The Scene: Casey (Drew Barrymore) is home alone making stove top popcorn when the phone rings. Thinking it's a wrong number, she politely hangs up. The strange voice calls back. Casey stays on the line a little longer this time, after all, the caller's voice is a little distorted, but he is a bit of a charmer. They chat back and forth about scary movies (her favorite is 'Halloween'; his is 'A Nightmare on Elm Street') and it's all quite innocent until the mystery man mentions that he can see Casey.
Casey is not pleased by this news.
Why It's Iconic: It's no secret that horror was going through a rough patch in the 1990s. It's a historically cyclical genre within the industry and when Wes Craven's 'Scream' hit in '96, horror movies had cycled back out of popular culture. This scene announced the return of the genre. And it doesn't matter whether you love or hate the movie, there's little denying how memorable 'Scream' would go on to be.
Not only did this scene, the film's opening, introduce fans to Ghostface, a figure who would go on to become an icon as instantly recognizable as the Holy Trinity of Bogeymen (Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger), but it introduced a self-aware breed of horror movies. Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson set out to deconstruct the films of the '80s that the current generation had been scared by growing up. Their goal was to create a sort of post-modern slasher where there were discernible rules to live by and that breaking the rules meant certain death. And it all begins with Casey's conversation with Ghostface, the robed enforcer of said rules.
Imitators/Flatterers: The most blatant offspring of 'Scream' is 'Scary Movie,' an entire film franchise that only exists because of the impact 'Scream' left on pop culture. Then there's the lesser known 'Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The Thirteenth.' Ghostface has also popped up in 'Robot Chicken,' 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' and 'Stan Helsing.'
Aside from its own spoof series, there are a handful of late '90s horror movies that owe their similarly self-aware nature to the successful collaboration of Craven and Williamson: 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and its two sequels, 'Urban Legend' and its two sequels, 'Halloween H20' and, to a lesser but still genre-referential degree, 'The Faculty'.
Everyone wants to watch horror movies as Halloween grows closer, trouble is horror movies aren't for everyone. By its very nature, it's a genre filled with material that's meant to shock, disturb and otherwise provoke its audience. But what about the young film fans out there? Don't they deserve to have something edgy but age-appropriate to watch when they get back from trick or treating? Of course they do, which is why Moviefone has compiled a list of ten "horror movies" that a family can watch together.
Now what defines a family-friendly horror movie? First off, it can't be rated higher than PG-13, and it is even preferable that the film be rated PG or below. That means no nudity, no gore and minimal violence and foul language. Secondly, by "horror" we simply mean any movie that may contain edgier, Halloween-friendly material.
To help further provide information on these films, we've also included the Common Sense Rating (where available), as well as any notable scenes or themes that may still surprise youngsters (and parents) despite the rating.
What's it about: A boy who discovers a gateway to a world of mischievous monsters under his bed.
Why kids will like it: Every child growing up is afraid of what's under their bed or in the closet and 'Little Monsters' puts an adventurous spin on it whilst still keeping things a little creepy.
Why parents will like it: The always enjoyable Fred Savage stars, it has a nice nostalgia factor (for younger parents, at least), plus it helps teach kids to be mindful of their home and their belongings.
Common Sense Rating: Not Available, but it should be okay for anyone over the age of 9.
Notable Shocks: There is a tiny amount of language that might tweak some ears, but nothing that exceeds the MPAA's standards for a PG. Toward the end of the film, the world of the monsters grows a bit darker and may contain some inhuman latex make-up effects that may startle some.
What's it about: A young girl opens a doorway to an alternate world free of the frustrations she has at home, but filled with increasingly sinister implications.
Why kids will like it: The stop motion animation is captivating, Coraline's frustrations with her parents are relateable, it's brimming with imagination.
Why parents will like it: The stop motion is captivating, it's written by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman and directed by 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' Henry Selick.
Common Sense Rating: Age 9+, "Cool but creepy animated fantasy too scary for young kids."
Notable Shocks: A surprisingly vivacious pair of elderly ladies wear tiny swimsuits during a stage performance; the climax of the film might be too intense for younger viewers. 8. 'Matinee'(Available on DVD and Netflix Watch Instantly)
What's it about: The extravagant premiere night of a new, low-budget horror movie during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Why kids will like it: 'Matinee' has amusing, men-in-suit type monsters that are all kept at a safe distance and plenty of sight gags to keep them entertained.
Why parents will like it: Joe Dante's film is filled with material that will go over the heads of younger family members. It's got a great cast, a great story and is a total celebration of the sci-fi/horror films and theater-going experiences of yesteryear.
Common Sense Rating: Not available, but should be okay for over the age of 8.
Notable Shocks: Some salty language pops up from time to time, nothing that demanded higher than a PG, however. 7. 'Monster House' (Available on DVD and Blu-ray)
What's it about: A trio of kids who set out to discover why the creepy house on their street is so creepy.
Why kids will like it: Very cool animation, very funny kid characters and an infectious sense of "We can do this!" adventure.
Why parents will like it: Produced by Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg, 'Monster House' has a sophistication to its adult characters. Plus, it's just an all-around fun movie.
Notable Shocks: The visuals, though animated, are surprisingly effective and spooky throughout; boasts poignant themes of death and loss. 6. 'Halloweentown' (Available on DVD that also includes 'Halloweentown II')
What's it about: Children who discover that their family is from the fantasy world of Halloweentown, which is currently under threat of an evil warlock.
Why kids will like it: The story is about discovering powers and abilities you never knew you had, Halloweentown is kind of like a full-scale Diagon Alley from 'Harry Potter.'
Why parents will like it: It's mainly made for kids, but it's well-cast and doesn't ever get too silly.
What's it about: A boy who becomes half-vampire and joins a traveling band of circus freaks.
Why kids will like it: The world of the freaks is cool; it's got a good sense of humor, nice action and an exceedingly likable cast.
Why parents will like it: It doesn't pander to the younger, vampire-loving crowd despite being based on a series of young-adult fantasy novels and arriving at the height of 'Twilight'-mania; great cast of both young and old actors; has nice hat tips to iconic figures of fright.
Common Sense Rating: Age 12+, "Teen vampire flick is scarier, edgier than the book series."
Notable Shocks: The hero is a boy who fakes his death to get away from his parents; some of the freaks (and their powers) are definitely too scary for kids below the age of 12.
Notable Shocks: Nothing outrageous, 'Casper' is the most all-ages film on this list. 3. 'Arachnophobia' (Available on DVD)
What's it about: A family that relocates to a farmhouse that happens to be infected with a deadly South American spider.
Why kids will like it: It's scary, but not traumatizing; great to watch in a group.
Why parents will like it: It's bound to have a few skin-crawling scenes; neat practical effects; never too kiddy.
Common Sense Rating: Age 12+, "Creepy/clever creature feature with touches of humor."
Notable Shocks: Anyone of any age who is already prone to arachnophobia will be freaked out by the legion of creepy crawlies here. Spots of mild language. 2. 'Gremlins' (Available on DVD and Blu-ray)
What's it about: A town that threatens to be overrun by a strange breed of new pet.
Why kids will like it: The puppetry is fantastic; Gizmo is lovable; the violence is cartoonish.
Why parents will like it: It's a Joe Dante movie filled with cool special effects and funny gags. Plus, 'Gremlins' teaches kids to properly take care of their pets.
Notable Shocks: The gremlins often act like out-of-control adults, partaking in excessive booze, smoking and gambling. They also tend to make a mess upon death.
What's it about: A young boy who, on a vacation with his Grandmother, learns that his hotel is hosting a witches' convention.
Why kids will like it: It's a crazy fantasy story that's both weird and wonderful.
Why parents will like it: Strong cast; story is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, which is a classic for a certain generation.
Common Sense Rating: Age 8+, "Some kids will love it, some may find disturbing."
Notable Shocks: Death may not always be the big deal it really is; some of the effects and revelations are certain to bother those under the age of 8 (and possibly a few over it).
How to dress like one of the characters from 'Tron' for Halloween:
The Costume: The neon-lit "Users" from the 1982 Disney classic 'Tron,' who are inside a software system's mainframe fighting alongside human Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) to thwart the plans of the evil Master Control Program, which intends to break into military mainframes and control the world.
