Halloween Horror Flicks

With Halloween fast approaching I'm looking forward to catching some old horror flicks. One thing i've noticed as i get older, they don't play as many scary movies during the lead up to halloween. I remember catching stuff like carrie, the exorcist, poltergeist, etc., on tv from about mid-october until the big day. Now not so much.

Anywho my post is really about wondering how many of you are planning on dusting off your old vhs tapes/dvd's of horror classics and doing the horror movie countdown to halloween?
I bought the Nightmare on Elm Street collection on bluray to start me off!

without naming any specific movies, i would advise that you check out AMC if you get it up there as they go above and beyond the call when it comes to halloween movies!

AMC is Good they always got good movies repeated frequently a lot around holidays

It's funny if your getting bent with a group of friends and watch Halloween (Michael Myers appears outta nowhere and then starts walking slowly )( Screeching Music) :Lol:

HALLOWEEN is still a classic, John Carpenter's most popular movie that he'll be remembered for when he passes off into the great future maximum security prison in the sky. (But not his best horror effort IMO, that would be THE THING.)

The sequels can eat my shit. Wow they were stupid and crummy.

Speaking of Carpenter, recently I rewatched one of his more obscure efforts in THE FOG, his horror follow-up after HALLOWEEN. When horror movies, partly inspiredby HALLOWEEN, drove deeper into gore and violence over mood and suspense, Carpenter tried to go the reverse. And I think he made a good movie, even if logically it doesn't quite add up. (Martin Scorsese is a notable fan.)

Best bit however is the opening, John Houseman telling a ghost story (and plot device to give exposition about dead pirates that shall soon cause havoc) and God what great potent imagery he draws up with his words over a campfire. Perfectly sets the mood for the movie to come.



Why can't modern horror movies be inspired by that instead of torture porn and those stupid Japanese-people-crawling-out-of-your-body pictures and gorefests?

Ronnie, I bet you really enjoyed Halloween III, huh? AKA the one that had nothing to do with the Halloween franchise. I've caught it a few times on AMC's annual marathons and can't ever force myself to look away.

One of my favorite "scary" movies - though it's clearly more dark comedy - is Beetlejuice. (I'm only saying his name once.)

I've watched it so many times since I was little, and it's still a favorite. This scene alone makes it worth it for me:

Beetlejuice is one of my favorites. I still keep a figure of him on a shelf over my desk in my workroom (where I am right now). Even dressed up as the character back in the early 1990's (it was Halloween) when I was teaching at a local college. Ran around the campus that way causing quite a stir, but I was physically prevented by the security staff from barging into the office of the college president. He was a stuffy old shit with no sense of humor anyway, so I guess it really didn't matter. I may have a photo or two somewhere. I'll see if I can unearth one.

Anyway, Antenna TV has been showing a few older horror movies in the middle of the night. Within the last couple of days, they aired The Tingler with Vincent Price. Their promos also advertised the original The Blob, but they ended up showing the remake (oh well...).

See if they're carried on cable systems where you live:

Antenna TV

They are also carried over-the-air in many areas by local broadcast affiliates - so, luckily, here in Brooklyn I can get this channel as an over-the-air digital signal without needing cable.

I've got so many classic horror films on old VHS tape, that I could probably start watching them and not have to watch "real" TV again for at least a year.

Of course, I also have more than my share of pure drek, too...

Signor V.

I remember reading about "The Tingler" in Stephen King's "Danse Macabre", and I believe the original release had some sort of gimmick where there was something in the seat that was supposed to tingle you when the victims were tingled. I'm not imagining that, am I??

I love the original "Halloween" and also the sequel. I also love the original "Scream" before that franchise got so silly. There's a George C. Scott movie that scared the crap out of me when I was 16 or so about a haunted house, but I can't remember the name of it.

And, of course, "The Exorcist". Oh, it was just SO terrifying, so beyond anything anyone had ever seen before. There were stories in the news about people throwing up, having heart attacks, pregnant women being turned away from theaters. The hype was just incredible.

Halloween is a classic. In the early 90's i remember one of the U.S. stations splicing the first two and airing it as a mini-series (edited version of course). It was awesome!

