Hulu and how Streaming Co-Opted Mid-Budget Franchise Films (TL;DR Hellraiser and Prey were pretty fun movies)

 I recently resubbed for a month to Hulu just to catch the new Predator movie (Prey) and the new Hellraiser movie, which thankfully fell within the one-month slot of time I had paid for. For the price one one month (with ads) which is just going up to about $9/month it's a pretty good deal, cheaper than movie tickets, for three films that would be perfectly fine theater fare in a different time, but which are just too low in the budget, thrills and star power set by blockbuster films these days. Don't get me wrong....I would rather watch a more well thought out mid-range film like Hellraiser than sit through any more Disney Marvel films right now, but it's pretty clear that there's a subtle and permanent change to where entertainment can be found going on now due to streaming services. 

Either way, the real problem in the end is one of value: as soon as I saw these two movies I unsubbed from Hulu as their general mix of films and shows is simply not enough for me to keep up with it, not when there is so much competition. I'll wait and resub for a month when they have yet another interesting movie worth watching. Maybe someday someone will make some new original property that's just as interesting as watching these tired old properties get revified like some Herbert West experiment, too....who knows!

That said, it is worth mentioning that both Prey and the new Hellraiser were quite fun, and they both appeared to make an earnest effort to capture the essence of their franchises. Indeed, Hellraiser felt like a better sequel to Hellraiser 2 than the subsequent 8 films that actually (and shamefully) do bear the series' name. Prey, meanwhile, had some curious gaffes and a shiny coat of "made for TV" on it, but still managed to be a far more entertaining and successful Predator film than the last theatrical release, by a hard mile. 

Although people may gripe about streaming and how many services there are now, I guess we can at least be happy that they haven't (yet) returned to the Cable model of exorbitant, costly packages stuffed with channels no one actually wants, in a medium over which you have no control as to when you want to view a program. So there is that, I suppose. 

The Many Days of Horror! - Ten Things I Feel I Should Mention That Everyone Already Knows About

There are some films, books and games I've mentioned that I know are popular but for various reasons I had a lot to say about them anyway (i.e. The Thing). And then there are things I feel like I ought to include in these reviews, but realize that just about anyone reading a blog like this has probably already seen and formed an opinion about....so would I really, ultimately, be contributing much by babbling on about them?

To get these off my chest, here's a "Nutshell Countdown!" in which I give said demons a just banishment with a one sentence commentary. Here goes!

#10. Zombieland
   Great movie, can't imagine any fan of road trip films or zombie apocalyptica hasn't seen it.

#9. 28 Days Later
   A great movie that does have zombies in it (unless you prefer to restrict your definition of zombies exclusively to the obviously reanimated) and reserves all its really disturbing horror bits for the human element. (I have not seen 28 Weeks Later, so maybe I'll review that later on)

#8. Silent Hill 2
   The best sequel to the franchise and a morbid tale of a man torn by the sickness that killed his wife, while wandering a haunted town; out in a remastered HD version for those who missed it the first time.

#7. Predators
   I liked it, but the movie still didn't have the thing which made the original so great (namely that it was new and a surprise).

#6. Dawn of the Dead
   Doesn't matter if we're talking remake or original, this one's got to be at the heart of all zombie fans regardless of which version you prefer.

#5. Day of the Dead
   Same deal, with the exception being that the sequel was an okay zombie flick that had nothing to do with the original in any reasonable way, and the original still stands on its own as one of the great zombie films of all time.

#4. Shaun of the Dead
   Sort of like Zombieland, it's a contemporary undead epic for our time, and sort of defines the satirical horror comedy (though to perfectly honest I always felt this one was a bit over-rated).

#3. Anything by Guillermo del Toro
   First, if there was something he did which I didn't like I don't know about it...and second, if there is someone out there who doesn't know about him then truly that fellow must be some sort of deceptive poser masquerading as a geek. (Exception: I'll recant this ban if he resumes making At the Mountains of Madness into a film!)

#2. Hellraiser
   If you haven't seen Hellraiser then...why....I don't suppose you'd like to see the basis from which a great many future horror films ripped off the concept of the evil BDSM demon, would you? I pity the soul who watched Cabin in the Woods yet has never seen Hellraiser! If you saw CinW and caught the boomer cameo but missed the Cenobite visitation then...oh man, just go see this one, please. For Frank! (okay that was more than one sentence)

#1. Night of the Living Dead (the original)
   I can refer to it endlessly, but to directly address this one would be a tedious waste of time; it's a movie that has served as the frame and context for forty four years of an entire subgenre...'nuff said! (sequels and remakes are fair game)