Halloween Season

 Its the most wonderful time of the year...

Well, sort of. Its the one time of the year when it seems to be ok to be a horror fan. Its the one time of the year when networks and cable channels seem to recognize that we exist, and program towards us. Halloween, and October, tend to be a magical time for fans of horror films and scary movies, and its often then only time of the year we get to see screenings of obscure gems that otherwise languish in network vaults or are exiled to 2 AM programming slots.

Mind you... Christmas keeps on creeping backwards, and has come to threaten Halloween. Last year, I heard my first Christmas carols the DAY AFTER Halloween.... and that doesn't even begin to approach the terror that is 'Christmas in July'... I think in fairness that if you are going to have 'Christmas in July' then you need a 'Halloween in May', but I digress...

I've been thinking of films that put me in a Halloween mood. As is no surprise, many of these are vintage horrors of the Golden Age of Hollywood... but not all.  I had an idea of posting one for each day in October, but... maybe I'll just post them all here.

These are not in any particular order, or theme... just films that are listed as they come to me. I'll maybe put a little note as to why this one speaks to my Halloween spirit...

1) I'll start by listing all these together: Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and possibly to a lesser extent: The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Dracula's Daughter, House of Dracula, House of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Ghost, and Son of Dracula. All of these are like comfort food. The atmosphere of all of them just put you in the frame of mind to go walk in the fog. I didn't put EVERY one of the Universal Monster cycle here, because some just don't work for me on Halloween, despite being great films. I LOVE The Creature from the Black Lagoon, but its not an October kind of film. As an added bonus, these are all pretty short, with most clocking in right around an hour... so you can get 2 of these for every modern film.

2) Silent films tend to lend themselves to October. One year, I put these on a screen while I was handing out candy to the kids, and it seemed to be a hit. Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, and Haxan are the best for this, but you could also throw in Der Golem and The Phantom of the Opera for good measure. I know for a fact the Nosferatu is a good choice... I had Nosferatu playing on my porch one Halloween, and one little girl, maybe 5 years old, and dressed as a princess, peeked cautiously around the corner before approaching me, and asked if the music was from a movie. When I told her it was, she breathed a sigh of relief and told me "Good.... I thought it was a werewolf." Because of course, you can always tell when monsters are nearby because you can hear their theme music.

3) Some other Golden Age horrors, that are perhaps lesser known: The Black Cat by Edgar Ulmer pairs Karloff and Lugosi in what I consider their finest film. Its creepy, atmospheric, and visually stunning. What more could you want? Mad Love with Peter Lorre is also an appropriate journey into the macabre, with some wonderful acting and just … Lorre-flavored weirdness. I might throw in Mark of the Vampire which, for my money, is Tod Browning's best directorial effort (Yes, even over Dracula and Freaks). 

4) Because Halloween is also FUN as well as scary, we need to throw in a bit of humor, and there are no two better horror comedies from this era than Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and Arsenic and Old Lace. Its really a shame that Boris Karloff couldn't reprise his role in Arsenic and Old Lace, because I would have loved to have seen him do it. Raymond Massey is fine, but, Karloff would have made the whole role so much funnier. Abbott and Costello are at the top of their game in this feature too... more so than the other films where they meet the monsters. To push it out a bit later, maybe include Bell, Book, and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, for a fun and romantic piece of horror comedy (or if you wish to keep in in the black and white era, I Married a Witch with Veronica Lake and Frederic March, which is much the same story). 

5) Because I can, I will throw out a couple Val Lewton pictures that help the season along.... I Walked With a Zombie, Isle of the Dead, and Cat People. These require paying a bit more attention, but they are full of an atmosphere of dread.

6) Because Hammer Studios managed to reboot things in the 50s and 60s, its only appropriate to throw those films into the mix too. My choices from the Studio That Dripped Blood are: The Horror of Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, Plague of the Zombies, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. If you have extra time, and want more, maybe Brides of Dracula and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter would be good additions. 

7) The 50s and 60s in general brought a number of worthy films to the screen that fit this list: The Haunting, Night of the Demon, and The House on Haunted Hill are the top of the Halloween heap here. However, also worthy of a Halloween look is, of course, Night of the Living Dead. I mean... a house besieged by hungry weirdos? That's obviously Halloween... the fact that in the film they are after human flesh while in real life its kids after sugary treats is really all the difference....

8) Corman's Poe cycle of films with Vincent Price is also quite appropriate. I would recommend... Masque of the Red Death. That is simply the best of them. Its like the best Halloween party ever, too. Throw in the anthology film Tales of Terror, and finally another Horror Comedy, The Raven, and maybe round it out with The Haunted Palace (Though despite the title, that was based on Lovecraft and not Poe.)

9) Speaking of Anthology films, there are a couple that would work well for the season. My suggestion is Mario Bava's Black Sunday, and the stellar Amicus production The House that Dripped Blood and maybe 1980s The Monster Club and those will serve you well I think. All of those have a wonderful Halloween atmosphere to them, and Monster Club is practically a perfect Party film, with some fun music as well. 

10) It may seem obvious, but I'm going to throw out there the original Halloween. I'm not a slasher fan, but I cannot deny that this film captures the holiday well, and its probably the very best of the slasher films anyway. I'd pair it up with the criminally underrated Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Both of these films are simply perfect for the holiday. 

And that's about as far as I can go.... Most modern films just don't FEEL like Halloween to me, but these I've listed.... when I watch them I can feel the chilly wind and hear the rustle of leaves against the streets. I can smell wood smoke, dead leaves,  and pumpkins, and the taste of maple and cinnamon.... These films ARE Halloween to me. 

I know I'll get criticism for not including later films, or 'scarier' films.... but this isn't about special effects, or scariness... this is about the FEELING of Halloween. I'll get criticism for most of this list being Black and White films... I actually know people who refuse to watch a film if its in black and white, and that's a shame to me...  There's nothing particularly earth-shaking or ground breaking, or even controversial in this list... its just Holiday favorites for me.