Top 10 Halloweeny Books or Movies

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Top Ten Books/Movies to Read or Watch to Get in the Halloween Spirit

Five Movies
Links to IMdB

The Nightmare Before Christmas : Tim Burton's film (directed by Henry Selick) is a wonderful way to get in the Halloween spirit - despite the fact the film is about Jack Skellington's discovery of the strange Christmas Town.

The Amityville Horror : I am most definitely talking about the 1979 version, not the 2005 remake. In this fun and frolicking tale, some newlyweds buy a haunted house and are treated to terror.

Poltergeist : Young blond chick staring at a fuzzy television screen. You've seen this and even just that image freaked you out.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre : 1974, not 2003 version. Grave-robbing cannibals take out some kids with a chainsaw.

Hocus Pocus : This is clearly the number 1 Halloween movie of all time, and you should run out and buy a copy right now if you don't already have one.

Five Books
Links to my reviews

In A Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu : A collection of five stories, 3 focused on "spectral illusions" and 2 on "monsters", this is a perfectly creepy read where you aren't sure if the supernatural elements are real or the result of guilty/overactive psyches.

Dracula by Bram Stoker (especially the annotated edition) : The story of Dracula itself is entertaining, thought-provoking, beautifully Victorian, and compelling; but to read the story with a scholar's notes at your side - a scholar who chooses to believe it is a true story - is absolutely fantastic....and creepy.

The Sandman Series (graphic novels) by Neil Gaiman : Many times when I read something I deem creepy, it's in a sporadic, silly, or disgusting way, but not this novel. Gaiman sets a creepy tone and maintains it throughout the entire story. The pictures accompanying the text - this is afterall a graphic novel - do nothing the diminish this tone. I never found myself smiling at a ridiculous image.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness : Truly unique, the tale features three stories from the monster which reveal important truths but not ones typical for a fairy tale. I was so impressed with these stories: the way they worked together to complement the main narrative and the way they revealed humanity and not a pat moral. A Monster Calls also uses numerous illustrations throughout and they are done in a wonderfully creepy, gray scale style.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury : This is my number 1 Halloween book. Cooger & Dark's is more than just a dingy, dirty, dark carnival; it is alive, it breathes, it feeds. It is temptation, and that is why Bradbury's carnival creation is so much more sinister than other literary carnivals and freakshows I have read about. What a beautifully mysterious tale of good and evil.