What You'll Need: If creating the most authentic, eye-catching 'Tron' costume is your objective then you've come to the right place. Thanks to the Internet meme, "Tron Guy," we have a starting point, but with the sequel 'TRON: Legacy' slated to open in December, many of you may want to upgrade.
Tron (1982)
To build a costume like the one Jeff Brides or Bruce Boxleitner wore in 'Tron,' start with the basics. For the skin-tight suit, which should be light grey, you'll have to decide whether to construct it using a dorky unitard or one of those two-piece Spandex outfits that runners wear. Either way, we strongly suggest that you do a good, hard set of crunches before putting the suit on. For the protective headgear, you should use a hockey helmet (take off the chin strap and face guard).
Now to the hard part: adding the flourescent blue lines to the costume. To create the look of your body being outlined in an elaborate set of circuitry, buy some kind of blue paint that will work well on fabric and plastic (as you'll have to paint designs on your suit, helmet and Frisbee). The best way to get the straightest, crispest lines on your costume is to outline your design first with masking tape then paint within those lines you've created. When this is complete and the paint is dry you should then paint over the blue lines with blue glow-in-the-dark paint (which should last over four hours). A ratty pair of tennis shoes that you can paint grey will complete the look.
Tron: Legacy (2010)
If you'd like to be ahead of the trend, try the sleeker 'TRON: Legacy' look. As you've seen in the trailer, the light grey look of the "User" has now shifted to black (a tight-fitting leather/imitation leather jacket, black pants and black sneakers should suffice). Wearing a helmet is no longer a necessity with the new version, but the biggest change is that you should use EL wire (electroluminescent wire) to freshen up the circuitry on your body. This is a bit more complex than buying some Spandex and fabric paint. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to add EL wire to clothes. If you have the time, patience and tools to pull it off, you're certain to be the biggest hit at your Halloween party.
Accessories: Unless you're independently wealthy and can trick out your motorcycle with EL wire (which we do not recommend) or want to walk around with a jai alai basket on your hand the whole evening, the Frisbee is the only accessory you'll need, especially if you can affix it to your back. Buy a white one and use the blue paint you bought for your clothes to paint rings starting from the outside of the disc and going into the center (once again use masking take to map out your design). Four circles should do the trick. When it dries, paint it over with the glow-in-the-dark paint. If you're doing the 'TRON: Legacy' look you should go with a black Frisbee, as pictured above.
It's impossible to watch F.W. Murnau's'Nosferatu' untainted. The 1922 classic is the fertilized, embryonic source of our modern vampires. Bram Stoker set the stage with 'Dracula,' and Murnau's cinematic creation is the sinewy strand that forced itself in to create life -- a race of cinematic bloodsuckers.
The German filmmaker set the visual menace and vampiric rules. Nosferatu is a beast who doesn't look, move or act quite human. His skin appears to be just a little bit different. His teeth are sharp and eager to pierce the skin and devour the ruby-red elixir. He sleeps in coffins, thrives at night and avoids the sun. Rats and darkness follow him, and although he is, in many ways, monstrous, there is also an eager gentleness with him, a thin tendril that links him to humanity. Nosferatu preys on humans, but he's also susceptible to sexual attraction. While most humanity has faded away -- if it ever existed -- lust remains, albeit in a distorted and dangerous package.
'Nosferatu' created the frame for modern vampires to exist, and to meet him is to see Max Schreck's wide-eyed visage through the haze of worthy predecessors and heaps of garbage. But even through the muddy air of imitators and modern sensibilities too refined for early cinematic style, 'Nosferatu' is still magical.
Watching Murnau's film today thrusts a viewer into a limbo between artistry and the restraints of age. Too much time has passed to watch the film blissfully untainted. Our cinematic sensibilities are too refined. After years of gut-wrenching performances, dialogue that cuts us to the bone and frights that up the ante year after year, there's no way Murnau's film can function as it was meant to. We are not the viewers from Murnau's day, fearing the rushing train heading towards the screen (and immortalized in another vampiric tale, 'Interview with the Vampire'). We demand too much and there's no way the film can hold up.
The Hutters' melodramatic movements seem silly. The blue tint of select scenes might alert us to the coming night, but a sea of blue does nothing to mask the sun's shadows on the ground as Nosferatu creeps forward. When the carriage moves through the mass of white trees, it's a clever technique, but we know it's a negative. The score often sounds dramatically silly rather than tensely nerve-gripping. Scenes are brief, often zipping through Stoker's source material at the speed of light. We get all too little of either of the Hutter's dalliances with Orlok; there's never a meeting between Nosferatu and his loyal slave, Knock. The film is shackled by silence and the constraints of a form just beginning to see life.
Nevertheless, there's a magic to Murnau's film. It's so fortunate that when Stoker's widow got the courts to order the film's destruction, some copies lived on. The movements in 'Nosferatu' are stunning against weathered and weary facades framing the menace. Moreover, the film not only set the stage for our on-going vampire love, it also offered up one of the most stunning -- if not the most stunning -- pieces of horror acting with Max Schreck's Nosferatu.
It's a performance that lives beyond its role and film. Nosferatu's rise from his dirt-filled coffin, his hunched shadow creeping along the wall -- these are the images indelibly burned into our collective horror memories, fan and newbie alike. His role is so real, so free of melodrama and so infused with menace that the film often seems like a documentary -- a real, aged story about a vampire's thirst for blood. After we laugh at the gasps and melodrama of the film's supporting players, Schreck's Nosferatu arrives and we suck the air in, Schreck's character still working exactly as intended, to rip us out of real life and provide a menace whether we're suffering with the Hutters or laughing at them.
And Nosferatu's death grip stretches beyond the film, offering tenseness and thrills not fully realized on the screen as much as in our psyches. Perhaps the film doesn't seem so menacing while viewing it, but after, the shadows become a bit more menacing, the dark corners a bit more ominous. Though Nosferatu dies in the sunlight, all of his monster smarts thrown out the window for a sexy lady, one of those nail-curling tentacles latches onto us -- our minds waiting for those claws to pull themselves out of our real-life shadows.
It's pretty remarkable what an impact that one, singular supporting role had on our cinematic landscape. Orlok and Nosferatu have only the briefest of scenes, but they're the lifeline of our vampiric present, and the warm, comforting blanket of fear when modern mentalities deem to sparklize our beloved demons.
Questions:
-The tinting in the film is part of an old tradition to help set the mood beyond the constraints of technology. Do the blue tints make you feel the darkness of night, or seem like cheap technicolor?
-Modern prints of the film cleaned up the dirt, scratches and speed of the film. Does this enhance the experience -- seeing everything crisp -- or does that look of age help the mood?
-What is it about Schreck's performance that makes it so memorable to cinematic audiences at large? Is it simply that he came first, or is it something else entirely?
-As beloved as it is, 'Nosferatu' set the stage for new vampire rules by adding death-by-sun. Which additions to vampiric lore help the monsters' image, and which hinder it?
There's this strange, prevalent notion that horror belongs to men ... that it's the guys who like to watch the blood pour and the screams curdle while the women want nothing more than epic romances that rip out their insides in a much more figurative, gut-wrenching manner. It's an attitude that always seemed not only reductive, but downright silly. No matter how many women flock to 'Sex and the City' or lather themselves in cinematic bosom-heaving, there are many others who not only thrive on the thrills of horror, but who helped sculpt the genre into what it is today.
In the early days, I felt no gender divide in the horror world. A move from fairy tales to young adult horror seemed just as natural as diving into floofy princesses. Those tales were, after all, set in horrific and gruesome worlds of cannibalism and murder, thanks to those creepy Grimm folks. I, therefore, stormed straight from fairy tales to Fear Street.
Lois Duncan offered summers of fear [made into a TV movie by Wes Craven] and strangers with the same face, Richie Tankersley Cusick sought eerie 'April Fools' and L.J. Smith wrote of vampires, witches and psychic teens just as much as Christopher Pike sliced and diced the innocent while R. L. Stine cornered the horror market from 'Goosebumps' to 'Horror High.' Women were all over the creepy book world, and teen girls were obsessed with the supernatural well before Stephenie Meyer immortalized the Cullens. I devoured these books, so much so that my parental units forced me to read many boring, blood-free teen classics, lest I become a deranged and dangerous fiend.
