For that reason, we offer FIVE movies that might be a blast to watch with your own little boils and ghouls ANY time of year. And who knows? You might even make a special memory. Now, some of these movies will be TOO scary for very little ones, so please take that into consideration before blasting your four year old with Dracula. Ratings included for a BIT of clarity, but watching something TOO scary with a little one can have the opposite affect for a youngster.
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| THE MONSTER SQUAD: I rented this VHS 35 times or more one summer. |
5. The Monster Squad (1987, PG-13)
– Fred Dekker’s comedic clash of the classic monsters is a
perfect bridge from the more mild, “Scooby-Doo” type prepubescent
material to a bit more sophistication – but only a bit. The fun
stuff stays. The Monster Squad is entertaining from start to
finish, featuring appropriate updates of the Universal Monsters, a
great cast of kids, memorable lines, and Michael Sembello’s
relentlessly catchy ode to eighties synth cheese “Rock Until You
Drop”. You’ll be slapping your head for weeks trying to get that
little ditty out of your mind.
4. The Gate (1987, PG-13) –
The Gate is the other great family horror film from 1987, but
with somewhat less comedy and a more heightened sense of spooky. A
group of kids accidentally unleash demons from a hole in the
backyard, and now they gotta save the world. Stephen Dorff made his
theatrical debut with this little gem, remembered by many children of
the nineties as the first time they liked a scary movie.
3. The Witches (1990, PG) –
Child literature visionary Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory) penned The Witches, an atmospheric, creepy look
at a group of witches who want to rid the world of children. The
catch is that the one person who knows about the plan is a young
orphan boy that the witches have turned into a mouse. It’s somewhat
dark and very entertaining, with a memorable turn by Anjelica Huston
as the Grand High Witch.
2. Dark Night of the Scarecrow
(1981, Made for TV) – Widely considered by many horror fans to
be one of the best TV movies ever made since its release just before
Halloween of ‘81, Dark Night of the Scarecrow is both a
scary visual treat and an engrossing story full of pathos. A mentally
ill man named Bubba is erroneously hunted down by a group of angry
townspeople after a tragedy involving a little girl. In the most
effective climactic scenes, a scarecrow stalks Bubba’s attackers
one by one, the apparent victims of a paranormal vigilante. It is a
thoughtful and creepy movie for younger and older viewers alike.
“Bubba didn’t do it!”
1. Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983,
PG) – Classic stories from the TV series are revisited by four
big-time directors with somewhat mixed results, but the overall
package of Twilight Zone: The Movie is entertaining and eerie,
with arguably the most memorable moment occurring during the John
Landis directed prologue. “You wanna see something REALLY scary?”
HAPPY VIEWINGS!
