Halloween Movie Night

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, my wife and I have traditionally watched a movie on Halloween night, in between handing out candy to Trick-or-Treat'ers, and I'm trying to think of something appropriate for this year.  We're not really scary movie fans, thus most of your standard Halloween fare isn't really our cup of tea.  The first year we did Ghostbusters, and that was awesome, but we haven't found anything else that worked as well.  We watched Night of the Living Dead (the original) one disasterous year .  I was thinking about maybe getting some of the classic monster movies (I'd sorta' like to see Wolfman or Frankentsein), but I don't have anything really definite in mind.  Do y'all have any suggestions?

[JeyNyce]

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
Directed by Mel Brooks. With Leslie Nielsen, Mel Brooks

Great movie!

[lugaru]

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
Directed by Mel Brooks. With Leslie Nielsen, Mel Brooks

Great movie!

Ironically it is closer to the novel than the "Bram Stroker" movie was.

If you guy's dont mind a little bit of blood I really recomend Trick R Treat... it is very fun and very 1980's.

http://www.theconnoisseurs.com/trickrtreat.html

Paranormal Activity is another recent one with not much gore and a few laughs along the way. Very good, creepy, funny.

As for classics and funny ones I'll get back to you.

[Glitch Girl]

Young Frankenstein!  That's my halloween movie!

Evil Dead and/or Army of Darkness are both fun too.

[ow_tiobe_sb]

The Others (with Nicole Kidman) struck me as a rather interesting, non-frightening, supernatural thriller, though I would never offer it as a classic movie monster film.  If you are interested and have not seen it, watch it in complete ignorance of the plot; otherwise, your viewing experience may be absolutely spoiled.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[BentonGrey]

Young Frankenstein!  Why didn't I think of that?  Great suggestion GG, we've never seen the entire thing, and it is definitely a classic.  I would LOVE to do Army of Darkness, but the wife doesn't find it quite as awesome as she should.  We were actually talking about watching the original Frankenstein, but I think watching that one would be a lot of fun.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a great movie!  I saw that one years ago, and I bet my wife would really enjoy it.  We'll have to either do that one this year too, or save it for next year.

I'll check Trick R Treat out Lu, it sounds cool.  I don't think Paranormal Activity would sit well with the Mrs., she tends to get creeped out with things like that. 

Ohh, I've seen the Others, Tiobe.  Very well made movie, but yeah, something you have to go into unawares. 

Thanks for the excellent suggestions guys, I knew y'all would come through for me!

[Viking]

Another movie that you might consider is Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

[daglob]

Serious stuff:

Night of the Demon/Mark of the Demon

I Walked with a Zombie

The Invisible Man

The Bride of Frankenstein

Any other classic Universal monster movie

Last Man on Earth

The Uninvited

The Cat People

It Came From Outer Space

Dementia 13

Targets (Boris Karloff plays a has been horror actor)

The Tingler

The House on Haunted Hill

The Body Snatchers

Not Quite So Serious Stuff:

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Young Frankenstein

The Raven (Karloff, Price, and Lorre-what more could you ask?)

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Invasion of the Saucer Men

Them!

The Monolith Monsters

Most any Jack Arnold monster movie

[JeyNyce]

Another movie that you might consider is Disney's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

NICE PICK!!!

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Best horror/thriller film of all time: The Final Sacrifice.  If you do not watch it, you will never know the joys of repeating the name "Zap Rowsdower" to yourself in awkward public situations.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[Glitch Girl]

owtiobe neglected to mention that the above movie was featured on MST3K.  Take that as you will. 

[ow_tiobe_sb]

owtiobe neglected to mention that the above movie was featured on MST3K.  Take that as you will. 

And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[BentonGrey]

Best horror/thriller film of all time: The Final Sacrifice.  If you do not watch it, you will never know the joys of repeating the name "Zap Rowsdower" to yourself in awkward public situations.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

"So....Rowsdower...is that a stupid name?"

"Buy me anything in there with Larry Csonka on it, I'll pay for it!"

Yeah........that's one of the greatest MST3K episodes of all time.

Whoa, awesome list Daglob!  It figures that you'd have some good suggestions on this angle.  I've seen roughly half of those, but there are several on there that I hadn't heard about.  I'm going to have to check out The Raven, that just sounds awesome.

[herodad1]

have you ever seen " Something Wicked This Way Comes "? oddly enough its a Disney movie thats scarey. its about two childhood friends that live in a small town in the 50's. a dark,omnious, circus rolls into town during the night. its spooky but not over the top and no gore, cursing, or skin. Real good story! i think you'd like it. it has a good autumn Halloween feel to it.

[BentonGrey]

have you ever seen " Something Wicked This Way Comes "? oddly enough its a Disney movie thats scarey. its about two childhood friends that live in a small town in the 50's. a dark,omnious, circus rolls into town during the night. its spooky but not over the top and no gore, cursing, or skin. Real good story! i think you'd like it. it has a good autumn Halloween feel to it.

Ohh, is it based on the Ray Bradbury story?  I certainly might be interested in that!

[The Hitman]

*cough* Blacula *cough*

[herodad1]

actually i think it is Ray Bradbury's. it is really good. i think its what your looking for. my wife hates scary movies but she enjoyed it.

[laughing paradox]

If you're looking for more of a fun horror movie, I would recommend Shaun of the Dead. It has a few scary scenes, but nowhere near the amount of humorous scenes.

Young Frankenstein might be a great choice, or Beetlejuice. Oh, or Gremlins. 

