Some of the movies I’ve set aside to watch over the next two days:
The Beyond
Halloween (original)
Halloween (Rob Zombie remake)
The Exorcist (new blu-ray cut)
Beyond the Door
The Omen
The Omen II
The Omen III
The Strangers
Vacancy
Abby
Triangle
Bird with the Crystal Plumage
2000 Maniacs
Wrong Turn
Wrong Turn II
Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things
Dawn of the Dead (original)
The Devil’s Chair
You?
Do you even have time to sleep, let alone ever leave your house with that line up? Just barely. That is a solid block of 35 hours of movie playing.
You take your Halloween movie watching seriously.
Great list, JeffG.
My yard is decorated and candy is purchased. But if it rains (almost unheard of in SoCal in Oct – we are usually fighting fires this time of year), as it did this morning, I fear a drop in trick/treaters.
I’ve got Sixth Sense, The Others and The Haunting (1963) on deck.
Personnally, I go more for atmospheric creepiness than explicit gore.
Oh, yeah. I have The Other from 1972(?) out, as well.
So many. So little time.
No movies for me. Mostly kiddie parties and lots of Football…
Because, you know, I’m a lowbrow.
heh, I’ll probably watch the “Daymare in Jacksonville: The Drowning of Urbanity” this afternoon. hi B Moe!
“Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things — cool, I thought I was the only person who’d ever heard of that film. I love the internet…
Hey! from O’Malley’s Pub in Sylva NC. UT and SC tied at halftime. But I could care less, really.
Truly God’s country. I wish I were there too serr8d, instead of New Jack City…
I’m going with “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” and “Mister Frost” as a break from Dexter and Criminal Minds. If conservatives don’t manage to carry the day on Tuesday then next year will be “The Damned” and “Salo” to prepare my mind for the ways of the new world order.
I love Henry, and yes, Salo will get ‘er done, should things not go the right way.
Bob reminded me that I have to watch Fright Night, too.
I’m overwhelmed here!
the shining
Denver vs. SF in London.
Scary.
The Skeleton Key is good. Also, Goldies little girl makes it esthetically pleasing.
My wife and I won’t be home watching movies. We make ourselves scarce during mooching trick-or-treat time because by then we’ve usually eaten up all of the candy.
And by “we” I mean “I.”
There is a strikethrough line on the word “mooching” up there. If you can’t see it you may need another beer. I know I do.
I was going to say The Shining but got beat to it. ‘Course it’s like high camp to me and makes me laugh throughout, esp the hallway scene of Jack menacingly limping along with such a foot drag that eight year old trickortreaters would roll their eyes. Or maybe our young ones are too jaded
Which ties in with It’s a Wonderful Life as my second choice on account of it being both sappy and eerily wrong about how things shake out. Am convinced the horror is completely mine for thinking it so. Still
Man JeffG, you’re going to have to go on a Red Bull bender, or any of the caffeinated energy drinks, in order to mainline that much terror in one weekend.
Or get the armadillo to give up some of his stash…
just sayin’
A title I’d like to see one day:
Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things. WOW. I haven’t seen that since I was a kid. Scared the shit out of me.
So here’s a question (since someone brought up Salo): which are better for a Halloween movie fest “fun” (read: cheesy) horror movies like Friday the 13th or the Elm Street flicks or hardcore, disturbing flicks like Salo or maybe Irreversible?
any movie with barbara steisand in it
streisand-spell check-sorry
Maggie’s has the DVR set for the Hammer films on TMC. Mummys last weekend and Frankenstien this. Aliens two weeks ago.
I’m a Christopher Lee fan so: Horror of Dracula, Dracula has Risen and Horror Hotel. I’m a classicist like that.
The Birds.
I try to incorporate both. I already watched Broken and Human Centipede, for instance, in addition to the Blu-Ray of Nightmare (the original, which is now chock-full of great extras / retrospectives).
I’m going with the Lions’ game
I’m surprised that “Hellraiser” hasn’t come up yet.
I’m giving out little sticky frogs to the chilluns. They’re individually wrapped, and I had to put stickers on them saying “TOY” and “NO COMER” because they look like gummy candy.
I won’t be watching scary movies tonight. The prospect of hyperinflation, which may be initiated on Nov. 3rd, is scary enough, thanks.
JeffG,
How was Human Centipede?
I’m about to get back from Afghanistan and am making out my “to watch” list. Not sure what I’ve missed in the last 6 months. I don’t think I have any good horror added yet.
