I sometimes listen to a program on NPR called The Dinner party Download. They sometimes give suggestions for food, music, and other details for dinner parties as well as cover all sorts of topics.
In that spirit I thought I would put together a list of Halloween movies appropriate for the season in case you find yourself alone or with friends one of these October nights and have a yearning for something seasonal. I have mixed in some comedies as well as horror movies. Halloween is meant to be fun after all. Probably should watch these at night with the lights out for maximum effect
The Walking dead – Incredibly this is in its fifth season. I mean, I thought the whole zombie premise was barely plausible enough for one 90-minute movie but these folks have managed to squeeze out years of TV revolving around a small band of survivors stuck in a zombie world. This features the latest in gory special effects. The plot deals more with character interactions than with the zombie apocalypse. The stories are solid enough to keep you hooked and the writers aren’t scared of killing off fan favorite characters just to keep things fresh.
Kolchak: The Nightstalker – One of those forgotten gems of 70s television. Revolves around a reporter who gets drawn into all sorts of strange and spooky situations. Pretty basic special effects but the writing and acting is solid. The direct ancestor of the X-files. You can probably find it online. More campy than scary.
Salem’s lot – One of the first adaptations of a Stephen King novel. Follows a writer that returns to his home town as a mysterious plague begins turning the citizens into vampires. If you expect sparkly vampires then this isn’t for you. These vampires tend more towards the gruesome.
Ed Wood – Homage to the worst director ever. Johnny Depp’s portrayal of this pioneer of bad horror movies is hilarious and probably dead on.
The Ninth gate – Speaking of Johnny Depp he does a brilliant job of portraying an antique books collector obsessed with recovering a satanic bible from the clutches of an occult group.
Ghostbusters – A well made comedy. Excellent special effects for the mid 1980s. Thoroughly researched and put together. I wish scriptwriters could still turn out work of this caliber.
The legend of Hell House – I don’t know if I can say that this was based (even indirectly) on Shirley Jackson’s House on haunted hill. Both movies are quite similar. Though I find Legend to be more horrifying than its predecessor.
Beetlejuice – Michael Keaton shows his comedic talents in this comedy about a pair of ghosts trying to reclaim their home from the new tenants; a pair of yuppies from New York City.
The Exorcist – I will be frank. I am not a fan of gory movies or over the top so-called horror movies. They really aren’t horror movies. They are shocking movies with lots of blood. To me horror is something more subdued and malevolent. This is why I like this movie. The evil and horror sneaks up on you little by little. It is still the only movie that scares me. Everyone talks about the infamous pea soup scene but they tend to forget (perhaps on purpose) the horror built up to that point. It’s the little things you don’t see off camera that allow the imagination to run wild and scare you more.
The Exorcist III – The Exorcist series was widely panned and I guess with some good reason but I find III did a good job of tying back to the original story. Brad Dourif does an over the top job as a demonic serial killer
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