This really is my favorite time of the year: Days are just warm enough, nights have that slight autumn-ish smell, you start seeing pumpkins, black cats and Saw sequel posters everywhere ... ah yeah: Halloween is coming! Now obviously I'm not into candy like I used to be (just give me a plain Hershey bar and I'm happy), but I do love the fact that even HORROR has its own season. Like, if you enjoy being scared, October's the month to do it in. Could be PG-rated chills on a hay ride with your six-year-old, could be a goofy pre-teen sleepover where moms does that "eww, these grapes are eyebaaaaalllllllls" trick, or it could be my kind of Halloween season: Packed to the rafters with digital terrors.

So as I was perusing the schedules and doing the "ooh, gimme" thing on a bunch of DVDs, I thought it might be more fun to do it publicly.

September 9 & 16

For the fans: Brand-new widescreen special editions of Child's Play AND Pupmkinhead! OK, and the Beetlejuice special edition -- even though it's the lamest SE since Poltergeist.

For the family: Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour. Anyone?

For red-blooded men: Tiffany Shepis in Nympha, Jamie King in They Wait.

For the masochistic: Uwe Boll's Seed and his "comedy" version of House of the Dead.

September 23

Dario Argento returns with The Mother of Tears (which is wild), Tara Reid battles the Vipers (which is hilarious), and the star of Heroes deals with some painful Pathology. Also today: The Pang Brothers' Re-Cycle, which I hear is wild.

What? You say it's the summertime and you don't want to think about horrible things that go slash in the night? Bah! Any time is the right time to talk Halloween, if you ask me, and soon we'll be awash in the stuff anyway. A six-disk Halloween: 30th Anniversary box set is on its way, according to Shock Til You Drop. This will be, unofficially, the one millionth edition / repackaging of John Carpenter's horror classic.

The set will include the restored original 1978 version, the extended edition (I'm assuming with the extra footage added for broadcast on TV), "25 Years of Terror," Halloween 4 DiviMax and Halloween 5 DiviMax ("DiviMax" meaning remastered in high definition), and Halloween on Blu-ray (?!). As further incentive, a miniature Michael Myers mask will be included. With this edition, we can safely call Anchor Bay the "masters of repackaging." DVD Active has the box set art, release date (October 7), suggested retail price ($89.97) and a few details on the extensive marketing campaign planned to celebrate the 30th anniversary.

But wait, there's more! If you're one of the dozen or so people who actually prefer Rob Zombie's "vision" of Halloween, you'll be able to bask in all the gory goodness to your bloody heart's content on the same day. Fangoria has details of Zombie's three-disk "Unrated Collector's Edition," which will include a FOUR AND A HALF HOUR making of doc. That's as far as I read, but you check out the rest at Fangoria.

Our own Scott Weinberg recently told you about the canning of quote whore Pete Hammond from the pages of Maxim Magazine, and brought you many of Hammond's incredible quotes, culled all year long by the indefatigable Erik Childress at efilmcritic.com. Now Childress has announced his annual Criticwatch "Whores of the Year" list, saving his "2007 Michael Medved Bag of Douche Memorial Award" for Hammond. Jeffrey Lyons and Earl Dittman made the top ten this year, along with young E! Online critic Ben Lyons -- son of Jeffrey -- for calling I Am Legend "one of the greatest films ever made." Says Childress: "If he were 12 and had only seen 50 movies in his lifetime it would STILL be one of the dumbest god damn statements ever made by a human being named Lyons."

Apparently Childress has taken on the superhuman effort of combing through every blurb on every movie ad for the entire year and cataloging them in such a way as to reveal their hidden hypocrisies. How many films in 2007 were called "masterpiece"? At least 20, and that's including Dittman's assessment of Halloween. Even more films were called "spellbinding" and "a must-see!" I personally escaped this year, but several of my critic friends did not. Even Cinematical's James Rocchi is mentioned, for having used the phrase "raw sexuality and fever-pitched emotion" in his review of Red Road. A big thanks to Erik for keeping score.

In a new interview over at SuicideGirls, Tyler Mane takes advantage of this week's DVD release of Halloween to talk about his take on the character and how it all came together. When asked if he's vulnerable to typecasting after playing a hulking monster, he responds: "Man, I'm 6 foot 8. I'm gonna be typecast. It's not like I'm gonna be the romantic lead, although that wouldn't be bad. But it is what it is, and we'll just see where it goes." He also reveals that he has signed on to do another Halloween film, but Rob Zombie apparently can't be persuaded to go through with directing any further installments of the series. "I signed on [for the sequel] thinking he was going to be doing it, but Rob feels he's told his story, with a beginning, middle and an end. Who knows, you know? The one thing I've learned in this business is never say never."

