❣ Halloween ❣
I love the fall season with the leaves changing colors, carved pumpkins and the cool brisk feel of the day. The Halloween candy isn't half bad either!
The scary movies are also a perk during this time of year. But we have all seen the usual villians...Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees over and over, Halloween after Halloween. Don't get me wrong...these are MUST SEE scary movies...but to be completely honest, it's becoming a little tiresome.
So I put together a list of scary movies that are a little more untraditional but will still get you in that spooky Halloween mood!
SLEEPY HOLLOW
Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people with the culprit being the legendary apparition, the Headless Horseman.
Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson
Directed by Tim Burton
(If you are a Harry Potter fan like me, you are bound to see some familiar faces/heads)
GHOSTBUSTERS
Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.
Dan Aykroyd
Bill Murray
Harold Ramis
Sigourney Weaver
Directed by Ivan Reitman
WHAT LIES BENEATH
The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she's losing her mind.
Harrison Ford, Michelle, Pfeiffer
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
PROMETHEUS
A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce
Directed by Ridley Scott
(Follow this film with the Alien trilogy...)
THE MUMMY
An American serving in the French Foreign Legion on an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra accidentally awakens a Mummy.
Brendan Fraser
Rachel Weisz
Directed by Stephen Sommers
JAWS
When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
Roy Scheider
Richard Dreyfuss
Robert Shaw
Direct by Steven Spielberg
THE SHINING
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
Jack Nicholson
Shelley Duvall
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
RED DRAGON
A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer; aiding him is imprisoned criminal genius Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.
Anthony Hopkins
Edward Norton
Ralph Fiennes
Directed by Brett Ratner
THE LOST BOYS
After moving to a new town, two brothers are convinced that the area is frequented by vampires.
Jason Patric
Corey Haim
Keifer Sutherland
Directed by Joel Schumacher
SILENT HILL
A woman goes in search for her daughter, within the confines of a strange, desolate town called Silent Hill.
Radha Mitchell
Sean Bean
Directed by Christophe Gans
EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
An uncommonly gentle young man, who happens to have scissors for hands, falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl.
Johnny Depp
Winona Ryder
Directed by Tim Burton
(May also be considered for the Christmas Holiday)
LET ME IN
A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Chloë Grace Moretz
Directed by Matt Reeves
SIGNS
A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening is to come.
Mel Gibson
Joaquin Phoenix
Rory Culkin
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
GHOST
After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.
Patrick Swayze
Demi Moore
Directed by Jerry Zucker
PRACTICAL MAGIC
Sally and Gillian Owens have always known they were different. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but typical-their aunts fed them chocolate cake for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But the invocation of the Owens' sorcery also carries a price-some call it a curse: the men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Now, adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that threatens the lives of all the Owens women.
Sandra Bullock
Nicole Kidman
Directed by Griffin Dunne
ROSEMARYS BABY
A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.
Mia Farrow
John Cassavetes
Directed by Roman Polanski
THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS
Fool, an
African-American teen, breaks into the home of the wealthy landlords who evicted
his family from a ghetto tenement. A fortune in gold coins is rumored to exist
inside, but Fool discovers that the mansion is a chamber of horrors presided
over by a pair of incestuous, serial killer siblings. The twisted couple has
also tried to raise a succession of kidnapped boys. Each botched effort is
handled the same way - the victim's eyes, ears and tongues are removed, and
he's sent to live in the sealed-off basement, where a colony of similarly
deformed "brothers" resides. Fool is able to avoid the evil lovers as he moves
through the house's maze of hidden passageways. He discovers that the occupants
have a daughter, who has survived their abuse, so he
rescues her and they attempt to free the "people under the stairs."
Brandon Quintin Adams
A.J. Langer
Directed by Wes Craven
MONSTER HOUSE
Three teens discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster.
Steve Buscemi
Directed by Gil Kenan
THE OTHERS
A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.
Nicole Kidman
Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
HOCUS POCUS
After 300 years, three sister witches are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches reign of terror once and for all.
Bette Midler
Kathy Najimi
Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed by Kenny Ortega
THE SKELETON KEY
A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.
Peter Sarsgaard
Kate Hudson
Directed by Iain Softly
ZOMBIELAND
A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, and a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the Last Twinkie and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.
Jesse Eisenberg
Emma Stone
Woody Harrelson
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
POLTERGEIST
A young family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts. The ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house for the amusement of everyone. Eventually the events turn sinister and their youngest child disappears and is held captive by the evil ghosts.
JoBeth Williams
Craig T. Nelson
Heather O'Rourke
Directed by Tobe Hooper
(#1 on my list of scary movies)
GREMLINS
A boy inadvertantly breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.
Zach Gallagan
Phoebe Cates
Directed by Joe Dante
(May also be considered for the Christmas Holiday)
THE FRIGHTENERS
Frank Bannister has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town - ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey, the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley and her witchy mother have to do with the sinister killing spree.
Michael J. Fox
Dee Wallace Stone
John Astin
Directed by Peter Jackson
ORPHAN
A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.
Peter Sarsgaard
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
A flighty teenage girl learns that she is her generation's destined battler of vampires.
Kristy Swanson
Donald Sutherland
Luke Perry
Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui
STIR OF ECHOES
After being hypnotized by his sister in law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.
Kevin Bacon
Directed by David Koepp
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS
An American man unwittingly gets involved with werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.
Tom Everett Scott
Julie Delpy
Directed by Anthony Waller
If you are finding it difficult to stray from the tradional horror films, at least upgrade to the new versions...
HALLOWEEN
After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, escapes from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.
Scout Taylor-Compton
Malcolm McDowell
Directed by Rob Zombie
FRIDAY THE 13TH
A group of young adults discover a boarded up Camp Crystal Lake, where they soon encounter Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.
Jared Padalecki
Amanda Righetti
Directed by Marcus Nispel
THE STEPFATHER
Michael returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend. As the two men get to know each other, he becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand.
Penn Badgley
Dylan Walsh
Directed by Nelson McCormick
