The Ghoulish Plot: Years after a terrible car accident left a man’s wife killed and him suddenly able to see spirits, he uses his gift to con locals desperate for help against a growing tide of supernatural weirdness in the town. As more and more people are suddenly dying of a sudden heart malady, the con man realizes he may be the only one equipped to deal with the problem, which ties into a murder spree at a hospital years ago and a woman who is still alive and who may have been more involved in those murders than people think.

This all sounds like the makings of a pretty spooky and terrifying nightmare, but then Director Peter Jackson cast The Most Likable Man In the World, Michael J. Fox, as the con man, and added in cartoony ghosts like his sidekicks in period costumes and funny animations and zany subplots about malicious destruction of property. This movie could have been a real bummer, but instead it’s more of a silly ghost story featuring some pretty gross special effects for 1996 that ends up feeling pretty low-stakes. On the plus side the bad guy is played by Jake Busey, and anybody who grew up trying to understand the ramblings of Gary Busey is gonna have a pretty good idea about how to play “super duper crazy.”

The whole thing wraps up in a cacophony of silly weirdness and gruesome effects in a fairly satisfying way, including the elaborate death of one character who is mostly annoying and superfluous throughout the rest of the movie.

The Scariest Part of the Movie: after making this insanely weird little horror movie, New Line Cinemas saw it and thought, “this director needs a billion dollars to make a very epic trilogy about dwarves and elves throwing a ring into a volcano.” Hollywood!

Spookiness Factor: this is mostly a comedy-horror, but there are enough gruesome deaths and effects that I wouldn’t show it to kids until they’ve either made it to about 13 years old, or if you found out that when they’re at Grandma and Grandpas they’re forced to watch Fox News all day. After THAT, this will seem like a wacky romp. Sure, there is a ghost crushing hearts but you know what I’m MORE worried about? Comrade Kamala’s plans to crush our economy with regulations and cancel culture!

Rating: 5 out of 10 Starburst

The Ghoulish Plot: Two wacky guys are working as baggage clerks at a train station in Florida, so they’re already used to some macabre situations that usually involve old conservatives, alligators and meth. The movie opens as they’re expecting a shipment to arrive for delivery to a local “House of Horrors,” also known in Florida as “the local Waffle House after 2am.”

Turns out the large packages include Dracula in a coffin and Frankenstein’s monster in a crate. And they say it was Amazon who made it easy to order anything! The two clerks have been warned not to open the delivery by Larry Talbot, aka The Wolfman, aka “Horror’s greatest metaphor for alcoholism” but due to being zany and wacky, the two don’t listen and hijinks soon ensue. And while I’d heard of Abbott and Costello before as a classic comedy team, the joke formula seems to be “average tall man without joy bosses around slightly overweight shorter man who then makes faces” ‘cuz man, people were starved for entertainment in 1948. This was one of the biggest movies of the year, supposedly. I guess anything was better than sitting around chain smoking in doctor’s offices while thinking about how bad WWII was.

Before long Dracula decides that Costello’s brain would be the perfect replacement for the monster, so the two are lured to a castle that exists in Florida for some reason, and the film culminates in a battle royale that, despite being shot in 1948, is still lauded for its precision and athleticism. Just kidding, two guys randomly run around wackily slamming doors while Dracula fights the Wolfman with a wooden chair. Bela Lugosi was already pretty old and pilled up at this point, so we’ll take what we can get!

The Scariest Part of the Movie: Despite being surrounded by some of the biggest Universal movie monsters of all time, the most dangerous character is the insurance agent who threatens legal action.

Spookiness Factor: pretty tame. If you have younger kids and they seem interested in the Universal movies this might be a good entry point – the most violent parts are some bonks on the head and funny faces. Although this was made in 1948, so also be prepared for some pretty casual fat phobia and misogyny baked into it.

Rating: 4 out of 10 Sour Patch Kids

Tomorrow night in Trenton, Michigan – catch me headlining this shindig with a lineup of fun comics.

Tickets are available here.

The Ghoulish Plot: It’s the end of the 1970s, and nothing is quite right in America, everything is beige and drunk driving is the rule of the land. An orphaned teenage boy named Mike follows his shithead older brother to a funeral and spots a weird tall undertaker who starts lifting coffins by himself while rocking a pretty intense skullet, even for 1979. Super strength is one thing but dude, know when to let the hair go, man.

Their paths continue to cross with the tall undertaker (whose scary bad guy name is “Tall Man”) until they realize he’s directly involved with the disappearances that have plagued the area, so they team up with their buddy the hippie-dippie ice cream man and break into the mortuary to discover that Tall Man is shrinking bodies and turning them into…something else. He also has access to flying silver balls with spikes that only give you a couple of minutes with tense music to dodge them at most, which is pretty tough when you’re busy making shocked faces.

