So let’s imagine it’s Halloween night next week, and you’re done dressing up and perusing the bars for some adult-friendly trick or treating. While you’re chowing down on dozens of mini candy bars, curl up with Diversions’ top-five best Halloween films off the beaten pop culture path. Forget the gore of classics like Jaws or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – these films will stay with you long after the holiday is over.
Suspiria, 1977
So you like stained glass windows, dance studios and the wonderful country of Germany. But what if you were traveling there as an American student who uncovers a coven of witches out to murder all the pretty young teenagers in the land? Ignore this over-simplified plot summary, add in stunning Technicolor visuals and a creepy, crawly soundtrack from Italian rock band Goblin and you get a bone-chilling film. Also, director Dario Argento’s tendency to film ridiculously bloody murders – one girl is shoved through a window, stabbed multiple times close-up in the heart, dropped out of a skylight and then hanged – makes Suspiria even more terrifying.
Audition, 1999
Japan is now notorious in the pop-culture realm for Gwen Stefani’s unhealthy obsession with all things Harajuku – and horror movies. Ignore the Americanized versions of The Ring and The Grudge and go straight to the source with Audition. The film is full of intense, horrifying images as widower Shigeharu Aoyama falls in love with the young and beautiful Asami Yamazaki – only to find that she is an insane, cold-blooded killer with a penchant for torture and slicing off ex-lovers’ limbs. Audition’s graphic nature kept it out of American cinemas, but rent it anyway.
Wait Until Dark, 1967
Some argue Audrey Hepburn is the classiest woman in American pop-culture history, and her signature black dresses, pearls and grace cemented that image into the hearts and minds of little girls everywhere. But in Wait Until Dark, Hepburn takes a stab at horror as a woman who recently becomes blind and is left home alone by her husband. When three criminals break into the house, Hepburn’s complete isolation from surrounding society is obvious – and when the screen goes black to show Hepburn’s point of view, you fully understand her terror.
Deliverance, 1972
You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it: The banjo intro to the best hick-horror flick of all time, Deliverance. Centered on the story of four suburban men who go on a weekend camping trip and then get captured by two grizzled mountain men who sexually assault them, Deliverance struck fear in the hearts of nature-loving men everywhere. The complete plausibility of the film is what stays with you – getting lost and then getting raped? Not so unbelievable – leaving a dirty taste in your mouth and a strong need to shower.
The Gingerdead Man, 2005
Gary Busey is pretty funny alone – did you watch the season of Celebrity Fit Club he was on? Ridiculously scary – but star him as a convicted killer who comes back as a life-size, murderous cookie and you get one hilarious, Halloween-friendly movie. After Busey’s character, Millard Findlemeyer, is cremated and his ashes are accidentally mixed into a cookie dough mix, the amazing killing spree begins. Forget Jason, Freddy Krueger or any other Halloween killer; it’s truly The Gingerdead Man – Busey in a head-to-toe, felt-brown outfit – who deserves your kitschy-cult adoration this holiday.
