My Halloween "essential" viewing lineup

[Doc Daneeka]

Well, it's October and fall break is coming up for school. So, as not to look like a square in the eyes of my fellows here, I will take this opportunity to increase my scary-cinema knowledge!

I was in the local library today and stumbled upon the easily-accessible, though sadly not buyable, movie collection there. I decided since scary day is coming up to indulge in the lovely "Halloween display".

Checking out the tantalizing lineup, I rabidly picked out 4 allegedly spooky classics which I foolishly have not taken the pleasure to watch before:

In diabolical order:

Videodrome
The Horror of Dracula
Suspiria
Eyes without a Face

I plan on viewing as many as I can as fast as I can, and check out the surely spoiler-filled responses here later. I certainly hope these give me as much revolting pleasure as they did to those in the IMDB community (All films in the 7.0 to 8.0 range), wish me luck!!

[Doc Daneeka]

Check out the surely spoiler-filled responses here ...If such responses indeed come :P .

Uh oh, my marathon is not off to a very good start. Turns out despite having a few well-crafted scares and brilliant effects, the Horror of Dracula would have been much less horrific for all parties involved if the characters exhibited a few simple decision-making skills such as: "Don't keep secrets from those trying to protect you"... "Don't keep secrets from those you're trying to protect"... "Always bring up questionable orders with responsible people"... "Make sure you are well-armed dealing with a vampire"... and, the most apparent: "If two threats are equally easy to do away with; Take the greater threat first".

In addition to the characters being seeming precursors to slasher-teens, the film felt awfully rushed, moving from one event to another at break-neck speed. Even Dracula seems like he's trading mundane lines like gunshots with the Harker in the beginning! I wouldn't say it's a horrible film by any stretch of the imagination, but really, aside from Lee's excellently-balanced portrayal of the count, it just isn't worth the amount of praise it gets.

[Jack]

When it comes to the Hammer horror films, Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy seem to get the most attention, but I thought Curse of Frankenstein was one of their weakest movies (the monster is portrayed as a pathetic medical experiment instead of a, well, monster) and Dracula wasn't much better.  The Mummy will always be one of my all-time favorites though.  My biggest complaint with Dracula is that Christopher Lee is such an awesome Dracula, and he's barely in the movie!  Good grief, what a waste of talent.  The whole thing is about Peter Cushing dealing with this family who's daughter has been bitten and of course the stupid maid removes the garlic from her room and opens the windows, blah blah blah. 

As far as Suspiria, go into it with low expectations and you might enjoy it.  It's popularity is a complete mystery to me.  Argento didn't direct his actors, and it doesn't appear to me that he had any interest in the screenplay either.  It's all about shining red and green lights on stuff, and doing slow zoom-outs with the camera, coming to rest on a light bulb and that sort of thing.  There are a couple of truly beautiful scenes, no doubt about that.  Very memorable.  But you've basically got an Italian version of a Full Moon movie, complete with cheese ball ending, and it's not even remotely scary.  But people seem to worship it because there's green and red lights shined on stuff.  My advice:  If you've got some pot, smoke a big bowl of it.  It's the only possible way that I can imagine that all these people think this movie is so great.

[peter johnson]

Aiiee!!  Vile Blasphemer!!
"Horror of Dracula" is sublime, wonderful fun -- Peter Cushing's cheekbones, for God's sake -- don't they have their own end-credit?
Please give this one a second chance -- I've easily watched it a dozen times over the years & have come to love its costumes, its stylishness, the fantastical melting-to-dust death scene at the end, the musical score, I can go on and on, can't I?
You forgot to mention: "When lacking a cross, a good set of candlesticks and a serious expression will suffice!"
* **
Man, this film just rocks . . . so sad you didn't love it . . .
peter depressed/denny awww, mannn . ..

[JaseSF]

Hmm essential Halloween viewing? I'd probably be most likely to recommend the following:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Mummy (1932)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
The Haunting (1963)
The Night Stalker (TV) (1972)
The Creeping Flesh (1973)
Halloween (1978)
Child's Play (1988)

[zombie no.one]

THE HOWLING. absolute classic film. 

