Big O's Top 13 Halloween Movies

[Big O]

Here are 13 great movies to celebrate Halloween with…And most of them have female demise as well:

1 - Halloween (1978) – The movie that started a genre and franchise! Scary fun…21 years later! The minimal music score is classic and adds so much tension to the film! The bogey man does exist!

2 - Horror Hotel (1960) – What a scary, atmospheric witch’s tale! Scared me witless as a kid and still holds up and packs a wallop…Watch it at midnight with the lights off! The whole movie was shot on a sound stage!

3 – Psycho (1960) – Hitchcock’s masterpiece of horror…What more can I say about it! Dare you to take a shower right after and not think about being stabbed to death!

4 – The Night stalker (1972) – Bar none, one of the greatest vampire flicks ever made! Hard to believe it’s a TV movie! From the director of Horror Hotel and Dark Shadows’ creator, Dan Curtis. A great vampire and Darren McGavin is awesome as Kolchak!

5 – Night Of The Living Dead (1968) – The classic zombie flick that made gore mainstream! Often imitated but never really equaled! They’re coming to get you Barbara!

6 – I bury The Living (1958) – Just a creepy as hell film starring Richard Boone as a cemetery owner, who every time he sticks a pin in a cemetery plot map, that person dies!

7 – American Werewolf In London (1981) – Hard to mix comedy and serious horror together, but Landis pulled it off! A fun movie with a nail biting transformation sequence…Before CGI! And he does not water down the downbeat ending.

8 – Frankenstein & Bride Of Frankenstein (1931 & 1935) – A great one-two punch of classic horror! Notice that Frankenstein does not have a music score which makes it more eerie and effective! There is also a lot of subtle humor in Bride!

9 – Mad monster Party (1967) – Rankin/Bass’ Halloween answer to Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer! Puppet animation, a good music score and songs, funny script, all of the classic monsters and Phyllis Diller! With an unusually grim ending!

10 – The Haunting (1963) – The greatest haunted house movie ever! Watch this with the lights off and get creeped out! A Robert Wise masterpiece and you never see one ghost or monster!!!

11 – Invaders From Mars (1953) – This is a film adaptation of a children’s nightmare that scared the piss out of me as a kid! Still effective, with great art direction and nightmare like sets.

12 – The Omen (1976) – Gregory Peck vs. the Son Of Satan…Guess who wins! The creepy soundtrack adds so much to the atmosphere and chilling effect!

13 – The Exorcist (1973) – The ultimate possession flick, that had people crawling under their seats and leaving the theater! Great cast and a very literate script that is also a crime drama and mystery!

Honorable Mentions:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – A real tense, friggin’ nail biter…but see it in the theater with an audience at midnight for the full frightening effect!

The House On Haunted Hill (1959) – A William Castle, Vincent Price, fun haunted house party with the customary murder, mayhem and atmosphere! Best seen in a revival theater where a skeleton goes zipping around the theater on wires!...I’m not kidding!

O

[Algenon5]

GREAT PICKS!! Too bad many if not most of our members probably never heard of most of these outstanding films. BTW, NetFlix has a restored version of "Horror Hotel," but you have to get on a waiting list to rent a copy.