Halloween is kind of a big deal at our house. My wife and I have always liked Halloween, partly because we decided to date at a Halloween party, and were married on Halloween last year, but mostly because we're both little kids about it and we still have a good time dressing up. We're in a townhouse, so outside decorating isn't really an option, and this year we didn't really decorate inside much either, mostly due to time and budget constraints. I had the intention of at least putting out a Jack-O-Lantern, but alas, they all rotted away well before the party, and I knew I wouldn't have time to carve yet another pumpkin. But we always have a party. And I always use it as an occasion to subject my friends to horror movies as background noise. And I always spend more time than necessary picking out a playlist.
We discovered not too long ago that our dvd player downstairs, where the party takes place, is actually a multi-disc dvd player. How this information escaped us for this long, we still don't know. But that actually made picking out a playlist a bit easier, because before then, we would debate what movie to put on as the night went along, and eventually we would be engaged in a game of Apples to Apples or Scattergories or something, and it would pretty much just be the start menu on repeat. Now that we know it's a multi-disc player, we can just load up 5 movies and set them to pretty much auto play.
Every year, I pull out all of our horror movies to take inventory. I make an essential pile, a maybe pile, and a not good for a party pile. The essential pile usually consists of just two movies: It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Hocus Pocus. Charlie Brown because, well, everyone likes Charlie Brown. And Hocus Pocus at my wife's request, because it was a childhood favorite of hers. The maybe pile is usually the largest. Is this the year I subject everyone to Troll 2, or Slumberparty Massacre 2, or my favorite bad but fun Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street sequel? Are they ready for Killer Klowns from Outer Space? Is this an Attack of the Killer Tomatoes crowd? Can I get away with Dr. Giggles? etc. The not good for a party pile is also usually pretty large as well, because frankly, a lot of horror movies just aren't really good for a Halloween party. I love American Psycho, and I did get some unexpected compliments for owning it on vhs, but it's a little too crazy for a Halloween party. And I don't own it, or even like it very much anyway, but you can't just whip out a movie like Last House on the Left in any group setting.
So this year, my playlist was thus: It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, followed by Hocus Pocus, followed by Killer Klowns from Outer Space, followed by Friday the 13th part 5: A New Beginning, followed by A Nightmare on Elm Street part 6: Freddy's Dead. Or at least, that's what my original playlist was. I ended up watching Charlie Brown three times; once with my wife, once with two of our friends who came early, and again when everyone arrived. I subjected our early friends to Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and they didn't seem to object too much, thankfully. My wife apparently isn't a fan though, which is a bit heartbreaking. So we switched it out for Carrie when everyone arrived. It's one of my wife's favorites, and a few people hadn't seen it.
So once everyone arrived, the playlist was: Charlie Brown, followed by Hocus Pocus, followed by Carrie, with Freddy's Dead next in the queue, followed by Friday the 13th Part 5. Charlie Brown was a nice and innocent way to kick things off. Everyone has seen it hundreds of times, so it's easy to tune out but appreciate. Perfect for the start of a party, when you're mingling and getting food and what-not. Hocus Pocus, personally, doesn't interest me much. But as a good hubby, I put it on anyhow. And it was good for a bit of 90's nostalgia, particularly the cliche 90's bad boy outfit of a leather jacket, fingerless black gloves, long hair, and ripped jeans. The uniform of a 90's bully. You know, before everyone got all uppity about bullying. It's a harmless enough movie. Another that you can kind of fade in and out from while still enjoying the party. Entertaining enough for a few laughs, not gory or bloody, family friendly, though that wasn't an issue at our party as there were no children present. Just a bunch of grown ups, who still have a bit of childlike wonder left in them.
And then we took a break from Apples to Apples and Scattergories to watch Carrie. I guess it's been awhile since I've watched Carrie, because I completely forgot that the first few minutes, at least in the version we have, contains a LOT of full-frontal female nudity. 70's full frontal female nudity at that. Thankfully our circle of friends aren't bothered by that, and it brought on several schrubbery related jokes instead of social awkwardness. But all in all, it was a good party movie. A bit dated, but that lead to jokes, and just scary enough to be interesting. And the ending jump scare got a couple of our guests, which was fun. It was close to midnight by the time Carrie ended, so we didn't get to Freddy's Dead or Friday the 13th Part 5. I tried to jump to the video game sequence in Freddy's Dead, but I couldn't remember where it was in the movie by the scene select menu alone.
All in all, not a bad playlist. I try to pick out movies that are universally fun, or at least easy to make fun of. Nothing too serious, nothing too scary, nothing too disgusting. And the funny aspects need to be at least somewhat reasonable, I think. Perhaps not the gross absurdity that is a Troma movie, like Class of Nuke 'Em High or Toxic Avenger, but something that's either self aware and purposefully silly, like April Fool's Day or Freddy vs. Jason, or one that actually tried to be serious and failed completely, like Troll 2. But maybe that's just me, and maybe that's just our group of friends. Some people might prefer playing scary classics. And at times, I wish I could pull together a group of people to watch something like Human Centipede, or Mother's Day, so I wouldn't have to feel like such a weirdo for having at least a basic appreciation for movies like that (though I haven't actually seen either example completely yet.) I still think, in the context of a Halloween party where the movies aren't meant to be the focal point, keeping things light hearted and funny is a good plan. Nostalgia is also a winner, from my experience. It's a time to re-watch things more than it is to try new things. Hence the yearly viewing of Charlie Brown. Basically, play to your audience. Not everyone is going to love every movie, and that's ok. But there are some that people can tolerate as long as they're fun or funny.
The Halloween playlist always reminds me of just how many classics I either need to see or to own. Somehow I don't have The Shining or Halloween on any format. And I have a lot of vhs that I should get on dvd at this point, like Night of the Living Dead and Plan 9 From Outer Space. I even have two movies in my collection that I haven't watched yet; Thirst and Wrong Turn 3. I won them in a contest, so it's somewhat excusable, but still... I also apparently never opened my copy of The Craft, though I like that movie a lot. And there are so many horror movies that I need to see. I have Vertigo sitting in it's Netflix sleeve, untouched for days now. It's just one of many classics that I'm ashamed to say I haven't caught yet. And my Netflix streaming queue is filled with many others. It's just hard for me to watch new stuff when there are so many seasonal favorites that I haven't grown tired of seeing, for reasons even I don't understand. To think, I almost made everyone watch A New Beginning...
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