THE DREW VENUE - EPISODE 3: TREEHOUSE OF HORROR

Closing out the first trilogy of episodes, we kick off the month of October with a Lard Lad-sized discussion about The Simpsons Halloween Specials. There's also Spanish witches, Bill S. Preston & Ted "Theodore" Logan, and a few completely unnoticeable technical flubs thanks to our first ever Skype recording. Comment and tell us how awful we are!

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 7: WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Before he eviscerated the slasher genre two years later, Wes Craven turned his critical and scholarly eye towards the monster he himself had created: Freddy Krueger. Not content with New Line Cinema's less-than-satisfactory exit for the character in 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (the series had drifted further and further into the realm of comedy by then), Craven took a bold approach by setting the film in our own reality, with the actors and creators behind Freddy playing themselves. It's a crafty way to subvert audience expectations, create a thoughtful commentary on horror films and the genre's importance to our cultural psyche, and to make Freddy Krueger an entity that deserves to be feared once again.

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 6: KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

You know, I could try and talk about this film from the point of a film nerd, mentioning the great effects work by the Chiodo brothers (who worked on Critters). I could talk about its clever send-up of 50's sci-fi flicks. I could mention that veteran actor John Vernon manages to be surly, amusing and even truly creepy during certain scenes in the movie. There's a lot of directions I could go when recommending Killer Klowns from Outer Space. But, that title pretty much does all the work for me, doesn't it?

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 5: TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

I've mentioned on here a few times about how my enjoyment of Scream has soured as time marches on. I think I should at least give the film credit for doing one thing fairly well: humor. The humor in Scream is often effective, even if it can get a little too snobby towards the genre it's dissecting from time to time. There's nothing sweet about Scream. In contrast to that, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil might just be one of the sweetest horror comedies ever made. It also happens to be extremely clever in its use of horror cliches, flipping the character perspectives around in order to teach a simple but tender message about not judging people by how they appear.

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 4: HELLRAISER

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: Hellraiser (1987)

It's undeniable that the imagery of Clive Barker's fiction is an important part of horror history. While his short story collection, "The Books of Blood", introduced his macabre visions to the world, it was his feature directorial debut, Hellraiser, that made his name synonymous with the horror genre. And for good reason, because Hellraiser is a savage piece of originality that must be discussed whenever the topic of landmark horror gets brought up.

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 3: TROLL 2

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: Troll 2 (1990)

There's a large number of people today who don't know what a proper so-bad-it's-good movie is. Pandering drivel like Sharknado and the entire catalog of The Asylum's output are so aware of the level they are operating at (low budget genre fare with ridiculous premises and less than Oscar-worthy actors) that there's not a single frame of film that has any sincerity in it. These are movies made for people who are awash with a post-modern love of "irony" and wouldn't know a true piece of awfulsome (awesomely awful, or awfully awesome) cinema if it was given a 24 hour marathon on SyFy. Real so-bad-it's-good movies are completely unaware of the limitations they are subjected to, often reaching for goals that are utterly unattainable due to budget restrictions. It's that spirit of trying to make something that the filmmakers believe is worthwhile, but due to their naivete, they fail in a spectacularly unique way which turns a film into something both absurd and admirable. One of the highlights of these kinds of films is Troll 2.

31 DAYS OF DREW 2 - DAY 2: AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

Every horrorhound's favorite month is upon us, and to celebrate, I'll be dishing out film recommendations for every day in October. I hope you enjoy the month with some good movies, even if they aren't ones I recommend!

Today's Pick: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Werewolves are a really fun concept. It's a shame that we don't have an enormous catalog of excellent werewolf flicks, but the few that we do have are incredibly special. Probably the pick of the litter (har har) has got to be John Landis' An American Werewolf in London, a horror-comedy that is amazingly accessible to a wide audience without betraying its deep love of the genre. While it's almost consistently funny, it also plays its grislier parts with complete conviction. This film doesn't pull any punches, and that's most noticeable in its effects work.