10 Movie Suggestions for Halloween of 2009

Halloween is just around the corner and for the fourth consecutive year I am here to recommend some horror films/thrillers for you to partake in during the week or on that night which is the eve of All Saints Day.

The first few years I tried recommending unconventional horror films and discovered that weren't that many that I would recommend to you. Last year I was more conventional and this year I am taking a few risks with films that aren't very popular and may not be popularly remembered. My list will also include two films that should be a staple for any Halloween viewing event and one or two movies that just might be difficult to find. You will also find a few guilty pleasures as well.

You won't find on my lists such conventional horror films as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13^th, The Exorcist and so on. Anyone can comprise a list with those films and that wouldn't make it bad. I just choose to try and be a little different and expand my readers' film knowledge and also get them to watch movies they would otherwise watch.

Here are my ten recommendations in alphabetical order. I hope you get to watch at least one of them and remember to tell yourself, "It's only a movie."

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973 - Director: John Newland) This is, by far, the most frightening made for television movie to come out of that era. 36 years after it was first broadcast I can still remember this movie almost scene for scene including an ending that will never leave my mind. Kim Darby and Jim Hutton star as a married couple who inherit a mansion not knowing that the mansion is also home to a group of demon-like creatures who are petrified of the light and take quite a shine to Ms. Darby when she moves in and decide they want her to become one of them. The film is a brief 74 minutes (standard for TV movies of the day) and director Newland (creator and host of the classic One Step Beyond) gets the film going immediately and doesn't bog it down with exposition in regards to these creatures. They are there and we, the viewer, either buy it or not. Obviously I did since it made such an impression on me. If I had written this review any of the last three years I would be lamenting its unavailability but I am thrilled to tell you this film is now out on DVD and though it may be a little hard to find it is worth digging for and watching this or any Halloween. It is unforgettable.

DRESSED TO KILL (1980 - Director: Brian DePalma) Director DePalma fashioned an erotic thriller that does deserve comparison to Hitchcock as do several of his other films. Here Angie Dickinson stars as a sexually frustrated woman looking for some thrills in her life who soon finds more than she's bargained for. Michael Caine plays her psychiatrist who becomes involved in a mystery all his own while Nancy Allen plays a call girl who may be the only witness to a brutal murder. To tell you more would be criminal to the first time viewer who deserves to let this terrific mystery unfold on its own. DePalma creates memorable images and moments (a terrific scene in a museum is played totally without dialogue) that show him at the top of his game. My only complaint may seem like a big one to some but I found it rather easy to identify the killer but was still so caught up in it all that it never really bothered me like it probably should have. The last ten minutes will positively keep you on the edge of your seat.

FADE TO BLACK (1980 - Director: Vernon Zimmerman) This virtually forgotten black comedy/thriller deserves to be discovered again, particularly for fans of the film Breaking Away and it's star Dennis Christopher. Here Christopher does a complete 180 degree turn as young Eric Binford, a movie buff who works at a company that transports movies into the film cans that go from theater to theater. Eric is a loner and thought of as strange (including by one of his co-workers played by a then unknown Mickey Rourke) by everyone around him including his grandmother whom Eric cares for as she is wheelchair bound and the young blonde Marilyn Monroe look alike that Eric falls for. One day enough becomes enough and soon Eric begins murdering those he feels have caused him emotional harm. Eric's method of murder is either recreating famous movie deaths or dressing as his favorite movie baddies. This is a fun little movie that can hit you either the right or wrong way. I enjoyed it though it has its flaws. Director Zimmerman showed some flashes of an interesting career but to date has never directed another full length movie (he did direct a short in 1995 and has written a few movies). Christopher's agonizing portrayal of a man wanting to fit in but love his movies at the same time, after his terrific performance in Breaking Away, made it seem he was ticketed for great fame but that eluded him though he still pops up now and then on television.

THE FOG (1980 - Director: John Carpenter) For me no Halloween season is complete without viewing at least three of John Caprenter's films and The Fog, his follow up film after Halloween put him on the map, is a tense, eerie and stylish mood piece completely opposite from his previous film. The film opens with a campfire where John Houseman (is there anyone better to tell a ghost story) tells a group of bug eyed kids a tale of terror that will then form the basis for the body of the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Janet Leigh (in her first movie in over a decade) and Tom Atkins star. The film was considered disappointing in its original release because it was less violent and more story driven than the outright scare-fest that was Halloween but the film has grown in stature through the years and is now considered one of Carpenter's best films by his most ardent fans.

