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fannish5: Halloween viewings
Oct. 31st, 2008 03:48 pmName 5 episodes or movies that would be most appropriate to watch on Halloween.
My pleasure. As a German who knows Halloween only from tv and the movies, you know, though in the last decade or so it started to come into fashion here as well.
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush. BTVS did a couple of genuine Halloween-set episodes, but sadly, none of the three are above avarage as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, Hush presents the scariest one-episode-only monsters the show ever came up with, and manages to work both as a standalone and an arc episode, introducing a new character (Tara) and pushing several relationships forward while being completely accessible to new viewers who never watched a single Buffy episode. When I try to get people hooked on BTVS, I usually start with Hush rather than with an episode of the earlier seasons, though then I go back. It's the first of Joss' "experimental" episodes, and while my favourite of those is Restless, Hush will never stop being awesome. And scary. And funny. And - everything.
2) E.T.: this choice of movie is because that's where I encountered Halloween for the first time, during the sequence where Elliot & Co. take E.T. out and nobody minds because everyone is in disguise. As a child, I thought it had to be carneval, until I figured out this was different holiday. Anyway: E.T. is Spielberg at his unabashed purest and best. It's sentimental as hell, absolutely, but you know, it works. Elliot meeting E.T. for the first time. Michael and Gertie doing the same. The children riding their bicycles across the moon. "Phone home." And E.T. walking through an American city during Halloween, spotting someone disguised as Yoda and immediately running after a presumed fellow alien is funny and touching and a clever little tip on the hat to Spielberg's buddy George L., who, this being the early 80s, was having the time of his life.
3) Ed Wood: I raved about this one a bit in my Orson Welles post, and it deserves its own post of fannish adoration, which this is not. My favourite movie by Tim Burton, my favourite movie starring Johnny Depp, one of my favourite Hollywood-on-Hollywood movies, a love declaration to the losers in the film business. And Martin Landau is absolutely amazing as the aged and soon to die horror legend Bela Lugosi, whose friendship with Ed Wood is the heart of the film. (His daughter Juliet, our very own Drusilla, isn't half bad in her pre-Dru debut as one of Ed's actresses, either.) Aside from the fact the films which made Ed Wood (in)famous were, with the exception of "Glen or Glenda", horror movies, this is Halloween material because a key sequence - Ed spending Halloween with Bela Lugosi - takes place then. Sadly, I didn't find this particular scene on Youtube, but I did find their first encounter, which I present to you instead:
4) Doctor Who: Blink: I still would have given the Hugo to Human Nature, but if you want to watch a DW episode on Halloween, this one is perfect. It's a standalone from the point of view of a character only in this episode, so newbies who never watched the show before can tune in without a problem, it's arguably scriptwriter Moffat at his scariest - and he has some competition for himself - while also providing a happy ending, offers endearing characters, ingenious use of the show's time-travel premise, coins a phrase ("timey-wimey") and ensures you'll never look at a statue the same way again.
5) Farscape: Kansas:: it was this or Babylon 5's Day of the Dead, both of which do rely on the viewers being aware of the characters' past, so as opposed to the earlier tv examples, this isn't one for newbies. Kansas takes place in the middle of Farscape's fourth season, and troubled as this season was, I loved individual episodes such as this one and the next one, Terra Firma. In Kansas, our leading character John Crichton has finally made it back to Earth, with some alien friends - but not yet in the right time. It's Halloween which means like E.T., his alien friends don't stand out and everyone has a chance to explore, while Crichton inevitably comes across his parents and his younger self. Kansas has some predictably hilarious culture clash moments but also deeply touching ones, such as Crichton seeing his (dead in the present) mother, or his boyish self. My two favourite scenes are probably Rygel going on a sugar high with all the Halloween sweets (see icon) and Chiana seducing young John who mishears her name as "Karen Shaw" (a moment of inspired retcon, because present day John did say two seasons earlier he lost his virginity to a girl named Karen Shaw). In an uneven season, it's an episode full of fun and grace and offering a rare angst relief for the characters. And it's Farscape. Which mean's it's wild. The perfect Halloween conclusion.