Over the course of the movie multiple dream sequences and flashbacks make it impossible to figure out what’s actually happening, until it all wraps up in an ending that indeed happens as the movie was running out of film, apparently. It’s something about space midgets being used as slaves for something intergalactic. I dunno, man, people had been doing a lot of hallucinogens for a decade and then this movie got made and Jimmy Carter was President and shag carpeting seemed like a good idea.

The Scariest Part of the Movie: this movie has spawned several sequels, and the Tall Man has been rocking the same haircut for decades. Seriously, dude, accept it and shave your head.

Spookiness Factor: the movie is never really sure what kind of horror movie it wants to be, so just as you start to get into whatever phase it’s rolling in everything shifts and you’re never really all that affected by the scares. This might be one of the funniest horror movies I’ve seen in a while.

Rating: 3 out of 10 Australian licorice pieces for this one.

The Ghoulish Plot: a man from Boston travels to visit his fiancee at her spooky mansion, only to find that her gaslighting brother Roderick (played by a blond-dyed Vincent Price) would rather his sister not get married, have kids, or be happy in general. In 2024 Price’s character would probably be classified as a neurodivergent empath and spend the entire movie wearing Anime and MAGA t-shirts while posting on incel subreddits, but in 1960 he’s just a weirdo who likes to whisper and wear velvet jackets and says the house he lives in is evil, so his sister can never leave — clearly a very logical and reasonable request.

Eventually when Mr. Beantown decides to take his fiancee whether her brother likes it or not, Roderick opts to fake her death and bury her alive. But because he is eager to get back to playing his lute and drinking sherry, he does a bad job and she eventually gets free and may finally cause the ultimate demise of the House of Usher. Ends with a big flaming setpiece that director Roger Corman liked so much he used footage from in multiple movies. Will our lead character escape with his life and go found Dunkin’? Or will he himself be trapped forever in a dysfunctional family?

The Scariest Part of the Movie: The Usher’s manservant has been working in a house of sociopaths for 60 years. Talk about a toxic work environment!

Spookiness Factor: The movie LOOKS very spooky, lots of mist and fog and cobwebs and creaky old mansion shots. And Vincent Price is always reliably creepy, even with dyed hair and asking everybody to tiptoe and whisper at him.

Rating: 6 out of 10 Japanese Kit-Kats

The Ghoulish Plot: A once-acclaimed director made a weird, fun and unique movie in 1988 about a rural couple dying and meeting a weird demon creature that somehow grabbed the interest of the public and became a Saturday morning cartoon show. Many years and famous actress girlfriends later and after remaking “Dumbo” for some reason, that director reaaaaaally needed a hit and miraculously decided it would be cool to make a sequel to that earlier movie in 2024.

You remember that one kid in high school that you initially thought was pretty cool who wore punk t-shirts and said lots of nihilistic shit, and then eventually you just realized they were an attention-starved weirdo who talked way too much and worked at Hot Topic?

This movie is that person, in movie form. Way too much try-hard plot points thrown at the wall, and instead of the clear protagonist/antagonists situation we got in the first movie, now we have no clear idea idea who we’re supposed to care about or why. They even create a subplot designed specifically to humiliate one of the stars of the first movie (who has since done plenty to disgrace himself) that gets the plot moving, then does nothing else of value the rest of the film. Which is a pretty good summary of the entire movie, I guess.

The Scariest Part of the Movie: That even when you’re dead, most subway cars are filled with people yelling and dancing to music and you can’t figure out where the damn train is going in the first place.

Spookiness Factor: just like that Hot Topic kid, it looks like it’s supposed to be scary but then you get up closer and realize it’s full of strawberry Pocky and probably has divorced parents.

Rating: 3 out of 10 Peanut Butter Cups

Years ago I would spend the entire month of October watching spooky movies, and then write up summaries here. I haven’t done it in ages because a) nobody really asked me to do this or b) gave a shit when I did.

But what the hell; it’s come up enough times from people who used to read it that they always looked forward to it and the world is a stress-filled hellscape and we all need a good excuse to watch some silly horror movies and eat candy and popcorn. So I’m doing it again. Starting tomorrow, I’m attempting to do 31 days in a row of horror movie write-ups. I’m going to start the month by trying to dive into stuff I’ve never seen before, and then near the end of the month we’ll start dipping into the old classics.

Will I get to 31? Will readership dry up and everybody stops caring? Only one way to find out!

More info/tickets:
10/4 Trenton 7:30 show 9:30 show (headlining)
10/18-10/19 Traverse City Comedy Club w/ Ben Bailey
11/2 Nashport OH
11/9 Ludington MI
11/14-11/16 One Night Stans w/ Mike Brody
12/5 Supernatural Brewing LIvonia MI
12/14 Stella’s Plymouth MI (headlining)
1/8-1/11 San Francisco Punch Line w/ Tom Rhodes