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Spiffy Halloween Flicks (You Probably Haven't Seen)
15 years ago
General
As Punkin' Day approaches, those of us with a taste for scary movies are getting in the mood with a bit of video entertainment. What to watch, what to watch? Can't go wrong with Carpenter's "Halloween", of course, or maybe "Scream" or "Night of the Living Dead". This year, though, why not mix things up with a selection of some of the more obscure Halloween-themed movies? Here's my pics:
"Lady in White" - A young Lucas Haas stars in this creepy ghost-mystery set in an idyllic small town. Aiming more for atmosphere than splatter, writer/director Frank LaLoggia channels his inner Ray Bradbury to sometimes excessive extremes (the deleted scenes on the DVD are particularly purple, layering on sugary gobs of homespun nostalgia with a trowel), but he often deftly straddles the fine line between whimsical and frightening, and the cinematography is lovely.
"Trick 'r Treat" - You probably blinked and missed Michael Dougherty's bloody, darkly funny ode to Halloween night, since it never got its planned theatrical release and went straight to DVD instead. An unashamedly old-school anthology, the interlocking stories revolve around a serial killing school principal, a busload of undead kids, vampires, werewolves, and a mysterious child in a scary sack mask who perpetually lurks in the background like a silent witness to the carnage.
"FleshEater" - Writer/director/editor/star Bill Hinzman is best known for playing the original "cemetery ghoul" in George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". Perhaps sensing an opportunity to milk his minor celebrity for everything nickel he could get, he essentially re-makes NOTLD here with an even smaller budget and a delightfully Ed Wood-esque lack of skill. Shambling around the woods in his pasty white makeup, gorily munching on horny teens and innocent urchins alike, he's less like your worst nightmare and more like your uncle on Halloween after a few beers.
"Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" - Alvin, Simon and Theodore square off against a neighborhood werewolf in this pre-CG family flick that boasts better than average old-school animation and a few surprisingly funny moments (Simon's dry, snappy comebacks provide some of the best chuckles). It may not be particularly scary, and the grotesque Chippettes, who unfortunately resemble inappropriately tarted-up kewpie dolls, are an unwelcome presence, but at its best, "Wolfman" is an adorable adventure that nicely captures every kid's wildest fantasies about ghosts and goblins living next door.
"Halloween III: Season of the Witch" - Often viciously (and IMHO unfairly) maligned as "that one really bad Halloween flick without Michael Myers in it", SOTW tried to shift the series into supernatural territory with its oddball story of modern-day Celtic witches who plan to use the evil magic of Stonehenge to... well... essentially melt the heads of a whole generation of trick-or-treaters. Yes, that's as ridiculous as it sounds, but it's to the film's credit that it largely plays the absurd situation for sick laughs (while also dishing up some truly nasty gore). Considering how lame many of the subsequent Myers-centric sequels were, SOTW seems now less like a misguided disaster and more like a promising push in a new direction for the series that unfortunately didn't get a chance to happen.
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" - A sinister carnival comes to a quiet town and starts spreading its dark tendrils of influence into the local populace, and only a pair of young boys stand in its way in this flawed but fascinating adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel. Produced by the Disney company, the film is often surprisingly grim and frightening, layering gruesome moments and atmospheric suspense in between its warm blankets of nostalgia for small town Americana. Pam Grier has a small but memorable role as a character called the Dust Witch, while Jonathan Pryce is truly menacing as Mr. Dark, the carnival's mysterious owner: "Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well. To stuff ourselves on other people's torments, and butter our plain bread with delicious pain..."
"Lady in White" - A young Lucas Haas stars in this creepy ghost-mystery set in an idyllic small town. Aiming more for atmosphere than splatter, writer/director Frank LaLoggia channels his inner Ray Bradbury to sometimes excessive extremes (the deleted scenes on the DVD are particularly purple, layering on sugary gobs of homespun nostalgia with a trowel), but he often deftly straddles the fine line between whimsical and frightening, and the cinematography is lovely.
