STAR TREK THROUGH FRESH EYES, PART ONE

It's a universal truth that you can't experience something for the first time more than once. But you can experience something again with a fresh perspective, especially when you're introducing someone else to it and can view the experience through that person's eyes. A while back, I embarked on a long-term project: to watch the original Star Trek TV series in its entirety, from start to finish.

Of course, I've seen all 79 episodes over the years, and I have all three seasons on DVD. But I've never watched the whole thing in order, from the first episode to the last, so that would be a new element. But more importantly, I decided to watch it all with my eight-year-old daughter Maddie, who didn't know much about Star Trek and who would therefore add a totally fresh and objective perspective.

If she didn't like it after a few episodes, I'd bail on the endeavor. But I loved the idea that she would be exposed to this universe and its characters at roughly the same age I was when I first encountered Star Trek, that she would go into this not knowing how each story would end, not knowing the ultimate fates of the regular characters, and how the series would evolve and grow over time, leading of course into the six movies featuring the original cast. (I was hoping to do the same thing with Star Wars, but that got ruined—long story, maybe for another time.)

Well, all I can say is, after a few episodes, we reached a point where Maddie would come to me on the weekends and ask, "Daddy, can we watch a Star Trek?" Winning!

I'll be devoting a blog entry to each season, and I'll kick things off here with Season One. This won't be a review of each and every episode—I'll just be touching upon the ones that Maddie and I thought were the above-and-beyond highlights. My favorites will be noted with a "GG," Maddie's with an "MG," and ones that we both cited as our favorites will be noted with a "GG/MG." Simple enough, right?

So here are the real standouts of Season One, listed in the order in which they were produced:

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (GG/MG)

The second pilot, the one that got the show sold to NBC. It still holds up extremely well. A gripping story with a heart-wrenching moral dilemma, personal drama, and a powerful performance by guest star Gary Lockwood as Captain Kirk's best friend, Gary Mitchell. This was Maddie's first real exposure to the series.

MADDIE: "This has a lot of action. The man with the silver eyes (Lockwood) had special powers, so he was a real challenge for Captain Kirk!"

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"The Enemy Within" (GG/MG)

A daring look at the darkness that lurks inside Captain Kirk, the negative aspects of himself that he keeps bottled up, under control—and yet give him the strength he needs to command a starship. You can't accuse William Shatner of not giving a totally committed performance.

MADDIE: "You didn't know which Captain Kirk was the real one. But even the bad Captain Kirk had a little good in him. And I thought it was very sweet when the good Captain Kirk was nice to the bad one and told him, 'We're both going to live!'"

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"The Naked Time" (GG/MG)

The crew of the Enterprise is exposed to an alien virus that drives them to release all of their inhibitions. Incidentally, this is George Takei's favorite episode. (It was sequelized—very badly—in "The Naked Now," one of the earliest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

MADDIE: "I really like this one! You learn what's really beneath all the characters, which you don't get to see in every episode."

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"Balance of Terror" (GG)

The episode that introduced the Romulans. A gripping battle of wits inspired by the 1957 film The Enemy Below, about an American destroyer locked in conflict with a German submarine during World War II. Mark Lenard made such an impression as the unnamed Romulan Commander that he would return to the series a year later in an even more important role: Spock's father, Sarek. In 1986, noted comic-book writer/artist John Byrne used some key dialogue from this episode in a story depicting Superman's first encounter with the Batman.

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"Miri" (GG)

Lot of great moments in this one. "No blah blah blah!" "Captain... look at my legs." "Bonk bonk on the head!" I liked it so much I wrote a sequel to it, which appeared in issue #3 of my Star Trek: Untold Voyages limited series for Marvel Comics.

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"The Menagerie, Parts I and II" (GG/MG)

An example of Star Trek at its very best—which is truly remarkable, considering that this two-parter was essentially slapped together at the last minute as a way to get the show back on schedule and on budget. Framing sequences featuring Shatner and the rest of the regular cast were filmed and incorporated into the first Star Trek pilot, which starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and was rejected by NBC. The footage from the pilot was presented as flashbacks during a court martial of Spock, who faces the death penalty for taking his former captain, the now-crippled Pike, to a forbidden world. I discovered only recently that John D.F. Black wrote the new scenes featuring Kirk and Spock's court martial, while Star Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry, who wrote the first pilot, got sole credit for the entire two-parter. You learn something new every day!

MADDIE: "This is one of my very favorite ones! You see what the Enterprise was like before Captain Kirk took over, and you learn what happened to Captain Pike, and you find out about some of the big secrets of the Starfleet."

