Halloween Movie Treats

I bid you...Vellcome...

Halloween's on the way, so it's time to take a look at some favorite horror flicks you should be ordering at the corner video store. First, let's look at the horror genre in general.

Horror has several sub-genres. By genre, I do not mean broad terms like horror or suspense. Both of these have sub-genres that are tried, tested, and sometimes true. Here's a look at some of them and their rules:

Vampire: The Lost Boys, Blade, Interview with the Vampire, Salem's Lot, Queen of the Damned, and the numerous Dracula movies. These stories always involve an innocent population being infiltrated by a vampire. This vampire is usually hidden until one, two, three, and sometimes four people are bitten. When the population realizes what is happening, it is almost too late to stop it, but only almost.

Generally, the human side of the bad guy is more apparent in the vampire genre than in any other monster movie, as the vampire can reason and be quite charming. The vampire is also well-to-do in the cultural context of the film: Bela Lugosi in a tuxedo, the cool kids in The Lost Boys, the rich party animals in Blade. In this genre, the monster is never less than middle class and often wears a suit. Sexuality also plays a large part in vampire films.

All vampire films owe their birth to Bram Stoker's original story, but they do not always keep his rules in play. In Salem's Lot, the religious angle still works, as crosses can be used to ward off vampires. Salem's Lot also follows the rule that vampires must be verbally invited into a house before they can enter it. In other films, this rule is cast aside.

The one steady rule in this genre is that vampires can't stand direct sunlight. This rule made the leap into the technical age when characters began using UV lamps (transportable sunlight) against vampires, as in Blade and 30 Days of Night. Another familiar rule that is still followed is the Renfield rule. Renfield was the name of the character that assisted Count Dracula (until he betrayed the Count, and paid with his life). Most vampire movies have a Renfield of one kind or another, acting as a human aid to the vampires.

Undead: any of Romero's zombie films, as well as the mummy pictures. In this genre, the dead rise up and try to kill people. They are often cannibals. The reason for their animation is seldom given, and doesn't much matter. In Undead films, the only way to kill an undead creature is to chop it apart or blow its head off. Brains matter more than the heart. Vampires are a technical cousin to the Undead, but they are never as stupid, enraged, lumbering, or outwardly disgusting.

Slasher: Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer. The rules behind this genre were well laid out in Scream, when Kevin Williamson had one of his characters state them. It was a funny scene, but also true. In the Slasher genre, the bad guy has something against the community he lives in (or returns to, after disappearing for a number of years) and exacts his revenge by killing people, mainly teenagers. Girls that have a sex scene in the film are almost certain to die before the closing credits. If you see a woman's breasts, she's a goner. The hero is usually a virginal teenage girl, and she becomes the focus of the bad guy's rage. By the end of the film, everyone else will be dead, and she will have to face him on her own.

Possession: The Exorcist, The Evil Dead, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, 28 Days Later and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later. In the possession genre, evil forces cause a person to turn into the bad guy. The cause could be spiritual (Exorcist), or medical (28 Days Later), or supernatural (Event Horizon). In the possession genre, the bad guy does not always have to be killed. Instead, the supernatural element must be forced to leave the bad guy's body. In a way, all of the vampire and zombie movies are possession movies, with this key difference: you must kill a vampire. There is no cure.

Brilliant Psycho: Saw, Silence of the Lambs, The Vanishing, SE7EN. In this genre, the bad guy is omnipotent to the point of being a god. He seems to be everywhere at once, including inside his victims' heads. He (and it's almost always a he) knows their next move before they do, and he makes the cops look like fools. He never kills his victims immediately, but rather strings them along, playing games with them (literally and figuratively), until he decides to do them in. Even then, the bad guy doesn't always kill a victim directly. Instead, he forces them into clever situations where they will do his bidding and end up killing themselves or someone else. The Brilliant Psycho genre is the easiest one to draw a sequel from, because he often escapes.

Alien From Outer Space: Alien, War of the Worlds, Predator, The Thing, Slither. This genre is as straightforward as it can get. An alien lifeform comes down to Earth or invades a space ship. It murders people, destroys things, and generally wrecks havoc, until the hero can kill it. The alien is very hard to kill, and quite often gives birth or turns into a possession film by taking over the bodies of its victims. By the end of the story, the hero must not only save his own life, but that of all mankind, because the alien usually intends to colonize Earth and kill everybody on it.

My genre picks for this Halloween:

Vampire: Dracula (1958). Starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Campy and fun.

Undead: Dawn of the Dead (2004). A great re-make. Ving Rhames is perfect.

Slasher: Halloween (1978). What else would you watch around Halloween? Shun the re-make directed by Rob Zombie.

Possession: Normally I would say The Exorcist right off the bat, but you've probably seen it too many times on cable. If you haven't seen The Exorcism of Emily Rose, rent it.

Brilliant Psycho: Re-run The Silence of the Lambs and remember how good it is.

Alien from Outer Space: Go with Alien, just for the chest-popping scene.

Happy Halloween.