Hi! Liz here, happy Halloween is getting closer! In preparation for the big event, I’m watching lots of scary movies. One of my favorites, actually – well, it’s a series – is The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix – so awesome.
If your characters do like Halloween, what would they be watching right now? What’s their favorite scary movie?
Julie: Lilly would be watching Suspicion. She’s a Hitchcock fan. Ernie would be watching What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. I’m not sure that Delia would watch scary movies. Warwick O’Connor loves scary movies, but Tamara only watches them through her hands.
Jessie: I love reading what your characters would watch, Julie! I’m with Tamara about watching through hands! I love this question, Liz! I sent out a newsletter a few months ago mentioning what Beryl and Edwina were watching at the Palais in Walmsley Parva. They are Buster Keaton fans and just enjoyed attending a showing of The Haunted House. You can see it for yourself from the comfort of your own computer if you are so inclined!
Sherry: Jessie, there is nothing like a wonderful old theater and Buster Keaton. I haven’t thought a lot about Sarah and movies. If she was going to watch something it would more likely be The Ghost and Mister Chicken with Don Knotts or The Ghost and Mrs. Muir with Gene Tierney than The Shining or something really scary.
Edith/Maddie: Rose is out of the question, of course – late 1880s is a wee bit early for motion picture shows. I haven’t thought about movies, either, Sherry. Robbie Jordan and Mac Almeida’s author (aka, me) doesn’t like scary movies, and has been known to yell out loud from fright in a movie theater. I think the last scary movie I saw since The Shining in 1980 was Psycho in the comfort of my living room (because I’d never seen it). I got nothing!
Liz: OMG Sherry, I used to watch The Ghost and Mr. Chicken on repeat!! I loved Don Knotts… Stan loves Halloween, so she’d be watching Scream (the original), Halloween (also the original) or The Haunting of Hill House – anything scary. Maddie would be watching something kind of funny like Hocus Pocus or Practical Magic.
Barb: I love Practical Magic! I rewatched it relatively recently and it holds up really well. Julia’s mother Jacqueline is watching the original Haunting of Hill House movie adaptation, The Haunting, starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. The Snugg sisters are watching The Shining. They love Jack Nicholson, and Stephen King, too, of course. Julia and Chris are settled on their broken-down couch watching Get Out. Livvie and Sonny are at their house watching Scary Movie, now that they finally got the kids to bed. Gus says if he wanted to be scared he’d read the g-d newspaper, thank you very much.
Readers, do you love or hate scary movies? What’s your favorite scary movie?
I don’t like horror movies. Scary is one thing but most horror movies are more about visual torture porn than anything else these days.
But my favorite movie ever is The Silence of the Lambs and I know that was a pretty darn scary movie when I first watched it. And they did it without an excess of gore.
I will confess I am a wuss these days so Peanuts Halloween is about my limit š
Around this time it’s the Hitchcock movies, the ghost & mister chicken, arsenic & old lace.
Not that big a fan of scary movies. I like suspense, but not gore and terror.
Not into the scary, horror movies. I’d rather watch something like Don Knott’s “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” or the “Casper” movie for my Halloween movie fix. š
2clowns at arkansas dot net
I love fantasy,but when it pushes into horror; I am not a fan. I am planning a Twilight marathon.
Iām not into really scary movies, but I loved the campy āhorrorā movies that were shown at drive-ins in the ā60s.
I have a fascination with horror movies especially slashers, although I must admit I havenāt seen that many. I am easily frightened.
I am obsessed with the Scream franchise. I agree the first is the best, but Iāll watch any and all of them. It probably started with the first one being filmed in the area where I grew up. They even mention my high school dismissively.
I also like the original Halloween. The sequels are hit and miss, and Iāve decided to watch 4-6 finally this year. But that first one still delivers.
In my younger days, I used to really enjoy a good scary movie, but I have to agree with Jay Roberts that the trend to torture porn has put me off in a big way. However, the wonderful old monster movies of the 30’s (e.g., Frankenstein, Dracula, The Werewolf, The Mummy) are great favorites of mine.
Actually my favorite scary movie (and my nomination as the scariest movie of all times) is the original Alien. In newer movies, I’ve only seen the trailers thus far but the new murder mystery that’s coming out in the next few weeks, Knives Out, looks very promising. And, of course, any movie with Jamie Lee Curtis would always be a good choice for Halloween.
As far as my characters go, Mary, the protagonist of The Sugar-Free Murders, doesn’t watch movies to be scared. Her life provides quite enough blood, gore, and terror. On Halloween, between answering the door and handing out sugar-free treats to the neighborhood kids, she’ll be snuggled up in front of the television with a cup of sugar-free hot chocolate watching Ghost. That’s HER idea of a good scary movie.
My favorite is Evil Dead. I think it’s awesome that a few college kids took very little money and made something that is still popular almost 40 years later, with 2 sequels, a remake, and a tv series.
“Practical Magic” by far.. Fun. Not overly gory. Not overly gruesome. Love it.