Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) 08, 10/31.

"In its secular, commercialized form, Halloween is an entirely playful holiday, and [Valerie and Her Week of Wonders], one of the most rapturous and peculiar artifacts of late-60s/early-70s Czech cinema, is also one of the most bouyantly playful of all fantastic films," writes Glenn Kenny in the Auteurs' Notebook.

"Thing is, when it comes to scary movies, everybody's an expert - and curiously enough, the experts all seem to agree." So Salon's Andrew O'Hehir sees the need for two lists: "My first list is a kind of Halloween-horrorbot consensus, drawn from agglomerating numerous lists for points of agreement.... Then there's the second list, which although it's got several popular choices, is a bit more personal, a bit more arty, a bit more adorably idiosyncratic, a bit more Beyond the Multiplex, a bit more Sarah-winkin'-atcha."

"The Movie Morlocks Pick Their Favorite Scary Movies." And part 2.

"Nearly every week, DVD labels like The Weinstein Company and Lionsgate flood the market with horror movies, some of which had short theatrical runs, some of which played festivals, some of which aired on cable, and some of which are strictly straight-to-DVD." Noel Murray introduces the AV Club's extensive guide, "From Asylums to Zombies: In Search of a New Horror Classic." Lots of clips, plus they've "discovered at least two movies - one American, one Italian - that should be at the top of every horror fan's 'to watch' list."

Not Coming to a Theater Near You wraps its "31 Days of Horror."

Jonathan Lapper presents his "Kill Fest Finale."

James Van Maanen has more "news from NYC's Anthology Film Archives: Its Halloween program will be a special midnight screening of Ken Russell's The Devils, with Big Ken himself present to answer your questions about this - and a lot else, we hope - his most revered (and loathed) movie."

"The Playlist Gives It Up For The Best Horror Films Of All Time."

At the Film Experience, JA lists five favorite "Monsters of the Aughts."

Adam Ross lists the "10 Best 'Treehouses of Horror' Tales."

"The good news about the recession is that we can look forward to some great horror movies," writes Anne Billson. "The fright genre has traditionally flourished in straitened times. Weimar Germany, the Great Depression and the 1970s oil crisis all coincided, not so coincidentally, with new waves of innovative, inventive nightmare visions that hold up a mirror to their eras just as much as the po-faced social-realist dramas of the day."

Also in the Guardian:

• Ben Child presents his "own personal top five creative movie deaths." With clips.

• Phelim O'Neill on The Midnight Meat Train: "Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura, who kicked off his career with 2000's impressive micro-budget zombie flick Versus, delivers plenty of stylish visuals and an admirably unrestrained attitude to gore. The scenes on the train are brutally effective, but much of the good work is undone when the action careers off the rails." More from Nigel Floyd in Time Out.

• Peter Bradshaw recommends the original Ring.

• Kate Stables has half a dozen online viewing tips.

"The Haunting of Molly Hartley flirts with having something to say about budding female sexuality and evangelical religion," writes Alonso Duralde at MSNBC, "but it winds up being a pale copy of several of Roman Polanski's more chilling films. (Molly at one point runs past a local repertory theater playing The Tenant.) The big finish of this Halloween release will surprise moviegoers - and possibly annoy some parents taking their 12-year-olds to see Molly Hartley for a late-October scare - but too much of the movie is stale candy corn." More from Nick Schager (Slant) and Luke Y Thompson (Voice).

From Kevin Kelly at the SpoutBlog, a very "Brief History of the Horror Movie."

"Does Dying Breed reinvent the codes of horror cinema?" asks Matt Riviera. "Hardly. Does it branch off into unexplored territory once the framework of form and narrative are firmly established? Nope. Its claim to originality - made loud and clear by director Jody Dwyer at last night's premiere, organized by the Night of Horror International Film Festival - is that it's one of a only a few Australian genre pictures, and part of what is hopefully a renaissance. That, and it's shot in Tasmania."

Robert Horton:

Psycho takes you down to the depths (everything ultimately ends up in a fetid swamp, including the last shot of the film); although the film has rightly been called a black comedy of sorts, it seems less amusing with each viewing. Its horror comes unsoftened by period-piece artifice or gothic traditions or vampire conventions. Instead we see ordinary people in the flatlands of American nothingness (the art of Edward Hopper inspired both the Bates house and Anthony Perkins's performance), taking up the everyday business of extramarital sex, stealing, incest, voyeurism, lying... dreary hobbies to fill the empty time. Bernard Herrmann's brilliant score provides no lush orchestral accompaniment, but harrowing strings-only arrangements; it's music for an asylum. Psycho exists at a kind of ground zero, where even the storytelling form itself is savage, where a protagonist might be untimely ripped from centerstage 40 minutes into the running time.

Related: Arbogast's 31st scream comes from Janet Leigh.

Josef Braun on Carnival of Souls and Don't Look Now: "I don't want to over-emphasize the links between these two films, but I do like the fact that in more or less randomly revisiting them in the days leading up to Halloween they revealed these very curious connection point."

Nick Schager: "Let the Right One In has a gloomy poeticism wrought from arresting supernatural imagery - none more potent than an underwater shot during the public pool finale - as well as striking close-ups that give empathetic consideration to forlorn Oskar and Eli, two kids desperate for a warm, compassionate embrace in an environment frozen to the bone."

"The closing film of the 2008 Toronto After Dark Film Festival was also a North American premiere and the 4th sellout of the week," recalls Bob Turnbull. "In only its second public showing, Glenn McQuaid's I Sell the Dead was a fun way to close down the festival."

Fear(s) of the Dark is "[e]asily the smartest, most elegant creep-show of the year," writes Brendan Kiley in the Stranger. More from Reyhan Harmanci (San Francisco Chronicle) and Robert Horton (Herald).

At the Siffblog, Amie Simon rounds up Halloweenish goings on in Seattle.

Online snickering tip. From Mike Russell, the "Mr Do and Mr Don't Halloween Special."

Online shuddering tip. James Urbaniak's found a true nightmare scenario.

Online listening tip. Scott Marks has a great tale to tell - and some recommendations, too.

Online viewing tips. "This year I found it extremely difficult to get into the holiday spirit," writes Kimberly Lindbergs, and I couldn't empathize more. She explains, I agree, and: "In the meantime, here's a couple of great French pop songs about monsters and their makers from Serge Gainsbourg..."

Posted by dwhudson at October 31, 2008 4:17 PM