Arachnophobia (1990)

This feature gets a very mixed reception, as reflected by the disparity between critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes: 93% vs. 54%, respectively. Regardless, I'd heard enough good things about it, mostly pertaining to the humor, to give it a whirl.

An entomologist's (Julian Sands) research party enters a highly secluded area of Venezuela. The photographer (Mark L. Taylor) gets bitten by a tarantula and dies in seconds. The spider hitches a ride in his coffin to his fictitious little hometown of Canaima, California, where it reproduces with a local. Not only are the smaller hybrids just as venomous; they are extraordinarily eusocial, effectively taking orders from their hulking progenitor. The merciful news is that the first batch of hybrids is sterile and short-lived. But that could change soon, and given how the species dominated that secluded area...

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

I didn't think I'd be seeing any more old Frankenstein entries from Universal Pictures. Even The Bride of Frankenstein was more cheesy than scary or funny. But this one was on a list of horror recommendations, and I did want something older and more allegedly classic than I've been seeing this month.

Shortly after the natural death of Heinrich von Frankenstein (why he wasn't Victor is beyond me), his son Wolf (Basil Rathbone) moves into the castle, hoping to make use of the adjoining lab and restore honor to the family name. There he finds squatter Ygor (Bela Lugosi), who had assisted Heinrich; and Heinrich's infamous creation (Boris Karloff), who has been secretly alive but comatose for some time. Wolf performs a project to re-energize the monster, if only for scientific study. The monster does as Ygor bids, apparently out of sheer fondness for a fellow misshaped outcast. Alas, Ygor is vengeful....

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

This was actually my first viewing this month, but I opted to wait until after a scheduled Meetup discussion to write my review. It's the kind of film I have trouble evaluating without a broader perspective.

In modern rural Thailand, Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar), around age 60, has a kidney disorder and knows he is not long for this world. Perhaps that's why the ghost of his wife (Natthakarn Aphaiwong) shows up and sticks around. Soon after, their long-vanished adult son (Jeerasak Kulhong) returns as a sort of glowing-eyed yeti, explaining that he got that way from sex with another such creature, which he calls a Monkey Ghost. Everyone in the homestead -- including Boonmee's nephew and caretaker (Sakda Kaewbuadee), who's not as prominent as the title implies -- acknowledges these surprise guests but is not alarmed. Indeed, things progress quite peacefully toward the conclusion, a mix of the inevitable and the unpredictable.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

I was only tentatively planning to see this someday and hadn't expected to right after another Disney movie about kids and non-evil witchcraft. But people have been bringing it up with the passing of Angela Lansbury, so I thought it a fitting way to honor her.

In World War II, Eglantine Price (Lansbury) is legally compelled to host three evacuated siblings in her rural English mansion, however unwillingly and temporarily (a scenario I hope never happens in the U.S.). She has been studing magic via mail-order instructions to help the war effort, but the course ends abruptly before she can learn a key spell. Since youngest child Paul (Roy Snart) has a habit of collecting random things and Miss Price wants to enchant a turnable object, he supplies a bedknob. From then on, he can make a certain large bed travel to any destination, which allows the party to hunt for the needed information.

Halloweentown (1998)

I hadn't heard of this when it was new, probably because it was showing only on the Disney Channel. Only now that I've seen it on a couple lists of favorites to stream this time of year did I take any interest, and still not much. Mainly, I wanted something short and readily available to kick off my October-appropriate reviews.

Every year, single mother Gwen (Judith Hoag) forbids her children from going out on Halloween night, but her mother, Agatha (Debbie Reynolds), pays a visit the kids welcome much more than Gwen does. What makes this year different is that Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown), 13, overhears an argument between the adults and learns that they are a family of natural-born witches, tho Gwen insists on raising them as mundanely as their late non-warlock father would. Furthermore, Agatha comes from a hidden town populated with all sorts of beings most humans don't welcome -- and its citizens have been turning suddenly hostile and vanishing to parts unknown. When Gwen refuses to help solve that case, Marnie sneaks aboard the magic bus that Agatha catches, along with Marnie's preteen brother, Dylan (Joey Zimmerman), and seven-year-old sister, Sophie (Emily Roeske).

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Looks like this is my first boxing movie viewing in two and a half years. Can't say I missed the subgenre, but this one has a little something extra to interest me: basis on the life of a real boxer I'd already heard of. Not that I could have told you anything else about him.

Rocco "Rocky" Barbello (Paul Newman) is a fairly violent Brooklyn thief. Fellow con Frankie (Robert Loggia) suggests that he box for money. Rocky does so only in desperation, adopting the last name "Graziano" to hide his criminal record. Once he realizes how far he can go without losing a match, he learns to love it. But his past threatens to catch up to him, particularly when Frankie tries bribery and then blackmail to get him to take a dive.