Movie lovers come in all shapes and sizes. For some, there's nothing better than a brainless comedy. Others stick to the independent and art-house scene. And then there are those who can't get enough of tearjerkers and sad movies. This article is dedicated to the latter, as it's jam-packed with weepy classics guaranteed to make you reach for the Kleenex.
Imitation of Life (1959) - After temporarily losing her daughter at the beach, an aspiring actress (Lana Turner) takes in the black widow (Juanita Moore) who helped her. As the years pass, the widow's daughter--a very fair-skinned girl--tries to pass for white, much to her mother's chagrin. Also starring Sandra Dee and John Gavin.
Atonement (2007) - Based on the novel by Ian McEwan, this winner of Best Picture of the Year at the 61st British Academy Film Awards tells the heartbreaking tale of a young girl (Saoirse Ronan) who falsely accuses her sister's (Keira Knightley) lover (James McAvoy) of being a rapist. As the years go by, the girl grows into a woman and comes to grasp the full significance of her accusations. Nominated for seven Academy Awards.
Penny Serenade (1941) - Irene Dunne and Cary Grant play a married couple who endure financial hardships and try to raise an adopted child. Grant would receive an Academy Award nomination for his role in the film. Also starring Edgar Buchanan and Beulah Bondi.
Love Story (1970) - The tragic romance between a Harvard student (Ryan O'Neal) and a girl with a working-class background (Ali MacGraw). Nominated for seven Academy Awards, the film provided us with the famous line "Love means never having to say you're sorry." Tommy Lee Jones has a small role in his feature film debut.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) - Based on the novel by James Hilton, this British classic focuses on the life of Charles Edward Chipping (Robert Donat), an elderly former teacher looking back on his 58-career during a dream. Greer Garson co-stars, and Donat would win a Best Actor Oscar for his performance (beating out Clark Gable for Gone with the Wind).
Brief Encounter (1945) - A bored British housewife (Celia Johnson) engages in an extramarital affair with a handsome doctor (Trevor Howard). Since it's on my list of sad movies, it's probably safe to assume that they don't live happily ever after. Considered one of the best British films ever made, it won the Palme d'Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Nostalgia: Black and White Halloween Horror Hits
Nostalgia
When it came to my father's movie theatres in the small western Illinois towns of
Carthage and Warsaw, I was one puerile youth who bubbled over with promotional ideas on how to locally ballyhoo the low-budget horror films he played.
The Warsaw Theatre, a Quonset hut building on Main Street in a town of two thousand people overlooking the Mississippi River, was, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and sometimes played a different picture each night. The Woodbine Theatre in Carthage, twenty miles east of the river and with a larger population, tried to remain open every night, but rarely played a single film as long as a week. In the Warsaw Theatre, my father often ran double-feature material - older films and re-issues, eighty minute color westerns billed with black-and-white "lower half" films. Occasionally, when he listened to my pleas, he would run horror films, and these were the films I would go out of my way to promote. This was a very small town, so our limited resources left me with a few opportunities to be imaginative, creating lobby displays, storefront cardboard displays, and telephone posters - all made of cardboard and ink.
Some horror films of the era, however, came equipped with their own promotional gimmicks - the most well-known being those created by schlock director and producer William Castle. His first gimmick was in 1958, a promo involving a Lloyd's of London insurance policy covering the movie patron in the unlikely event that he or she died of fright while watching MACABRE.
Garard - 2
MACABRE is a small-budgeted but tightly paced black-and-white thriller with a few shots inserted for obvious shock value: a bloody faced corpse which falls over inside a mausoleum, a small dummy corpse with a skull face in a casket shown during a funeral at night, the sudden hand on the shoulder of a doctor who is searching through a cemetery for his daughter who has supposedly been buried alive. The final resolution is perhaps the biggest shock of all, perhaps because it is quite plausible. Greedy human beings, such as in the next Castle film HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, are the real horrors, not supernatural beings. Nonetheless, the shocks are still effective - at least for audiences not requiring gore (as in the remake of the film with the same title). To this date, only two Castle films have been remade with updated gore: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THIRTEEN GHOSTS. Teen audiences today, at least in America, would probably find the original versions of the films to be quite tame.*
When Allied Artist's MACABRE played at the Warsaw Theatre, I ordered extra 8 x 10 still photos from the film from National Screen Service and decorated the window of a local drug store with a cardboard cut-out cemetery. I drew my own tombstones, but the druggist balked when I wrote the names of local people on the graves. I meant it as a joke, but black humor (sick humor) was not in.
* In the same year, Hammer Films released its version of the Dracula story with the title, in the US, HORROR OF DRACULA. In 1958, it was startling to some audiences and quite tame to others. When I showed the film in the 1990s to a college class in Atlanta, they found it to be slow-paced in spots and not very frightening or shocking. However, when I showed the film to a British literature class in China in 2004, several college girls asked to be dismissed from the classroom. They were thoroughly frightened, and I was shocked by their reaction.
Garard -3
Despite my cardboard artistry, however, the film attracted only a small portion of our small population. We had the usual football games as competition.
For a Halloween midnight showing one year, Dad played two hokey horror films geared for teenage audiences: I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA. For this late 1950s double-bill, I constructed a cardboard castle over one of the inside exits next to the screen and ran a wire from it to the projection booth. I draped a section of white sheet over a hangar and tied a string to the hanger. During a high point of one of the films, I stood in the exit and pulled on the string, hoping to pull the ghost across the top of the audience. The ghost came out of the projection booth window on cue, but the hanger stuck halfway down. I jerked harder on the string and it snapped, leaving my deus ex machina suspended above the audience until the end of the showing when the houselights revealed my attempted stunt.
More successful was my huge cobweb made out of regular white yarn that I draped over the doorways and the one-sheet and 14 x 36 frames in the lobby.
Both I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTIEN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA feature their own internal gimmicks - the use of color in otherwise black-and-white films. One may recall how a short color segment was used in the 1940s films THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY and THE PORTRAIT OF JENNY; in each case, only the portrait of the title character was shown in color in sharp contrast with the rest of the film. Both inserted shots are quite effective. Less can be said the use of color in the aforementioned Halloween hits. In the Frankenstein film, color is used only at the end when the monster destroys himself through shock therapy. The scene is not shocking, only surprising (as in Why?).
