Halloween weekend is here.
The pumpkins are carved. Parties planned. Costumes conceived.
And now critics on-air and online are recommending what horror films you should include in your Halloween movie marathon. The expected have risen to the top — the Halloweens, the Nightmares on Elm Street, the Screams, the Exorcists.
Your basic nightmares.
And while Paranormal Activity 3 has been advertised to have 15 minutes that will “mess up your life,” I’ve already “been there, done that.”
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976)
I saw this film in the theatre with my sister, mom and her good friend Jeanean who loved horror movies. (The rest of us really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.)
Based on a true story, The Town that Dreaded Sundown follows a Texas ranger’s hunt for a serial killer who terrorized the people of Texarkana, Arkansas in 1946. The killer wore a pillowcase over his head as he preyed on the residents of the town, primarily young people parking in the woods.
He was brutal and cruel and terrifying. And he was never captured.
Suffice to say no one slept in our house that night. Actually, I’m not sure any of us slept much that week, even knowing he was probably long dead. The imagine of his face covered by that pillowcase — breathing in and out like an animal — will haunt me for the rest of my life.
If you like really scary movies, I recommend it.
But it will mess you up.
Scare me, please
When I was but a wee lass, I watched Dark Shadows every afternoon after school.
It scared the bejeezers out of me.
So I was particularly excited to see what horrors Tim Burton’s remake would hold, especially with his favorite lead Johnny Depp occupying the role of Barnabas.
Then I saw the trailer this weekend on television and quickly discovered…
The new Dark Shadows is a comedy.
True, it’s a dark comedy, and I can appreciate their sense of humor. I’ll no doubt go see it out of curiosity at the very least.
But I’m sad to say that Depp’s version of Barnabas will never elicit a single gasp of fear or horror.
Except, perhaps, at the 70′s clothing.
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