Fall has kicked off. Leaves are turning colors and coming down from their tree top hideaways, the weather - even for the briefest of moments - turned cool, and pumpkins have started appearing almost everywhere.
I do love October. Recent tradition has turned it into the start of the Oscar bait releases and I do love those movies. In recent years as well I have developed a fandom for horror movies and with halloween approaching at the end of the month I do try to gobble up as many as I can.
Until about five maybe six years ago I didn’t have my full appreciation of them as I do now. That means I had seen the basics: Halloween, Friday the 13th, some sort of Dracula adaptation, The Shining, and maybe one or two others. As my fandom has grown for the genre so has the number of flicks seen. In honor of the month of October I have assembled my five favorite horror movies in one list and no particular order.
The Shining (1980)
It’s impossible not to include Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant adaptation of the Stephen King novel. To exclude it would be like going to church and not talking about God. Jack Nicholson’s performance is one for the ages and there are moments that still give me a chill every time I see it.
Frankenstein (1931)
There is something classy about James Whale’s movie. Though it has its moments that are cheesy I still watch Boris Karloff come alive with wonder and aw.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Some movies are just plain fun and this flick is one of the granddaddies of those. Its cheesy and filled with stupid one liners, which I love. It also features werewolves and those are always something to enjoy.
Rear Window (1954)
One of two movies I call a perfect movie. (Close Encounters of the Third Kind proudly sits as the other book end with that title). Alfred Hitchcock did it right on so many occasions - Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo just to name a few. What I love about this one is that the movie all takes place in one location and still keeps me on the edge of my seat. In a world of Iphones, youtube, & social media I wish any filmmaker luck in trying to accomplish the same task a fraction as good as what Alfred Hitchcock did with this one.
The Haunting (1963)
After I first saw this movie I refused to allow my hands out of the covers for a week. No other movie in the genre has had that affect on me. I have a love affair with black & white cinematography and this movie uses it to create some playful, scary moments.
Honorable mentions go to George Romero’s 1978 zombie movie Dawn of the Dead, the 90’s thrillers The Sixth Sense & The Silence of the Lambs, Hitchcock’s Psycho, Dario Argento’s breathtaking Suspiria, The Exorcist from 1973, the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Re-Animator, and the timeless slasher flick Halloween by John Carpenter.
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