Halloween Classics

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

With a super busy weekend coming up for Halloween, I just wanted to give a little shout-out to some great movies that I love this time of year. See… I’ve mentioned it before, but Halloween is not one of my favorite times of year. Not for any particular reason either. It’s not like… I had a serious traumatic event that made me hate scary things… or it brings back repressed memories… and God knows that I love all the slutty and/or creative outfits out there. Sure I kinda think/know that it’s a materialistic holiday in a lot of ways & is really just a way to celebrate Pagan rituals and commercialism simultaneously… but you know Christmas is my favorite, so that’s not really it either. I guess when it boils down to it… I enjoy Halloween… but I’m not super pumped about it. For me, it’s just the time of year where pumpkin pops up in everything you can smell or taste… Reese’s PB Cups come in pumpkin & bat shapes… apple cider becomes prevalent once again… and the new awful horror sequels/rip-offs come out to make money on the opening weekend before everybody finds out it sucks but luckily it only cost like… $30 to produce. That’s about all it means for other than throwing together a costume in like 15 minutes before going to get drunk at a party or two.

 

This year though… it’s a little different. It’s Pumpkin Beer season… and we’ve got plenty of it. My ladyfriend and I are going with a new Halloween costume… but you’ll have to wait & see what it is… but I’m about 99.9999% sure that there won’t be anybody else at the party with these outfits… and even if so, we’ll just be hanging with the coolest mutha lovers alive. There’s not one, but TWO kickass keggers that we’re going to on this perfectly timed weekend. Yes, I’m a man in my thirties with a loving adult woman & I’m still excited about keggers. If you’re not excited about the idea of a kegger with good peeps… you’re pretty much dead inside. Also, we’ll be hosting our own little soirée Saturday morning for Learn to Homebrew Day… and all of which is pretty awesome… so yeah, good times.

 

This entry though, I just wanted to make like… a little list of the top dozen or so of my favorite movies to watch this time of year… and in no particular order other than maybe alphabetical. Great horror flicks that I think everybody should check out if they haven’t already… or if you have & liked it… check them out again. Always open for suggestions if you have any though…

 

·         “Aliens” (1986) – Yes the original is good for the scares & building suspense… but this one has space marines. I’ll also watch the “Predator” movies (and have earlier this week even) at the drop of a hat.

·         “Cabin in the Woods” (2012) – This fun new classic is just… absolutely amazing & an ode to just about all other horror movies in itself. If you haven’t seen this already, go check it out now.

·         “The Descent” (2005) – I thought this was a pretty f**king terrifying little movie… but if you’re squeamish and/or claustrophobic, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you can deal though, check it out. Beautifully shot & absolutely terrifying.

·         “The Frighteners” (1998) – We watched this one this past weekend… and I’m surprised that not more people love this movie like I do. Sure it’s kinda comedy-horror and has its super-campy moments… but it’s just such a good, weird, twisted story… and the special effects still hold up pretty well (thanks Peter Jackson) and if you haven’t seen it… it’s on Netflix, watch it now. You have no excuse.

·         “Ghostbusters” (1985) – Not really a scary flick per se… but I watch it anytime for any reason. Classic.

·         “Halloween” (1978) – I dig the “unstoppable force” kind of movies, especially when well done… so usually the original before it gets to a bunch of cheap cop-out sequels… but yeah, this movie is legend. Check it out. I even kinda liked the Rob Zombie remakes but… a lot of the characters in those were just retarded so I’d say check out the original.

·         “The Haunting” (1963) – Just a good classic horror flick… and I’ll watch just about anything with Vincent Price in it like “Last Man on Earth”, “House of Wax”, “House on Haunted Hill” or anything like that. All the remakes can suck it though… hard…

·         “Poltergeist” (1982) – This movie is one of those great little nuggets that’s a decent PG-13 scarefest that everybody should check out who likes to be scared but’s squeamish. I’d also recommend newer movies like “Insidious” or “The Conjuring” or “Silent House” if that’s your thing. Even though I really liked “Hostel”, I can definitely understand the lack of appeal to “torture porn” movies.

·         “Psycho” (1960) – Really anything Hitchcock is just f**king amazing in my humble opinion… I have probably only seen like… 10-20% of the stuff that the guy has made during his illustrious career, but the vast majority of it has been incredible to watch and covers a LOT of genres… but this one of course is probably his most masterful. If you don’t know the premise/story, then you have been living in a cave with your eyes closed & ears plugged for over a half century so you’re probably not reading this blog… but go watch it… and then watch it again. Honorable mention to a little known flick called “Peeping Tom” that ALMOST stole this movie’s title as The Original Slasher but… alas… it was an English movie… and nobody saw it until later. Oh well… check it out too. Also, newer one about psychos you might like… “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” 80’s indie flick starring Michael Rooker.

·         “Pumpkinhead” (1988) – I watched this & the first sequel with Izzy a few months ago… and yeah, sometimes you like to watch the really good bad movies… and you can basically throw about 95% of the horror flicks from the 1980’s into that batch… but this one at least had Lance Henriksen & a sorta alien-predator hybrid looking thing from Stan Winston (I like to think it was going to be the original AVP crossover that never came to be).

·         “Quarantine” (2008) – Everybody knows that “Blair Witch Project” started the whole found-footage horror genre but… let’s be honest, it wasn’t scary at all (and the sequel was absolutely sh*t). This movie is basically a found-footage zombie flick… and it was actually pretty good. Check it out. Also, as far as found-footage movies that are kinda badass, I highly recommend “Afflicted” and “V/H/S” as well. Maybe even the first few “Paranormal Activity” movies too. I feel like the first two might be okay.

·         “Troll 2” (1990) – As I was saying earlier, who doesn’t like a good bad movie? Well, it really doesn’t get more horribly bad yet awkwardly good than this movie. Check it out… and then maybe check out the documentary “The Best Worst Movie” and it’ll explain a LOT of what you just saw… except they didn’t mention the main evil witch lady in the documentary. I wonder what she’s been up to the past twenty years…

·         “Zombieland” (2009) – As you know, zombie flicks typically aren’t my favorite… but I love when there’s a good dash of humor mixed in with it. Yes, I know that everybody else out there loves “Shaun of the Dead” ten times more than this flick, but that’s their opinion… and this is MY blog. No offense to “Shaun” but I just enjoyed this movie more. I’d also recommend checking out “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” or… for a real zombie experience, maybe some of the classics like “Night of the Living Dead” or “Dawn of the Dead” (heck, even Zach Snyder’s version if okay… and there’s a number from Richard Cheese).

 

I know there’s a lot of other great horror flicks out there like “The Shining”, “The Exorcist”, “Rosemary’s Baby” and all those too… but this is my list… and though those are great… here are some others to check it out if you haven’t already. Enjoy! Happy Halloween everybody!!!