Burly Writer

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I'm a Writer, if by Writer you mean a misanthrope.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Horror...the Horror: Halloween Movies!

Ever since I was a kid in the 1970s, I've understood that Halloween for little kids is putting on a cheap plastic mask and rubber-smell (ahhh, how great it was) body vest with Frankenstein Monster or the Hulk on it, bought from K-Mart in those cool boxes with the transparent window so you could see the mask. The thing is, you can only do this until you're, like, nine or ten at the outside. Then you're a partial-grown thug bullying the small kids on Halloween night.

What happens is, you start having the Halloween Creature Feature type thing, movies throughout the evening and night. I feel like this was a serious part of Halloween when I was growing up. I think it was so wonderful and accessible because horror movies were all classics from the 1930s-1960s, so everyone knew them and loved them, and rarely did they need to be "edited for television." These days, with all the Jasons and Freddies and Aliens and Predators running around, it's hard to have a Halloween movie night where the kids and the adults can all watch.

That said, I'm not making a list for General Audiences. Just for me. And you, lover.

My favorite Halloween movies for Halloween, in no particular order!











2 comments:

  1. Que tal, pal?
    Gooood list, you been pawing through my Kabinet?? Wow, Black Cat, haven't seen that one in years, izzat the one with the off-screen flaying??? I had forgotten the John Carpenter poster's coolness. Glad our conversations are giving you fodder for typing. Like Hell's squeaky spinner rack screeds.
    What is The Law?

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  2. "Man does not walk on all fours!"

    Yeah, BLACK CAT has the off-screen flaying, complete with Lugosi maniac laughter.

    Amazing thing about BC, the conscious effort by the filmmakers to "class it up", complete with classical music of all types and the sets, which are avant-garde, to Karloff's physical look and dress.

    As someone on IMDB's forum for the film says, "I can identify the Beethoven 7th, the orchestral arrangements of Liszt's Sonata in B minor, Brahms's Rhapsody Op. 79, No. 1, and a Chopin prelude. I got the Racozky March and the arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, but there are several other cues I have no idea as to their titles."

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