Monday, October 29, 2007

MOVIES FOR HALLOWEEN


In the spirit of the Halloween season, you may be in the mood for for a scary movie or two this week. Although not entirely necessary - somehow watching Lassie while dressed as a ghoul and eating peeled grapes done up to look like eyeballs, just doesn’t cut it. So here’s a quick post to make a few recommendations. I apologize, in advance, if i neglect to list your favorite scary movie.

FIRST - the criteria:

  1. I don’t want to be grossed out - I want to be scared.
  2. I don’t go in for the new generation of “torture porn”. I don’t want to be disturbed - I want to be scared.
  3. I don’t mind being just slightly grossed out or somewhat disturbed if I’m also a little scared.
  4. You know what wouldn’t be so bad? - if there’s a little comedy relief in there somewhere - as long as it doesn’t interfere with me being scared.
  5. If a movie isn’t going to scare me, it should, at least, spook me.
  6. Startling me - doesn’t count!
  7. If a movie could be funny AND creepy - at the same time - now THAT would be something.
  8. In the future, there should be a technology that makes all the characters in the movie look like you and your friends. Think of the possibilities. (Do I have to spell it out?)
  9. #8 has absolutely nothing to do with the criteria for choosing scary movies for Halloween.
  10. I don’t want to be blatantly obvious by recommending the film Halloween for Halloween.

SECOND - the movies:

The Changeling: Perhaps the scariest and eeriest ghost movie ever. You never see the ghost, just boatloads of creepy atmosphere.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra: Strictly for laughs, it’s reminiscent of an earlier time where you might have been scared of a movie like this.

Shaun of the Dead: If you’re going to have zombies - you might as well make them amusing. This relate to somewhat to criteria #4.

Little Otik: Scary AND disturbing AND funny all at the same time! How about that.

Audition: Horror film directors like Rob Zombie, Wes Craven, John Landis, and others, all agree - Audition is one bad-ass movie - maybe a little too creepy.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Great spooky and creepy movie from the silent film era. Don’t be put off by silent movies enough to miss this one.

May: Creepy creepy creepy - funny funny funny - creepy - disturbing - funny.

Bubba Ho-Tep: Elvis and JFK team up to battle an evil Egyptian mummy. Need I say more?

Three Extremes: A collection of three 40 min. stories from three different Asian horror masters. These guys know how to push the right buttons on the creepy meter.

Army of Darkness: Ash, from the Evil Dead movies, is transported to the 1300’s to fight the army of the dead. It has perhaps the most quotable of all horror movies - then again, it’s not really a “horror” movie.

Grindhouse: Death Proof /Planet Terror: More on these two movies in a future post.

Scream: Hip dialog with lots of inside references. A must for horror movie buffs.

And, of course, you can’t go wrong with the classics:

Psycho: The granddaddy of all scary movies stands the test of time. If you’ve never seen this film, do it now - preferably not alone.

The Shining: Gothic horror as only Stanley Kubrick can do it. Based on a novel by Stephen King.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers: The 1978 version of this film is effectively creepy and has one of the all-time greatest endings.

The Thing: More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie - but it is scary - and so makes this list.


6 Comments:

At 9:00 PM, Blogger Ashley said...

I've never found another person that enjoyed MAY. You hit the nail on the head with your description, too.

:)

 
At 11:46 PM, Blogger FranksFilms said...

I have a whole house of MAY likers here. Outside of that - nothing!

Glad to find a cinematic kindred spirit.

 
At 12:08 AM, Blogger Ashley said...

Did you... (dare I ask), BUG?

If so -- thoughts.

 
At 6:47 AM, Blogger FranksFilms said...

YES!

I'd thought I'd flip when Ashley Judd threw her arms into the air shouting "I am the mother bug!" I think they were clever by not showing the viewers any bugs. You were always unsure about whether they actually existed. I'm also glad they didn't shy away from the inevitable ending by last minute heroics.

 
At 12:22 PM, Blogger Ashley said...

YES! I loved that movie.

Although, I will say at first after the movie I had the impression: What did I just watch?

After I watched it again, I enjoyed the movie. It was creepy (and not so much a gross-you-out kind of movie) and I think, personally, one of Judd's better movies. She definitely wasn't scared to shy away from her romantic comedy stint or her I'm-a-fighter stint. I think she completely fell into the roll 100%.

It's sad that when I recommend this movie at work I have to warn people: "you probably aren't going to like this movie." It's true, though... Every single person I've recommended this movie to they HAVEN'T liked it.

I would say 1 out of every 20 people I suggest it to likes it.

At least I'm not alone. :)

I will say this though: I did crack up at the "I am the mother bug" line in the movie. Kind of comical.

 
At 8:17 PM, Blogger FranksFilms said...

More than half of my reviews carry the "You probably won't like this movie" qualifier - or something similar, such as

"....not for everybody."

"...great movie if you like this sort of thing."

"....if you have a particular sense of humor ....."

" ...you'll love it - if you don't mind the gratuitous violence, and you don't mind nudity, and the sex doesn't bother you, or the fact that there isn't any plot, and if you don't mind reading subtitles, ..."

or,

"I'm certain you're going to HATE this movie."

After you see lots of movies, you're tastes tend to go down certain paths.

 

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