Dear Watchers,Horror is killing it, so to speak, at the box office right now. The one-two punch of “Obsession” and “Backrooms” has been taking audiences down some twisted rabbit holes. On this Genre Movie Wednesday, we have recommendations to continue your own dark little journey at home. Our horror expert Erik Piepenburg highlights a couple of films that take children’s programming and warp it in sinister ways. The results are very much not for kids. One is about a Mister Rogers-like host whose friendly sidekicks turn sinister. The other involves a familiar-looking mouse with button shorts terrorizing riders on the Staten Island Ferry. Read below to see what Erik admires about both movies, then head here for three more of his picks. Happy Watching. ‘Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round’
Where to watch: Stream “Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round” on Screambox. His name is Mr. Jensen (Michael Gilio), but his furry puppet pals call him Jimbo. Soft-spoken and 1950s dad handsome, James is the host of a low-budget children’s television show who welcomes his audience to join him on the patio of his little house with a little garden that’s all just a little too creepy. When James spies a package inside his friend Marty the mailbox, James says to the camera: “I am fond of things that come in plastic bags.” James also, it seems, has a problem. As he tells the puppets, “I can’t seem to recall much of anything.” One exception is a deadly fire, which looks in flashbacks like a fun house in flames. “Remembering hurts,” he says soon after sawing into his leg with a knife, but doing so is “how you heal yourself.” He doesn’t notice the blood seeping through his bandage. Past traumas have sharp claws that dig deep in this strange and surprisingly heartfelt debut film from the director Aidan Leary, a combination of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” “Avenue Q” and George Romero at his most existential (and gruesome). Gilio is exceptional as a man whose bright eyes and rigid bow tie belie the lifetime of pain underneath. Kyle William Stephens’s music is a wicked delight, especially in James’s mournful final number. ‘Screamboat’
Where to watch: Stream “Screamboat” for free on Amazon Prime Video. If you’ve taken the Staten Island Ferry after the clubs close late Saturday night, you know that the trip can be a singular kind of terrifying. That’s nothing compared to what the ferry riders endure in this silly but entertaining and ultra-gory horror comedy from the writer-director (and Staten Island native) Steven LaMorte. Like “Mickey’s Mouse Trap” and other recent scary-Mickey films, “Screamboat” takes advantage of the copyright expiration of “Steamboat Willie,” the 1928 animated short from Walt Disney that introduced Mickey Mouse. (The same public domain Wild West has horror-fied Winnie the Pooh, Popeye and Betty Boop.) Here, LaMorte set (and filmed) his movie almost entirely on the Staten Island Ferry, which is terrorized one night by a ratty little creature who whistles as he stalks and slays his victims. Buoyed by lowbrow effects, the film is a dumb-fun mash-up of horror genres that feels whole, thanks in part to character actors who take stupidity seriously. (An animated segment about the monster’s back story is a lovely surprise.)
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