MAN CAVE: Our picks of the scariest Halloween flicks

POSTED: Monday, October 31, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Movies | Man Cave Movie Review

Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of a pop culture-loving Philly dude.

Happy Halloween! Over the weekend I dipped into Mad River in Manayunk for its maximum-occupancy-defying costume party. But the bulk of my weekend was spent taking in some of my favorite horror-flicks.

Dead Alive — Some folks are still unaware that before Lord Of The Rings, director Peter Jackson was a gore-tastic zombie fiend. This cult-y gnaw-athon is my personal favorite zombie flick. If you're into priests who "kick ass for the Lord!" and gruesome lawnmower-slayings that could make Quentin Tarantino nauseous, this modestly hilarious bloodbath is for you. Make sure you get the unrated version. It's important.

The Omen — The tagline from this 1976 gem is "If something frightening happens to you today, think about it." What a groovy way to vaguely amp up the atmosphere of cinema terror. This tale about the coming of the antichrist features one of the scariest movie motifs in horror history: a young kid. The scary thing about a kid who grimaces at you and then you die in a terrible accident is that it could really happen. This is a stark contrast to most of the other films in this list.

Alien — Easily the scariest sci-fi flick ever made. By not showing you much of the monster for most of the film, the frights are less visual and more visceral. Get out of there, dude!!

Evil Dead 2 — If horror-comedy is indeed a cult, then this classic is the Kool-Aid punchbowl. One of the truly asinine films of the ages, Evil Dead 2 is perhaps the most classic film in cheese-terror history. Unlike its predecessor, which attempted more straight horror than comedy, and its successor, which attempted more comedy than horror, this movie is pure WTF.

1408 — This is that flick where John Cusack gets terrorized by the evil hotel room. I don't know why I love this movie so much. I think it's because it was one of the only times I remember being at a movie theater, genuinely horrified. After the flick, I was afraid to drive home because I didn't want to be alone in my car. And for one reason or another, Cusack is the most sympathetic movie star in the universe. It's probably because he can mix "likeable" with "pathetic" like Stradivarius crafting a violin. If you haven't seen this, add it to your Netflix queue. There's a great scene with a tiny Samuel L. Jackson to add a chuckle into the mostly somber psychosis.

The Ring — I'm not sure why this isn't considered campy. There's virtually nothing about it that's realistically scary other than the fact that it can make you slightly uncomfortable staring at deactivated television sets. Also, that weird tape looked like a Nine Inch Nails video. Still, it's a good mind-bender — if you can follow the plot.

Silence of the Lambs — More a psychological thriller than a true horror (although, try telling that to my wife) this is the greatest actual work of art to broach the horror genre. Not only does it have two horrifying villains but they are two of the most memorable in film history. Hannibal Lecter actually lands at No. 1 on AFI's list of the top 50 movie villains of all time. And who can forget the disturbing and hilarious Buffalo Bill, who screams at his victims to rub lotion on their skin in order to make it a more-supple textile for his new clothes. If you only get to watch one on the list, make it this one.

Lawnmower Man —This film stars Pierce Brosnan as a scientist who’s working on the mind-expanding potential of virtual reality and IQ-heightening drugs. This Flowers for Algernon-esque tale of a simple-minded gardener whose brain is enhanced to super-human levels appeals to my futurist sensibility, as he becomes preoccupied with transcending the limits of simple humanity and entering the internet as pure energy. Some of the special effects are on the 1992 side of things, but it's quite a goody.

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net) (@slackerDIYtoday)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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