Wednesday, October 8, 2014

What To Watch For Halloween

Wednesday! So far so good on keeping up with the Halloween posts. 
I am planning on having a little Halloween giveaway this week, if I can figure out rafflecopter. So keep an eye out for that. I believe it will "go live" tonight at midnight. Now onto my favorite Halloween shows...

There are so many creepy, scary, weird and fun films and TV shows that you can watch this time a year to get into the Halloween mood. I could name at least a hundred right off the top of my head. Instead I limited my list to films I enjoy enough to own a copy of them.
I remember watching this as a kid every October. It isn't scary but it is rather entertaining. As a kid this was my first introduction to the different customs of Halloween. This film used to be on every year but for the past couple of years it hasn't been played on TV. I somehow managed to score a VHS copy of it. It is one of my prized possession. 

The story basically revolves around a group of friends trying to save the life of another friend and in doing so learns about the history of Halloween. It is really family friendly.
And for the Trekies, Leonard Nimoy voices the "villain".

I love this movie! Great music, weird characters, awesome fashion and Tim bloody Curry as a Sweet Transvestite. I have Rocky Horror shirts, posters and the soundtrack. The great thing about Tulsa, OK is the nearly yearly production of Rocky Horror as the stage musical. A few years ago I went to the Rocky Halloween. An outdoor stage event where hundreds of people came dressed in all sorts of costumes, singing and doing the "Time Warp".
That was a beautiful night. And this is a wonderful film


This is a British TV series about a girl at a boarding school where her life gets really complicated. A fallen angel, played by the very sexy and charming Michael Fassbender, wants her to to carry his child, the Antichrist. He also kills her lesbian best friend who sticks around as a ghost. It is a really interesting show with some pretty impressive actors. There are only two seasons of this show and the second season is hard to come by in the USA. Honestly season one is the best because the two main characters leave after that.


I have no idea how I managed to have a VHS copy of this film. This movie was banned for decades in many places including parts of the USA and UK.
With the latest American Horror Story being set in a  Freak Show I feel that this movie will be brought back into conversation. 
It is not a bad film. It is just a difficult film to be PC when writing about it. But I will say that the subplot with the "normals" Venus and Phroso is really sweet.   

 Gothic 
A fictionalized account of the weekend party that inspired Frankenstein. An amazing cast brings to life the figures. Julian Sands as poet Percy Shelley, Gabriel Byrne as the notorious Lord Byron and the lovely Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley.
This film is visually stunning and creepy. Ken Russell films can be both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. 

This is a dark version of the Snow White fairy tale. And I do mean dark. Although I really like the change from the dwarfs to outcast miners. It just works well in this version. 
This film is proof that Sigourney Weaver can play anything, bad-ass Ripley turns into creepy wicked step-mother. 
I took a Children's Lit class in High School where we discussed Grimm's Fairy Tales and where they came from. This version is more like the original before the Grimm brothers adapted it for a broader audience. Original fairy tales were pretty gruesome. Human hearts anyone?


By far the weirdest film on the list. Dario Argento's Phantom is gory and really freaking creepy. This is not your Lloyd-Webber musical.
Julian Sands play a non-deformed phantom raised by rats. Julian Sands in Room with a View is oddly sweet and even in Gothic there is a romanticism element to him. This film makes Warlock look tame.
Dario Argento's daughter Asia plays the ingenue Christine who gets romantically involved with the phantom.
After watching this I suggest watching Halloween Tree or Rocky Horror as a palette cleanser. 
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Netflix suggestion: Harper's Island
If you have never seen this series do not spoil it for yourself.
It's a really good show and I wish I had not found out who the killer was before I watched it. Try to figure it out on your own as you watch.

4 comments:

  1. Oh man, Harper's Island! I remember watching that on TV! And yes, don't spoil yourself!

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    1. That was a great show and I loved the whole way it played out...even though I spoiled it for myself lol

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  2. Omg, that is my favorite live action version of Snow White! Did you know the costume/set designer for that movie is now the lead designer for Game of Thrones? It's crazy to see such similarities between the two. :)

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    Replies
    1. I didn't know that! Wow it makes so much sense. Cersei does have a Claudia look sometimes hmmm

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