Good evening…
Halloween may be my favourite time of year. A time where chill winds sweep through towns and crisp leaves scatter and scrape on sidewalks. Where spooks and creeps and haunts of all sorts become the focus of most. When people of all ages get excited about candy. Accompanied of course by the cold weather and the subsequent snuggling up, putting on a good halloween movie. I personally enjoy more of an eerie movie, which is a sentiment I know I am not alone in. The feeling of a creepy emptiness on a lonely street. The feeling of going out with your friends and raising hell in the neighbourhood. With that very feeling in mind, I have crafted a list of four must-watch movies this season.
- I Saw The TV Glow
This was a movie I watched recently with some of my friends and all of us sort of fell in love with it. Everything from the neon drenched colour palette to the often uncanny visuals give the movie an atmosphere of a campy day-dream. And this is all backed by a soundtrack you will be listening to long after the movie ends.
The story contents of the film are genuinely dread-inducing, following our two main characters and their obsession with an old television show. It goes into far more depth than that but I will leave you with the joy of finding that out for yourself.
If the ending of this movie does not leave your jaw on the floor I do not know what will. If you keep strange company you will probably have as great a time as I did. Bonus points if you can find Fred Durst’s role in the movie.
- Lisa Frankenstein
Following suit in the neon colours and camp, we have Lisa Frankenstein. I was similarly obsessed with this movie when I first watched it, and it is a great companion film to the former on the list (possibly good for a double-feature).
Another film with an excellent soundtrack, this movie follows Kathryn Newton playing Lisa Swallows as she meets the aptly titled Creature and takes on the suburbia of her town and all the people that come along with it.
This movie was my favourite that came out this year and I would love to see it take on a new role in the Halloween season.
- Carnival of Souls
This is a shift away from colour but still very much in the campy vein. If you’re a fan of Hitchcock, you’ll probably love this one. This is more of a classic and I think it can be viewed either in complete silence by a bemused film fanatic or by a group of friends who love commentating over movies.
It follows Mary Henry, the lone survivor of a car accident.. She tries to get away from the town where it happened but is haunted by a mysterious man. Will she escape her past? Or is she doomed? Find out… in Carnival of Souls.
This is a genuinely great old horror that is often overlooked. If you are a film student, it has a lot of great qualities and was made on a relatively low budget. Its creepy atmosphere and bizarre story are captivating and cliche all at once.
- Scanners
Scanners is from an era of movies where practical effects were king. This movie is more sparing with such effects, but when they are used, they are glorious in their ridiculous-ness.
Despite that, I think that Scanners is actually quite a reserved film. The synth soundtrack never feels overbearing, the locations are all industrial and often barren, and the winter atmosphere lends to a film that feels scary, not in its excess, but in its emptiness.
In a world where some people, called scanners, have telepathic and telekinetic powers, one of these people is Cameron Vale. He is found by a company fighting against renegade scanners and employed to do just that. The movie brings us through Cameron’s investigation and battles with the renegades.
It’s a quiet movie that sort of creeps up on you with its scares.
I hope you all enjoy this Halloween season as much as I have. Eat candy, run wild in the night, scare your friends, and enjoy all the parts of life you have the privilege to, including a couple of fun Halloween flicks from yours truly.
Happy Halloween!
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