Another Halloween, another “Saw” flick and I couldn’t be happier. Four movies later and I’m still loving the franchise and hoping this tradition continues onward into the foreseeable future. I actually found this installment to be an improvement over the last, both in regards to the story, the pacing and the mandatory twist ending. This surprised me, as I was actually expecting the “Saw” franchise to gradually decrease in quality with each new addition. Such is not the case with “Saw IV”.

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) may be dead but his gory legacy lives on. Detective Rigg (Lyriq Bent) believes that there was a third accomplice helping Jigsaw and Amanda perform their ghastly tortures and his obsession lands him right in one of Jigsaw’s morbid morality tests. Rigg has a limited amount of time to follow Jigsaw’s clues, test his own limits and perform grotesque acts if he wants to save the life of his friends. Meanwhile, two FBI agents are hot on Rigg’s trail, putting together clues and gaining insight on the origin of Jigsaw.

My primary beef with “Saw III” had to do with the pacing, which I thought was uneven. This problem has been solved for “Saw IV”, thankfully, as the movie spreads out the screentime between Rigg’s and the Agents’ stories without the film feeling lopsided. In regards to the story, I thought the way they worked in Jigsaw’s rather tragic origin was fairly well done. It certainly supplemented Rigg’s ordeal nicely and remained just as exciting and interesting as the other ongoing plotlines. As for Rigg’s torture, they managed to do something different with this sequel. Instead of having the lead victim trapped in some subterranean hellhole, Rigg is free to traverse the city with his major dilemma being a time limit preventing him from seeking outside assistance. This was a fresh spin on the typical “Saw” formula, as even though Rigg is free to go where he chooses, he’s still squirming in one of Jigsaw’s traps.

I suppose if I had one major beef it would have to be with the ending, which is difficult to discuss in my review since I don’t want to spoil anything for you. While previous twists have been pretty clever (save for “Saw III’s”, which I found somewhat unexciting), this one was both clever and confusing. They “cheat” with the editing at the beginning of the film, leading you to believe something that isn’t entirely true just yet. While it makes for an interesting twist, it still feels like cheating. They also leave several questions unanswered leaving you with a lot of “why”s hanging out of your mouth. I’m sure they’ll be covered in next year’s installment, though.

Save for an ending that left me scratching my head far more than I wanted to, this has been yet another satisfying episode of “Saw”. By now you either like the series or you don’t. If you haven’t enjoyed one through three then there’s no reason for you to waste your time here. But if you’re one of those who do dig these flicks, then you shouldn’t be disappointed this year.

Grade: B

Back in the early 90’s, there wasn’t a person alive who hadn’t seen “Tremors”. It wasn’t because it was a great movie or got rave reviews, but because they showed it on TV every weekend. It seemed that whenever the Sci-Fi Channel or the USA Network had an empty block on their programming schedule they’d just fill it with “Tremors”. This practice continued on up until the early 2000s and was likely the reason why a film, which would under normal circumstances be regarded as a mediocre monster flick, received three sequels and a short-lived television series.

A small desert town in the American Southwest is under siege by giant man-eating prehistoric worms called graboids. With the town completely cut-off, it’s only a matter of time before the graboids pick off all the people and move on to a more populated area. Local handymen, Valentine (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward), and their gun-enthusiast buddy, Burt (Michael Gross), are left to rally the townsfolk into working together not only to survive, but to try and eliminate the graboid threat.

I may give it crap every now and then, but I do like the “Tremors” franchise. Alright, maybe I don’t like it so much after “Tremors II: Aftershocks”, but this first movie was pretty cool. “Tremors” is one of those movies that makes for perfect “background noise”. If there’s nothing all that good on TV you can just turn on “Tremors” and watch it out of the corner of your eye while you’re doing something else. Maybe that’s why they showed it so much back in the early 90’s?