With time, the divide revealed itself. The girls would leave the room when a horror movie was put into the VCR. Boys would blather on about the genre being a man's man sort of fare. No matter how much horror sped away from real life, or replicated it supernaturally, consensus stated that it was a only masculine interest, ignoring the long tradition that made the genre what it is today.
When it comes to reigning royalty in the horror world -- the stories that started it all -- there are two names that always come up. One is Bram Stoker and his story of 'Dracula,' the novel that created an insatiable sea of vampire fiends and supernatural sensuality. The other is Mary Shelley and the "first great modern horror novel," 'Frankenstein.' These worlds set up the horror genre, and defined the monsters who would rule it. They offered up competing notions of menace and sadness, both exploring the worlds of loneliness and despair. And it's quite lovely that with these two grandparents of the form, the man created the world of sensuous blood-sucking, while the woman created a world of body parts and human monstrosities ... but let's not get caught up in antiquated gender stereotypes.
Of course, the easiest ties between women and horror are found in literature. Shelley helped to form the genre while in more recent times, Anne Rice was the powerhouse who led vampires to what they are today. She's a female scribe who did write about romance, but through the filter of danger and murder, investigating how a villain could rest at the end of villainy's scale, or seem almost human with their compassion. Lestat dragged the vampire into a new world, teasing out every sexual innuendo and using vampirism to discuss any myriad of topics -- motherhood, religion, history, vigilanteism, art, sex and friendship... In her world, there's a vampire to fit every period, from the earliest days of civilization to modern rock stars. Vampiric fandom began to find its loud voice in the public consciousness.
[Sadly, the film 'Queen of the Damned' was a bastardization of the source material and fairly embarrassing for the form, but 'Interview with the Vampire' added verve to the genre, as Tom Cruise somehow managed to make Lestat come to life and Kirsten Dunst offered a child vampire we'll never forget.]
Jumping to cinema -- when women are behind the camera, it's a bit easier to forget their contributions, it being so easy to assume that all horror films are directed by men. Though discussions of women and film almost always link to feminism, the work of women behind the horror camera is just as diverse in scope and mentality as the so-called divide between women and men.
We have filmmakers like Mary Harron who took Bret Easton Ellis' 'American Psycho' and turned the male gaze on itself, the obsession with image resting solely with Patrick Bateman as he worshipped and obsessed about his body and every inconsequential detail of his life, while the women took on a much more laid back and casual demeanor. Though the film was bathed in blood, the horror really rested in the menace and hatred boiling inside Bateman. Christian Bale's performance made this switch of the gaze seem incredibly natural and suited to this character, who was torn between decorum and a vengeful taste for blood.
To flip to the exact opposite type of cinematic mentality, there's 1982's 'Slumber Party Massacre' -- an offering from writer/director Amy Holden Jones. The woman who wrote and directed 'Maid to Order' and penned 'Beethoven' and 'Mystic Pizza' offered classic, ridiculous and truly terrible horror with 'Massacre.' Feminist scribe Rita Mae Brown may have written it satirically, but it was played seriously. There's no feminism or female strength in this film. Jones revels in the male gaze, immediately showing breasts, and soon sending her female characters to the shower so that the camera could slowly pan down the female form and linger on the back-side. The male murderer even likes to kill his victims with a drill, the phallic and deadly piece offing every lonesome soul nearby. The film is goofy and exploitative, meant to revel in the period's genre norms rather than critique them.
Resting in the middle, there's 'Pet Sematary,' where Mary Lambert takes one of Stephen King's creepier novels and forms a great, scary horror flick. Resident horror geek Scott Weinberg once wrote of Lambert's treatment: "A true-blue bruise of a horror flick, packed with unsettling images, shocking demises, and a wonderfully apt sense of macabre humor. ...Director Mary Lambert ladles out the atmosphere in big, generous doses: Shock scares, nasty gore, creepy concepts... It's like a horror genre salad bar." It may not stand out as an epic classic, but it's the sort of solid offering whose power rests in the fact that it simply fits with the realm of horror, no different than the offerings from the male directors who surrounded her.
And thankfully, these women are only the tip of the iceberg: Our beloved Kathryn Bigelow moved from campy, ultra-hick vampires in 'Near Dark' to history-making Oscar wins. Antonia Bird offered disturbing cannibalism with 'Ravenous.' Jackie Kong offered up '80s flicks like 'The Being' and 'Blood Diner.' Director Rachel Talalay started her career with 'Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare' before heading to 'Tank Girl' and TV. Holly Dale used horror as a transition between documentaries and TV with 'Blood & Donuts.'
Let's face it, the above words are a mere sliver of the greater world -- the scream queens and would-be victims that fought back on the screen, the scribes like Shirley Jackson (Golden Globe-nominated horror classic 'The Haunting') who created the stories and producers like Nikki Wall ('Vaginal Holocaust') who helped make it all come to be.
Women are a part of horror, not only fueling it with shots of their breasts, but with their minds. The entire landscape would surely be different if Shelley hadn't given us Frankenstein; if Rice didn't use vampires to get over the turmoil in her own life; if Bigelow didn't start off with pulp fare. Now there are seas of female horror fiends. Bloggers like our Alison Nastasi, Twin filmmakers like Sylvia and Jen Soska, stunt-pros like Deneen Melody and lists of directorial talent.
And as we all -- women and men -- celebrate our inner horror fiend for Halloween, let's remember the ladies that helped make the genre the irresistible fright fest it is today.
And -- if you dare -- riddle me this: Why is it that so much movie horror magic rests with the Marys?
The Scene: The Freeling family is all curled up in the parents' bed. They're typical, living their early 80's, suburban lives. It's normal to the point of banality, but a series of inexplicable occurrences starts to intrude into their Spielbergian postcards. A malevolent entity is encroaching upon their home and it has its sights set on their youngest, Carol Ann (Heather O'Rourke). Carol Ann awakens. The TV speaks to her, voices that only she can hear. Smoky tendrils creep out from the television, slithering across the room. The spirit plunges into the wall and tremors rock the home. As Steve (Craig Nelson) and Diane (JoBeth Williams) awaken, Carol Ann warns, "They're here."
Why It's Iconic: Like many of the scenes featured in Moviefone's list, the scene acts as a tipping point in the film. Events dip from a distinctly Spielberg sense of wonder, into much darker territory. The Jerry Goldsmith score brings the menace, going from the light choir of children and woodwinds, to a baroque dread. The tonal shift lets us know that the spirits are tangible and are there with ill intent. All of this is juxtaposed with the flaxen-haired innocence of Carol Ann, one of the most memorable children in film history. It's a simple proclamation from an adorable child, but it's one loaded with foreboding.
Imitators/Flatterers: In the 80s, if there was any phrase repeated more often than 'Where's the Beef?', it's 'They're Here.' To this day, the references have yet to wane. While it was said with relish on every sitcom and talk show 20 years ago, we still see the scene parodied in pop-culture regurgitators like 'Family Guy', 'the Simpsons', and multiple times on 'South Park'. Most recently, and in an act of questionable taste, the scene was recreated to shill for Direct TV.
Halloween is once again here, which means it's the one time of the year where even non-horror fans start looking for scary movies to watch. While the various cable channels provide an abundance of fright flicks during the last week of the month (culminating in a veritable smorgasbord on the evening of Oct. 31), we decided to highlight 10 scary movies guaranteed to make the night spook-tastic.
So, grab the popcorn and your bag of Halloween booty, turn off the lights and settle in for 10 creepy classics that will put you in the ghoultide mood.
The more common choice would have been Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead,' but 'Dawn' is just as good as the original. With its gloomy philosophy, social commentary about the nature of consumerism, pounding Goblin score and Tom Savini special effects, Romero's second zombie film is arguably his finest creation -- and a great film to show to anyone who happens by with the attitude that horror flicks can't be smart and scary.
Director Jacques Tourneur crafted this spine-tingling tale of the supernatural, based on author M.R. James' story 'Casting the Runes.' Filled with sinister imagery (including an unsettling opening narration sequence framed by stark black-and-white shots of Stonehenge), an effective score and great performances, the only thing that mars 'NotD' are two shots of the title creature -- images Tourneur despised. Despite that, 'NotD' is still an under-appreciated masterpiece that's best viewed on All Hallow's Eve.
