Halloween is my favorite holiday.
Bar none, hands down, no questions asked.
Maybe it calls to my Celtic blood,....speaking to the druid in me who held sacred Samhain rituals under a swollen harvest moon back in ancient Ireland.
Or perhaps my body and soul recognizes that I am a year older during this season.
But most of all, it's memory of a time most cherished.
A time when the nights are growing longer, chasing the daylight off another extra minute at a time each day as the brilliant sunsets adorn the sky like God's canvas.
It's the harvest time,....rife with cornstalks and pumpkins and little craft-store scarecrows on people's lawns that compliment the Thanksgiving decorations in the windows, along with perhaps a turkey traced from a child's hand-print as they worked feverishly in their pre-school art class.
The leaves have turned a brilliant yellow, orange and red and as the sun hits them in the crisp air of each afternoon, the seem as if on fire. A magic, dynamic fire that somehow doesn't consume the leaves, but compliments them as they spend their last days performing their technicolor ballet as the wind hustles them back and forth, whispering a bittersweet farewell to summer.
And when the leaves do fall, they provide a noisy carpet for children as they shuffle through the great piles of them, plastic jack-o-lanterns in hand as they hopefully scamper from door to door with the ever sweet promise of candy and treats driving them onward into the night.
The bright doorways of the houses seem to provide a momentary shield against the advancing chill and as the children's joyfull shrieks of glee and terror drift through the chilly October night you know that the most sacred and profane of holidays has come round yet again.
It is Halloween.
And in honnor of my forovite-est of favorite holidays, I would love to share some fun film faves to add a perfect cherry to your creepy holiday sundae!
These are the ones that stand out as the perfect blend of all things Halloween for even the most discerning of movie afficionados,.....by which I mean me. :)
Okay! Here goes!
First up,.....
The Addams Family
Starring Raoul Julia, Anjelica Houston and Christopher Lloyd!
Elder brother Fester Addams returns from twenty plus missing years in the Bermuda Triangle and while the family is thrilled to see him, is it really uncle Fester?
The movie is fun, whimsical, brilliantly cast and completely entertaining. Don't make the mistake of looking for some deep, intiguing story here. It's cartoony and although you see the vaudeville-style jokes coming from a mile away, you still laugh. The movie's great fun.
Next up:
Addams Family Values
One of the few instances in which the sequel is arguably better than the original. Gomez and Morticia give birth to a new baby! While baby Pubert is a welcome bundle to the rest of the family, Wednesday and Pugsley naturally begin to feel threatened.
After "acting out" in their own homicidal way, The Addams' decide to hire a nanny, a Black Widow killer in disguise with designs on Fester and played maniacally by Joan Cusak in one of her greatest screen roles to date.
While Cusak's character plots to relieve Fester of his family, his fortune and his life, she also succeeds in having Wednesday and Pugsley sent to "summer camp" where an amusing side story, spoofing over-privileged irritating children's camp and a class-war develops.
It also features one of the most brilliant pieces of non-verbal acting I've ever seen, wherein Wednesday, in an attempt to fool her idiot camp-mates struggles against every natural instinct she has as she tries to produce a vacant "happy child" smile.
Considering Ricci was only 13 at the time makes it especially brilliant. That little chick definately had a hold on something darker and that's why she's so brilliant as Wednesday.
Next up on the list,.....
Hocus Pocus
Starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy.
This movie is stupid fun. Plain, un-apologetic and unadulterated, stupid fun.
The trio plays the fictional witches
The Sanderson Sisters who return to wreak havoc on the little children of Salem on Halloween, after a virgin lights the black flame candle, summoning them back from the dead.
There's a talking black cat, who's really an immortal puritan boy in disguse, and who helps the kids vanquish the sisters in order to avenge his sister's death from way back in the 1700's.
There's a pre
American Beauty Thora Birtch as the precocious little girl and even a cameo by Frank and Penny Marshall!
.....the exteriors were filmed almost entirely in Salem, Ma. and the surrounding areas so it's got that authentic New England Halloween look to it!
That means it's A-OK!
There's a lot of cute stuff in this and Bette Midler's fake buck teeth ALMOST accommodate the amount of scenery she chews. This one is definately worth a look!
Next up,....
CasperYeah, I know, I know, but I stand by it. This live-action adaptation of the Harvey comic is surprisingly tender and poigniant in a lot of places.
Starring Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman and Eric idle. Ricci and Pullman play a father daughter team who are hired to "exercise" Whipstaff manor so the inheritors can plunder it for it's "hidden treasure". The sets are fantastic the score is haunting and the early computer animation is an example of how much the talented artists of the time could push the envelope with limited resources.
One of the most surprising turns in the film is where Casper relates to Ricci the story of how he died as a child,.....something that doesn't generally occurr to people when they think of Casper but he is, after all, a kid.
Unless, like the Tin-man, you have no heart, it's gonna bring a tear to your eye.
An admittedley "gimmicky" angle, (in addition to them going for the
Addams theme with Ricci and the gothic house), is the suprisingly effective use of several cameos of various stars which include Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Father Guido Sarducci and my favorite,.....Danny Aykroyd as Ray Stantz from
Ghostbusters.
That gives it an A+ in my book,....but then,....When it comes to nostalic cinematic icons,...I can be easily bought.
Last up on the kooky/cute film list is
Practical Magic!
Starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing and Dianne Weist.
Three generations of witches live in a bitchin' ocean-side Victorian house on the Washington coast as they attempt to live down the family curse which dooms the women of their family to never be happy in love.
It's good old fashioned estrogen-y fun and I revel in every frame of this lavishly shot film. Kidman plays the bad sister in a bad relationship and as Bullock's good sister comes to her aid they experience certain complications, (perhaps acidentally killing the boyfriend), and as their maiden aunts, (played by Weist and Channing), leave them to clean up their own mess, Bullock finds that she just may find true love after all with the cop who's investigating the dead boyfriend's murder.
Especially endearing is the "Midnight Margaritas" scene.
There's the list! Now,....don't let the outward appearances of these semmingly "kiddie" films fool you. There is some truly DARK shit going on in a lot of places in all of these films, (except the
Addams series).
Casper basically comes around to a dead child falling in love with a live one, in
Practical Magic, Kidman and Bullock kill a man and try to cover it up, almost destroying their family in the process and in
Hocus Pocus, Sarah Jessica Parker displays some not-so-subtle pedophilic tendancies towards young men as the three sisters pretty much attempt to kill all the children of Salem,....a fact that even the Disney publicity machine can't really spin.
But then again, there's no need for any spin or apology, is there? After all, one cannot have resolution without conflict and further more a soultion is only as satisfying as it's problem!
So,.....there it is! I recommend all of these to you! Go rent one of em,...or all of em', have some friends over, have some midnight margarits yourself as you pass out candy to the little sugar-filled cretins on the 31st!
But most of all,....have a happy, HAPPY, Halloween!
