October is here and it is officially the scariest month of the year! For me Halloween is just an excuse to embrace more of the kooky, camp than usual! I like spooky rather than scary and enjoy revelling in the novelty of plastic pumpkins and chocolate re-packaged in the shape of an eyeball or a skeleton. This month’s Midnight Feature is bringing you the best of Halloween movies for people who don’t like scary movies. Expect musicals, animation and cult classics to follow… what else would you expect here on Midnight Culture?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (and the soundtrack)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is the original cult classic. The story centres around sweet couple, Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) who get a flat tyre on their way to visit their old college professor. They end up in an old, spooky mansion inhabited by an eclectic cast of characters. All the characters are turned up to a gothic-campy ten from the ‘straight’ man to the surly maid, and there is so much joy in watching the whole cast play up to whatever horror movie trope they are embodying. At the apex of it all is our ‘sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania-ha-ha’, Frank ‘n’ Furter, played with cut-glass wit and unapologetic sex appeal by Tim Curry. Frank ‘n’ Furter believes in pleasure and desire, no matter who might be getting hurt in the process. Frank also believes in fishnets and killer platform heels, but fundamentally Frank believes in having a good time, even if it kills him.
Midnight screenings of the film are legendary with people dressing up as the iconic characters, shouting out lines and singing along to songs like ‘Dammit Janet’ and ‘Time Warp’ which is so engrained in our pop culture terminology it’s easy to forget it comes directly from landmark queer cinema. You can see an example of these screenings in the movies, Fame and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The story is fairly non-sensical but who cares when the movie is one big sexy, musical, queer romp paying homage to the B-movies of the 60’s, like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. There is blood, there is tacky gore and there are lots of songs which is just the way we like it here on Midnight Culture.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) holds so much nostalgia for me and I think I could probably recite most of the film from memory if I was held up in some sort of Halloween horror movie, Saw-esque challenge. In the opening number, ‘This is Halloween’, you meet the townspeople of Halloween Town; an assortment of nightmarish creatures who spend their whole year planning their Halloween celebrations. The ‘Pumpkin King’/town figurehead, Jack Skeleton discovers a clearing in the woods where he is surrounded by doors representing the major Western holidays. There is an Easter egg door, a four-leaf clover door, a turkey door and the one that catches Jack’s eye: a door with a Christmas tree. Jack turns the handle and descends into Christmas Town, cue another banger: ‘What’s This?’ (which has a great Fall Out Boy cover btw). Completely enamoured by the glittering, festive cheer of Christmas Town Jack sets out to take Christmas as his own and bring the joy of the festive season to the creatures of Halloween Town and of course, chaos ensues.
The film directed by Henry Selick but conceptualised and produced by Tim Burton is animated using stop-motion and there are some iconic images like the curling hilltop and Jack leaping through the deep, glistening snow in Christmas Town along with characters like the gambling villain, Oogie-Boogie and rag doll/romantic interest, Sally (voiced by Catherine O’Hara, from Schitt’s Creek). With heart-warming, family-friendly spookiness and a big dose of Christmas magic it is the perfect Autumn watch for anyone who loves Halloween but also believes Christmas starts on the 1st November.
Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors (1986) combines a few of my favourite things: mild gore, musicals and 80’s movies (although the film is set in the 60’s). The film centres around a plant shop in ‘Skid Row’, a run down neighbourhood in New York City. Seymour Krelborn, a shop assistant discovers a rare, exotic plant that appears after a mysterious solar eclipse. He names the little flytrap after his crush and colleague, Audrey, thus making the plant Audrey II. But Audrey II is not your regular Venus flytrap and through master manipulation goes on to try and take over the world, one drop of blood and eventually one body at a time.
I love the music in the film from big, Broadway duets like ‘Suddenly Seymour’ to the intense bass vamp underscoring in ‘Suppertime’ and it is easy to forget the murderous subject matter in amongst the big musical numbers. There are incredible performances from Steve Martin, as Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend and of course, Ellen Greene as the constant optimist, Audrey who dreams of a simple life.
There is blackmail, there is murder, there is a blood-thirsty plant with a voice like butter. It’s a spine-tingling sci-fi adventure!
Serial Mom
Being a huge John Waters fan I knew Serial Mom would serve suburban Baltimore domesticity with a hearty dash of wild, campy, bloodshed and it did not disappoint. Kathleen Turner stars as Beverly, a seemingly regular stay-at-home mum but as is revealed in the first twenty minutes of the film she is in fact, ‘Serial Mom’, a local serial killer who murders anyone who spurns her. She torments her neighbours by prank calling them several times a day and kills teachers, boyfriends and various neighbours who annoy her. Unlike your average serial killer, Beverly uses whatever weapon she has close to hand to commit her crimes including: an air conditioning unit, a pair of borrowed scissors, a leg of lamb and a fire poker.
Now if I had to choose a favourite murder it would have to be Miss Jensen, the video store customer who just doesn’t feel like rewinding her borrowed video tapes (a 90’s cardinal sin). Miss Jensen borrows the movie, Annie, berates Chip (Beverly’s son) for charging her the ‘rewind fee’ and then heads home, settling down in front of the film with a plate of lamb and her dog literally at her feet. Beverly follows and let’s just say that leg of lamb must have been pretty well-cooked!
All the murders in the movie are similarly ridiculous but the joy comes from the stakes never getting higher than a suburban white picket fence and Turner’s fantastic performance.
I am always on the look out for recommendations, what are your favourite Halloween movies that might be considered spooky rather than scary?
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