As an old(er) guy living in a gated 55+ community, I no longer have to hand out Halloween candy at the front door, since no one does trick-or-treating here. In addition to eating the last two Reese’s peanut butter cups, I get all the ones that come before them! Pretty cool.
These days I spend Halloween enjoying a horror movie marathon…three or four shockers, at least. I may scare the crap out of myself well into the night, assuming I can stay awake. Here is the likely playlist.
HALLOWEEN (1978)
This is THE classic Halloween movie, so it is a given. Whatever my other choices are, I watch this one every October 31st. The film was director John Carpenter’s first major success in the genre, and it launched scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis into a long and successful career. Made on a budget of $300,000, it grossed about $70 million, making it one of the most successful indie films ever. It carries a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and over a decade ago the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” All this for a film that barely had a promotional budget back in 1978.
Many people credit Halloween as the first in an endless line of teen slasher movies. Unlike many of its successors, the film has a minimal amount of blood and gore. It is just—well, scary. Its success led to a load of sequels, as well as a 2007 reboot. What was original in Halloween became cliché in many of the slasher flicks over the next two decades.
You doubtless know the storyline. With a tagline of, “The Night HE Came Home!” we have six-year-old psycho Michael Myers—in a clown costume, no less—murdering his sister on Halloween in a small Illinois town. He is committed to an asylum but escapes fifteen years later and returns to his home town to kill some more—on Halloween, of course. Most of his victims are horny teens, but not “good girl” Laurie Strode (Curtis), who will ultimately face off against the “boogeyman.” If the tension doesn’t get to you, Carpenter’s creepy musical score will.
THE ORPHANAGE (2007)
This Spanish-language “gothic supernatural horror” film subtly works to scare the living crap out of viewers. I was pleasantly surprised the first time I watched it. Its star, Belén Rueda, gives an outstanding performance. The film is an early effort by director J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), and it won a number of awards. It holds an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, rare for a horror movie.
I wrote an article about The Orphanage, which will give you an overview of the film. The title of the post should tell you a lot: “Horror Done Right: THE ORPHANAGE.” Check it out.
THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973)
Why not a haunted house story on Halloween? This gem is based on the novel Hell House, by the late, great Richard Matheson, one of my favorite writers. He wrote the screenplay for this British production, the main difference being that the Belasco House—“the Mount Everest of haunted houses”—was moved from Maine to the British countryside.
An eccentric rich guy hires physicist and paranormal debunker Lionel Barrett (Clive Revill, voice of the emperor in The Empire Strikes Back) to investigate the possibility of life after death by spending a week in the infamous Belasco House, where ghosts galore roam the endless nooks and crannies of the creepy place. Seems that Emeric Belasco, who built the house, was a pervert and a murderer, and the spirits that roam the halls are the victims of his atrocities. An earlier investigative team also perished, save for one.
Barrett bring along his wife, Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt); a mental medium, Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin); and a physical medium, Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowall), the only survivor of the previous investigation. While Barrett will do all he can to prove that the house contains little more than unfocused electromagnetic energy, the mediums know better. These people are in some serious shit here.
Being 1973, don’t expect a lot of blood and gore. That said, The Legend of Hell House is one scary, unnerving movie,
as befitting the awesome Richard Matheson. (See my post, “Still Scary After All These Years.”) I’ll probably save this one for after it gets dark. Or maybe not…
However you spend All Hallows Eve, I hope you have a safe—and scary—one. Happy Halloween!