Halloween is the ultimate time of year for scary movies, and for a lot of people who love a good scare it is not hard to find a lot of great horror movies or thrillers. However, for those of us who love Halloween, but are easily frightened, it can be a bit of a challenge to find something that gets us into the spirit of Halloween—without causing heart palpitations that is!

Read on to discover our picks and let us know in the comments if you have a non-scary Halloween movie you would like to recommend!

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

This movie is a double whammy. It can serve as both a Christmas and a Halloween movie. The songs are delightful and the plot is great. And of course, watching Jack the Pumpkin King discover Christmas and summarily making a mess of the holiday never gets old.

The Mummy (1999)

The Mummy is a thrilling and charming action-adventure film. The movie has a few creepy moments, but they are more suspenseful than scary. In the film, a young English librarian sets out on an archaeological expedition to find the lost city of Hamunaptra. When a rival group of archaeologists accidentally releases a curse upon the world, it is up to her and her compatriots to save it.

The Addams Family (1991)

The Addams Family is a comical, gothic and campy movie originally based on the popular television series from the 1960’s. It’s family-friendly, but also great for adults. Anjelica Huston is an excellent Morticia and the sibling rivalry between Wednesday and Pugsley is to die for…get it?

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Edward Scissorhands is a Tim Burton classic that provides viewers with an ample amount of laughter and tears (seriously, get your tissues out), but very few scares! It may not be a strictly Halloween themed movie, but the aesthetics of the film and the appearance of horror movie legend Vincent Price as “The Inventor” more than makes up for it.

Ghostbusters (1984 or 2016)

Whether you are a fan of the 2016 version featuring Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig or the original from 1984 starring Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd, the Ghostbusters franchise is a good option when you are in search of some non-scary Halloween action and comedy.

We hope you are enjoying “Halloween month” so far and that these movies will help you get into the spirit of the holiday!

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Written by Tommy Zimmer

It’s a question most people have been asking themselves since The Mummy was released on June 9. Due to The Mummy’s poor response from critics and audiences alike, will Universal Studios change their plan for new monster movie universe? According to reports, the film opened domestically with $32.2 million and cost the studio $125 million to make it. This is a poor performance for the film’s opening weekend when compared with the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which grossed $166.1 million.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was pretty infamous for a universal mixed response from audiences and critics alike. Despite all of the negativity and lack of word of mouth going forward, the film continued to succeed financially with a domestic gross alone of $330,360,194, which paid for all of the film’s production budget of $250 million. The Mummy had a production budget of $125 million and has already made its budget back with a profit with a worldwide box office of $178 million thus far. The majority of that has been the international gross of $140 million, which makes up around 78.7% of the total gross.

While both films made a lot of money back from the box office and The Mummy will likely be deemed a success by Universal Studios, the question is as to whether the monster movie franchise has a lot of appeal to moviegoers generally. One of the biggest detractors for the film’s financial success, as well as potentially the critical and audience response, was its summer release date and it being released right after Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman, alone, had a mere budget of $149 million and the film easily beat its box office budget in returns with it receiving over $717 million in the worldwide box office. The film benefited from positive word of mouth with critics too, which helped put more audiences in seats. It makes one wonder whether the film studio was high when they decided to release The Mummy during that specific weekend in the summer season.

While Variety wrote an article stating how Cruise’s creative control over the film ruined the film critically and financially, Universal Studios didn’t take that lying down and defended their lead star. “Tom approaches every project with a level of commitment and dedication that is unmatched by most working in our business today,” their statement to Variety read. “He has been a true partner and creative collaborator, and his goal with any project he works on is to provide audiences with a truly cinematic moviegoing experience.”

There is proof to back up their statement as the majority of Cruise’s last films have been overall successful. Edge of Tomorrow in 2014 had a budget of around $178 million and grossed total $370,541,256 with critical praise all around Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol in 2015 was budgeted at $150 million and completed almost a billion dollars in box office gross alone ($682,714,267) alongside a majority of positive reviews. Even Jack Reacher: Never Go Back in 2016 was a modest hit with a budget of $60 million and a total gross of $162 million despite mixed reviews to the film.

Despite The Mummy’s uncertain box office future, Tom Cruise’s career seems to be in good shape. However, it raises the question as to whether these are the films Universal should continue to be released. If the films are not going to be massive pop culture hits, should Universal start thinking about reviving that Hulk film franchise once more? It could also just be a case of allowing the franchise to grow and get legs eventually.

Whatever happens, audiences will find out more with the release of The Bride of Frankenstein on February 14, 2019, directed by Bill Condon.

What do you think of Universal’s Dark Universe franchise? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Changes Ahead For Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’? appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The Mummy has not necessarily delivered the critical and audience response Universal Studios may have been looking for with their first entry in their “Dark Universe” film franchise. The Mummy, many people have been saying, was based on the 1999 The Mummy film starring Brendan Fraser, however, that’s not necessarily the case. The film actually has nothing to do with the Brendan Fraser films and the plots of the two franchises have virtually nothing to do with one another. The key was to reboot The Mummy film franchise, which started with the 1932 Boris Karloff The Mummy film. Each iteration of the film’s franchise has been different and the Tom Cruise-era certainly continues that.

While Brendan Fraser played Rick O’Connell, an adventurer and former French Foreign Legion serviceman, Tom Cruise plays a character named Nick Morton, who is not necessarily likable for the first portion of the movie. Morton is a former US military officer, who is now a soldier of fortune. The term is defined as “a non-commissioned soldier willing to serve any state or person who will hire him; a mercenary.” Morton is not necessarily the most moral character as he tells his love interest, Jennifer Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), that he does not remember from a previous week where they dated.

