Six sick flicks for HALLOWEEN
October 27th 2006 00:25
It falls on a Tuesday this year which is pretty ordinary. So perhaps you’ll choose to plant tricks and pull treats over the weekend instead. In any case, if you’re having a night in with friends and an enjoyable horror romp feels like the way to go, get everyone crammed together on the sofa and surrounding cushions, throw together a couple of big bowls of salted popcorn, plenty of cold beer and pretzels, turn the lights down low, and perhaps even pass the odd dutchie around to give everyone a bit of the Fear.
A Halloween party flick needs to be loud and lurid, with generous helpings of silly, but likeable characters, lots of cheesy, hilarious dialogue, some decent set-pieces and a clutch of decent scares, or at the very least some well-worn extended jeopardy. The odd flash of bare breasts and male/female buttocks always goes down well too. And of course large splashes of the red stuff, which is horror de rigueur.
1. Hell Night (1981)
Four college graduates are forced to spend the night in a supposedly deserted mansion. They are terrorized by monstrous members of a family whom survived a massacre many years earlier. This is a cult classic slasher flick with oodles of atmosphere, silly pranks, dodgy behaviour, lusty pratfalls, and plenty of unintentional hoots.
2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
I resisted suggesting the original, ‘cos let’s face it, you’ve probably seen it a dozen times already. And if you haven’t even seen it at least once what the Hell(oween) are you doing reading this blog?! So instead I offer you the flawed second sequel, which actually has nothing to do with the series. In this troublesome tale a crazed toymaker has plans to ruin everyone’s Halloween once and for all (“The Night No One Comes Home”).
3. Demons (1985)
This is one wild ride! Italian gorefest time! Lamberto Bava, son of maestro Mario, has several attractive slappers going to a special movie screening in the new Metropol cinema in West Berlin. The movie, Demons, is supernaturally hinged and as the violence on the screen escalates, it comes alive within the theatre. Outrageous, over-the-top, and pure Italian ham.
4. The Crow (1994)
Any Gothic flick where the lead character died during the making from a stunt gone wrong is deserving of Halloween fodder. Directed by Aussie Alex Proyas, and featuring Bruce Lee’s son, the late, could’ve been great, Brandon Lee as Eric Draven (geddit?) the undead avenger. This is pure comic book silliness with a sensational villain played to the hilt by Michael Wincott. Other Halloweeny character names include Skank, T-Bird, and Funboy. Squawk madly and get yourself into a flap!
5. Ginger Snaps (2000)
One for the lads, now one for the ladies; lycanthropy of the feminine persuasion. It’s a loose disguise for puberty (“They don’t call it the Curse for nothing!”) and is directed and acted with much hirsute panache and snarling gusto. If you like your werewolves with a little talon polish Ginger snaps well hard!
6. Donnie Darko (2001)
This is the spanner in the works. A hybrid sf-horror-thriller with enough macabre weirdness and otherworldly twists to satisfy the most jaded occultist. Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant as the disturbed protagonist-cum-antagonist. Also of note is young Jena Malone as his love interest. Hmmm, I wonder how many large psychotic bunny rabbits will be hopping around this Halloween … ?
I’ve got my own Halloween feature I hope to make one day. It’s a very dark, violent and apocalyptic tale; a supernatural plague upon your families. Entitled All Hallow’s Eve it takes place in the near future (end of days) over the course of October 31st and into the wee hours of the next morning. We see rich suburban households preparing the kids for trick or treating, wayward adolescents descending upon parties, streetwalkers soliciting business men in expensive cars, adults committing adultery, the toil and trouble, trials and tribulations of modern urban life under stress and duress. The controlled chaos begins to focus during the witching hour on the release of all evil spirits from the scorched earth, to make way for All Saints Day (November 1st). However following this particular Halloween (an abbreviation of Hallowed evening in case you didn’t know), there will be no All Saints Day, because the Devil will reign supreme. Every single living person on earth indulging in sin at the moment of release; whether it is of the flesh or in the mind, becomes possessed by the dark forces of Lucifer and is transformed into a demon. These demons then proceed to terrorise and devour all the remaining pure and innocent humans without mercy and with extreme prejudice. The world is cast into a perpetual darkness where angels fear to tread. Satan scratches his leathery crimson buttocks and laughs long, deep and hard. The witches cackle, the vampires leer, the werewolves howl, and the ghouls grimace in supplication.
It’s a pretty grim premise, huh? Hell on earth I fear. Armageddon inverted. I’m not a Satanist, I just like the idea of a really, really dark horror film.
“Black Cats and Goblins and Broomsticks and Ghosts
Covens of Witches with All of Their Hopes,
You May Think They Scare Me, You're Probably Right,
Black Cats and Goblins on Halloween Night . . .
Trick or Treat!”
--- children’s chant, Halloween (1978)
* images on this page were taken from the following wikipedia pages:
Hell Night (movie poster), The Crow (screen shot), Ginger Snaps (movie poster), Donnie Darko (movie poster), and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (screen shot).
They are licensed from the GNU Free Document License.
A Halloween party flick needs to be loud and lurid, with generous helpings of silly, but likeable characters, lots of cheesy, hilarious dialogue, some decent set-pieces and a clutch of decent scares, or at the very least some well-worn extended jeopardy. The odd flash of bare breasts and male/female buttocks always goes down well too. And of course large splashes of the red stuff, which is horror de rigueur.
