And our Halloween loving week ends with a bang! Genre badass Eric Red and I gave ya
our Halloween movie picks
HERE. Then our ragtag, drunken News Team gave up their
macabre celluloid choices
HERE
and today its our cool cat DVD Reviewers,
straight out of the motherf*cking Pub, spitting out their Halloween night movies of choice. See
what they’ll be watching below! And enjoy the tits!
JAMES OSTER’S PICK
THE CHANGELING (1980)
Read Jimmy’s DVD reviews here!
With all the hype surrounding the latest Indie darling, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, I
thought I’d go ghost for this years Halloween pick. Back in 1980, Peter Medak
directed a superb tale called THE CHANGELING. The story revolves around a
musician hiding himself away in a very large house, after the accidental death
of his wife and child.
Not only is George C. Scott terrific as the grieving
widower, he is backed up by one of the creepiest houses in haunted Hollywood
history. And like any good ghost story, this builds to a very creepy ending
which also happens to reveal a dark and surprisingly sad mystery as to who and
why the dead soul seems to be hanging around.
Very seldom are ghost stories written as elegantly as this. There was no need
for CGI, there was no need for a ton of bloodshed, the spooks were supported by
characters that are sympathetic and a solid story. And not only is this a
beautifully shot film, it happens to have a nice amount of scares that still
hold up today. Quite frankly, the séance sequence is utterly chilling, and don’t
forget about that damn wheelchair.
There is so much to love with The Changeling,
and you can probably find a cheap copy somewhere on DVD. I think I paid five
bucks for mine. I would love to see this get a “Special Edition” DVD with all
sorts of goodies in the form of special features. But until then, if you have
not seen this and you like ghost stories, do yourself a favor and make sure you
check out this timeless horror classic.
RYAN DOOM’S PICK
PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)
There’s a hellva lot of horror movies to recommend this time of year. So it’s with careful consideration and Grand Canyon deep self evaluation that I propose to you, humble reader, to rent John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. Yes, yes, Carpenter is a bit of an obvious choice with Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, and that whole moniker of the “Master of Horror” attached to his name.
However, many of his flicks are underestimated and under seen. Namely, Prince of Darkness, the 1987 story of unearthing the devil with Donald Pleasance, Victor Wong, Dennis Dun, and Alice Cooper. In an era of horror where nothing is left to the imagination, leave it to Carpenter to create an understated story of a college research team that uncover things no human should.
So I offer this rhetorical query. Why go understated when there’s plenty of gore out there to fill your macabre needs? Because sometimes slow is good. Because creepiness can’t be faked. Because sometimes when a director has complete control (as he directs, writes, produces, and scores) viewers get an untouched singular tale. Carpenter’s films play like Poe story set in the 1980s, and this is what makes Prince of Darkness an effective Halloween flick.
It’s everything that a prime Carpenter brought to the table: a slow burning plot, an eerie and constant keyboard soundtrack, subtle performances, and plenty of death. If you haven’t seen it, rent it. If you’ve seen it before, rent it again. Mix a cocktail and enjoy.
ANDRE MANSEAU’S PICK
THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2001)
bring you my recommendation for the season: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra! Now, I
know this might not be your average pick, but let me explain. Sure, you’re going
to watch the scary classics first, but when you’re ready, you sit down with your
friends and you slide this bad boy in.
I’ve actually been waiting for another
opportunity to write about this flick because it’s one of my favorite film
experiences I’ve ever had as a part of the AITH DVD Pub.
This flick is a riot from start to finish, a true homage/send-up of awful
drive-in flicks and Ed Wood films. If you don’t laugh out loud within the first half an hour of this film, we
can never be friends. What impressed me most is how difficult it must have been
to walk the line between absurd and clever, and how well the filmmakers nailed
it.
The plot is pure cheese, and sure to ring familiar, and there are so many
laugh out loud moments that if you’re anything like me, you’ll be quoting this
one at will with all your buddies. In fact, I’ve already forgotten more
hilarious moments than most modern comedies have these days. So when you’re
looking for a laugh on Halloween night, you owe it to yourself to discover this
little independent gem.
ZOMBIE BOY’S PICK
TOURIST TRAP (1979)
Read Zombie Boy’s DVD reviews here!
Rated PG in its time (no doubt would be PG-13 now) it has no nudity, no gore, and very little along the way of blood or cussing. But what it does have is an extremely creepy atmosphere, arresting visuals, genuine dramatic tension, and an ending image that has stuck with me more than any other I have ever seen.
