The Reel Corner - October 2014

Countdown to Halloween
13 Films to make you shiver, quiver and scream!

Halloween (or Hallowe’en ... also known as Samhain, Summer’s End, All Hallow’s Eve, and Witches Night) is a holiday celebrated annually on the night of October 31. It originated in Ireland and is said to be among the world’s oldest holidays. It has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture). The essential elements of Halloween—bonfires, costuming, trick-or-treating, telling ghost stories and attending parties—can all be traced back to as early as 2000 years ago.

Halloween did not become a holiday in the United States until the 19th century. Strict Christian traditions and lifestyles prevented this, and American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th centuries do not include Halloween in their lists of holidays. The trans-Atlantic migration of almost 2 million Irish in the mid-1850s finally brought Halloween to the United States. By the mid-1900s, Halloween had become engrained in the fabric of American society. From a commercial perspective, Halloween is now the second most popular holiday (after Christmas) in the U.S.

When it comes to films, Hollywood has taken the element of Halloween fright to a whole new level depicting ghouls, goblins and ghosts from the adorable Casper the Friendly Ghost to a whole multitude of genres of scariness.

Here are top Horror picks in 13 different genres…
Disclaimer: Watch at your own risk!

Best Psychological Horror: THE CONJURING (R)  
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse.

Best Romantic Horror: WARM BODIES (PG-13)
After a highly unusual zombie saves a still-living girl from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion events that might transform the entire lifeless world.*

Best Action Horror: THE MUMMY (PG-13)
An American serving in the French Foreign Legion on an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra accidentally awakens a mummy.*

Best Creatively Filmed Horror: THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (R)
Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.*

Best Religious Horror: EXORCIST (R)
When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.*

Best Science Fiction Horror: ALIEN (R)
The commercial vessel Nostromo receives a distress call from an unexplored planet. After searching for survivors, the crew heads home only to realize that a deadly bioform has joined them.*

Best Supernatural Horror: THE HAUNTING (R)
When Eleanor, Theo and Luke decide to take part in a sleep study at a huge mansion they get more than they bargained for when Dr. Marrow tells them of the house’s ghostly past.*

Best Slasher Horror: FRIDAY the 13th (R)
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant, while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child’s drowning.*

Best Ghosts Horror: THE OTHER (PG-13)
A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.*

Best Zombie Horror: WORLD WAR Z (PG-13)
United Nations employee Gerry Lane traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to destroy humanity itself.*

Best Haunted House Horror: THE SHINING (R)
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.*

Best Overall Horror Spoof: SCARY MOVIE (R)
A year after disposing the body of a man they accidently killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer.*

Best Ghost Comedy: GHOSTBUSTERS (PG)
Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.*

*As described on the website www.IMDb.com.

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Donne Paine, film enthusiast, once lived around the corner from the Orson Wells Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her strong interest in films, especially independent ones, began. She was a 12-year member of the Hilton Head Second Sunday Film Society, and frequent visitor to the Sundance Film Festival. To support her habit of frequent movie going, Donne is an executive recruiter and staff development consultant. Are you interested in joining a film club? Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..