Halloween Haunters 2012

Leaves are turning colors and falling, kids are picking out costumes, and stores are putting up their Christmas decorations. It must be October, and there are two things I can look forward to during this month: walls of fog and spooky movies. It’s time again to break out some Halloween Haunters, those horror flicks, monster movies, and generally Halloween-themed films. The blog will be ditching its usual blue and white in favor of some orange and black, and an all-new Halloween banner has been put in place, with some classic monsters created by yours truly. And, as usual, all Halloween posts will keep the banner even after the season has passed.

(Note: I’m aware the star-ratings for the regular movies have some visible fringe on this dark background. I’ll be fixing that throughout the day, creating new fringe-free star graphics.)

There’s a bit of a challenge for me in finding appropriate movies for the season that I enjoy. I’ve been curious as to how often it actually happens, so I’ve decided to do a roundup at the end of the season. Since I didn’t do one for 2011, I’m going to do so here real quick. There are a few films that I think I would probably rate differently now if I were to view them today (advantage of blogging a year instead of just a few weeks) — for example, I’d probably bump The Monster Squad up and Puppet Master down — but I’m leaving them with the ratings I gave them for the roundup. So before I discuss my plans for 2012, here’s the 2011 roundup:

Halloween (1978)

The Frighteners
The Lost Boys

Aaah! Zombies!!
The Bat (1959)
The Devil Bat
The Monster Squad
Teen Wolf
Trick or Treat (1986)
Vampyr

Jekyll & Hyde (1990)
Night of the Demons (1988)
Puppet Master
Raiders of the Living Dead
Silent Hill
The Terror (1963)

Hell Night
Plan 9 From Outer Space

As you can see, most things wound up being poor to middling, but there were only a few truly awful films. On the other hand, there was only one truly great one, the original Halloween — though The Lost Boys was verging on a five-pumpkin rating. Will 2012 be an improvement? It certainly has a chance for it, as while most of the month is unplanned as usual, there are some things I already know will be in the mix, and at least some of them ought to be good. And I already know at least two of them have been fairly enjoyable due to some early viewing being necessary (Hulu and Crackle just can’t seem to grasp that September is not the time to have monster movies expire.)

What precisely is planned? Well, that would be telling… but I’ll be happy to drop a few hints. There are a few big-name horror movies slated for viewing, some from the 1980s and some that are from an even older vintage. There’s at least one slasher movie, several monster movies, and a few mad scientists are on their way. Our old buddy Vincent Price will be showing up. Some of it’s serious, some of it’s comedic. And no doubt I’ll stumble across some awful oddities that are comic for all the wrong reasons. There will be at least one Halloween-appropriate Top X list, maybe more, and a Favorite Films entry featuring some men in grey. There’s likely to be some non-Halloween content and reviews as well, but for the most part, we’re looking at a mess of monsters, from vampires to ghosts to goblins. And I’ll be taking a look at the world’s oldest werewolf movie.

So carve your Jokerlanterns, grab a bowl of candy corn, and get ready for a month of the macabre. We can expect some awful travesties as usual, but hopefully most of the films will be great eerie choices for the season. And maybe, just maybe, one of them will even be scary. A month of Halloween Haunters starts in just one hour, as Steve McQueen does battle with a Jello mold.