All-Night Halloween Horrorthons
All-Night Halloween
Horrorthons
It’s that time of year that I love…well, maybe I’m jumping the gun a little bit. Let’s see…it is still, September?! Wow, well…for some of us, Halloween is an everyday thing. I figured 2020 has been weird enough we can start celebrating all things spooky a little early this year.
Because we only have five loans on Hoopla, these lists are also going to look at films available on DVD and Bluray through the entire Huntsville Madison County Public Library system. You can access the catalog and start searching here: https://hmcpl.org/. As I compile these lists, I will mention what is available from where and have links for anything available from HMCPL. You can put any disc available in the system on hold to be picked up at any library branch you like. (Then you can return it to any branch in the system.)
Remember, when you check out from HMCPL, you are limited to checking out only 50 movies/books at a time. I know, I know. Look, I don’t make up the rules. Also please remember, all materials may require wait times and/or possibly get lost in the shuffle, so if I link you up to a movie and it turns out that it might be hanging out with all those lost socks that magically go missing from washer to dryer, I do apologize. Always have a back-up plan, always have a bunch of titles on hold so something is coming in for you to watch.
To really start the Halloween season off with a bang, we are going to be looking at just items available from the HMCPL catalog that include multiple movies for your own armchair dusk-to-dawn show. (Although these are multiple movies, some on multiple discs, they only count as one check-out. Shop smarter, not harder, know what I mean?)
I’d love for you to also listen to the podcast I co-host with Michelle, Two Librarians Walk into a Shelf, where we will be celebrating Halloween all month long with spooky book and movie recommendations and maybe a surprise guest or two.
Without further ado, let’s kick off the 2020 Halloween season early with a fistful of frights! Grab some popcorn balls and candy corn, these movies aren’t going to watch themselves!
Tremors: Attack Pack
If you enjoy watching giant sandworms eat people, (and really, who doesn’t?), this collection presents the first four Tremors films in the long running series.
Tremors (1990)- Bumpkins Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward battle giant man-eating sandworms. For me, the original is still the best one. Michael Gross and Reba Mcentire co-star.
Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996)- Ward and Gross return and fight against worms and worm mutants called “shriekers.”
Tremors III: Back to Perfection (2001)- Did someone say, “Giant worm mayhem?” Michael Gross is now the star of the series.
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004)- Sort of a prequel about the giant worms attacking a wild west town. Gross plays his own great-great grandfather, Hiram Gummer.
https://catalog.hmcpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=372132&query_desc=tremors
Psycho II/ Psycho III/ Psycho IV: The Beginning
If you have seen Alfred Hitchcock’s classic adaptation of Robert Bloch’s pulp novel, Psycho, you may enjoy these sequels which continue Norman’s adventure into “normalcy.” (And if you haven’t seen the original, you can certainly catch up with it here: https://catalog.hmcpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=331505&query_desc=psycho%20dvd)
Psycho II (1982)- Twenty-two years after being incarcerated in the State Hospital for the Terminally Twitchy, Norman Bates returns home to restart his life. Only, Mother is back and she’s worried about her little boy.
Psycho III (1986)- Picking up days after Psycho II, a drifter, a news reporter, and a former nun who has lost her faith all cross paths at the Bates Motel for a wild week of murder and mayhem. It is a love story. This is my favorite re-watch of all the Psycho films, which was directed by Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins.
Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)- A made-for-cable movie, but don’t let that put you off. It is still a tense look at Norman’s life as a child and his relationship with his mother. It is told in flashbacks, as Norman, now married and awaiting the birth of his first child, talks to a radio show psychologist about his upbringing. By movie’s end, Norman has a big knife and is waiting for his wife to come home for a special dinner surprise…
https://catalog.hmcpl.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=196916&query_desc=psycho%20II
SyFy Collection: 5 Wild Movies
Is there anything better after a long day than settling in for some ridiculous “Mega This” vs. “Giant That” silliness? Strap in for these SyFy Channel original movies and be prepared to be shocked silly.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009)- With Debbie Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas. I forget which one plays the shark and which one plays the octopus.
Weather Wars (2011)- Unexplained weather attacks destroy a nation! Jason London from Dazed and Confused is our only hope for survival!!! (AKA Storm War.)
Megafault (2009)- Mining in West Virginia results in a giant crack running across the continent. Dr. Amy Lane (Brittany Murphy) races to keep the country from tearing in half.
30,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2007)- Captain Nemo goes even farther down into the unknown and drags Lorenzo Lamas with him. Here there be CGI monsters.
Miami Magma (2011)- Illegal drilling threatens to ignite a mega-volcano underneath Miami, Florida. If this had actually happened in 2011, we’d still be talking about it today. If it actually happens in 2020, we’ll be like, “Meh.”