One movie that i used to like watching late at night on Halloween when i was in my teens was "Blair Witch Project." It did give me the creeps.

THE CHANGELING. (and that was pretty good.)

AMC is showing Halloween this week I believe. I like Halloween, IT, Child Play series,Friday the 13th series, Texas Chainsaw.

SV, I would LOVE to see that photo of you in costume! I was actually wanting to dress up as him this year, so maybe I can get some ideas from what you did. I recently stumbled upon a photo of a really crazy couple costume someone made, based on the movie: Isn't that awesome?

Antenna TV sounds great, though I don't think I have it. All we've got is the Family Channel marathon and AMC's Fear Fest. The Family Channel is reliable for the fun classics like Beetlejuice, but most of it's kid-only. And it seems like AMC used to show a lot more variety in their past marathons than they do now.

No, you're not imagining it. Here's the whole story, off the top of my pointy little head:

The film was produced and directed by William Castle, who almost always had some sort of outrageous gimmick associated with his films (at least, in their initial release) which would certainly guarantee the films (and him) a lot of publicity from the press. He called the gimmick for this film, "Percepto."

The actual "tingler" itself was a ridiculous-looking rubber thingy that could only be "neutralized" by screaming. At the climax of the film, the creature gets loose in a theatre showing an old silent film, almost kills the projectionist, and the film breaks. We, the audience, are in total darkness (just like the moviegoers in the film) and we hear Vincent Price's voice telling us that the tingler is loose in this theatre and we all have to scream for our lives. In the blackness, we can hear all sorts of pandemonium on the film's soundtrack, as everyone is screaming and shrieking.

However, originally a select few seats in the theatre were wired to give off a small electric shock at this point to "lucky" patrons, so, in the pitch darkness of your local cinema, you were supposed to be fooled into thinking there really was a real, live "tingler" scuttling about between the seats.




Fun, eh?

Oh, and here's the "monster" - it wasn't really animated, or anything (that would've cost money!). It was just dragged across the floor by "invisible" wires.



Interestingly enough, with all the interest in retro horror and sci-fi films (the good, the bad, and the just plain schlocky), a replica of the original tingler prop is currently being marketed:



Yessir, just the thing to find flopping around under the tree when you wake up on Xmas morning! It's available through Amazon, but when I saw the price tag of $59.95, it immediately became apparent why The Tingler would have people screaming for their lives.


Signor V.

Thanks, SV! I knew you would have the information! And we all want to see the photo!

I was just talking about The Tingler with a friend, who had never seen it. The theatre promotion with the Tinglr chairs was as classic as the movie.

i have talked about this movie before, but it deserves a second mention, especially around halloween time. in my opinion, its the top zombie movie ever made! enjoy...

I'll be dusting off two classics:

"Bride of Frankenstein" is the all-time class act of horror films, and one of the greatest movies ever made. It has everything, starting with Karloff's finest performance: pathos, wicked humor, stark Expressionist sets, a first-class supporting cast...you name it.

Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922)is the hands-down champ in the Dracula genre. None of its successors has ever matched the eeriness and the pure fright Max Schreck brought to the title role.

Excellent choices, TB! True classics from the Golden Age. Got 'em both in The Archives. (Hell, I can probably recite the script to Bride of Frankenstein from memory - but I still love watching the film.)

Again, great films for Halloween, or any time.


Signor V.

Not a movie, but in the spirit of Halloween, probably the most famous Halloween song.


TIS

I started watching my Elm Street blurays and have started looking on amazon for a few more scary movies to watch over halloween.

I'm curious about THE OMEN movies...are they any good? Should i buy the collection, or just get the first one?

Personally speaking, I liked the first one a lot. A very good cast for this sort of movie (Gregory Peck!!) including a number of familiar British faces (Patrick Troughton and David Warner immediately spring to mind, though I know there are others). Some pretty startling makeup effects as well, especially when you consider when the film was made, and the audience it was aimed at. I would recommend this one.

The second film was okay, but I think it fell a bit short of the original. A good cast helped, and this film certainly had that. Also, a particularly gruesome makeup effect which I will not disclose if you haven't seen the film yet.