Carrying on the Raimi thread, the opening kill of Tourist Trap cannot be seen as anything other than a precursor to Evil Dead 2, as cabinet doors flap open and laugh manically, and objects in the room fly at some poor chap of their own accord. But later on, when the masked villain Davey (played with horrible glee by Chuck Connors) is spreading plaster on a bound girl’s face and explaining to her how her heart will burst from fear long before she suffocates, well, that is more dread than Sammy-boy has been able to commit to film yet.
So between the palpable dread, the brain-invading Pino Dinaggio score, and a brunette and buxom Tanya Roberts, this dark and scary film is a sure bet for Halloween-night chills.
PAT TORFE’S PICK
THE FLY (1986)
Hell, the dude helped to create the effects for another fave of mine, GREMLINS! The film obviously doesn’t rely entirely on effects alone to sell itself, as Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz all provide some great performances. You know it’s effective when you empathize with Goldblum as he metamorphosizes, or with Davis was at the end of the film, where she has to, well, I’ll save that for you to find out.
Honestly, if you’ve read my reviews before, I could go on about everything about the film, so I’ll leave it at this: get the recently-released DVD CE or (better yet) the Blu-Ray version of the film, which throws everything and the kitchen sink into the set. A great commentary by Cronenberg, a wealth of info in the feature-length documentary, makeup tests, image galleries and more await. Be afraid, be very afraid.
MATT WITHERS’ PICK
THE ENTITY (1981)
I choose a "party" movie for Halloween. Something that is fun, stupid, gory and
easy to check into and out of because if your Halloween is going right then
hopefully you’ve got a multitude of distractions going on. But when I want to
boogie down with a true f*ck you up flick on All Hallows Eve, one of my favs is
THE ENTITY.
It’s a startlingly effective ghost movie given that we spend the majority of the
film’s run time watching Carla Moran (Barbara Hershey) get repeatedly raped by a
ghost or ghosts. It may sound monotonous, exploitive, or both, but instead what
you get is an intense character study on how someone keeps going on in the face
of an unstoppable, evil force.
Part of what makes this pic so damn unsettling is that nobody can help Carla. In
fact, she gets raped in plain view of both her son and her boyfriend with
neither able to do a thing to help her. It pretty much forces any dude watching
the flick to imagine a situation where your chick is being assaulted and you
can’t do anything to help her. It suuuuucks, but hits hard. My only quibble with
the movie is the catastrophically stupid final 10 minutes. Still, THE ENTITY is
all about unrelenting discomfort, not building to a giant payoff. So while the
end is a definite whimper, it can’t diffuse what’s come before.
MIKE CATALANO’S PICK
SATAN’S LITTLE HELPER (2004)
But are there any other “full-sized” candy bars left in our sack of mostly “mini” treats? Actually, there is… And it’s called SATAN’S LITTLE HELPER. This low-budget horror is way more horrifically enjoyable than it has any right to be. The flick makes absolutely no mistake or apology for what it is—a schlocky, take-no-prisoners gore-romp through the jack-o-lantern lit streets of a hokey suburbia town.
I mean, just take a small whiff of the basic plot to see what I mean: a little boy obsessed with a video game called “Satan’s Little Helper” thinks he’s found the chance to live out the game upon running into a murdering masked psycho on Halloween. Is your curiosity already piqued? Well, wait till you see the little boy actually assisting his real-life “Satan” in some real-life slaughtering, all the while thinking that it’s just pretend! It’s sick, bloody, and friggin’ hilarious! And, of course, the whole shebang is meant to not be taken too seriously.
Plus, the performances by most of the cast are surprisingly decent! Everyone appears to be appropriately in on the joke. You may even recognize Amanda Plumber (PULP FICTION, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER) as the mom, and I’m certain you’ll be wowed by the sexy Katheryn Winnick (AMUSEMENT, which sucks) and her oh-so-revealing costume. Heck, even the kid playing the little boy did a great job.
And I’ve gotta make special mention of whoever played our murderous masked “Satan” because the dude doesn’t speak a single word, yet conveys one sadistically funny performance. Kind of like a mime from hell. Hence, I definitely recommend SATAN’S LITTLE HELPER as top-notch Halloween viewing. The only real trick is how this cheesy B-horror movie winds up being such a treat!
TRICK OR TREAT THIS!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN MOFOS AND
MOFETTES!