31 Days of Horror 2015: The Mummy and Bad Milo

8. The Mummy (1959)

I'm always bored by Universal Studios' "The Mummy" (1932), but the Hammer Studios version is much better. It's the same basic story of British archaeologists finding a lost Egyptian tomb and unwittingly awakening a mummy who follows them back to London.  One advantage the Hammer version has is Peter Cushing. It also benefits from a stronger, more agile mummy who bursts through doors and windows and throws people around when they get in his way. Better mummy makeup and a climatic chase scene through a swamp add to the entertainment. If you like the idea of mummy movies but can't stay awake through the Universal classic and can't stomach the modern versions, check out Hammer's "The Mummy."

9. Bad Milo (2013)

"Bad Milo" is a good example of the limitations of Netflix rating system, which uses stars to show your expected rating rather than the average of the ratings submitted by other viewers. My expected rating for "Bad Milo" was only 2 1/2 stars out of 5, but if Netflix knew how much I love the the movies of Frank Henenlotter, it would have been a 5. Throughout the 80s and early 90s, Henenlotter made several very entertaining, tongue-in-cheek horror movies which are best described as body horror creature features. The best is "Basket Case" (1982), in which two siamese twins take revenge on the doctors who separated them and attempted to kill Belial, the malformed twin who is a little more than a blob with a face and arms. His brother Duane carries him around in a basket. Both sequels are also very entertaining. The tagline for the third gives you a good idea of what to expect: "It's time to get a bigger basket."

Jacob Vaughn, the director of "Bad Milo", was clearly inspired by Henenlotter, and I'm glad to see that someone is carrying on the tradition. Milo is a stress-induced stomach polyp that develops into a small creature that looks a bit like a human baby with sharp teeth. Milo lives inside a man named Duncan, and when anyone causes Duncan stress, Milo exits through his asshole and kills them. He then crawls back inside through the same hole. Vaughn takes full advantage of his story's many opportunities for toilet humor, but he also avoids taking the jokes so far that the eclipse his horror story. This is a trap that catches most horror comedies, and the reason why I usually lose interest less than half way through. ("What We Do in the Shadows" (2014) is a recent example.)