The third film didn't do anything for me. Sam Neill is alright, I guess, but my overall opinion of the film is simply that - my opinion.

So, this brings us to the point of all this: Buying DVDs. Personally, if you could borrow the discs from a friend, or public library or something similar, I would do that and save my money. Unless, that is, you are an absolute fiend for the "Omen" films and must buy them at any cost.
You can always say the Devil made you do it.


Signor V.

I thought the first OMEN was ok. Might be due a rewatch, but that one never caught my imagination. Part 3 I didn't mind, if just for Sam Neill being good as a shit-eating villain who enjoyed being evil.

One spooky old horror film that I can absolutely recommend is Horror Hotel (known in the UK by its original title, City of the Dead). A spooky story of witchcraft, filmed in black and white and released here in 1960.

Though public domain copies have been floating around for a number of years, the film has recently been remastered and restored and looks beautiful in widescreen. I understand the slightly longer British release print is now available as well, but even slightly shorter, it's still a good film.

Its very low budget led the producers to be quite visually creative, resulting in a very eerie atmosphere. Two excellent British actors, not that well-known on these shores, add quite a lot: Valentine Dyall (known years ago on Doctor Who as the Black Guardian), and Patricia Jessel (probably best known for her role in the film version of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum). The musical score is quite unique, too: Part jazz, and part... well, all I can say is you'll have to hear it for yourself, starting with the opening titles.

Oh, and did I mention - the star is Christopher Lee. He plays a professor at a small college who specializes in the history of witchcraft.



I do want to point out that this is not a Hammer film, so it is quite a bit more restrained in its use of gore. A couple of scenes will definitely make you jump, though!

Lots of memorable lines, too.

I highly recommend this one.


Signor V.

Watching the original "Halloween" on AMC right now and answering the door for Trick or Treaters.

SB, you have trick or treaters this early?

I could go for a good horror flick or two but checking the tv listings I don't see that many. The Halloween series has been on all week and I see Elm Street and Friday 13 will be on.

I wouldn't mind less of slasher type films and more horror/suspense like The Omen, Poltergeist or some Stephen King.

In my area I never get trick/treaters at my door so I'll just curl up on the couch and find something to watch. Of course the candy I do have is all mine.

TIS

Netflix has a good collection of Halloween themed movies I'm gonna watch tonight.

Now that's the way to do Halloween, TIS! Somehow all our good chocolate disappeared and now all we have left are Tootsie Rolls... no surprise there.

I love getting to see all the kids' costumes, though. The funniest was an older guy dressed as a French maid.

As for Halloween movies, I've been taping my favorites from the marathons, so I've got "It" on now.

Hey Gina! How ya doing?

I scanned thru the channels and thre were a few popular horror flicks but I've seen them fairly recently. I decided to go with a 2007 remake of "Halloween."



TIS

Doing good, and hope you are too! I feel like I've seen parts of every Halloween movie so many times, and yet I've never seen the later ones straight through.. it's always part of a marathon so I just catch bits and pieces. "The Shining" is on TV now, so I think I'm set... at least until the twins show up.

Here's a film I forgot to mention - if you like horror films, mob movies, and a bit of humor thrown into the mix:

Innocent Blood

This 1992 film was directed by John Landis, and features a great cast, including Robert Loggia as a mob boss who becomes a vampire and Don Rickles (!) as his Bruce Cutler-inspired lawyer. There is a little gore, though, but the film is a lot of fun.

If you haven't seen this one, it's worth checking out.


Signor V.

Really, Gi?? Really? Pennywise? BTW, my nephew still randomly texts me, "We all float!"

TIS, the little kids usually start showing up between 3 and 4 in the afternoon, then they get gradually older until it dies off around 8:30.

SB,

Btw, I caught the tail end of your favorite Clown movie, King's "It" and the closing narration (By Richard Thomas I think) was speaking of the city of Derry. Isn't that the city in 11-22-63 as well? And, I think you mentioned King uses that city in several of his books no? Is it a real city I wonder? (I suppose I could pull out the book and look for myself...if it's mentioned in the first few pages).



