The Static Mass Halloween Collection!

The time of Halloween is upon us again and to help celebrate, we’ve not only carved up a pumpkin, laid out the treats and pulled on our Freddy gloves, Jason masks and gotten our Michael knives out, but we’ve also put together a collection of 10 Old School Horror Classics for you! Which ones will you be watching this weekend?

Each title is followed by a short introduction, but if you folllow the links you’ll find they lead to the full articles and reviews.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) Review
The one which started it all, Wes Craven’s original Elm Street is now on Blu-ray and out to find a new generation’s dreams to infiltrate. It’s a film I’ve grown up with and watched countless times over the years but what’s fascinating about Nightmare is that it not only introduces audiences for the first time to the dream demon Freddy Krueger, but also to his arch nemesis Nancy Thompson.

Black Christmas (1974) Review
Inspired by a series of murders in Quebec around the festive season, Black Christmas was the first in the line of Calendar Horrors to come. In the decade which followed, horror audiences would see movies like Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980) set around a specific date where a series of brutal and shocking murders would take place. It was also the first movie which featured a killer calling their victim from inside the house and would be played homage to some 2 decades later in Wes craven’s Scream (1996).

Candyman (1992) Review
Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a graduate student researching for a thesis on urban legends. While out interviewing college students about stories and urban myths she gets to hear about the Candyman (Tony Todd). According to the legend, Candyman appears to whoever looks into a mirror and calls his name 5 times. As Helen starts to investigate the story further she finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into Cabrini Green, a run down part of Chicago famous for its poverty, violent crimes and murders and at the same time her own personal life begins to spiral beyond her control.

Children Of The Corn (1984) Review
Cinema has had its fair share of creepy kids; Children of the Damned (1964) and The Omen (1976) come to mind, but Children of the Corn offered something entirely different to the horror genre and told us something about following others blindly. Based on the Stephen King story of the same name, the story is set in the fictional town of Gatlin, Nebraska where the children have taken over after being lead a creepy boy preacher, Isaac (John Franklin) to kill the entire adult population.

Dawn Of The Dead (1978) Review
The story follows two Philadelphia Police S.W.A.T. officers (Roger and Peter), a helicopter pilot (Stephen) and his TV reporter girlfriend (Francine) as they escape the city after news that the zombie population is growing at an inexplicable and alarming rate. They take refuge in an abandoned, suburban shopping mall but only after a series of attacks from a group of zombies along the way.

The Evil Dead (1981) Review
The story of The Evil Dead surrounds a group of 5 friends who drive up to a cabin in the woods for the weekend. When they arrive, it’s not what they expected at all; completely run down and with none of the creature comforts they were hoping for, they decide to make the best of it and stay. There’s lots of old junk lying around including a weird book with a twisted face on the front cover. Digging around in the basement one of them finds an old recording and they decide to play it back, it contains incantations from the book they found earlier.

The Exorcist (1973) Review
What can you say about The Exorcist that hasn’t already been said? Volumes have already been devoted to the theological thriller about a young girl, Regan (Linda Blair) who begins to display signs of demonic possession. As her condition worsens and her behaviour becomes more and more violent, her mother (Ellen Burstyn calls on Father Karras (Jason Miller) for help. Joined by Father Lankester Merrin (Max Von Sydow), a priest with a mysterious past, the battle for Regan’s soul has thrilled and terrified audiences worldwide for nearly 40 years.

Halloween (1978) Review
Its 1978, October 31st, Halloween and Laurie is babysitting Tommy Doyle. Her friend Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes) is babysitting Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) further down the street. Unknown to them, a masked maniac has been stalking them all day long since he broke out of a sanatorium where he was under the care of psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence).

Hellraiser (1987) Review
Originally titled “Sadomasochists From Beyond The Grave”, Clive Barker’s feature film directorial debut introduced horror audiences to the terrifying Cenobites, extradimensional beings who could be summoned by deciphering a puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration. The film was adapated from his own novel “The Hellbound Heart”, published in 1986.

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Review
The story plays out as a parody of the sci-fi and horror genre from the 1950’s. Newly engaged couple Brad and Janet are stranded out in the rain when their car breaks down. Knocking on the door of the nearest house they find, a peculiar looking butler, Riff Raff, welcomes them in. From there on in the film switches from Black and White to glorious colour with an array of colourful characters including of course Dr. Frank N. Furter, a “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” and his Warhol-esque creation, Rocky Horror.