I got an email the other day from Redbox (Redbox is no longer a thing… head to Amazon for your movie needs) with the subject line of ‘Our Halloween Picks’. And with a couple of exceptions, I was very disappointed. I know not EVERYONE is a horror nerd the way I am, but when it comes to Halloween, I think it’s pretty universally understood that the holiday and scary movies go hand in hand… right?
To be fair, their tagline of the email read, “Humor, Halloween and Everything In Between” but I think they REALLY missed the mark with this one.
So what were their suggestions? Check it out.
- Deliver Us From Evil – good choice. I enjoyed this flick, it’s a new release and definitely one that I’d consider “appropriate” for Halloween viewing. (see full review here)
- Neighbors – um… what? The only thing scary / horrific about this one is that Zac Efron is in it. Fail.
- The Walking Dead: Season Two (video game) – clearly this one is OK in my book.
Sadly, that’s about where this list pretty much ends from a “Halloween” perspective. They go on to suggest some flicks in multiple categories:
Hit Movies
- Chef
- Begin Again
- Life Of Crime
- The Prince
- Beethoven’s Treasure Trail
There’s NOTHING in that list that I’d consider Halloween appropriate. I didn’t have high hopes for their next category:
Hit Blu-Ray
- Godzilla
- The Fault In Our Stars
- Brick Mansions
- Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Sex Tape
I spose Godzilla (full review here) is sort of, kind of scary, but that’s a stretch. The final suggested category was Games.
Games
- WWE 2K15
- The Walking Dead Season Two
- Just Dance 2015
- Borderlands The Pre-Sequel
- The Evil Within
As I said before, TWD is good, and The Evil Within is a horror title as well, so I spose this category was the best of the bunch. Sadly, I’ve not done any gaming since college when I rocked some Goldeneye and Mario Kart on my N64 so this one missed the mark too.
Redbox – What To Watch For Halloween
If you want a list of what to watch, you can check out my Top 10 Horror Flicks or any of the other top 10 lists from the ScareTissue crew. But come ON Redbox… what sort of suggestions are these? Where’s Friday The 13th? A Nightmare On Elm Street? The Exorcist? Poltergeist? HALLOWEEN for Christ sakes?!?!?! Hell, even if you wanted to be relatively current you could have suggested last year’s The Conjuring or Evil Dead. I know I’m taking this way too seriously, but I’m a horror nerd and this is a piss poor list at best.
What are YOUR top Halloween movie suggestions?
What a terrible selection, especially seeing as most online magazines put an effort into getting together a good ‘top ten’ list for readers… if a film distribution company can’t even muster up a few more titles, then there’s something wrong…