Garard - 4
The Dracula film, a much more frightening film (because of skillful directing and editing, not internal gimmicks), uses color for the close shot where vampire hunters plunge a stake into the heart of a female vampire. Color gushing out of a heart wound in this black-and-white film is much more effective as a shocking contrast than the sudden jolt of color used in Castle's THE TINGLER, which shows a bathtub filled with blood and a human arm reaching out to a woman who is deathly afraid of the sight of blood.
In 1960, Nikolai Gogal's short story "The Vij" was transformed into an Italian horror film by shock-for-shock's sake director Mario Bava. The film was released in the US as BLACK SUNDAY (and THE MASK OF SATAN in Europe). BLACK SUNDAY was later used as the title of a John Frankenheimer film which dealt with pre-9-11 terrorists trying to decimate a football stadium full of fans. The first BLACK SUNDAY was released by American-International Pictures, a company famous for producing its own low-budgeted but heavily promoted quickies like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN.
The 1960s BLACK SUNDAY, however, is unlike other formula flicks for teens at the drive-in theatres. Clever if self-conscious camera work utilizes an abundance of zoom lens shots and focuses our attention on the gamut of gothic trappings brought to life in low key black-and-white; some of the scenes feature stark imagery as crisp as anything shown in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, while others effectively use soft focus to create a nightmarish world. It is almost a textbook of gothic examples: black-robed hooded figures executing witches with a spike-studded mask before the titles are even shown, paintings changing and rotating to reveal secret passageways, trap doors opening onto pits with long spikes at the bottom, lanterns floating in mid-air, corpses found hanging in corridors, and huge bats flying around in the crypt.
Garard - 5
Barbara Steele, identified in many Italian horror flicks (and even in Fellini's landmark film 8 ½) and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, plays two roles in BLACK SUNDAY, a witch executed in the pre-title sequence and a lovely princess menaced by her look-alike witch ancestor who is accidentally brought back to life. When the witch is brought to life two hundred years after her execution, her lovely face, and the face of her vampire lover, is covered with the holes made by the spikes in the mask. A doctor visiting her tomb discovers her coffin and unwittingly breaks the glass over her mask-encased face by striking at a large bat. He cuts his hand on the broken glass, creating an unlikely chain of events: blood from his cut drips conveniently into the eye socket of the reposing witch, the cross over her coffin has been accidentally demolished, and her coffin is blown free as if dynamited.
Zoom lenses are used effectively throughout - an unusual feat in itself since the temptation is to overuse that lens, something that the Italians became famous for doing in later films. When the witch's vampire-lover glides into a room, the father of the innocent princess holds up a cross. The camera zooms back from the cross, and as the vampire is repelled, the camera lens zooms in on the door as it closes behind him.
The greatest flaw in the film is the poorly post-dubbed dialogue, reminding small-town theatre and drive-in audiences that even the presence of Brits Barbara Steele and John Richardson portraying characters with long Russian names cannot conceal the fact that this is an Italian film. By this time, they were gradually being exposed to the long-running series of films made in color from Edgar Allen Poe stories, so the foreign cast and black-and-white footage might have been comparatively disappointing. The Poe films needed no ballyhooing, but for BLACK SUNDAY, I did take illustrations from the large press book and paste them onto large cardboard posters accompanied by my hand-lettering.
Garard - 6
One American film produced many years before BLACK SUNDAY and promoted with the usual ballyhoo - the title and advertisements having little to do with the content - was the ultra low-budget Roger Corman film THE UNDEAD (1956). For example, the title would hardly suggest that this is actually a type of time-travel film, one that I showed in a science-fiction time-travel class.
Once again, witches are on hand. Instead of being dispatched by spike-studded masks, however, they are beheaded by a muscular (but still hooded) executioner. Readers of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" might be surprised to see Satan make an appearance during a Walpurgis Night orgy of corpse dancing and soul-trading. To welcome Satan to the festivities in his honor, the severed head of a tavern-owner must be delivered by buxom witch Allyson Hayes. She and her gnome-like friend Billy Barty can transform themselves into black cats or flying bats whenever they find it necessary to do so.
Despite the presence of shape-shifting witches, the film's theme includes reincarnation and regression (a form of time travel). Pamela Duncan is regressed through her past lives to medieval England where she is falsely accused of being a witch. She is faced with the choice of putting her head down on the execution block with other accused witches and thus allowed herself to be reincarnated in future lives, or of escaping with her handsome knight lover and alter the future. This execution scene, with only the thump of the basket to suggest the beheadings, is well-done, particularly for a low-budget film.
Garard - 7
Some local stations and some cable networks might occasionally run these films that were once part of dusk-to-dawn drive in movie fare or special Halloween shows like my father used to run. If you are fortunate, you might be able to find these old black-and-white classic horror films in DVD catalogues. Then you can have your own living room dusk-to-dawn marathons for those friends of yours who appreciate films that are frightening in a subtle way and didn't need to be grossed out with gruesome NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH killings. You can even make cobwebs out of string and hang them about the sofa.
End
When it came to my father's movie theatres in the small western Illinois towns of
Carthage and Warsaw, I was one puerile youth who bubbled over with promotional ideas on how to locally ballyhoo the low-budget horror films he played.
The Warsaw Theatre, a Quonset hut building on Main Street in a town of two thousand people overlooking the Mississippi River, was, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, open only on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and sometimes played a different picture each night. The Woodbine Theatre in Carthage, twenty miles east of the river and with a larger population, tried to remain open every night, but rarely played a single film as long as a week. In the Warsaw Theatre, my father often ran double-feature material - older films and re-issues, eighty minute color westerns billed with black-and-white "lower half" films. Occasionally, when he listened to my pleas, he would run horror films, and these were the films I would go out of my way to promote. This was a very small town, so our limited resources left me with a few opportunities to be imaginative, creating lobby displays, storefront cardboard displays, and telephone posters - all made of cardboard and ink.
Some horror films of the era, however, came equipped with their own promotional gimmicks - the most well-known being those created by schlock director and producer William Castle. His first gimmick was in 1958, a promo involving a Lloyd's of London insurance policy covering the movie patron in the unlikely event that he or she died of fright while watching MACABRE.