No Halloween is complete without an appearance from the Count. Bram Stoker's bloodsucker has appeared on the big screen on countless occasions, but Browning's version still stands amongst the best. The reason it endures is thanks largely to the performance of Bela Lugosi. Lugosi's Dracula has become the gold standard, with many subsequent portrayals mimicking the actor's appearance and distinctive accent. While everyone from Gary Oldman to Frank Langella has donned the cape, Lugosi is still the face that pops into audience's heads when Dracula's name is invoked. Grab the DVD and rediscover why after the deluge of trick 'r treaters subsides.
Halloween isn't all about scares, as Edgar Wright's zombie comedy 'Shaun of the Dead' demonstrates. The amusing tale of a slacker (Simon Pegg) who becomes a hero during the zombie apocalypse is filled with laugh out loud moments, yet still manages to deliver the zombie goods when the scene calls for it. All too often, horror comedies skew the balance too far toward one side or the other. 'Shaun' nails it (save for the ending, where it veers off course slightly), and the result is one of the most satisfying horror comedies in recent memory.
Audiences who only know Peter Jackson from the 'Lord of the Rings' films will be surprised to learn that long before venturing to Middle Earth, the New Zealander was making low budget gore comedies like 'Dead Alive.' Hailed as the one of the goriest films ever made, 'Dead Alive' deftly mixes comedy and carnage in a way that's sure to leave many giggling while they gag. The climax, which features a horde of zombies and a lawnmower deck, is one of the most hilariously disgusting things ever committed to film.
Mary Shelley's tale about a creature made of stitched together human body parts hasn't been adapted as often as 'Dracula,' but it's just as famous in horror circles. James Whale's 1931 version is haunting and gorgeous, featuring crisp images and a mesmerizing performance from Boris Karloff. Karloff imbues the monster with a strange humanity -- one that makes audiences fear him while feeling sorry for his plight. The merging of Whale's elegant direction and Karloff's nuanced performance make 'Frankenstein' perfect for the holiday.
Wes Craven assured himself of horror film immortality with the release of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' back in 1984. The story of a disfigured killer armed with a bladed glove and the power to haunt nightmares struck a chord with audiences thanks to Craven's intriguing premise and a classic performance from Robert Englund. Freddy wouldn't morph into a wisecracking anti-hero for several more films, making the original 'Elm Street' one of the scariest of the '80s slasher flicks and a title that's sure to lead to unpleasant dreams.
What goes better with Halloween than witches? Dario Argento's technicolor nightmare finds an innocent American dancer stuck at a German ballet academy run by a coven. Boasting lavish set-pieces, dizzying camerawork, a pulsating score from prog-rockers Goblin and a color scheme that's to die for, 'Suspiria' is sure to please viewers who are looking for something a little different than the standard American horror film.
Michael Dougherty's 'Trick 'r Treat' almost never saw the light of day. Buried for several years at Warner Bros., the film was finally released last October -- and became an instant classic. There's a lot to love about 'Trick 'r Treat' -- including the 'Pulp Fiction'-esque overlapping storylines, cute killer Sam and a curmudgeonly Brian Cox -- but the best part is the film's ambiance. Dougherty's movie recalls a time when Halloween was simpler and less commercialized, making it a trip down memory lane for anyone over the age of 30.
It can't be Halloween without a viewing of John Carpenter's seminal slasher flick. This one has it all: Jamie Lee Curtis as a final girl, absolute evil embodied in masked killer Michael Myers, Midwestern Halloween atmosphere circa 1978 and Donald Pleasence running around like a madman as Dr. Loomis. Easily one of the greatest slasher films of all-time, and the perfect way to say goodbye to another October as the calendar flips over to November.
The Scene: Just after arguably the eeriest opening credits in horrordom, we are dropped into a POV shot of a suburban household. The camera tracks around the house, peering into the windows to find a young girl making out with her amorous boyfriend on the couch. As they move the party upstairs to her room, the camera enters the house and moves through the kitchen. An enormous butcher knife is obtained from a drawer. The boyfriend exits and the camera slowly ascends the stairs. A clown mask is observed on the floor and a hand reaches out to snatch it. The camera perspective is then narrowed into two small eye holes as the presence moves into the girl's bedroom. Just as she turns to the camera and yells, "Michael," the hand raises and drops rapidly; repeatedly stabbing the girl until she lies dead on the floor. The camera then follows the killer out to the lawn where a car arrives, two adults climb out, and remove the mask from the lens. It's then that the perspective shifts to a standard close shot revealing that the vicious killer of that girl is her six-year-old brother.
[Since the clip is not available in full online, here is Carpenter discussing the film.]
Why It's Iconic: The brilliance of the opening of 'Halloween' goes far beyond the fact that it eloquently and uniquely introduces us to the boogeyman. I do enjoy that element of it and think few horror films since have been able to match the intimacy and impact of that opening tracking shot. It also lends a good deal of credence to Dr. Loomis' words later when he warns all within earshot of the evil within Michael Myers. Watching him commit this heinous act as a child without remorse, hesitation, or even a sound uttered is chilling.
I love how disorienting the opening scene is. Although we don't immediately know the identity of owner of the eyes through which we are watching these young lovers, there is something about the voyeuristic, first-person perspective that foreshadows doom. As young Michael moves through the house, the angle of the camera makes it hard to judge the size of the person hidden behind the camera. We have clues, the tiny hands and frilly sleeves, that the figure may be a child. But I have to believe that audiences in 1978, without the benefit of foreknowledge, would have been fooled by Carpenter's playful framing. It would certainly explain the "big reveal" feel of the moment when the mask is ripped off and the camera holds on the stoic, disturbed tyke. I would give anything to be able to travel back to1978 and watch this moment in a theater full of 'Halloween' virgins to observe their reactions to the unveiling of the pint-sized psychopath.
The POV opening kill is absolutely relentless. The camera never breaks away for a second, never allows you to gain your bearings. In a strange way, it plays with the idea of the fourth wall and the safety it provides in a horror film. If the opening had been a standard medium shot of Michael walking through the house, the disconnect between you and the fully-formed figure in the room creates a distance that helps firmly establish the lines between where the film ends and reality begins. But when you are forced to see the events unfold through the killer's eyes, wear the same mask as he does, there is no division between you and the madman. If your eyes are on the screen, then you are experiencing the terror first-hand; unfiltered and unrelenting.
Imitators/Flatterers: This is one of the most mimicked shots of any horror film ever made. Probably the most notable imitator would have to be 'Friday the 13th' and that opening first-person double murder. This scene became so prevalent as to be spoofed in the 1981 horror lampoon 'Student Bodies.' But what is so interesting about this is that Carpenter basically stole this shot from Orson Welles' 'Touch of Evil.' Thankfully, the steadicam system had recently been invented so he was able to replicate Welles' seminal shot on a meager budget, but it is no less ironic that so many other horror films effectively ripped off a rip off. Carpenter also admitted, in his 'Halloween' commentary, to borrowing a great deal from German Expressionism with wide, unbroken shots used to create an overwhelming sense of dread. And of course, Carpenter was a major fan of Bob Clark's 'Black Christmas' which also features a fantastic POV opening. In fact, the plot of 'Halloween' is said to be taken from an idea of Clark's for a 'Black Christmas' sequel that Carpenter "creatively requisitioned."
All this month, we at Moviefone are revealing our list of 20 Most Iconic Horror Scenes -- a list we worked really hard on and argued over a lot.
Of course, not everyone is going to agree with our choices, least of all hard-core horror geeks. And so we'll admit, we were a little nervous when cult horror experts Zack Carlson and Lars Nilsen, of the famed Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, offered to weigh in on our list. Would they love it? Hate it? Praise its genius? Rip it to shreds?
It is with great pride that we turn our picks over to Zack and Lars, who will be commenting on our list (five picks at a time) and then, after the big reveal on October 31, offering their own ranked lists of Most Iconic Horror Scenes. Whom will you agree with more -- them or us? Stay tuned and find out.
Our last two installments were from the luminescent (and newlywed!) Zack Carlson, while this chapter (and the next one) come from Sir Lars Nilsen, who is easily one of the country's leading experts on super-bizarre cinema, obscure genre fare, and plain old good movies.
