15 Reasons Not To Leave Your House On Halloween

As a full-time graduate student with a job, I realized it was quite a lofty goal to review a movie per day for the month of October. Where was I planning to get this magical abundance of time? So here are the next 15 days of Halloween-inspired films in a more condensed form than my previous entries. Also, I have bypassed the rating for these films as they are more general recommendations than full reviews. Enjoy!

Day 10:
Dagon (2001)
Director: Stuart Gordon
Writers: H. P. Lovecraft (short stories “Dagon” & “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”), Dennis Paoli (screenplay)
Actors: Ezra Godden, Raquel Merono, Francisco Rabal

Dagon is a lesser known title brought to us by Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon. Young couple Paul (Godden) and Barbara (Merono) find themselves stranded in a small coastal town in Spain after a boating accident and it doesn’t take long for them to realize that all is not right, in fact it is very wrong. This is a fun, gothic, creepy, sometimes gory film and one of my favorite Gordon flicks.

Day 11:
Saam gang yi/3: Extremes (2004)
Directors: Fruit Chan, Chan-wook Park, Takashi Miike
Writers: Lilian Lee, Chan-wook Park, Haruko Fukushima, Bun Saikou
Actors: Bai Ling, Byung-hun Lee, Hye-jeong Kang, Kyoko Hasegawa, Atsuro Watabe

This collection of three short horror films from three different Asian directors is a must-see. They are all excellent but my personal favorites are the second and third entries, Cut and Box. Cut is directed by Chan-Wook Park (Oldboy) and is everything you could hope for from this Korean director. Takashi Miike is my favorite Japanese director and he does not disappoint with Box, a haunting and beautiful art film with a sweetly dark plot. Dumpling is pretty disturbing but good if you can handle the premise.

Day 12:
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Director: John Landis
Writer: John Landis
Actors: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter

I love this movie! The average movie goer had a tough time with American Werewolf when it was first released as they weren’t used to such a mixture of horror and comedy. John Landis of Coming to America and Trading Places fame really hit this one out of the ballpark in my opinion. Two college buddies are backpacking through Europe when they are attacked by a werewolf, changing their lives forever. The Howling has long had the reputation for revolutionizing movie effects but it was released in the same year as American Werewolf and both films credit effects giant Rick Baker but Baker actually left The Howling to work on American Werewolf, leaving the bulk of The Howling effects to Rob Bottin. I’ve always thought the effects in American Werewolf were far superior and the initial transformation scene is fantastic, music, visuals and all.

Day 13:
Hell House (2001)
Director: George Ratliff

Hell House is a documentary that features an annual haunted house hosted by Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas. The house is extravagantly designed and includes live horror scenes being acted out by church members, covering themes such as abortion, homosexuality, AIDS, drug use, and adultery. Visitors are shown the many ways they might find themselves going to hell and are given a chance to find salvation in Jesus upon completion of the tour. The film is surprisingly unbiased in how it portrays the church and its followers, leaving it up to the viewer to make any judgments.

Day 14:
Dead & Buried (1981)
Director: Gary Sherman
Writers: Jeff Millar, Dan O’Bannon
Actors: James Farentino, Jack Albertson, Robert Englund

Dan Gillis (Farentino) is sheriff of Potter’s Bluff, a small, quiet coastal town where everyone knows their neighbor and life is simple… or is it? Sheriff Gillis finds himself dealing with an unusual number of deaths and Dobbs, the local undertaker, is obsessed with restoring the dead to their living form. Dead & Buried is a fantastic movie by the director of Vice Squad that has remained on the fringe despite the fact that it is rad! The master, Stan Winston, creates some amazingly realistic makeup effects that are seldom achieved even now, more than 25 years later. Note, however, that there are a couple of sequences that stand out as being far below Winston’s usual standard. This is because the studio that ended up distributing the film wanted more gore and as a result, scenes were added using a different effects artist… bad idea. Otherwise, great movie!

