Over The Garden Wall is The Perfect October Tradition

Plus: One Lovecraftian LA noir TV movie that is far better than it should be and one Lovecraftian LA noir TV movie that is exactly as bad as it should be.

It was either Marcel Proust or a tweet from a couple years ago I forgot to bookmark that said “I love the vibes and aesthetics of horror movies, but don’t like watching actual horror.”

There seem to be many such cases judging by the volume of The Nightmare Before Christmas decorations up in my neighborhood. But if, like me, you’re not really into rewatching an animated children’s musical movie from 1993 then I have something better to suggest: an animated children’s musical Cartoon Network limited series from 2014.

Over The Garden Wall

Over The Garden wall opens on two oddly-dressed brothers, Wirt (Elijah Wood) and his younger brother Greg (Collin Dean), lost in the woods. They come across a raving mad woodsman (Christopher Lloyd) who shouts warnings to beware “The Beast” who stalks the forest. They run off.

Over the following ten episodes, just 15 minutes each, Wirt and Greg wander through a strange world containing talking animals, a town of living pumpkins, a haunted mansion, a turtle-devouring witch named “Auntie Whispers,” a riverboat for frogs, and other such things. Occasionally they break into song.

It’s a Wonderlandian odyssey that is certainly horrorish - it’s thoroughly Halloween-coded, with witches and monsters and cabins in the woods - but every time the show feels like it’s about to get actually scary it makes a clever move that subverts your expectations. (This is especially true of one episode, which I won’t spoil.) Wirt and Greg just want to find their way home but they’ll have to get through a lot of tense and ghastly scenarios crammed into just two hours and thirty minutes of runtime.

Garden Wall is also laugh-out-loud funny and immensely charming. Greg spends much of the series renaming his pet frog and annoying Wirt with relentless optimism. I adore him. Wirt is kind of a pill and serves as the butt of a lot of jokes, but he also carries the heart of the story.

Rewatching Garden Wall in October has become a yearly tradition in my home. Sometimes you just want to take in something that’s weird and creepy and also cozy. As the cast of oddball side characters expands you feel like you’re visiting friends. Every time I get to the end of the story I look forward to starting it again the next year.

Garden Wall was created by animator Patrick McHale, who was an early creative director for the show Adventure Time. It’s been nice to see the series steadily build up a loving fanbase and in early November the Cartoon Network is releasing a stop-motion short film to honor the show’s 10th anniversary. Over The Garden Wall is currently streaming on Hulu or you can get some nice extras if you buy the blu-ray version.

Cast a Deadly Spell

Hell yeah, brother.

If you asked me whether I thought that a 1991 HBO movie that is one part LA noir and one part Cthulhu mythos and has a poster that looks like this would be good, I would say no, but you have my attention.

Well I had this conversation in August when a friend tipped me off to Cast a Deadly Spell. I heard The Word and now I am spreading it to you. Check this movie out, friends, for it is a good time.

It turns out horror and hard boiled fit well together. I wish there was an adjective to describe stories involving cosmic horror, supernatural beings, Old Gods lurking beneath the surface, gothic mansions, and the twisted rites of the occult. Ah well. Anyway, Fred Ward stars and his character is named H. Phillip Lovecraft.

Phil Lovecraft is a gruff detective in 1940s Los Angeles whose oddball trait is that he refuses to use magic, which in this world is commonplace. Think of meeting someone who refuses to carry a smart phone. Phil is hired to track down a stolen Necronomicon and sets out on an investigation where showgirls and mobsters mix with gargoyles and golems.

Clancy Brown, pictured here with his goon and mustache.

Also in this movie: Clancy Brown! Cool practical effects that will make you feel nostalgic. Julianne Moore! A twisty plot that can actually stand on its own legs. Snivelling henchmen. A character that hunts unicorns for sport. David Warner! Don’t think you know who David Warner is? Yes you do, it’s this guy!

Not only is Cast a Deadly spell an early-90s gem, it did so well that HBO made a sequel and brought in the great Paul Schrader to direct it. And it stars Dennis Hopper! And it sucks!

Witch Hunt

Eric Bogosian is in this too? How could this go so wrong?

1994’s Witch Hunt asks several interesting questions, such as: What if instead of dark, smoky rooms your noir opted for brightly-lit art deco? What if instead of endearing practical effects you leaned on horrible 90s CGI? What if everyone involved in the production was snorting cocaine except somehow Dennis Hopper who plods through the film with the enthusiasm of a swing state Republican being asked to comment on Donald Trump’s recent harsh words about a local Make-A-Wish child?

Perhaps Hopper is giving a meta performance where his character knows where the plot is going, and is bored. You will know too, and you will be bored too. Hopper also plays Phil Lovecraft, though with a lightly-altered back story and devoid of competence or charm. Everything is kinda the same as the first movie, but worse. Instead of awakening an ancient evil, the story involves a political parable. Not much of it works.

But I’m not mad about it. Witch Hunt feels appropriately bad; as phoned in as a mid-90s TV movie about magic-wielding LA gangsters ought to be. You will watch this movie and think “well that was terrible” followed by “which makes sense.” Tellingly, Cast a Deadly Spell is still available to stream on HBO, while Witch Hunt is not.