Garard - 2
MACABRE is a small-budgeted but tightly paced black-and-white thriller with a few shots inserted for obvious shock value: a bloody faced corpse which falls over inside a mausoleum, a small dummy corpse with a skull face in a casket shown during a funeral at night, the sudden hand on the shoulder of a doctor who is searching through a cemetery for his daughter who has supposedly been buried alive. The final resolution is perhaps the biggest shock of all, perhaps because it is quite plausible. Greedy human beings, such as in the next Castle film HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, are the real horrors, not supernatural beings. Nonetheless, the shocks are still effective - at least for audiences not requiring gore (as in the remake of the film with the same title). To this date, only two Castle films have been remade with updated gore: HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and THIRTEEN GHOSTS. Teen audiences today, at least in America, would probably find the original versions of the films to be quite tame.*
When Allied Artist's MACABRE played at the Warsaw Theatre, I ordered extra 8 x 10 still photos from the film from National Screen Service and decorated the window of a local drug store with a cardboard cut-out cemetery. I drew my own tombstones, but the druggist balked when I wrote the names of local people on the graves. I meant it as a joke, but black humor (sick humor) was not in.
* In the same year, Hammer Films released its version of the Dracula story with the title, in the US, HORROR OF DRACULA. In 1958, it was startling to some audiences and quite tame to others. When I showed the film in the 1990s to a college class in Atlanta, they found it to be slow-paced in spots and not very frightening or shocking. However, when I showed the film to a British literature class in China in 2004, several college girls asked to be dismissed from the classroom. They were thoroughly frightened, and I was shocked by their reaction.
Garard -3
Despite my cardboard artistry, however, the film attracted only a small portion of our small population. We had the usual football games as competition.
For a Halloween midnight showing one year, Dad played two hokey horror films geared for teenage audiences: I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA. For this late 1950s double-bill, I constructed a cardboard castle over one of the inside exits next to the screen and ran a wire from it to the projection booth. I draped a section of white sheet over a hangar and tied a string to the hanger. During a high point of one of the films, I stood in the exit and pulled on the string, hoping to pull the ghost across the top of the audience. The ghost came out of the projection booth window on cue, but the hanger stuck halfway down. I jerked harder on the string and it snapped, leaving my deus ex machina suspended above the audience until the end of the showing when the houselights revealed my attempted stunt.
More successful was my huge cobweb made out of regular white yarn that I draped over the doorways and the one-sheet and 14 x 36 frames in the lobby.
Both I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTIEN and THE RETURN OF DRACULA feature their own internal gimmicks - the use of color in otherwise black-and-white films. One may recall how a short color segment was used in the 1940s films THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY and THE PORTRAIT OF JENNY; in each case, only the portrait of the title character was shown in color in sharp contrast with the rest of the film. Both inserted shots are quite effective. Less can be said the use of color in the aforementioned Halloween hits. In the Frankenstein film, color is used only at the end when the monster destroys himself through shock therapy. The scene is not shocking, only surprising (as in Why?).
Garard - 4
The Dracula film, a much more frightening film (because of skillful directing and editing, not internal gimmicks), uses color for the close shot where vampire hunters plunge a stake into the heart of a female vampire. Color gushing out of a heart wound in this black-and-white film is much more effective as a shocking contrast than the sudden jolt of color used in Castle's THE TINGLER, which shows a bathtub filled with blood and a human arm reaching out to a woman who is deathly afraid of the sight of blood.
In 1960, Nikolai Gogal's short story "The Vij" was transformed into an Italian horror film by shock-for-shock's sake director Mario Bava. The film was released in the US as BLACK SUNDAY (and THE MASK OF SATAN in Europe). BLACK SUNDAY was later used as the title of a John Frankenheimer film which dealt with pre-9-11 terrorists trying to decimate a football stadium full of fans. The first BLACK SUNDAY was released by American-International Pictures, a company famous for producing its own low-budgeted but heavily promoted quickies like I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN.
The 1960s BLACK SUNDAY, however, is unlike other formula flicks for teens at the drive-in theatres. Clever if self-conscious camera work utilizes an abundance of zoom lens shots and focuses our attention on the gamut of gothic trappings brought to life in low key black-and-white; some of the scenes feature stark imagery as crisp as anything shown in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, while others effectively use soft focus to create a nightmarish world. It is almost a textbook of gothic examples: black-robed hooded figures executing witches with a spike-studded mask before the titles are even shown, paintings changing and rotating to reveal secret passageways, trap doors opening onto pits with long spikes at the bottom, lanterns floating in mid-air, corpses found hanging in corridors, and huge bats flying around in the crypt.
Garard - 5
Barbara Steele, identified in many Italian horror flicks (and even in Fellini's landmark film 8 ½) and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, plays two roles in BLACK SUNDAY, a witch executed in the pre-title sequence and a lovely princess menaced by her look-alike witch ancestor who is accidentally brought back to life. When the witch is brought to life two hundred years after her execution, her lovely face, and the face of her vampire lover, is covered with the holes made by the spikes in the mask. A doctor visiting her tomb discovers her coffin and unwittingly breaks the glass over her mask-encased face by striking at a large bat. He cuts his hand on the broken glass, creating an unlikely chain of events: blood from his cut drips conveniently into the eye socket of the reposing witch, the cross over her coffin has been accidentally demolished, and her coffin is blown free as if dynamited.
Zoom lenses are used effectively throughout - an unusual feat in itself since the temptation is to overuse that lens, something that the Italians became famous for doing in later films. When the witch's vampire-lover glides into a room, the father of the innocent princess holds up a cross. The camera zooms back from the cross, and as the vampire is repelled, the camera lens zooms in on the door as it closes behind him.
The greatest flaw in the film is the poorly post-dubbed dialogue, reminding small-town theatre and drive-in audiences that even the presence of Brits Barbara Steele and John Richardson portraying characters with long Russian names cannot conceal the fact that this is an Italian film. By this time, they were gradually being exposed to the long-running series of films made in color from Edgar Allen Poe stories, so the foreign cast and black-and-white footage might have been comparatively disappointing. The Poe films needed no ballyhooing, but for BLACK SUNDAY, I did take illustrations from the large press book and paste them onto large cardboard posters accompanied by my hand-lettering.
Garard - 6
One American film produced many years before BLACK SUNDAY and promoted with the usual ballyhoo - the title and advertisements having little to do with the content - was the ultra low-budget Roger Corman film THE UNDEAD (1956). For example, the title would hardly suggest that this is actually a type of time-travel film, one that I showed in a science-fiction time-travel class.
Once again, witches are on hand. Instead of being dispatched by spike-studded masks, however, they are beheaded by a muscular (but still hooded) executioner. Readers of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" might be surprised to see Satan make an appearance during a Walpurgis Night orgy of corpse dancing and soul-trading. To welcome Satan to the festivities in his honor, the severed head of a tavern-owner must be delivered by buxom witch Allyson Hayes. She and her gnome-like friend Billy Barty can transform themselves into black cats or flying bats whenever they find it necessary to do so.
Despite the presence of shape-shifting witches, the film's theme includes reincarnation and regression (a form of time travel). Pamela Duncan is regressed through her past lives to medieval England where she is falsely accused of being a witch. She is faced with the choice of putting her head down on the execution block with other accused witches and thus allowed herself to be reincarnated in future lives, or of escaping with her handsome knight lover and alter the future. This execution scene, with only the thump of the basket to suggest the beheadings, is well-done, particularly for a low-budget film.
Garard - 7
Some local stations and some cable networks might occasionally run these films that were once part of dusk-to-dawn drive in movie fare or special Halloween shows like my father used to run. If you are fortunate, you might be able to find these old black-and-white classic horror films in DVD catalogues. Then you can have your own living room dusk-to-dawn marathons for those friends of yours who appreciate films that are frightening in a subtle way and didn't need to be grossed out with gruesome NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH killings. You can even make cobwebs out of string and hang them about the sofa.
End
JHOOTHA HI SAHI - First Look Unveiled
Director Abbas Tyrewala's second film JHOOTHA HI SAHI is another romantic comedy that has John Abraham in the lead role. John Abraham is upbeat about his role and is going all out to promote the film, as he did so recently through the popular online reality show MTV Roadies Battleground 3 - Highway to Hell, which even has a helpline named after the actor's character in the movie. Abbas Tyrewala shot to fame with his very first film Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, which had Imraan Khan and Genelia D'Souza. JHOOTHA HI SAHI is Abbas Tyrewala's second directorial venture which was earlier titled 1-800 Love but was later changed.
John vouches for the film for its freshness and likens the film to Notting Hill, a British romantic comedy that starred Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The actor was all praises for the cast and crew of the film for their fabulous job. Abbas Tyrewala's wife Pakhi debuts in this film opposite John Abraham. Says the director, "Unlike Jaane Tu, the heartbreak is real in JHOOTHA HI SAHI. When heartbreak happens it actually pains. Jaane Tu was little playful and childish. However in case of JHOOTHA HI SAHI there is lot of pain. It is a more serious film. Though it's a rom-com there is a dramatic aspect to it." The film is all set to hit the screens on October 15.
MTV's reality show Roadies Battleground 3-Highway to Hell has a character named after John Abraham's character in the movie so it only makes sense for the handsome actor to show up at the Roadies event to promote his film. John was present at the launch of the Roadies show at JW Marriot recently. As his character Sid in the film, John would lie and confuse the contestants but would leave a clue to cross the edge and win the contest. "Sid loves to lie. He lies to get his love back without cheating and the beauty about the clues here (in Roadies) is I will help the contestants bend the rules but will make sure they don't cheat," said John.
Sid Helpline would be available to the contestants from time to time, whereby they can pick up the phone, dial the number, speak to Sid and he will tell contestants on how to bend the rules, go ahead and win at any cost.
You can have an exclusive look at this promotional Bollywood event on NyooTV.com. NyooTV is India's first online Social TV Network and one-stop shop for premium visual entertainment. NyooTV brings a whole new world of entertainment with its innovative technology, rendering a viewing experience unmatched in quality.
John vouches for the film for its freshness and likens the film to Notting Hill, a British romantic comedy that starred Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. The actor was all praises for the cast and crew of the film for their fabulous job. Abbas Tyrewala's wife Pakhi debuts in this film opposite John Abraham. Says the director, "Unlike Jaane Tu, the heartbreak is real in JHOOTHA HI SAHI. When heartbreak happens it actually pains. Jaane Tu was little playful and childish. However in case of JHOOTHA HI SAHI there is lot of pain. It is a more serious film. Though it's a rom-com there is a dramatic aspect to it." The film is all set to hit the screens on October 15.
MTV's reality show Roadies Battleground 3-Highway to Hell has a character named after John Abraham's character in the movie so it only makes sense for the handsome actor to show up at the Roadies event to promote his film. John was present at the launch of the Roadies show at JW Marriot recently. As his character Sid in the film, John would lie and confuse the contestants but would leave a clue to cross the edge and win the contest. "Sid loves to lie. He lies to get his love back without cheating and the beauty about the clues here (in Roadies) is I will help the contestants bend the rules but will make sure they don't cheat," said John.
Sid Helpline would be available to the contestants from time to time, whereby they can pick up the phone, dial the number, speak to Sid and he will tell contestants on how to bend the rules, go ahead and win at any cost.
You can have an exclusive look at this promotional Bollywood event on NyooTV.com. NyooTV is India's first online Social TV Network and one-stop shop for premium visual entertainment. NyooTV brings a whole new world of entertainment with its innovative technology, rendering a viewing experience unmatched in quality.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Top 10 Horror Movies for Halloween 2010
Here we go fancy dress fans, to start getting you into the 'spirit' of Halloween, here's a top 10 list of horror movies... If you were a teenager in the 70s or 80s, you are going to remember them all!!
1. The Exorcist
This 1973 horror film deals with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother's desperate plea to get her daughter back through the ancient exorcism rite to rid the devil, which is performed by two priests.
The most profitable horror film of all time, with 10 academy award nominations, it was one of a cycle of demonic child movies produced in the 60s and 70s. The Best Bit? The 12 year old girl shows very strange and unnatural powers including levitation, huge strength along with a strange male demonic voice spewing out obscenities. Loved the bit when her head rotates and projective vomits vile green sludge...
2. Evil Dead
A horror film many of you will remember from the 80s, made famous with its storyline of the five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area who find an audiotape that releases evil spirits. Evil Dead made headlines because of its extremely controversial and graphic terror, violence, and gore!
For its time, it was pretty radical. Stephen King called it 'the most ferociously original horror movie of the year'! Best Bits? Well... it's just a continuous pummelling of the audience with one insanely horrific shock effect after the other.
3. Nightmare on Elm Street
Nancy is having horrible nightmares. She discovers so too are her highschool chums, but they are being slaughtered in their sleep by the same hideous character of their shared dreams. Nancy, ignored by the Police has to confront the killer in his shadowy lair...
This movie was made by the master of the horror genre, legend, Wes Craven. Johnny Depp makes an appearance in his first starring role, and Nightmare on Elm Street gives birth to one of the most notorious and infamous undead villains in film history; Freddy Krueger.
Most memorable scary bit... the children singing... "One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, better stay awake. Nine, ten, never sleep again..."
4. Scream
Another of Wes Craven's blockbusters, the movie scream was hugely popular in the 90's for its resurrection of the teen slasher movie genre. The plot was apparently inspired by the Halloween movie series and Gainseville Ripper murders of 1990.
The plot of `Scream' is pretty simple: Halloween costumed knife-wielding psychopathic serial killer is busy stalking high school students and brutally killing them off one by one. The killer's inordinately obsessed with one of the girls, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who gets involved in the quest to unmask the insane killer Funny Bit? The wassuuuup phone conversation between the killer and three lads.
5. Carrie
The 1976 supernatural horror movie shocked millions of viewers during the 70s, based on the novel 'Carrie' by Stephen King. Carrie is the story of a socially outcast teenage girl who discovers she possesses psionic powers which are brought to life when she is angered. After humiliation by her peers, teachers and abusive mother, Carrie turns her supernatural powers on them to devastating tragedy.
Best Bits: The moment the bucket of pig's blood is tipped over Carrie, who is on stage, who has just been named prom queen... but this is eclipsed by the final moment when the only survivor of the prom, dreams of visiting the plot where Carrie's house once stood. As she places flowers on the ground, a bloody hand reaches out, grabbing Sue wrist...*shiver*
6. An American Werewolf in London
The 1981 horror-comedy film about two young American men on a backpacking holiday round England, where they eventually find themselves deep into the moors one night and they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack dies and David ends up in a London hospital and is visited in his dreams by the ghostly apparition of his friend who re-appears to tell him that he is now a werewolf and will transform at the next moon. Sure enough he does and goes on a murderous killing spree and awakens to find himself back to normal, but caged at the London zoo.
Best bits - the ever decaying and zombie like corpse Jack returning telling David to kill himself.
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
This horror film from 1974 introduced the spine chilling character of Leatherface and was originally presented as a true story involving the ambush and murdered of a group of friends by cannibals on a road trip across rural Texas.
The film however is completely fictional, but no less horrifying. This terrifying movie has gained a reputation as one of the most influential horror films in cinematic history, with its portrayal of the killer as a large, hulking, faceless figure whose weapon of choice is a power tool to unleash inexplicable horror on its victims... brrrrr, watch this one during daylight hours with friends...
8. The Shining
Made in 1980, The Shining based on Stephen King's novel and directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a psychological horror that has become a classic of the horror genre and it has been ranked as one of the best horror films of all time! It's intensely eerie and powerfully menacing. A writer, his wife and young son head off to care-take an isolated hotel in its off season. The son who is psychic, can see ghosts and predict things from the future or past. Following a ferocious winter storm, the family are barricaded in the hotel and the father becomes influenced by the supernatural presence in the haunted hotel, he descends into insanity and ends trying to kill wife and son.
Memorable Bits; Jack Nicholson's descent into madness and when he turns against his family... 'Wendy? Darling? Light of my life, I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in'
9. The Amityville Horror
This 1979 horror film gained huge popularity with its claim to be based on a true story of the Lutz family and the paranormal disturbances they experienced at 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch colonial house in Amityville. 13 months before the family moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr shot and killed 6 members of his family. After only 28 days, the Lutz's flee the house, having been terrorized by a supernatural presence.
Some of their experiences included; - George waking at 3:15 every morning to inspect the boathouse (the time that Defeo murdered his family) - Kathy having vivid nightmares about the murders and a feeling of being embraced in a loving manner by an unseen person. - The red room, a room painted in blood that did show up on the houses blueprints. - The image of a demon in the fireplace, which his head half blown off - Strange smells of excrement and perfume in random rooms of the house. - Missy's imaginary friend, a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes. - Slamming doors and German marching bands were heard by George. - Kathy levitating off the bed and receiving red welts on her chest. - Green slime oozing from the walls and plagues of flies - George received bite marks from a four foot high ornamental china lion.
A terrific horror film and the book is even better... don't be scared if you start waking at 3:15am...
10. Night of the living Dead
This 1968 black and white movie is the first and original zombie movie that sets the bar for all other zombie laden gore-fests. It follows the story of 7 folks who are trapped in a rural farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It's a long night of survival as the house is being attacked by mysterious ghouls, the living dead, otherwise known as zombies who swarm around the house in search of living flesh.
The story focuses on the characters weaknesses, their cowardice, their greed and stupidity and makes the drama inside the house as palatable as the danger from outside. The undead zombies are lumbering beasts, they appear unstoppable and relentless in the quest to feast on the living. Most horrifying Bit? A knife-wielding little zombie girl... zombie kids? That will keep you awake all night long.
So there you have it fancy dress fans, the top 10 best horror movies from the 20th century. It's enough to inspire you to host a horror flick marathon sleepover this Halloween. BYO pillows to scream into! Have a great Halloween!
1. The Exorcist
This 1973 horror film deals with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother's desperate plea to get her daughter back through the ancient exorcism rite to rid the devil, which is performed by two priests.
The most profitable horror film of all time, with 10 academy award nominations, it was one of a cycle of demonic child movies produced in the 60s and 70s. The Best Bit? The 12 year old girl shows very strange and unnatural powers including levitation, huge strength along with a strange male demonic voice spewing out obscenities. Loved the bit when her head rotates and projective vomits vile green sludge...
2. Evil Dead
A horror film many of you will remember from the 80s, made famous with its storyline of the five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area who find an audiotape that releases evil spirits. Evil Dead made headlines because of its extremely controversial and graphic terror, violence, and gore!
For its time, it was pretty radical. Stephen King called it 'the most ferociously original horror movie of the year'! Best Bits? Well... it's just a continuous pummelling of the audience with one insanely horrific shock effect after the other.
3. Nightmare on Elm Street
Nancy is having horrible nightmares. She discovers so too are her highschool chums, but they are being slaughtered in their sleep by the same hideous character of their shared dreams. Nancy, ignored by the Police has to confront the killer in his shadowy lair...
This movie was made by the master of the horror genre, legend, Wes Craven. Johnny Depp makes an appearance in his first starring role, and Nightmare on Elm Street gives birth to one of the most notorious and infamous undead villains in film history; Freddy Krueger.
Most memorable scary bit... the children singing... "One, two, Freddy's coming for you. Three, four, better lock your door. Five, six, grab your crucifix. Seven, eight, better stay awake. Nine, ten, never sleep again..."
4. Scream
Another of Wes Craven's blockbusters, the movie scream was hugely popular in the 90's for its resurrection of the teen slasher movie genre. The plot was apparently inspired by the Halloween movie series and Gainseville Ripper murders of 1990.
