Halloween Team 2018: The Eric and Sally Picks

This tradition has legs!  (Spooky, spindly spider legs, but still.)  We've been doing this for four years now and the hits keep on coming. With Sally and Sarah in North Carolina, we've had to get a little more technical to keep the tradition undead, but so far so good.

Kendra used some black magic to set the order and Eric was up first. I always look forward to the Eric pick. (With the exception of Eight Legged Freaks, of course.)  This year he chose Fright Night, the 2011 remake of the 80s cult classic.  This one starred Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrel and just hit the mark at every turn. It was spooky and actually scary here and there, but it was the general weirdness that really sold it for me.  David Tenant pops up and delivered as usual. Finding the balance in a movie like this is tough, but I felt like this walked the line well.  It made me want to check out the original.  We watched this at Eric and Kendra's with the movie on one screen and Sally and Sarah on the other. It was great when it worked.

I give it 4 McLovins.

The following week was the Jacoby-Murphy pick.  Sally and Sarah were actually in town for this one.  So after Sally, Eric and I recorded the annual Halloween episode of the podcast we settled at our house for the movie. Every year I'm terrified that Sally's going to go off-book and pick something that will live in my brain forever, but she relented and they ultimately settled on John Carpenter's The Thing.  I was actually all in for this movie. The feel was absolutely right. It's grim and unsettling in places, but Kurt Russell sells it. It was scary enough and a fun movie to talk through with a group of friends.  I'd kinda like to see the updated version now.

I give it 4 Spider Dog Alien People.

Bonus!  After the movie we watched the original David S. Pumpkins skit from SNL.  Still hilarious.  I don't know why it works, but it does.  Tom Hanks is just so game.  Then we rolled right in to the David S. Pumpkins Halloween Special.  Making this was not a good idea and it definitely doesn't deliver on the same level as the original brief skit.  BUT.  I like it. There are enough laughs to get you through and it does maintain the same offbeat vibe.  I wish it was more kid friendly so I could show my son, but I can see this being the kind of thing that gets funnier the more you watch it.  Maybe not.  Time will tell.

I give it 3 Beat Boys.