So, everyone, all recommendations for any genres are welcome.
By the way: totally agreed. I prefer a mix. Too much hardcore stuff starts to make things weird after awhile.
It was okay. Worth it for the performance of the lead villain, but not as good as the hype suggests.
I forgot to add: I’ll probably rewatch Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project, both of which are great Halloween fare. In fact, I might add them to my permanent Halloween lineup of Halloween, The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, and Friday the 13th.
If you’re willing to sit through a great horror movie with a pretty slow build up, try Darkness.
If you want something seriously hard to watch but with one of those endings that hits you all in the last 5 seconds of the film, watch Martyrs. Another one in the French New Wave that’s supposedly very intense is Inside although I haven’t seen it yet.
At any rate, hope everyone enjoys the weekend.
My scary movie pick?
Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones
Because let’s face it: There’s nothing scarier than the thought of George Lucas with complete producing, directing, and screenwriting control.
Cameron is scarier.
Good choices everyone– especially Henry, as when I first watched it last spring I was worried I was a sicko for enjoying it somewhat. But, surprised no one has mentioned Peter Weir’s 1975 Australian classic Picnic At Hanging Rock yet. Already watched it twice this month, once alone and again last night with the sis and bro-in-law. Kinda a PG-rated proto-Blair IMHO.
Yeah, Criterion Collection has a good edition of Picnic at Hanging Rock. I saw BWP first, so it resonates more to me.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a classic. Many people still believe it was based on a true story.
John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness is always worth a watch.
I concurr on Prince of Darkness, a lesser known film, some of these are just simple gorefests, that’s too much for one weekend
Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’ve already gathered the props for the show and any leftovers will be good to use on Tuesday night. I look forward at throwing the toast at several deserving folks.
Thanks for the responses Jeff and Mike. Also, Jeff– interesting you mentioned the Criterion Collection. It inspired me to notice on the DVD shelf my year-old Criterion edition of Fritz Lang’s M (the 1931 original), which I still have yet to watch. Tonight would be a good night to go for it, I suppose. ;-)
Shaun of the Dead, Army of Darkness, Young Frankenstein, and Man Bites Dog.
I already watched the Blu-ray SE of Evil Dead. Might have to break out Shaun again.
Yeah, M is awesome. Also, there’s a great documentary about how they restored the print.
Halloween creeps me out. Disney sure did it up big for the kids last night.
Haven’t seen half the movies from your list or those mentioned in comments. Have to check some of these out.
Probably my favorites mentioned were the two documentary style ones, Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. Horror seems to work better in that format for me. Helps me believe it. Otherwise, I’ve always liked the basic premise of “Oh no, the devil!” so The Omen franchise and Rosemary’s Baby are up near the top. A couple not mentioned that I’ve enjoyed lately are the foreign remakes, The Ring and The Grudge. It’s effective when the scary entity looks nightmarish rather than psychopathic like Jason or Michael because that’s been done in so many different ways.
Oh yeah, 28 Days Later was also fun.
Disney? Jealous!!! I’m all for going to Universal for Halloween, but my 17 yo says it looks TOO creepy. Go figure. Even the lure of the Hulk coaster won’t override the creepy factor this weekend.
I recollect The Vanishing, an ’88 Dutch film I saw when it was released here as particularly creepy at the time (subsequently remade in the US, though I haven’t seen that one). Dunno how it’d hold up today though.
Motel Hell.
It takes all kinds a’critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters!
Jeff, you have to get “The Crazies.”
Can’t believe nobody mentioned The Haunting (1963) with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. Another personal favorite fright film is Session 9 with David Caruso.
Haven’t seen The Haunting? Watch it on YouTube (in 13 parts) for free:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEjjzgdZFQ&p=1111F3DEB9793F9D&index=1&feature=BF
I have both versions of The Crazies. I actually liked the remake.
The Crazies was partially filmed in my hometown. It’s interesting to me how filmmakers can take a seemingly innocuous setting like a car wash and make it terrifying. I had to watch the movie with my hands on my face, peeking through my fingers. But then I scare easy.
Hey, Jeff, possibly a tad late, but another good Halloween movie (which is even set at Halloween) is Lady In White.
The Ring creeped me out bigtime. I can’t even watch it a second time.
I didn’t know that was a remake. Timothy Oliphant is one of my favorite actors. I’ll have to look the other one up.