In fact, Zombie seems to be up in the air about exactly where his career goes from here. Although Halloween had a nice opening weekend, Zombie seems a bit dissatisfied, having passed up the opportunity to direct Steve Niles' much-talked about script for Bigfoot and now eschewing a return to Michael Myers territory. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Zombie even says he'd like his next film to be a Western. "It's one of my favorite genres," he says. "I love John Ford, Howard Hawks."

To give you an idea of what kind of horror I like, I'm into the stuff that scares you, not shocks you. Which is why I'm a huge fan of the original Halloween, directed by John Carpenter, because the film cares more about creeping you out (with its themes of isolation and sense of dread throughout), then it does packing on the gore. In fact, there's very little blood in the original Halloween, which is pretty amazing considering it's widely known as one of the best horror films of all time. Which brings us to Rob Zombie's 2007 "re-imagining" of the original Halloween, simply titled Halloween. I watched this DVD with two horror junkies, and the line that spewed out of our mouths the most was: "See, now was that really necessary?" Was it necessary for his family to be a total cliche of "white trash" to the umpteenth degree? Was the whole "bullied as a kid" storyline necessary? Was it necessary to have two Smith's Grove workers raping a patient inside Myers' cell (a scene in the unrated cut)? Actually, was it necessary to abuse almost every single woman in this flick, mentally and physically? Was this entire film necessary at all?

In defense of Zombie, a lot of Halloween fanboys have always wanted to see more of the Myers mythology. More of Myers as a kid, more of Myers' relationship with Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove -- more of Myers as a character versus Myers as a random guy in a mask who kills people. Zombie provides all that background info in this film, some of which is very successful (like Myers' obsession with making masks). But too much time is spent with Myers as a kid (played by Daeg Faerch), and while this time definitely helps build upon the Myers character (and mythology) it sort of lessens the overall scare factor -- because, in the end, do we really need to be BFF with Myers in order to watch him kill people? It's like Zombie created two films -- one a family drama, one a slasher flick -- and neither really worked.

Poor Tyler Mane. Sure, he was pretty lame as Sabretooth in the first X-Men, but that doesn't mean he should be passed over in the casting of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After all, while he may not be a big name actor, he did just star in a successful movie (he was Michael Myers in the Halloween remake). But it appears Fox is trying to go with someone new as Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth) -- and by someone new, I don't mean an unknown; I mean someone who isn't Mane. According to CHUD.com, that someone was nearly Karl Urban, an actor familiar to fanboys as Eomer in the Lord of the Rings movies. But Urban's talks to play Creed apparently fell through, and now the studio is going for an even bigger geek-movie star: Gerard Butler. This is from another one of those tips from a "closely placed and highly trusted source," so take of it what you will. It could be true or it could not be, and even if it's true, the story is merely that Butler is being offered the role. He could very well not be interested.

But who cares what he thinks? The more important question is whether or not we are interested. Maybe if Gavin Hood were doing a 300 type of style for Wolverine -- specifically one that looked like Mark Texeira's art -- Butler would fit. Otherwise, the actor needs to be blonder, and naturally so. Maybe Butler could pass for the character with a bleach job all over, but I'd rather not be thinking about it being Butler with a bleach job all over. Remember this isn't necessarily Sabretooth we're talking about. He's likely not going to be in costume much. I wish I could find a picture of my ideal Creed look (it's from a comic about 15 years ago and he's in plain clothes, on a talk show), but I can't. I think all of the actors I always imagined were '60s western guys for some reason, anyway.

Additionally, CHUD.com has heard that Hood is trying to get Natalie Portman to play a character named Kayla. I think we should all just kind of ignore that information and hope that it is as untrue as possible.

You might not have heard of Mr. Skin prior to 2007, but once Knocked Up hit screens, Mr. Skin became a household name. And who better to throw together a top 20 nude scenes of 2007 list then the dude whose job it is to spot, record and gain access to each and every piece of big-screen nudity. It may not be the most intellectual year-end list, but it's certainly one that grabs a lot of attention. So who made the list? Who came in at number one? And would Mr. Skin throw a bone to the film that catapulted the site to nekked super-stardom? I think maybe ...

