Essential Halloween movies

Since last night was Halloween, hopefully everyone got candy, dressed up, and good and drunk. I spent the day lying in bed watching my movies before getting ready to dress up as Cinderella. When I came home I finished my movie watching and decided to list some of what I think are the best scary movies to watch on Halloween.

1) Halloween- It is the quintessential Halloween movie since it is one of the most popular slasher flicks that hello! takes place on the holiday. It's a classic for a reason-has all the horror movie staples: topless women, people who have sex dying, Jamie Lee Curtis, and a crazy killer with no real rhyme or reason to his killings. The film still holds up with scaring you and tension, mostly due to the score. The sequels all sucked, with possible exception being H20, for tying up loose ends and bring Jamie Lee Curtis back.

2) The Exorcist- Almost all adults over thirty and people with good cinematic tastes will tell you this is the best horror movie ever made. Watching it now, there are still parts, especially in the climax, that freak me out. Linda Blair turns in a expectational creepy performance with a couple scenes still burned in my mind. I never saw any of the sequels, but this should have always been a stand alone flick.

3) Scream- This is my all time favorite scary movie. I love the series, it ended perfectly with a trilogy where the story came together. Sidney Prescott is the best horror movie heroine since Laurie Strode, and I'd say she is better because she fought back and outsmarted the killer. The series never really lost it's ground, but nothing beats the first one. That opening scene with Drew Barrymore and the conversation is such a scary scene in that it is sort of realistic. I still get chills when Drew is trying to get out of the house and sees the killer running in the hallway. Scream actually gave us a killer with motive, ones who were human and would die when they were shot. The series also started off the new slasher pics of the late 90's. It also helped Dimension establish themselves as promising film company.

4) Hocus Pocus- Who said Halloween movies have to be scary? You can have a nice family movie about witches and teens and a young Thora Birch. The movie has some adult humor in it for the parentals, mainly provided by our three witches: Bette Midler as the ringleader, a pre-Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker, and comic relief Kathy Najimy. Maybe I love it because I remember seeing it in theaters as a child, and it holds up because of nostalgia.

5) A Nightmare on Elm Street- Freddy Krueger is my favorite of the 80's slasher series character. Jason just walks around with a hockey mask. Michael Meyers just walks fast and is human yet unkillable. Never saw Pinhead or Candyman. Freddy gets to talk, uses humor when he's on his way to kill people. He has personality, which is why most Freddy fans root for him in the series. Watching this one all the years later, it's not that scary, but I remember how scared I was as a kid especially because of the premise that he would get you in your dreams. Pretty ingenious. The scene where an sleep deprived Nancy dozes off in the tub and wakes up with a tub of blood, still gives me a chill. Plus, it's the beginning of Johnny Depp's career!

6) Carrie- I think every high schooler needs to watch this movie. Maybe if we could all understand and empathize with the pain of our tortured heroine Carrie, we could all be a little more accepting of the outcasts in our schools. Or at least be warned that karma will get you and the outcast may end up exacting her revenge at the prom after you dump pigs blood on her. I think besides the horror of Carrie when she turns or her awfully creepy mother (played to perfection by Piper Laurie), this movie brings the heebie geebies. Plus there is a young John Travolta and a big haired Amy Irving. It also has complexity to the terror Carrie exacts, because she was really just a victim of her environment and powers beyond her control. The words "They are all gonna laugh at you!" have to hurt anyone who ever felt left out growing up.

7) Friday the 13th- What produces probably the most sequels for any horror movie, this series did get worse and worse, sillier and pitiful as they went on. The first one still holds some chills, as is the pattern with these. Jason doesn't even appear in this one but no matter, we get his creepy mom Mrs. Voohres, who even kills a young Kevin Bacon by slitting his throat from under the bed.

8) Saw- I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of these movies. The first one was pretty inventive. You got the kind of killer who had a reason for his crimes, more than just revenge. It was a sadistic and twisted reasoning, but the killer is trying to do something good. The series has captured the attention of my generation and started off the whole torture porn genre, which seems to finally be on the way out. The Saw films do benefit that they actually have a fulfilled storyline that continues through each movie, and hopefully wraps itself up before we get to a tenth film.

9) The Shining- Let me preface by saying I love Jack Nicholson. Love him, adore him, think he is one of the most charismatic actors ever. Everyone I know thinks of Jack as a good actor, but creepy. This movie is a huge reason why. I can refute it, but whenever I actually watch this, I have to agree. He still has his sexy charm, but between him chasing his family, the naked old woman, and the redrum twins, this is a freaky flick.

10) It- Nothing is scarier than a clown. Well expect for Chucky, but that is a childhood fear. The opening scene with Pennywise still freaks me out. The rest of the movie does not hold up once you are over ten years old. However, it is pretty funny to watch and laugh at, especially at the end when the clown turns into a big bug. I don't think Stephen King wanted it to look as laughable as it turned out.