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the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes...Of
course, that's hardly a surprise since it's almost Halloween. So,
once a year we relent and pay homage to Fantasy's dumber and
darker brother...Horror. Some of us didn't need reality's reminder
that life can be pretty horrific itself and that horror is a lame
excuse for entertainment.
Fortunately, Monster's Inc. is about to do for
monsters under the bed what "The Flat Eyed Monster",
William Tenn's great short story about what happens when aliens
take a human home to study, did for the "Bug Eyed Monster
genre." Disney has assembled a fantastic cast here, including
Billy Crystal, John Goodman and Jennifer Tilly. Even James Coburn
is in this one. I'm hoping they had enough left over to actually
buy a script.
 Johhny
Depp is in "From Hell", Snoop Doggy Dog (someday that
man is going to wake up and realize he chose a name suitable only
for a cartoon character) stars in "Bones", which isn't
about dog treats, but about ghostly revenge in the hood.
Then there's "Thirteen Ghosts" or as it
will probably show up on marquees: "Thir13en Ghosts"
whose' mini- synopsis, "A man and his daughter live in a
haunted house", brings back Eddie Murphy's classic routine in
which he asks why white folks are too stupid to get out?
If you have trouble with following long horror
plots, try "Scary Tales", a horror anthology coming out
a few days after you've had a chance to get sick on candy.
 The
blurry line between Horror and Science fiction is crossed by our
own skeleton in the closet...the "B Monster Movie". It
looks like there's an ample serving of gore and scientific
absurdity clawing it's way towards us in "Raptor", which
from the trailer looks like a cross between "Night of the
Lupus" and "Jurassic Park" done with all the finesse
of "The Blair Witch Project." It's thirty feet tall, has
teeth than can tear you in half...and it's hungry. Yes, it wants
your money. (Oops. I got suckered in...it's coming out on video)
Not Quite Science Fiction, being a historical techno- thriller
with a bit of romance thrown in to to things interesting, is
Enigma, a movie about the cracking of the German code machine in
WWII. Fans of Neil Stephenson's Cryptonomicon might want to check
this out.
The good news is for sciffy fans is K-PAX, sort of
a Disneyfied version of Starman meets 12 Monkeys. Note that the
Starman himself, good ol' Jeff Bridges, signed on as the straight
man for this one and Kevin Spacey, who is a heck of an actor is
the man who fell to Earth. I doubt that it's going to be stunning,
but it should have cross audience appeal and a certain amount of
fun in its favor. Maybe a little fun isn't such a bad idea.
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