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"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (GG/MG)

The Enterprise is thrust back in time to Earth of the 1960s, where Kirk and crew encounter a U.S. Air Force pilot who accidentally learns too much about the future and therefore can't be allowed to go home—but the history of the future dictates otherwise. An exciting, often funny episode with a strong guest-star in Roger Perry as U.S.A.F. Captain John Christopher.

MADDIE: "This was a great story. Captain Kirk and the crew took so many chances. They had to sneak into the air force base to steal film that showed the Enterprise in the sky over Earth, and they had to find a way to send the pilot back home. There was a lot of suspense!"

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"Space Seed" (GG/MG)

You watch this one and you see exactly why it was chosen for sequelization 15 years later for the second Star Trek movie. As 20th-centuty genetic superman/international dictator Khan Noonien Singh, newly freed from centuries of suspended animation, Ricardo Montalban simply dominates this episode with undeniable power and menacing charm. Khan is one of the all-time great Star Trek villains, if the not the greatest—the failed attempts to create a "Khan-level" villain in every single one of the Next Generation movies only attests to this fact.

MADDIE: "I liked that the woman who loved Khan decided to stay with him. I really liked Khan, even though he could be dangerous. He had special strength. I really liked the story. Captain Kirk took a big chance by sending Khan and his people to that planet instead of putting them in jail."

(No, Maddie has NO IDEA what happens with regard to Khan years later. Needless to say, I can't wait to watch Star Trek II with her for the first time.)

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"The Devil in the Dark" (MG)

A mysterious monster is killing miners at a Federation outpost. It's up to Kirk and Spock to figure out why—and when they do, they realize that the creature must be protected.

MADDIE: "I really like this one. It's a great mystery. It has a great set-up. The story is great, and the title is perfect. I like the way the whole thing played out, and what the monster was really all about."

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"Errand of Mercy" (GG)

The episode that introduced the Klingons. And what an introduction! John Colicos totally rules as Commander Kor. I wish they could have brought him back in a later episode or one of the movies to face off against Kirk again. (Yeah, I know he eventually showed up on Deep Space Nine. I saw it. Feh.)

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"The City on the Edge of Forever" (GG/MG)

Hands-down, the best episode of the original series, and it still ranks as one of the greatest hours of all of the Star Trek series ever produced. Harlan Ellison wrote the original version of the script, which went through a series of extensive revisions by several writers (including Ellison himself, Gene Roddenberry, Gene L. Coon, and Dorothy Fontana). Ellison's original version, which has been published in a book of the same name, is undeniably powerful and very well-written—but in reading it, it becomes very clear why Roddenberry felt the script had to be reworked to fit within the context of the Star Trek series. (Sorry, Harlan!)

MADDIE: "This was a desperate love story, like Romeo and Juliet. I liked seeing Captain Kirk fall in love, but this was very sad."

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"Operation: Annihilate!" (GG/MG)

Deadly alien parasites invade a planet where Captain Kirk's brother, sister-in-law, and nephew are living, causing mass insanity and ultimately death. The situation becomes even more desperate when Spock is affected. It was always great to learn more details about Kirk's background, and here, we get a glimpse of his family. (We were supposed to get even more in this episode, including the fact that Kirk's mother was alive and living back on Earth, but the final scene, which also featured a touching farewell between Kirk and his young nephew, was edited out.) This episode also shows that even Dr. McCoy isn't perfect, and Spock may have to pay the price for that fact.

MADDIE: "I was very upset about what happened t0 Spock. But I loved when it turned out that it was only temporary."

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Confession time. We didn't watch every single episode of the first season. I skipped over one. It is, without a doubt, the very worst episode of Season One, and one of the worst episodes of all time. It's called "The Alternative Factor."

This is a textbook example of everything that can go wrong in the making of a television episode. For a variety of reasons, mostly production problems, the episode turned out to be a thoroughly incoherent, annoying mess. I had no desire to watch it again, nor to try to explain to an eight-year-old that which is unexplainable.

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You definitely notice as the first season goes along that Roddenberry and his team were totally making things up as they went along, and it led to some interesting inconsistencies along the way. James R. Kirk? Spock is a Vulcanian? The series is set 700 years in the future? No, 200 years? The planet Vulcan was once conquered? Spock smiles occasionally and can make mischievous, inappropriate, sexually oriented remarks to Yeoman Janice Rand?

