#Blogtober 25 - Halloween Bloggery - No, not that one...

I've been thinking a bit about cases of films and shows having similar titles recently.  A while ago at a pubmeet, someone mentioned liking the show The Good Wife, which led me and a friend down a tangent of discussing Vyvyan's rant about The Good Life until we realised the mistake.  Well, with the horror genre, this could lead to some hilarious issues, as there are a few cases of kids films with very similar or identical names to fright films.  This almost certainly did lead to quite a few traumas for children when parents didn't have a close enough look at what the video store gave them back in ye olden tymes, or if they just click on the first thing that a streaming service suggests when they type in the word today.  So I thought I'd have a quick look at a few notable examples of this sort of thing; consider this perhaps a warning to look very carefully at exactly what categories Netflix lists a film under before you put something on for the kiddlywinks...

Jack Frost
What you want to rent for the kids...

Let's start with a relatively well known example of this sort of thing.  This very poorly received Michael Keaton film (man, he was in a rough limbo for many years, so glad he's back on form) has him as a dad who comes back from the dead as a very creepy CGI snowman.  Yes, this is supposed to be the kids one, I haven't done the horror one yet.  This cost $85 million.  I genuinely don't know where that money went.  Man, CGI characters had a huge way to go in 1998.  Well, it would be a few more years before the ultimate Christmas in the Uncanny Valley movie The Polar Express.

What you could end up with...

This one came out just a year and loose change before the family one, and was quite a success on the VHS rental circuit, mainly for its lenticular cover.  I actually remember seeing this on the shelves at my local Blockbuster  The makers of the family one must have known about it, but I'm guessing that they were too far into the production to change course.  The film is exactly what it looks, basically giving Frosty the Snowman Freddy Krueger's personality, and seriously gave Batman & Robin a run for its money for the 1997 movie with the most terrible ice puns.  For a more detailed look, here's Moviebob's take on it, which partially inspired this article.

The Snowman
What you want to rent for the kids...

Keeping with the whole snow golem thing, this is a true hands down classic of animation, a firm Christmas tradition in the UK, down to inspiring a pair of fantastic Irn Bru adverts and a heavy Mithril cover of the main song by Nightwish.  Not much more I can say about except a word of warning; there are later DVD and Blu Ray editions done as a "special edition", where for the restoration they've actually cropped the 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9, and in some even added in a needless narration!  I guess that's special edition in the George Lucas sense of the term.  Pick up an older DVD copy if you can, especially since that one has the David Bowie introduction.

What you could end up with...

I think this is the only one on this list where it's the horror film that came second.  OK, it's more a serial killer thriller, but it's definitely dark enough to count.  This film is based on the Harry Hole thrillers by Jo Nesbo, the sixth book in the series as it happens; I've read the book and quite enjoyed it, as far as I can with airport novels.  Unfortunately, the film from Let the Right One In and Tinker Tailor... director Tomas Alfredson is a complete mess, where it's clear that there's been a tonne of reshoots and such to fix it, leaving the whole thing a lurching frankensteinian creation of a plotline.  Still far from suitable for kids, what with seeing Val Kilmer's head blown off with a shotgun.

Frozen
What you want to rent for the kids...

I'm guessing the odds are fairly low that the three of you who read this blog are also the three people left on Earth who don't at least know that this is a thing, so I can keep this brief.  Although I will add that it's interesting how many of these are ones that feature ice, snow, and snowmen, and we haven't finished with that theme yet.

What you could end up with...

This one is from Adam Green, the main mind behind the Hatchet movies, has done some writing for the Friday the 13th video game, and made something called The Diary of Anne Frankenstein, so you bet that this is a pretty different tone from the Disney version (which came three years later).  I've seen this for a previous horror challenge, and it's a tense, genuinely upsetting piece of work, a really tough survival story, with the characters having to hang on a cable by their frostbitten hands above a pack of ravenous wolves, which means yeah, they really shouldn't let it go...

