My next-to-last word on the Halloween franchise, alongside the next step in my kung fu education:

Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978), in which Jackie Chan’s first experiment in kung fu comedy goes over like a lead flying guillotine until the prospect of easy money changes its producer’s mind…
Halloween Kills (2021), in which a temporarily incapacitated Laurie Strode gets a little help from her neighbors in the fight against Michael Myers…
The Hunt (2010), which is not only a riff on The Most Dangerous Game that I never knew existed, but also one with a gimmick that I’ve never seen before…
Murder Weapon (1989), which calls itself an erotic thriller, but is really more of an erotic slasher movie…

and…
The Ship of Monsters (1960), in which smoking-hot space girls on an interplanetary mission to recruit breeding stock to replace their extinct menfolk enjoy a much warmer reception in Mexico than others of their sort received in Britain some years earlier.

Now that I’m almost done with the Halloween franchise, my thoughts naturally turn toward what I might do for my next long-running undertaking. What I’ve settled on is something of a departure for 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting: under the expert guidance of longtime reader Blake “H-Man” Matthews, I’m going to try to achieve basic competence in the field of Hong Kong martial arts movies. Don’t worry– there’ll still be plenty of slashers, Satanists, rubber-suit monsters, and all the other things you’ve come to expect from me on the agenda, but at least for the near future, you’ll also be seeing a lot more skinny little Asian guys walloping each other. Here’s some idea of how that’s likely to work in practice:

Deadly Embrace (1989), in which David DeCoteau might call himself “Ellen Cabot,” but he isn’t fooling anybody who knows his work at all well…

The Legend of Spider Forest (1971), in which an artist on holiday in Bavaria has his vacation ruined by killer spiders, fugitive Nazis, and a weirdo scientist running his own private nerve-agent lab…

The Vampire Doll (1970), in which Toho tries its hand at Hammer horror, the AIP Poe cycle, and 60’s Eurogothic, all at the same time…

and…

Vengeance! (1970), in which the exceedingly dangerous brother of a slain Chinese opera star vows to get even with the criminal cartel responsible for his murder, even if that means taking on the local warlord and his army.

 El Santo rules the wasteland-- and also 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting.