There is nothing like sitting down for a series of movies with the same theme. Halloween can bring about an appetite for certain themes. Here, I line up ideas for thematic choices for three movies to marathon on a dark and cool evening -
"Midnight Lace" with Doris Day (1960). A wealthy woman, newly married, moves to London where her husband lives. She is suddenly being stalked by phone by some unknown man threatening her. People think she's making it up for attention as her husband is often busy at her inherited family business.
"Let's Scare Jessica to Death" is a classic 1971 hippie vibe movie. The lead character is an emotionally fragile woman who lets a woman move into her home and comes to believe the woman is a vampire.
"What Lies Beneath" This 2000 movie starting Michelle Pfieffer and Harrison Ford was a truly fun gaslight-themed suspense. A wife has a husband busy with his work at a lab and elevating his career. She starts seeing and hearing things. Soon, he convinces her she might be losing her mind.
slashers
"Halloween" We will only speak of the 1978 original cult favorite. Babysitters being killed by a mental hospital escapee. Jamie Lee Curtis caught our eye in this early film of hers and forever branded her as a horror queen.
"Scream" A 1996 horror film that takes teenage killers to a new level when the student body starts stacking up bodies. Great suspense and so effective they made a gazillion installments.
"American Psycho" Christian Bale made this horror comedy into the most stylish fun. Made in 2000, this horror film involves a statement on consumerism and the built up anger in a businessman.
aliens
"Communion" This 1989 film was based on a book based on a real-life set of experiences by Whitley Strieber where he was abducted repeatedly by aliens over the years.
"Aliens" Sigourney Weaver owned this followup of "Alien" by guiding a team to a planet where terraformers quit communicating. An extremely tense action-filled scifi.
"War of the Worlds" Whether it's the 1953 or 2005 version, this one is a classic alien invasion film.
stalkers
"Dead Calm" This thriller with Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill was a tense one. A couple healing after the death of their child, take their sailboat out into the ocean off Australia. They come upon a survivor of a ship accident who seems to be hiding something.
"Fatal Attraction" What seemed like a simple and quick affair turns into a serious stalker situation when the mistress wants everything her lover has and decides to stalk him and his family when he turns her away.
"When a Stranger Calls" There are two versions of this, the original in 1979 that feels like a zinger plot, and then the 2006 version that attempts to give you the chase that you wanted to see in the first one. To me, nothing beats the original.
gothic
"The Haunting" The 1963 version is the only one you need to see - the remake was utter yuck! This gothic feeling tale involves a parapsychologist and a team he puts together to investigate an abandoned haunted mansion with a dark history. My favorite of all time.
"The Woman in Black" Daniel Radcliffe plays a widower lawyer sent to close out a dead person's mansion estate, only to run into a most haunted location.
"The Innocents" This 1961 gothic psychological thriller starting Deborah Kerr was beautiful, suspenseful. This British film involves a nanny brought in to care for two strange children in a huge manor home.
monsters
"Pan's Labyrinth" It's Spain in 1944. A labyrinth garden and a girl combine to discover strange and magical creatures.
"The Thing" This 1982 film with Kurt Russell is a John Carpenter classic for many. It's based on the 1950s movie "The Thing From Another World" where an isolated military team in the arctic runs into a crashed alien that attacks their compound.
"Predator" Arnold Schwarznegger is the master of this exciting jungle themed movie. Going in to find a team that went missing, the men run into an alien from another world that can cloak itself.
witches
"The Witch" This chilling and beautifully acted and filmed horror involves a family from the 1600s that moves out into the lonely countyside and strange things begin to happen. They are highly religious and hard working. Soon, they come to think their daughter is a witch.
"Sleepy Hollow" Although I am not a fan of Tim Burton classic abominations, I admit he is an exceptional art director. In this deliciously Halloween'esque film, the tale of the headless horseman is acted out by Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane. It is a sensory delight and I watch it, not for the storyline, but for the look and feel of it.
"The Blair Witch Project" Three college kids decide to chase a local tale of a witch long ago. They head into the woods with a camera to document it and end up lost and stalked.
sexy
"Bram Stoker's Dracula" Keanu Reeves is a lawyer sent to Dracula's castle to complete a deal. When the vampire sees Keanu's fiance's image, he traps Keanu there and goes to stalk the fiance who is the spitting image of his one true love.
"Cat People" This 1982 film involves a woman who reunites with her brother and finds out they are descended from werecats. Natassja Kinski sexes this one up.
"The Hunger" David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve. Wow! A female vampire makes her lovers immortal, except the last one (David Bowie) is rapidly aging. She picks up a new man who specializes in aging research.
Other genres to consider -
Universal Studio monsters
1950s SciFi
Thrillers
Hammer Films Horror
Japanese Horror
Australian Horror
British Horror
Scandinavian Horror
Apocalyptic Horror
3 most commonly played on Halloween night
Halloween
Night of the Living Dead
Hocus Pocus
