Movies to scare kids by - the long awaited sequel!

Just in time for a nice Halloween rambling!

Back in the earliest days of my blog, Simcha Fischer posted a list of scary movies she watched with her family around spook season when she was at National Catholic Register.  Deciding to shamelessly steal the idea, I posted the same thing, and it led to an early boost in my visits. No doubt in part because of the images I used being ones people at the time were likely searching for.  Eh.  It still worked, and the old blog got quite a lift in page views. 

Since then, we've watched many more movies that weren't on the list. Some on the list aren't watched as much anymore.   Of course most aren't watched with everyone because of obvious life changes.  And there are those not listed here because, while we have watched them many times over the years, they aren't even a once every three Halloween watch.  So here is the much awaited update - Movies to Scare Kids By, Part II:

Night of the Demon, 1957

MacGinnis (L) and Andrews selling the story

They say this was the first movie in the modern era, post-war at least, to handle the topic of demonology, the occult and Satanism.  Subjects that would dominate the film world during the 1970's 'decade of realism', culminating in the early 1980's infamous 'Satanic Panic.'  In the 1950s, the old monsters of folklore and myth were passe, giving way to radioactive giant reptiles, insects, and people, all mixed with endless aliens from everywhere in the universe.  At the high noon of such nuclear age focus came this British movie.  The story deals with the 'Great Karswell' and his cult of devil worshippers.  It shows you up front what is happening, so the audience doesn't ponder if it is real (something the film makers didn't want but were forced to show by the studio).  Nonetheless, Dana Andrews is the usual skeptical scientist who needs bludgeoned over the head by a hundred foot tall demon before he'll believe - and even then he seems to drag his feet.  Beyond the subject matter, the movie is carried by Irish actor (and physician) Niall MacGinnis as Karswell, whose unique "poetic timbre" gives an offsetting, odd and not quite right feel to what could have been a cardboard caricature.  

The City of the Dead, 1960 (US: 1961)

The shadow of the cross will protect them...

Released in the United States with the unfortunate title Horror Hotel, The City of the Dead is a movie also seeking to discard the post-Nuclear monster insect fad that dominated the late 50s and 60s. No mad scientists here.  In fact, the only scientist is the obligatory sceptic, having nothing to do with their obsession with witches and witchcraft.  Christopher Lee stars as Alan Driscoll, a professor of history and expert in the topic of New England witchcraft. A prize student of his, Nan Barlow, played by model and actress Venetia Stevenson, is directed to Professor Driscoll's childhood home, which happens to be the the sight of a famous witch burning that is shown in the movie's opening.  Once there, the fog never lets up.  Really. It is never daytime, and not foggy in the village of Whitewood.  It is a ramshackle, run down community where nobody speaks and everyone looks, well, off kilter.  Soon things begin to happen, young Miss Barlow vanishes, and her brother (a professor of science) and boyfriend must find out what happened.  The whole drama culminates in a final scene I saw on TV as a child and never forgot.  It has much atmosphere, and continues with the themes of the occult and supernatural that we saw with The Night of the Demon.  Also it's fun to watch and see the obvious influences on some of Stephen King's works, as well as the age old question - given the basic framework of the movie and its year of release, did it come first or did Psycho?  

Psycho, 1960

No caption needed

Speaking of which, somehow this began to be included in the annual cycle of spooky viewing.  I needn't dwell on the specifics.  I mean, is there a more iconic suspense thriller than this?  I knew about the shower scene before I knew what showers were.  And that was back then.  Though I will say this. I have forever envied those moviegoers who saw the film upon its initial release. Only they could have appreciated Hitchcock's sleight of hand, as it's clear the early movie sets up Janet Leigh as the actual psycho. Embezzling money from her boss to force the hand of her lover Sam Loomis into marrying her, she then drives across country,  becoming more neurotic and paranoid with each mile.  Each person she runs into -seeing her boss cross the street, a police officer, California Charlie the used car salesman - becomes more and more of a threat as her mind runs wild.  Then as the weather turns sour, she pulls into the isolated Bates Motel.  Upon meeting a young Norman Bates, the audience thinks here's another person she's going to go crazy worrying about.  And yet, as they converse over an impromptu snack, something is different this time.  From the moment you see him change from picking keys to Room 3 to Room 1, you begin to get the impression that somehow, in some way, perhaps she wasn't the psycho after all.  To be able to watch it like that is something I do envy.   

The Wicker Man, 1973

Christopher Lee gives another understated performance

A disturbing movie on many levels, brilliantly executed, and a reminder for all of those who pine for the peace loving hippy days of love fest paganism.  On the surface, it does look like a celebration of good old pagan free sex versus that tired old religious puritanism of Christianity.  Edward Woodward plays a devout Christian policeman investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a nearby island off the English coast.  As he makes his rounds, he is stunned at what he sees - like a Woodstock orgy on acid.  This is only made worse when he meets the island's unapologetic lord, played by Christopher Lee in what he called one of his favorite roles.  Things begin to go from crazy to nightmarish for Woodward until, only when it is too late, he realizes just what he has uncovered.  It is an ending that will stay with you a long time after the movie is over. 

Steven King's Silver Bullet, 1985 

Made in the wake of The Howling and Rick Baker's groundbreaking effects for An American Werewolf in  London, it is inferior to those two movies in most ways.  The design for the monster in question always looked like a teddy bear with a mean streak and not much more.  With most of King's movies, either they deviate enough to improve the material, or try to stretch the material out to a two hour version of not much.  Somehow, this movie manages to do a little of neither.  Still, there are some things to like.  It wisely adds a seasonal feel by having the final confrontation take place on Halloween night (while picky observers note that in the actual year it is supposed to happen, the moon was not full on Halloween).  The principal actors are good enough, and do their jobs well enough to carry the story.  Many in the support cast actually shine brighter than the leads.  There are some heartfelt moments, and some good scenes that suggest a better movie in the making.  Plus it does contain one of the most purely gothic scenes ever put to celluloid.  Then of course there is Gary Busey.  Never has Gary Busey more Gary Bussied than here.  If you like your Gary Busey acting three sheets to the wind even when he's not drunk, this is the movie for you.

L to R: Angry teddy bear; Werewolf to scare the bloody pants off of you (courtesy of The Howling)

The Fall of the House of Usher 

One of the catalogue of Roger Corman's 'how to mutilate Poe' films.  Of all of them, this is the one trying at least somewhat to cleave unto the original source material.  Vincent Price, Mr. Horror of Poe himself, does a good job of making the ailing Roderick Usher come off as unsettling at best.  The settings are typical Corman, lots of fog, everything looks dead (as well it should), the interior shots are properly gothic, and the costumes are straight out of a Broadway costume drama.  At only 79 minutes, it still feels like the main goal is to stretch and stretch again the story into a full length theatrical release.  Nonetheless, when it does get going, and the set of the crypts is revealed, the whole begins to come together and makes for viewing that fits well into the Halloween seasonal feel.  

Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)

The sequel to Hammer's The Horror of Dracula, its first instalment of an eternally long string of Dracula movies.  Featuring one of the best showdowns between Dracula and his arch-nemesis Van Helsing, Hammer reminds us that when it comes to adapting books into movies, don't worry about the books.  The names are the same, but don't apply to the same people.  We still have no clue where it is supposed to take place.  The story begins in the first minute by quoting Jonathan Harker's journal, and then promptly begins rewriting the journal itself, with the story to follow.  Nonetheless, so successful was its performances at the box office that a sequel from Hammer was inevitable.  Dracula, Prince of Darkness begins a decade or so after the events of the first movie.  Not able to get Peter Cushing back, they bring in four stalwart Brit performers as well as the always reliable Andrew Keir to weave together a new story centered around a speechless Dracula (the reasons for Lee having no dialogue being debated to this day).  Two brothers and their wives defy warnings from a rambunctious abbot and visit too close to the Castle Dracula.  As they say, when you're in horror movies, you make dumb decisions.  What follows is predictable, and the ending, while interesting in leaning on the tale that vampires can't cross running water, is nowhere close to the first movie's ending (see below).  Also, the 'vampire as bizarre mutant monster, not supernatural' gets kicked into high gear, and you're left pondering just what Keir's abbot actually believes about - anything.  I suppose it was the apex of accepting that everything spiritual must really be material.  It's worth noting, BTW, that the TV channels we had when I was growing up must have owned this movie outright, because more than almost any other horror movie, it seemed this was shown repeatedly.  Also, like The City of the Dead, one can see some clear influences on both Stephen King and, of all things, Dungeons and Dragons! 

Curse of the Werewolf (1961)    

Oliver Reed shines in this tortured tale.  While Hammer would raid old Universal story lines and adapt them liberally from the source material, they toss Curt Siodmak's concocted Wolf Man story out the window.  Instead, for this movie they lean on actual European folklore and superstitions about werewolves and their origins.  Reed's Leon is definitely a tragic character, almost as much as his adopted father, played brilliantly by Welsh actor Clifford Evans.  A viewer will almost be lost at first, as the initial scenes in the movie tap into historical beliefs about where werewolves originate.  Then we meet Leon as a young child with decidedly un-childlike tendencies: Like sleepwalking and returning with blood all over his torn up clothes.  Growing up doesn't help, and like any true Gothic tale, it oozes with tragedy, for that's typically what defines a Gothic tale.  True to form, Hammer Films, as it so often did, managed to punch well above its weight in terms of what it could do with very limited budgets and resources, and makes this one of the most rewatchable of its extensive catalogue. 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

The Hammer film that put Hammer in the spotlight. Initially panned for its gore, its production and its gratuitous levels of - then - shocking visuals, the movie has since been seen as a milestone due to its role in bringing back the classic horror genre in the age of sci-fi and nuclear paranoia.  Like most Hammer films, the source material is out the window. It isn't even based on stage plays.  The film begins with Dr. Frankenstein awaiting his execution.  He tells his tale of what happened, a tale we should be at least vaguely familiar with.  If Frankenstein is sometimes less sympathetic than his creation in the original novel, here he's pure villain.  Willing to murder to maintain his project of life creation, Cushing's Frankenstein ranks as one of Hammer's most heartless monsters.  Even more than the grotesque creature itself, played again by a speechless Christopher Lee.  Scottish actor Robert Urquhart is wonderful as Frankenstein's mentor, turned adversary as he begins to recoil in horror at what his prized student is capable of doing.  Like most Hammer films, for its day it pulled no punches, and the ending shows that not all movies need to end happily. 

The House on Haunted Hill, 1959

The move makes as much sense as this photo

Pure schlock of the highest degree of schlock.  Vincent Price is at his hammy best here, playing the eccentric zillionaire Frederick Loren in what has to be one of the most hilariously convoluted storylines ever.  Released back when low budget movie gimmicks was a fad, the story, the logic, the consistency, the defiance of reality, the basic 'what the hell is going on here' problems with the plot, all take a back seat to a faddish technology long lost on modern audiences.  The basic idea is that Mr. Loren has put together a party at a notoriously haunted house - for reasons?  And then he and his wife pretty much hate each other, until it is revealed there is at least a five way double cross conspiracy orchestrated by - someone?  Elisha Cook is almost slappable with his annoying prattling, and most of the actors seem genuinely confused, because the audience certainly is.  Nonetheless, it sort of got added to the mix some years ago, and is a family favorite.  Especially since the boys like to do with it what they do with the old Frosty the Snowman Christmas special.  That is, eviscerate it down to its core with comedic jabs and digs at the obvious loopholes of logic and plotlines.  

The Haunting, 1963

In keeping with the emerging focus on the supernatural and away from space aliens and giant mutants, we're treated to this cinematic version of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House. To be honest, this isn't really my cup of tea.  For some reason, the atmosphere and the portrayal of the haunting itself comes off as almost tinny, if that means anything.  There is a mechanical feel to it all that doesn't hit me as 'supernatural' or 'spiritual.'  More like sound machines and drum sets behind the stage than ethereal spirits.  Nonetheless, it is liked here on the home front, and I don't hate it.  There is some good there, especially the lore attached to the story.  The sets themselves are good, and the acting solid.  Yes, we all get the subtle inuendo behind the two female leads' relationship. But overall, each actor of the small cast does good enough.  Not to mention Julie Harris's Elinore Lance has a bullseye over her that even the least attentive viewer can't help but see.  So it's OK, but probably not a favorite, at least for me. 

Night of the Living Dead, 1968

And in color, too!

The low budget independent film against which all low budget independent films are measured.  Literally filming out of the trunk of his car, George Romero managed to redefine a mythical concept and invent a genre in almost one fell swoop.  Despite the heavy handed Civil Rights Era messaging, Romero has always insisted the story was already in place when Duane Jones was cast.  The ending just coincidently looked like it was pushing a message.  A spin on societal paranoia and survival against all odds that would make Rod Serling proud, it manages to start with a punch and never let up.   With a budget barely enough to buy a McDonald's happy meal in terms of movie financing, Romero managed to piece together an intense, suspenseful, and compelling labor of love that still holds up, and unsettles the viewer, even today. 

Ghost Story, 1981

Enough class to fill the screen

Based on Peter Straub's 1979 novel of the same name, the movie distills the book down to the classic 'old dark secret shared by friends' storyline. As they enter the twilight of their years, four life long friends become concerned when one suddenly dies, for no apparent reason.  Then goes another one.  Finally, the son of the first to die shows up and tells his tale.  A beautiful young woman came into his life who seemed, well, every guy's dream.  It being the sex saturated early 80s, this dream is played out on screen in very non-family friendly ways.  Yet something begins to look wrong.  He soon links her to his own brother who died mysteriously after meeting a young woman who sounded a lot like his current flame.  Stories are told, and the dark secret the four pledged to keep forever when they were young is revealed.  At that point, they conclude this might be a case of revenge from the netherworld.  The fact that they rounded up some phenomenal acting power - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Fred Astaire, John Houseman and Patricia Neal to name a few - lifts the movie by at least a letter grade.  Good atmosphere and creepy settings don't hurt. 

The Witch, 2015

It's a family in-joke

A movie that came out of nowhere and absolutely awed everyone who saw it. The story is of a Puritan family in 17th Century American concluding their community isn't up to their own high Christian standards.  Therefore, they strike out to make their own way in the American wilderness.  Things soon go from bad to catastrophic as the disappearance of their newborn is followed by a strange and disturbing series of events, both natural and unsettling.  Meanwhile, one by one the members of the family are either lost or turn on one another.  The movie itself deserves a full blog post, and much has been written about it.  The thing I like, beyond it leaving things open at the end, is that the movie respected the material.  It didn't hoist the Calvinist family up for ridicule or mockery or 'gee they were the pits' levels of derision.  It merely says 'these people did this, this is how they saw things, and this is what happened.'  Such a treatment of the past is almost rarer today than a valid witch sighting in these jaded times of ubiquitous presentism. And it helps make this some great, if not disturbing, viewing for a Halloween season lineup. 

CHEATS:

The next couple are movies we used to watch but my wife began to find a bit troubling.  I think it has to do with raising teenagers and college students.  

Halloween, 1978

It begins

It was like Romero's Night of the Living Dead, but taken to the next level.  The initial charge was for John Carpenter to make another garbage quality hack and slash movie for the post-adolescent palate.  But rather than just grab a camera and shoot, he decided to reach into that haversack of creativity, add a little golly-gee-whiz, along with some out of the box seasonal inspired thinking, and came up with a movie that blew the socks off of audiences when it was released, and showed just what independent filmmaking could accomplish at the box office. My cousin Joannie, the night they saw it in theaters, made her husband go in and turn on all the lights in their house and check all the closets before she got out of the car.  I heard that story repeated endlessly back then.  It's amazing what a bag of dead leaves, a William Shatner mask, a machete, a pumpkin special ordered from New England, Donald Pleasance, and the date October 31st gave to an otherwise forgettable low budget project.   Also, we should mention the movie's musical score, written by Carpenter, has become one of the most iconic scores ever.  A fitting bit of trivia for a movie that carved its own niche in movie history. 

The Blair Witch Project, 1999

You have to admit - it works

One of the first fruits of the Internet age, it played the new medium like a maestro and generated one of the biggest blockbusters, in terms of profit margins, in movie history.  Of course like anything, it quickly became just as fashionable to hate and despise the movie as initially praise it.  A film by actual students in the University of South Florida film department, the story centers around students in a film department doing a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch.  The basic premise is sort of like Dracula, but in the video age.  That is, their film cameras they used to track everything that happened were discovered, and what we are watching is what actually went down.  Ok.  If Dracula's whole 'quick, something isn't right, let's get to the diary' framework seemed to stretch things at times, this movie's 'oh no, we could die - quick, grab a camera', went over the edge. But putting aside the obvious need for suspending tremendous amounts of disbelief, the movie did a good job of reminding us that less can often be more.  The fall foliage, the wilderness isolation, the nod to a cemetery, the community with only hints of Halloween decorations never focused on, the abandoned house, the strange yet understated totems in the middle of the woods, did a far better job at helping the viewer paint a frightening mental picture than most movie special effects artists could ever do.  

SPECIAL MENTION

Ghost Story (2017)

Really, he's in a bed sheet

We still aren't sure what to make of this.  Staring Casey Affleck, it is the story of a young couple, madly in love, whose lives are shattered by the sudden and tragic death of the young man (Affleck).  After the shock of the accident, Affleck suddenly finds himself in, well, a bedsheet and confined to his home.  Without saying a word, he watches as the love of his life moves on, only to be replaced by others who come and go until suddenly it looks like the year 2929 with space skyscrapers and flying cars and then -  woosh!  There he is, in his sheet, looking upon a barren wilderness.  He sees 19th Century settlers, then the decaying body of a dead child with an arrow in her back (gutsy move that), and suddenly, things start coming full circle as around him emerges the neighborhood and house he knew.  Each scene contains characters and dialogue that muse on life, death, time, morality, the divine, and the eternal.  All while the ghost with two eye-holes silently observes.  My wife isn't keen on watching it again, but I admit I wouldn't mind giving it another whirl. 

So there you have it.  For the record, not all of them are watched every year, and some more often than others.  A few have only been watched a couple times, but almost always around October, owing to the seasonal vibes.