Halloween flicks

As promised, it's a scary movie post. These have been a few of my picks this Halloween season. I enjoyed most of them and hope you do too.

A few favorites of mine...

Halloween- The original is my all time favorite scary movie and a must-see on Halloween for me. I think it's the best out of the series and is very well done for it's time. This was one of the first scary movies I watched all the way through while by myself and even now it still makes me think twice about people in masks on Halloween. For those that haven't seen, it's about Michael Myers- a rather disturbed young man who escapes from a mental institution and returns to his hometown on Halloween to kill as many teenagers as possible. A bit of Halloween trivia- the Michael Myers mask used in the first Halloween movie was made by spray-painting a $1.98 Captain Kirk mask white.

Demon Knight- The better of the two Tales from the Crypt movies I've seen. This is by no means a serious film. Saying anything about the plot would give some things away, so I won't. It's incredibly cheesy at some points but it's fun to watch and has a few pretty well-known actors in it.


And a few that I've just seen for the first time this Halloween season...

The Village- I was quite surprised by this one. I should have known I'd like it when I saw the horrible reviews it got. I really wanted to see it when it came out in theaters but stayed away because of the reviews. Oh well, it's on my to-buy list now. Without giving anything away, the story is about a small village bordered by a large woods and follows the villagers as they deal with some rather nasty neighbors that live in the woods.

The Ring Two- I was disappointed in this one. I enjoyed the first one and had high hopes for this sequel but it seemed rather predictable to me and Samara had lost a lot of her scariness. I knew when the scary parts were coming this time and they weren't that scary when they did happen. The sequel is not based on a Japanese script as the original was and that made a definite difference. The style of the sequel was quite different than the original- more things to make you jump, less things to think about. Sounds like there's a Ring 3 in the works but they should have stopped after the first one.

The Skeleton Key- I really liked this one. Kate Hudson stars as Caroline, a hospice caregiver who cares for an terminally ill man in a creepy, old Louisiana home. Can't say too much as this is a fun one to figure out as you watch. It's got some good make-you-jump parts and a few clever plot twists.

The Omen- Saw the remake with Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber just this morning. Haven't seen the original for comparison yet, but this seems to be a decent version. The story is that the Thorns (Stiles and Schreiber) raise the Antichrist as their son, find out about it, and try to get rid of him. Seamus Davey Fitzpatrick was very good as Damien- quite creepy as he stared down the camera a few times in the film. The film makers left it open for remakes of the sequels too. And an interesting bit of trivia- the original Damien (Harvey Stephens) makes an appearance in the remake as a reporter.

That's what's been in my DVD player lately. Hope you see something you like and I'd be interested to hear if your opinions differ on any of the films. I'm off to carve pumpkins this evening and enjoy whatever spooky shows are on tonight.