1. Hell Night (1981)
Four college graduates are forced to spend the night in a supposedly deserted mansion. They are terrorized by monstrous members of a family whom survived a massacre many years earlier. This is a cult classic slasher flick with oodles of atmosphere, silly pranks, dodgy behaviour, lusty pratfalls, and plenty of unintentional hoots.
2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
I resisted suggesting the original, ‘cos let’s face it, you’ve probably seen it a dozen times already. And if you haven’t even seen it at least once what the Hell(oween) are you doing reading this blog?! So instead I offer you the flawed second sequel, which actually has nothing to do with the series. In this troublesome tale a crazed toymaker has plans to ruin everyone’s Halloween once and for all (“The Night No One Comes Home”).
3. Demons (1985)
This is one wild ride! Italian gorefest time! Lamberto Bava, son of maestro Mario, has several attractive slappers going to a special movie screening in the new Metropol cinema in West Berlin. The movie, Demons, is supernaturally hinged and as the violence on the screen escalates, it comes alive within the theatre. Outrageous, over-the-top, and pure Italian ham.
Any Gothic flick where the lead character died during the making from a stunt gone wrong is deserving of Halloween fodder. Directed by Aussie Alex Proyas, and featuring Bruce Lee’s son, the late, could’ve been great, Brandon Lee as Eric Draven (geddit?) the undead avenger. This is pure comic book silliness with a sensational villain played to the hilt by Michael Wincott. Other Halloweeny character names include Skank, T-Bird, and Funboy. Squawk madly and get yourself into a flap!
5. Ginger Snaps (2000)
One for the lads, now one for the ladies; lycanthropy of the feminine persuasion. It’s a loose disguise for puberty (“They don’t call it the Curse for nothing!”) and is directed and acted with much hirsute panache and snarling gusto. If you like your werewolves with a little talon polish Ginger snaps well hard!
6. Donnie Darko (2001)
This is the spanner in the works. A hybrid sf-horror-thriller with enough macabre weirdness and otherworldly twists to satisfy the most jaded occultist. Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant as the disturbed protagonist-cum-antagonist. Also of note is young Jena Malone as his love interest. Hmmm, I wonder how many large psychotic bunny rabbits will be hopping around this Halloween … ?
I’ve got my own Halloween feature I hope to make one day. It’s a very dark, violent and apocalyptic tale; a supernatural plague upon your families. Entitled All Hallow’s Eve it takes place in the near future (end of days) over the course of October 31st and into the wee hours of the next morning. We see rich suburban households preparing the kids for trick or treating, wayward adolescents descending upon parties, streetwalkers soliciting business men in expensive cars, adults committing adultery, the toil and trouble, trials and tribulations of modern urban life under stress and duress. The controlled chaos begins to focus during the witching hour on the release of all evil spirits from the scorched earth, to make way for All Saints Day (November 1st). However following this particular Halloween (an abbreviation of Hallowed evening in case you didn’t know), there will be no All Saints Day, because the Devil will reign supreme. Every single living person on earth indulging in sin at the moment of release; whether it is of the flesh or in the mind, becomes possessed by the dark forces of Lucifer and is transformed into a demon. These demons then proceed to terrorise and devour all the remaining pure and innocent humans without mercy and with extreme prejudice. The world is cast into a perpetual darkness where angels fear to tread. Satan scratches his leathery crimson buttocks and laughs long, deep and hard. The witches cackle, the vampires leer, the werewolves howl, and the ghouls grimace in supplication.
It’s a pretty grim premise, huh? Hell on earth I fear. Armageddon inverted. I’m not a Satanist, I just like the idea of a really, really dark horror film.
“Black Cats and Goblins and Broomsticks and Ghosts
Covens of Witches with All of Their Hopes,
You May Think They Scare Me, You're Probably Right,
Black Cats and Goblins on Halloween Night . . .
Trick or Treat!”
--- children’s chant, Halloween (1978)
* images on this page were taken from the following wikipedia pages:
Hell Night (movie poster), The Crow (screen shot), Ginger Snaps (movie poster), Donnie Darko (movie poster), and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (screen shot).
They are licensed from the GNU Free Document License.
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Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
Sorry for the shameless plug, but in between watching your Six Sick Flicks for Halloween, perhaps people out there can listen to Hellvis's Unlucky Top Thirteen Halloween tunes.
Comment by PokerPro
I was thinking about whether there could be said to be a music horror genre. I thought you might think this song is cool.
http://www.everybodydies.com/sample.mp3
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
That song is hilarious .... reminds me of Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel ... or Fetus Productions .. heard of them?
Comment by PokerPro
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
I'd say there is a horror music genre, but most of what I've heard is either bad goth, or seventh-generation Misfits/Ramones/Cramps stuff. The novelty wears thin pretty quickly.
And Bryn, good to see Jim Thirwell and Foetus getting a mention. He also goes by the charming names of Foetus All Nude Review, Foetus Interruptus, and You've Got Foetus on Your Breath.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
Back to the topic. I saw Hell Night for cheap the other day, but spent all my money on CDs. Is it worth going back for when I get paid again?
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I remember some genuine frights in it ... great atmosphere ...
Comment by PokerPro
Comment by Hellvis
Earache Hotel
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile