Your Halloween Movie
 

If there was one movie you'd watch on Halloween, that you've seen before, but would only see once a year on Halloween, which film would it be?

Halloween of course!::stick out tongue::

I got pretty inebriated this Halloween and only managed to watch two of them before passing out for a while only to wake up to go to a bar for a party. I always watch Halloween though no matter what but this year I only got to watch it and May. If I hadn't passed out I was planning on watching The Shining next. That's another one I try to watch every year on Halloween.

I guess Night of the Living Dead because it's my favorite horror movie of all time.

As a kid I also loved watching Hocus Pocus on Halloween. ::big grin::

Today, I'd watch The Thing 1982. The characters/actors make the most of every scene. I don't re-watch films much, but I never get bored watching this.

I think Tim Burton's version of Sleepy Hollow is a good Halloween movie too.

It's set around Halloween time and has a headless horseman and witches.

I think Sweeney Todd is good too.

I loved the beginning of Burton's Sleepy Hollow... When Depp comes in in the early investigation, I was like, this is looking really good. I think it went off the rails... especially scratching my head when he bit her... but such as life.

I was digging Sweeney Todd one late evening, but I fell asleep because it was late. I'll have to finish it. ::cool::

Both are great movies and two of my all time favorites! ::love::

Some of Tim Burton's movies I'm not really crazy about (like Dark Shadows and the Batman movies) but I really love those other two movies and The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. He creates such an interesting gothic and macabre world and I think his movies show he has such a unique view on things. ::cool::

Also you should definetly finish Sweeney Todd some day! The ending was so tragic it kind of reminded me of a Shakespeare play. ::sad::

Edit: Oh and I think the reason the horseman bit that lady was because he was a sadistic mercenary before his death and she was the one who caused his decapitation at the hands of American soldiers and was controlling his evil spirit through witchcraft. It was probably a revenge thing.

I will finish watching Sweeney Todd, dagnabbit!

My favorite Tim Burton film is Edward Sissorhands, no question, one of the greatest films of 21st Century. Danny Elfman's masterpiece too.

I liked Dark Shadows -- the opening with Nights in White Satin is inspired... I had a moment there. I liked The Nightmare Before Christmas (which Burton wrote, but didn't' direct)... but after Edward... punch my mouth off, but I don't think Burton has captured the magic again. It's too bad, I'll keep coming back to Burton to see if he rides the wave again, but I haven't seen it yet.

I want to see Burton direct Willy Wonka and the Great Space Elevator.

I didn't like Dark Shadows because the ending felt so anticlimatic. Also the "humor" was lost on me, and I know vampires have to feed on blood to live but I actually felt bad for a lot of the victims that Depp's character killed because many of them were innocent and didn't deserve it. Like those construction workers building a new McDonalds who unearthed his coffin or those happy hippies who were just hanging out and being nice to him.

But I guess that's vampires for you. ::devil::

Dark Shadows was not great, but I enjoyed it. I went to the theatre with a group of friends, some of whom had been fans of the show. I had only seen a few episodes.

It did bother me a little about Depp's vampire character killing innocent people. He wasn't the hero, a bit of an anti-hero, but as I recall, not entirely the main character either. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was sort of expecting a tongue-in-cheek antihero vampire. It was hit and miss for me. I don't even remember the ending mostly because it was so weird to me, I think I was losing track of what happening at the end.

Yeah and also he didn't seem to enjoy killing people and he would even apologize to the human victims before draining their blood like when he said "You can't imagine how thirsty I am!". But still...

He definetly was an antihero, but I liked Depp as Sweeney Todd better. Actually Todd wasn't so much an antihero as he was a villainous protagonist. Same with Ms. Lovett. They were both obviously evil and yet Todd was a sympathetic villain who had a terrible thing done to him and Ms. Lovett was a quirky sociopath but had a softspot for both Mr. Todd and Toby.

They were such interesting and complex characters. ::cool:: Ms. Lovett was my favorite. I think that was Helena Bonham Carter's best role. ::smile::

I've seen a ton of films with Helena. I'm sure I'd love her if I ever met her, but sorry to say I never warmed up to her characters. Relatively speaking, I liked her best in the first part of Fight Club, when they're both going to meetings. And then sorta enjoyed her as Queen of Hearts. I'd probably like her best in Room with a View, but I doubt I'll ever be in a mood to see it. It's interesting how she's basically turned into a professional villain actress.

I think she makes a damn good villain! Also her quirky gothic sense of style combined with her classy beauty reminds me of actress Angelica Huston.

What can I say? I love a femme fatale-type of female character. ::cool::

To me evil ladies are so much more likable than evil gents. ::devil::

Also speaking of Johnny Depp's characters killing innocent people in both Dark Shadows and Sweeney Todd, I guess it didn't bother me as bad in Sweeney Todd because he was clearly a villain protagonist and not a hero or antihero. He also got exactly what he deserved in the end for killing all those people (and so did Ms. Lovett) so it wasn't like one of those types of stories where the psychopath gets away with his or her crimes and rides off into the sunset.

I also liked him as Ichabob Crane in Sleepy Hollow where Burton put a new twist on the character and instead of being a cowardly superstitous man like in the book he was a police constable from New York who wanted to solve crimes using science and logic. He was kind of like a Sherlock Holmes-type of character without the sociopathy or the drug addictions.

Also I loved Christina Ricci as Katrina Van Tessel. She's such an underrated actress and one of my favorites. The actress who played her stepmother was really good too.

Helena Bonham Carter does a great job. I think part of the problem is now she's asked to play the same character over and over again.

I really loved Christina's delivery as Wednesday. And she does a fine job is Black Snake Moan.

I have had a hardcore sexual obsession with Christina Ricci for years now.

I loved her as Wednesday Addams too and I also liked her performance as famed American murder suspect Lizzie Borden in "Lizzie Borden Took An Ax". After watching the movie I was fascinated by this real life crime story and decided to do a little research of my own about the murders and was impressed to learn how historically accurate this movie was to what actually happened. Lizzie Borden never was proven guilty of the murders of her parents but there was such strong circumstantial evidence against her that many people believe she most likely did it and got away with it, and just like in the movie, in real life her sister Emma who stood by her and supported her throughout the trial mysteriously left town one day and never visited her sister her again. I think it's most likely because Lizzie really did confess to her about murdering their parents and Emma feared that she might be next.

The movie was great, but I didn't care much for the mini series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles because it threw every historical fact out the window and even discounted the ending of the original movie. ::big grin::

I haven't seen any of the Lizzie projects.

Honestly, I don't want to see Ricci or Bonham Carter in anymore Burton-esque films (besides as voice actors). These actresses can do more than dark gothy caricatures... they did good jobs, but it's just horribly worn out to me. At the very least, it's probably better when there's only one goth, like in Beetlejuice (Winona Rider) and Edwardsisorhands (Depp), got to pull open the shades sometimes for contrast. ::big grin::

Ricci didn't really seem so goth in Sleepy Hollow. More like Glenda: The Good Witch of the North. ::big grin::

I think key in this post is a movie that you have seen before but would only see once a year. That leaves out a lot of classic horror movies for me as I watch those more than once a year. Stuff already posted like The Thing and Halloween 1 and 3.

My pick would be Trick r Treat. I like the setup and theme. It's probably one of the best, if not the best movie about a town celebrating Halloween and what goes on during that time. But I'm not the biggest fan of the movie itself. I guess it was the hype as I read people saying it was as good as Halloween. Which it isn't to me. But I would be ok watching it once a year on Halloween. I haven't seen it in full since I reviewed it. I caught a few scenes this year. I have the vinyl soundtrack as well.

That's kind of what I mean, it's not what she was wearing, it's the character she played. Even when she's dressed in white with blonde hair, in a film like Sleepy Hollow, she seems dark, gloomy and emotionless.

Maybe 'gothy' isn't the right word. Considering the circumstances it's not like she should be cheery, it's just the vibe... she seems like Wednesday in Sleepy Hollow to me. Of course the film hue is blue/grey and everyone looks pasty white, which is intended for mood, but that dark vibe is there too.

Although she's positive, and the scene where she give him the book she was convincingly warm, but for the rest of the film she isn't generating Glenda the Good Witch of the North in this, I don't think. But I'm probably projecting some of that on her, but that should be expected from a casting standpoint. Ricci is able to play the 'ray of light' for Icabod, but I don't think that was accomplished artistically here; not sure if that was really intended either.

I actually felt that the movie borrowed themes from The Wizard of Oz (the original book not the movie). You had four witch characters: two were good witches (Katrina Van Tassel and Ichabob's mother) and two were bad witches (Mary Van Tassel and her sister). Also Ichabob Crane was a lot like Oz being a man of science who used his own inventions, but to the people around him they thought it was very strange which was why the people of Oz mistook him for a wizard.

I guess that's why I was comparing Katrina to Glenda, though in the book her age and personality was more like the South witch (the North witch was actually an older woman). Mary and her sister were like the evil witch sisters for East and West with Mary being the more evil one just like the West witch.

Also I think Katrina was supposed to be like the female character of a detective story who you are unsure if she's good or bad. She has mysterious connections to the crime but you can't tell if she's the guilty one or if she's actually innocent. She's always either helping the detective or sabotaging him for personal reasons. She's basically like the archetypal femme fatale.

Also maybe I'm biased but I like gothy stuff. :P

BTW I dunno about Halloween but maybe this is how I'll celebrate Christmas this yeah. ::devil::

"Kidnap the Sandy Claws!"

https://youtu.be/Ry7PcYtKPhA

I think it's equally a christmas and halloween film, well at least the "What is This" part is.

Well since Halloween is over this might as well be my Christmas plan this year :D

Also those three are my favorite characters in the movie. They remind me of how bratty and evil me and my brothers and sister were as little kids, and just like the witch girl my sister was the smart one bossing us around. :P