Lars Nilsen is more excited, obsessive and knowledgeable about underappreciated movies than any other Nordic man. He's the programmer for Austin's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and the programmer/host of Weird Wednesday, the world's single greatest weekly 35mm exploitation film series. He has so many movie reference books that the shelves bend like upside-down wooden rainbows. He collects out-of-print VHS tapes and music by non-caucasians. He almost beat up a guy for locking a dog in a hot car with the windows up. Don't do that.
10. 'An American Werewolf in London' Transformation
Lars: As awesome as this scene is, I kind of hate the fact that it makes turning into a werewolf look like it's no fun at all. I'd like to think that if you're lucky enough to become a werewolf, you'd at least appreciate it. Lycanthropy is a privilege, not a right. Hey Dr. Pepper guy, loosen up and go with it. 'American Werewolf' is great but I have to confess I like the cheaper transformation scene in 'The Howling' a little more. It's all in the snout for me I guess.
9. 'Carrie': Blood Shower
Lars: Telekinesis has always struck me as pretty non-frightening stuff but Brian De Palma is so good he could probably even make a 'Saw' movie scary. The whole set-up and payoff are pure cinema. De Palma was really on a roll in the 70's: 'Sisters', 'Phantom of the Paradise', this, 'Obsession', 'The Fury', and on into the '80s with 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Blow Out'. As film-lovers we should erect a 9,000 foot tall statue of Brian De Palma on top of Michael Bay.
8. 'Friday the 13th': Jason Flips Out
Lars: I think we're all wired to expect the sudden shock ending now but this had a big impact in its day. I kind of wish Jason had stayed like this and never become an invincible supernatural force. He looks fascinatingly repulsive, like a big, gross newborn baby you keep trying to flush down the toilet but can't.
7. 'Scream': "Do You Like Scary Movies?"
Lars: A perennial favorite of people who have only watched one horror movie, this iconic scene is marred only by a hackneyed premise, bad acting and cliched execution. Sorry if I sound a little bitter. I'm just upset that those "Scream Face" masks have displaced many much more deserving Halloween masks at every store on earth. In its own way this film wears a mask. Notice how snugly the mask of self-referential "cleverness" fits over the tired old face of derivative commercial desperation.
6. 'Poltergeist': "They're Heeere!"
Lars: The family unit, cuddled warmly together as the TV signs off, is penetrated and assailed by an electronically conveyed demon. The youngest daughter is sensitive to the emanation and heralds it. This represents the dark side of Spielberg land and the queasy, ambivalent backlash to Spielberg's uncanny perfection as our national dreamer. The child is the uncritical vector of the incoming televised illusion. In real life that usually means that parents have to pay for Hannah Montana dolls, braces and abortions, but in this movie the intruders are just restless Indian corpses with a bee in their bonnet about something or other. Indians! Why won't they leave us alone?
The Alamo Drafthouse, called the #1 theater in America by Entertainment Weekly and one-upped by The Guardian which called it "the best cinemas in the world," is known for its one-of-a-kind film programming. Zack Carlson, programmer for the Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest, and Lars Nilsen, creative director for the theater, have helped build the theater's esteemed reputation with regular cinematic trips into the horrific and weird with their weekly Terror Tuesday & Weird Wednesday midnight shows.
Normally, when Halloween rolls around, parents dress their babies up in classic, cutesy costumes -- you know, like baby animals or peas in a pod.
But this season, the Moviefone staff was feeling a bit more subversive, and decided to come up with movie-themed costume ideas for kids that would most likely get their parents blacklisted from the PTA.
Ever wonder what a two-year-old might look dressed up as Machete? Or how about a dazed Joaquin Phoenix in 'I'm Still Here'? After the jump, check out our inappropriate, hilarious and completely tongue-in-cheek baby costume ideas from this year in movies -- featuring the adorable (if we do say so ourselves) children of Moviefone's own staffers.
We here at Moviefone lovezombies. We know you do, too. They're all the rage these days, from film to TV to video games to comic books. And they're certainly going to be big this Halloween. So to help you out during this haunted holiday season, we enlisted the help of movie makeup artist Valerie Hernandez. She turned me into a super glam zombie and she explained the whole process so you can do it, too.
Check out the video and post your Halloween costumes in the comments section. We'd love to see them! To check out more of Valerie's work, go to ValsBeautyBox.com. To see what she used on me, go to occmakeup.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @valsbeautybox. Happy Halloween, everyone!
We love jack-o-lanterns as much as the next blog, but obviously we're partial to those that are movie-themed. And there are a lot of them out there. Just in time for Halloween, we give you a bunch of creepy, ornate, and awesome pumpkins carved or painted by inspired movie geeks -- like the incredible Predator pumpkin above.
An 'Alien' gourd -- aka Ripley's believe it or not
This jack-o-lantern probably looks best at twilight.
Heeeeeere's Johnny!
And Alderaan is toast.
Jack-Skellington-o'-lantern
This one gives us 'Vertigo.'
Keeping it classic with the Bride of Frankenstein.
Painting this pumpkin wasn't child's play.
We can almost hear the voice ...
What -- didn't have time to carve the other four dwarves?
Pumpkin, pumpkin, on the stoop ...
A clear-cut 'Toy Story' tribute
More 'Toy Story' tomfoolery
The spitting image of Igor
This guy could've used a jigsaw to cut out Jigsaw.
The Scene: After slowly going mad during a snowy winter spent at the haunted Overlook Hotel, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) finally snaps as the supernatural forces around him push him over the edge. The evil stalking the halls of the stately hotel wants one thing: Torrance's son, Danny, a gifted young psychic who could make the hotel more powerful than ever. Jack succumbs to the Overlook's wishes and sets out to slaughter his family -- just like previous caretaker Charles Grady did years before. Nicholson aims to start with his wife, Wendy (Shelly Duvall), who locks herself in the bathroom. Undeterred, Jack grabs an axe and starts chopping his way through (while pretending to be the Big Bad Wolf of 'The Three Little Pigs' fame). As the door falls apart under his repeated blows, Nicholson sticks his face through the opening and yells "Here's Johnny!" while his wife cowers in the corner, armed only with a knife.
Why It's Iconic: The "Here's Johnny" scene in Kubrick's 'The Shining' has become unforgettable for a number of reasons. Nicholson's performance in the sequence is essentially pitch perfect, for starters. Stephen King didn't want Nicholson for the role (feeling the audience would assume Torrance was insane from the beginning given the performer's ties to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'), but Kubrick's choice works. This is the moment where the actor really explodes, giving reign to the violence that has been simmering beneath the surface for the whole film. It's a terrifying moment, made even scarier by his levity as he chops through the door to murder his wife and child. One gets the feeling that giving in to these murderous impulses has made Torrance happier than he's been at any other time in his life -- as if the character has finally found his calling. That's terrifying.
Nicholson ad-libbed the line in homage to Ed McMahon's classic introduction of host Johnny Carson on 'The Tonight Show.' To hear such a well-known line (one synonymous with laughter and good times) re-used in such a horrific set of circumstances has no doubt added to the scene's enduring legacy.
Imitators/Flatterers: Listing all the places the "Here's Johnny!" scene has been parodied and paid homage to would be a monumental undertaking. This is one of horror cinema's most instantly recognizable scenes, almost on the level with the shower sequence in Hitchcock's 'Psycho.' Naturally, 'The Simpsons' parodied it in their annual 'Treehouse of Horror' series (in a brilliantly executed entry entitled 'The Shinning') and it made for a funny political bit on the Australian sketch comedy show 'Double Take' (where the former Prime Minister chops his way into the current Prime Minister's bathroom. Hard to imagine American politicians doing something so light-hearted and fun...). Even Johnny Carson, the inspiration for the line, paid tribute to Kubrick's creepy scene -- using the Nicholson footage as part of the intro to one of his annual anniversary shows.
No genre puts out more movies every month than the horror genre. Sure, big studio films always take the spotlight, but nearly every Tuesday of the year finds a handful of straight-to-video horror movies hitting store shelves. For any other month, sorting through the myriad of lesser profile releases to find the diamonds in the rough isn't too daunting of a task. When it comes to October releases, however, the sheer volume of new titles can be overwhelming.
With Halloween looming on the horizon, the tenth month of the year naturally finds every film fan with horror movies on the brain. So instead of leaving you to sift through this month's DVDs and Blu-rays, of which there are some 82 odd new releases, we've done the leg work to bring you the highlights. And, yes, you read that figure correctly: there are over 82 horror films new to DVD and Blu-ray this month.
