I went to the Spirit Halloween shop with my sister in law and nieces the other day. It was fun, as going to the Halloween store tends to be, but not one costume spoke to me. Besides, I'm the kinda gal who doesn't really wanna wear the same costume as anyone else - I'm more likely to be something no one else thought of. Under normal circumstances, I'd have to make my costume from scratch, or maybe hit up the Goodwill and hope I can put together all the elements I need. Fortunately, for the rest of us who wanna do something original this year but don't necessarily have the time to make a costume, there's Found Item Clothing!
Under any circumstances, FIC has great t shirt replicas from some of your favorite 80's movies, fun to wear on any occasion. But dude - add a tan robe, pajama pants and flip flops, and you could be The Dude for Halloween!
Here's one that only specially trained eyes (meaning: raised in the 80's) will get:
And that's not all. Found Item Clothing has gone through the effort of compiling a how to guide to use many of their coolest shirts as centerpieces to costumes that will win you first prize in any costume contest!
The Hanson Brothers is my favorite, but A.) I'm not a guy and B.) I don't have two friends willing to go in on it with me. But I know I'd be damn impressed if I saw a trio of goofballs dressed as the Hanson Brothers (bonus points if they sing some Hanson Brothers songs!) For Halloween this year, I'm gonna pull something really obscure out of my hat - I'm gonna be this chick Michelle. She's pretty cool and just a touch creepy. Should be interesting.
I'm a procrastinator. I can own up to it. It doesn't help that my personal life has been kinda crazy in the last few months, on top of taking care of a new baby, but, nevertheless, I probably could have written this review about 2 months ago when I watched The Wrong House for the first time! Hopefully Shawn French and Sue Stevens won't stalk me, kidnap me, and beat me senseless before killing me for it. Actually, they can kidnap me if they want, I wouldn't complain too much about chillin in Maine with cool people :D
So. The Wrong House. To make a long story short, I really liked it. Usually, indie horror flicks don't have much appeal to me - they tend to be goofy, poorly acted, with some of the worst special effects ever. This is not the case with The Wrong House. In fact, I watched it a second time - something I rarely do unless I really love a movie. Enough of my opinions for now, if you haven't heard of it, you probably wanna know just what it's about, right? So here's your synopsis, transcribed from the press release:
An isolated house in the woods looks like an easy mark to a group of friends camping in the Maine wilderness. The thieves haul away several ounces of pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the heist. But when the homeowners track them down, the thieves learn too late that there are some people you just shouldn't mess with... and that they picked The Wrong House.
The story was inspired by a rash of area burglaries around the Limerick, Maine home of husband/wife producers Shawn French and Sue Stevens (who play serial killers in the film). They initially started working on the script to vent frustration, but once the story fell into place, they knew they had to shoot this movie.
Makes sense, you know - even though I know pot & shroomheads to be pretty mellow people who wouldn't hurt a fly, if someone came on their private property and stole their stash, they're not gonna call the cops, right? So, the couple (Shawn French & Sue Stevens) take matters into their own hands. Hell, they even try to give the meddling thieves a break, but, if they followed through with all that there wouldn't have been much of a movie, right? What follows is a tense and absorbing storm of kidnapping, hallucinogenic induced torture, realistic looking fight scenes, and gore galore! There's even a freaky clown! WTF?! LOVE IT!
The thieves are all played really well, they seem naturally comfortable with each other on screen. It almost seems as though these actors/actresses are playing themselves - they are very natural and not at all hammy or over the top. Kris, played by Stacy Ann Strang, is especially likeable, she's funny and interesting, and clearly has more going on upstairs than most horror movie victims. Her sort-of boyfriend, Derek, played by Brendan Potter, was very natural, and did a great job in the fight scenes. Ashley, played by Megan Mathieu, while she doesn't want to be involved in the crime, still has no problems stealing something a little more personal than the couple's stash, and while it's not really mentioned directly she definitely pays for it more than the others! Her performance was good, but her character was not quite as likeable as Kris. Donny, played by Daniel Galloway is very convincing as a selfish dickhead whose idea it is to rob The Wrong House - I dunno what he's like in real life, but he plays douchebag really well right up until they make him scream like a little bitch. Happy fun times! Jake, played by Julian Brand, is also realistic and natural, the other nice guy of the group alongside Derek. As for the homeowners, Sue Stevens plays psychotic excellently - she makes torture look like fun. She doesn't go all Sheri Moon Zombie on us though, she remains completely convincing while being cruel and intense. Shawn French is more subdued in his psychoticness, he's very calm and cool while doling out the punishments, like he's had to deal with this before, and he probably has.