A monster movie essentially hinges on the quality of its monsters, and the graboids definitely deliver. They’re giant worms with serrated beaks that travel underground at great speeds, spitting out multiple fanged snake-like tongues that latch onto their prey and drag them down to an early grave. Visually, the graboids rock. As for the name “graboids”, I’ve always hated it. When I was a kid I called the monsters “tremors” because that seemed like a perfectly suitable name and wasn’t half as stupid-sounding. But “graboids” is what they’re called and after four movies and a TV show there’s no changing that.

Director Ron Underwood crafts a number of memorable moments, usually full of half-comedy. The scene where the graboid invades Burt’s basement and he and his wife grab gun after gun after gun off their wall, pumping the worm full of lead, is hilarious in its absurdity. As far as genuinely frightening moments are concerned, the bit where the graboid pulls an entire minivan down into the ground, filling it with dirt and killing the couple inside managed to creep me out when I was little.

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward may not be considered Hollywood Elite these days and yeah, they probably weren’t considered that back in 1990, but they’re still greater talent than films like this one usually garner. I’d like to think that their presences are what helped boost “Tremors” beyond your typical throw-away monster flick. The rest of the cast isn’t so hot. The character of Burt didn’t really come into his own until the sequel (he would inevitably become the “face” of the series, appearing in all its sequels and spin-offs) and so Michael Gross’ performance, while not necessarily bad, isn’t really at its best.

“Tremors” is good fun. There has to be a reason they played this movie every weekend for a decade, so you’re better off finding out for yourself.

Grade: B

When people think of the Grinch they always remember “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, but there was a lesser known Grinch-oriented holiday special which I always preferred: “Halloween is Grinch Night”. It was freaky, it was weird, it had catchy music: it was right up my alley. Personally, when I think of the Grinch, I think of this TV special.

Halloween has fallen upon Whoville and that can only mean one thing: Grinch Night! The sinister Grinch and his wagon of unspeakable horrors are on their way down from Mt. Crumpet and all the Whos are barring their doors and shutting their windows…all except for one. Little Ukaraiah isn’t afraid of the Grinch and he’s willing to brave the Grinch’s horror show in order to keep him occupied until Halloween is over.

There are so many reasons why I prefer this TV special over both “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat”, but I think my primary reasoning is that the Grinch is 100% evil in this special. In both of his other appearances, which I didn’t see until long after “Halloween is Grinch Night”, the Grinch turns good at the end and falls victim to his conscience. But the Grinch is no pussy in this one. He abuses his dog (Max), he tortures small animals (a woozle), chants demonic spells which transform his eyebrows into rampaging bats, threatens hideus evil over an entire town and even locks a young boy away in his own private torture chamber. This Grinch doesn’t “see the light” at the finale thanks to his heart inflating in his chest or nostalgic memories of his dead mother: he’s evil and he doesn’t care.

Dr. Seuss’ artstyle always kind of creeped me out when I was little. All the people looked human but…weren’t. They had weird furry fingers and were just abnormal-looking. Director Gerald Baldwin takes full advantage of the inherent weirdness of Dr. Seuss’ style to let things get as freaky and surreal as possible. The one scene that sticks with most people who have seen this special is the climax where Ukaraiah is chased through the Grinch’s chamber of horrors. It’s basically a montage of scary and wacky monsters trying to kill the kid set to the tune of ”U-ka-rai-ah! U-ka-rai-ah! Grinch’s gonna get ya! Grinch’s gonna get ya!” It’s like the worst acid trip you’ve ever had.

As has already been mentioned, I saw this special long before I saw the more popular “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, so when I hear the voice of the Grinch in my head, it isn’t Boris Karloff. Nope, it’s Hans Conried, who does a fantastic job as the title villain. You might know him better as Captain Hook from Disney’s “Peter Pan” and he just oozes the pure evil that is this incarnation of the Grinch with every spoken word.

“Halloween is Grinch Night” is one of the fonder memories from my childhood and still ranks as one of my all-time favorite Halloween specials. I’m not the only one who enjoyed it either, considering it won a primetime Emmy and all. It’s currently available on DVD as the fourth part of a collection of Dr. Seuss shorts titled “Green Eggs and Ham”. It’s worth checking out for certain and definitely something to show your kids if they’re into scary things.

