Hollywood Halloween

No plans for Halloween this year? Why not check out a scary movie for a movie night? For the past four years, my husband Adam and I have had a tradition of watching a scary movie on Halloween. We always picked movies that neither of us had ever seen, which guarantees that both of us are surprised. We have watched some good ones over the years. There has not been one year yet where we have been disappointed by our scary movie choice. Here are the movies that we have watched over the years, maybe you will be inspired to start a scary movie tradition of your own.

The first year, while we were still dating, we watched Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh. Hitchcock movies are some of my favorites, and this was on that I had never seen. All that Adam and I knew about this movie was the “shower scene.” This movie definitely surprised us, and it is a great one for Halloween night. Even though it is 53 years old, it is still one of my favorite movies.

The next year we went classic scary movie with Halloween (1978). Surprisingly both of us had made it 20 years of our life without seeing this scary movie, and did we love it. Adam and I would both name one of our favorite movies ever. We were so scared. John Carpenter did an amazing job with creating suspense with his camera angles and memorable score. Whenever I hear the classic theme I immediately feel a chill and look over my shoulder. This would be a great movie to check out and watch with a group of friends this Halloween.

When deciding what to watch the next year, I decided to do some research on the scariest movie ever made and I was surprised to find The Exorcist (1973) listed number one on three of the lists that I found. Adam and I decided to watch this one. We also rented Raiders of the Lost Ark to watch after The Exorcist so that we would go to bed thinking of action scenes instead of exorcisms. Adam and I found The Exorcist to be a different kind of scary movie. It is not so much a scary movie where things jump out and scare you or has crazy twists. No, it’s more of a scary movie because it is just plain creepy and disturbing. It is not really a movie that I would say we enjoyed watching and probably will never want to watch again, but it was a good scary movie to continue our Halloween tradition.

Last year Adam and I decided to continue in the Halloween series and watch Halloween 2 (1981). While not as good as the John Carpenter original, this movie was still very scary. It continues the story from where the first movie leaves off. We enjoyed this one as well, but this is one case where the sequel did not quite live up to the original for us.

Adam and I still have not decided what to watch this year, we have a couple ideas, but sometimes it is hard to choose. I’d like to see what you think. Which movie should Adam and I watch this year to continue our Halloween scary movie tradition?

[polldaddy poll=7500526]

Look for my review of this year’s scary movie after Halloween.

Milligan Library Call Numbers for the scary movies mentioned above:

Psycho  PN1995.9.H6 P8 1999
Halloween  PN1997.H348 2000
The Exorcist  PN1995.9 H6 E9 2010

For other ideas for scary movies to watch, check out the display in the Milligan Library. And remember another great thing about the Milligan Library: If they don’t have it, they can Interlibrary Loan it for you!