Obligatory Halloween Movie Post

Holiday movies normally suck, and the reason for this is that holiday movies often have to have a genre of films made up just for them:  the Christmas movie, the Thanksgiving movie and so on.  Also, you can only really watch them one time of the year.  Who wants to watch a Christmas movie in July?

But Halloween is different.  Halloween has a genre of movies that can be watched year-round and is not necessarily slaved to the holiday:  the horror movie.  Unfortunately, despite this Halloween can also suck movie-wise because all of the TV channels and video stores hawk the same shit year after year.  Some horror movies watched every year by the masses on Halloween are true classics; others are pure drivel.  But I get tired of watching even the good ones over and over again so this year for Halloween I thought I would share three good horror movies that aren’t replayed to death.  In fact, some of these are pretty out-of-the-way and, dare I say, cult.

Here they are.  Enjoy.

Matango (1963) – A rich business man, a movie star, a professor and his student along with the ship’s captain and first mate are sailing a yacht on a pleasure cruise when they are swept in a colossal storm that leaves them stranded on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific.  Sound familiar?  Except that instead of being a crappy sitcom this is a psychological horror movie where the castaways start going for each other’s throats as their mini-society devolves and they find mysterious mushrooms that are both mind and body altering.  This is Godzilla director Ishiro Honda’s favorite of his movies, and it’s one of mine, too. 

Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1974) – Not all vampires attack the same.  In a nineteenth century European village young girls are being found dead as wrinkled old crones, having been aged to death by something unknown.  The wandering titular vampire hunter is summoned by his doctor friend to find and slay the undead threat.  This is one of Hammer Horror’s last movies, and one of their most fun.  Where else can you see a katana-swinging Napoleonic vampire hunter with a hunchback professor sidekick slay evil beasts and bed Caroline Munro? 

The Fog (1980) – A small Pacific seaside town is celebrating its anniversary when a mysterious fog rolls in.  One by one people start dying and the local priest has a suspicion of why:  the town harbors a shameful secret, a secret that may spell death and disaster for many innocent people.  This is one of John Carpenter’s most underrated works.  It isn’t one of his best, but it is a good, spooky little film that manages to genuinely creep you out a few times.  It also actually makes ghost pirates seem like a scary idea and not a joke.

So there you go... three non-standard good horror movies for your Halloween viewing pleasure.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go eat candy and drink cider until I throw up.