The Halloween Season is in full swing (yes, Halloween is now a de facto season, no longer a one-day holiday), so we are filling are virtual pages with horror movie reviews, interviews and retrospectives of various shapes and sizes. This is a little bit of a grab bag, featuring classic and contemporary titles: THE ABANDONED (a 2006 film from overseas), THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (a slightly better than expected remake of the 1979 box office hit), ARMY OF DARKNESS (a behind-the-scenes look at making the third film in Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD trilogy), THE BLACK CAT (an appreciation of the first teaming of horror legends Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi), and “Dreaming Up Nightmares,” in which writer-director Wes Craven recalls the origins of enduring horror icon Freddy Kruger, most recently seen on the Universal Studios Hollywood lot as part of their Halloween Horror Nights attraction. (You can view a video of the Elm Street maze here.)
This is the one time of the year when almost everybody climbs aboard the horror band wagon, so year-round fans should make the most of it. Isn’t it nice when, at least for 31 days or so, you’re usually outre tastes become accepted as mainstream?