Morton also plunders treasure as he and his friend, Sergeant Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), serve as soldiers. In the case of Morton, he has no allegiance to anyone. During one time where he is plundering, he accidentally awakens Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who seeks to place the spirit of Set, an ancient Egyptian god, in Morton’s body. He actually survives a plane crash and begins being tortured by her psychologically. At one point, when Ahmanet controls Vail, it’s as if he is high on stimulants. The film certainly presses a bit of a psychological mind trip.

This plot is a tad different from Fraser having to battle mummies during his expeditions. The Mummy is also more intense (and should have been more so) despite its swashbuckling adventure tone throughout much of it. Alex Kurtzman, the film’s director, sort of admitted the Fraser films may be in canon during an interview. “So, all of those films are part of the history of the Universal monsters, and as such I thought, rather than say it’s not part of the canon, let’s say, ‘No it is part of the canon; we’re just taking it somewhere new,’” Kurtzman said.

He both said, in this quote, that while the Fraser films could be considered a part of the “Dark Universe” canon, they have absolutely nothing to do with the story that is being told with Morton and Ahmanet. It’s a completely different storyline. An interesting difference the film has, too, from many movies Cruise has actually done in the past is the way the film and storyline were constructed. “We have over 30 years of knowing Tom Cruise is going to save the day, in order to make the movie unpredictable I loved the idea that suddenly his control over the situation would be taken away from him,” Kurtzman said. “That got me excited, it felt like it served two purposes in that it honored a key Mummy power but it also made a Tom Cruise movie feel different and interesting.”

While The Mummy may not have performed up to par with the standards others expected for the film, it doesn’t seem Universal Studios has any plans to pause their “Dark Universe.” Even if Jake Johnson’s character took stimulants before he went on the plane with Ahmanet’s corpse.

Did you enjoy the film? Tell us your thoughts on it in the comments below!

The post Why Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’ Is Its Own Thing appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

At a glance, June’s upcoming film releases look quite evenly matched when comparing it to last month’s since once again we’ve got superheroes and a franchise which has gone on for far too long. From DC’s Wonder Woman to even a third Despicable Me movie, there is something for all ages and movie lovers to check out in theatres!

Will you be checking out any of these films? Tell us what you are looking forward to in the comments below!

Wonder Woman – June 2 | TRAILER
Ever since Wonder Woman appeared in the Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie, everyone has been wanting to see more of her. The public demanded, Hollywood made it and now fans across the world are excited for its release this month. Wonder Woman will be an origin story as to how Diana Prince becomes known to the world as Wonder Woman. We learn about her history, how she came and helped America, and there will even be a little romance too! Our fierce heroine will be played by Gal Gadot (Fast and Furious 6) and Chris Pine (Star Trek, Into the Woods) will be play Steve Trevor. Directed by Patty Jenkins, this film will be her first movie as a director with the screenplay written by Jason Fuchs (Pan).

The Mummy (2017) – June 9 | TRAILER
The remake of a beloved series has caused much concern for many fans so will it live up to its original name and fame? The remake follows an ancient princess who is awakened and is set to destroy the modern-day world. Tom Cruise stars in this adventurous remake as Nick Morton along with Russell Crowe and Sofia Boutella (Kingsman). Behind the creation of the film is director Alex Kurtzman, who produced both Star Trek (2009) and a trio of talented writers: David Koepp (Jurassic Park), Christopher McQuarrie (Edge of Tomorrow), and Dylan Kussman (Richard Cameron, Dead Poets Society).

Baby Driver – June 28
Fast cars are always a big hit when it comes to the box office, and there’s no doubt Baby Driver will be a fun film to watch! Starring Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars) as a young getaway driver who drives to the sound of his music and finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail after being coerced into working for a crime boss. The film also stars Lily James (Cinderella 2015), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained) and Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) and directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World).

Despicable Me 3 – June 30 | TRAILER
We have loved these films ever so dearly, well maybe not Minions, so why not have add a third to the popular franchise? The film sees the adventures of Gru and gang continue when Gru (voiced by Steve Carell, The Office) meets his twin brother Dru (also voiced by Carell) that he never knew he had. All returning cast members from previous films will return including Julie Andrews, Russell Brand and Kristen Wiig.

Transformers: The Last Knight – June 21 | TRAILER
Ah yes, another franchise continues to live on and will continue to for at least another two films! With Mark Wahlberg returning as Cade, we follow him as he discovers the hidden past of the Transformers in order to save Earth from mass destruction. Joining the cast is Laura Haddock (Guardians of the Galaxy), Stanley Tucci and Joshua Duhamel (Transformers). Michael Bay will be directing once again with Art Marcum (Iron Man), Matt Holloway and Ken Nolan (Transformers) as the writers

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie – June 2 | TRAILER
We have covered the news of Underpants becoming a movie earlier this year and now it is almost here! The movie is about George (voiced by Kevin Hart, Get Hard) and Harold (Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley) hypnotize their principal into thinking he is a dumb, dill witted super hero named Captain Underpants (Ed Helms, The Office). The director for the movie is David Soren (Turbo) with Nicholas Stoller (The Muppets) as the writer.

Cars 3 – June 16 | TRAILER
Another kids franchise is making its way back into theatres this month and Cars 3 sees Lightening McQueen (Owen Wilson, Night in the Museum) trying to prove to a new generation of racers that he is still the best. Nathan Fillion (Castle), Kerry Washington (Scandal) and Armie Hammer (The Man From UNCLE) will be joining the cast.

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