Nightwatcher's Halloween Pt 3

Because all self respecting horror movies have a ton of sequels.


This will be the grand finale to my Halloween article, I hope everyone enjoyed parts one and two, if you missed them they can still be found in my profile. The final chapter will showcase some of my favorite movies to watch this season. Whether themed for Halloween or not they are all appropriate for it. Here comes the home stretch. And in case anyone is wondering, no this is not the surprise yet. That will be my next regular article. (I mentioned the surprise in Patrol #7).

10. Young Frankenstein (1974)



What could be better than watching a movie that is based on one of the greatest monster stories of all time? How about watching it with a comedic twist, curtesy of comic genious and all around madman Mel Brooks. The story revolves around the grandson of the original "good" doctor who follows in old Grandad's footsteps and, not only inherits the castle, but creates his own monster. It's presented in a very humble black and white and is considered to be among the greatest comedy movies of all time especially thanks to the famous scene were Frankenstein and the monster do a stage dance to Putting On The Ritts.


9. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)



Bram Stoker's epic novel is brought to beautiful and stunning life in this motion picture masterpiece. A warrior Count in Transylvania returns home from battle to discover that his beloved wife has taken her own life after being lead to think that he was killed. He then renounces his religion by piercing a large cross in his chapel with a sword and is ultimately cursed, becoming the dark vampire lord that we are all familiar with. The rest of the story plays out in England some time later with Jonathan and Mina Harker and Prof. Van Helsing. Being a vampire love story over all, this is considered a sort of supernatural chick flik, but is enjoyable for both genders...as long as you don't mind a moderate amount of blood.


8. Poltergeist (1982)



They're Heeeere! Based loosley on the real life events of the Black Hope Horror, this movie tells the story of a young girl named Carol Anne (the adorable Heather O'Rourke) who is sensitive to a ghostly priest named Kane who may not be all that he seems. This movie has plenty of scary, even disgusting parts including the famous clown-doll-under-the-bed scene which can turn even the strongest of men into quivering globs of Jello. Definately a must see on my Halloween list.

7. The Monster Squad (1987)



I reviewed this movie in my very first article on the site "Monster Mash", but I wasn't really fair in my judgement of it there so I'll give it a better review here. This is basically "The Goonies Meet The Monsters" with a hilarious twist. A group of kids, (four boys and two girls, ironically the same as The Goonies), must stop Count Dracula and the other Universal Monsters from destroying humanity and taking over the world by sending them to Limbo with a special, magical amulet. The movie has some good slap stick humor and pretty decent special effects for it's time. It was also pretty cool to see all of the Universal Monsters together in the same movie and being thwarted by a bunch of kids. The Wolfman has nards, who knew?

6. Dracula: Dead And Loving It (1995)



After conquering Frankenstein, Mel Brooks decided to try jabbing his comedic stake into the heart of Dracula. Starring the now late Leslie Neilson (sniff) as the vampire king and Brooks as a hilarious excuse for Van Helsing, this take on the classic Bram Stoker tale is a supernatural side splitter. Just remember, if you are going to try escaping through a second story window, use the drain pipe. Dracula flies, we don't.

5. Beetlejuice (1988)



When young Lydia and her parents move into their new "dream house" little do they know of the nightmare that they are about to endure. It seems that the, now late, young couple who owned the house previously have died and are now haunting the place as ghosts. When they fail to scare the new tenents out themselves they decide to hire a so-called "human exterminator" named Beetlejuice without realising what they are getting themselves into. Featuring a stellar performance by Micheal Keaton as Beet...er, the main antagonist (whew, that was close! I almost said his name a third time) this movie will leave you in stitches. IT'S SHOW TIME!!

4. Halloween (1978)



Now if you asked anyone who knows me well, they would vouch that I'm not really a slasher movie buff. However, when I started to watch them a few years back, you know, just to see what I was missing, I noticed that Halloween had plenty of action and killing but very little blood. Infact everything I read about it online said that it was more of a thriller than a slasher. It's also the one movie series out of the slasher genre that I've been able to watch the most chapters from including Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which scared the living hell out of me...when I was in my twenties. STOP LAUGHING!! It was a good movie and I liked the theme music at the end credits but I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again. Anyway, no offense but I found the Freddie and Jason movies to be so bad that I only watched the first Nightmare and the first two Fridays and never finished either series. When it comes to Halloween, as far as I'm concerned, the first two are the only ones, period. Plus, that theme music gives me chills. If you want more there is a good article by JSwiftX about Halloween II somewhere in the next few articles pages and it's worth a read. I said stop laughing!

3. The Blair Witch Project (1999)




I know alot of you are going to hate me for adding this to the list but back when it came out I was obsessed with it, even going so far as to assemble my own stick man figure. Thankfully, I've since moved on but I still think it's a pretty cool movie. Heck, it still has a pretty big cult fan following (no, I'm no longer included there). The movie chronicals the fictional last eight days of Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Micheal Williams' lives as they were supposedley hunted down through the Burkettsville forest in Maryland by an unseen entity known as the Blair Witch, the events of which were supposed to have happened in October of 1994. It was a college class project turned awry. What I like about this one is that, unlike other horror movies, this already has two hundred years of history behind it. The movie was popular enough to spawn a sequel called Book Of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, which I don't recommend as it was pretty bad, and a possible Blair Witch 3 on the way. I just hope that 3 will be better than 2 who's appropriately dark, mostly goth rock soundtrack was it's only redeeming quality.

2. Ernest Scared Stupid - aka Ernest Saves Halloween (1991)



I reviewed this movie back in my official Ernest article Nightwatcher's Patrol #1. Ernest must save Halloween, and the world as a whole, from an evil troll named Trantor and his "wicked race". It's widely concidered among Ernest fans (myself included) as the best movie in the series and is a great Halloween treat. Just remember to pack plenty of miak...er, I mean milk. "No muss, no fuss, the trolls r' dust. Knowutimean?"

1. Casper (1995)



Say what you will but this has been my favorite Halloween movie since it was first released. Infact I remember renting the VHS for my ninth grade class Halloween party that year, of course not all of my classmates were really to grateful to me for it (little snots). This is a great movie for the family that deals alot with the pain and difficulty of losing loved ones and meeting new friends, even if they are already dead, in a fun, kid friendly way. The story line is good because, unlike the cartoon series some sixty years ago, the movie plays out more like a fairy tale. It even includes *gasp!* Casper's origin! That's right, we finally get to find out who he was when he was still alive and how he died, which turned out to be a nasty case of pneumonia. And his last name is Mc Fadden, who knew? My favorite parts though were the scenes of the Ghostly Trio, "Smellogram!". The movie was followed by an animated series, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper which was more along the lines of a sitcom, it was great. Two volumes have been released on DVD but they apparently have no plans to finish it up, go figure.

Honorable Mention

Ghostbusters (1984)



Who ya gonna call? Three out of work college professors with an intrest in the supernatural decide to open their own business as "paranormal exterminators". Little do they know at first that they may also be the only ones who can save us from an evil demi god named Gozer who wishes to conquer our world. My favorite ghostbuster is Egon but I always get a kick out of Peter's sly, lady's man quips and Ray's child like wonder which usually leads to some of the most outrageously funny moments of both movies. As for Winston, well, he's just plain cool...under paranormal pressure that is. And surprise, a third movie is due out next holiday season! Ghostbusters fans rejoice! It's time to charge up the old proton pack, I aint afraid of no ghosts!

Also, as an added trick-or-treat for making everyone wait so long for this article, I would Like to add something extra. As I've mentioned in the past, I am an avid ghost hunting enthusiast myself and as such, there are plenty of places I would like to investigate. However, if I were to choose just one it would have to be Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. The most well known hauntings include: the cafeteria where a shadow person has been seen, the third floor where at least two ghostly children are supposed to haunt and room 502 up on the fifth floor, aka the roof, where the ghost of a distraught nurse who hung herself is supposed to haunt. There are supposed to be several other ghosts as well, to many to list here, but I would like to get a look at the place and see if I could collect some of my own evidence. Maybe someday, if I can ever get down there. If anyone has had the chance to go to Waverly and you have had an experience please tell me in the box below, I would love to here about it.





Well that's it for my offial Halloween article. Sorry it took so long but I ran out of time last year, Halloween came and went before I had a chance to finish writing this. Since that is the case, I hope that no one finds it disappointing. I'll see you next time with my surprise article, until then...