It’s less than a week until Halloween! That means decorations are as up as they are going to get, costumes are being bled on through last minute alterations, and jack-o-lanterns are already moldering on front stoops. You need a movie or a show you can throw on to keep the Halloween mood in check as you juggernaut your way to the 31st. Here are two of my favorite ambiance pics for carrying through the finish line.
Evil Dead: For Gore and Laughs
The Evil Dead franchise is a cult classic turned modern phenomenon. Very few movies can creep me out and still get me to openly belly laugh like these can. Plus, they are damn quotable. If you know someone who is weary of jumping into its creepy-campy awesomeness, try starting them out with Army of Darkness “for laughs” and go from there.
Now that Ash Vs Evil Dead on Starz is in its second season you should have plenty of material to chew through on your streaming device of choice. With the gift that is Bruce Campbell charging headlong against the Deadite scourge, you can bet that no surface will be left unbloodied. It’s the perfect complement to your Halloween gore-fest that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Penny Dreadful: a Soulful callback to Modern Classic Horror
If you are in a more literary mood, why not put something on that honors the material that birthed our modern horror and sci-fi genres. Penney Dreadful takes its cues from just about every classic horror story you can think of, bathes them in a lustful gritty realism, and manages to artfully arrange them in the occult-obsessed era that gave birth to such tales.
The writing and acting are superb, and the visuals are beautiful, subtle, and haunting. If you’re not already a fan of this series I implore you to watch it when you have time to pay attention. Like the horror stories it retells, this series takes you on a journey with one central, repeating question, “What makes a monster?”
That does it for this short blog run. I hope you’ve enjoyed my primer of Halloween movie recommendations. If you would like to follow me as I generally geek out and occasionally make stuff of my own, you can find me on Twitter @AmberEBlackwell or on Facebook AE Blackwell. Happy Halloween everyone!
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