Saturday, October 31, 2015

The Halloween Five

Satan In Disguise -
Michael Shinafelt

"Happy, Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Happy, Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!"

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a quite underrated movie. John Carpenter and Debra Hill were approached by Universal to do a third Halloween film after the studio picked up the sequel to the indie smash Halloween.

Their plan? To do a franchise under the Halloween banner every year, with a different theme. Turns out the public demanded and only had love for Michael Myers. Gotta give those two credit though for trying to be innovative and fun!

Which brings me to the theme of this year's Season of the Witch post. I am going to give you five of my favorite fright films, in no particular order, with the exception of number one. I bet you already know what that is...
Halloween
Always Number 1!
1) Halloween - This is my one and only when it comes to sheer horror. I can not count how many times I have seen it and how much I love it! It was the first horror film my Father took me to, and it scared the shit out of me. It is still under my skin to this day, even though I know what's coming. Jamie Lee Curtis rules!


2) Excision - Teen angst, domineering mothers, delusional aspirations of being a world class surgeon.
This psychological gore fest is a brilliant feature debut from Director/Writer Richard Bates, Jr. It also features two great performances from AnnaLynne McCord and Traci Lords.


3) Psycho - Like mother like daughter. Janet Leigh shocked the world of cinema by appearing in Alfred Hithcock's then explicit and never seen nothing like it thriller Psycho. Janet as you may or may not know was the mother of future Scream Queen and Halloween star, Jamie Lee Curtis. This movie still holds up today as a master class in film making and what an intelligent slasher film could and should be.
4) The Hunger - was anything sexier than Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie slashing their prey's throats with an ankh and drinking their blood at the height of orgasm? Well, one more thing in this awesome vampire flick was, the sex scene between Deneuve turning Susan Sarandon into her latest immortal fling. Tony Scott's best.


5) Cat People - No, not the original in 1942. That one I never saw the big deal about. But the re-imagining of it by auteur Paul Schrader. While the film is more of an erotic fantasy. It is peppered with enough horror elements and violence to really set it above the cut. With Malcom McDowell at his freaky best and Nastassja Kinski doing what she does best...meow, sex kitten.

While these are not the only Holiday Flicks I love, they are the cream of the crop to me. With John Carpenter's Halloween always remaining #1 in my blackened heart.

Happy Halloween! Until next year...

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