One Critic's 10 Favorite Halloween Movies
Oct 28 '09
The Bottom Line 10 Movies to watch this Halloween. Maybe not the greatest movies of all time, but those that have had the greatest personal impact.
Andaryl’s 10 Best Halloween Movies
What will you be doing this Halloween? If you’re thinking of incinerating a pedophile, going hiking on a full moon, disappearing to a remote cabin, visiting a cemetery, dating a quiet Japanese girl, taking a shower in a roadside motel, hitting the local pub, marrying a preacher, adopting an orphaned baby, or investigating a disappearance at a secluded British island – you might want to check out my Halloween movie play list first.
With only a couple of days to go, the television channels are ripe with paranormal and gory selections. Although I cover all genre of movies, horror just happens to be my main movie fetish, the one I’ll go back to more than any other and the one I’ll often rate higher than the average critic. (I still say that Hostel and Hostel II were great movies). So here I am today to offer my 10 recommendations for Halloween.
The Top 10
Listed alphabetically since I can’t separate them
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Directed by Wes Craven
I was about 13 or 14 the first time I saw this movie and still consider Freddy Kruger to be one of horror’s greatest creations; a burned face, razor sharp knives for fingers, and even worse he gets you in your sleep when you can’t do anything about it. Seeing teenage bodies get thrown around the room and slashed to pieces was pretty gruesome fun too, especially back then. Launched numerous sequels (none of which lived up to the original) and made Wes Craven a horror legend. If you ask me who scares me today, Freddy Kruger would still be high on my list.
“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you …”
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Directed by: John Landis
You can’t help but laugh at the satire on this one, but there are still plenty of great horror moments. It’s still the best werewolf movie to date in my opinion (hopefully Benico del Toro’s new movie will be a challenger) and the effects during the transformation scene are brilliant, still overshadowing many of today’s efforts. While the makeup jobs and werewolf attacks are pretty cool, it’s the creepiness of the Yorkshire Moors (my home county) and The Slaughtered Lamb that still greatly fascinate me. There’s something eternally chilling about Brian Glover’s foreboding: “Don’t stray off the roads!”
Evil Dead II (1987)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
The hardest time I have here is deciding which Evil Dead movie to include, from which is probably my all time favorite trilogy. I love them all, but “2” gets my nod because it strikes the perfect combination between campy horror and satire. Army of Darkness was over the top satire, “1” didn’t have enough. Ash (Bruce Campbell) would probably get my nod as the greatest monster fighter of all time, as the shotgun/chainshaw wielding, zombie/she-witch killing machine. Some might say it’s more satire than horror, but the shots through the trees, the rape scene, accidental shooting and constant mental torture of one man are all pretty tough stuff.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Directed by: George A. Romero
Made on such a low budget, this was a revolutionary effort in horror movie making, popularizing ideas of nihilism, social commentary and the siege mentality. It’s a movie I’d forgotten about until a re-viewing of earlier this year. The zombies are not as scary as Danny Boyle made them, but they’re certainly faster here than I remember. The horrific part about Night of the Living Dead, however, was not so much the monsters but the humans, and what they become in the face of adversity, as well as the apparent hopelessness surrounding the whole situation. Romero took his lessons from others for sure, but more directors will probably list him as an influence today than any other horror director.
Ôdishon (1999)
Directed by: Takashi Miike
I love Asian horror, but this is the only one that really makes my list. In many ways it’s not a horror but a suspense movie although few would argue its inclusion here when it comes to those famous final scenes. Miike’s movie has been classified by many as the first modern example of torture porn – something which we now see a great deal of. Ôdishon is a real teaser; a cold, slow, chilling teaser for the most part, with a few elements of Miike’s perverse humor intermittently thrown in. Once the pieces unravel however, we get probably the greatest horror sequence ever. I won’t spoil the ending for anyone who still hasn’t seen it, but it’s legendary stuff, and the reason it works so well is because of the slow build up.
Psycho (1960)
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Did anyone have this movie figured out on their first viewing? By now everyone knows about Norman Bates, the ultimate momma’s boy, and the Bates Motel. Hitchcock is arguably one of history’s greatest directors and he was so successful when he turned his hand to horror (just this once as far as I can think, maybe The Birds makes twice) that he instantly became known as a legendary horror director too. He’s credited by many as the grandfather of the slasher flick. Everyone knows the shower scene, the piercing knife and shrieking score, but again it’s the director’s set up that makes this a masterpiece. Has anyone ever stayed at a roadside motel without thinking back to Psycho?
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Directed by: Edgar Wright
There has to be one spoof in my list at least. Who said Halloween has to be all scares and no laughs? Scary Movie might have had plenty of fun with the horror genre, but nobody did it quite as successfully as Simon Pegg and Co. In many ways Shaun of the Dead is a bona fide horror movie. People get killed, including family members, and the situation becomes hopeless. But the movie never misses a chance to make us laugh. It’s wacky and cheesy, but it’s pure comedy genius.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Directed by: Charles Laughton
Although I have my favorite movie monsters, it’s not so much their actions that scare me but the inexplicable actions of people. Robert Mitchum played creepy a couple of times in his career and as the money seeking preacher he’s iconic here. It’s even more terrifying when viewed through the eyes of a couple of lost, defenseless children, especially when everyone else, including mother seems smitten by his charms. The shot of Mitchum standing by a street lamp and casting his foreboding shadow onto the children’s bedroom wall is memorably chilling.
The Omen (1976)
Directed by: Richard Donner
This is another one of those that I first saw as a young teen and has retained its magic to this day. Damien, the devil child, wouldn’t become a direct threat until the sequels, but it’s the crazed nanny and the inescapable demonic forces that make this one so memorable. When the first nanny hangs herself and the reporter gets decapitated we have two of the most horrific scenes in history. The brilliant finishing touch of course is that loud operatic score.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Directed by: Robin Hardy
This might seem like a bizarre choice to some, but on a personal level this movie has always had a huge impact. I stated earlier that it’s the mindless actions of regular people that scare me more than any ghost, demon, monster or alien. Here it’s the God trusting Edward Woodward at the hands of a pagan cult on a remote island. The movie’s closing scene is one of the most impressionistic and hopeless I’ve ever seen. I’ll add that everything magical about the original was missed in the recent remake.
And, since this was no easy list, here’s a list of those that just missed the cut:
28 Days Later... (2002), Alien (1979), Army of Darkness (1992), Black Sunday (1960), Bubba Ho-tep (2002), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Dracula (1958), Gremlins (1984), Halloween (1978), Hellraiser (1987), Hostel (2005), Les Diaboliques (1955), Misery (1990), Nosferatu (1922), Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Innocents (1961), The Orphanage (2007), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Thing (1982), Videodrome (1983)
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andaryl
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Member: Andrew Smith
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