It's Day 300 on my One Movie a Day for 2023 project, and Day 27 of my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en project, as well as the 31 Days of Horror Challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. Plus, I can not forget to mention the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge I joined this year.
If you've been following along at all this month, you know this is where I always tell you, that for the last decade, on my old social medias, I have done a 13 Days of Hallowe'en project that ran from the 19th-31st of October; and where I would do movie reviews, recipes and comedy skits. But, this year I've decided to keep it just to this new site and my Letterboxd.
The mini theme for my own 31 Days of Hallowe'en, today is Based on Stephen King. I picked Secret Window.
In the aftermath of a bitter divorce, a writer isolates himself in his cabin in order to finish his next novel. But, when a knock on his door exposes a man who claims he was the real author of his last novel, things start to spiral as guilt, grief and madness set in. Soon, the writer doesn't know what is real and what is fiction as the bodies start to stack up around him.
This is one of my favourite Johnny Depp movies, and it's not hard to figure out why. He plays the lead character to perfection, as he tries to unravel what's happening to him. As the viewer, you're taken down the rabbit hole of paranoia and alcohol; never sure if things are happening to him or because of him.
Like so many other lead characters in a King story, we're shown how being a writer/artist can truly be the loneliest things a person can do. The constant isolation, constant self doubt and long mind numbing hours. You never know what end you're going to find yourself on when you finally finish your masterpiece. And I think, the imagery of Depp's character as he slumps around the house all day unkept, sleeping on the sofa in his bathrobe, talking to the dog really captures that in a slow motion of odd beauty.
Today's mini theme for the 31 Days of Horror Challenge being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street is Michael Myers. I picked Halloween H20.
Twenty years after the fateful Hallowe'en night when Laurie thought Michael had been captured, she still feels haunted by the idea of him. So much so, she's gone into hiding with her teenaged son. As her son and his friends decide to sneak out for a party, Laurie learns her worst fears have come true, as Michael is indeed on the loose and once again hunting her down.
This is that odd entry that follows part 2 but goes nowhere into the rest of the series. And it's one of my personal favourites in the franchise. It takes a bit to get into, but once you do, it's worth the wait. I actually wish they had kept on with this version of the timeline when they decided to reboot/continue with the 2018 half of things. But sadly, this almost plays as a stand alone because of it. One of the things I really like about it is, even though it is at the twenty year mark, it seems timeless. There is a limited amount of things in this movie, compared to others that were made around the same time, that makes you go 'oh that's such a time capsule'. When watching this film, it could be 1998 or it could be 2008 or it could be 2023.
Come back tomorrow to see what other tricks and treats are on the slab, as we wind down the last few days of the month and the last few posts of these Hallowe'en challenges for 2023.
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