Eric’s Blog

Halloween movies have been all over the television lately. I’m not complaining, I love Halloween movies. I get that there are a lot of movies that are geared towards the fun, silly side of Halloween and there are a lot of movies that are geared towards the scary, gory side of Halloween.

I like both sides of Halloween, but I wish there was a better representation of the scary, gory movies. They don’t show the movies that I remember watching when I was a kid. Everything is all cute and fun right now. They’ve shown The Addams family I & II almost every day since October started. Hocus Pocus has been played more times than A Christmas Story is during the Christmas season. We’ve seen Hotel Transylvania I, 2, & 3 at least three times already. Where is the Death Becomes Her? Where is The Day of the Triffids? Where is Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon?

I get that some of those movies are anachronistic, but I always enjoyed watching them when I was a kid. I think I must have watched Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, The Wolf Man with Lon Chaney Jr., and Frankenstein with Boris Karloff more than any other movies when I was a kid. That’s probably because my Dad loved those movies and had recorded them onto VHS tapes that were kept next to the television set.

When I finally got a television set in my room, I remember being able to watch things that I was interested in. I watched USA Up All Night when I finally got a television in my room and they would show classic gems like The Swarm, Nuke ‘Em High, The Toxic Avenger, and others of the same ilk. These movies were scarring and memorable at the same time. I can vividly recall the scene where the janitor is chased into a vat of toxic chemicals while wearing a tutu and then transformed into Toxie, The Toxic Avenger. I think I was more afraid of being tossed into a vat of toxic chemicals as a kid than I was of anything else.

Actually, now that I think about it, the scariest scenes I remember from when I was a kid was when someone screamed for help and there was nothing to be done. Creepshow 2 – The Raft was absolutely one of the most horrifying scenes I can remember. A good looking girl is pulled into a lake by the monster that resides there and comes back to the surface enveloped in ooze screaming, “It hurts! Help me!”. So many things combined together to make that scene one of the most horrific and vivid from my childhood. The subtle sexual nature of the scene, the edgy special effects, the awkward phase I was going through at that time, and the fact that I could do nothing to help the girl gave me night terrors for years to come. I almost don’t want to embed the video for fear that the night terrors will come back.

Movies in the eighties were, arguably, more violent and edgy than movies from any other era. Remember The Blob? It was done in the fifties with Steve McQueen and had a catchy theme song, it was campy although the special effects were probably cutting edge for the time it was made. The Blob from the eighties was more terrifying than any other movie I’ve ever seen. Remember when the guy gets sucked down the drain? How about the kid in the sewer that is half-disintegrated and screaming for help? What about the doctor in the virus suit that is thrashed around the opening of the manhole as he is devoured? Yeah, the eighties blob was more violent than the one with Steven McQueen.

That’s not the only movie that was re-done in a more horrifying manner. House on Haunted Hill with Vincent Price from 1959 was good, but the one that was re-done forty years later still gives me the chills just by watching the opening credits. A great callback to it’s predecessor is the casting of Geoffrey Rush; I swear he is made to look just like Vincent Price from the original film although it may be just a happy accident.

I understand that they’re not going to be able to play some of the films I talked about on cable television stations. But there are so many other films that they could show. Do they have to air the same three films ad nauseam? What do you think? What are your favorite Halloween movies? Which ones would you like to see on television in lieu of A Nightmare Before Christmas shown from October first through December 27th? Let me know in the comments below.