It’s that time of year again! Crunchy piles of leaves speckle the ground, jack-o-lanterns leer menacingly out of windows, and college students everywhere are gorging themselves on candy corn.
Then there’s the absolute best part of October: Halloween. An excuse to feast on sugar and dress like a prostitute, Halloweekend is a celebration anticipated by Puget Sound students like none other.
But aside from consuming mountains of Skittles and spilling jungle juice down your “slutty nun” costume, what else is there to do?
The answer, my friends, is to cast aside your debaucheries for a moment and get down and dirty with what Halloween is all about: scary movie marathons.
First things first: grab some blankets, some friends, an excess of pillows to squeeze and hide behind when necessary, and a dark, dark room.
You’ll need about three movies for a proper marathon—almost all horror movies are exactly an hour and a half long, so any more might prove too lengthy and any fewer is just plain weak.
Next, you need to decide what movies to watch. You have two general categories to choose from: creepy and gory.
While certainly not mutually exclusive, most horror movies are either creepy—with ghosts and possessions and eerie music—or gory—with torture, blood and men wearing leather gloves.
Decide whether you and your friends would rather be thoroughly creeped out or thoroughly grossed out. Then plan accordingly.
If you decide on creepy, you have a ton of awesome movies to choose from (actually, that’s true either way). Classic creepy movies of our generation include “The Ring” and “The Grudge”; both remakes of Japanese horror movies, these two are definitely necessary viewing if you and your marathoning buds haven’t seen ‘em.
If you’ve seen them already, check out some great possession movies: “The Rite,” which, interestingly, features Anthony Hopkins, “The Unborn,” which also features some yummy eye candy for male viewers or the lesser known “Case 39.” If you’d rather go for some hauntings, “The Haunting In Connecticut” and “Session 9” will both leave you sleepless for days. For a remake of a popular classic, check out the surprisingly enjoyable 2010 remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” featuring Jackie Earle Haley of “Watchmen.” Also be sure to check out one of my personal favorites, “The Uninvited.”
As for gory, you’ve got plenty of deliciously disgusting options. Mandatory viewings are, of course, “Saw” (and, if you dare, all of its sequels) and “Hostel.” Once you’ve seen those, toss your copy of “The Human Centipede” out the window and check out these infinitely superior gems: Bradley Cooper’s “Midnight Meat Train,” the uber-suspenseful and hellaciously gory “The Collector,” creepy-gory hybrid classic “The Descent,” and foreign gem “Audition” (be sure not to look up anything about that one before you watch it for the best effect). If you’re into zombie-type infection movies, the classic “28 Days Later,” the terrifying “Quarantine,” and the 2002 gem “Cabin Fever” will satisfy your hunger. The sequel to “Hostel,” “Hostel II,” is also remarkably enjoyable, if not superior to its original.
Now turn off the lights and prepare to scream.
