Halloween Titles

It’s that time of year when, to paraphrase Shakespeare, ghouls and goblins and other things wicked this way come.  In celebration of Halloween, check out Rotten Tomatoes’ Top Twenty-five Horror Films (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2010/top_horror/).   You’ll find DVDs in Kimbel Library’s collection that made the 2007 and 2010 lists now on display in the reading area on the first floor. 

Two silent masterpieces set the standard for the horror films that followed.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, #5, was based on a real murder and the fangs and nails of the vampire in Nosferatu, #4, are grossness personified.   Three iconic horror figures--Dracula, #27, Frankenstein, #7,  and his Bride… #2-- made their screen debuts during the Great Depression , while 1956’s sci-fi/horror combo, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, #8, was an allegory on the political blacklisting of that decade.   The trailer for Alien, another sci-fi/horror combo, promised that, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”  Alien comes in at #9.  Two foreign language films made 2007’s list:  the Spanish language film, Cronos, at #42; the Korean, A Tale of Two Sisters, at #46.  Animals large (Jaws, #12) and small (Birds, #24) strike terror in peoples’ hearts when seen through the lens’ of directors like Spielberg and Hitchcock.  So, if you want your terror tempered by comedy, choose instead the laughs and screams aplenty in 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, #42.  Are you into the current zombie craze?  You’ll be glad that 1978’s Dawn of the Dead made the list at number twenty-one.  We’ve got the 2004 remake, featuring CCU grad Michael Kelly in a supporting role.  Good and evil vie for dominance in 1955’s Night of the Hunter, #15, as a psychotic preacher plays a cat-and-mouse game with two children.   Equally terrifying to children of all ages is the circus depicted in the now legendary film ranked #20, Freaks.  If you’re looking for horror that’s pleasing on the eye, two stylish depictions are M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense, #29, and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, #14.  Want to watch the top horror movie of all time?  Ask for Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho on reserve at the Circulation Desk and learn why protagonist Norman Bates believes a boy’s best friend is his mother.

Carrie, #46, Halloween, #34, and Rosemary’s Baby, #14, are, as of this writing, already checked out.  Grab one of the few remaining fiendish flics fast!