But who could really expect everything to be nailed down right from the start? It's fascinating (what an appropriate word!) to see how things started out and how they developed and changed over time, eventually settling in to what has become more or less the "default" version of the show.

You also get to see the increasing importance of Dr. McCoy to the series, due in no small part to DeForest Kelley's wonderful performance and the natural chemistry that he had with Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. No wonder they added his name to the opening credits starting with Season Two.

Many classic TV shows didn't get their act together until after the first season. Star Trek: The Next Generation was infamously disastrous that first year, and things didn't really improve in the second. I'd say that show didn't really start turning itself around until midway through its third season.

It's therefore worth noting that many of the original Star Trek's very best episodes were done in its first season, and that by the second half of that initial year, many of the things that we know and love so much about the series were already in place.

Coming Up: Season Two!

DIE LAUGHING

I’m gonna be brief this time around, as this is October 31 and I have a whole slew of fright flicks I plan to watch today. I figured I’d wrap up my month-long series of Halloween-themed blog entries with my picks for the funniest horror comedies of all time. I’m hankering to crank up the ol’ Blu-ray player, so, without further ado…


1. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)



This never fails to crack me up. So many great moments, such as the phone conversation between Lou Costello’s Wilbur and Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man (“Mr. Talbot, you’ll have to get your dog away from the phone”) and Bud Abbott’s Chick pleading repeatedly to Wilbur to “untie the boat” as they try to escape from the approaching Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange). Bela Lugosi is marvelous in his second (and final) screen appearance as Count Dracula. The main reason why it’s so effective is that as funny as the comedy is, the monsters themselves are never played for laughs.

2. YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)



‘Nuff said.

3. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)



I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched this. It’s one of the quintessential movies from my teen years (I saw it for the first time opening weekend with my brother-from-another-mother, Nick G.), and it was one-third of the “holy trinity” of the summer of 1984 (the other two being Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). Eminently quotable, even to this day. I don’t think Bill Murray has ever been funnier. And the spooky stuff was pretty darned spooky!

4. FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)



I have Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert to thank for pointing me towards this film. Nick G. and I were watching At The Movies on a Saturday afternoon, Gene and Roger gave it a positive review and showed a clip, and Nick and I were so impressed with it that we looked at each other enthusiastically, got up off the couch, and went straight to the nearest theater. We weren’t disappointed. And believe it or not, the 1988 sequel, which barely got a theatrical release, is actually pretty good.

5. SHAUN OF THE DEAD (2004)



A nice blend of comedy and genuinely gruesome moments, with the zombies—and the threat that they pose—never played for laughs.

6. LOVE AT FIRST BITE (1979)



This is a lot of fun. Very witty, clever, and politically incorrect. You can tell that the cast—including George Hamilton as Dracula(!), Susan St. James as his intended bride, Arte Johnson as Renfield, Richard Benjamin as a deranged, lovesick psychiatrist, and Dick Shawn as a rumpled NYPD lieutenant—had a ball making this film. Too bad the film’s most iconic scene—Hamilton and St. James dancing to Alicia Bridges’s disco classic “I Love the Night Life”—was utterly destroyed in its VHS and DVD versions, as the film company apparently never cleared the rights to the song for video release, so it was replaced with some generic disco song. Big bummer.

7. ZOMBIELAND (2009)



Like Shaun of the Dead, it plays the zombie stuff totally straight, with the laughs coming strictly from the small group of survivors, which includes Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg (a dead ringer for Michael Cera), Abigail Breslin, and Emma Stone (soon to be Gwen Stacy in the next Spider-Man movie). And there’s an absolutely HILARIOUS surprise cameo appearance, one I won’t spoil here if you don’t already know about it.

8. EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC (1977)



This was most definitely NOT intended to be a comedy. But it’s so bad on every level (directing, editing, dialogue, acting), that it can’t help but be a laugh riot—and to inspire wicked Mystery Science Theater 3000 style running commentary from the audience. Last time I watched this, I was with my roommate at the time, the ever awesome Steve Bunche, who managed to convince the gal who would eventually become my wife to sit down and watch it with us. It’s important to note that she simply cannot handle any films that have to do with the devil. But not only did she make it all the way through this notorious crapfest, she was laughing out loud along with us.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

QUITE FRANK-LY

It’s highly doubtful that when Mary Shelley published her novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus back in 1818, she had any idea how much of an impact it would have, how influential it would be, of how long it would endure as a work of literature and as a cultural icon. There’s a very good reason why it’s had such longevity: It’s a great story, told extremely well.


