The Cult of Pop: 2019

It's that time of year again! I might be leaving this blog post til the last possible minute, but, the Monster Mash Movie Marathon Month 2019 (MMMMM2019) is ready to go! Yeehaw!!

Established in 2009, with very few hiccups, the Monster Mash Movie Marathon Month is my yearly October horror movie ritual. Each night for the month, I watch a horror movie I've never seen before. THIS IS THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF MMMMM, so, you probably think I've got something EXTRA SPECIAL up my sleeve.... But you'd be wrong. Business as usual is plenty for this lazy old man. As usual, I will attempt to write some delightful prose at the end of each week to summarize my thoughts on these movies, but I can't promise you I'll successfully write one every week (bad track record the last few years!)

While there's no mini-themes at play this year, I am including a variety of iconic directors' works. Arguably more than previous years have had annually! You'll find the likes of William Castle, Mario Bava, George A. Romero, Larry Cohen (who just left us this year - an MMMMM favourite - RIP), Lucio Fulci, John Carpenter, Rob Zombie and several other notable folks! Likewise, I managed to find a Vincent Price film to add to the list, which is a tradition. A tradition I thought I'd have to give up on soon... But fear not! The Price is RIGHT! This year we are forgoing Stephen King, but, don't worry - in 2020, I intended to subject myself to both of those new IT films. That ought to make up for his absence this year...

A few remakes have made it on this year's list, including the Blob from 1988 and Rob Zombie's Halloween from 2007. I tend to stay away from these things, but, I've been feeling a little more open to trying remakes out lately. Depending on how this goes this year, I might watch some more in the following Octobers.

Also, we have a few selections here which are questionable, at best, as horror films. Yet I'm always going to greenlight an ultra-violent Jeremy Saulnier film. It might not have vampires or werewolves, but such grim faire is gruesome enough for me to count it!

Below, you'll find the official selection of films for this year's festival. The links should take you to each film's trailer on YouTube. Please note that this is the CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER of the selected films, NOT the order in which they will be watched (that's a far more loose, decided-on-a-whim kind of thing). And if you're a 'real life' friend of mine, and wanna get in on one of these flicks, please don't hesitate to shoot me a message.

(1932) White Zombie

(1959) The Tingler

(1964) Blood and Black Lace

(1964) Seance on a Wet Afternoon

(1970) Trog

(1971) The Corpse Grinders

(1971) Werewolves on Wheels

(1973) Season of the Witch (aka Hungry Wives)

(1976) God Told Me To

(1980) The Changeling

(1980) City of the Living Dead

(1981) Wolfen