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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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?

Leave A Comment

  1. steph October 30, 2008 at 7:39 am - Reply

    I love the old b & w films. The Innocents is one of my very favourites. Gaslight, The Spiral Staircase, and Hitchcock movies like Psycho…I too love vampire movies but I don’t find them all that scary. Silence off the Lambs, The Others, Sleepy Hollow, etc., are others I like.

  2. Beth October 30, 2008 at 9:42 am - Reply

    Steph, I don’t really find vampire movies scary, either. I think it’s something about unrequited love that makes me like them. They’re impossible love stories, in a twisted way.

    Have you ever seen Peeping Tom? It’s by an English director (Michael Powell) and came out the year before Psycho. Wasn’t any worse than Psycho but destroyed his career. When Hitchcock saw the reaction to Peeping Tom he wouldn’t let the press into the early screenings of Psycho; he was afraid they’d ruin him too.

  3. BernardL October 30, 2008 at 11:13 am - Reply

    The Exorcist with added scenes even surpasses the first release. An odd one I really liked is ‘Bless the Child’, where ‘good’ makes evil afraid by the end. It had Kim Bassinger and Jimmy Smits in it.

  4. Beth Partin October 30, 2008 at 11:15 am - Reply

    Bless the Child does sound good. Maybe I’ll check it out.

    I don’t think I’ll be watching the Exorcist again.

  5. BruceQ October 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm - Reply

    No End In Sight, An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car. Oh, wait, we’re not talking politics today. I’ll tell you the movie that scared me the most in my life: The Wizard of Oz. Those flying monkeys freaked me out!

    The Exorcist was pretty scary, but Rosemary’s Baby had the whole “psychological” thing going for it. For me, twisted next-door neighbors have always been scarier than ghosts and monsters.

  6. Beth Partin October 30, 2008 at 1:24 pm - Reply

    BruceQ: lol

    I’ve never seen Rosemary’s Baby. I’ll have to watch it someday when I know the hubby will be around at night when I wake up with a bad dream.