Mary Shelley

And yet, most people don’t really know much about it—or at least, they have misconceptions about it. So many people believe that the Monster’s name is Frankenstein. (It’s not—the Monster doesn’t have a name. Frankenstein is the name of the man who created him.) They believe that the Monster was created by the mad Dr. Henry Frankenstein. (Frankenstein’s first name was actually Victor—it was changed to Henry in the 1931 film starring Boris Karloff. He was not a full-fledged doctor—he was a young medical student who had actually dropped out of school. And he was not mad—he was obsessed, but hardly insane.) And they believe that the Monster is a mute, shambling abomination made with the brain of a vicious criminal. (Not so—the Monster was actually quite intelligent, having taught himself to read and to speak quite eloquently, and he was hardly vicious by nature.)


Karloff, 1931

Many of these misconceptions were born once the story was brought to the movies. And that’s what is both fascinating and frustrating about Hollywood: It can recognize a great story, but in translating it to the big screen, it can twist and warp and transform that story into something so radically different, so far removed from its source material, that the filmmakers might as well have just gone the full distance and produced something wholly original.





First edition of the novel, 1818

In Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein’s creation enters this world much as a newborn baby: completely innocent, a total blank slate.


Art by Berni Wrightson, from his 1983 illustrated version of the novel

But rejected by his creator, he goes out into the world in search of a place to fit in, and of people to connect to. As noted above, the Monster is remarkably intelligent and clever. He is capable of love and affection, but is denied both because of his hideous appearance. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a victim of circumstance, rejected by his own creator and feared and hated by society.


More gorgeous art by Wrightson

As his bitterness and resentment grow, he takes increasingly aggressive action, intending specifically to hurt the man who brought him into this world and then abandoned him. The Monster commits some truly heinous acts to hurt Victor Frankenstein, and these acts are calculated, done intentionally, plotted and carried out with cold efficiency. From the Monster’s viewpoint, he was driven to these acts, but that does not change the fact that it was his choice to commit them.


One last look at Wrightson's awesome work

In most of the movies, starting with the 1931 version starring Boris Karloff, there is a fundamental difference. The Monster is a threat right from the start, because he was fitted with the brain of a criminal—not intentionally, but that’s irrelevant. From the moment the Monster opens his eyes for the first time, he is a dangerous being, one driven to violent acts not by choice, but because it’s his nature. Karloff’s Monster is literally a born criminal, almost as monstrous on the inside as he is on the outside. But the film also portrays the Monster as childlike, incapable of speech, and not fully cognizant of his actions—such as when he throws little Maria into the lake, thinking she’ll float like the flowers they had just been tossing into the water. This is most definitely not Shelley’s creature.


Maria and the Monster

It’s almost as if Hollywood didn’t think that audiences of that time could accept a Monster who was more complex, who could actually be multi-dimensional, who could be held responsible for his actions—even though Mary Shelley’s novel was written more than 100 years earlier at that point!

Even when Hammer Films started its own series of Frankenstein movies with 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein (starring Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature), the filmmakers leaned more towards Karloff than Shelley—in that film, the Creature’s brain is not from a dangerous criminal, but it is damaged accidentally before being implanted, which accounts for the Creature’s subsequent inability to speak or to reason, and his tendency for violent, even murderous behavior. Again, we have a being who cannot really be held responsible for the horrifying things that he does. It’s just his way.


Christopher Lee, 1957

It’s very interesting that the movies, for the most part, shy away from the concept of a Frankenstein Monster who is fully in control of himself and his actions.

I’ve never been able to fathom exactly WHY no filmmaker has ever been able to bring the story, as Shelley wrote it, to the screen—not even Kenneth Branagh with his 1994 film, ironically titled Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The novel is written in a fairly straightforward, conventional, mostly linear fashion, so it would be relatively easy to adapt into a screenplay. (Certainly easier to adapt than, say, Dracula by Bram Stoker, which has ALSO never been brought to the screen 100 percent faithfully—despite Francis Ford Coppola’s claim that he achieved just that with his 1992 film. Both Branagh and Coppola came closer than anyone else with their respective films, but they both made unfortunate and unnecessary deviations from and additions to the source material that torpedoed any chances of those films being the true, definitive movie adaptations that fans had long been hoping for.)


DeNiro, 1994

Shelley’s novel is gripping, disturbing, and exciting, with lots of drama, tension, and conflict, and populated by interesting characters. It doesn’t need a lot of tinkering and rethinking. And yet, for some reason, filmmakers can’t seem to resist.

