Choosing which horror movies and comics to line up for Halloween season is a lot like pairing wine with the right food. You wouldn’t serve a delicious Pinot Gris with a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on an Everything Bagel, would you? That would be disrespectful to bagels. The same thing happens with horror and Halloween. Some things work better if you know when and how to enjoy them.
Here are some recommended cartoons and movies to help you enjoy Halloween with the same enthusiasm that a witch would put bat wings and fresh eyeballs into a cauldron of boiling potion.
Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985)
There’s a certain familiarity to classic monsters. The audience already understands the rules that govern murder, so it doesn’t require much explanation to start killing. The classic vampire movie Fright Night embraces this, but flips the formula on its head and forces us to seriously consider what happens when these rules turn out to be real. If you suspect a vampire has moved in next door, how do you prove it? For Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) and his friends, the answer lies in the vampire movies they’re watching on TV. .
Fright Night is a horror fan’s dream. It celebrates and revels in our knowledge of vampires, and then injects plausibility into its rules, turning that vampire called Jerry Dandridge (a long-running performance by Chris Sarandon) into a monster free to explore. creates tension. I will come to your house with a simple invitation. It’s full of practical effects and terrifying, including vampire creatures that look brutally hungry and eagerly violent.
Roddy McDowell (of Planet of the Apes fame) also stars as Peter Vincent, a fading movie star turned TV host who famously played the role of Van Helsing throughout his career. are. When faced with the prospect of hunting down a real vampire, he is forced to choose between running away or confronting the monster he has already disguised and killed in countless films before. His appearance helped make this one of the top three vampire movies of all time.
Vamps: The Complete Collection (Elaine Lee and William Simpson, 1994-95)
female vampire biker. This alone is understandable enough, but it’s how these characters approach the mythology surrounding their existence that really sets them apart. Vamps is an unrelenting piece of feminist storytelling about five vamps (hence the title) who break free from their vampire masters and live their lives free from the male figures who wished them to act as mere servant brides. ) is focused on. That separation involves a very violent declaration of intent, taking the form of a horrific dissolution, clearing a path straight to the path open to them.
Elaine Lee and William Simpson borrow heavily from another vampire classic called Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987), which also follows a band of outlaw vampires who do whatever they want. This is what I followed. However, whereas in Near Dark the Vamps’ moral considerations disappear and they instead focus on the darkness that comes with living by their own rules, the women in The Vamps more often follow their own choices. You will have to struggle with it. What’s interesting is that the choices they make aren’t there to be put under the microscope for us to judge. Rather, it’s about a legitimate sense of rebellion and how far it can go in a world that views women as sexual objects with little agency.
Vamps is a great example of how far you can bend the formula to touch on different ideas while keeping many of the classic elements intact. There is no doubt that you will enjoy a wonderful vampire story. However, you also get a different flavor of violence in the process, making it a good option for those who want their Halloween vampire creations to be off the beaten path.
The Fears (Peter Jackson, 1996)
This underrated Peter Jackson film stars Michael J. Fox as a ghost slayer and features the greatest Grim Reaper in movie history. This is a strange movie that succeeds by embracing a kind of dark silliness that adds both heart and real horror to the story. Frank Bannister (played by Fox) is essentially a con artist who can talk to ghosts, having lost his fiancée in a tragic accident. As he goes about his usual business, a series of mysterious deaths leads him and his ghostly friends into the path of the Grim Reaper (who has a terrifying identity).
Jackson approached his hangout with a CGI-heavy spirit that tackled every new trick in the books at the time. Some of the effects are old, but they don’t get in the way so much that they negatively affect the story. What truly elevates this experience is its focus on how the memory of a violent death affects not only our psyches, but an entire town. The presence of the Grim Reaper allows for another kind of ghost that prevents people from moving forward. The ghost characters develop this further by showing their dissatisfaction with the living who cannot accept the finality of death.
Practical effects wizard Rick Baker contributed to the ghost designs, all of which combine CGI and makeup work. One of the highlights is Judge, played by John Astin, the original Gomez from the 1960s Addams Family drama. It’s a mess of rotting skin and exposed bones, and it’s always a treat to see on screen. “The Vlieteners” is a fun ride that’s both funny and disturbing, from the pain of loss to dealing with the memory of a mass murderer. You’ll feel right at home on Halloween.
Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Did? (Eric Powell, Harold Schechter)
Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs are all fictional serial killers inspired by Ed Gein, The Butcher of Plainfield. His fame didn’t necessarily come from his two confirmed murders. It comes from household appliances he made from human bones and skin (which featured heavily in Tobe Hooper’s 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, another great Halloween movie). Eric Powell, creator of The Goon, and true crime writer Harold Schechter decided to give Gein the nonfiction comic treatment. The book chronicles the titular murderer’s turbulent childhood and relationship with his abusive mother. (reused by writer Robert Bloch and later by Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho) led to a fascination with death and what could be done with human corpses.
Powell and Schechter unpack this story, explaining why murderers like Gein are born, while also toying with the idea that some people are inherently evil (though the book ultimately does a great job of showing how they are made). Powell in particular is unafraid of highly interpretive and metaphorical imagery to highlight the monsters that Gein was domesticated and haunted by. He paints a portrait of enormous tragedy and unimaginable violence without offering any comfort in regards to Gein’s heinous crimes and macabre behavior.
“Die You Hear What Eddie Gained Done” is a masterpiece of non-fiction expressed in comic form. Peeking behind our favorite movie monsters turns out to be a harrowing experience that shows how much darker and more dangerous reality can be than fiction.
For more horror, horror, and Halloween thrills, be sure to check out our other Horror Beat articles.
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