New Release Highlights
Theatrical Films:
'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010) [Amazon]- Reaction to the latest in Platinum Dunes' attempts to plunder '80s horror icons for 20th Century box office gold was pretty muted. Some, myself included, responded to its considerably darker tones favorably, but the growing chorus upon release was that it was a completely pointless remake that offered no improvements over the original film. Still, if you missed it in theaters but were still curious to see what Jackie Earle Haley brings to the Freddy Kruger table, now is as good a time as any.
'Splice' [Amazon]- Vincenzo Natali's ('Cube') new film, 'Splice,' failed to impress at the box office earlier this summer, but that's really no surprise considering how (intentionally) odd the film is. Trailers made it out to be a paint-by-numbers 'Species' knock-off, but it's a much richer tale of what happens when scientists ignore their own rules. As far as genres go, it's a quarter horror, a quarter sci-fi and half dark comedy; which is a genre blend that not a lot of people are going to embrace. Hopefully it finds its audience at home, however, as such a blend is too unique to fade into obscurity.
'Predators' [Amazon]- The original 'Predator' was part sci-fi horror, part action, but Nimrod Antal's 'Predators' is far more of an action movie than it is anything else. That said, since the Predator is such an icon within the genre community, it's worth mentioning that this fun (if basic) franchise restarter is now out on DVD and Blu-ray.
Straight-to-video Standouts:
'S&Man' [Amazon] - JT Petty's fascinating film about the seedy, underground market for homemade horror movies has been sitting on a shelf for several years now, but now it's finally out on DVD and Blu-ray. It's going to be a difficult watch for anyone but hardened horror fans, but if you consider yourself the latter, it's a totally engrossing film.
'Doghouse' [Amazon]- Jake West ('Evil Aliens) has matured quite substantially with 'Doghouse,' his riff on zombie comedies staring the always likable Danny Dyer. That sounds a bit strange considering his film about a group of guys whose drunken weekend is ruined when the female population of the town they're staying at are old turned into blood thirsty zombies is still full of West's politically incorrect sense of humor, but compared to the British director's other films, 'Doghouse' looks like a multi-million dollar film that slipped through Hollywood's cracks. Definitely worth a checkout.
'Coffin Rock' [Amazon] - An Australian thriller that is rather conventional plot wise, but still a tense watch all of the same. It's likely not to be a priority watch for anyone other than those who can't wait to see every genre movie the Ozzies are putting out these days, but if you stumble across it at some point it's a not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.
Straight-to-video Gambles:
'Night of the Demons' [Amazon] - Unfortunately there's a bit of a reason that Adam Gierasch's 'Night of the Demons' remake is going straight-to-video. Surprise: it's not very good. At times it's a lot of fun to watch, trouble is that Gierasch doesn't exactly know how to manage his time, so any entertaining momentum is surely squandered in due time. As lackluster as the film is as a whole, however, it's definitely a nice turn for Monica Keena, who kind of faded a way after 'Freddy vs. Jason' but who returns here as an ass-kicking hottie. Unfortunately you have to put up with the likes of a coked out Edward Furlong and a supremely awkward Shannon Elizabeth along the way.
'Mirrors 2' [Amazon] - Not many people were clamoring for a sequel to Alexandre Aja's mediocre 'Mirrors', but that didn't exactly prevent it from taking shape. Nick Stahl takes the lead as the "Crap, the mirrors are haunted!" guy this time around and he's fine in the role given the material at hand. The script is a bit thin (a disappointment considering screenwriter Matt Venne turned 'White Noise 2' in a film that eclipsed the original), but director Victor Garcia does a good job with drawing out the gore, so fans who are in the mood for minimal complexity but some decent kills should come away satisfied.
'Sisters' [Amazon]- Having not seen Douglas Buck's remake of Brian De Palma's 'Sisters,' I can't attest as to how much of a gamble it ultimately is. Between Chloe Sevigny, Stephen Rea and Dallas Roberts, however, it's got a very solid cast. That alone is intriguing enough to check it out.
'Lost Boys: The Thirst' [Amazon]- As with 'Mirrors 2,' 'Lost Boys: The Thirst' is another sequel that fans weren't exactly on bended knee begging for (though Corey Feldman probably was). Reactions to it thus far have been a bitter stronger than they were to 'The Tribe,' but that's not saying a ton. Only die hard fans of the original 'Lost Boys' will likely want to jump all over this one.
'Colin' [Amazon]- 'Colin' is best known as the British zombie movie that caught some attention at Cannes for having been made for a budget under $80. It's certainly not going to wow anyone who likes their undead movies big and brash, but for those who seek some innovation in the genre, it's certainly going to be worth tracking down.
'Altitude' [Amazon]- Lovecraft fans instantly fell in love with the marketing materials for 'Altitude,' which consisted simply of a plane high in a gloomy sky whilst giant tentacles originating from an unseen source reached toward it. Those were all prerelease images, of course. The final film is fairly unanimously disappointing people thanks to an exceptionally hateful cast of characters, but brave souls may still want to take the trip.
Catalog Release Highlights
Classics:
'The Exorcist' [Amazon] - William Friedkin's seminal horror film has been at the top of any genre fan's Must Have Blu-ray list ever since the medium was invented. Now it's finally here in one of Warner Bros. great book cases, featuring both the original theatrical cut of the film as well as the special edition.
'Psycho' [Amazon]- Yet another Must Have catalog title that's been begging for a Blu-ray. This set isn't as feature-packed as some of the other catalog titles out this week, but the presentation is pristine.
'Alien Anthology' [Amazon] - I've yet to lay eyes on the set myself, but from all of the reviews that are popping up online, Fox has done as tremendous a job with this newly remastered Blu-ray set of the 'Alien' franchise as they did with the 'Alien Quadrilogy' DVD boxset all those years ago. The image quality is set to be absolutely stunning, with our own Scott Weinbergcommenting that, "You can see details as they approach the planet that quite simply were invisible on other formats."
Cult:
'Troll 2' [Amazon] - Let's be honest: there's really no reason that 'Troll 2' needs to be on Blu-ray unless it's going to be on a disc overencumbered with special features. Sadly, that is not that disc. However, if you ever wanted to visit Nilbog in HD, your prayers have been answered.
'House' [Amazon] - The fact that the notoriously weird Japanese film 'House' is hitting Blu-ray and DVD as part of the Criterion Collection should be motivation enough for anyone to be curious about this oddity from the '70s. The film itself is something you either love or hate, but it's tough not to admire the quality of Criterion's disc. Not only does the video quality look remarkably well preserved for a cult film, but the special features (which include a brief, but new interview with Ti West professing his love for the film) are as well.
'Maniac' [Amazon] - Few cult film champions do as fine a job honoring their films as Blue Underground, whose latest release is William Lustig's 1980 serial killer flick 'Maniac.' The source material isn't exactly something that's going to make your HDTV weep with joy, so don't expect a revolutionary Blu-ray transfer, but Blue Underground have compensated by offering up oodles of extras.
'Slumber Party Massacre Collection' [Amazon] - Amy Holden Jones' 'Slumber Party Massacre' is a favorite among fans of sleazy '80s slashers, so of course Shout! Factory did right by the series. It may not be on Blu-ray, but this new entry in their Roger Corman Cult Classics label does include all three films as well as a brand new three-part documentary, 'Sleepless Nights.'
David Arquette, star of the new NASCAR-themed short film 'The Legend of Hallowdega,' told Cinematical that the upcoming sequel 'Scream 4' offers audiences a return to more traditional horror after a decade of extreme violence. "Since we hadn't done a film in ten years, there was a lot to draw from as far as other horror movies go, and just society in general," Arquette said via telephone Wednesday. "There's a commentary on media in general, and just entertainment. So there was a lot for Kevin Williamson to draw on and for Wes [Craven] to exploit, but it felt like the right time."
Arquette currently stars in 'The Legend of Hallowdega,' a short film directed by Terry Gilliam. While Gilliam's film is more of a supernatural comedy, at least judging by the mutton chops on Arquette's character, the actor said that 'Scream 4' is more straightforward, bringing the saga of Woodsboro and Sidney's family full circle. The tones of the two films are very different," Arquette observed. "I had just gotten back to rediscovering the humor of Dewey and what he was about, and this was like a complete u-turn and a completely different draw from my skill set. So it was fun to jump into a different world and character and explore that. It was really a gift, the whole thing."