Not to say that all of the movies are no good. Quite the contrary. The Karloff films— particularly the first two, which were directed by the great James Whale—are absolute classics, despite the fact that they barely resemble the novel. Some of the Hammer movies are fun (though Christopher Lee’s Creature only appears in the first one—that series of films focuses on Peter Cushing’s Victor rather than his creation). As for the 1994 version—well, if you get off on seeing a sweaty and shirtless Kenneth Branagh chomping on the scenery as if his life depended on it, and acting opposite Robert DeNiro as probably the most forgettable version of the Frankenstein Monster ever, then that movie should be right up your alley.


Oh my.


Branagh and DeNiro in a little man-on-monster action

The fact is, to get the full, pure, unaltered Frankenstein story as envisioned by the original author, you really do have to read the book. There are no cinematic shortcuts. The good news, for those of you who haven’t read it, is that it’s one hell of a good book! Just leave your preconceived notions at the door, put images of Boris Karloff out of your mind, and let Mary Shelley take you on a vivid, memorable, epic journey of terror and tragedy.

FRIGHT-FILM FAVORITES

As promised, I’m continuing with the horror-themed series of columns that I began last week (here), and will keep doing throughout October.

For more years than I’d like to admit, I’ve spent Halloween night watching a marathon of horror movies—sometimes with friends, sometimes solo. This year will be no different. Some of the films I intend to watch this time around are included in the list below—a list that ranks, in ascending order, my 10 favorite fright flicks. Each one of these films is highly recommended, and makes for perfect viewing on October 31.

10) CANDYMAN (1992)



I found this film, which is based on a Clive Barker story, to be a breath of fresh air when it first came out. It was gripping, well acted, well directed, and mostly free of the clichés of the genre. I watched it again within the last couple of years and was surprised by how well it holds up. Virginia Madsen delivers a strong performance as the protagonist, a grad student who ends up paying a terrible price for not taking an urban legend seriously. Tony Todd stars as the title character and manages to make the audience feel some degree of sympathy for him while being repulsed by his hideous actions.

9) THE FLY (1986)



Directed by David Cronenberg, this remake of the 1958 classic does the near impossible, especially when it comes to the horror genre: It manages to equal the original, and in some ways, to even improve upon it. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis rank up there as one of the great couples in horror-film history—they were really wonderful together here.

8) NEAR DARK (1987)



This is a really good vampire film that creates its own mythology and rules for the Undead—something I don’t always approve of, but it works for me here. It stars a young Adrian Pasdar (most recently a regular cast member on Heroes) and seemingly half the cast of Aliens (specifically Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and the always fun to watch Bill Paxton). Pasdar plays Caleb, a young man in Oklahoma who thinks he’s just met his dream girl, Mae (played by Jenny Wright)—but when she introduces him to her “family,” he finds himself caught up in a nightmarish existence. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who won the Oscar last year for The Hurt Locker.

7) THE OMEN (1976)



It’s unlikely that anyone isn’t aware of this dark, disturbing tale about prophecy, conspiracy, betrayal, and the coming of the Antichrist in the form of a seemingly innocent, adorable little boy. A huge hit at the box office, it has cast a long shadow over pop culture since its release, and deservedly so. An impressive cast led by Gregory Peck and top-notch direction by Richard Donner, who, based on the success of this film, would be hired to direct 1978’s Superman: The Movie.

6) PSYCHO (1960)



The granddaddy of the slasher film, and my favorite Hitchcock movie. Tame by today’s standards, but it still packs a wallop, with a compelling story, dark wit, and a landmark twist ending (which got spoiled for me years before I ever saw the film, thanks to an episode of Happy Days). Janet Leigh leaves an indelible mark as the ill-fated Marion Crane, and in his performance as Norman Bates, Anthony Perkins establishes himself as a cinematic icon. It was a role that would overshadow everything else he would ever do in his long acting career, and apparently he was not always comfortable with that fact, but it would seem that in his later years, he made peace with it, spoofing the character on Saturday Night Live and even agreeing to return to the role for three decades-later sequels. Speaking of which—they’re actually pretty good, especially Psycho II.

5) THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)



Far as I can tell, this is the very first example of a movie sequel that is as good as—I would even say superior to—the original. The 1931 Frankenstein is, of course, a bona fide classic, having long since achieved iconic status. It made a star out of Boris Karloff, and in his makeup as the Monster, his image is familiar to pretty much every single person across the world. But with Bride, returning director James Whale is allowed to let his creativity, his sense of humor, his slyness, and his irreverence run wild. The film also displays an impressive attention to detail—having been trapped in a burning windmill at the end of the original film, Karloff’s makeup in Bride reflects the injuries that the Monster sustained, with most of the hair on the top of his head burned off and his arms and clothes properly singed. Much like The Empire Strikes Back, this first Frankenstein sequel deepens the original characters and adds some memorable new ones. Henry Frankenstein, once again played by Colin Clive, shows newfound maturity as he expresses regret over his actions in the previous film, and the Monster makes a friend and even learns to speak—a development that Karloff reportedly disliked greatly, but it’s one of the real highlights of the film and I’m glad that Whale brushed off Karloff’s objections. As for the new characters, Ernest Thesiger as the wonderfully demented Dr. Septimus Pretorius and Una O’Connor as the shrill busybody Minnie pretty much steal every scene they’re in. And of course, Elsa Lanchester gives a very memorable performance as the intended bride of the Monster, without ever uttering a single word.

4) DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)



Here’s another great horror sequel. It took ten years, but director George A. Romero finally followed up on his classic Night of the Living Dead with this intelligent, gory, disturbing, and even fun epic about the world succumbing to a plague of flesh-eating zombies. You probably know the gist: four friends hole up in a shopping mall while society falls apart due to the ever-rising number of the walking dead. But there’s a lot more to it than that. It’s a commentary on our materialistic culture, on the fragility of civilization, on gender equality, and even, to some degree, on blowhard talking-head know-it-all pundits—and this was decades before the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, and Olbermann. The 2004 remake—with which Romero had no involvement— is very good, but it lacks the original version’s substance.

3) HALLOWEEN (1978)



As far as I’m concerned, this is a damn-near perfectly executed film. Not a second is wasted. It sets an ominous mood right from the start and maintains it all the way to the end. The characters are well developed and contrast against each other nicely, and their dialogue is realistic and believable. The music itself almost becomes a main character. And perhaps most impressively, while masked killer Michael Myers never utters a single word, and for the most part is kept off-screen or placed in the shadows or seen from a distance, he is nonetheless a strong presence throughout the movie, even in the scenes in which he doesn’t appear at all, or that seem to have nothing to do with him. Masterful work by director John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay with producer Debra Hill and even composed the music. As Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis is a heroine you can really root for—likable, vulnerable, intelligent, and resourceful, even against a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. And Donald Pleasance is marvelous as the obsessed, slightly off-kilter Dr. Sam Loomis. Of the many sequels, all of which were totally unnecessary, the only ones that could be considered worth watching are Halloween II (1981), Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), and Halloween H20 (1998). The rest should just be ignored, as should Rob Zombie’s ill-conceived remakes of the first two films.

2) NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)



George A. Romero’s first film, and it is dark, disturbing, shocking, and bleak. It’s even humorous at times (though not always intentionally). You probably know the premise: A group of strangers barricade themselves in a farmhouse and try to fend off growing hordes of the recently dead, whose bodies have somehow been reactivated and who now feast upon the living. The film is groundbreaking not only for its then-innovative depiction of zombies as flesh-eating ghouls, but also for having an African-American as the lead protagonist (Duane Jones, excellent in the role of Ben)—and this was at a time when racial tensions in America ran high. From its opening moments, there is a sense of dread, that doom is coming. Once it arrives, it never lets up. No one is safe—not the good, not the bad, not the innocent, not the guilty, not the likable, not the annoying, not even the children. Truly, a great horror film.

1) THE EXORCIST (1973)



This gets the top spot because it is, in my estimation, the scariest movie ever made. My wife refuses to watch it—and I’ve offered her money to do so. Hell, she doesn’t even want it in the house! Last time I watched it on DVD, a few years ago with my pal Weird Pete, the holiday decorations in my living room fell off the wall spontaneously the moment when the demon’s voice is heard for the first time. I nearly had to be pried off the ceiling. A horror film has to be pretty damned effective to make me that jittery. The Director’s Cut, which is the version that I own, adds some nice character bits, along with the infamous moment in which Linda Blair’s character, young Regan MacNeil, crawls down a staircase on her back like a spider. The movie is by no means perfect—I’ve long had some problems with its plotting and its story structure—but the things that work far outweigh the relatively minor flaws. Just pretend that the sequels and prequels never happened—though admittedly, there are many, MANY laughs to be had from watching 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic, surely one of the biggest cinematic misfires of all time.

So those are my picks. What are yours?