Day 15:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Director: Robert Wiene
Writers: Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer
Actors: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover

For a quick lesson in the study of German expressionism, check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The stylized tale of a crazed doctor and his murderous somnambulist, Cesare, Cabinet was groundbreaking at the time it was released and its influence is still felt today. Watch this film and tell me you don’t see elements of Edward Scissorhands and The Crow, or Tim Burton’s entire career, for that matter. This movie throws realism under the bus and takes the viewer on a fright-filled ride that leaves you questioning what is real and what is merely an insane nightmare.

Day 16:
The Wicker Man (1973)
Director: Robin Hardy
Writers: Anthony Shaffer (screenplay), David Pinner (novel)
Actors: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee

If you were unfortunate to have seen Nicolas Cage in the remake of The Wicker Man, you can redeem yourself by revisiting the real deal. The original cleverly weaves humor, music, terror, and fantasy together to create a uniquely fantastic film. Sergeant Howie (Woodward) travels alone to Summerisle, a remote island, to investigate the case of a missing girl. When he arrives, the inhabitants feign ignorance of the girl’s very existence, causing Howie much frustration. The truth turns out to be far worse than anything he could have imagined as he learns a hard lesson about faith and its repercussions.

Day 17:
The Changeling (1980)
Director: Peter Medak
Writers: Russell Hunter, William Gray, Diana Maddox
Actors: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere

Ready for a good ghost story? Furniture that moves on its own accord? Creepy old houses with nasty secrets? Then The Changeling is the movie for you! Not to be confused with the new Angelina Jolie flick, Changeling, The Changeling is a grand ghost flick that takes us on a ride with a grieving widower (Scott) who in an attempt to start his life over by moving to a new city and into an old mansion, finds himself in the center of a mystery. What happened in this house so long ago? Watch the movie if you want to find out, I love this stuff! George C. Scott is awesome as usual and plays a brooding widower well.

Day 18:
Zombi 2 (1979)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti
Actors: Ian McCulloch, Tisa Farrow, Richard Johnson

Watch Zombi 2 if for nothing more than to see the most amazing zombie versus shark scene ever to hit celluloid. Ok, it’s probably the only zombie versus shark scene to ever hit celluloid, but it is still marvelous. Zombi 2, otherwise known as Zombie, was meant to draw in Dawn of Dead fans but has no connection to Romero’s Dead films. It follows reporter Peter West (McCulloch) who travels to the island of Matool to investigate the origins of a boat full of corpses that appears in New York Harbor. He is accompanied by Anne (Farrow, sister of Mia) and together they discover that Matool has a little problem with, you guessed it, zombies! I think this is a great movie but be warned, it’s pretty gory, make that really gory. The only version of this flick is dubbed but it’s an Italian horror so the dubbing is done well.

Day 19:
Dead & Breakfast (2004)
Director: Matthew Leutwyler
Writers: Matthew Leutwyler, Jun Tan, Billy Burke
Actors: Ever Carradine, David Carradine

Yay, Dead & Breakfast! I think this is one of those movies that you think is awesome or you just don’t get. I of course, think it is awesome. I saw this in an independent theater with a couple of friends and the house had maybe 25 people in it but we laughed and laughed, it was a good old time. Dead & Breakfast is a silly, silly spoof of a zombie movie that is part comedy, part musical, part gorefest, and all fun. There are a ton of recognizable faces such as David Carradine, his niece Ever Carradine, Portia de Rossi, Jeremy Sisto, and even Brian Krakow from My So Called Life! If you like silliness, you might enjoy this one.

Day 20:
Fade to Black (1980)
Director: Vernon Zimmerman
Writer: Vernon Zimmerman
Actors: Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Linda Kerridge

Fade to Black is a dark journey through the world of cinema that is best enjoyed by viewers who have a deep appreciation for old classics but don’t mind a little slashing mixed in. Dennis Christopher plays Eric Binford, a young misfit whose obsession with the early days of Hollywood leads him to do bad, bad things. This is one of those movies that is deliberately paced and quite possibly might not be your cup of tea, but if you are open to it, Fade to Black is a rich cornucopia of twisted nods to a lost era. Me likey.

