Halloween is upon us: cue hastily cobbled-together costumes and drunkenly ironic apple-bobbing at friends’ parties, the frenzied whoops of sugar-saturated children and an online avalanche of “best horror films ever” lists. It’s a beautiful time of year. We’ve already contributed our share to said avalanche, so allow me simply to highlight my viewing for the evening (courtesy of the BFI’s handsome recent reissue): Jack Clayton’s “The Innocents.”
Tag: Halloween
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CINEJABBER: Devil’s Night in Motown
Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.I’m in Detroit for the game tomorrow, so movies are somewhat out of sight, out of mind. Somewhat.
As I drive around town, I’m reminded of some singular opportunities here for the film industry. I don’t really know the particulars of filming in Detroit or if Hollywood really bothers. There’s a lot of Pittsburgh filming going on these days and I imagine you get the same feel from a town like that, but kind of like Kansas City, there are unique areas here that would be unexpected gold mines for location shoots.
It’s a sad sight, though, to say the least. Not that that’s news. I came through four years ago, didn’t spend much time here, and got the heck out as soon as possible because “depressing” doesn’t begin to say it. But I have a soft spot for the town. My fiancee is from here (grew up between 7 Mile and 8 Mile — I wonder if she ever ran into Marshall Mathers on these mean streets).
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 38 — ‘Love & Other Drugs,’ lead and supporting actor races, the circuit revs up, favorite horror films
Welcome to Oscar Talk.In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
You can feel the season rumbling to life with Halloween just around the corner. It’s been a lively enough week as contenders began to hit the circuit and more films were unveiled for eager press. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…
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THE LISTS: Top 10 horror films of all time
It’s Halloween week and since we are a movie site, we are under some kind of unspoken obligation to provide our dear readers with a list to fit the festivities. You may remember a similar list popping up two years ago, in which all current contributors voiced an opinion and the final results represented a collective agreement. Since I was not a contributor at that time, Tapley asked me to offer up a new take this year.A little backstory on my relationship with scary movies seems appropriate. I was raised by two Christian parents who were very protective of the images that I put into my head. When I was six years old, I was playing at a friend’s house when he suggested we watch “Beetle Juice.” Knowing that it was a potentially objectionable title, I called my mom and asked if it was okay and she said it was not. Kids being kids, we watched it anyway.
What did I think of it? It scared the crap out of me. So much so, that I understood why my mom didn’t want me to watch it and actively avoided scary images on my own free will from then on. When one or two infiltrated me, such as “Ghostbusters,” I was always a little rattled. As I’ve grown, I’ve only become slightly less sensitive to these types of images and only actively seek out scary films if I hear there is a lot more going on to make it worthwhile.
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LIFE WITHOUT OSCAR: 1977 and 1978
Catch up with the idea behind this series here.Hey, that “Star Wars” thing was nominated for Best Picture in 1977. The blockbuster game-changer was beaten by the romantic comedy game-changer “Annie Hall,” in what has to be one of my favorite Best Picture wins ever. It would be 21 years before another comedy won the top prize in “Shakespeare in Love,” which is another one of my favorite Best Picture wins. More good comedies please!
Sir Stevie Spielberg earned his first Oscar nomination for directing “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but saw the film lose out on a Best Picture nod to “The Goodbye Girl.” That film earned Richard Dreyfuss the honor of becoming the youngest Best Actor winner until Adrien Brody, decades later.
“The Deer Hunter” bummed everyone out enough in 1978 to take home Best Picture and Director statues. The only real competition came from “Coming Home,” as anti-Vietnam films were suddenly back in vogue.
1977 was also Bob Hope’s last turn as Master of Ceremonies (his eighteenth). No more quips like this one, “Tonight we set aside petty differences, forget old feuds, and start new ones.” Luckily, 1978 was the first of many Johnny Carson hosting gigs with gems like, “I see a lot of new faces. Especially on the old faces.”
But here’s what had to watch from home.
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Best scares in film
It’s only hitting me today that we haven’t offered up any Halloween-y content yet. Strange. This is my favorite time of year, though season-less Southern California certainly does it no favors.Last year we got the contributors together to name the top 20 horror films of all time, an installment of The Lists I’m quite proud of. This year I’ve been settling in each night to a new perennial favorite. Last night it was “Beetle Juice.” I took another look at Carpenter’s “Halloween” earlier in the week and I expect Ill be tossing in the “Coraline” Blu-ray once again, maybe a little Romero. “White Zombie” with Bela Lugosi was a novel distraction the other night.
I don’t worship at the altar of genre, but I do enjoy getting in the spirit, so to speak. Rather than cook something up for the holiday, I figured I’d point you to a pair of UK stories spotlighting the best in horror. The first, in the Daily Telegraph, announces Bernard Herrmann’s “Psycho” theme as the scariest horror theme of all time.
