I’m not a big fan of Halloween. I never know anyone putting on costume parties, and the little brats in our neighborhood don’t even bother to say “Trick or Treat” anymore, they just stick out their bags and expect candy. Meg won’t let me, but I’d love to just drop a rock into the bags whenever I don’t get the proper greeting.

What I do like about Halloween is the excessive amount of horror movies all the TV stations insist on playing. I love horror movies. I love getting scared by them. I’m not some macho douche bag who is too cool to get scared by movies; it’s fun to get into them and freak myself out.

I spent a good amount of time this weekend watching a show on the 100 scariest movie moments. They made some good mentions, including non-horror movies. For instance, the bad acid trip in Willy Wonka where he’s chanting on the boat ride while creepy images cycle in the background freaked me the hell out as a kid. Seriously, what kind of kid movie has that random bullshit scene like that in the middle?

The show ended in disappointment, listing Alien and Jaws as numbers 2 and 1 respectively. That’s crap. There are way better scary movie moments than those. Even more annoying was the fact that one of the people they had commenting on each movie was Eli Roth, the director of Cabin Fever. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s one of the biggest jokes of a horror movie ever. It starts out with a good atmosphere, somewhat gorey, but ends in total absurdity. I’ve heard Roth talk before too, he honestly thinks Cabin Fever ranks up there with some of the great, classic horror movies. Pompous jackass.

Maybe it’s the time period in which Jaws and Alien came out. A lot of the old horror movies began with a warning to the viewers. One movie (I wish I could remember which) began with a message telling you to remember that it’s only a movie. From the sound of it, people actually got really freaked out and even ill at some of these movies. I can’t comprehend that, but I’d love to go back to when Psycho first came out. I love the movie, but I can’t see how people would get overly scared by it. But apparently, the movie did some serious mental damage to people in its day.

That’s not to say there aren’t movies that can still get to me. It’s not often, but there were a few movies that really made an impact on me, either because of the movie or just the setting in which I saw it.

Poltergeist
I don’t remember watching Poltergeist as a kid. What I do remember is having to cleanse my room of all things even remotely clown related. Looking back I don’t blame my younger self; even outside of Poltergeist, clowns are freaking scary.

Blair Witch Project
I was lucky enough to see The Blair Witch Project before all the hype. One weekend me, Squeak, and Blair (yes, I’m serious) went down to Maryland for a sneak preview, three weeks before the movie was scheduled to come out in theaters. Going into it, I was still under the impression that it was a documentary. That became irrelevant half way through it, when I found myself getting chills every time the scene turned to night time. It didn’t help that we spent the night at Blair’s parents’ house. There was nothing wrong with the house, but it was still foreign to me.

The Exorcist
I didn’t see The Exorcist until my senior year in college when it was rereleased in theaters. Me, Rob, and JJ went to see it one night. The movie really creeped me out for the first half; once her face turns green and they started with the makeup and pea soup, it didn’t really bother me anymore. I’m the type of person who gets more scared at the things I don’t see. I suppose the geek side of me gets caught up in the special effects and I lose the whole horror aspect.

The whole experience was enhanced by a bizarre event during the movie. At one point fairly early on, a red balloon appeared in the front of the screen (a real one, not in the movie itself). Over the course of about 5 minutes, it slowly rose to the top of the theater, smack in the middle of the screen. It wasn’t content to stay there, as it began an equally slow descent soon after reaching the top. We still have no idea where the hell it came from, but it definitely made the whole experience a bit creepier.

The Ring
Ok, this one I’m a bit embarassed to admit. First and foremost, the movie sucked. It was the first in the Americanized Japanese horror movie push, so Rob and I didn’t know what to expect. Becca would later come home to their apartment to find every light in the place on, and a very emasculated Rob and I on the couch pretending we still had spines.

I can’t think of any others, which sucks. It’s too bad it’s so hard to come up with a genuinely scary movie.