What did you watch (or read) for Halloween?

[mmadsen]

What did you watch (or read) for Halloween this year? I went on a bit of a horror-movie marathon (thanks to digital video recording):

The Omen
Despite the fact that I honestly couldn't remember if I'd seen it (or just a sequel) before, I'd have to give it thumbs up. Creepy nanny, very creepy boy.

Rosemary's Baby
Excellent suspense. Easy to suspend disbelief. Wonderful direction -- particularly when you desperately want to look around the corner into the next room, and you can't.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
Hokier than I remembered. Good premise though.

Carrie
I had never seen Carrie before; I'd simply seen snippets of the famous prom scene. Excellent, excellent movie. You really feel for poor Carrie. And that mother is creepy.

Suspiria
Some interesting imagery and some seriously disconcerting (and overdone) music, but otherwise uninteresting.

Halloween
Somehow I hadn't seen the original Halloween before. A bit infuriating (if you don't enjoy yelling at the screen), but full of good "the killer's right there!" scenes -- and surprisingly low on gore.

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

Read:

Shadow Over Innsmouth
Colour out of Space
The Face in the Frost

Watched:

Omen
Sixth Sense
Wrong Turn
Bubba Ho-Tep
Dawn of the Dead
Halloween
13 Ghosts

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Halloween 4 -- I decided four years ago to watch a Halloween film every year. Last year I very nearly broke that promise. I was sort of looking forward to this year, as somewhere else I read an article where the author referred to H4 as 'underrated', and it had been 16 years since I'd seen it in the theater. Better than I remembered, and a movie where the people for the most part act rationally. Plus, only Donald Pleasance could say the line 'That's not a man. It's evil on two legs.' and get away with it.

Darkness Falls A piece of garbage. A set-up that should have been filmed instead of done in voice-over, and that was the high point of the film. Even getting to look at Emma Caulfield wasn't worth it. Foolish, inconsistent in its premise, lousy acting. Plus, PG13. Guys, unless you dig Hitchcock out of his grave and re-animate him, you're not going to make a good slasher pic unless its an R.

Psycho I needed something to wash away the memories of Darkness Falls.[/b]

The CraftA semi-tradition. Good movie, interesting premise well executed. Proof that you don't need buckets of blood and immortal slashers to make a good horror flick.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Halloween suffers from being too good. Almost every horror film in the past 25 years owes something to it. It's so easy to forget that the what is cliche now was once fresh and exciting. It bugs me no end when I'm with someone seeing it for the first time and all they do is complain about how derivative it is.

We lived in a small town with only a couple screens. My Dad saw it while away on a business trip, and I somehow convinced him to take me when it finally played near us. Scared the bejeebers out of me (I was 11 at the time), but I loved every minute of it. For me, the quintissential horror movie.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

I saw Hellboy

on DVD. Good stuff!

 

[Mercule]

The Grudge on Friday. Good movie. Not nearly as good as The Ring, though. Actually, I game to the conclusion that The Grudge is creepier, while The Ring is more unsettling. The Grudge got my hair to stand on end everytime the yowling started, but was forgotten after I left the theatre, but The Ring creeped me out whenever I saw snow on the TV for a month after.

Ginger Snaps on Sunday. Not a bad movie. A bit slow in spots, though. Good enough that I'm interested in seeing the sequels. I've got to admit, though, that the best moment was when we realized that it was God dealing drugs.

 

[DMH]

USA's version of Frankenstein. I liked it- good acting (great for a tv movie), engrossing story, and nice sets. I hope there will be a series and they keep all the actors.

I want to get Masque of the Red Death that much more to incorporate some of this movie into.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Read: a bunch of short stories by M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and E.F. Benson

Watched (on TV over the course of several days): Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, The Haunting (1963), The Phantom of the Opera (1925), The Picture of Dorian Gray

Watched (on DVD): Nosferatu (1922), The Ring, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Alien

 

[barsoomcore]

We watched Kwaidan -- an incredibly SLOW Japanese ghost movie that we actually couldn't get all the way through. It's just so SLOW.

Also Dawn of the Dead -- the new one. Lame. Starts off really well, but lame lame lame.

Also Carnival of Souls -- some good creepy stuff in there.

Also Tim Burton's Ed Wood -- one of my favourite all-time pictures.

Finally, last night The Haunting (the Robert Wise original from 1963) -- still the best ghost story ever put on film. No gore, only one special effect shot, no ghosts, just creepy creepy creepy (plus lesbian titillation with Claire Bloom -- yum!).

 

[Wombat]

In the pre-party time we watched Beetlejuice and Blair Witch Project; during the party, nothing

But we did have some great Hallowe'en-related cds!