Staff Halloween Movie Recommendations 2005

10/27/05 - Hellraiser (1987)I'd like to take this opportunity to shed some light on a movie that is often overlooked by people when they are asked what their favorite horror movie is. Hellraiser, directed by Clive Barker, is my favorite horror movie of all time.

I don't want to give away any of the plot, but I will say that it is a very disturbing and intense story that is not for the faint-of-heart. It is basically about a family that is terrorized by demons from Hell that are summoned by a puzzle box. It features some amazing special effects that were truly ahead of their time. It also features one of horror's most famous villains, Pinhead. It is very gory, so if you are a fan of blood and guts, then you should definitely check this movie out.

If you haven't seen Hellraiser yet, then I suggest that you buy or rent it immediately. You could also watch it on AMC tonight, although I

wouldn't recommend doing the latter. The network censors will have a field day trying to make this movie suitable for a national television audience!

-Chris Sheldon, Sports Reporter

The Shining (1980)

A baseball bat beating on a staircase, a madman slashing through a bathroom door with an axe, "murder" spelled backwards on a wall: that's right, it's a normal Tuesday night at my apartment. But also, these occurrences are in a movie.

That movie of course being The Shining, the best horror movie ever made. So how did Stanley Kubrick turn a characteristically mediocre Stephen King novel into a masterpiece?

Well, for starters, he made the screenplay diverge alot from what happened in the book. And he cast the roles of Jack and Wendy Torrance brilliantly. Jack Nicholson looks like he is having all the fun in the world playing a guy who is trying to kill his family, which is actually a little scary in itself. And the look of terror on Shelley Duvall's face is so natural and genuine that I imagine she must go to the corner store to buy groceries every Sunday looking that petrified.

Also, no other horror movie is even close to as quotable. Among the best: "Danny isn't here, Mrs. Torrance." "Wendy, I'm home." "You've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?" And of course: "Darling. Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in."

Add in a few rivers of blood, an icy hedge maze, some ghosts and a guy in a bear costume in an intimate situation with a ghost and you've got a classic.

-Pat Aguiar, Entertainment Writer

Flashback (2000)

Some movies are scary. Some movies are funny. Some movies are ridiculous. Rarely, is a movie all three - but Flashback (directed by Michael Karen) manages to do all three.

The movie is like the German version of Scream, except instead of the infamous Scream-mask, the killer in Flashback wears a sundress and kills people with a sickle. And instead of likeable main characters, the writers managed to create the most obnoxious characters they possibly could, so that you are almost happy when they die.

The plot breaks down like this: the protagonist (Jeanette) witnessed her parents murdered by a cross-dressing man wearing a sundress and wielding a sickle. She was thrown into a mental asylum for some time, but has now been released and is going to begin working as a live-in teacher for some stuck-up, rich French teenagers. Unfortunately, now that she's been released, it seems that the cross-dressing killer (from here on referred to as "Sickle and a Sundress") is stalking her again.

Considering my expectations for this movie when I picked it up (somewhere around my expectations for Cheerleader Massacre), the movie was quite surprising. You do have to get over the fact that the killer is running around with a sickle and a sundress, but eventually it's believable. Also, the film has legitimately positive qualities as a horror movie. It is well directed, there are a number of scenes that are psychologically scary and it's pretty gory.

But even if you can't get over the fact that Sickle and a Sundress is the killer, there is a whole lot of comedic value to it. For example, pets keep randomly ending up dead, and if you can't find the concept of cruelty to animals funny, than what is? There are also a number of scenes that the director fully intended to be funny, such as bumbling cops and a scene involving a dildo. Some people don't appreciate comedy in their horror, but I think it's a necessity.

I would suggest that everybody watch this movie, because it is time everybody learned that men wearing sickles and sundresses are a force to be feared.

-Robert Hanson, Entertainment Editor

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Back in 1985, movie-master Tim Burton directed Pee-wee's Big Adventure, which followed the man-child Pee-wee Herman on his surreal journey to recover his stolen bike. The film, which received a PG rating, can be found in the family section of Blockbuster but for me it will always be the most terrifying movie that I have ever seen.

For anyone who has seen the movie they'll probably remember a certain dream sequence where evil clowns dressed up as doctors dismantle Pee-wee's wonderful bike. These are easily the freakiest, creepiest, scariest clowns that you will ever see. They are clearly the embodiment of all that is evil. With ridiculously creepy music blaring and crazy colors flashing and blurring in the background, Pee-wee screams and pleads for the clowns to stop. The image of these evil clowns was forever burned into my memory when I first saw the scene.

For years afterwards I had reoccurring nightmares of the very same clowns coming after me. When I got into m bed every night I would hide under my covers to protect myself from the evil clowns but there was no protection once I went to bed. They returned every night trying to kill me and I swear that there were two evil clown dolls in my room one night that sent me literally screaming and falling down my stairs.