Scoot here--Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, and just to cover the next few days: Happy All Saints Day, and ¡Buen Día De Los Muertos!
Yesterday I was admittedly bitter towards my friends who have the good fortune to be occupied with various social activites and general merry-making tonight. I apologize for this--just because I'm broke and antisocial doesn't mean I should be shitting on those who actually have the courage and put forth the effort to maintain social lives. So, sorry guys!
Anyway, I thought I'd do a favor for my peeps who are in the same boat as me--these are five of my personal favorite creepifying films, any one of them should help cushion the blow of having to spend All Hallow's Eve by your lonesome...
More after the jump.
Scary Scoot
Oh, FYI--these aren't ranked or anything, they're presented in no particular order.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Let's start off strong. George Romero's 1968 classic essentially defined the zombie genre for the next 40 years.
More than that, it's a wonderful example of minimalist cinema: Romero made one of the most effective and terrifying films in history with an unknown cast, next to no money, and essentially one set--a great object lesson for those who think horror films are all about ridiculously expensive effects or over the top violence and gore.
Oh, and a nifty little piece of trivia: NOTLD has an interesting place in the history of American race relations--Duane Jones, the film's star, was the first black actor to land a leading role that was not specifically written as black. Oh, there had been dozens of black actors playing leads for years before '68, but before this film, every one of those actors was playing a character written as black. Ben, the character Jones played, could have been any race.
DRACULA (1979)
Above is one of the most terrifying scenes from one of the most underappreciated visions of Bram Stoker's iconic bloodsucker.
Sure, liberties were taken: Mina and Lucy's names were switched, Mina(formerly Lucy) became Van Helsing's daughter, the time period seems to have been advanced a couple of decades(Harker has a car), and to be honest--the film features probably the worst portrayal of Renfield imaginable(that is, prior to Peter MacNichol in Dracula: Dead And Loving It)
But it makes up for these deficiencies with lush cinematography, wonderful settings, and fantastic performances from the likes of Donald Pleasance, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Frank Langella as the Count.
The scene above still scares me as much today as it did more than 20 years ago, and features probably the most terrifying use of the Dutch language in film history.
THE EVIL DEAD TRILOGY
I know, that's three movies--but I couldn't bring myself to pick just one.
Evil Dead, like Romero's aforementioned masterpiece, is another minimalist classic--though admittedly a much more violent and bloody one.
And it introduced the world to the phenomenon that is Bruce Motherfucking Campbell!
Evil Dead 2 is a remarkable work of black comedy as well as horror. It also cemented Mr. Campbell as the most awesome person who ever lived(watch the clip--conclusive proof that the only person tough enough to kick Bruce Campbell's ass is Bruce Campbell!)
And Army of Darkness--definitely the most popular of the trilogy, plays like the coolest D&D campaign you could ever be in, and has more quotable moments than any other film not made by Quentin Tarantino or Monty Python.
DRACULA'S DAUGHTER
Milking a popular franchise for every dime it can make is by no means a recent development--Universal whored out Dracula in every way imaginable, producing a number of lackluster sequels often featuring other monsters from the Universal stable.
Dracula's Daughter, however, was different--it was actually really damn good. Not only is it the only sequel based on another Bram Stoker work(this time a short story), it also brought back THE Van Helsing: Edward Van Sloan.
It was also one of the most sympathetic vampire stories of the day--nowadays melodramatic tales of bloodsuckers with hearts of gold are ubiquitous, but in the early days of horror cinema the concept of a vampire that was anything but a villain was practically unheard of. And Gloria Holden's portrayal of the undead protagonist manages to exude a powerful menace while still being basically good, a difficult feat(plus, look at her--she's utterly glorious!).
MANIAC
And we finish with what might be called the "odd man out". There's no zombies, demons, or vampires in this one--and yet it remains one of the creepiest films I've ever seen.
Considered by many to be the world's first slasher film(released in 1934), Dwayne Esper's Maniac is hallucinatory, hard to follow, and weirder than tits on a Bishop(the clip above is a good example of what to expect from the film as a whole).
It uses mental illness as its particular boogeyman, and it handles the subject with all the sensitivity and understanding that Hollywood in the thirties gave Asian and American Indian cultures.
It's pure exploitation and utterly absurd--I LOVE IT!
So--if, like me, you lack the means to celebrate this most awesome of holidays with the grandeur it deserves, at least dig up one of these flicks.
