Dustin Mills and Dave Parker Unleash Free Family-Friendly Horror Anthology as a Halloween Treat
Halloween Spookies opens with the warning: ‘If your kids watch Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Monster Squad, etc., they’ll be fine watching Halloween Spookies.’ And that’s exactly the type of movie it is – a spooky throwback that’s fun for the whole family, but also one that’s pretty ballsy and edgy.
Dustin Mills has been a steam train of momentum in the underground scene ever since he unleashed his puppet splatter comedy The Puppet Monster Massacre a few years ago. Since then, he’s proven himself to be quite the prolific force, averaging AT LEAST 3 movies per year, all of which have managed to hit that outlandish sweet spot. They’re weird, experimental, fun and unlike anything else out there, which makes him one of the most exciting filmmakers in the game for the considerable cult audience he’s garnered. The beauty of a Mills joint is that you don’t quite know what you’re going to get. His body of work is diverse; consisting of gore comedies with puppets, Grindhouse neo-westerns with zombies, Faustian pacts with tentacles, and transgressive avant-garde silent films which hold the power to unsettle.
Whether they are making you laugh or trying to disturb you to your very core, Mills’ movies are unique, exciting and unpredictable – and now he’s taken another unexpected turn into kid-friendly terrains along with friend, actor and budding filmmaker Dave Parker (who some of you will know as Mrparka on Youtube).
Parker himself is a talented rising star among aficionados of the macabre. His channel is the go to place if you want to stay on top of the latest horror releases, big and small, and his first feature length directorial effort, Slimy Little Bastards, saw him unleash his own little creature feature to a positive response from the community. Together, they’re a match made in Halloween heaven.
Halloween Spookies consists of three tales of terror: “The Babysitter”, “The Messenger”, and “The Familiars”, all of which are introduced by a pair of witches, who are entertaining their next child meal while they boil their cauldron of disgusting delights. I don’t want to give away spoilers as you should experience it first hand, but there are killer clowns, rockabilly zombies and ghoulish little rascals from the underworld summoned to chew on metalheads. It’s steeped in mythology, provides constant laughs and is actually pretty damn inspirational. If anything it’ll make you want to go out there and create something of your own. Furthermore, the wraparound segments with the sexy hags are quite reminiscent of the Tales from the Darkside movie, which is some of the best praise I can give anything in this world.
So go grab your kids or someone else’s and reconnect with your own inner brat, grab some snacks, light up a Jack-o’-lantern and enjoy some edgy PG horror. Halloween Spookies is so celebratory of the holiday and intent on recapturing its spirit that they’re giving it away for free, just to rekindle that spooky spark. You can’t argue with some free holiday horror, but Halloween Spookies will remind you why you fell in love with the genre in the first place.
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