My pleasure. As a German who knows Halloween only from tv and the movies, you know, though in the last decade or so it started to come into fashion here as well.
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush. BTVS did a couple of genuine Halloween-set episodes, but sadly, none of the three are above avarage as far as I'm concerned. On the other hand, Hush presents the scariest one-episode-only monsters the show ever came up with, and manages to work both as a standalone and an arc episode, introducing a new character (Tara) and pushing several relationships forward while being completely accessible to new viewers who never watched a single Buffy episode. When I try to get people hooked on BTVS, I usually start with Hush rather than with an episode of the earlier seasons, though then I go back. It's the first of Joss' "experimental" episodes, and while my favourite of those is Restless, Hush will never stop being awesome. And scary. And funny. And - everything.
2) E.T.: this choice of movie is because that's where I encountered Halloween for the first time, during the sequence where Elliot & Co. take E.T. out and nobody minds because everyone is in disguise. As a child, I thought it had to be carneval, until I figured out this was different holiday. Anyway: E.T. is Spielberg at his unabashed purest and best. It's sentimental as hell, absolutely, but you know, it works. Elliot meeting E.T. for the first time. Michael and Gertie doing the same. The children riding their bicycles across the moon. "Phone home." And E.T. walking through an American city during Halloween, spotting someone disguised as Yoda and immediately running after a presumed fellow alien is funny and touching and a clever little tip on the hat to Spielberg's buddy George L., who, this being the early 80s, was having the time of his life.
3) Ed Wood: I raved about this one a bit in my Orson Welles post, and it deserves its own post of fannish adoration, which this is not. My favourite movie by Tim Burton, my favourite movie starring Johnny Depp, one of my favourite Hollywood-on-Hollywood movies, a love declaration to the losers in the film business. And Martin Landau is absolutely amazing as the aged and soon to die horror legend Bela Lugosi, whose friendship with Ed Wood is the heart of the film. (His daughter Juliet, our very own Drusilla, isn't half bad in her pre-Dru debut as one of Ed's actresses, either.) Aside from the fact the films which made Ed Wood (in)famous were, with the exception of "Glen or Glenda", horror movies, this is Halloween material because a key sequence - Ed spending Halloween with Bela Lugosi - takes place then. Sadly, I didn't find this particular scene on Youtube, but I did find their first encounter, which I present to you instead:
4) Doctor Who: Blink: I still would have given the Hugo to Human Nature, but if you want to watch a DW episode on Halloween, this one is perfect. It's a standalone from the point of view of a character only in this episode, so newbies who never watched the show before can tune in without a problem, it's arguably scriptwriter Moffat at his scariest - and he has some competition for himself - while also providing a happy ending, offers endearing characters, ingenious use of the show's time-travel premise, coins a phrase ("timey-wimey") and ensures you'll never look at a statue the same way again.
5) Farscape: Kansas:: it was this or Babylon 5's Day of the Dead, both of which do rely on the viewers being aware of the characters' past, so as opposed to the earlier tv examples, this isn't one for newbies. Kansas takes place in the middle of Farscape's fourth season, and troubled as this season was, I loved individual episodes such as this one and the next one, Terra Firma. In Kansas, our leading character John Crichton has finally made it back to Earth, with some alien friends - but not yet in the right time. It's Halloween which means like E.T., his alien friends don't stand out and everyone has a chance to explore, while Crichton inevitably comes across his parents and his younger self. Kansas has some predictably hilarious culture clash moments but also deeply touching ones, such as Crichton seeing his (dead in the present) mother, or his boyish self. My two favourite scenes are probably Rygel going on a sugar high with all the Halloween sweets (see icon) and Chiana seducing young John who mishears her name as "Karen Shaw" (a moment of inspired retcon, because present day John did say two seasons earlier he lost his virginity to a girl named Karen Shaw). In an uneven season, it's an episode full of fun and grace and offering a rare angst relief for the characters. And it's Farscape. Which mean's it's wild. The perfect Halloween conclusion.
