Thursday, October 28, 2021

The Franken Whopper! | Halloween 2021

This Halloween season has honestly been absolutely stacked with tricks and treats to the point where you almost stop appreciating all the cool and wonderful stuff that was thrown our way. I started seeing candy in early August, which is totally unheard of here in Nova Scotia, and I still managed to find these amazing Dare Halloween cookies at a late-season Walmart trip a few nights ago, in which the store was essentially devoid of anything spooky, already replaced with all things jolly and nice.

But I’m not here to write about cookies! Oh, no!

In the dying days of Halloween 2021, Burger King has come out of nowhere with what could have been a shining star of the spooky season! The Franken Whopper!

In years past, Burger King has often had a seasonal offering. Some of the greats include the A1 Halloween Whopper, the Ghost Whopper, and the Nightmare King Whopper with black, white, and green buns, respectively!

Sadly, the Franken Whopper does not come with a coloured bun. It’s really just a regular whopper, but topped with french fries and onion rings.

What’s especially weird about this Whopper is that it was only offered in Canada, which to the best of my knowledge has never had any of the other Halloween sandwiches from the past six or seven years, and you could only purchase it via the BK App.

If I’m being perfectly honest, this feels like a last minute call. Like, someone at BK Corporate said, “We need to boost BK App usage. Let’s trick all these Halloween nuts into using the app to get a Halloween sandwich!” Then they slapped some fries and onion rings on a Whopper and went out for drinks to celebrate.

There was little-to-no information about this happening. As far as I know, no news was released about the Franken Whopper until October 25th and it’s window of availability is legit one week, ending on Sunday, October 31st!

Although the BK I went to – which wasn’t my local BK, I had to go on a journey to get this bad boy, but that’s the fun of this stuff right? – had posters and images adorning every corner of the various burgers and sandwiches available, there was nothing for the Franken Whopper, further proof this thing materialized overnight.

Outside of a few images on the app, there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put forth. I mean, look at that “real shot” of a Franken Whopper. That is an obvious Photoshop job that screams 4:30 on a Friday. There wasn’t even a cool, special burger wrapper or bag. The only thing to identify my sandwich as something different was a sloppy scrawl of what looks like “Fran” on the side.

All that said, this was still a homerun for me. In the dying days of the Halloween season, when honestly even a hardcore Halloween nut like myself is kinda losing steam, having this drop out of the blue was a much-needed shot in the arm. I wanted to run out of my house screaming to get one on Monday, but due to being an adult and “priorities” I had to wait a few days, finally scoring one at lunch today.

No, it’s not really on par with the Halloween Whoppers of yesteryear, but it gave me an excuse to throw on a podcast (special thanks to the Purple Stuff Podcast) and go for a Halloween outing a few days before it’s time to pack it in for another year. For that alone, I loved it.

Also, although it was made clear to me that this lunch would be ~2000 freakin’ calories it was delicious. I modified mine to drop the tomato and double the pickles, which was the right move. I promise you.

So, that’s it. The Franken Whopper! It might fall to the wayside this year, but who knows? Maybe next year it’ll get an international roll out with a proper marketing campaign and a cool green bun! Here’s hoping!

Hope you enjoyed and Happy Halloween!
R

Monday, October 18, 2021

Here's the thing about Halloween Kills...

I’ve been seeing such a discourse on social media surrounding this film, which is AMAZING! Having a healthy discussion about the merits of a movie like Halloween Kills is super important and I like seeing everyone’s opinions, both for and against the movie. In fact, REGIONFREE will be doing a live discussion tonight that you should absolutely check out!

That said, I’ve seen a lot of folks out there trashing other people’s opinions because they don’t align with their own. This movie landed on Thursday night in advanced screenings and as I’m posting this it’s Tuesday and Halloween Kills is still dominating my Twitter feed and I’m not really liking the conversations I’m seeing.

In video gaming circles, we call it “fanboy”-ism (I added the -ism). I’m not sure what to call it in the film community.

Anyway, the video says the rest.

Hope you enjoy,
R

Sunday, January 24, 2021

My Thoughts on Hunted (2021)

I knew my lucky streak of great and recent horror films would break eventually and that day has come!

I heard a lot of hype surrounding Hunted, a Shudder exclusive that dropped on January 14th, 2021. I decided I’d give it a shot, even though I had my doubts. I should’ve listened to my inner voice!

Check out my thoughts on the movie right here.

Did you enjoy Hunted? Or did you dislike it, as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment – here or on YouTube – or you can always hit me up on social media!

Cheers,
R 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

My Thoughts on The Empty Man (2020)

Well, in my effort to tackle more modern horror I’m batting 2 for 2!

The Empty Man is a film that I absolutely would’ve bypassed if it weren’t for reviews from my pals from REGIONFREE, Lorne Dixon and pizowell, letting me know it was worth a watch.

My general vibe going in was that it was a teen supernatural horror flick that would be like a Slender Man movie or something, but it is nothing like that! It is a supernatural detective procedural psychological horror film. Yes, that many adjectives!

It’s all those things, but never boring or hard to understand (except maaaaaybe the well-built twist ending!) and really I can’t recommend it enough!

Check out my thoughts in the video below and please sound off on your thoughts if you checked out the movie! You can leave me a comment on the video, this blog post, or via any of my social media outlets.

Hope you enjoy,

R

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

My Thoughts on The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

I’ve been telling myself for a few years that I need to get caught up on the latest horror film releases.

Back in the early ’10s (people say that, right?) I got out of horror big time. I was so sick of all the remakes, thinly-veiled remakes, and derivative stuff that was getting churned out of the Hollywood machine.

In recent years, we’ve seen a serious uptick in quality horror films and it’s made me want to go back and revisit some of the movies I’ve missed and also entices me to try out some of the more current offerings.

With a site called RETRODEF it will come as no surprise that my default is always to go with an old classic instead of something new, but I really need to rectify that and support new and burgeoning horror films and filmmakers.

So, to kick off my new initiative I recently took in The Dark and the Wicked, written and directed by Bryan Bertino (of The Strangers fame), and starring Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott, Jr., with a cameo by Xander Berkeley.

It’s a very bleak supernatural horror film that puts a spin on a few familiar horror tropes. Check out my video and let me know what you think!

Thanks for watching,
R