"It felt like there had been these series of pretty graphic horror films," he continued. "So to go back to something that's a little more traditional, with a sense of humor, I think that people are going to be ready for it and be really excited. In my opinion, just knowing the beginning and the ending and sort of everything that happens in the middle, I think it's going to be the best sequel of the series. Because it sort of goes back to the original place, Woodsboro, and it explores what happens there, why it happened, and some of the people involved. So it was a lot of fun."
Arquette said that it was fairly easy to get back into character and play Dewey, even after ten years. "It was pretty easy," he admitted. "I mean, Dewey, a lot of his humor comes from aspects of my own character that I find funny and people seem to find funny. Now he's in this position of authority but he doesn't get a ton of respect, and he's kind of frustrated by it, but it also makes it sort of easy to discover lines or improvise things when you know where your character is coming from and who he is. I know him pretty well - he's pretty close to me and I have a lot of fun playing him."
'Scream 4' reunites the screenwriting and directing team of Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven, who parted ways during 'Scream 3,' which was written by Ehren Kruger ('Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'). Arquette said that the reunion of cast and crew created a very comfortable environment for everyone to work in. "This set, being surrounded by a group of people you've worked with for 16 years, although you haven't worked with them, it was really great," he said. "It was like a family. To get to know Neve [Campbell] again, and to get to work opposite Courtney, which I don't get to do that often, I really enjoyed that a lot. So it's just really fun to do."
Arquette also said that he hasn't seen the finished film yet, but he thinks there will be some interesting surprises, even for folks like him who already know what happens in the story. "I'm really excited to see how it turns out," Arquette said. "I mean, obviously I read the script and I know where it goes and what happens, but you explore stuff on the set and you try things, and a few of them I'm pretty sure are going to [generate] laughs. I think it's going to be really fun for people to watch and sort of see these characters come back to life."
Welcome to Framed, a column at Cinematical that runs every Thursday and celebrates the artistry of cinema -- one frame at a time.
Tony Scott had established his career as a commercial director before making his feature film debut with 1983's 'The Hunger.' The opulent and undoubtedly '80s-styled tale about a 2,000-year-old vampire trying to save her rapidly aging lover was critically panned across the board for being a bombastic effort, " ... circling around an exquisitely effective sex scene." Sunglasses at night, billowing curtains, fog machines and neon-dream lighting populate throughout -- paired with fast cuts and mysterious flashbacks. Though the 'The Hunger's' theatrical success wasn't in the cards, the movie found new life on video and stands true as one of the most stylish and effective modern vampire stories to ever hit the big screen.
The film opens with a nightclub performance by the gorgeously gaunt Peter Murphy and his then band, Bauhaus. We're introduced to Miriam and John Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie) -- vampires hunting in the shadows amongst writhing, gothic bodies. Their victims are seduced and slaughtered at home in the Blaylock's posh townhouse, which feels like an otherworldly palace that time forgot. But time hasn't been kind to John ... As much as the couple's hedonistic blood feast serves a nefarious purpose, John is racing against the clock -- aging at an astronomical rate. He seeks the help of Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) who specializes in aging disorders, and while John deteriorates Miriam sets her sights on the doctor in hopes she'll take John's place.
[spoilers ahead]
When it comes to modern vampire mythology, most enthusiasts use Anne Rice as the standard by which other incarnations are judged. While the 'Interview with the Vampire' author has undoubtedly left her mark on the pages of vampiric history, female vamps are connected to a much older source -- the real life Blood Countess, Elizabeth Báthory. This particularly holds true for 'The Hunger's' female bloodsuckers who also share a sapphic bond with the 16th/17th-century Hungarian countess.
Many of the vampires in early '80s cinema found their basis in Báthory's mythology and other legends (not to mention real world anxieties like the onset of the AIDS epidemic) versus that of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula,' which accounts for some of their unusual characteristics. Christian symbolism was often absent from their stories, the undead didn't abide by the old rules, a new kind of eroticism prevailed and the male power structure that dominated Dracula's tale -- pegging women as merely victims -- shifted. Now the killers became more complicated creatures, creating new roles for female vamps at large. Deneuve's Miriam and Sarandon's Sarah not only enraptured lesbian audiences who hadn't witnessed more than low-rent, one-dimensional portrayals of female desire, but also those who craved something more than pretty girls baring their necks for fiendish kisses.
It's somewhat ironic that Scott's film was dubbed too self-indulgent when his movie centers around the icy Miriam. The haute macabre vampire neglects to tell John that the lovers she takes only manage to stick around a few hundred years. Life with the missus isn't so eternal after all. While Miriam's companions eventually crumble to ashen remains, their consciousness lives on. It's a cruel fate for someone who was promised love "forever ... and ever." Miriam's cool and regal exterior, however, belies a certain romanticism we've come to associate with creatures of the night. She's a woman of culture, wealth and status (yes, those are Yves Saint-Laurent shoulder pads fashions she's wearing), but remains a social misfit in her own circle. While she selfishly takes on new partners knowing full well what fate will befall them, she's clearly tortured by the continual grief and loneliness that pervades her immortal life. It's hard to imagine how drama such as this could be portrayed any less perfectly than Scott's fetishistic, highly stylized attention to Miriam's melancholic world laid bare.
The lush, ethereal work of Stephen Goldblatt's cinematography, Clinton Cavers art direction and Brian Morris' set design is on display in this frame of Miriam saying goodbye to John before she closes the attic door on him forever. Diffused, moody lighting and expressionistic shadows capture the emotionality of Miriam's struggle. There's a serious attention to detail in the shot, which matches the theatrics and striking imagery throughout the rest of Scott's film (supposedly influenced by the works of Polanski, Kubrick and photographer Irving Penn). Things here are staged, much like Miriam's perfectly crafted life of false promises and flashy deceit.
Everything that audiences found difficult to swallow about 'The Hunger' during its release are now attributes that have made Scott's movie a masterpiece for vampire lovers everywhere. Perhaps the film was simply misunderstood as a product of its time where many were still trying to grasp at the complexities of modernity -- political, societal ... and vampiric. Scott's film helped change the paradigm for vampire cinema, creating a slick yet haunting take on the mythology.
When Halloween rolls around, we get out our ever-increasing mix of horror songs, many of which come from movies. List junkies that we are, we had the idea of ranking the best ones in order of greatness, scariness, coolness and cheesiness, or however the mood struck us. Unlike the Academy we are allowing cover versions, so long as they were actually recorded for the movie. We're also disqualifying instrumental and incidental music, which would include Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho Theme," John Carpenter's "Halloween Theme," Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" and Goblin's music. These are pop songs only. Finally, we're disqualifying such classic Halloween party music as "Ghostbusters," "Weird Science" and "Time Warp," because they do not actually originate from horror films. Rules out of the way, here we go:
9. "Cat People," by David Bowie
From Cat People (1982)
Paul Schrader's remake of one of my favorite movies, the 1942 Cat People, is very good for many reasons, but this David Bowie song is the least of them. If memory serves, it runs during the closing credits and has very little to do with the film; it's actually called "Putting Out Fire (with Gasoline)," and it's probably better known to people who bought Bowie's hit Let's Dance album the following year. Nonetheless, it's Bowie, so it's at least listenable. Oddly, Bowie actually acted in a good horror film in 1983, The Hunger, but did not record any music for it.
8. "Dream Warriors," by Dokken
From A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
We admit to being into these guys when we saw A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in the theater. They were the epitome of cheesy hair metal, though perhaps a bit less showy than some. Thankfully, they hadn't hit on the keyboard trend of the time and the song is a pretty much straight-ahead guitar, bass, and drum affair, with some spooky, steely effects to kick things off. The movie still has some good moments, too.
7. "Hellraiser," by Motörhead
FromHellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
This is a cover of a song written and performed by Ozzy Osbourne. Motörhead was way past their "Ace of Spades" prime when they recorded this theme song for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, and the tune feels a bit too slick and not dangerous enough; it doesn't really raise hell. But Lemmy's vocals are still nicely growly, and as of today the song is a lot more fun than the movie.