[Allhallowsday]

Aiiee!!  Vile Blasphemer!!
"Horror of Dracula" is sublime, wonderful fun -- Peter Cushing's cheekbones, for God's sake -- don't they have their own end-credit?
Please give this one a second chance -- I've easily watched it a dozen times over the years & have come to love its costumes, its stylishness, the fantastical melting-to-dust death scene at the end...

I like HORROR OF DRACULA, too, but that disintegration scene at the end is a notorious cheat (there is a cut and return in order to remove the actor and pile up the sand...)    I do think it's a good Halloween choice. 
VIDEODROME is not so much a Halloween Horror as a DAVID CRONENBERG gross out (as usual).  EYES WITHOUT A FACE is a good choice. 

Though my friend BELA here does not like it, I think SON OF DRACULA (1943) is a good Halloween flick... I'd also recommend RETURN OF DRACULA (1958 - dumb as it is - but there is a Halloween party) THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) HORROR HOTEL (1960 - aka THE CITY OF THE DEAD) DANZA MACABRE (1964 - aka CASTLE OF BLOOD)... any BARBARA STEELE Horror is great for Halloween!
I like films to have a bit of age, creakiness, and innocence for Halloween. 

[raj]

My list changes a bit from year to year.  I've already watched Nosferatu last Saturday.  Not sure what will be up next but I usually try to get Sleepy Hollow in every year.

[ER]

Suggestions:

The Changeling
Beetlejuice
The Haunting
Les Diaboliques
Interview with the Vampire
The Shining
The Ring
Sleepy Hollow
The Blair Witch Project
Sunset Boulevard
The Others
Forbidden Planet
The Exorcist

[Doc Daneeka]

Jase: Seen most of those allready, with the exceptions of The Mummy, The Body Snatcher, The Haunting, and most of The Creeping Flesh. IMO Child's Play 2 was better. .
@ DCA: Saw the Howling and loved it, gets the same advantage over American Werewolf in London that Fright Night does over The Lost Boys.
@ ER and others who may post: Whilst There are a few more that I do indeed need to see in your list(s), this ain't about my full Halloween lineup, just the ones I haven't seen before!
-----------------------------
Peter Johnson: Well, I did like two of the things you mentioned; The costumes were pretty good and the final showdown was superb, definitely a high-point and a redeeming feature of the film, maybe one of the best human-vampire showdowns I've seen! Though not enough to make up for the whole thing, the scenes where Dracula goes red-eye nutty in the beginning and end were brilliant. This isn't a film I would mind giving a second chance, especially since my sister, who thinks Chris Lee is hot, wants to see it now. Maybe it will be different now that I know each characters' irrationalities, so that I can focus better on the scares.

Throughout the last few days I viewed Eyes Without a Face, Suspiria, and Videodrome. I found the first a bit underwhelming for the polar opposite reasons as Horror of Dracula - it was engrossing, disturbing, and thought-provoking, however I found it very mild on suspense-build-up. Like HoD, the ending, again was one to be remembered. Not really a happy one, but enough so to be out of the norm.

Suspiria was actually my favorite of my lineup, to me it's now a true gem of horror. As Jack, and several others have said, the lighting and colors are amazing, the film likely wouldn't have been the same without the direction! However while it did indeed have a simplistic plot, it certainly wasn't just a big-budget Italian FM film. I found the movie to possess one of the most palpable senses of terror (As well as occasional awkwardness such as in the studio and haunting discontent as seen in the first scenes) I've viewed. The chase scene was particularily outstanding.

Videodrome was probably the actual scariest of the four, though spending all it's time effectively grossing me out, it didn't engross me as much as Suspiria did. If it was Cronenberg's intention to make my TV screen repulsive, he succeeded with flying colors. For all Videodrome's warped physical effects however, what truly got to me was the underlying threat of the film; whether the movie's events were in fact the start of a dubiously grand new age, or simply regressive delusions caused by an unthinking force, and if the latter, how many people would be tricked into thinking they were beings of a new age, and in turn share the perils of the main character . Videodrome, whilst primarily SciFi, can definitely be considered a horror film. Seeing it, I now place it at #1 in my "diabolical order" list.