PASS THE POPCORN
Pete also casts his eye over the movie landscape, from new releases to classics of the silver screen
Happy Hallowe’en, folks! In normal times, it would be the season for car ving pumpkins with the kids, hosting frightfully good fancy-dress par ties, and answering the door to cheeky trick-or-treaters. These are, however, not normal times and while much of 2020 itself has resembled a slow-motion horror film, one fun way still to mark the occasion is to switch of f all the lights at home, grab the snacks and settle down in front of your favourite scar y movie! With that in mind, here are five hair-raising horrors to ensure your Hallowe’en is full of chills and thrills...
The Wicker Man (1973)
Christopher Lee, of course, was iconic as the Prince of Darkness in all those classic old Hammer Horror movies, but for me, his greatest role remains the enigmatic Lord Summerisle in this ’70s curio – a brilliant, barmy mix of pagan myster y and folksy musical. Edward Woodward is the uptight police officer sent to investigate the case of a missing girl on a remote Scottish island. Does Lee know where she is? Why is Britt Ekland prancing around the island in the nude? And just what is the deal with the ominous Wicker Man? To tell would be to spoil one of the most gut-wrenching finales in film histor y...
Cat People (1942)
A creepy classic from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Cat People was created by famed French director Jacques Tourneur, a master of subtle scares and shadowy suggestion. The film tells the stor y of Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon), a newly-married fashion illustrator who is marked with a curse that turns her into a killer panther by nightfall. If you think modern horrors are too explicit, this atmospheric slow-burner is just the tonic!
The Fly (1986)
At the opposite end of the scale from Cat People is David Cronenberg’s memorably brutal body-horror from the mid-80s. Jef f Goldblum is the eccentric scientist who invents telepor tation pods – only for them to fuse his DNA with a rogue fly with disastrous consequences. Despite the
B-movie premise (it was a remake of a cheesy old Vincent Price film) and all the gore and guts, The Fly remains a tragic reflection on ageing and dying.
The Shining (1980)
Stephen King famously hated Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of his haunted hotel novel – but we will have to respectfully disagree with the great author on this one. The Shining is a masterpiece of the genre with indelible shocks, those eerie Steadicam visuals and career-best per formances by a rattled Shelley Duvall and a sinister, psychotic Jack Nicholson. They truly don’t make ’em like this any more!
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Ushering in a new millenium – and a new form of horror movie-making – this found-footage chiller following three friends hunting the woods for a mythical witch made lots of headlines (and money!) from its paltr y £40,000 budget back in 1999. Now the hype has died down, you can enjoy it for what it is – a good, old-fashioned scarefest.