WELCOME... THIS IS HALLOWEEN, PART 2: TOP TEN MOVIES FOR HALLOWEEN!!!

Hi everybody, welcome to this new entry of Montcada in English which will be dedicated to Halloween!!! As everybody knows, this festivity has been always related to spooky or scary things such as witches, ghosts, spells, evil spirits, etc.

This time I’d like to share my personal Top 10 list of Halloween movies! My list includes horror and comedy films, thrillers and… Tim Burton. There is no a specific order. Even if you agree with me or you don’t, I hope you enjoy it!

Top 10 Halloween Movies

10. ZODIAC

Zodiac is a 2007 American mystery-thriller film directed by David Fincher and based on Robert Graysmith's non-fiction book of the same name. The Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. joint production stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey, Jr., with Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Chloë Sevigny and Dermot Mulroney in supporting roles.

Zodiac tells the story of the manhunt for a notorious serial killer who called himself the "Zodiac" and killed in and around the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, leaving several victims in his wake and taunting police with letters, blood stained clothing, and ciphers mailed to newspapers. The cases remain one of Northern California's most infamous unsolved crimes.

9. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

HANNIBAL LECTER

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott Glenn, the film is based on Thomas Harris' 1988 novel of the same name, his second to feature Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer.

In the film, Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), a young U.S. FBI trainee, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill".

The Silence of the Lambs was released on February 14, 1991, and grossed $272.7 million worldwide against its $19 million budget. It was only the third film, the other two being It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to win Academy Awards in all the top five categories: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Adapted Screenplay. It is also the first (and so far only) Best Picture winner widely considered to be a horror film, and only the third such film to be nominated in the category, after The Exorcist in 1973 and Jaws in 1975. The film is considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2011.

8. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop motion dark fantasy musical film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a character from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly and comical consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as some minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens and Glenn Shadix.

ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC IMAGES OF MODERN HALLOWEEN: JACK SKELLINGTON

The Nightmare Before Christmas is originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of Vincent in the same year, the Walt Disney Studios started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Disney. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney released the film through the Touchstone Pictures banner because the studio believed the film would be "too dark, and scary for kids.

7. CORPSE BRIDE

The 2^nd Tim Burton’s film in my list is a 2005 British-American stop-motion-animated musical fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson (and Tim Burton) with a screenplay by John August, Pamela Pettler, and Caroline Thompson based on characters created by Burton and Carlos Grangel. The plot is set in a fictional Victorian era village in Europe, when a shy groom practices his wedding vows in the inadvertent presence of a deceased young woman, she rises from the grave assuming he has married her. Johnny Depp led a cast as the voice of Victor (the groom), while Helena Bonham Carter voiced Emily, the title character. It was dedicated to executive producer Joe Ranft, who died during production.

6. BEETLEJUICE

Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by… Yeah!!! Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros. The plot revolves around a recently deceased young couple (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) who become ghosts haunting their former home, and an obnoxious, devious ghost named Betelgeuse (pronounced Beetlejuice, portrayed by Michael Keaton) from the Netherworld who tries to scare away the new inhabitants (Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Jones, and Winona Ryder) permanently.

The film spawned an animated television series that Burton produced and a planned unproduced sequel, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. In 2012, new development on a sequel was announced.

5. EDWARD SCISSORSHANDS

Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 American romantic dark fantasy film directed by… Come on people… You have to guess... No? Ok… directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter Kim. Supporting roles are portrayed by Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Vincent Price and Alan Arkin.

JOHNNY DEPP AS EDWARD SCISSORSHANDS

Burton conceived the idea for Edward Scissorhands from his childhood upbringing in suburban Burbank, California. During pre-production of Beetlejuice, Caroline Thompson was hired to adapt Burton's story into a screenplay, and the film began development at 20th Century Fox, after Warner Bros. passed on the project. Edward Scissorhands was then fast tracked after Burton's success with Batman. Before Depp's casting, the leading role of Edward had been connected to Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Robert Downey, Jr., William Hurt and Jim Carrey, while the role of The Inventor was written specifically for Vincent Price.

Tim Burton considers Edward Scissorhands his most personal and favorite work.

4. SLEEPY HOLLOW

First of all I appreciate your patience and tolerance, because this list has lots of TB’s movies. I promise you. This is the last one.

It is a film adaptation loosely inspired by the 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving and stars Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci, with Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien and Jeffrey Jones in supporting roles. The plot follows police constable Ichabod Crane (Depp) sent from New York City to investigate a series of murders in the village of Sleepy Hollow by a mysterious Headless Horseman.

3. SCREAM

Scream is an American horror franchise created by Kevin Williamson and one of the masterminds of horror Wes Craven. Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette, the film series has grossed over US$600 million in worldwide box-office receipts and consists, to date, of four motion pictures. The first series entry, Scream, was released on December 20, 1996 and is currently the highest-grossing slasher film in the United States. The second entry Scream 2 was released on December 12, 1997 followed by a third installment, Scream 3, released February 4, 2000. Eleven years after the previous film, Scream 4 was released on April 15, 2011.

GHOSTFACE HAS BECOME IN ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR ICONS IN MODERN HORROR FILMS

The films follow the character of Sidney Prescott (Campbell) who becomes the target of a succession of murderers who adopt the guise of Ghostface to stalk and torment their victims. Sidney receives support in the films from town deputy Dewey Riley (Arquette), reporter Gale Weathers (Cox), and film-geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy). A television adaptation of the film series was released by MTV on June 30, 2015. The series follows all-new characters.

2. SCARY MOVIE

Scary Movie is a 2000 horror comedy spoof film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans. It is an American dark comedy that heavily parodies the horror, slasher, and mystery genres. Several mid- and late-'90s films and TV shows are spoofed, especially Scream, along with I Know What You Did Last Summer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, The Matrix, The Blair Witch Project, and Dawson's Creek.

The tagline reads No mercy. No shame. No sequel, the last reference being an ironic nod towards the tendency of popular horror movies becoming cash cow franchises. 2001 saw the release of Scary Movie 2, with the appropriate tagline We lied. Later video covers of the first film frequently drop the tagline's third statement. The film was originally titled Last Summer I Screamed Because Halloween Fell on Friday the 13th. Scary Movie was followed by four more sequels Scary Movie 2 (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006) and Scary Movie 5 (2013). Its title serves as a homage to the production title of Scream, which was also released through Dimension Films.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Blair Witch Project, The Addams Family, The Shinning, The Witches of Eastwick, Hocus Pocus.

1. DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT

LESLIE NIELSEN AS DRACULA AND MEL BROOKS AS DR, VAN HELSING

Dracula: Dead and Loving It is a 1995 satirical comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Leslie Nielsen. It is a spoof of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, and of some of the films it inspired. As of 2015, this is the most recent film Brooks has directed.

Brooks co-authored the screenplay with Steve Haberman and Rudy De Luca. He also appears as Dr. Van Helsing. The film's other stars include Steven Weber, Amy Yasbeck, Peter MacNicol, Harvey Korman, and Anne Bancroft.

The film follows the classic Dracula (1931), starring Bela Lugosi, in its deviations from the novel. Its visual style and production values are particularly evocative of the Hammer Horror films. It spoofed, among other films, The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

In the film references are made to fictitious books Transavia Folk Law, The Theory and the Theology of the Evil Undead, The Vampires of Prague and Nosferatu. The Vampires of Prague is a reference to the film Mark of the Vampire (1935) and Nosferatu is also a reference to the film of the same name released in 1922.

I wish you a Happy Halloween and if you have the opportunity to watch some of my favorite Halloween movies, I hope you enjoy them!!!

C Ya!