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The joy of Halloween movies
Published November 1, 2009
Who’s in the mood for some Halloween movies?
OK, I know it was over yesterday. But given how busy even a relatively low-key holiday like Halloween can be, I often have trouble finding time to watch the handful of spooky films I feel convey the proper holiday spirit. So All Saint’s Day is the time to catch up on any Halloween-related movies I couldn’t find time for earlier.
As a professed movie buff, celebrating any major holiday often involves watching films. Christmas, of course, is the king of holiday cinema, and my family often has to scramble to find time to fit in all our traditional yuletide films.
John Carpenter’s “Halloween” is the most obviously titled film, but any slasher film starring hockey-masked, dream-haunting, chainsaw-wielding maniacs will fit the holiday spirit just as well.
But, as network television taught us so well, no holiday can truly begin without first being ushered in by the Peanuts gang. “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” is, without a doubt, the finest example of Halloween entertainment available during the season.
Other cartoon characters have given us holiday specials for All Hallows Eve, but nothing can compare to the charm of Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the most sincere pumpkin patch in town, all while Charlie Brown gets a bag full of rocks and Snoopy is shot down by the Red Baron.
Although more of a Christmas movie, there’s still a lot of creepy holiday spirit in one of my childhood favorites, “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” It was the Disney movie that delighted me and creeped out my parents and I can’t consider the holiday complete without it (and then I watch it for Christmas).
If one is looking for horror movies without the quasi-morality of slasher films, there are movies such as “The Evil Dead,” “The Exorcist,” or “Night of the Living Dead.”
Comedy and horror also go well together, with “Shaun of the Dead” being a shining example of both how to do zombies right and make them funny at the same time.
No matter what film you choose to commemorate Halloween once more before the Christmas deluge starts, have fun, because there aren’t really any Thanksgiving movies.
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