It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for the Thursday Movie Picks feature. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.
The entirety of October is dedicated to a special Halloween Edition, meaning we’ll take a look at themes through the lens of Spooktober! Today’s topic is all about Folk and Urban Legends. Me being me, I have always had a knack for Folk Legends more than the Urban ones, I suppose. To me folk legends just means fairy tales, because that’s where fairy tales originated from. I do realize that folk tales are usually without an accredited author and passed on orally, but hey, I don’t do spooky well, so that’s the drift you’ll be getting from this post. Hope you enjoy!
Red Riding Hood
This is what you get when you try to make a fairy tale for teens during the heydays of Twilight. It’s full of angst and love triangles, but teen me ate it up. I know it’s a silly movie, but the werewolf premise did intrigue me and I would have been lying if I had said, I didn’t want a sequel to it. I might have also been slightly in love with Max Irons … maybe … possibly.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
I watched this movie in 3D in cinemas and I had a blast. I know it’s silly and all, but sometimes that’s just what you need? Also, this is one of the few roles I like seeing Jeremy Renner in. Gemma Arterton is just always amazing, so there’s no debating here.
Snow White & the Huntsman
I thought this movie was beautifully shot. It’s not actually all that spooky, but oh well, I still picked it. I listened to that soundtrack up and down and even bought the book, cause the movie never even mentioned the Huntsman’s name. Rude.
Pan’s Labyrinth
This is probably the only movie that actually fits the prompt, but what can you do? I told you all that I would be struggling to come up with picks for this month, but I still tried. This is not the first time I’ve used Pan’s Labyrinth for my TMP posts, so I won’t go into detail. I just like it a lot.
Life and Other Disasters 
I’ll start with the good-Pan’s Labyrinth is an amazing visual experience. Would I watch it again? Maybe just for nuance but that extra watch would be enough.
Snow White and the Huntsman wasn’t scary but Charlize Theron was having a whale of a time with her role and made the whole thing far better than it would have otherwise been.
I found this version of Red Riding Hood interminable and awful.
The reviews for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters were so incredibly bad and the previews so dreadful I never felt the slightest pull to see it.
I went with a blend of folklore (had to have a Brothers Grimm for this) and urban legend.
So Long at the Fair (1950)-Young Vicky Barton (Jean Simmons) and her brother Johnny (David Tomlinson-Mary Poppins’ Mr. Banks) arrive in Paris from Britain to see the 1889 Exposition Universelle. They check into their hotel and after a night on the town Vicky retires while Johnny lingers over a late-night drink. The next morning Vicky finds a blank wall where her brother’s room was. Asking Madame Hervé (Cathleen Nesbitt), the hotel’s owner the woman claims the girl arrived unescorted. Alone and adrift in a strange city Vicky struggles to prove her brother exists but romantic stranger George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde) may hold the key to the mystery. Derived from the 19th century urban legend “The Vanishing Lady”.
The Juniper Tree (1990)-Their mother burned for witchcraft two Icelandic sisters, Margit (Bjork) and her elder sister Katla, flee looking for a place where no one knows them. They meet young widower Jóhann and his son Jónas. Katla bewitches Jóhann and the sisters move in. Margit befriends the boy, but he rejects Katla as his stepmother. Shortly apparitions of both deceased mothers appear (as a spirit and raven respectively), and the situation becomes fraught with danger. Based on a Brothers Grimm folktale.
Dead Man on Campus (1998)-College freshmen Josh (Tom Everett Scott) and Cooper (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) are party animals who take little time to study, and their poor grades are about to get them kicked out. They begin to despair but discover an outlandish college code that grants a suicide victim’s roommates automatic straight A’s! They think they’ve happened upon the answer but sharing space with a lineup of lunatics may just drive both boys crazy. Inspired by an urban legend.
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I never claimed to have good taste haha
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I remember Red Riding Hood. Yeah, it was definitely a fairy tale for teens in the Twilight era.
And I know you’ll probably never watch it, but a fun movie about Urban Legends is…well, Urban Legends. It’s kind of silly, but it’s still fun.
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Red Riding Hood also had the same director as the first Twilight movie, so there’s always that as a clue that they REALLY wanted it to be Twilight-y as well.
Punk Theory mentioned Urban Legends on her list for the week!
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Well, that might be the closest I ever come to watching Twilight. And are you now curious about Urban Legends?
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Not really, sorry!!
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Didn’t think so.
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I watched and enjoyed all these movies, especially I think Pan’s Labyrinth is superior. 👏🏻
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Pan’s Labyrinth is definitely on another level of quality than the others!
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I will always love Pans Labyrinth 😍
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It’s such a fantastic movie!
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