6. "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)," by Alice Cooper
FromFriday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Alice Cooper is Halloween. He recorded many Halloween songs and quite a few cuts for other horror movies, including Monster Dog and Prince of Darkness. But we love this one because it fits in with the slightly winking, self-aware tone of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. The song, coupled with the old caretaker's line, "some folks have a strange idea of entertainment," make this our favorite of the Friday the 13th series.
5. "Who Made Who," by AC/DC
FromMaximum Overdrive (1986)
When Stephen King decided in 1986 that what he really wanted to do was direct, Maximum Overdrive proved that he shouldn't give up his day job. But one thing Steve did right was to put together an entire score of AC/DC songs, including classics, instrumentals, and this excellent new tune. It builds with typical AC/DC rise-and-explode, starting with a thumping beat and a rhythm guitar for the first verse, and then adding an engine-like lead guitar for the rest. The lyrics may not make sense unless you've seen the movie and the scene in which one of the characters screams in fury at the marauding trucks: "We made you!!!" It's as if AC/DC took the point of view of the trucks and answered.
4. "People Are Strange," by Echo and the Bunnymen
FromThe Lost Boys (1987)
This is a pretty straight-ahead cover song, originally by the Doors, but Echo and the Bunnymen appropriately adapted it for the stylish Joel Schumacher vampire film The Lost Boys, with a little creepy echo on the track. It's also the only song from that soundtrack CD that holds up today; the rest are buried in a wash of overly slick, show-offy production.
3. "Ben," by Michael Jackson
FromBen (1972)
This isn't a scary song at all, and is really rather touching, especially if you consider that most people who bought it probably didn't realize that Michael was singing about a rat. Ben was the killer rat belonging to Willard in the original film Willard (1971), but Michael recorded this song for the sequel, Ben, directed by Phil Karlson and featuring a new boy and a new rat. The song was nominated for an Oscar, and Crispin Glover covered it for his underrated 2003 remake of Willard.
2. "The Blob" by the Five Blobs
FromThe Blob (1958)
Written by Burt Bacharach & Mack David, for Steve McQueen's acting debut, this song is still amazingly fun and cool; just try putting it on at a Halloween party and see the reactions. "It creeps, and leaps, and glides, and slides..."
1. "Pet Sematary," by the Ramones
FromPet Sematary (1989)
The greatest horror movie song of all time, because the Ramones play it straight. On the one hand, it's one of their funniest songs, mainly for some of the rhymes. (How about "weather-stained boards" and "warlords"?) On the other hand, Joey's deadpan performance almost seems mournful when he croons that he doesn't want to be buried in a pet "sematary" because he doesn't want to live his life again. How sad is that?
How about it, dear readers? Any thoughts? Anything we missed?
We here at Moviefone watch a lot of horror films, especially around this time of year. And like you, we yell at the screen when people do stupid things. "Why in the world would you go into a dark basement?" "Can't anyone run away from something without tripping?" "Great idea, walking in the woods alone, idiot."
Well, we think you can actually learn something from horror movie conventions. In fact, they might keep you from becoming a victim of a ghoul attack.
So here are Moviefone's 5 Steps to Staying Monster-Free. Free bonus tip: When being chased by a monster, don't hide in the closet. It's the first place they look. Happy Halloween!
The Scene: Poor Kane (John Hurt) has had a rough day. Until very recently he's had a horrific spider-lookin' alien parasite stuck to his face -- but things are looking up. Kane's up and around, joking with his shipmates before bedding down for a long trip back to Earth ... and then the coughing starts. At first it's no big deal, but then the poor man is overwhelmed by shocking convulsions, his chest starts to buckle outwards, and then we realize what that horrific spider-lookin' alien parasite was doing on Kane's face: it was laying an egg.
And the terror hasn't even started yet.
Why It's Iconic: How many reasons do you need? It's shocking and unique. It's tragic and fascinating. It's gory and horrifying. It's a virtually flawless combination of stellar special effects and fantastic acting performances. Viscerally, the sequence packs a massive wallop, but what's coolest is how the scene of sudden horror works in a narrative sense: just as things are looking up, Act I draws to a close with one serious kick in the ass. I just love this scene.
Imitators/Flatterers: More than I could count, most likely, although the only person to recapture the dark magic of the chestburster's shocking arrival was James Cameron. Still, it'd be silly to not include the following clip from 'Spaceballs', which works mainly because Mel Brooks hired John Hurt himself to pull off the parody.
In this week's release of 'Monsters,' aliens have taken over half of Mexico after a NASA probe full of space samples crashed in the area, unleashing octopus aliens that no human weaponry can defeat. Two poor saps -- a journalist and his boss' daughter -- must make their way through the infected zone to the safety of the U.S. border.
This premise is quite similar to the killer 2006 South Korean horror film, 'Gwoemul,' or 'The Host' (which we just learned is getting a 3D sequel). The Park family finds themselves not facing aliens, but rather a giant killer tadpole-like creature (also the result of U.S. mishaps) who's jumped out of the waters to terrorize the folks of South Korea, and has kidnapped one of their own.
In our review back in the day, James Rocchi wrote: "it hits all the right bases. It's primal and post-modern, scary and slapstick, gory yet good-hearted. The Host may be lumpy and bumpy, but it's also one of the freshest monster movies we've had in decades -- and, to any creature-feature buff, a rocket-ride blast of the highest order." Hit the jump to get acquainted.
Director
Though not his first film, Joon-ho Bong made an international name for himself with 'The Host,' moving on to direct a segment of 'Tokyo!' (similar to 'Paris je t'aime') and last year's highly regarded 'Mother' -- both of which are notably different from his creature feature.
Main Players
The most notable name on the roster is Kang-ho Song, who moved from 'The Host' to a starring role in 'The Good, the Bad, the Weird' and 'Thirst.' The rest of the family is played by Hie-bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Doona Bae and Ah-sung Ko
Plot
The story starts when dumb dudes at a U.S. military base dump formaldehyde down the drain, which creates a tadpole-like super-beast who swims through the Han River and terrorizes crowds. When the beast makes itself known to the public, it has to contend not only with the strong arm of the military, but also the Park family. After kidnapping their youngest, her family -- from a crumbling-under-pressure archery whiz to a ne'er-do-well slacker -- attempt to free her.
Trivia
-Believe it or not, this is based on an actual event. No, South Korea wasn't attacked by a huge monster, but rather a military civilian was ordered to dispose of formaldehyde by pouring it into the sewer system that flowed into the Han River.
-The director and designer of the creature nicknamed it "Steve Buscemi," after the actor's screen persona and acting in 'Fargo.' Can you note the similarities?
-In the news montage, Canadians can spot former Canadian deputy prime minister John Manley.
-It might be a silly horror movie, but 'The Host' blew away the South Korean box office, becoming the highest grossing film with over 13 million tickets sold. If no one saw it twice, that would've meant more than 20% of the population in the theater seats.
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Nevertheless, there's a magic to Murnau's film. It's so fortunate that when Stoker's widow got the courts to order the film's destruction, some copies lived on. The movements in 'Nosferatu' are stunning against weathered and weary facades framing the menace. Moreover, the film not only set the stage for our on-going vampire love, it also offered up one of the most stunning -- if not the most stunning -- pieces of horror acting with 
Lois Duncan offered summers of fear [made into a 
Of course, the easiest ties between women and horror are found in literature. Shelley helped to form the genre while in more recent times, 
To flip to the exact opposite type of cinematic mentality, there's 1982's 
Let's face it, the above words are a mere sliver of the greater world -- the scream queens and would-be victims that fought back on the screen, the scribes like Shirley Jackson (Golden Globe-nominated horror classic 'The Haunting') who created the stories and producers like Nikki Wall ('Vaginal Holocaust') who helped make it all come to be.
All this month, we at Moviefone are revealing our list of 
We here at Moviefone 
'A Nightmare on Elm Street' (2010)
'Splice'
'Predators'
'S&Man'
'Doghouse'
'Coffin Rock'
'Night of the Demons'
'Mirrors 2'
'Sisters'
'Lost Boys: The Thirst'
'Colin'
'Altitude'
'The Exorcist'
'Psycho'
'Alien Anthology'
'Troll 2'
'House'
'Maniac'
'Slumber Party Massacre Collection'
We here at 
In this week's release of