31 Days of Halloween 2009 - Horror Movies for Oct. 25


To make up for missing yesterday, have a day insanely full of horror - LMN, AMC, and Sci-Fi are all having marathons, and TMC provides some reliably classic films. I'm just providing a small selection - there's over twenty movies on today that haven't popped up yet in October.

12:50 AM [Lifetime Movie Network]
The Sight
Every time I watch this, I feel like they were planning to make a series out of it - young architect finds out he can interact with ghosts and must stop a murderer before he kills another. Oh, and he has a dark vision of a future where everything is destroyed. Then at the end, mysterious organization seems to be stalking him. Sadly, it never goes beyond this movie, so feel free to make up your own explanation for the loose plot threads.

1:25 AM [HBO Zone]
The Omen (1976)
Diplomat and his wife unknowingly raise the Antichrist as their son after a baby switch in Rome. Maybe the fact that the kid was named Damien should have tipped them off. Anyhow, a number of people die in rather gruesome ways (impaled on a church spire, decapitated by glass, hung at a birthday party), evil triumphs at the end, and we get three more sequels plus a remake.

3:00 AM (1932) [Turner Classic Movies]
Doctor X
I cannot write a summary any better than this delightful IMDB one so here you go:
The New York newspapers have dubbed him "The Moon Killer." He stalks the streets at night, strangling and cannibalizing men and women, young and old. There have been six victims so far, and the police believe that a scientist at the Academy of Surgical Research is responsible. Is it Dr. Wells, with the missing left hand, who studied cannibals in Africa? Is it Dr. Haines, who looks at erotic magazines and once may have cannibalized a fellow while adrift at sea? Is it Dr. Rowitz, who analyzes moon rays and writes poetry? Is it Dr. Duke, an obstreperous paralytic? Or is it Dr. Xavier, a.k.a. Dr. X, who runs the academy? Dr. X's young and lovely daughter will be instrumental in solving the crime, as will the hysterical maid and the sinister butler. Our trip through this morbid tale is guided by the wisecracking reporter who will find himself toe-tagged, gassed, tossed around and generally manhandled before the mystery is solved. -- J. Spurlin

4:30 AM [Turner Classic Movies]
The Mystery of the Wax Museum
There's a wax museum with figures who look strangely like missing people. Gee, I wonder if there's anything sinister happening. Surely, a man called Ivan Igor wouldn't be up to no good? The best thing about this original version? No Paris Hilton.

6:00 AM [American Movie Classics]
The Frighteners
One of the more underrated Peter Jackson films, this one stars Michael J. Fox as a psychic conman who gets caught up in some ghostly murders. Jeffery Combs gets the best lines, however. "Sheriff! You are violating my territorial bubble."

10:30 AM [American Movie Classics]
Wolf
Jack Nicholson gets bitten by a wolf and starts turning into one. Michelle Pfeiffer finds the new him sexy. James Spader is reliably sleazy about it all.

2:00 PM [SyFy]
Rose Red
Stephen King's miniseries entry into the world of haunted houses that kill people, this one has bonus Julian Sands in it. Basically, obsessive researcher gathers a team of psychics and the last heir to the house ostensibly to explore it (but actually to wake it up). Naturally, things go horribly wrong (or right if you're the researcher), people start disappearing, and Mr. King stops by to deliver pizza.

5:00 PM [Turner Classic Movies]
The Blob (1958)
Alien from outer space tries to eat an entire town. But it didn't count on Steve McQueen. Warning: Title song is highly catchy.

6:30 PM [Turner Classic Movies]
Die, Monster, Die!
Boris Karloff and H.P. Lovecraft: two great personalities that should go well together, but thanks to this being a loose 1960s adaptation of "The Colour Out of Space," it's not as good as it could be. Needed a bit more otherworldly horror, less young lovers bumbling about.

6:30 PM (1980) [American Movie Classics]
The Shining
AMC seems to be in the Jack Nicholson mood today as it releases another of his horror performances. This time, he's the writer who goes crazy in a winter lodge with his freaked-out wife and their psychic kid witnessing it all. Creepy twin girls in a hallway, "Redrum", "All work and no play..." you know what I'm talking about.

9:30 PM [Turner Classic Movies]
Nosferatu (1922)
Silent, black and white movie adapted from Dracula, with names changed because of the whole lawsuit thing. It is the Alpha of vampire movies - required watching for all horror fans (and for that matter, all movie fans).

11:15 PM [Turner Classic Movies]
Diabolique (1955)
The original complex French thriller where a wife and a mistress plot to murder her jerky husband. The murder seems to be pulled off fine, but then the body disappears and creepy things start happening. Ending is deservedly famous for its twist.