MONSTERZERO NJ’S FINAL GIRL/BAD GIRL OF THE YEAR 2022!

MONSTERZERO NJ’S FINAL GIRL/BAD GIRL OF THE YEAR 2022!

It’s Halloween🎃!…and as it has become tradition, it’s time to announce MonsterZero NJ’s Final Girl of the Year!…an actress that has not only captured our hearts, but gotten our attention with a strong performance, in the traditional role of horror final girl!…

…and this year, our Final Girl of the Year 2022 is also our bad girl of the year too!…

So, without further ado, our winner for 2022 is…

MIA GOTH!

Mia Goth plays both final girl and villain with an amazing dual performance in Ti West’s X and again as Pearl in its prequel Pearl!

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Mia Goth as Maxine and Pearl in X!

Mia Goth as Maxine. A pretty young woman with big dreams and stars in her eyes!

Mia Goth as Pearl, a lonely old woman with dark secrets and darker desires.

Pearl is also very dangerous!

…But so is Maxine when provoked!

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…and Mia Goth as Pearl in Pearl

Goth as Pearl. A young woman with big dreams and stars in her eyes!

Dreams that unfortunately get shattered!

This brings out the worst in the young country girl!

And a demented killer is born and so is a stunning performance!

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This year was an easy choice as Goth was simply amazing in not one but two roles, in not one but two films! As the tough porn star wannabe Maxine, and the demented product of broken dreams Pearl, she was outstanding. A third film is on the way from Ti West centering on Maxine, and we can’t wait to see it!

-MonsterZero NJ

(And don’t forget to check out our previous Halloween Hotties by simply going to our Halloween Hotties main page!)

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES OCT 28-30

(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to the reviews here at The Movie Madhouse!)

1. “Black Adam” $27.7 Million

2. “Ticket to Paradise” $10 Million

3. “Pray for the Devil” $7 Million

4. “Smile” $5 Million

5. “Halloween Ends” $3.8 Million

6. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” $2.8 Million

7. “Till” $2.8 Million

8. “Terrifier 2” $1.8 Million

9. “The Woman King” $1.1 Million

10. “Tár” $1 Million

-MonsterZero NJ

source: Box Office Mojo

MONSTERZERO NJ’S FILMMAKER OF THE YEAR 2022!

photo: IMDB

TI WEST!

With the dual theatrical releases of his 70s set horror X in March and its prequel Pearl in September, indie filmmaker Ti West is finally getting the notice he deserves. Horror fans have been watching his films for years, but now he is getting the attention of more mainstream audiences and it’s about time! Finally breaking out of streaming and VOD only releases and having not one but two horror hits in one year, makes Ti West our filmmaker of the year!

If you haven’t seen any of his films yet, here they all are below for you to discover!…

-MonsterZero NJ

MONSTERZERO NJ’S HARDEST WORKING ACTRESS IN HORROR!

Photo: Unknown

Photo credit: Celebmafia

JENNA ORTEGA!

This latest installment of Halloween Hotties features an up-and-coming Latina actress who has become a familiar and beloved face to the horror community! Jenna Ortega has been acting since she was ten years-old and over the last decade has made quite an impression with her versatile performances. Lately she has been appearing in quite a few horror-centric projects and we couldn’t be happier! 2022 has proven to be her most prolific year yet with no less than five horror themed roles! Her banner year of horror started with Scream (2022), then The Foo Fighters’ horror/comedy Studio 666, along with Ti West’s hit indie horror flick X. She also appeared in American Carnage and will be playing the title character in Tim Burton’s upcoming Addams Family spin-off series Wednesday, streaming on Netflix starting November 23rd! WOW, Jenna!

(Click on the highlighted links to read reviews of the films covered here that Jenna Ortega has appeared in)

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Scream (2022)

Jenna Ortega gets that phone call as Tara, in the horror “requel” Scream (2022).

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STUDIO 666 (2022)

As Skye, in the Foo Fighter’s recently released horror/comedy Studio 666.

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X (2022)

As “Church Mouse” Lorraine, in Ti West’s hit 70s set indie horror flick X.

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AMERICAN CARNAGE (2022)

Ortega as tough girl Camila Montes in American Carnage!

