The All Time Number One Scariest
Movie to Watch This Halloween
by Bill Russo
The two most outstanding features of Halloween to me
are pumpkins and haunted houses. Pumpkins
are fun and decorative, but haunted houses are much more interesting to those
of us who love writing and film. The
number of novels and movies about pumpkins is quite small – but the horrors of
eerie mansions are as common as Trick or Treat candies.
Here are my three nominees for
the greatest haunted
house films of all time.
Number three is
“The Conjuring”,
a 2013 movie that grossed over $300 million on a budget of
just $20 million. The story is about
real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who travel to Rhode
Island to aid a family who have moved into a farmhouse in Rhode Island. Bad things happen almost immediately and as
they escalate the family contacts the Warrens who agree to come to the house to
investigate the phenomena. The success of the first film quickly led to a
Conjuring Two and the third film in the series is currently in production.
My second favorite pick for Halloween viewing,
Poltergeist,
is a work that resulted from the 1982 odd-couple pairing of Texas
Chainsaw Massacre guru Tobe Hooper and Stephen Spielberg, who created E.T., in
the same year. Spielberg conceived,
wrote and produced Poltergeist and wanted to direct it – but was not allowed to
do so because of a clause in his E.T. contract.
He selected Hooper and the resulting film became a massive hit. It was the eighth highest Box Office success
of 1982.
The number one project of the year was Spielberg’s
E.T. which passed Star Wars as the highest grossing motion picture of all time,
selling over $600 million dollars worth of tickets. When it was released as a VHS tape, it did
$250 million in sales and untold millions more in video rentals (remember
those?)
As for Poltergeist, the story of a young family
visited by ghosts in their home; the film spawned at least three sequels, and
holds up very well as a treat for Halloween season viewing.
The Scariest of them All....
My top pick for October 31st chills is
Stephen King’s story of a haunted hotel, ‘The Shining’. There are many great chills in the film but
for me the crowing moment is Jack Nicholson’s classic,“Here’s
Johnny”. According to one study, 10,000
people were polled and they voted ‘Here’s Johnny’, the number one scariest film
scene ever.
Whatever you watch this October, I hope you enjoy it
and have pleasant dreams – no nightmares please!
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