TIS

Yes, he visits Derry in "11/22/63", and even meets two of the kids from "It", the boy and girl practicing for the talent show.

I'm not sure if it's in any other books, unlike the town of Castle Rock which was used in many.

Oh really? How cool. It's interesting that he does that. Tho, I can't say I'd remember the two character as being in It. Thanks!

TIS

I never have kept track of specific cities he uses (except for Derry because of the funny line about smelling the Derry-air ), but King uses locations in Maine for many of his novels, doesn't he SB? Oh, and one of his short stories in "Just After Sunset" referenced an article written by a Julia Shumway, one of the lead characters in "Under the Dome." I get overly excited when I see those kind of cross-references... makes me feel like an insider!

And SB, I didn't even send you a photo of Pennywise this time around. I've been very good! Though I did make my dad watch that scene with me: poor Georgie finding him in the drain and having the floating conversation. (Lesson learned: don't ever ask a clown about balloons.)

SV, I see that Paulie Walnuts and Richie Aprile are in your movie recommendation, too.. sounds like a winner!

Castle Rock was the home of the serial killer hunted by John Smith in The Dead Zone, as well as home to Cujo, that bad, bad dog. I also believe that Red from Shawshank originally came from Castle Rock. When Rob Reiner made Stand By Me, he changed the location from Maine to Oregon, but he named his production company Castle Rock Entertainment.

Gosh SB, you are so good at remembering these cities. I did see and enjoy Cujo but never would have remembered the city. What city was Pet Semetary in? (Testing) Maine I believe but don't know the city.



TIS

Pet Sematary was in Ludlow, Maine, which is also where The Dark Half took place. Ludlow is in central Maine, and it's very close to Derry and Castle Rock.

Wow!! You are good. Ok, what about Misery? That was Maine too I think. You don't win a prize mind you.. BUT I'll be "your number one fan."




TIS

Reason enough not to answer!

Ha ha ha....Just call me "Annie"



TIS

*shudder* TIS, you're sounding a little crazy..

I think the part that creeped me out the most about Annie - besides that whole sledgehammer bit, of course - were the wacky terms she'd use, like "cockadoodie" and "dirty bird." It sets off her character even more, makes her even stranger.

Yes, that was creepy all right. Definitely a scary movie character that's for sure.

TIS

The character of Annie creeps out every man, who's ever had a wife.

Kly, are you implying that all women are one bad move away from turning psychotic? Well, ARE YOU?!

(You're probably right.)

Wasn't it an ax in the book instead of a sledgehammer???

I think you're right, though it's been awhile since I read the book. I'd actually just recently come across this blog post, covering the Stephen King novel-to-movie adaptations, and in the Misery comparison, the writer mentions:
"Oh, and Annie uses a sledgehammer here instead of an ax, and it's up to you to decide if that's a canny callback to how Kubrick used an ax instead of a mallet in The Shining."

That's what I remember, is The Shining being different, so apparently King's original weapon of choice was changed in two of his stories!

Chris Christie reminds me of the Fat Guy in the Stephen King Movie Thinner if I knew how to post pictures on here I would do a comparison. I like the book better then the movie, the books a lot creepier
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3988494592/tt0117894

So for halloween i ended up ordering The Shining and The Exorcist from amazon! Was a good night taking my niece trick or treating and after watching some classic horror flicks.

On a side not, after picking up the Elm Street flicks on bluray, i find that the order i put them in has changed!

At 9 years old: 3,1,6,5,4,2
At 28 years old: 1,3,4,6,5,2

And much like when i was 9....i still hate part 2!

King really has a hard time letting that go about Kubrick, doesn't he?

Seriously dude, he made a movie generally considered a horror film classic. God knows you've had many not so good movies based off your works. You could do a whole lot worse.

I remember hearing he didn't like Kubrick's adaptation, but was the weapon change actually one of his reasons? That six-hour miniseries version was supposed to have been closer to the book, but I'd take Kubrick anyday.

And I learned my lesson: I will never turn Geoff's Waldo avatar into a clown again!



Yeah, I thought so!

