Martin Scorsese has said that The Haunting is his favorite horror movie and it’s easy to see why. The film is dripping with classic scary-movie iconography. Certainly, The Haunting is one of the all-time best haunted house movies ever made. What makes it even more unique is its total lack of typical horror trappings. There’s no blood & gore, no lazy jump scares, etc. It provides enough hints that if you let yourself get wrapped up in the story, your imagination does most of the scaring.

Directed by Robert Wise (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Sound of Music), whom I’m a big fan of, Wise chose to shoot the film in black & white, giving it a surreal atmosphere. The acting is overly melodramatic (typical for the era) but that doesn’t stop the scary moments from still hitting with gusto.

In some ways, The Haunting plays similar to what Hitchcock might have done if he had made a haunted house movie. There’s careful character development, well-placed scares, mundane moments that turn disturbing just with the simple use of sound and clever camera tricks. And it’s a very psychological horror film.

I’ll admit that for some viewers, this film will not hold up today. It takes its time building up the scary moments. Many of the best scenes may feel like haunted house cliches but that’s only because so many films after used this movie as inspiration. Nevertheless, if you’ve got a solid attention span, this is well worth the watch.

I’m a huge fan of the original Fright Night (1985). It’s one of my favorite vampire movies of all time. While Fright Night Part 2 (1988) doesn’t reach the same heights, there’s a lot of love here. The film works best when it’s at its most funny. There’s some great sight gags and jokes here. Unfortunately, when things get more serious, it can grow tedious at times. But one of the things I’ve always appreciated about this series is that it uses the classic vampire lore as opposed to trying to remake it. And I’ve got to give a lot of credit to this sequel because it doesn’t try to just remake the original. The film has its own thing going.

Uncle Rico (Jon Gries of Napoleon Dynamite fame) gives a hilarious performance as one of the not-so-brilliant vampires. He cracks me up in this. And it’s always great to see the genius work of Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent. Charlie is back in this one again (with a new girlfriend this time who actually gets more to do than just be a damsel in distress). In fact, Charlie is the one in need here and while the switch works well at times, it also sometimes deflates Charlie’s lovable character.

The creature effects are excellent with a holy water damaged exploding vampire neck, a torn apart belly with bugs squishing out, and a melting vampire face. I still like the original’s more campy effects as they had a bit more character but there’s some awesome stuff here. The makeup is top notch too.

All considered, Fright Night Part 2 is a great follow-up to the original 1980’s classic. There’s probably a stellar third film that could have been done (if the producer n[Jose Menendez] and his wife hadn’t been bizarrely murdered by their sons – what a weird story that is) but Fright Night 1 & 2 make one of the best vampire movie pairs of all time.

Videodrome is one of those films that seems to always fly under people’s radars but is actually one of the most brilliant movies to come out in 1983. I think it’s David Cronenberg first true masterpiece. It’s a challenging film to be sure, and one not normally associated with Halloween, but it’s definitely horror. What really sets it apart is the undercurrent of social commentary that permeates every scene.

The basic plot revolves around a sleazy TV executive who discovers a disturbing pirated show that has people being tortured. But it turns out this signal isn’t like any other TV signal. When someone watches, they begin hallucinating and after a while, it’s not clear what’s real and what’s TV. Of course, you’re probably already seeing the clear subtext here about the world’s obsession with TV & media and the effects (especially violence and sex) can have on the viewer.

Videodrome is astoundingly ahead of its time. It predicted the pushing of entertainment boundaries in every medium, the vice-like grip the media has on mainstream information, and the rise of reality TV. It’s not for the faint of heart but I’m amazed at how much of an impact this film still has, over 30 years later.

I have to go against the popular opinion here unfortunately and confess that I’m not a huge fan of scream. I totally get the meta reference love that people have for this film and there are definitely highlights to be sure. But to me, the whole thing plays out as a big joke. I know on some level that was the intention but I am always shocked to hear how many people are genuinely scared by Scream.

It’s certainly entered the public consciousness and was hugely influential. You can’t set foot in a Halloween store these days without seeing mass produced ghost face masks everywhere. And there are many who consider it one of the best slasher movies of all time. But by subverting the genre in a clever way, the film loses a lot of bite and almost crashes in on itself theme-wise. I give huge credit to Wes Craven for his genius in doing the film and appreciate it for that. But it’s not a favorite I enjoy revisiting.

I will say that the opening scene with Drew Barrymore is still great and holds up well even today though. And I like the twist ending to a point before it turns overly gratuitous and ridiculous. I think a lot of people younger than me can identify with this more but for me, the original slashers this film lampoons will always be more scary and in the end, more fun.

With Scream Queens first season in full swing and the always awesome Jamie Lee Curtis one of the stars of the show, I thought it would be fun to kick things off by going back and watching one of her lesser known 1980’s scream queen era flicks: Prom Night.

This film has all the cliche’s that the genre became known for:

• Homicidal maniac killing teenagers with inefficient weapons like an axe or glass shard. Check.
• Promiscuous teenagers who smoke joints after sex. Check.
• Clueless police force who is always two steps behind the killer. Check.
• And of course, screaming teenage girls running from the killer.

So what, if anything new does Prom Night bring to the table? Well, first of all, in 1980, this type of stuff wasn’t as much a cliche. Second, there’s a ton of disco scenes with full on dance-off’s. You don’t see that every day in a slasher flick. There’s also a really eerie (although pretty slow) opening with children being cruel to a young girl that I hadn’t seen in another slasher before.

There’s an absolutely hilarious (unintentionally) sequence where a fat kid with a van tries to drive away while the killer attacks him. The action is bizarrely staged and the whole thing makes no sense. Loved it.

Jamie Lee Curtis is especially great in this. Tons of charisma and owns every scene she’s in. I also liked how the camera cut away for the violence, just hearing it was way more effective. If you like slashers, this is worth a watch.