"Trick 'r Treat" - You probably blinked and missed Michael Dougherty's bloody, darkly funny ode to Halloween night, since it never got its planned theatrical release and went straight to DVD instead. An unashamedly old-school anthology, the interlocking stories revolve around a serial killing school principal, a busload of undead kids, vampires, werewolves, and a mysterious child in a scary sack mask who perpetually lurks in the background like a silent witness to the carnage.
"FleshEater" - Writer/director/editor/star Bill Hinzman is best known for playing the original "cemetery ghoul" in George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead". Perhaps sensing an opportunity to milk his minor celebrity for everything nickel he could get, he essentially re-makes NOTLD here with an even smaller budget and a delightfully Ed Wood-esque lack of skill. Shambling around the woods in his pasty white makeup, gorily munching on horny teens and innocent urchins alike, he's less like your worst nightmare and more like your uncle on Halloween after a few beers.
"Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman" - Alvin, Simon and Theodore square off against a neighborhood werewolf in this pre-CG family flick that boasts better than average old-school animation and a few surprisingly funny moments (Simon's dry, snappy comebacks provide some of the best chuckles). It may not be particularly scary, and the grotesque Chippettes, who unfortunately resemble inappropriately tarted-up kewpie dolls, are an unwelcome presence, but at its best, "Wolfman" is an adorable adventure that nicely captures every kid's wildest fantasies about ghosts and goblins living next door.
"Halloween III: Season of the Witch" - Often viciously (and IMHO unfairly) maligned as "that one really bad Halloween flick without Michael Myers in it", SOTW tried to shift the series into supernatural territory with its oddball story of modern-day Celtic witches who plan to use the evil magic of Stonehenge to... well... essentially melt the heads of a whole generation of trick-or-treaters. Yes, that's as ridiculous as it sounds, but it's to the film's credit that it largely plays the absurd situation for sick laughs (while also dishing up some truly nasty gore). Considering how lame many of the subsequent Myers-centric sequels were, SOTW seems now less like a misguided disaster and more like a promising push in a new direction for the series that unfortunately didn't get a chance to happen.
"Something Wicked This Way Comes" - A sinister carnival comes to a quiet town and starts spreading its dark tendrils of influence into the local populace, and only a pair of young boys stand in its way in this flawed but fascinating adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel. Produced by the Disney company, the film is often surprisingly grim and frightening, layering gruesome moments and atmospheric suspense in between its warm blankets of nostalgia for small town Americana. Pam Grier has a small but memorable role as a character called the Dust Witch, while Jonathan Pryce is truly menacing as Mr. Dark, the carnival's mysterious owner: "Your torments call us like dogs in the night. And we do feed, and feed well. To stuff ourselves on other people's torments, and butter our plain bread with delicious pain..."
"Alvin and the Chipmunks" is a cute little family movie, but the only thing that separates it from a movie one would watch any time of the year is the werewolf, which is barely any more a "Halloween anchor" for the movie than Santa's appearance in "Nightmare Before Christmas" is an anchor to make that movie Christmas-appropriate.
"Flesh Eater" and "Lady in White" were both, in my opinion, pretty godawful movies. But they're bad in a manner different from "Season of the Witch." They were both... interesting, I suppose, in how terrible they were. Worth watching at least once, anyway.
I've not heard of "Trick 'r Treat" before, though. Sounds more like a bad slasher flick than actual horror.
I won't say "Season of the Witch" is a great movie, but really, I'd rather watch it than that Halloween movie with Busta Rhymes in it.
"Alvin" might not be a Halloween movie, per se, but it's got a haunted-looking house and a werewolf, so... yeah. Halloween-esque.
"FleshEater" is definitely a "have a brew, get your buddies over and have a good laugh" sort of a movie.
"Lady in White"... not a great film, but fairly different, and with enough good things about it for me to recommend.
"Trick 'r Treat"... depends on your personal tastes, I suppose. I thought it was pretty good.