And lastly, dearly departed...

In writing these reviews a lot of movies got tossed to the curb. This isn't the definitive list of the scariest movies of all time (Attack of the Killer Klowns would have precluded that notion entirely).

No, this was a list more of Halloween movies I watched to get into the Halloween spirit, I guess.
I could have just followed the oh-so-many already made lists that have the Shining (I thought it was boring), or the Exorcist (I fell asleep the first time I watched it at age 11), or Psycho (creepy, but it didn't scare me), Alien (interesting, but too penis-y), ad naseum.

This was a way to pass time and ferret out those little tricks and treats that make us jump.

So with this in mind I chose to do two movies for my final review: Fallen with Denzel Washington, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Kevin McCarthy.

Fallen is the tale of a cop (Denzel) who has just solved a high profile serial killers case and sent him to the death chair. The paranormal begins to slip through when it seems that the killer is loose, and begins to taunt Denzel and his family.

When I saw this movie in the theater many years ago, I think the best reaction to a movie (barring the emotional outburst of two grown men, myself included, yelling at Transformers 2 for killing Optimus), I have ever seen; a Hells Angel turned to his girlfriend and yelled "Don't ever f*cking touch me again", all because of the movie he just watched.

Also, it has the creepiest use of a Rolling Stones song.

This movie definitely has the paces right, and you care about the characters, even Denzel's seemingly handicapped brother and nephew. They are poignant, innocent people just trying to get through life, and it is ruined.

I give it five bottles of Purell out of five.

Next: Invasion of the Body-Snatchers. The premise has seeped into our culture so deeply that I almost don't want to explain the plot, but here goes. An alien organism is replacing people with exact physical duplicates, but that are emotionless beings set on taking over the world. Simple enough, wouldn't you say?

Many different variations of this movie have been made, the most recent being with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, to the teen themes Faculty by Robert Rodriguez, and even a Bugs Bunny short film.

The Original is still the best (ain’t it always the way?).

The film plays against our own fears. The fear of losing autonomy, the fear of knowing the truth but being perceived as mad or insane, the fear that the people we are looking at and think we know for years are hiding something sinister.

In today’s world with 3D and high definition, I doubt anyone will watch this old black and white anymore. Heck, even the remakes get little or no attention, what with all the zombie movies. But it is a movie seriously worth checking out. I mean, in 1993, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". So it has to have a redeeming quality that stands the test of time, right?




Thank you to all who read my reviews, even as they got longer and longer. When Christmas hits, maybe I'll do a top ten leading up to Christmas Day of all my favorite holiday movies.