The plot of `Scream' is pretty simple: Halloween costumed knife-wielding psychopathic serial killer is busy stalking high school students and brutally killing them off one by one. The killer's inordinately obsessed with one of the girls, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who gets involved in the quest to unmask the insane killer Funny Bit? The wassuuuup phone conversation between the killer and three lads.
5. Carrie
The 1976 supernatural horror movie shocked millions of viewers during the 70s, based on the novel 'Carrie' by Stephen King. Carrie is the story of a socially outcast teenage girl who discovers she possesses psionic powers which are brought to life when she is angered. After humiliation by her peers, teachers and abusive mother, Carrie turns her supernatural powers on them to devastating tragedy.
Best Bits: The moment the bucket of pig's blood is tipped over Carrie, who is on stage, who has just been named prom queen... but this is eclipsed by the final moment when the only survivor of the prom, dreams of visiting the plot where Carrie's house once stood. As she places flowers on the ground, a bloody hand reaches out, grabbing Sue wrist...*shiver*
6. An American Werewolf in London
The 1981 horror-comedy film about two young American men on a backpacking holiday round England, where they eventually find themselves deep into the moors one night and they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack dies and David ends up in a London hospital and is visited in his dreams by the ghostly apparition of his friend who re-appears to tell him that he is now a werewolf and will transform at the next moon. Sure enough he does and goes on a murderous killing spree and awakens to find himself back to normal, but caged at the London zoo.
Best bits - the ever decaying and zombie like corpse Jack returning telling David to kill himself.
7. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
This horror film from 1974 introduced the spine chilling character of Leatherface and was originally presented as a true story involving the ambush and murdered of a group of friends by cannibals on a road trip across rural Texas.
The film however is completely fictional, but no less horrifying. This terrifying movie has gained a reputation as one of the most influential horror films in cinematic history, with its portrayal of the killer as a large, hulking, faceless figure whose weapon of choice is a power tool to unleash inexplicable horror on its victims... brrrrr, watch this one during daylight hours with friends...
8. The Shining
Made in 1980, The Shining based on Stephen King's novel and directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a psychological horror that has become a classic of the horror genre and it has been ranked as one of the best horror films of all time! It's intensely eerie and powerfully menacing. A writer, his wife and young son head off to care-take an isolated hotel in its off season. The son who is psychic, can see ghosts and predict things from the future or past. Following a ferocious winter storm, the family are barricaded in the hotel and the father becomes influenced by the supernatural presence in the haunted hotel, he descends into insanity and ends trying to kill wife and son.
Memorable Bits; Jack Nicholson's descent into madness and when he turns against his family... 'Wendy? Darling? Light of my life, I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in'
9. The Amityville Horror
This 1979 horror film gained huge popularity with its claim to be based on a true story of the Lutz family and the paranormal disturbances they experienced at 112 Ocean Avenue, a large Dutch colonial house in Amityville. 13 months before the family moved in, Ronald DeFeo, Jr shot and killed 6 members of his family. After only 28 days, the Lutz's flee the house, having been terrorized by a supernatural presence.
Some of their experiences included; - George waking at 3:15 every morning to inspect the boathouse (the time that Defeo murdered his family) - Kathy having vivid nightmares about the murders and a feeling of being embraced in a loving manner by an unseen person. - The red room, a room painted in blood that did show up on the houses blueprints. - The image of a demon in the fireplace, which his head half blown off - Strange smells of excrement and perfume in random rooms of the house. - Missy's imaginary friend, a demonic pig-like creature with glowing red eyes. - Slamming doors and German marching bands were heard by George. - Kathy levitating off the bed and receiving red welts on her chest. - Green slime oozing from the walls and plagues of flies - George received bite marks from a four foot high ornamental china lion.
A terrific horror film and the book is even better... don't be scared if you start waking at 3:15am...
10. Night of the living Dead
This 1968 black and white movie is the first and original zombie movie that sets the bar for all other zombie laden gore-fests. It follows the story of 7 folks who are trapped in a rural farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It's a long night of survival as the house is being attacked by mysterious ghouls, the living dead, otherwise known as zombies who swarm around the house in search of living flesh.
The story focuses on the characters weaknesses, their cowardice, their greed and stupidity and makes the drama inside the house as palatable as the danger from outside. The undead zombies are lumbering beasts, they appear unstoppable and relentless in the quest to feast on the living. Most horrifying Bit? A knife-wielding little zombie girl... zombie kids? That will keep you awake all night long.
So there you have it fancy dress fans, the top 10 best horror movies from the 20th century. It's enough to inspire you to host a horror flick marathon sleepover this Halloween. BYO pillows to scream into! Have a great Halloween!
Top Horror Movies, Ghost Movies
Personally I love being scared silly and a spine tingling ghost movie works for me. Of all the top horror movies genre out there like; vampires, zombies, killer tomatoes, the eerie, transparent ghoul that is floating around the room and whispering warnings to you in the dark, ghost movies are the best!
The love for a good ghost movie came about for me at a tender young age...thanks to two cousins!
It was a crisp fall day when I, at an impressionable age of eight or nine was dropped off at my grandparent's farm for a weekend stay.
My bratty two older cousins were staying there also. For sleeping, the three of us shared two feather mattress beds in the open basement of the old farmhouse.
That was where I experienced my first ghost story. In the silent darkness my cousins told me a spine tingling story that "actually" happened not too far away. A tale worthy of being one of the top horror movies ever. They began in detail, a story about a kid, my age, getting his head chopped in half with an ax by his crazy grandfather. The poor ghoulish kid with half a bloody head now roams the countryside.
I never slept a wink that night. In fact it was a good while before I slept at my grandparent's farmhouse again.
Halloween is near, enough of the vampire genre! That is why this article is about the eeriest, scariest ghost movies, twelve of them! Put in chronological order from oldest to newest and worth watching in this order. Notice how the older ghost movies were remade.
1) The Uninvited (1944)
A brother and sister move into an old seaside mansion. Bought very cheaply and came with a sinister past is now haunted.
Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Gail Russell.
2009 - The new ghost movie has a very different storyline. Hair standing straight scary never the less.
Starring: Emily Browning, David Strathaim, Elizabeth Banks.
2) House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Eccentric multimillionaire and his wife invite five unrelated strangers to a huge, isolated mansion. They offer 10,000 dollars to each guest if they make it through the night (12 hours). All five arrive by hearse and in the morning all five will be leaving by hearse, one-way or the other.
Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long.
The new 1999 movie has the same story line, slightly altered like one million dollars instead of 10,000 and of course better special effects.
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Chris Katten.
