Halloween Netflix

Posted by J. Mark Bertrand
on Thursday, October 09, 2008
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When the weather changes and the leaves begin to fall in earnest, my thoughts turn naturally to . . . scary movies. Far be it from me to wax philosophical about the pleasure we take in frightening ourselves. Suffice it to say, we do. At this time of year, I start re-ordering my Netflix list, leap-frogging a bunch of low budget B-movies straight to the top. I can't rely on television to meet the demand -- unlike Christmas, which dominates programming at least a month and a half before it happens, Halloween doesn't merit much beyond a Charlie Brown special. Even IFC, which at least makes an effort, is just going to run things like Return of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and, of course, the choice of literal-minded people everywhere, Halloween. Sure, Halloween is as commercialized as Christmas, but in more of a county carnival way. Zombie walks? Sure. Parades down main street? Not so much.

What is a scare-seeker to do? Honestly, a lot of the classics -- especially the post-Friday the 13th slasher stuff -- don't appeal to me much. So my strategy these days is to hunt for foreign horror. Guillermo del Toro's Spanish-language films, for example -- The Devil's Backbone, The Orphanage -- and the occasional French entry, like They Came Back. I enjoyed Them enough to watch it again this Halloween -- though apparently not everyone liked it. Why foreign? I think the de-familiarization that comes with a story set in a different culture freshens up the genre.

Of course, the real challenge this year is going to be putting together a fresh Halloween playlist. It's going to be hard to beat the one from a couple of years ago, which headlined with "It's Halloween" by The Shaggs.