(NOTE- this is last night's entry- TypePad was down, and I couldn't post it)
I have fallen woefully
behind on my Halloween movie list. Tis because work has been a bear lately,
plus I had two huge projects to turn in for school. Why in the hell did I think
that going to grad school plus working a bazillion-hour-a-week job was a grand
idea?! I did get a 95 on my midterm, though. *sigh of relief, considering the
level of non-studying that occurred prior to said test*
Anyhoo, I’m-a gonna catch up tonight. It is freezing here
(for the Halloween saying, let’s go with “Cold as a witches’ titty in a brass
bra”), and there isn’t much else going on. So here we go again (remember: these
are my personal choices, and in no particular order).
#11 - Sleepy Hollow
Tim Burton’s treatment of the classic story. His all-star
cast includes Johnny Depp (Ichabod), Christopher Walken (off with his head! More
Cowbell!), Christina “look at my rack” Ricci, and my buddy Ray Park as the
reanimated Hessian. The most disturbing scene (and there are many to choose
from), is when the horseman kills the parents and then discovers the little boy
hiding underneath the floorboards. *shudder*
Trivia: Sleepy Hollow features three Sith lords
from the Star Wars prequels, Ray
Park (Darth Maul), Christopher
Lee (Darth Tyranus) and Ian
McDiarmid (Darth Sidious).
Best Line:
Young
Masbath: Is he dead?
Ichabod Crane: That's
the problem. He was dead to begin with.
#12 - Disney’s The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow
This is one of my favorite movies ever. You can read an
earlier mention of it here.
So when you're
riding home tonight
Make for the bridge with all your might
He'll be down in the hollow there
He needs your head, look out, beware
#13 - Beetlejuice
Another favorite, another Tim Burton film. Starring a wonderfully-cast
Michael Keaton in the title role, Beetlejuice
follows the lives and deaths of Adam and Barbara, simple folks who die and are
forced to watch their home be taken over by the immensely neurotic Deetz
family. Beetlejuice offers his services as a bio-exterminator, taking an
interest in daughter Lydia Deetz at the same time. But the plot just isn’t
important- what’s important is the extreme bizarreness of this film. From the
sandworms to the weird little muppet preacher to the greatest possession scene
ever filmed, Beetlejuice is pure
strange. And it has been a favorite movie of mine since about the 5th
grade.
Best Line:
Delia: I will live with you in this hellhole, but I must
express myself. If you don't let me gut out this house and make it my own, I
will go insane and I will take you with me.
#14 - Night of the
Creeps
This is a truly bad movie, but we had it on a tape when we
were kids, and watched it constantly. The deep plot revolves around alien slug parasites
that jump into people’s moths and turn them into zombies. Umm, yeah, it’s as
great as it sounds.
Best Line:
Detective
Cameron: Well, girls, the good news is your dates are here.
Sorority Sister: What's the bad news?
Detective Cameron:
They're dead
#15 - Something Wicked
This Way Comes
Decidedly dark for a Disney flick, this one, based on a Ray
Bradbury novel, manages to be dark and creepy and fascinating all at the same
time. And could there ever be a better name for an antagonist than “Mr. Dark”? I
personally think that Stephen King took this story and modified it for his
novel “Needful Things.” He just added some sex, a touch of gore, and voila!
Seriously, though, if you haven’t seen this one and want to watch a family Halloween
film, you owe it to yourselves to check it out.
Best Line: By the pricking of my thumbs, something
wicked this way comes.
#16 - The Rocky Horror
Picture Show
Not really a Halloween movie, but it has the word “Horror”
right there in the title, and I sincerely believe that anything Tim Curry is in
should be put in the Horror section. It, Legend, Clue, Annie…the guy is
convincingly terrifying in every role. The basic plot here is that they sing,
cross-dress, and eat meatloaf. Then they turn out to be aliens and blast off
into the sky at the end. Duh!
Trivia: This
movie has been shown in theaters continuously since opening in 1975, making it
the longest-running movie in history.
Best Line:
Janet:
Oh, Brad, I'm frightened. What kind of a place is this?
Brad: Oh, it's
probably some kind of hunting lodge for rich weirdos
#17 - The ‘burbs
This is my list and I say this is a scary movie. Comedy, my
ass. I watched it in about the 3rd grade and was traumatized. Those
neighbors! The furnace! The bones! Seriously, it frightened me so much that my
parents were actually quite concerned. I have never watched it again to confirm
or deny my initial reaction.
Best Line: No,
I've never seen that, I've never seen anyone drive thier garbage out to the
curb and bang the hell out of it with a stick.
#18/#19 - Evil Dead 2 & Army of Darkness
Let’s all hail to the king, baby. Bruce Campbell as Ash and Sam
Raimi (before he went Hollywood) combine to make two of the best horror/comedies
ever. Through the course of the two films, Ash goes from working at S-Mart to
cutting off his own possessed hand, to attaching a chainsaw to the stump, to
battling medieval “deadites”, to fighting a cadre of mini-Ashes, to getting
poked in the eye, Three Stooges style, by skeletal hands. All while jutting
out that amazing chin and hurling witty (and sometimes not) lines left and
right. Mere words cannot describe the genius of these films.
Best Line (How can I
choose just one?!):
Arthur:
Are all men from the future loud-mouthed braggarts?
Ash: Nope. Just me
baby... Just me.