Monsters pick favorite Halloween movies

By Jack O. Lantern

‘Head’ Writer/Editor

THE HUMAN WORLD -- As monsters in the human world prepare for the big night tomorrow, we at Jack-o’-Lantern Press asked hundreds of them to take time out of the busy scare schedules to share with us some of their favorite Halloween movies and videos. The response was monstrous.

After a detailed poll, the results are in, and we found that many of the same titles kept coming up. Keep in mind: This is a monster’s list.

“We came up with a top five list,” said Vide Odrome, a diabolical invader who conducted our survey. “The five movies that came up most are the movies that made this list. But we included some of the other films that were mentioned quite a bit around the ones every monster loves.”

There’s one movie that monsters seem to like most as the Halloween season begins in August. It’s a monster movie. A big one. Two monster titans going head to head in the 1943 Universal classic, “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.” Many monsters were bummed with the ending, since both monsters are destroyed in an explosion, so the two sequels that followed, “House of Frankenstein” (1944) and “House of Dracula” (1945), are quite popular and are often binge watched together. A couple other classics in a similar vein that came up were “The Alligator People” (1959), “Man Made Monster” (1941), “The Invisible Man” (1933) and “House on Haunted Hill” (1959), along with some of the more obvious Universal classic monster classics.

But the second movie on the list really packs in the monsters. Monsters that have diverse backgrounds liked this one because creatures from all backgrounds, shapes and sizes are here, from zombies and demons to werewolves and vampires. “Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King” (2008) is an exceptional docu-drama about the lives of pretty much every monster you can think of on Halloween night. Other fun similar movies are “Hotel Transylvania” (2012), “Hotel Transylvania 2” (2015), “Mad Monster Party?” (1967), “Dear Dracula” (2012) and, of course, “Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993).

The third movie on the list was certainly a crowd favorite, and the end of the story offers hope for a monster revival that’s enough to raise the roof of any monster movie house. “Goosebumps” (2015) was on the tops of so many monsters’ lists. Other movies in this camp of fun monster romps include “The Monster Squad” (1987), “Monster Island” (1987), "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948), “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985), “Gremlins 2” The New Batch” (1990), “Matinee” (1993) and “The ‘burbs” (1989).

The fourth movie on the list is quickly becoming every monster’s No. 1. It’s the monsters’ version of the human world’s “A Christmas Story” on Christmas. It’s “Trick ‘r Treat” (2007), and monster families that come together during the Halloween season often gather around their TVs to watch this one about Halloween traditions to get a feeling of pride and belonging. Monsters who love this movie brought up other favorite horror anthologies, including “Creepshow” (1982), “Nightmares” (1983), “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983), “Tales of Halloween” (2015), “Body Bags” (1993), "V/H/S" (2012) and -- somehow this came up a lot -- “Amazon Women on the Moon” (1987).

For the fifth and most favorited movie of all, we come to the one that everything seemed to agree on, one that stars one of the most popular monsters of all time, one that says Halloween and Halloween tradition more than almost any other Halloween movie, one that gives that Halloween feel you want on Halloween: It’s “Halloween” (1978). And if you’re watching that, you must also watch “Halloween II” (1982) and “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (1982). Other favorites in this camp include “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974), “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (1984) and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984).

“What’s missing from this list,” Odrome said, “are the Hammer horror films like 'The Curse of Frankenstein,' 'The Mummy,' 'The Gorgon' and 'Horror of Dracula,' fun ones like ‘Hocus Pocus’, ‘Ernest Scared Stupid,’ ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘Elvira’s Haunted Hills,’ gore fests like ‘Bad Taste,’ ‘Dead Alive,’ ‘Army of Darkness’ and 'Grindhouse,' the Val Lewton classics like 'I Walked with a Zombie' and 'Cat People,' and the Italian horror thrillers like 'Black Sunday' and 'Suspiria.' Then there are monster moviemaker movies like 'Ed Wood' and 'Gods and Monsters,' creature features like 'King Kong,' 'Them!' and 'Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus,' and that's just to name a few. But we talked to the first monsters that attacked us on the street, and this is what we got. Regardless of which ones are in your top five, we think our five should be brought into every tomb, swamp, haunted house and evil forest to be enjoyed during this time of year.”

Share some of your favorite Halloween flicks in the comments below. We’ll be waiting.