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‘Garfield’s Halloween Adventure’ is Better than ‘The Great Pumpkin’

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Garfield's Halloween Adventure

It’s that time of year again when Halloween specials from our childhood are being re-broadcast to the masses and a whole new generation will be introduced to the seminal classic It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Few things are more synonymous with the Halloween season than Charlie Brown in his misshapen ghost costume announcing “I got a rock” while out trick or treating with his friends.

While I would never begrudge Peanuts fans their trip down memory lane–I myself take that trip at least once or twice every Halloween season–there is another, and dare I say, superior Halloween special that unfortunately does not receive the same airtime as its counterpart.

I’m talking about Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, and while it may not be the top of everyone’s list for holiday viewing, it was a brilliant Halloween special that deserves the same attention as Linus in the pumpkin patch.

I know, I know, I can actually see some of you getting ready to throw handfuls of pumpkin guts at me, but hear me out.

Garfield’s Halloween Adventure, initially titled Garfield in Disguise, was first released back in 1985, and it was the first television special featuring everyone’s favorite lasagna-loving cat based on original material rather than drawing from previous comic strips.

Garfield creator Jim Davis wrote the special and in 2014 he told the The A.V. Club that he wanted to start the special off with something familiar. Garfield being Garfield getting ready to go trick or treating obsessed with getting “candy, candy, candy.” But after that, he wanted to take it to a place that would “at least scare 4-year-olds.”

In order to do that, he had to get Garfield and Odie away from the familiarity and safety of home.

The idea worked like a charm.

Spying a creepy old house in the distance, Garfield and Odie climb onto a boat and make their way up to the old manor where they are confronted by a creepy old man who tells them a story of pirate treasure and angry spirits out to reclaim what was theirs.

Sounds a lot like The Fog to me, and soon enough, Garfield and Odie find themselves abandoned in the old house with strange and terrifying pirate ghosts surrounding them. This is where Garfield’s Halloween Adventure really begins to prove itself in the realm of Halloween specials.

While The Great Pumpkin was really quite beautifully made with a gorgeous color palette, they stuck to a much safer script. There’s trick or treating, bobbing for apples, and a healthy dose of the expected picking on Charlie Brown from his constant failure as a trick or treater to using the back of his bald head to sketch out a design for a jack o’lantern.

Aside from some rustling in the pumpkin patch, however, they never tried to conjure up the genuinely spooky spirit of the holiday they were celebrating.

Even when Garfield and Odie first set out to trick or treat, however, Davis and company were mining the creepy. The duo meets a series of fellow trick or treaters under the same ghost costume, all of which are actually monsters underneath. There’s also that incredible spooky performance by C. Lindsay Workman as the Old Man to look forward to in each viewing.

Davis also sticks to his narrative unlike The Great Pumpkin, which chose to give viewers an inexplicable interlude with Snoopy’s air-fight with the Red Baron in the center of their special.

Don’t get me wrong, that scene is iconic and for good reason, but it just never seemed to really fit and ultimately felt a bit like filler.

I’m not here to change your mind. I’m not here to tell you that It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is bad. The special has a devout following for a reason. I just think it’s undeniable that Jim Davis gave us something better with Garfield’s Halloween Adventure.

Still, while the former receives annual broadcasts, the latter hasn’t seen much airtime since 2015. Garfield fans can, however, rent/purchase the special on Amazon.

Which one will you be watching this Halloween season?

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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