THE FUNHOUSE (1981 - Director: Tobe Hooper) Tobe Hooper is considered one of the modern masters of horror, a title I have never subscribed to. Hooper's films show imagination but lack suspense and satisfactory payoffs. I realize I am in the minority but I have never liked his Texas Chainsaw Massacre, LifeForce, Invaders From Mars, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Eaten Alive. Hooper's best known film is probably Poltergeist but it's no longer a secret that Hooper stepped aside early on in production and Steven Spielberg took over directing duties for much of the film, so that doesn't count. But Hooper did manage to create one creepy little film called The Funhouse and it tells the story of a group of teenagers who go to a carnival (already a creepy setting that Hooper takes full advantage of) and then decide to hide in the funhouse and spend the night to see what happens. I am sure you can guess not everyone is going to make it home but Hooper develops his characters smartly so we care about them and keeps most of the carnival workers hidden in just the right shadows to keep it scary. The film isn't without its problems but it's tense and scary enough to keep one interested and also has a terrific musical score.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978 - Director: Philip Kaufman) This was a tough choice as to whether I should go with the classic original or its terrific remake but since I am taking an original classic down the list some I decided to go with this remake starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum and Veronica Cartwright as a group of people who discover that people are changing into soulless, emotionless pod people soon to take everything over. Kaufman injects thrills with some laughs and pays proper homage to the original by giving cameos to original star Kevin McCarthy (seemingly continuing his last scene from the original) and original director Don Siegel (as a cab driver who gives away that he has humans in his backseat). This is well worth watching even with the original film for a night of eeriness. The last scene is unforgettable.

JOY RIDE (2001 - Director: John Dahl) One of the better thrillers of the last decade was this creepy little gem with Paul Walker and Steve Zahn as brothers who drive across country to pick up Walker's girlfriend from college and make the mistake of playing a practical joke on the wrong truck driver. From then on the truck driver makes sure to terrorize them in ways they (and we) never fully expect. Director Dahl creates a taut thriller with a few surprises and though the film stretches some credibility there is an air of tension that remains to the finish. This is a fun watch.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968 - Director: George A. Romero) I have tinkered with putting this film on one of my lists in prior years but felt it too conventional, but having re-watched it recently I think it's worthy of the highest of recommendations. This is the original classic, the one that started it all. The one that helped create the current hit Zombieland as well as Shaun of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead and so many others not to mention the sequels and the remakes and the remakes of the sequels. But this one tells a deceptively simple story of a group of survivors trapped in a farmhouse while zombies run loose outside. Romero creates his tension through common situations and makes it all the more terrifying by shooting in black and white so we can only imagine what the blood and guts really look like. I have always admired Romero's 1978 follow up Dawn of the Dead, but this film deserves the highest kudos and should be experienced every Halloween.

PSYCHO II (1983 - Director: Richard Franklin) This may be a controversial choice to some but I recently watched this film for the first time in 25 years and was stunned and just how well it was made. The problem with the film? It happens to be a sequel to one of the great films of all time and, thus, had two strikes against it from the get go. Australian director Franklin and his writer Tom (Fright Night) Holland create a perfectly believable thriller in which Norman Bates (again played by the irreplaceable Anthony Perkins) is released from the mental institution and returns to the Bates Motel to start life over again. Soon enough people start turning up dead and Norman is unsure if he is the one responsible or not. The filmmakers do keep the film the viewers guessing and the ending is a surprise. The film features a strong supporting cast including Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz and Vera Miles (recreating her role from the original film. If the film had any other title it might be better known but it was straddled with this one forever but deserves more than it has gotten. It's a decent film, not great, but a worthy follow up and certainly better then the atrocious sequels that would follow this one. And make sure to look fast for Alfred Hitchcock as he, too, makes a shadowy appearance early in the film.

THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951 - Director: Christian Nyby) I am a confessed fan of John Carpenter's remake and find it to be superior but I am struck by how well this original horror film not only still holds up but still frightens. The story is familiar enough - a group of scientists in the Antarctic are at the mercy of a creature on the loose. In this case it is a man in make-up played by Gunsmoke's James Arness. This is a terrific film that is rumored to have been mostly directed by its producer, Howard Hawks, and not the credited Nyby. This, too, should be a Halloween staple and adding Carpenter's remake makes for an evening of pure terror.