Day 27 of 31 in 31 brings us one of the few American remakes that I truly enjoyed “The Ring” directed by Gore Verbinski and written by Ehren Kruger, with novel credits going to Koji Suzuki and uncredited for the origina screenplay of “Ringu” Hiroshi Takahashi.

“The Ring” is based on “Ringu” which came out in 1998, in 2002 the American remake hit the big screen and took everyone by surprise. I enjoy both versions of the movie and suggest that everyone watch them both. The synopsis is that a journalist is forced into investigating the mystery of a video tape that kills anyone within a week of watching it. An interesting aspect, but moreso the mystery is what drew me. With a few twists and turns the movie has become a favorite of mine to watch, especially during the Halloween season.

Michael Worthan, 31 in 31: Day 27 “The Ring”

Welcome to day 18 of 31 in 31! Today’s movie is Arachnophobia directed by Frank Marshall and written by Don Jakoby and Wesley Strick. If you have a fear of spiders then this may be a movie that you would prefer to turn away from, but is still one of the most terrifying movies someone can run across. Merely thinking about how possible some of the situations that occur within this movie can make even the bravest person fearful of a simple spider bite.

The synopsis of the movie is that a deadly South American spider makes its way to North America via a coffin and starts to breed and kill many with a single bite. A frightening scenario that all arachnaphobia sufferers think about. Well worth the watch and well worth being on 31 in 31 for Halloween Arachnophobia is a definite must see. Enjoy!

Michael Worthan, 31 in 31: Day 18 “Arachnophobia”

Cover via Amazon

Day 4 of 31 in 31 brings us the movie, Monster Squad. It’s fun and as the film’s title implies, there’s monsters involved. The film was written by Shane Black and Fred Dekker. Dekker also directed. Now, I’m not one to throw the term “cheesy” out there to describe a movie nor am I one to think that a movie is “so-bad-that-it’s-good”. If it’s good, it’s good. If it’s bad, it’s bad. But it’s OK to like a bad movie. This, however, is not a bad movie, just know what you’re getting into since it was made in 1987.

The film centers around Sean and Patrick as well as their rag-tag team of friends, Horace aka “Fat Kid” and Rudy, the older cool kid, who started a monster club in their treehouse. It turns out all the monsters they read about are real. Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature (of Black Lagoon fame), and of course, Frankenstein’s monster. Through a turn of events, Dracula is looking for an amulet in order to take over the world and it just so happens to be in this Smalltowne, USA. (yeah, I know it sounds bad, but it was the 80s. What did you expect?). Sean and friends catch wind to what is going on and decide to try and stop the monsters with a help of the ‘Scary German Guy’.

Again, this is just a fun movie that showcases monsters. You can’t hide how 1980s the movie is especially with the nice montage song. Besides, what other movie can give you the line, “Whoa! Wolfman’s not nards!”?

JordanGhastly, 31 in 31: Day 4 “Monster Squad”