The Thing epitomizes the horror movie, seclusion setting.  You can't possibly be anymore secluded than living in a research station in Antarctica.  Add a man-eating alien to the mix, especially an alien that takes on the appearance of the person it consumes enabling it to live among us undetected until it needs to eat again, is horror movie gold. 

For this hops&horrors beer pairing I picked an old seasonal favorite of mine, Snowstorm from Schell's Brewing Co. in New Ulm, Minnesota.  One of the things I like so much about this beer is that the recipe changes each year.  The brewery compares this beer to a snowflake, but for this series I will compare it to The Thing, changing its appearance each year. Whichever version of Snowstorm you get, this year's style is a 7% Belgian Golden Strong, you know it will warm you from the inside.

or ... the Lego version.

Ah, nothing but the threat of communism could've produced a movie like this.  And wether it's the body snatchers or the Borg, the most terrifying thing to a "civilized" country is striping our individual personalities and working for a collective good. I haven't seen the original -it's on my list for next year- but this 1978 version holds up really well, even that weird man-face dog thing.

As for the hops&horrors beer pairing, the setting for this movie is San Francisco, and my first hops&horrors pick for you would be 21st Amendment's, Bitter American. A perfect pairing since the brewery is in San Francisco (the setting in the movie) and it features a space chimp (a conspiracy theorist's favorite "point of origin" scape goat) on the label. I'm sure the chimp teased those dirty aliens and that's why they are now taking over out planet.

You may have trouble tracking down Bitter American outside of San Francisco, but fear not, there is plenty of good SF beer to pair with this movie.  Anchor Steam Beer would a perfectly good substitute and one that you can probably find at your local beer store. 

Feeeeed me, Seymour! Today's hops&horrors beer pairing goes goofy, just because I couldn't pass up a movie that the word horror in it.  But that isn't all that makes this movie so great, it also has a soul singing, man-eating plant (that looks a just a bit like a hop) and it features Louis Tully - you know the Keymaster.  

"Gozer the Traveler. He will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. During the rectification of the Vuldrini, the traveler came as a large and moving Torg! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the McKetrick supplicants, they chose a new form for him: that of a giant Slor! Many Shuvs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you! "

But I digress....

For this beer pairing, I am getting back at that man-eating plant by suggesting a beer that is full of the freshest hop plant, that I know.  Great Divide's, Fresh Hop Pale Ale is a fall favorite of mine and not just because it tastes great.  In 2006 a couple buddies and I went to GABF and spent a few days touring breweries before the festival started.  We just happened to come across Great Divide, barely 2 years old at the time, and the brew floor was open up to everyone to celebrate GABF. We ended up getting a private tour with the brewmaster (my friend had on a Macallan shirt which happened to be the brewmaster's, girlfriend's favorite Scotch and the reason we got in on tour in the first place) and were poured samples of a brand new beer they were getting ready to release, out of the still fermenting uni-tank.  

A classic horror movie in the true sense of the phrase. No dated special effects, just good ole shadows in the windows and behind the shower curtains to raise your anxiety.  I was also struck by a moment in the shower scene when the curtain is pulled out of the rings.  How many times have you seen that in other horror movies?

While I was researching this movie I learned a great piece of trivia.  This was the movie to ever show toilet flushing on screen.  

I think my favorite nod to Psycho comes in the movie National Lampoon's Family Vacation.  On their first night on the road, Clark tears back the shower curtain and slashes at Ellen with a banana. The gratuitous boob shot (a teenage boy's favorite part of any movie) pales when Ellen tells Clark to go and wash his own front. 

The beer pairing for this movie comes from a "new-to-me" brewery in Cincinnati called Madtree Brewing Company.  You can listen to a interview I did with them HERE. Madtree is a young brewery and they have some "mad" brewing skills not to mention naming skills and all of their beers come in cans. 

A true classic for two reasons.
 1.  It pushed the special FX boundaries. The changing of course, but his slowly decaying ghost friend is the highlight of the movie for me.  
B.  It has permeated into pop culture.   Remember that part in BEERFEST, when the guys first started training and Barry Badrinath wakes up, naked in a field, blood all over, and a dead dear next to him . "Oh no, not again!"

I picked two beers to pair with this movie and the first one, Newcastle's Werewolf, is a no brainer and probably the easiest of the two, to find at your local beer store. For this particular pairing it will be easier if: 
1. You don't mind that Yorkshire (the setting of the movie) is quite a ways away from Newcastle, the home of the brewery.
2. And, you don't mind that Newcastle is even further away from London. 

However, they are both in Northern England and if we can believe in a mythical werewolf then we can also believe that it has a wide territory from which to terrorize foreign backpackers.

