Actually, my very best Halloween viewing experience was when I was about 13 and a local television station showed Psycho late in the evening. I was so scared, and the film left a lingering fright effect for some weeks whenever I took a shower! Psycho definitely stands the test of time, and I show it when I teach Introduction to Film as one of the weekly selections to illustrate, in particular, editing techniques.
Here are some other Halloween-worthy viewing selections:
http://news.wfu.edu/2010/10/28/horror-movie-history/
Enjoy!
“Obviously, I am late commenting on your Halloween selections (we’re past Thanksgiving and moving toward Christmas!), but I had bookmarked your article because I enjoyed it so much. I agree with your comments and appreciated your selections of movies in the three categories.
As a fellow Wake grad and film buff, I, too, love the classic Universal and Hammer horror films. Every year for quite a while now I have hosted a Halloween Movie Marathon in our apartment home theater here in Manhattan. I often DVR selections from TCM’s yearly horror movie pics for later viewing.
Have you considered writing a book on the classic horror films to share some of your insights and observations?”
What kind comments! I am more of a general media critic and documentary filmmaker, which leaves little time right now for doing the research I’d need to do to write a book about classic horror films; there are many people out there who know a lot more about this genre than I do. Sounds like your Halloween Movie Marathon is the place to be in late October! If I have enough space on my DVR, I troll through the TCM listings once a week and select my top films to record for later. Did that yesterday, as a matter of fact…