Halloween Favourites 2009

Well I've been behind on Halloween this year and I can only attribute that to possibly having too much in my head and not enough time to execute.

So here are some images and views on some of my fav scary films.

Alien. This will always be at the top of my list. I was 9 when this came out and it wasn't scary in the sense that I went away terrified, but the overall suspense of the film and the waiting to see just what this alien was going to do and to who and how just scared the shit out of me. I can tell you that my favourite combination is horror and space/science fiction.
Trick r Treat. This was a pretty cool movie. Not all hack and slash but a fair bit of it. This one came out last year and I don't know how I missed this one. It takes a Tales From the Crypt/Creepshow approach in the fact that there are four story lines going on in this film and they all arc together in the end. The key to the film is the very opening sequence. In the first 5 minutes you have your first kill. Not surprising is Britt McKillip in a role suited to her now typecasted image. Here she is playing an emotionless little bitch and pulling it off successfully. Then there is Ana Paquin......not sure what her decision was to do this film, but I can say that I can see why she is took the lead role for TrueBlood. This one is a must see.
Final Destination 2. This is my fav of the series. No I haven't seen number 4. Not sure I want to but I may have to in order to see how far the producers can fling that steaming pile. The body count isn't any higher than the first but I think the deaths were a little more creative and I can see some of them actually happening under the right circumstances. Definitely the best of the first three.
Rear Window. Alfred Hitchcock. Enough said. Voyeurism taken to a new level. Hitchcock just has a way of taking the everyday and making it into something suspenseful. One of my fav Hitchcock films. This one was later remade with Shia Lebuef as Disturbia. See the original instead.
Dial M For Murder. I actually don't recall a lot from this one since it has been a few years since I saw it last. The premise is great. Again, Alfred Hitchcock. Nuff said. Here a man plans to kill his wife and hires a man with a rather seedy reputation to do the job and things go wrong when the man's blackmail attempts backfire and the hired hitman is killed. This was later remade with Michael Douglas and Gweneth Paltrow as A Perfect Murder. See the original.
An American Werewolf in Paris. First off I have to say that after all the years it took to make a follow up to An American Werewolf In London that I find it hard to believe this was the best that anyone could come up with. Julie Delpy was a nice touch to the film and I do like the backstory involving her family. The special effects are so much better over the original. In the end I do like this one. There are too few werewolf films out there and this one is pretty cool compared to say Silver Bullet which was just a big steamy pile of crap. This film has had the potential to spawn more American Werewolf films, but I'm glad it hasn't.
Twilight Zone The Movie. I don't consider this to be a horror or even a suspense film, but there are elements to it that are just fitting for this time of year. For those movie geeks out there you should take notice that John Landis wrote and directed the first story starring Vic Morrow and has cleverly placed a line in the film with reference to his earlier film, Animal House. My favourite of the stories in this film is the last one with John Lithgow on the airplane being torn apart mid air by some kind of demon. This role was originally played by William Shatner in the original tv series.

Another thing that I really enjoyed in this film was the introductory with Dan Akroyd and Albert Brooks talking about the Twilight Zone series and reminiscing about the one with Burgess Meredith only to have the movie narrated by Burgess Meredith. A must see and great anytime of year really.
The Village. This is one of M Night Shyamalan's best films. Let's face it folks his last two films were no better than rotting road apples. I loved the suspense of not knowing what the creature was for a good portion of the film and not seeing this creature for sometime either. I like the darker overtone this one had compared to his earlier films. A must see for suspense freaks.
Wrong Turn. This was just a plain weird and creepy film. In not sure of the reality of in-breeders and their behaviour in general, but this film sure plays on the myth pretty well. This is a pretty cool hack and slash and make up is pretty good. Amusing at least once. I recently saw the second one and it really paled compared to the first. Not even Henry Rollins was able to salvage the second.
White Noise. This one started out a little slow in my opinion. It did pick up a and I found it pretty intriguing. I'm not sure how much of this is based on reality or if there's even been a study done on white noise, but this film did make my skin crawl like a toddler on a dirty floor.
The Host. I was first introduced to this film back in 2007 while working on our film, The Book of Zombie. I do like this one and I like that it's great example of an new generation films coming out of foreign countries. It's a bit of Jaws with a creature that looks like something from Skywalker ranch. Not very suspensful, but still another great creature film with a backstory that's been done before.

I had another one, but I had it on last years list so I will spare you all. There are so many great horror, suspense films out there and I encourage everyone to branch out and watch as many as possible. No matter how cheesy and ridiculous they may seem, they are in a class all their own and offer something for everyone.

Happy Halloween.