The second beer pairing would be my choice, if I could find this beer nearby.  You may have trouble tracking this beer down if you don't live in Washington.  The label, the name, the werewolf and the fact that it is a pumpkin beer make this the perfect seasonal pairing for his movie.

Arguably the first "smart" horror movie (although getting caught in the cat door as the garage door is going up isn't all that smart), Scream brought me back to the horror genre, one I had given up on, nearly 20 years ago.  Scream is full of great scenes but my favorite is near the end when Matthew Lillard's character (Stu), who had just endured a couple of deep stabs says "I'm feeling a little woozy, here!" or even just before he "dies", "My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!"

The hops&horror beer pairing for this movie was pretty easy to pick.  As Sidney and Tatum are walking through the market before the end party scene, they walk right by a "strategically" placed merch display full of Red Tail Ale.  If you look close you will also see bottles in the end party scene that look an awful lot like Red Tail, as well. 

"The beer is heeeere." 

When I moved to Southern California in 2009 and started looking for house, I was struck by how many reminded me of Poltergeist.  There was one house in particular, that had wrought iron handrails along the loft living room, wicker bar stools and that yellow/gold coloring that was a so 80's not 70's color. I did remark on its Poltergeist-y appearance/feel on the way back to the car with the realtor and she took that as a cue to start showing me more updated houses.  

As a side note: This may have been the last time ole Spielberg used the melting face thing. Remember the guy who saw the meat crawl across the counter then went into the bathroom and started pulling his face off?  I remember thinking that was just about the coolest thing I had ever seen. Unfortunately, those special effects don't hold up well and this is ONE of his movies that could use a CGI remastering.

The beer pairing for this movie took a while to materialize and then, like a bolt of lightning coming outta the living room ceiling it hit me. Maudite, from Unibroue. Its label art that features a group of guys guiding a flying canoe trying to get home. Not unlike the movie except, I'm guessing, they didn't enter their living rooms covered in ectoplasmic snot.

BTW, the house for this movie is tucked away in a quiet cul-de-sac in Agoura Hills, CA. 

This blog is clean.

Again, what is it with clowns!?  This low tech, creepy doll was the most unnerving element in the whole movie, until it started comically (un) wrapping its arms around the little boy. 

Good Grief, am I really going to include this in my list?  Why, yes I am.  I warned you that every fifth selection was going to be a "less than horrifying" pick.  However, judging by the reactions of my family to this movie, it is either a classic or a test in viewing stamina.  I'm fall into "it's a classic" camp and I make my family sit through it with me every year. 

"Blockhead" is the goto insult -can it be a term of endearment?- of Lucy or Sally and once the clip below reminded me of that, I knew perfect beer pairing.  Schmaltz Brewing's Coney Island Human Blockhead is a fantastically clean and malty lager that comes in at 10%. If that wasn't enough encouragement... The beer only comes in bombers, so that's 22 ounces of beer bliss that is sure enhance all 20-some minutes of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, especially if you fall into the "viewing stamina" camp.

Today's hops&horrors is another number specific pairing that features the pun filled spoof on every horror movie cliche the writers could think of.  Nonstop puns, bad acting and even worse special effects aside, by watching this movie you can check off a number of horror subcategories in one fell swoop. Dracula, a werewolf, a swamp thing, a couple goblins, a had full of curses, several possessions and one exorcism are all featured in this one movie!*

The beer pairing for this movie has to be Fantome Saison which means, quite literally,  phantom season. The goofy ghost caricature also pairs well with this goofy movie.  The ghost seen on the label of all the Fantome beers is a ghost that is said to be residing in the brewery.  

*I probably missed a few...

Watch, only if you want to be horrified by an early 80's sense of what a movie trailer should be.  If you thought today's movie trailers explained the whole movie, wait 'til you see this one.

I love movies that teach wholesome moral values like abstinence and temperance.  And the only take-away any of us need to learn from this movie is that if you have sex out of wedlock or you if like to party your little ass off, you will DIE!

I had a great time researching a beer pairing or Friday the 13th.  My first suggestion is that you should enjoy any 2013 anniversary/specialty you can find.  The whole #13-thingy works well with this year.  

However, if you want to go all six degrees of separation -Kevin Bacon was in the first movie- then you need to find yourself a bacon beer.  You could probably find the Rogue Voodoo Bacon Donut version but I think you should try the FriarBacon and get all, 1 degree of separation from Kevin.

I found it amazing how many character deaths I remembered from the first films -about the first 5 to 7 minutes of the video below.  After that I stopped recognizing the character deaths -I must have outgrown this series at some point.