Abominable
What you want to rent for the kids...

The most recent family one on the list, a heartwarming girl and her yeti story that is being totally impartial to China's government, definitely not sneaking in propaganda or anything, honest gov'!  Now interestingly, this one was going to be called Everest, but that got changed due to there being another film with the same name.  Of course, the difference between the other Abominable and that Everest is that the latter had more money behind it, so Dreamworks gave more of a shit about it.  They might feel differently if this horror title gets a good new blu ray release...

What you could end up with...

It's Rear Window but instead of Raymond Burr it's a Yeti/Bigfoot.  Also it has roles for Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace, and Lance Henriksen.  Yeah, I've sold you on this already, haven't I?

Little Monsters
What you want to rent for the kids...

Finally getting away from snowmen, this Fred Savage movie is basically like Nightbreed by way of Drop Dead Fred.  I think this is another people more remember for good VHS covers in stores than actually having sat down to watch it.  The Prince Charles Cinema is showing this for its Halloween season next week; I hope there's no confusion, as it is showing our next horror title too...

What you could end up with...

Out newest horror on here, with Lupita N'yongo vs. zombies.  That would be enough to sell anyone, but the fact she's playing a kindergarten teaching having to defend her kids from the undead makes it even better.  Also, second Josh Gad film in here, and he's playing a kid's entertainer!  A very, very different character to Olaf though...  I saw this at a preview a couple of weeks ago, and the director mentioned that he was inspired by British comedy like The Young Ones and Bottom.  I can so see Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in the Alexander England and Josh Gad roles, not least for how much they beat each other up.

Sky High
What you want to rent for the kids...

Just as the superhero film was getting big again, Disney made this tribute to the genre.  A fun idea, I do mean to sit down and give this a proper watch some time, and not least because Bruce Campbell is in here.  Although now I've listed it, I just noticed; Kurt Russell in a Disney produced superhero movie as the main character's overpowered father; wait a second...

What you could end up with...

From Ryuhei Kitamura, this is his usual blend of OTT action and horror tropes, as it's haunting movie, and a serial killer thriller, and it ends up with a katana duel in front of massive Lovecraftian monstrosities.  I think this one will be easiest to avoid confusion, as it's the only one not in English, so very different sections in video shops/streaming sites.  Mind, the opening scene of a bride literally missing her heart will be a clue too.

The Hole
What you want to rent for the kids...

Last one is a bit of an odd case in that the kids film is actually a horror film too.  Directed by Joe Dante, this is basically the Cthulhu mythos for kids, as three friends find a way into another reality, and some nebulous force that feeds on their fear comes out of it.  Come to think of it, this also has quite a bit of IT to the story too, only with an even better understanding of how to mess with the mind of a pre-teen.  It's full of macabre imagery, good amount of fun, but boy is the other film with that name a very different horror tale...

What you could end up with...

An extremely dark and disturbing British thriller from 2001, which takes the usual "teens locked in a distant location, bad shit happens" formula, and finds a clever way to twist it into something new.  You know how a lot of the teen idiots in horror films seem to bring all the trouble down upon themselves?  Well, this one has a very simple but brilliant idea; what if one of those teens did bring disaster on themselves and their friends, not by accident or idiocy, but on purpose...?

And finally, a near miss.  Do you remember Pixar's film Coco?  Brilliant wasn't it?  Well, before it came out, Disney found themselves in a lot of shit when they actually tried to trademark Día de los Muertos.  Wow, seriously marketing department!  Why not go the whole hog, and trademark Christmas and Halloween for the next rerelease of Nightmare Before Christmas while at it guys?!  Now the quite rightful blow-back from this made them change the name, to something they could copyright no problem.  I do wonder if at some point they did consider going for Day of the Dead instead, but realised a) that would also be difficult to trademark, b) they couldn't do a Disney film with Dead in the title, and c) it could lead to a really horrific mix up for parents...