Time to start watching horror movies . It’s my Halloween tradition to start watching scary movies a couple of weeks before Halloween. It helps prepare me for all those fun Halloween celebrations and haunted houses . Here are just a few of the movies that I’m adding to my watch list to get in the Halloween mood:
The Howling Reborn (2011)
Surprise, it’s not a bad movie. It was fast paced enough to keep my attention, so I didn’t need a lot of bathroom breaks. It stars Landon Liboiron (Terra Nova) and Lindsey Shaw (Pretty Little Liars). Average and unpopular high school boy hankers after a gorgeous bad girl. He discovers he isn’t average and fights the animal in him because of his love for the girl. He reluctantly becomes the hero as the people he cares about die. The Howling Reborn is a fun horror film to add to my yearly Halloween movie viewing list.
A Haunting in Salem (2011)
Brutal murder and attempted suicide opens this film. It stars Jenna Stone (Miss Behave), and Bill Oberst Jr. (Kill Spin). Released straight to video, A Haunting in Salem received a one star review on IMDB . I love haunted house films, so I gave it a try. After watching it, I found out the film wasn’t terrible and deserved more than one star. What was terrible was the sound quality. It made me aware of how important quality sound production is when making films. If it wasn’t for the bad sound, I might have been a little scared. I like Oberst’s acting ability and according to IMDB, he is known for playing unsettling characters. Unsettling is perfect for horror films. I definitely added this film to the list, since I was able to see past the sound quality to the tolerable acting and good story.
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
I expected the Paranormal Activity movies to be boring, since I normally find mockumentaries boring and the camera work disturbing. I want the more traditional movies where you aren’t distracted from the characters by the jumpy erratic camera work. Much of the horror happens outside the audience’s view in many mockumentaries. However, even though the Paranormal Activity films are slow moving at first, the last third has a lot of activity. I found this movie better than the first two films, and the Japanese version of Paranormal Activity 2. It was great to see the sisters as children and get more background about the murderous haunting of this family.
Fright Night (2011)
For one of the vampire films this Halloween, I’m going with Fright Night . This Fright Night remake stars Anton Yelchin (Terminator Salvation), Colin Farrell (Horrible Bosses), plus Chris Sarandon from the original film. The original version had a better script and character development. This version is almost too fast moving and it doesn’t have the same dark humor of the original. The freeway scene does have a sick humor that many will enjoy. I’m keeping the original Fright Night film on the Halloween movie list, but I did add the new one, since Chris Sarandon was wonderful.
I usually have a tendency to favor supernatural films with ghosts and haunted houses. This year I’m expanding my horror movies list with a few more werewolves and vampires. Enjoy the horror films and have a scary Halloween.