Film Enimga: 31 Days of Monster Mania: Day 16: Ultimate Spider-man: Web Warriors Halloween Special

Written by Stu Cooper

Last year I covered the Ultimate Spider-man Halloween special which ended up being incredibly entertaining. Last year Spider-man had a run-in with a werewolf,Frankenstein, and Dracula! It will be hard to top that. This year's special is called "Halloween at the Museum" and apparently features an animated version of a Disney show called "Jessie". I don't keep up with modern children's shows other than a few cartoons, so I have no idea who these people are. It really feels like those old Scooby Doo specials where they have a random celebrity appearance like the classic Batman or Harlem Globetrotters. These kids are not quite as cool. Although immediately I notice one of the kids in the group is in a Doctor Octopus costume, which gave me a brief smile.

The special starts with Jessie and her group touring a local museum late at night. The group accidentally messes with an archaic sword and it activates some kind of ghostly spirit. The spirit collides with Spider-man, and the opening credits hit! Definitely feeling like a scooby doo episode. Messing with the sword ends up waking up a witch who thanks the group for their help, then immediately threatens to destroy and conquer them all. Spider-man quickly subdues the witch and doesn't take her seriously. She gets free of her webbed restraints and proceeds to go psychotic. She casts a spell that causes parts of the museum to come alive!

For some reason this museum is full of the most nightmarish exhibits imaginable starting with a giant worm that attacks Spider-man and Jessie. Also There's one kid in Jessie's group who seems to be a gigantic Indian stereotype. He makes mention that in his homeland, they have cobras instead of worms. Cause he's Indian...get it? Pretty low-brow stuff. The next monster they encounter is a gigantic Jack'O Lantern demon who I'm assuming is the Ghost of Sleepy Hollow. Also a bit unusual that any museum would have a Sleep Hollow exhibit, but I went with it. Later Spider-man beats up some cave men who kidnap Jessie, then he immediately has to fight living dinosaur bones. It seems to be a "Best of" random Scooby Doo-esque villains.

After running the museum gauntlet Spider-man, Jessie, and friends are confronted by the evil witch again. The witch remains confident she'll conquer the world despite the fact that Spider-man just whooped all of her monsters. The witch demonstrates her power by summoning a gigantic dragon to attack the group. While Spider-man fights off the dragon, Jessie uses the special sword to battle the witch. Jessie throws down a bunch of one liners and whips out some Sailor Moon fighting moves, tho she is not a super hero. Despite Jessie's fighting skills the witch shrugs Jessie off and vows to black out the sky, and turn the world into a modern Camelot. After befriending the indian boy, the dragon decides to turn against the witch and distracts her while Jessie puts the sword back into the magical spot. This imprisons the witch once again. Basically teaching the lesson that you should never...ever touch the museum exhibits.

The special goes by rather quickly and is only 30 minutes compared to last year's one hour special. This special felt pretty generic and definitely aimed at a younger audience. Not much to take from this special, and no legendary villains or monsters to be impressed by. I would say this is a sad excuse for a Halloween special and you'd be better off seeking out the "Spider-man and Friends" Dracula episode or last year's special. If you're a fan of the Disney show Jessie, you may feel differently. The special mainly focused on her and since I've only seen that show in passing, I had little frame of reference for it. It seemed pretty lowbrow and dumb, but then again this is a children's show. Give it a shot if you see it on a Saturday afternoon.

Monster Mania Day 11: American Horror Story Season 3: Coven

Written by Stu Cooper

The past two seasons of "American Horror Story" have made for some incredible horror television. The series brought a much needed horror feel to mainstream TV. Without anthology series, we are left with stuff like True Blood, which is fine but really lacks the balls and creepiness that horror fans deserve. Shows like that and the other vampire shows (even Hemlock Grove) seem to focus more on the actors and how sexy they are, rather than forming any type of actual scary storytelling. "American Horror Story" has knocked it out of the park the past 2 seasons. It's been established at this point that each season tells a dramatically different story that has nothing to do with the prior season. The catch is, they use the same actors, but put them in different roles. I do wish there was at least one re-occuring character to tie the universe together, but that's my only gripe. Jessica Lange seems to be the center piece for most of the storytelling, but I think that's because of how good of an actress she is, and her ability to play a crazy woman. Season 2 was a bit convoluted and had too many stories going on at once, but it appears the show has learned it's lesson. The writers said that this season will be a bit more laxed, and has a bit more humor to it. I think them saying that is an attempt to redeem themselves for taking on too many stories at once last time. With that said, let's get into the detail of this season.

This season of the show follows a young girl (played by Taissa Farmiga) who discovers that everytime she has sex with a guy, the guy's head basically explodes. Yep, you read that right. It's like watching what would happen if Rogue decided to just bang Ice-man without preparation. It doesn't end pretty. After she is mortified by this experience, she discovers it's actually part of her powers. She is a witch. The girl is soon enrolled into an academy that looks like an all girls boarding school, but in reality is actually a school for witches. When she arrives to the school we are introduced to the main teacher played by last season's star Sarah Paulson. She is apparently the leader of the "good witches". She is supposed to instruct and overlook the other witches and make sure they aren't misusing their abilities, but are still embracing witch culture. We are then introduced to a couple of the other witches. The two new actors this season are Emma Roberts, who plays a bitchy Mean Girls type witch named Madison Montgomery, and the comedic Gabourey Sidibe who plays...a goofy black woman, not much else to her character. I really don't like that they brought a mainstream comedic actor into the main cast, but her role seems to be minimal, so i'm ok with that. The school is kind of like a group of misfit girls, trying to learn to cope with their abilities and life as witches. Jessica Lange is actually the mother of Sarah Paulson in the series, and is a good example of a "bad witch". She actually has powers like The Vulture from Spider-man. She is obsessed with maintaining her appearance, and as a result she literally sucks the life out of younger people. Some pretty cool powers being displayed in the first episode. The level of power these women have surpasses anything we've seen in the previous seasons. We are also introduced to Kathy Bates who i'm guessing is the main villain for the season. She is a old ratty witch who thinks by sacrificing slaves (this is a flashback) she can maintain her looks and power. She tortures and brutally abuses several slaves. That was actually the most brutal part of the episode. She is truly a nasty character and i'm looking forward to seeing what happens there.

Overall they introduced A LOT of characters in the first episode, but the story is pretty easy to keep up with so far. The pacing is a bit cooled down and that is something they definitely needed to work on after last season. Jessica Lange shines as usual, as well as Taissa Farmiga and Emma Roberts. Those three characters were especially intriguing and I'm excited to see where their path takes them. I would definitely recommend this season of the show if you are into horror and if you enjoyed the past seasons. It's also nice to have a serious horror story on television as opposed to the live action Tiger Beat Magazine that is "True Blood". It's great for the halloween mood and with a new episode on every week throughout the month, there is no reason to skip this one!