Moviefone Editorial

Tag: halloween

  • The Top 21 Horror Movie Villains, Ranked

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    Jason Voorhees didn’t start out as much of a horror villain; after all, in the initial “Friday the 13th” (released 35 years ago this week, on May 9, 1980), he had to have his mother do all his dirty work. But over the course of countless sequels, the seemingly unkillable, hockey-masked slasher worked hard, paid his dues, and became one of the all-time greats.

    What does it take, after all, to be a great horror movie villain? A franchise helps, since you get to rack up the body count, but it should really be about quality, not quantity. Are you scary? Do you haunt the dreams of moviegoers after they leave the theater? Do they yearn for you to return and scare them again? Those ought to be the tests.

    With that in mind, here’s our ranking of the best horror movie villains. Aspiring ghouls reading this who want to become the next Jason: you’ve got your work cut out for you.

  • Is ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ a Halloween Movie or a Christmas Movie?

    Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas Movie StillsIt’s a debate that’s raged ever since the flick’s debut in 1993: Is “The Nightmare Before Christmas” a Halloween movie, or a Christmas movie? Fans have their own reasoning for picking a particular side, but now, the film’s director, Henry Selick, has weighed in with the definitive answer.

    In an Q&A session following a “Nightmare” screening at the Telluride Horror Show last weekend, Selick was asked directly by a little girl in the crowd, “Is this a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie?” After a pause, the director revealed that he came down decidedly on Team Halloween.

    Birth.Movies.Death. reports:

    After the question was asked Selick looked a little surprised, and he said, “Oh boy,” likely knowing that whatever answer he gave would be controversial.

    “It’s a Halloween movie,” he said, definitively. He acknowledged that a lot of people liked the Christmas Town stuff waaaaay better than the Halloween Town (“They love Santa and say he’s all-powerful,” he said), but he had to tell the truth: this is a movie about Halloween, and the people of Halloween, and how they react to something like Christmas.

    Some fans will argue that the flick’s focus the December holiday puts it more in the Christmas camp, but the Tim Burton-produced film doesn’t exactly put us in the holiday mood — it’s creepy as hell, and that, if anything, should sway viewers into agreeing with Selick.

    Regardless of where you fall in the divide, though, feel free to fire up your DVD — or Netflix — of the film at whatever time of year you feel is appropriate. We won’t tell.

    [via: Birth.Movies.Death.]

    Photo credit: Getty

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  • Petition Calls Caitlyn Jenner Halloween Costume ‘Transphobic’

    caitlyn jenner costume, halloweenA new Halloween costume featuring Caitlyn Jenner‘s look from her now-iconic Vanity Fair cover has gone viral, and not in a good way: Thousands of angry people are petitioning the retailers of the costume — which they call “transphobic” — to halt its planned sale.

    In a petition on Change.org that calls out Spirit Halloween for its “exploitation and transphobia,” petitioner Addison Vincent writes that the outfit — which features white shorts, a padded top, a wig, and a sash that says “Call Me Caitlyn” — makes a mockery of Jenner’s recent decision to come out as transgender, and encourages others to make fun of the reality star and other trans people like her. (The costume is being sold in unisex sizes, and its online images feature a male model.)

    “To make a costume out of a marginalized identity reduces that person and community to a stereotype for privileged people to abuse,” Vincent wrote. She continued:

    In this case, if you follow through with production of a Caitlyn Jenner costume, cisgender people will purchase it to make fun of her and our community. At a time when trans women and GNC folx, especially black trans women, are being murdered at such a high rate, and homelessness, unemployment, and inaccessbility to healthcare run rampant in our community, making fun of one or all of us is utterly insensitive and deplorable.

    As for Spirit Halloween, the company claims that it’s actually applauding Jenner, and the costume shouldn’t be seen as a mockery, but the opposite.

    “Caitlyn Jenner has proven to be the most important real-life superhero of the year, and Spirit Halloween is proud to carry the costume that celebrates her,” said Trisha Lombardo, the company’s head of PR and marketing, in an interview with the New York Daily News.

    Lombardo followed up that statement with another, sent to The Huffington Post, doubling down on Spirit Halloween’s good intentions.

    “At Spirit Halloween, we create a wide range of costumes that are often based upon celebrities, public figures, heroes and superheroes. We feel that Caitlyn Jenner is all of the above and that she should be celebrated. The Caitlyn Jenner costume reflects just that,” Lombardo’s statement said.

    The costume is also currently listed at online retailers including AnytimeCostumes.com and WholesaleHalloweenCostumes.com. We’ll see if Vincent’s petition — which already has over 3,500 signatures — changes anybody’s mind about its sale.

    [via: Change.org, h/t The Hollywood Reporter]

    Photo credit: Anytime Costumes

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  • The 23 Scariest Teen Horror Movies Ever, Ranked

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    Horror filmmakers have a special fondness for shedding teenage blood.

    After all, teens are horror’s primary audience, so it’s especially frightening — and cathartic — to see teens like themselves targeted by deadly evil, often just for behaving like normal adolescents. In the last four decades, movies about teens targeted by slashers have become the mainstay of movie horror.

    With “The Gallows” hitting theaters this Friday — a teen horror movie with echoes of “Carrie,” “Prom Night,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” and more — it’s worth looking back at some of the most celebrated teen horror movies of all time. Just remember, don’t separate from the group, and don’t have sex.