Matthew S. Rotundo's Pixeltown

It’s my favorite time of year once again, and I thought I’d celebrate by sharing some of my favorite scary movies.  These are the ones that got under my skin and haunted my dreams.  You’ll recognize some of them; some of them might be more obscure.  But if you’re looking to be genuinely creeped out this Halloween, permit me to suggest the following:

Werewolves got a serious makeover in 1981 with the release of two films:  An American Werewolf in London and the vastly superior The Howling, directed by Joe Dante.

A few years prior to being Elliott’s mom in E.T., Dee Wallace played a television reporter who is attacked by a serial killer and then, while recovering from that trauma, sent to a secluded colony in the woods, where she is attacked by werewolves.

The Universal classic The Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney, Jr., had pretty much defined the werewolf look in the movies.  But I never found old Wolfie very frightening, to be honest.  In fact, he was kind of . . . cuddly.  He certainly never looked anything like a wolf.  Then came the slavering, snarling beasts of The Howling.  Those things were scary.  The only thing remotely human about them was the fact that they walked upright.  You saw one of them coming, you ran.

An American Werewolf in London was the bigger hit, of course, but suffers in comparison to The Howling.  Both films featured harrowing and heretofore unprecedented transformation sequences.  Both had touches of sly humor.  But where American Werewolf contented itself to be merely clever, The Howling–literally and figuratively–went for the throat.  One shouldn’t be surprised to see that John Sayles had a hand in the terrific script.

The film does make a crucial misstep at the end, throwing in a “cute” werewolf of the Chaney variety, but we can forgive that.  What you won’t forget is the utterly helpless feeling of being alone in the woods, chased by monsters who want nothing more than to rip you limb from limb.  Even the most passionate dog lover in the world might look askance at precious Fido after this one.

It’s my favorite time of year once again, and I thought I’d celebrate by sharing some of my favorite scary movies.  These are the ones that got under my skin and haunted my dreams.  You’ll recognize some of them; some of them might be more obscure.  But if you’re looking to be genuinely creeped out this Halloween, permit me to suggest the following:

Our next entry comes from Canada:  1980’s The Changeling, starring George C. Scott as a grieving composer who moves into a big old house only to discover that he’s not alone in it.  The film is both ghost story and murder mystery, and features plenty of haunting moments.

If you still think horror movies require a lot of gore and ghastly special effects, The Changeling is your homework assignment.  You’ll see just how creepy simplicity can be.  To wit:  a child’s ball bouncing down a flight of stairs.  A relentless pounding that resounds throughout the house.  A cobweb-covered wheelchair that moves by itself.

Writer Russell Hunter allegedly based the story on true events.  For myself, I couldn’t care less; it’s a distraction from a script (by William Gray and Diana Maddox) that at first frightens and then fascinates, as Scott delves into a decades-old mystery involving a crippled boy and a powerful senator.  Tack onto this some quality performances from Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, and the ever-reliable Scott, and you have a haunted house story that makes The Amityville Horror (another “true story”) look like the hackwork it really is.

Oh, and did I mention the music box?  And the bathtub?  And the well?  And the necklace?

Trust me on this:  leave Amityville back in Long Island, and check out The Changeling instead.

Pleasant dreams . . .

It’s my favorite time of year once again, and I thought I’d celebrate by sharing some of my favorite scary movies.  These are the ones that got under my skin and haunted my dreams.  You’ll recognize some of them; some of them might be more obscure.  But if you’re looking to be genuinely creeped out this Halloween, permit me to suggest the following:

Another obvious one:  William Friedkin’s  The Exorcist.

Like Halloween, here is a movie that never winks at its audience, never tries to be cute, clever, or self-referential.  It has the courage of its convictions.  It takes itself seriously, so we take it seriously.

The Exorcist is something of a slow burn.  We start with an unsettling prologue, in which the titular Father Lancaster Merrin (Max von Sydow) uncovers something strange in a tomb in northern Iraq.  Then we jump to Georgetown and meet Chris McNeil (Ellen Burtstyn) and her sweet, innocent daughter Regan (Linda Blair)–the very picture of normalcy.  Meanwhile, across town, Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) is struggling with his faith while watching his elderly mother die.  Those with short attention spans might complain of being bored at this point, but really, Friedkin and screenwriter William Peter Blatty are setting us up.  By making these characters so real, we have no choice but to keep right on believing when the really insane stuff starts happening.  And once it  gets going, the scares are relentless and lasting.

A “director’s cut” of the film was released in 2000, which I saw in the theater.  A gaggle of teenagers were also in attendance.  You know the type–the ones who go to horror movies in packs, expecting some cheap scares and a lot of laughs.  They were rather obnoxious and loud during the first half of the showing, clearly a little bored, expecting Freddy or Jason, but getting instead mature drama.

Then came That Scene.  If you’ve seen the film, you know what I mean–the one with the crucifix.  That gaggle of teens shut up in a hurry . . . and stayed that way throughout the rest of the movie.  Even now, nearly forty years after its initial release, That Scene has lost none of its power to shock.

(Don’t bother with the director’s cut, by the way.  The infamous Spider Walk and the recut Casablanca ending aren’t really worth the price of admission.)

Not many horror films get a lot of Academy Award love, but The Exorcist garnered acting nominations for Burstyn, Miller, and Blair, and won a statuette for the William Peter Blatty screenplay.  There is a simple reason:  it’s just that good.  And you will never look at a crucifix the same way again.