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WEDNESDAY (2022)

Jenna Ortega is the first Latina to play this classic role in the upcoming Tim Burton/Netflix series Wednesday!

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Jenna Ortega shows no sign of slowing down with new projects already in various phases of production, including next year’s Scream 6! With four horror films and one spooky series in 2022 alone, it does make this talented young lady the hardest working actress in horror!

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And don’t forget to check out our previous Halloween Hotties profiles…just click on the following link to head over to the Halloween Hotties listings!)

-MonsterZero NJ

source: IMDB

MONSTERZERO NJ’S MOVIE MEMORIES: TRICK ‘R TREAT FINALLY GETS A THEATRICAL RELEASE!

TRICK ‘R TREAT FINALLY GETS A THEATRICAL RELEASE!

After 15 years, cult classic Trick ‘r Treat finally gets a theatrical release in time for Halloween!

Trick ‘r Treat was released direct to home media by Warner Bros in 2009 after first showing at a Texas film festival two years earlier and then some sporadic festival showings over the next two years. Like everyone else, I discovered this great Halloween movie on DVD. Since then, it’s become a beloved holiday classic. Now fifteen years after its festival only showings, Michael Dougherty’s cult favorite has finally gotten a theatrical release at AMC theaters right in time for All Hallows Eve. One of my favorite spooky season flicks, I took in a showing tonight and it was magical seeing it on the big screen for the first time…even though I have watched it dozens of times by now.

Ticket was only five dollars to start! It was a good print with vibrant colors and great sound bringing the lush Halloween visuals and spooky screams to vivid life as never before. Don’t care how boss your home theater system is, there is nothing like seeing it on the big screen with an appreciative audience. Everyone was quite during the showing, save for the appropriate laughs or gasps, depending on the goings on. Seeing Sam and company larger than life was a great experience tonight and one I am so thankful that the folks at AMC provided. Better late than never! A great Halloween movie now getting its proper due! Was like seeing the film for the first time and I’m so glad I went! 

-MonsterZero NJ

Photos: Warner Bros/Legendary

 

BARE BONES: THE CURSE OF BRIDGE HOLLOW (2022)

THE CURSE OF BRIDGE HOLLOW (2022)

Science teacher Howard Gordon (Marlon Wayans) movies his wife Emily (Kelly Rowland) and teen daughter Sydney (Priah Ferguson) from Brooklyn to the small New England town of Bridge Hollow. He wants nothing to do with Halloween which the town embraces, including having its own folk legend. A man named Stingy Jack made a deal with the devil then tried to get out of it by trading the soul of another. He was stopped by a local witch named Madam Hawthorne (Nia Vardalos) and the Gordons now live in her former home. When Sydney finds an old jack-o-lantern in the attic she unwittingly releases the imprisoned Stingy Jack who starts to bring all the Halloween decorations to life, to help him search for a soul to trade. Sydney and her new friends must somehow convince her man of science father to help them send Jack back where he came from!

Halloween themed family flick directed by Jeff Wadlow from a script and story by Tom Berger, Robert Rugan and John R. Morey. It is a generic family comedy, but one that is harmless and fun. It has plenty of Halloween spirit as the grumpy Howard has his scientific mind challenged by spooks, specters and things that go bump in the night. It does evoke the similar Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween but is enough its own thing so the similarities are not intrusive. The creatures are nicely designed, and the visuals are very Halloween, yet it is tame enough for the kids to watch and enjoy, yet should keep the adults entertained, too. The cast are all fine and get the spirit of the material and it’s another choice to watch during the spooky season if you have kiddos too young for Freddy, Jason and Art the Clown. Also stars John Michael Higgins as the school principal and Lauren Lapkus as the town’s Halloween loving mayor. Currently streaming on Netflix and would make a fun family double feature with Netflix’s Hubie Halloween.

MonsterZero NJ

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES OCT 21-23

(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to the reviews here at The Movie Madhouse!)

