Halloween Movies

Another grab-bag as work hours, family commitments, and just a bone-deep tiredness have taken up my time this week.

For all that I love Halloween, I haven't had time to do anything for it this year. That sucks.

Ordinarily, there are at least three films I try and watch during this most joyous time of year. What are they, no one asks? Let me tell ya....

Halloween - 1978

Might as well start with the classic, original HALLOWEEN from 1978. Directed by John Carpenter and starring the Jamie Lee Curtis, this is rightfully the movie to which all the following 'slasher' films get compared.

Filmed on a low budget, with dead leaves imported to make the Pasadena, California look something like the film's fictional setting of Haddonfield, Illinois, it's the story of the Boogeyman come to life. The masked, emotionless killer is essentially a force of nature - the inevitabilty of death given physical form as he (it?) stalks Curtis's Laurie Strode and her friends.

Carpenter's direction coupled with his electronic score give the film a mood most of its imitators (as well as its own sequels and remakes) rarely came close to matching. Even forty years later, its being referenced in movies like IT FOLLOWS and the Netflix series STRANGER THINGS.

Trick Or Treat - 1986

Sammi Curr lives!

Okay, this one's almost a one-eighty turn from the last one. A slice of '80s awesomeness, TRICK OR TREAT is the stoy of Eddie "Ragman" Weinbauer and his idol, rock's chosen warrior Sammi Curr.

Eddie's an outcast at his high school due to being a metalhead. His ragged jeans and rock t-shirts don't mesh well with the button-down preppies who comprise most of the student body and he gets taunted mercilessly. His only solace is listening to his music, and it's Sammi Curr's songs that speak to him the most. Especially after Sammi's untimely death and Eddie starts playing his last record backwards. With the advice he gleans from the backwards-masked messages, Eddie gets revenge on some of the jocks that tortured him and even makes a little headway with the prettiest girl in school.

Of course, there's a downside to all this. Sammi is using Eddie as a way back to our world and he's taking no prisoners. Once Eddie figures it out, he realizes he has to stop the resurrection before it's too late.

Yeah, it's a cheesefest, and Eddie (played by Marc Price) isn't the most convincing metalhead in cinematic history, but it's fun and Fastway's music, subbing in for Sammi Curr's, provides one of the better soundtracks out there.

The video releases make a big deal out of Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne appearing in the film tho they're only really cameos - Simmons as Nuke, one of Eddie's only friends, the local rock DJ, and Ozzy hilariously as a televangelist preaching against the sins of heavy metal.

Trick 'r Treat - 2007

It's one of the great crimes in movie history that Michael Dougherty's TRICK 'R TREAT didn't get its theatrical release. It was supposed to come out in time for Halloween in October of 2007 but didn't officially see the light of day until a video release two years later. I've seen a couple of theories but never any definitive reason why.

It's an anthology film, featuring five different stories that occur on the same block on, of course, Halloween. The tales are somewhat interconnected - since they're all happening more-or-less at the same time in the same general area characters from the tales all pass thru the other stories. 

Like all anthologies, some segments work better than others. I don't want to give away too much as there are some twists that shouldn't be spoiled, but I imagine there's something for everyone. My personal favorite tale stars Anna Paquin a shy girl coerced into going to a costume party by her friends. 

So, maybe not the most original choices for this time of year, but sometimes you just have to stick with the classics. 

Feel free to let me know of other Halloween-themed films worthy of inclusion in the holiday play list.

Happy Halloween, folks.