I’m taking a break from the Uptown theme for today’s and Tuesday’s posts. I’ll return to it after the election for several more days, and then I’ll move on to the Starz Denver Film Festival, which begins on November 13.

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I thought I’d be spending a good chunk of Wednesday looking for a Halloween costume.

I was going to blow off Halloween for yet another year, tell myself it just wasn’t my type of holiday. I was planning to show up at a Halloween party Saturday night as “Nudist on Strike,” wearing whatever I damn well felt like.

I’m still partial to the idea, actually, as well as wearing a sign that reads “Ce n’est pas un costume.”

But then Steph posted about the real spirit of Halloween, and I felt ashamed of my lack of effort.

So I made up a list of costume stores in Denver, and I headed out to Marcia’s in Arvada. Short story short, I found a 1920s-style dress there. Now, that may be what Steph calls a “lame cliché costume,” but I don’t care. I love 1920s stuff, and I know I’ll want to wear it again and again. So I bought that one.

And then I thought, I could just buy five or six costumes and alternate them, as long as I didn’t wear the same costume to the same party within, say, two years. Then I’d never have to think of a Halloween costume again.

I’m incorrigible.

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One place I didn’t go, since I got my costume at the first store I visited, was Flossy McGrew’s, a famous Denver costume store run by Grandma Goth. Deborah Hiestand, a local filmmaker, made a documentary on her that was quite touching, and the Broomfield Independent Film Series showed it this month.

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In honor of Halloween, I’m going to list the movies that have scared me the most:

The Sixth Sense (it was weeks before I could walk into my kitchen and not be afraid the cupboards would be open)

Burnt Offerings (because of Bette Davis’s look at the end of the movie)

The Exorcist (I don’t think I actually crawled under my date’s seat, but it was pretty close. Guess I shouldn’t have smoked that weed beforehand.)

I saw Burnt Offerings with my best friend in high school. She would drag me to horror movies and then laugh at how scared I was. (Yes, we’re still friends.)

I’m much more partial to thrillers, such as Dressed to Kill. That was my favorite for a long time. And I love vampire shows, especially The Hunger and Dark Shadows.

One thing I’ve always wondered about horror movies: why is the horrific creature always so ugly? I think beautiful evil is that much more effective; I suspect I like vampire movies because vampires are usually attractive.

I’m curious about my readers’ opinions. What are your “favorite” scary movies?