Celebrate Halloween with some of The Daily Reveille’s favorite spooky and scary-themed movies.
“Hush” — Whitney Hicks
“Hush” is wildly suspenseful and surprisingly captivating for a film with only five actors and less than 15 minutes of dialogue.
Maddie (Katie Siegel) is a deaf-mute woman living alone in a large house in the woods with only two neighbors. She must fight for her life when a masked killer (John Gallagher Jr.) appears at her window, trapping her in her house like a hunted animal.
Director Mike Flanagan put an interesting spin on the typical home-invasion psychological thrillers, and it worked. Maddie cannot hear a thing around her, including any sound she makes.
Siegel does an excellent job of carrying the film as the lead despite the fact that she doesn’t have a single spoken line. Her facial expressions and reactions tell the audience exactly what she’s saying and how she’s feeling.
The guts and gore can get comedically unrealistic from time to time, and there is a serious flaw in character logic. Overall, the film is attention-getting and entertaining with numerous nail-biting moments and a heroine that you can’t help but root for.
“Creep” — Lynne Bunch
I’m horror fanatic who doesn’t typically get scared at scary movies. However, when it came to “Creep,” the antagonist’s face stayed with me for months after I watched the film.
“Creep” follows Aaron (Patrick Kack-Brice), a videographer who has been hired by a man who goes by the name Josef (Mark Duplass) and claims to be in need of someone who can document a video for his unborn child.
We quickly learn Josef isn’t who he seems — by the end of the film, we see him for the “creep” he really is, and it’s the kind of creepy you don’t forget about as soon as the credits roll. It’s the kind of creepy that’ll stay with you when you’re getting water in the middle of the night or just want to sleep comfortably.
Duplass delivers an amazing performance as the film’s antagonist and shows the world he can is more than a comedic actor. He may have risen to fame from shows like “The League,” but his perfected creepiness goes beyond a novice’s ability to scare.
“Trick ‘r Treat” — Barrow Clement
If you’re looking for a spooky Halloween movie but are tired of watching Michael Myers stalk his way through the night, then “Trick ‘r Treat” is a more than suitable substitute.
The film takes an anthology approach to Halloween night, showing four interwoven stories of horror throughout a typical American suburb. The stories cover everything from werewolves to zombies to demons.
The stories are all connected by a single element: Sam. Sam is a mysterious child dressed in orange footie pajamas and wearing a burlap sack with button eyes over his head. Sam acts as an antagonist for the film, punishing those for disrespecting Halloween traditions, such as blowing out jack-o-lanterns before Halloween ends and not giving trick-r-treaters candy.
The film is an orgy of the violence and gory expected on Halloween night, and is a cautionary tale about the dangers of disrespecting the traditions of one of America’s most iconic holidays.
“Blair Witch” — Kelly Swift
In 1999, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s “The Blair Witch Project” was praised for its ingenious idea of the found-footage genre of horror movies and has been the benchmark for the genre every since. In 2016, director Adam Wingard released a reboot and called it “Blair Witch,” which was a surprisingly successful rendition of the classic.
The movie does a great job at making the viewer anxious and frustrated, which is an important job for any scary movie. It builds up on its own without relying on cheaply timed scares that seem fake.
It doesn’t take long for the action to start after James Donahue, whose sister Heather went missing 20 years prior, finds a video online of a new Blair Witch sighting. Him and his friends venture out into the woods where his sister went missing and are joined by a couple who claim to know the area. The movie is full of quiet scenes accompanied by jump scares and it definitely keeps the viewer alert.
The movie does a great job at developing the missing details about Blair Witch herself and also gives viewers a chance to see characters fighting back at her and almost succeeding. If you’re a fan of gore and creepy satanic symbols, then this is definitely the movie for you.
“Twitches” and “Twitches Too” — Kennedi Landry
Lots of people love to watch scary movies during Halloween. I love a good scary movie every now and then, but the best Halloween movies in my opinion are the various Disney Channel Original Movies from the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Of those movies, “Twitches” and its sequel “Twitches Too” are the perfect blend of scary and fun.
The movie has an enticing plot, almost like a magical version of the 1998 remake of “Parent Trap.” It stars Disney Channel alums Tia and Tamera Mowry as twins who are separated at birth and forced to flee their home, the magical land of Coventry. On their 21st birthday, Alex and Camryn (Tia and Tamera) find out about their magical origins and must use their powers to save both Earth and Coventry from their evil uncle Thantos.
The Mowry twins play similar roles from that of their hit Disney Channel show “Sister, Sister,” as polar opposites who are ultimately able to connect over their love of family and defeat the Darkness. Their opposing personalities – Camryn is excited for a new sister and that chance to use her powers, but Alex is turned off by the whole ordeal – convey a true sibling relationship.
The movie is not without any faults, but that is to be expected from a movie geared toward children ages 4-11. Sometimes the dialogue is stiff and the jokes fall flat, but “Twitches” is deeper than you would expect from a Disney Channel movie. It is full of themes of conquering the darkness in your life. Some scenes are actually pretty scary, especially ones involving the “Darkness” descending on Coventry and Thantos turning on his family. Disney obviously wanted to capitalized on the Mowry twins’ fame, but they still found a way to make an enjoyable yet spooky Halloween movie that appeals to all ages.