3) 13 Ghosts (1960) Out of all the top horror movies this ghost movie is one of the best. Uncle Zorba, an occultist, wills a huge unusual house to his needy nephew Cyrus and his family. This house came with three surprises; treasure, thirteen ghosts and special goggles to see these ghosts.
Starring: Charles Herbert, Donald Woods, Jo Morrow.
2001 version has the same story line, with creative well done effects and Cyrus is the uncle's name.
Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, F. Murray Abraham.
4) Carnival Of Souls (1962)
A ghostly man appears through mirrors at first only to an innocent church organist. Did someone or something at the deserted carnival prompt this ghoulish image which keeps appearing to this poor girl? Even though this is a low budget movie it still merits a decent level on the fright meter.
Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger.
1998 version was much more brutal with a not so funny circus clown.
Starring: Bobbie Phillips, Shawnee Smith.
5) The Haunting (1963)
An old mansion called Hill House gives paranormal proof to Dr. Markway and his invited guests. The good story line made this a spooky movie.
Starring: Julie Harris, Richard Johnson, Claire Bloom.
1999 movie has the same story line only its Dr. Marrow, a high standard cast and great movie magic.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor.
6) The Fog (1980)
One hundred years ago a ship carrying lepers purposely crashed drowning all on board. Now the ghoulish lepers are back for revenge and coming through the fog. John Carpenter can certainly put together a great ghost movie, not only once but twice.
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman.
2005- Very similar to the 1980 version but with better effects. Mr. Carpenter has also become more successful in the last twenty five years.
Starring: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair.
7) Witchboard (1986)
College students start playing with an Ouija board that becomes evil. Meanwhile they were all thinking it was the spirit of a nice ten year old boy.
Starring: Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, Clare Bristol.
8) The Sixth Sense (1999)
In this subtle ghost movie, nine-year old Cole Sear can see, hear and talk to dead people right after they pass on. Dr. Crowe, a child psychologist tries to help Cole with these...hallucinations. I love movies that have a good twist ending and this is one of them. Definitely one of the top horror movies.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette.
9) The St. Francisville Experiment (1999)
In a little town in Louisianna is a known haunted house. The house is haunted by the ghosts of slaves who died enduring horrible torture.Four people are unprepared for the horrors that are about to occur.
Starring: Tim Baldini, Madison Charap, Paul Palmer.
10) What Lies Beneath (2000)
The wife of an university scientist begins to see apparitions. Her husband thinks that she is nuts until he sees the images for himself. Now, they must both uncover the truth and find out what lies beneath.
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Katharine Towne, James Remar.
11) Ghost Ship (2002)
This is a 'better get ready to hang on to something' ghost movie. I would consider this as one of the top horror movies. A 1962 elite passenger ship was suddenly found floating adrift by a salvage crew, forty years later. Old, rusted, deserted, full of gold and ghosts.
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington.
12) The Ring (2002)
A strange video tape with eerie footage that seems to kill the viewer in seven days. Seconds after the video ends, a phone call, one week later you die a horrible death. Originally a 1998 Japanese film called 'Ringu". I had to add this flick to the top horror movies list.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Jane Alexander.
You want to be frightened this Halloween season? My recommendation for a great scary ghost movie is any one of these twelve films. They are all worthy to be on the 'top horror movies' list.
So after the costumed kids are done ringing your doorbell and threatening you for treats, grab a pillow to hang on to, turn off all the lights and put on one of these scary movies. Great way to end Halloween.
Happy Halloween, Cinema Serge.
The love for a good ghost movie came about for me at a tender young age...thanks to two cousins!
It was a crisp fall day when I, at an impressionable age of eight or nine was dropped off at my grandparent's farm for a weekend stay.
My bratty two older cousins were staying there also. For sleeping, the three of us shared two feather mattress beds in the open basement of the old farmhouse.
That was where I experienced my first ghost story. In the silent darkness my cousins told me a spine tingling story that "actually" happened not too far away. A tale worthy of being one of the top horror movies ever. They began in detail, a story about a kid, my age, getting his head chopped in half with an ax by his crazy grandfather. The poor ghoulish kid with half a bloody head now roams the countryside.
I never slept a wink that night. In fact it was a good while before I slept at my grandparent's farmhouse again.
Halloween is near, enough of the vampire genre! That is why this article is about the eeriest, scariest ghost movies, twelve of them! Put in chronological order from oldest to newest and worth watching in this order. Notice how the older ghost movies were remade.
1) The Uninvited (1944)
A brother and sister move into an old seaside mansion. Bought very cheaply and came with a sinister past is now haunted.
Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, Gail Russell.
2009 - The new ghost movie has a very different storyline. Hair standing straight scary never the less.
Starring: Emily Browning, David Strathaim, Elizabeth Banks.
2) House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Eccentric multimillionaire and his wife invite five unrelated strangers to a huge, isolated mansion. They offer 10,000 dollars to each guest if they make it through the night (12 hours). All five arrive by hearse and in the morning all five will be leaving by hearse, one-way or the other.
Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long.
The new 1999 movie has the same story line, slightly altered like one million dollars instead of 10,000 and of course better special effects.
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Chris Katten.
3) 13 Ghosts (1960) Out of all the top horror movies this ghost movie is one of the best. Uncle Zorba, an occultist, wills a huge unusual house to his needy nephew Cyrus and his family. This house came with three surprises; treasure, thirteen ghosts and special goggles to see these ghosts.
Starring: Charles Herbert, Donald Woods, Jo Morrow.
2001 version has the same story line, with creative well done effects and Cyrus is the uncle's name.
Starring: Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, F. Murray Abraham.
4) Carnival Of Souls (1962)
A ghostly man appears through mirrors at first only to an innocent church organist. Did someone or something at the deserted carnival prompt this ghoulish image which keeps appearing to this poor girl? Even though this is a low budget movie it still merits a decent level on the fright meter.
Starring: Candace Hilligoss, Frances Feist, Sidney Berger.
1998 version was much more brutal with a not so funny circus clown.
Starring: Bobbie Phillips, Shawnee Smith.
5) The Haunting (1963)
An old mansion called Hill House gives paranormal proof to Dr. Markway and his invited guests. The good story line made this a spooky movie.
Starring: Julie Harris, Richard Johnson, Claire Bloom.
1999 movie has the same story line only its Dr. Marrow, a high standard cast and great movie magic.
Starring: Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor.
6) The Fog (1980)
One hundred years ago a ship carrying lepers purposely crashed drowning all on board. Now the ghoulish lepers are back for revenge and coming through the fog. John Carpenter can certainly put together a great ghost movie, not only once but twice.
Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Houseman.
2005- Very similar to the 1980 version but with better effects. Mr. Carpenter has also become more successful in the last twenty five years.
Starring: Tom Welling, Maggie Grace, Selma Blair.
7) Witchboard (1986)
College students start playing with an Ouija board that becomes evil. Meanwhile they were all thinking it was the spirit of a nice ten year old boy.
Starring: Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, Clare Bristol.
8) The Sixth Sense (1999)
In this subtle ghost movie, nine-year old Cole Sear can see, hear and talk to dead people right after they pass on. Dr. Crowe, a child psychologist tries to help Cole with these...hallucinations. I love movies that have a good twist ending and this is one of them. Definitely one of the top horror movies.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette.
9) The St. Francisville Experiment (1999)
In a little town in Louisianna is a known haunted house. The house is haunted by the ghosts of slaves who died enduring horrible torture.Four people are unprepared for the horrors that are about to occur.
Starring: Tim Baldini, Madison Charap, Paul Palmer.
10) What Lies Beneath (2000)
The wife of an university scientist begins to see apparitions. Her husband thinks that she is nuts until he sees the images for himself. Now, they must both uncover the truth and find out what lies beneath.
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Katharine Towne, James Remar.
11) Ghost Ship (2002)
This is a 'better get ready to hang on to something' ghost movie. I would consider this as one of the top horror movies. A 1962 elite passenger ship was suddenly found floating adrift by a salvage crew, forty years later. Old, rusted, deserted, full of gold and ghosts.
Starring: Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington.
12) The Ring (2002)
A strange video tape with eerie footage that seems to kill the viewer in seven days. Seconds after the video ends, a phone call, one week later you die a horrible death. Originally a 1998 Japanese film called 'Ringu". I had to add this flick to the top horror movies list.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Jane Alexander.
You want to be frightened this Halloween season? My recommendation for a great scary ghost movie is any one of these twelve films. They are all worthy to be on the 'top horror movies' list.
So after the costumed kids are done ringing your doorbell and threatening you for treats, grab a pillow to hang on to, turn off all the lights and put on one of these scary movies. Great way to end Halloween.
Happy Halloween, Cinema Serge.
Having Sex When You Have a Yeast Infection
When most of us think of a yeast infection, we think of it in connection with women. However, the Candida albicans fungus (yeast) can cause infections in anyone of either gender, because it is present in all of our bodies. This will come as an unwelcome surprise to men, but hang on, because it gets worse. Guys, when you have sex with a woman who has yeast infection, she can easily pass it on to you.
Due to the specific hormones women have, they are more susceptible to yeast infections. Usually when a woman has an infection she will experience all of the uncomfortable symptoms that tell her what's going on. She'll know when it's necessary to take more precautions in having sex. However, there are times when she may experience such mild symptoms that she's unaware she even has a problem, so she can pass the infection on to a man without knowing it.
Most men don't even think about being concerned over getting a yeast infection, but it can happen. In fact, yeast infections of the penis are very common and seldom cause any symptoms in otherwise healthy men. During an active yeast infection in either partner, it is safer to avoid sex altogether. This practice will not only ensure that the infection won't be passed on, but it will also avoid more irritation which will make the condition last longer.
In order to know if you have a yeast infection, it will help if you know the symptoms. In women the most common symptoms are irritation, itching, redness, swelling, burning, and a whitish-grey discharge that has the consistency of cheese as well as a smell much like yeast or beer.
Men who are infected will show redness, irritation, and possibly white spots on the end of the penis. There may also be a white to yellow discharge present. It could be that after he has intercourse his penis will be sore. The better your overall health is, though, the milder the symptoms you'll experience.
Both men and women should see a physician if they are concerned that they might have yeast infection. Your doctor will be able to confirm the diagnosis and make suggestions for effective treatments. There are numerous prescription, over-the-counter and natural remedies for treating yeast infection available.
If one partner in a sexual relationship has yeast infection, both partners should get diagnosed and treated. Otherwise, the person who was treated and is now symptom-free will run the risk of getting it back from their untreated partner every time they have sex.
Yeast infections can be a nuisance and wreak havoc with your sex life, but with proper treatment and precautions, soon you'll both be healed up and back in action.
How Adult Shops Are Becoming More Female Friendly
Adult Shops are increasingly becoming more female friendly to cater to a woman's adult fantasies. With ladies being more and more confident with their sexuality there is an immense necessity for toys which are designed to satisfying ladies. The increased demand has also created an growth in toys developed for women, by women, and a marketplace for high end gorgeous and stylish toys. Lots of today's toys are now beautiful to look at, are petite and feminine, and are easy to use.
Take the Lelo and Vida collection of vibrators, these superior vibrators are feminine and stylish and built from the highest grade materials. Designed to be the ultimate in pleasure devices for ladies, they come in a wide array of styles and have an array of potent vibrations. A breeze to use and trouble-free, they offer built-in rechargeable batteries and easy controls to tailor-make the speed of vibration while being almost silent and discreet.
Also a new range of couple's toys are being developed, which have the advantage of pleasing both partner's. And with today's technology a lot of couple's toys are cordless, and strapless, being able to give pleasure but not have things in the way and ruining the mood. Some women feel better about buying something that they can use with their lover, rather than something they just use alone. By supplying these types of toys, adult shops can cater for everyone, and their sexual needs.
Adult Shops have also made their stores more appealing to ladies by establishing a clean, trustworthy and secure surroundings in which to browse and shop for adult goods. A quality adult shop also needs to be open to women's needs and not be judgmental about talking about very confidential and intimate issues. Also having different departments to shop apart from men makes an sex shop more appealing for ladies, for example having adult DVD's in a different area from toys, and placing the lingerie area away from toys and DVD's so that ladies can be confident browsing for and trying on the lingerie away from men. Also a relaxing atmosphere is effective in a adult shop so women can take their time without feeling rushed. And you may also choose to frequent an adult shop with a discreet entry so you can conveniently enter and leave in privacy.
More and more Adult Shops are modeling a more lady friendly approach to shop layout and goods now accommodating for the half of the population that have been neglected for many years. The past has seen dingy, sleezy and dirty adult shops dominate the adult retail industry excluding a lot of ladies who have sexual needs, but didn't want to enter such an establishment. With the modern female friendly approach to adult stores women are more comfortable entering and discussing their intimate needs.
How Adult Shops Are Becoming More Female Friendly |
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