*Unless you're really into horror movies
As frequent *bitter defeat* readers (all three of them) can tell you, Halloween is kind of a big deal around here. Just look at all the Halloween posts. It's...pathetic, really.
Well it's time once again to break out the gourds, light some candles, sharpen the butcher knife, and sacrifice a virgin on the Samhain altar. The week-long festivities begin with a handy Halloween horror movie guide. Believe it or not, there's more to the season than just Michael Myers. You'll also be shocked to learn that this fun guide will be presented in... wait for it... LIST FORM. In no particular order, here are...
(unless you're really into horror movies)
Near Dark (1987, Kathryn Bigelow)
Trailer
Before she brought the world Point Break, the future Mrs. James Cameron directed this ingenious hybrid of vampire movies and the American west. Still Bill Paxton's greatest film role.
Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)
U.S. trailer
International trailer (better)
Ostensibly the story of the new girl at a dance school run by evil witches, Suspiria is the grisly distillation of all things Argento: operatic staging, outrageous colors, and wildly elaborate violence. A genuine masterpiece.
Carnival of Souls (1962, Herk Harvey)
Trailer
After surviving a terrible car crash, Candace Hilligoss wanders into a spooky abandoned carnival. Because, you know, who wouldn't? An eerie, wonderfully atmospheric meditation on the no man's land of death.
The Brood (1979, David Cronenberg)
Trailer
Horror movies in the 1970s were more than a little preoccupied with the creepiness of children and childbirth, but none were as unsettling as Cronenberg's lesser-known masterpiece of maternal revulsion and mutant children. Oliver Reed is fantastic as a warped psychiatrist.
From Beyond (1986, Stuart Gordon)
Homemade trailer
Gordon's follow-up to Re-Animator, loosely based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft, proves once and for all that creating inter-dimensional portals is a monumentally shitty idea.
The Old Dark House (1932, James Whale)
Clip
Whale's second film with Frankenstein's Boris Karloff is a little-seen classic of, strangely enough, the "old dark house" genre. Stormy night, castle full of strangers, things that go bump in the attic, yadda yadda yadda. The pair's next collaboration would be Bride of Frankenstein.
Pumpkinhead (1989, Stan Winston)
Trailer
The second film on this list to star Lance Henriksen (along with Near Dark), Pumpkinhead is a good old fashion monster movie. Although the eponymous demon bears more than a passing resemblance to H.R. Giger's Alien alien, the movie is suffused with enough Southern-gothic atmosphere to stand on its own. Small wonder, as the director is one of the best make-up artists/creature creators in Hollywood history.
It's Alive (1974, Larry Cohen)
Trailer
Another 1970s monster infant movie! Cohen is one of Hollywood's most prolific b-movie writer/directors, and It's Alive is arguably his masterpiece. The delivery room sequence has to be seen to be believed.
Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man) (1994, Michele Soavi)
German trailer
Before he was Julia Roberts's gay best friend in My Best Friend's Wedding, Rupert Everett was a suave cemetery worker who's forced to re-kill all of his clients. An amazing film with an amazing tagline: "Zombies, guns, and sex, OH MY!!!"
Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes without a Face) (1960, Georges Franju)
Trailer
So that's what the background singers are saying in the Billy Idol song! In this uniquely French take on the mad scientist film a surgeon literally steals people's faces in order to reconstruct his daughter's destroyed features. So sick and so very, very awesome.
Night of the Creeps (1986, Fred Dekker)
German trailer
This sadly out-of-print cable classic is one big in-joke for horror fans. Wrapping 1950s alien movies, zombie flicks, and comedy into one package, Night of the Creeps does for fraternity formals what Carrie did for the prom. And check out he amazing quote on the poster.
Martin (1977, George A. Romero)
Trailer
One of the most morally unsettling horror films in a decade full of them, Martin imagines the plight of a "normal" kid who apparently just thinks he's a vampire. The scenario's plausibility makes for a sad, disturbing film.
Demons (1985, Lamberto Bava)
Trailer
A demon plague is unleashed at the grand opening of a mysterious new movie theater. Gory, scary, and oh so very 1980s, this Italian monsterfest (co-written and produced by Dario Argento) boasts another classic poster quote: "They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs."
Session 9 (2001, Brad Anderson)
Trailer
I'm still not clear on why I'm the only person I've met who finds this film mind-bendingly terrifying. Short on shocks and long on genuine, creeping dread, Session 9 relates the unhappy fate of an asbestos removal crew on a rush job in a massive abandoned insane asylum. Left-field casting (David Caruso? Josh Lucas?) and elliptical storytelling only add to the overall atmosphere of fear and isolation.
I Walked with a Zombie (1943, Jacques Tourneur)
Trailer
A nurse is sent to the West Indies to take care of a woman in a strange trance. Voodoo creepiness ensues. Like Cat People, Tourneur's other, more famous collaboration with producer Val Lewton, this is mostly an exercise in laying creepy atmospherics onto a semi-conventional thriller. But this is about as effective as it gets.
Prince of Darkness (1987, John Carpenter)
Trailer
The most unfairly maligned of Carpenter's horror films, Prince of Darkness has been (derisively) called a "thinking man's horror film" because of its surfeit of interesting ideas. And granted, it does have more dialogue than just about any other horror movie I can think of. But the cinematography and Carpenter's characteristically hypnotic score set an eerie mood upon the proceedings, and the performances are uniformly compelling.
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