I select a thematically appropriate horror movie for each day of the year and tell you about it.
Why?
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
How do you get to decide what qualifies as a horror movie and where each one goes on the calendar?
I am the Mayor of Horror Movies.
Are all these movies good?
Oh gosh no. But I recommend all of them to the adventurous viewer.
What’s with the CWs?
In horror movies, disturbing material is part of the entertainment package. But for some viewers, elements like sexual violence or bigotry ruin the fun. For those folks, I include content warnings. That said, the warnings are based on my personal reactions and should not be expected to cover all potential cinematic skeeviness, so proceed with caution.
Who are you, aside from the mayor?
I’m Shaenon K. Garrity. I’m mostly a cartoonist. I watch a lot of scary movies while I draw cartoons.
Okay, as far as monster weaknesses go, that’s the second weirdest that I’ve ever heard of. The #1 slot still goes to the creatures from Evolution, vulnerable to the selenium in hair conditioner. Then again, this sort of thing makes a great change of pace from the traditional silver, sunlight, etc.
(Special mention goes to the Mondasian Cybermen of classic Doctor Who for being vulnerable to gold–not something you see every day!)
Well, why shouldn’t bogeys have obscure weaknesses? The ones with well-known weaknesses are easy enough to deal with. If there’s enough of those around, you start carrying “scenario loads” to sort them out. (e.g. one lead bullet, one cold iron, one silver, one blessed wood, etc.) But an initially unknown but common weakness, that provides just enough plot for a cheap movie.
Leftbridge-Stewart: “…And we even have gold bullets for You Know Who.”
Doctor: “What about silver?”
LS: “…SILVER BULLETS???”
Doctor: “Well, you never know.”
The aliens in Signs probably had the most debilitating weakness, ie water. I mean, theyre never going take over the universe with that problem. And then there’s the Daleks with their stairs issue, though I think they’ve sorted that out recently.
Water is a ridiculously common weakness for sci-fi monsters. I think Doctor Who has used it twice and I know I’ve seen it in other cheap sci-fi movies and episodes. It KINDA makes sense, in that water is a very potent solvent, but on the other hand, it’s also ridiculously common in the universe so anything vulnerable to water probably shouldn’t be alive.
I can see something vulnerable to water wanting to wipe out humanity, we literally sweat the stuff out of our pores. We’d be like lovecraftian monsters to them! “Oh my gods, their covered in hideous acid and can propel it from their mouths! And we don’t dare injure them because then they REALLY spread water around!” We are worse than the Aliens from Aliens!
Still, why invade us when you can wipe us out from orbit? Stupid Aliens from Signs.
Yeah, this is definitely a fun movie.
Okay, as far as monster weaknesses go, that’s the second weirdest that I’ve ever heard of. The #1 slot still goes to the creatures from Evolution, vulnerable to the selenium in hair conditioner. Then again, this sort of thing makes a great change of pace from the traditional silver, sunlight, etc.
(Special mention goes to the Mondasian Cybermen of classic Doctor Who for being vulnerable to gold–not something you see every day!)
Well, why shouldn’t bogeys have obscure weaknesses? The ones with well-known weaknesses are easy enough to deal with. If there’s enough of those around, you start carrying “scenario loads” to sort them out. (e.g. one lead bullet, one cold iron, one silver, one blessed wood, etc.) But an initially unknown but common weakness, that provides just enough plot for a cheap movie.
From a fun episode with Doctor #7:
Leftbridge-Stewart: “…And we even have gold bullets for You Know Who.”
Doctor: “What about silver?”
LS: “…SILVER BULLETS???”
Doctor: “Well, you never know.”
Thus introducing Chekhov’s silver bullets.
This sounds great. Maybe a little inspired by Tremors, but very Irish.
Wee nitpick: It may be pronounced “crack”, but it’s spelled “craic”. Irish spelling may be scarier and more mysterious than any film on this list.
Argh, you’re right! I can’t believe I misspelled such a crucial term.
The aliens in Signs probably had the most debilitating weakness, ie water. I mean, theyre never going take over the universe with that problem. And then there’s the Daleks with their stairs issue, though I think they’ve sorted that out recently.
Water is a ridiculously common weakness for sci-fi monsters. I think Doctor Who has used it twice and I know I’ve seen it in other cheap sci-fi movies and episodes. It KINDA makes sense, in that water is a very potent solvent, but on the other hand, it’s also ridiculously common in the universe so anything vulnerable to water probably shouldn’t be alive.
I can see something vulnerable to water wanting to wipe out humanity, we literally sweat the stuff out of our pores. We’d be like lovecraftian monsters to them! “Oh my gods, their covered in hideous acid and can propel it from their mouths! And we don’t dare injure them because then they REALLY spread water around!” We are worse than the Aliens from Aliens!
Still, why invade us when you can wipe us out from orbit? Stupid Aliens from Signs.
On the other end of the scale, you’ve got the dessicant-hating brainworms from The Faculty.
Daleks were first shown going up stairs in 1988, which isn’t all that recently.