1. “Black Adam” $67 Million

2. “Ticket to Paradise” $16.3 Million

3. “Smile” $8.35 Million

4. “Halloween Ends” $8 Million

5. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile” $4.2 Million

6. “The Woman King” $1.9 Million

7. “Terrifier 2” $1.895 Million

8. “Don’t Worry Darling” $880,000

9. “Amsterdam” $818,000

10. “Triangle of Sadness” $600,000

-MonsterZero NJ

source: Box Office Mojo

MONSTERZERO NJ’S MOVIE MEMORIES: HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)

HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)

The controversial sequel turns 40 today!!

Halloween III: Season of the Witch was released 40 years ago today and it has brought back memories, as I was there opening night with friends at the now long-gone Cinema 35 in Paramus, NJ. Fans were cautious as this would be a Halloween film without Michael Myers…something that some audience members did not know upon hearing angry and disappointed post-show comments. Carpenter considered Myers’ story over and thus was planning to turn the franchise into an anthology series, with a new and different story each year. This chapter was directed by long-time Carpenter friend and collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace. I really enjoyed this flick and was fully onboard for what Carpenter was planning. My friends whom I attended the showing with weren’t so happy with it and there was much discussion on the way home. Me championing the film all the way while they were highly critical and disappointed. Box office numbers were ultimately disappointing, and Carpenter’s anthology never went any further. Myers returned in a series of lackluster sequels six years later.

 

 I have been a fan of this sequel ever since and it’s watched every Halloween, along with Halloween and Halloween II as part of the “Big Three.” Personally, I am not a fan of the sequels that followed after Carpenter left the franchise and would have loved to have seen his annual Halloween anthology plans come to pass, with word that Halloween IV would have been a haunted house movie. I am very happy to see this flick finally find it’s fanbase and get the love it deserves. It’s a twisted Halloween tale and possibly embraces the spirit of the holiday even better than its two Michael Myers based predecessors. That’s just my opinion and am glad to celebrate this delightfully gruesome Halloween story with a twisted sense of humor that embraces the term trick or treat!

 

One of my favorite moments in the film is when asked “why” by hero Dr. Dan Challis (Tom Atkins), bad guy Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy) delivers one of the greatest villain monologues of all time in Halloween III: Season of the Witch!…

“Do I need a reason? Mr. Kupfer was right, you know. I do love a good joke, and this is the best ever: a joke on the children. But there’s a better reason. You don’t really know much about Halloween. You thought no further than the strange custom of having your children wear masks and go out begging for candy.

It was the start of the year in our old Celtic lands, and we’d be waiting in our houses of wattles and clay. The barriers would be down, you see, between the real and the unreal, and the dead might be looking in to sit by our fires of turf.

Halloween… the festival of Samhain! The last great one took place three thousand years ago, when the hills ran red with the blood of animals and children.”

Gives me chills just transcribing it here, and I can hear the late, great Dan O’Herlihy’s deep voice echo in my head as I do!

 

 

Much maligned for decades, Halloween IIl: Season of the Witch has now earned some well-deserved love and taken its place as classic franchise canon!

HAPPY 40th ANNIVERSARY HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH!

-MonsterZero NJ

 

MONSTERZERO NJ’S HORROR FLICKS THAT ACTUALLY TAKE PLACE ON HALLOWEEN 2022!

During the spooky season it might be fun to watch flicks that actually take place on All Hallow’s Eve… so here is a revised list of some horror flicks that actually occur on, or near, our favorite Holiday! 🎃

(To get to the reviews of the titles below that were covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)

-MonsterZero NJ

INDIE HORROR COMEDY “ALL EYES” GETS A POSTER AND TRAILER!

From the official synopsis…

“A recently fired podcast host comes across a story that he feels could revitalize his career.

The story: a recently widowed farmer claims there is a monster living in the woods behind his farm.

The plan: trap and kill the beast.

Directed by Todd Greenlee, “All Eyes” stars Jasper Hammer, Ben Hall, Danielle Evon Ploeger, and Laurie Cummings

Written by Alex Greenlee and produced by Emily Calhoun, Adam Greenlee, Alex Greenlee, Todd Greenlee, Janice Pellam, Laurie Cummings, Tab Pierce, Jeff Greenlee, and Lisa Greenlee

“All Eyes” is available NOW on iTunes, Amazon Prime, Vudu, YouTube, and others.”

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-MonsterZero NJ

Source: Gravitas Ventures