A Halloween Sampler for All Souls

Halloooooooooooooooooooo,

Happy Halloween Eve Eve!!

With the approaching creepfest holiday, I thought it would be fun to review some scary movies I've seen throughout the year to support the cinematically inclined among us in properly celebrating.  The following represent a pretty broad range in the terror-inducing department.  As an added bonus, the list below is comprised of both modern and classic films.

For an added perk, in addition to my typical 1 - 5 rating system, I will include a scary/intense rating system, ranging from 1 - 5 exclamation points (e.g., ! = not at all scary, !!!!! = so scary!).

"The Wicker Man" (2006)

Rating: 1   Scary Rating: !!*

For those of you whose horror tastes favor the horrifically bad, might I suggest this disastrously horrendous film?

To put it in perspective: I watched this with friends and an accompanying Mystery Science Theater 3000 Rifftrax, and it was STILL completely terrible.

It is, of course, meant to be genuinely scary.  But first of all, Nicolas Cage.

Seriously?

Second of all, Nicolas Cage in a bear suit.

Seriously.

I rest my case.

* = Scary rating inflated as a result of the deeply unsettling fact that a large number of people got together and spent time and money making this movie, and it is not clear that they were aware that it was in actuality completely ridiculous.

"The Conjuring" (2013)

Rating: 4   Scary Rating: !!!!

I saw "The Conjuring" when it was released over the summer with a friend and classmate who shares my love of horror movies.

Minor spoiler alert: I didn't realize that the movie was essentially an exorcism/demon possession movie until I saw it.  That was quite a treat, since that happens to be one of my favorite horror sub-genres, because GUYS THEY TOTALLY DO EXORCISMS.  Like in the present.  It's a thing people do.  How crazy is that shit??

Side note: One of my favorite research papers I ever wrote was on the culture-bound syndrome of of Dissociative Trance Disorder, which captures dissociative states experienced primarily by people who think they're possessed.  One of my sources was a scholarly paper whose sample was people exorcised by the Archdiocese of Rome.  It was really spooky and fascinating.

So anyway, the movie was really fun and successfully scary, so I recommend it to anyone looking for an effective but not overwhelmingly scary modern horror movie.

"The Invisible Man" (1933)

Rating: 4   Scary Rating: !!

Fiancé and I carved jack-o'-lanterns a few weeks ago and wanted to watch something scary-but-not-too-scary to set the mood.  This classic was delightful and perfectly suited for this purpose.  It's a great dose of quaint, old-timey movie with excellently over-the-top acting combined with effects that hold up shockingly well given that the movie is 80 years old.  It's still a bit creepy, but more than that, it's incredibly fun.

Bonus: You can stream this movie on Netflix!

"The Summit" (2013)

Rating: 3.5   Scary Rating: !!!

For the documentary lovers among you, "The Summit" might be a great Halloween-y choice.  It details a catastrophic day on which 11 mountaineers died while summiting K2, the second highest mountain on Earth.  The film isn't necessarily meant to be a horror movie, but it nevertheless feels a like an all-too-real ghost story.  Details surrounding the deaths of several climbers still remain a mystery, and many of their bodies were never found.

Bonus: Currently in selected theaters!

"Repulsion" (1965)

Rating: 4   Scary Rating: !!!!!

Very unfortunately, until recently I had taken a months-long hiatus from one of my very favorite and oft-mentioned-on-this-blog museums.  Happily, with the visit of a very dear friend, I had occasion to return for the dual purposes of showing him this cinematic gem and taking in Roman Polanski's second film, "Repulsion."

This is a pretty brilliant horror movie.  It has the deft, unhurried pacing of "The Shining" (1980) or Polanski's other horror masterpiece, "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), and captures one woman's gradual decline into utter madness with chilling believability.  Catherine Deneuve delivers an alarming, masterful, and nauseatingly unforgettable performance.  If you want to see a classic horror movie whose creepiness sticks with you, I recommend this one!

Finally, for the biggest scare of all:

Internship is now totally 55 hours A WEEK.

.............I KNOW.

Silver lining(s): the work is great, my colleagues are great, and with this much to do the weeks sure go by insanely quickly.  Proof that even scary time commitments have their good points.

Thanks for reading scare-lovers!!

{Heart}