BTW, in the movie version of Thinner, Stephen King plays a character named "Dr. Bangor."


Signor V.

I've been thinking (which is always dangerous)... The previous posts jarred a memory:

Over 50 years ago, writer Robert Bloch wrote an essay analyzing horror movies titled The Clown at Midnight. I don't know if it has been recently reprinted, though I know it was out of print for many years. Anyway, I have an old issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine from 1962 that reprinted it, and I thought the essay's conclusion would be worth sharing. In the words of Robert Bloch:

****************************

Where our search will lead, I don't know. It may be that we'll discover the ultimate cinematic horror in a clown. Years ago, Lon Chaney [Sr.] said:

"A clown is funny in the circus ring, but what would be the normal reaction to opening a door at midnight and finding the same clown standing there in the moonlight?"

That, to me, is the essence of true horror -- the clown, at midnight.

***************************

Signor V.

Well, thanks for that, SV. I'll sleep again some time in August.

Poor SB! We still haven't gotten to see that photo of you as Beetlejuice, SV, so I think you owe her that to make up for the midnight clown.

I was Beetlejuice this year, and instead of buying the costume, I taped masking tape to my black slacks and dress jacket... a super cheap method, but it turned out okay!

My daughter was the Onceler from The Lorax. She bought jeans and a black vest from the Goodwill store. She put tape over the pants in a striped pattern and then spray painted them. When she took the tape off, they were the perfect stripe. Then she bought a short black wig and black hat from Party City and she was all done! She's also very into going to different conventions in CosPlay, so she's got one more. She and her friends have made most of their stuff from shopping at Goodwill. They've made a complete set of Warbler costumes (from Glee) and she was once Princess Bubblegum, pink wig and all.

That's awesome, SB - I love a good costume, and especially when it's put together like that rather than bought in one piece, because it's always a creative effort! I'd read online a tip about spray painting stripes for Beetlejuice so I'm glad to hear she actually tried it and it worked so well.

I may have found the negative the other day, but it's in an envelope with a lot of other negatives. The actual photo still has not turned up. I think I remember a close-up, maybe two, but I can't recall if there's anything more than that. I'm going to have to look through everything in that envelope before I know what I really have.


Signor V.

I looked ane looked, but the photos are nowhere to be found. I mean, they're somewhere, but not in any of the many boxes of pictures I've gone through.

So, what I did was scan the 35mm negative, and try and make a viewable picture from it. It seems the negatives have undergone a severe color shift, and I tried to get it to look relatively normal. The negatives were pretty old - I found they actually were from Halloween 1990. I remember this was a spur-of-the-moment idea, with no time to make a costume, so I threw together some eccentric clothes to wear from our "costume closet", which, unfortunately don't really show in the photo as well as I would have liked.

After terrorizing the local college where I was teaching, I came home and made up Signora V. as a lady vampire, complete with some custom-made fangs I had previously made for her. Back then, a friend owned a local bar in Brooklyn (the former Gemini Lounge!!!), and they were having a costume contest that night. The jukebox was blasting, and Signora V. and I lip-synched a song and dance to "Monster Mash" and took first prize - a bottle of champagne.



Those were the days...


Signor V.

Great picture, SV!

SV, so in love with that picture! No wonder you guys won first prize!

That is a wonderful picture SV. Great costumes.






TIS

That went above and beyond expectations, SV! I love it!! I bet you two had a blast at that party.

Great picture, SV

Glad everyone enjoyed the picture.

I'm just frustrated that I can't find the original photos. (Maybe I should have new prints made from the negatives...) The detail in our makeups doesn't really come across. I was a lot whiter in my face makeup, and I made the "decay" on the sides of face from tissue and spirit gum. Also, I made a snap-on "veneer" to go over my upper front teeth so they'd look like Michael Keaton's did in the movie. My wife's fangs really don't show at all.

We had been married six months when we took that photo (we put the camera on a tripod and used the timer). We always had a lot of fun at that time of the year; I know somewhere I have some photos of us from other Halloweens. If I come across any, I'll try and post some of them.

Yeah, we were an unbeatable team.


Signor V.

Gee, I thought that was a current picture of you, SV.