Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

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Like oboingo76, I try to watch certain movies only in October. That seems to increase the anticipation for the movies and the season. Those movies include the old Hammer movies, TB's Sleepy Hollow, the Dracula 2000 series and now Trick r' Treat. All movies that give me a definite Halloween vibe.

I've been listening to Halloween music on Halloweenradio.net and Spotify for the last couple months. Also been sorting through the Halloween related pictures and other stuff I downloaded last year. It seems like as soon as Independence Day closes out, I get the bug.

Trick R Treat is a new favorite of mine. And I won an autographed novel on a Halloween net music site

I watched Halloween (original) yesterday afternoon. It had been a while, so I had a few "jump" moments.

I'm sort of old school in that I love the original Universal Monster movies like Dracula with Bela Lugosi, Frankenstein, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon...I love to watch those old black and white movies. I also like the Hammer films. I always watch Hocus Pocus about 3-4 times leading up to Halloween especially with the kids. Also, Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. I also watch some of the Disney Halloween movies with the kids too such as "Halloweentown", "Little Vampire", "Under Wraps", "Boy Who Cried Werewolf", and a bunch of the Scooby Doo movies. They are fun to watch with kids. Halloween night I will watch the original Halloween and Blair Witch Project and probably Trick R Treat. There are probably a bunch of movies I am forgetting to mention here but I also enjoy the Roseanne and Home Improvement Halloween episodes as well...they are great.

I have several guilty pleasures like that...some are very kid related cause they remind me of when I was a kid and Haloween's of years past but the sofy and romantic side of me also loves the Hallmark movie "The Good Witch" with Catherine Bell...she is amazing.

It's just a vibe or atmosphere thing...same reason I love Hocus Pocus. It's the mood and spirit of it I guess...

While watching the original Halloween yesterday, I was reminded anew of how well made it actually was, especially considering how low-budget it was. But they did such a great job of creating suspense in that movie, and they didn't try to gross people out with gore (as a matter of fact, there really wasn't enough gore to be fully realistic, but that's OK with me). It really was all about the fear factor--the anticipation. Very "Hitchcockian" in that respect.

I like the Great Pumpkin, too, though my favorite Peanuts special is the Christmas one. I think I like Hocus Pocus best of all for kid-friendly fare. There is also a Disney version of Sleepy Hollow, narrated by Bing Crosby, that pleases the English major/English prof in me, because it does such a superb job of capturing the humorous and slightly scary elements of the original story. I enjoy the Tim Burton Sleepy Hollow, too, but it actually has very little to do with the Washington Irving story. I like to say it is a "jazz riff" on that story.

Somehow I have missed the Trick or Treat movie. I want to try to find that one this year.

Isn't Neil Patrick Harris in the Smurfs movie? He is usually pretty funny.

Jack, have you read the original short story Sleepy Hollow? If you have, you might appreciate the Disney cartoon version even more. It gets the tone right. The Washington Irving story is more gently comic and nostalgic than scary. It has a few eerie moments with the Headless Horseman.

I have an old VHS tape of that Disney version. I haven't seen it on DVD. Perhaps it came out and I missed it.

Murf, have you seen "Under Cover Brother"? NPH is in that too and he's the token white guy, he's funny in it.