Grade: B

Like most people, I remember several Disney flicks fondly from my childhood. However, I was a weird one. I liked anything and everything scary (thus fueling my undying love for horror films to this day), so naturally the darker Disney offerings appealed to me most. No other Disney movie was watched and rewatched quite as much as “the Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad”, or more specifically, “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow” segment of that film. I swear, that Beta cassette was virtually reduced to dust by the time we upgraded to VHS…in 1997 (we were behind the times in my family).

The film begins with an adaptation of “the Wind in the Willows”, narrated by the great Basil Rathbone. Mr. Toad (Eric Blore) is a flightly fellow with a limited attention span. Just as soon as he’s obsessed over one hobbey, his fancy shifts to something new. On the bright side, he happens to be obscenely wealthy, so he can afford it. Or can he? After being found guilty of motorcar theft, Mr. Toad is sent to prison and finds his mansion under the ownership of a gang of vile weasels. It’s up to Mr. Toad’s friends, Mole (Colin Campbell), Rat (Claud Allister) and Angus MacBadger (Campbell Grant) to spring Mr. Toad from prison, clear his good name and help him relieve the weasels of the deed to his home.

Considering how often I watched the movie as a youth, I was surprised at how little I remembered of this segment. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever watched it in its entirety until the other day. Odd, that. While I can’t say I felt I had really missed anything, “the Wind in the Willows” is a fun short film at any rate. I was most surprised when I saw the weasels and realized that they were the same group of thugs who appeared in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”. I had always thought they were made up for that film. So it’s the little things that surprised me. Basil Rathbone’s narration was great since he’s got a voice worth listening too. Strangely, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of his work on Sherlock Holmes. I actually recognize him best for a series of Edgar Allen Poe books on tape which he narrated.

Now to the part of the movie I really love; legendary crooner Bing Crosby narrates Washington Irving’s “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. A new schoolmaster has just rolled into the backwater town of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane, and he’s sweeping all the ladies off their feet, particularly the lovely Catrina. This doesn’t sit well with the town’s hero, Braum Bones, who decides to play on Ichabod’s superstition to get even and spins him a yarn about a spectral Headless Horseman who chases travelers who wander to close to the local cemetery late at night. This folk tale turns out to be more truth than fiction, as Ichabod becomes the prey of a sword-wiedling, pumpkin-throwing headless lunatic on a thundering steed.

Often considered the perinneal adaptation of Irving’s world-famous short story, Disney’s version of “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow” withstands the test of time for a reason: it freakin’ rocks. It starts out rather whimsical, with lots of upbeat songs and cartoonish sightgags to keep you smiling, but as soon as Ichabod enters the party at Catrina’s estate, the atmosphere takes a turn for the ghoulish. The entire chase sequence between Ichabod remains one of the most exciting and heart-pounding moments from any Disney film, with some of the best animation they had ever produced at the time. The Headless Horseman himself is a grand villain and one you rarely see in Disney films today. He’s a blood-thirsty madman with an echoing, otherworldly laugh that actually is kind of frightening (for a kid’s movie, I mean).

I think what really sets “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow” apart from other Disney adaptations of popular stories is that they play it straight and adapt it accurately. Ichabod, the hero of the story, loses and Braum Bones, the secondary villain of the story, wins and even gets the girl. Had this film been made today, Disney would have no doubt altered the ending to all Hell and made it as happy-go-lucky as possible, but back in 1949, Disney was a bit more risqué.

There are lots of great adaptations of this story. Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” is an obvious one, but another favorite of mine is the Rabbit Ears adaptation narrated by Glen Close. And if you ever get a chance to see a Japanese flick called “Robot Carnival”, you’ll find a wonderful homage to Disney’s version of the story in the final segment of the film. Still, when all is said and done, Disney did it best. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a Halloween tradition in my house; I watch it every year.

So while “the Wind in the Willows” is a tad mediocre, “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is utterly fantastic. Due to this, the grade kind of averages out to a B. But individually, I’d give Mr. Toad a B- and Ichabod an A.

Grade: B