Halloween is almost upon us and I've been having the urge to make popcorn, brew up some of the delightfully scary and yummy cocktails a'la
Martha Stewart and have a marathon of scary/horror movies!
The problem is... what movies to choose? There's alien (
Alien), old creature movies (
The Blob), classic horror movies (
The Mummy), vampire movies (
Bram Stoker's Dracula or
The Lost Boys), werewolf movies (
The Wolf Man, old or new), etc.
Or find a dvd collection of
Elvira's movies, they were cheesy schlock horror movies that matched her cheesy schlock schtick! (Sadly this great collection of 12 movies, perfect for a marathon, won't be available until after Halloween, but good to keep in mind for next year, or.. as Ministry says, 'Every day is Halloween').
Oh... black comedy! I LOVE black comedies. They are dark and twisted and can walk that fine line, making murder (or the aftermath, like what to do with that dead body) funny. Here's a list of some great black comedies dark enough for Halloween, but light enough for almost any psyche and most age ranges (use your own judgement on this if showing to young children). Other lists of darker, scarier more horror-ish movies will follow over the weekend, to rev up for Halloween!
In alphabetical order, since trying to organize them by darkness or comedy would be silly:
After Hours (1985)
An ordinary word processor has the worst night of his life after he agrees to visit a girl in Soho whom he met that evening at a coffee shop. (97 mins.)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Verna Bloom, Tommy Chong
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
A drama critic learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are homicidal maniacs, and that insanity runs in his family. (118 mins.)
Director: Frank Capra
Stars: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey, Jack Carson
Big Nothing (2006)
A frustrated, unemployed teacher joining forces with a scammer and his girlfriend in a blackmailing scheme. (86 mins.)
Director: Jean-Baptiste Andrea
Stars: David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg, Alice Eve, Jon Polito
Burke and Hare (2010)
A black comedy about two 19th century grave robbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school. (91 mins.)
Director: John Landis
Stars: Bill Bailey, Tom Wilkinson, Michael Smiley, Tim Curry
Clue (1985)
Six guests are invited to a strange house and must cooperate with the staff to solve a murder mystery. (94 mins.)
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Stars: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd
The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
An undertaker who hasn't had any 'customers' in a long time is forced the pay one year's back-rent.... (84 mins.)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Stars: Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Joyce Jameson
Dead Man on Campus (1998)
Two college roommates go out and party, resulting in bad grades. They learn of the clause that says, "If your roommate dies, you get an A," and decide to find someone who is on the verge, so to speak, to move in with them. (96 mins.)
Director: Alan Cohn
Stars: Tom Everett Scott, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery,
Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)
A small town beauty pageant turns deadly as it becomes clear that someone will go to any lengths to win. (97 mins.)
Director: Michael Patrick Jann
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin, Allison Janney
Drowning Mona (2000)
When a woman drives a car into the river to her death, everyone in town becomes a suspect. (96 mins.)
Director: Nick Gomez
Stars: Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Neve Campbell, Jamie Lee Curtis
Eating Raoul (1982)
A relatively boring Los Angeles couple discover a bizarre, if not murderous way to get funding for opening a restaurant. (90 mins.)
Director: Paul Bartel
Stars: Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Robert Beltran, Susan Saiger
Fargo (1996)
Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of the quite pregnant Marge Gunderson. (98 mins.)
Director: Joel Coen
Stars: William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare
Foul Play (1978)
A shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church. (116 mins.)
Director: Colin Higgins
Stars: Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith, Rachel Roberts
The Gazebo (1959)
TV writer Elliott Nash buries a blackmailer under the new gazebo in his suburban backyard. But the nervous man can't let the body rest there. (100 mins.)
Director: George Marshall
Stars: Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner, John McGiver
Heathers (1988)
A girl who half-heartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics. (103 mins.)
Director: Michael Lehmann
Stars: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
A distant poor relative of the Duke of D'Ascoyne plots to inherit the title by murdering the eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession. (106 mins.)
Director: Robert Hamer
Stars: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, Joan Greenwood
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
A murder mystery brings together a private eye, a struggling actress, and a thief masquerading as an actor. (103 mins.)
Director: Shane Black
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
The Last Supper (1995)
A group of idealistic, but frustrated, liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits for their political beliefs. (92 mins.)
Director: Stacy Title
Stars: Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner
Murder by Death (1976)
Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery. (94 mins.)
Director: Robert Moore
Stars: Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Eileen Brennan
Novocaine (2001)
A dentist finds himself a murder suspect after a sexy patient seduces him into prescribing her drugs. (95 mins.)
Director: David Atkins
Stars: Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Chelcie Ross, Laura Dern
Parents (1989)
A young boy living in 1950s suburbia begins to wonder where his parents get their meat from... (81 mins.)
Director: Bob Balaban
Stars: Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy Dennis, Bryan Madorsky
Serial Mom (1994)
A sweet mother takes a little too much at heart for the defence of her family. (95 mins.)
Director: John Waters
Stars: Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard
A Shock to the System (1990)
Graham Marshall already celebrates his anxiously awaited promotion in an advertising company, when he learns that Roger Benham... (91 mins.)
Director: Jan Egleson
Stars: Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert, Swoosie Kurtz
Silver Streak (1976)
On a long-distance train trip, a man finds romance but also finds himself in danger of being killed, or at least pushed off the train. (114 mins)
Director: Arthur Hiller
Stars:Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor and Jill Clayburgh
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
A San Francisco poet who fears commitment has a girlfriend who he suspects may not be who she appears. (93 mins.)
Director: Thomas Schlamme
Stars: Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Amanda Plummer
Suicide Kings (1997)
A group of youngsters kidnap a respected Mafia figure. (106 mins.)
Director: Peter O'Fallon
Stars: Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Mark Watson
Very Bad Things (1998)
A prostitute is killed during a bachelor party and the attendees turn on each other as the wedding approaches. (100 mins.)
Director: Peter Berg
Stars: Christian Slater, Daniel Stern, Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969)
As Aunt Alice, Ruth Gordon applies for the job of housekeeper in the Tucson, Arizona home of widow Claire... (101 mins.)
Director: Lee H. Katzin
Stars: Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Fuller
The Wrong Box (1966)
In Victorian England, a fortune now depends on which of two brothers outlives the other... or can be made to have seemed to do so! (105 mins.)
Director: Bryan Forbes
Stars: John Mills, Michael Caine, Ralph Richardson, Jeremy Lloyd
