I’m In The Mood…For Halloween

UPDATE:  Check out my Halloween playlist at Wired For Music!

Hello Creative DC readers.  Halloween enthusiast Jordan here.  Halloween is my favorite holiday, and not just because of the candy (but not not because of the candy).  I’ll leave the discussion of the psychological impulses behind the urge to dress up and scare the bejeezus out of each other to the scientists, but I will say that there are many things I like to do to get into the Halloween mood this time of year:  drink pumpkin ale, bake pumpkin beer bread, decorate the house with as much cheesy Halloween stuff and orange lights as Amanda will let me, and of course, watch scary movies.

Which brings me to today’s topic:  my top 5 movies to help you get in the Halloween spirit.  This isn’t a list of my top 5 horror movies – these movies range from scary to funny to complicated to gory, but they all put me in the right frame of mind to dress up like a monster and frighten little children who just wanted a piece of candy.  So sit back, pop the top off a good pumpkin ale, and enjoy…

• The Nightmare Before Christmas
  For a while, I couldn’t decide if this was a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie.  The movie begins the day after Halloween, and all the action is about the run-up to, and mis-management of Christmas.  But in the end, everyone learns that Halloween is where they belong, and thus I file this one under Halloween.  It features Danny Elfman’s best music since the Simpsons theme, and the visuals never cease to amaze me.  This opening number sets the fantastic tone for the whole thing:
• The Evil Dead
  While not as gory as Evil Dead 2, and not as funny as Army of Darkness, this movie holds a special place in my heart, because you can tell that Sam Raimi and the gang were actually trying to make a horror movie (and because it introduced the world at large to the amazing Mr. Bruce Campbell).  While there’s definitely humor here, Raimi didn’t explicitly try to make a funny horror movie until later on, and you can feel his genuine love of a good scare here.  It’s kind of amazing to think that back in 1981, this movie was banned in several countries – Singapore, home of the caning, singled it out for “excessive graphic violence and gore.” Dig the tree-cam:
  
• A Nightmare On Elm Street
  A classic.  None of the sequels would do it justice until Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (though several are of them are good gory fun), and I have very low expectations of Michael Bay’s remake.  But there’s something about this one – the somnolent parents (Craven actually uses them as social commentary, as opposed to the Charlie Brown world of “Halloween” where the parents are more or less non-existent), Johnny Depp as the well-behaved bad boy, a strong and smart female protagonist who outwits the cops and the monster – and the very simple conceit of a world where the most dangerous thing imaginable would be to fall asleep.  As a teenager who often stayed up late (due to procrastination as often as fun) and was forced to get up inhumanely early for high school, the idea of having even my little pocket of sleep threatened was terrifying to me.  And then there’s this:
  
• Donnie Darko
  This metaphysical mindfuck of a movie has spawned more than a few quests for explanation, so I’m certainly not going to try and explain it here.  But I will say that I love almost everything about this movie – it’s dark, it’s weird, it’s not fully explained, the climax is wrapped into an homage to ET, and of course – it all happens around Halloween.  And it features a scene where its main character goes to see Evil Dead at a movie theater!  Add in a killer imaginary rabbit, and what more could you ask for?  It’s not a traditional horror movie by any means, but it definitely feels like Halloween.  Try and tell me this isn’t creepy:
  
• The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror episodes 1 – 8
  OK, this is not technically a movie.  But it just wouldn’t be Halloween without them.  From the names on the opening credits, to the horror-themed couch gags, to the send-ups of everything from The Fly to Nightmare on Elm Street to The Raven, each one of these episodes is jam-packed with the kind of humor that made the early seasons of the Simpsons so amazing.  But the writers weren’t afriad to get a little dark – like when Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse fall to their deaths in the giant blender inside Springfield Elementary, or when Marge turned out to be the head vampire.  And of course, they gave us the classic line “No TV and no beer make Homer something something”:
  

Of course, this is just the tip of a very large iceberg of classic, modern, good, bad, and downright ugly horror movies out there – but if you’re looking to get into the mood for Halloween, I think this list is a great start.  What do you do to prepare for the only holiday in the world to celebrate both zombies and free candy?  Tell us in the comments!  And stay tuned for my upcoming Halloween playlist over at my blog, Wired For Music.

Tagged as: film, jordan_hirsch