[ow_tiobe_sb]

♫ Rowsdower ♪

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[BWPS]

The newer Wolfman movie was surprisingly good.

[Reepicheep]

The Others (with Nicole Kidman) struck me as a rather interesting, non-frightening, supernatural thriller, though I would never offer it as a classic movie monster film.  If you are interested and have not seen it, watch it in complete ignorance of the plot; otherwise, your viewing experience may be absolutely spoiled.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

I'm with Tiobe here, this was a great watch.

That being said, during one of the suspenseful moments, I had to leave the room to relieve myself. Hit the light switch of the next room and the bulb literally exploded into pieces.

I still haven't really recovered.

[Mr. Hamrick]

have you ever seen " Something Wicked This Way Comes "? oddly enough its a Disney movie thats scarey. its about two childhood friends that live in a small town in the 50's. a dark,omnious, circus rolls into town during the night. its spooky but not over the top and no gore, cursing, or skin. Real good story! i think you'd like it. it has a good autumn Halloween feel to it.

Ohh, is it based on the Ray Bradbury story?  I certainly might be interested in that!

The original is good but it's one movie that deserves to be remade in my opinion.  Nothing against the actors in it, though.  It's simply the fact that, in the right hands, that film would be amazing today.  Especially now that Disney is willing to make live action films with a higher than PG rating.  The original was relatively sanitized "for Disney audiences" and visually weak in some areas.  Granted it's been a while since I have seen it but it was more along the lines of a "Goosebumps" episode with some of it tone than it was a serious effort to scare anyone.  It counted on the fact that kids scare relatively easily so it was also "not too scary".  I've heard that there were a lot of "off screen conflicts" regarding the vision for the film.  Basically, you had issues between Bradbury (who also wrote the screenplay) and the director who wanted to make a more family friendly Disney film despite Disney hiring him to do a film that would appeal to older audiences and prove they could do more than "family friendly films and animation".  To that extent, the director hired a guy to do uncredited rewrites. 

Bradbury stated that it was "not a great film, no, but a nice one". 

It could've been so much more.   And like I said, it's a film that I would love to see remade someday.  Though not anytime soon.  It's one of the few films that I would like to direct a remake of.  LOL!

[Deaths Jester]

Alrighty..step back folks and let the horror movie buff in.  Here's a just a short list of the old schoolers you MUST see (all are original, not remakes)


The Wolfman
The Mummy
Dracula
Halloween
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
White Zombie
The Fly
Night of the Living Dead
The Abominable Dr Phibes


There are more but I cannae remember off the top of my head...will get a complete list up in the next few days..hopefully.

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Two silent films that were highly influential in defining the genre just popped into memory: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922).  I would highly recommend both. 

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[Glitch Girl]

A personal treat, the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney, which is shown at a local restored movie palace every year with live organ accompaniment on the restored Wurlitzer (which is like having a full orchestra, chorus, and sound effects machine in one device). 

Even without the live music part, I prefer it to the musical.

[ow_tiobe_sb]

A personal treat, the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney, which is shown at a local restored movie palace every year with live organ accompaniment on the restored Wurlitzer (which is like having a full orchestra, chorus, and sound effects machine in one device).  

Even without the live music part, I prefer it to the musical.

I was fortunate enough to attend a screening of Fritz Lang's Metropolis with a live orchestra many moons ago.  'Tis an experience that cannot be recreated in the home, no matter how far the home theatre technology advances.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Whirled Braker

[murs47]

Watch the series premier of The Walking Dead.

[daglob]

Nosferatu is just plain creepy.

The original Phantom of the Opera is very good.

Both are worth watching.

Sadly, I've never seen all of The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari.

Regarding The Raven: there has been a "new" movie in the past few years to use the title, so don't be fooled. The Karloff/Price/Lorre move has a wizard battle, which, considering Roger Corman's budget, was pretty good (take that Harry Potter).

Also, there was an oldie but a goodie with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi with the same title, different story. Very scary.

[Deaths Jester]

Alrighty, I said I'd go back to the true lsit...so here it is...it's but a taste really but hopefully it helps:

Apocalypse Now
Basket Case
Bad Taste
The Banker
M
The Black Cat (1934)
The Blob
Alien
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Cat People
Doctor X
The Exorcist
Frankenstein
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Lodger
The Mummy
Mystery of the Wax Museum
The Thing
White Zombie
Alice in Wonderland
The Wizard of Oz
Night of the Living Dead
Nosferatu
Picture of Dorian Gray
The Pit and the Pendulum
Psycho
Un Chien Andalou
House of Wax
A Clockwork Orange
The Hunger
Re-Animator
Dracula, Prince of Darkness (Hammer studios)
The Mummy (Hammer Studios)
Rasputin the Mad Monk (Hammer Studios)
Theatre of Blood
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Masque of Red Death
The Fall of the House of Usher
Carnival of Souls (The movie that Romero based Night of the Living Dead off of)
The Curse of Frankenstein
Duel
The Horror of Dracula
Island of Lost Souls
Pumpkin head
Rosemary's Baby
Taxi Driver
Plague of the Zombies
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (The original silent film)

[Viking]

Hm...  Another movie that I haven't seen mentioned (that only just occurred to me) is "Shadow of the Vampire," starring John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe.  In the age of silent movies, a director (John Malkovich) seeks to make his own vampire movie, and finds an actual vampire (Willem Dafoe) to play the starring role.  But he only tells the rest of the cast and production staff that Dafoe is simply an incredibly committed method actor, who always insists on being in character and appearing in full costume.