still putting forth a picture that is phenomenally fun and can be enjoyed completely on the surface without missing out on major pieces of the puzzle.  Consider this a autumnal gem that isn’t strictly to be used around my favorite holiday, but at any time in which you feel the need for spooky tale that is handled by a crew that was, and hopefully will be again soon, utterly on top of their game.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A Beetlejuice dress! YES!