Halloween is next weekend, and it is my favorite holiday, mainly because I have a good reason to watch my favorite horror movies. This week, I have selected five classic Halloween favorites that are streaming on Netflix.
First is Hellraiser, a 1987 classic focus on a box that is a gateway to hell. A sexual experimenter into S&M looks to take his sleazy hobby further and buys this box from a shady salesman. Fast-forward a couple of years and you find out the box killed him. Now his brother lives in the house and finds the box. The bloody and sexual theme of this movie is hard to watch, but in a good way. You get a feeling that you are getting pulled into the world presented by the writer-director Clive Barker. Barker became a mastermind of horror in the 80’s and 90’s. Stephan King even called him the future of horror.
Next is Scream. From 1996, Scream, starring Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore and David Arquette, proves time and time again that it is a great horror film. A lot of newer movies and shows have adopted this film’s “who done it” script. In fact, right now they are remaking this film. The movie takes place in a little town where everybody knows everybody. Then, out of nowhere, a killer starts tormenting the inhabitants of this town by asking trivia questions right before he kills them.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is about a fella named Jack Skellington, Jack is from Halloweentown and that’s all he knows. One day he discovers a door that leads to Christmastown, and he does not get the concept of the town. He ends up liking the joyful spirit of the new town, and tries to bring it back to his Halloweentown but runs into some complications. This is one of my all-time favorite movies. The best part is you can watch it on two separate holidays.
Next is the classic Saw. Saw started a cult following the same week it premiered. People loved it. I remember growing up that every October, instead of getting excited for the Walking Dead, everybody wanted to go see the next Saw movie. Sadly, they got worse as time went on. The movie starts out with 2 men chained up in a bathroom with the only option to escape being sawing off their leg.
Finally, we have The Addams Family. This version of the crazy family know as the Addams is from 1991 and has them fending off distant relatives who want to steal the family fortune. I guess I would call this a dark comedy, but more like a dark slapstick comedy at some parts. It’s sick and twisted in all the right ways.
That’s it for this week; be sure to watch what you haven’t seen, and if you have seen some of these movies then this is the time of year to watch the movies you love to be scared by.
