October 22^nd, 2002

"9 MORE DAYS TILL HALLOWEEN..."

Ah yes, Halloween. Our favourite time of year here at the Graveyard. The time of year ghoulies and ghosties are reverred. Also the time of year slews of horror films come out for our enjoyment and television plays tons of horror films for a week before the day.

So here for your viewing pleasure are three films to watch on all hallow's eve - the good, the bad & the wretched! Grab some popcorn and some friends...

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974] is probably the only Tobe Hooper movie (with the exception of Poltergeist) that doesn't suck.

Loosely based on notorious serial killer Ed Gein this has a backwoods Texan family stalking, torturing and killing some teenagers who were unlucky enough to have a van breakdown by their house. This introduces us to Leatherface (who wears a mask of stitched together skin and likes chainsaws), a house of horrors filled with bones and corpses and "the family".

To this day I proclaim this the only movie to ever scare me - this is a totally disturbing and at times difficult to watch horror that is gripping and works extremely well by making you think you've seen violence when really there's little on-screen.

The sequels are so-so but this definitely slays.

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes [1978] will gladly fill your evening's appetite for campiness.

A total cult classic (and a total cheese-a-thon) this one is packed with spoofs of movies, lots of cheesy humour ("got any ketchup?") and low-budget goodness. Plus there's tomatoes of all sizes, shapes and attitude (they mumble something or other), a master of disguise who really isn't (don't tell anyone else in the movie though) and good old "Puberty Love".

Only the first sequel Return Of The Killer Tomatoes managed to reach the heights of hilarity of this one - not even the other two sequels or kids cartoon could.

Halloween III:Season Of The Witch [1982] is hated by genre fans simply because it didn't feature white-masked killer Michael Myers.

At the time producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill decided to try and make this series take a Twilight Zone approach with each sequel having a different story. After this bombed they changed their minds.

Tom Atkins plays a detective who along with Stacey Nelkin (who's father was a victim) go check out mask making company Silver Shamrock when it turns out their masks are making people meltdown and there's a bunch of android killing machines eliminating people.

With it's quite annoying repetative song "2 more days to Halloween...Halloween...Halloween" and muddled script this is certainly a weak little film but the musical score by Carpenter rocks pretty good and there are a few okay moments and effects to enjoy.

Basically a pretty stupid decision by the makers but by itself (taken out of the Halloween mythos) a passable, if not rotten, time.