Sweets and Horror: Sharing Personal Halloween Classics

Oh sweet Halloween, the purest holiday of them all. No pretense of sharing love or appreciation through excessive commerce and gluttony, no vague societal push of political agenda or environmentalism, just sweets and horror.

We all have Halloween customs; some costume up and party, some take the kiddies out to get candy but others have a collection of seasonal classics to enjoy. With Halloween a mere week out and outside business forcing me into a break for the duration of the week, why not go out on a light note and offer my own suggestions for getting into the spirit.

Ghostbusters

While the America may continue to bang down Hollywood's door for a sequel that nobody nobody wants to make, give the original a revisit to remind yourself just how little it has truly aged in 30 years.

Advancements in special effect technology aside, "Ghostbusters" still holds up wonderfully and carries something of a quaint and timeless charm that a story can only have before it becomes a franchise.

Venkman, Stantz, Zeddemore and Egon are still as endearing as the actors that play them, the comedy is still strong and there's nothing beyond the aforementioned effects, which still hold up, that feels out of date to a point of disconnection from what could detestably be considered a predecessor to effect driven blockbuster comedies as we know them today. The go to choice for a seasonal laugh around Halloween.

Coraline

The children of the season usually have a reaping of candy to look forward to on Halloween night but they don't need to necessarily be left out of their own set of thrills.

While Burton's name gets tossed around a lot with "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Coraline" shows how much of Henry Sellick's talent pulled it together in the first place. A modern day fable with an organically developed "be careful what you wish for" moral, it's beautiful visuals remain fairly unique in the mainstream landscape of animation in film and even provides "Twilight Zone-esque" horror that effectively thrills for older audiences without giving the young ones nightmares.

Kakurenbo: Hide and Seek

On the other end of the spectrum regarding children, "Kakurenbo" satisfies as a unique concentrated burst of seasonal horror. Only 25 minutes in length and featuring an abundance of moody atmosphere and creepy imagery rendered with an uncanny valley skating mix of CGI and cel-shading, it tells the story of a group of kids playing Otokoyo, a night time game of hide and seek that leads them deeper into the heart of their city with demons in tow.

The brevity works strongly in the film's favor, presenting a tight short story about industrialization negatively impacting the childhood innocence of children and great tool to set the creepy atmosphere of the season, though it is worth noting that it's best viewed subtitled in the original Japanese; the  performances from the english cast tend to sound laughably unchildlike and the dialogue, be it rough translation or poor direction, just doesn't flow as well outside of its native tongue.

The Crow

The only worthwhile entry of its franchise, "The Crow" is a masterpiece of direction, overcoming a screenplay that is fairly limp in depth to create a mystifying, visually engaging and emotionally powerful film with a creepy atmosphere and of course, a powerful final performance by the late Brandon Lee that would have made his career had he not tragically passed away in its filming.

While it doesn't quite hold all of the emotional impact of its source material, director Alex Proyas nevertheless puts forth a compelling tale of love conquering hatred and the power of emotional closure.

Trick r’ Treat

An underrated treat and the quintessential Halloween movie of the modern day. If you're a horror film fan that has not yet seen "Trick r' Treat," rectify it. You're missing out on one of the most fun and unique horror anthologies ever made. Four intertwining stories take place on Halloween night, centering on traditions of the holiday and the karmically bad things that can occur if they're not respected.

"Trick r' Treat" is unique in that as good as it is, it's full effect seems to only work when viewed on Halloween for obvious reasons. It can almost be viewed as a spiritual successor to John Carpenter's "Halloween" before the market conscious decision to make the series about Michael Myers was made. If you only watch one film on Halloween, do yourself a favor and make it one that'll remind you of your love of the season to begin with.