Movie Recommendations for Halloween

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who chipped in with recommendations.

We saw "Paranormal Activity" this week (thumbs up) and will curl up tonight with "Trick R' Treat" and maybe "the Shining" (classic) or "The Strangers" (just plain scary.)

I watched Browning's Dracula (1931) with my kids last night. Seventy-five years later and it's still a remarkable film. It's interesting to think that, if not for the Depression, it might have been a very different movie. Even so, my kids were fascinated by it. The DVD that I have has an alternate version with Philip Glass' score--I think that we'll listen to that tomorrow.

Tonight, while the kids were out, the wife and I watched Ginger Snaps. Amazingly, I've never seen it before. I think that werewolf and vampire movies are genres that are pretty well exhausted, but for the most part this film was infused with a lot of energy. The end got bogged down in bloodshed that highlighted the worst of the special effects but overall it was pretty good.

The Nid Hog said:

I watched Browning's Dracula (1931) with my kids last night. Seventy-five years later and it's still a remarkable film. It's interesting to think that, if not for the Depression, it might have been a very different movie. Even so, my kids were fascinated by it. The DVD that I have has an alternate version with Philip Glass' score--I think that we'll listen to that tomorrow.

Tonight, while the kids were out, the wife and I watched Ginger Snaps. Amazingly, I've never seen it before. I think that werewolf and vampire movies are genres that are pretty well exhausted, but for the most part this film was infused with a lot of energy. The end got bogged down in bloodshed that highlighted the worst of the special effects but overall it was pretty good.

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Haven't seen Ginger Snaps, but Dracula's a great choice, either the English or Spanish versions. I ended up watching a couple Vincent Price flicks in the evening, The Haunted Palace for the music, then The Tomb of Ligeia, and ended the night with Murnau's Nosferatu.

I hope there's more life to vampire movies. The kids are into them these days, although those vampires aren't quite what we have in mind.

I'll say Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses (How can one go wrong with a character called "Doctor Satan"!!!) and The Devil's Rejects!

Zombies: The 28 Days/Weeks series as earlier recommended.

But if you want a ZomRomCom, Shaun of the Dead!

The Noseferatus in Dark City (for without Dark City, there will be no Matrix trilogy) are pretty damn cool ("Sleep!").


Enjoy!

Wrote this list for a horror board. Thought it was worth repeating here.

"The Call of Cthulhu" captures the Lovecraft spirit like few others. It may be the only movie ever to capture the atmosphere. It's a B&W silent film (complete with film damage) done by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and the amateur nature comes through. Even though it's seriously flawed in some ways as a movie, you MUST see this one.

Dagon (2001), despite being a little dressed up with romance & adventure, and otherwise sanitized a bit, faithfully captures the Lovecraft story "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and its spirit while being a well done movie overall. Even after rereading the story, the performance of Francisco Rabal as Ezequiel, the old drunk, (Zadok Alan in the Lovecraft story) stands out as a treat. They did have to compress and ad-lib the ending because Lovecraft's ending is hardly movie material, and they went for something that makes sense for a general audience, so I can't fault the changes that caused. Definitely one of the best "pure Lovecraft" movies.

"The Haunted Palace" (1963) is based on Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". Fun to watch. My favorite music of any horror flick. No Lovecraft spirit, though.

"Dark Waters" (1994) fits the Lovecraft-mythos. I like this one a lot.

"In the Mouth of Madness" (1995) is a good flick, but somehow it's not really Lovecraft to me. It has the story elements, but the spirit seems more like The Exorcist.

The "Dreams in the Witch House" episode of Masters of Horror.

"The Shunned House" (2003) aka. "La Casa sfuggita" is a confusing mix of "The Shunned House", "The Music of Erich Zann", and "Dreams in the Witch House", but has some very good parts.

All of the "H.P. Lovecraft Collection" are worth getting. They've collected some of the best Lovecraft movies and shorts ever done.