Coming in at numero uno on the top nude scenes of 2007 list was -- drum roll please -- 43-year-old (and still hot) Marisa Tomei for baring all that and then some in Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Tomei wastes no time in shedding off the clothes, as the film's opening shot reveals her bent over on all fours doing the nasty with Philip Seymour Hoffman. She continues to remain nude for a good hour of the film until, finally (and regretfully) she puts her clothes back on. Surprisingly, Natalie Portman's infamous nude scene in the Wes Anderson short Hotel Chevalier came in at number three (proving you can weigh 70 pounds soaking wet and still look hot), while Keeley Hazell (Cashback), Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan) and Sienna Miller (Factory Girl) rounded out the top five. Knocked Up finally crashes the list at number 10 (with nude shots of Stormy Daniels, Nautica Thorn and a Mr. Skin plug at the fifty-nine-minute mark). Special kudos from Cinematical go out to Heather Matarazzo (18 on the list) for sporting the birthday suit in Hostel: Part II (is this the same girl from Welcome to the Dollhouse?) and Danielle Harris (17 on the list) for her nude scene in Zombie's Halloween ... after playing little Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4 and 5 almost 20 years ago. Oh, and even though it's TV, shouldn't the cast of Tell Me You Love Me get some sort of special nudity award for 2007? Like, most uncomfortable nudity ever! It's only right ...

Check out the full list after the jump, then let us know what your favorite nude scenes of 2007 are.

[via Slashfilm]

I would have appreciated this news more had it come to us from CHUD.com, but anyway DreadCentral.com reports that Rob Zombie is set to direct a remake of C.H.U.D. For those of you poor souls who haven't seen this B horror classic, the original was about deformed creatures called C.H.U.D.s (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers), who live in the sewers and feed on the citizens of New York City. Back in 1984, it was a fitting allegory for the homeless problem, whether or not it was intended as such. Now that the homeless population is growing again -- or now that we've forgotten about or stopped worrying about where Giuliani sent the '90s homeless -- it's ripe time for a redo. A C.H.U.D. remake could even go head to head against the under-Gotham-ghost-story The Night Tourist.

But is Zombie the best director for the job? His recent remake of Halloween was almost universally panned by critics. However, it was a huge success at the box office. Considering the cheapness and cheesiness of the original, though, he probably couldn't do much worse than the original C.H.U.D., which despite my nostalgic fondness, isn't nearly as revered as the original Halloween (in fact, this may be an understatement). Personally, I'll probably still prefer the first C.H.U.D., but I'm eager to see it redone with more money and better effects, if that's what Zombie can bring to the the remake.

I come to John Carpenter's 1978 classic Halloween from an odd perspective. I'm a horror buff, and I've been getting the crap scared out of me at the cinema and on video for several decades now. Whether it be current stuff like the Saw films, classics like the Universal Monsters, or mondo obscuro delights like Paul Naschy werewolf flicks from Spain or Messiah of Evil (which I did a Retro Cinema review on a few weeks ago), I've seen it all. Well, not quite all. Despite my status as a hardcore horror junkie I only recently watched Halloween for the first time in its entirety. I've seen bits and pieces here and there over the years, but this was my first time taking in the whole thing from start to finish (and if you just said "that's what she said," then shame on me for handing you such an obvious straight line).

Having been raised on a steady diet of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines, the idea of a guy going around killing people with a big knife wasn't my idea of a scary movie. I preferred a supernatural angle to my horror, thank you very much, and Halloween just didn't appeal to me upon its initial release. Over the years my prejudice against non-supernatural horror has faded, but having seen many of the films that Halloween inspired -- whether they be sequels, homages or knock offs -- I've developed a deep dislike for slasher films, so I never saw any reason to check out the one that started it all.

When movie nerds discuss Italian films, the first name that comes up is Federico Fellini, followed by perhaps Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica. Those were the five directors to whom Martin Scorsese paid tribute in his wonderful four-hour documentary My Voyage to Italy (1999). From there, more die-hard film buffs might throw in the political Gillo Pontecorvo, or the controversial Pier Paolo Pasolini, or Bernardo Bertolucci, who only made a few Italian films before swapping to English for good. Someone might even remember that Max Ophuls once made a couple of films in Italian. After a moment's recollection, someone might recall the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci. The Italian horror films would get mentioned last, and hardly anyone would suggest that horror director Mario Bava was the greatest of them all.

There are three reasons why Bava is not considered as highly as he should be. The main one is that he made mostly horror films, and we are not trained to see the artistry in that genre, just as we're not trained to see any artistry in erotic films or comedies, or any of the "body genres." Another reason is that, due to the Italian cinema's practice of dubbing, Bava's films have an "unprofessional" quality; the lips don't match the actor's line readings. This is commonplace in Italy due to many factors, but mainly due to the casting of actors with various dialects or from other countries. For example, see Luchino Visconti's dazzling epic The Leopard (1963), starring Burt Lancaster. On the Criterion DVD, viewers can watch either the Italian version with Lancaster dubbed by another actor, or the English version with Lancaster's voice and every other actor dubbed. Bava himself worked a roster of non-Italian stars, some of whom appear dubbed: Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, John Savage, Joseph Cotten, Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Michel Piccoli, Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele (the latter of which went on to appear in Fellini's 8 ½).