Day 21:
Raw Meat (1972)
Director: Gary Sherman
Writers: Ceri Jones, Gary Sherman
Actors: Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd

Dead & Buried’s Gary Sherman first came out with this lesser entry into the horror genre. The basic premise is that decades ago, a group of miners carving out the tube tunnels in England were trapped in a cave-in and left to die. They survived in their giant tomb by way of cannibalism and procreation and now their ancestors continue to claim victims who make the mistake of dilly dallying late at night in the Russell Square station. The plot holes are aplenty and the creepy gross cannibal dude is shown far too much for my taste but still, Raw Meat has some redeeming factors. Actually, one redeeming factor, Donald Pleasence. Pleasence is at his brilliant best as Inspector Calhoun, a wise cracking, snarky copper who has a meandering way of figuring everything out just in the nick of time. If you are a Pleasence fan, you will not be disappointed!

Day 22:
Anatomie/Anatomy (2000)
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Writer: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Actors: Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Anna Loos, Sebastian Blomberg

I have to say, Anatomie gets a bad rap. I did some digging around on the old IMDB message boards and I think I may have an answer for that. It appears that many viewers who have seen Anatomie, have had the misfortune of watching a dubbed version of the film which apparently is quite terrible. I haven’t seen this version, but from what I gather, the dialog is wretched and causes the acting to come across as fairly dismal. This is why I almost always insist that you watch a film in its original language if at all possible! This is a really fun German film starring Franka Potente of Run, Lola, Run fame and she gives a fine performance here. Potente plays young Paula Henning who is following in her grandfather’s footsteps by attending Heidelberg medical school, a highly prestigious and exclusive institution. Upon her arrival, Paula begins to realize that there are also some highly unethical practices going on behind closed doors and she doesn’t hesitate to uncover them, as long as she doesn’t get herself killed first. This flick has some amazing effects that if you’ve ever seen the Body Worlds display, you won’t believe these ones aren’t real.

Day 23:
Waxwork (1988)
Director: Anthony Hickox
Writer: Anthony Hickox
Actors: Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson, Dana Ashbrook

Waxwork brings me fondly back to my childhood as I was in the eighth grade the first time I saw it. I loved it then and I love it still. It is a campy lark through every Halloween monster you can think of as a group of college students explore the new wax museum in their neighborhood. What they don’t know is that the ageless owner needs a different soul for each display so that he can open a portal to hell and destroy life on earth as we know it. One by one the students are sucked into the world of wax, from Dracula to the Marquis de Sade. Two of them, Mark (Galligan of Gremlins) and Sarah (Foreman) narrowly escape their fate but then must fight to save the world. This movie is a really fun ride for Halloween, a little gory and definitely silly but good stuff. The sequel, Waxwork II is also a good one and spotlights a cameo by camp god, Bruce “Ash” Campbell.

Day 24:
Deathdream (1974)
Director: Bob Clark
Writer: Alan Ormsby
Actors: Richard Backus, John Marley, Lynn Carlin

I think Deathdream is especially relevant to the current situation in Iraq and many Americans’ disapproval over how foreign affairs have been handled as of late. It follows a young soldier, Andy, who is killed in Vietnam and yet manages to return home sort of alive, but not. He’s not exactly a zombie or a vampire, at least not in the modern sense, but something is certainly very wrong with Andy. A slow paced but thrilling ride from director Bob Clark of A Christmas Story back in his good old horror days, Deathdream is a curious look at war and its effect not only on the individuals who live and die for our country, but also on the families they leave behind.

Tune in later this week to get the final seven days of Halloween picks from yours truly, Citizen Irene!