As a devoted celebrator of the month of Halloween, Oct. 1 found me searching through Letterboxd for holiday-appropriate movies to watch with my roommates. Imagine my disappointment when all that decorated the screen were thumbnails of things I had already watched.
Luckily, with the entire student body of Montclair State University at my disposal, I took to the streets to find some fun movies to truly get me into the Halloween spirit.
Sofia Cordoba, a freshman accounting major, said “Halloweentown” was their favorite Halloween movie and I can’t say I blame them.
“Halloweentown” follows 13-year-old Marnie Piper (Kimberly J. Brown) and her family as she finds out more about her heritage as a witch. Her grandmother, played by the one and only Debbie Reynolds, is a witch from Halloweentown and is ecstatic for the young girl to embrace her powers on her 13th Halloween.
“Halloweentown” follows 13-year-old Marnie Piper (Kimberly J. Brown, center) and her family as she finds out more about her heritage as a witch.
Photo courtesy of Disney
Obviously, as a 21-year-old, I am not the movie’s target audience, so I did find parts of it a little silly. That being said, “Halloweentown” is a classic. When you think of Halloween through the eyes of a child, this is undoubtedly what you would picture. If nothing else, for a first-time viewer like myself, the film was a nice excuse to curl up on the couch with my roommates and some hot cocoa for a calming movie night.
Autumn Weglinski, a freshman accounting major, stated she really loved Adam Sandler’s “Hubie Halloween.”
“Hubie Halloween” stars Hubie Dubois (Adam Sandler), about eight ex-Disney kids and Steve Buscemi. It follows Hubie as he attempts to save his hometown of Salem from a killer who has been running rampant through the town.
Sandler is known for his silly, goofy comedies and this movie is no different. It is complete with a ridiculously out-of-his-league love interest and some adolescents who want him to suffer for no particular reason. If you enjoy Sandler movies, unlike me, you’ll enjoy this movie.
“Hubie Halloween” follows Hubie (Adam Sandler) as he attempts to save his hometown from a killer.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
I didn’t hate it, but the character Sandler plays is a lot for me. I’m completely convinced he has some dirt on someone high up within Netflix because no sane person would allow him to keep the voice he adopts throughout the entire movie without some serious blackmail.
Freshman musical theatre major Donny Nikola said his favorite Halloween movie was “Killer Klowns from Outer Space.”
The movie is a sci-fi horror comedy that follows Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder), her boyfriend Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer) and her ex-boyfriend Dave Hanson (John Allen Nelson) as they try to fight off the Killer Klowns and put a stop to their deadly gags.
Out of the four movies I watched following these interviews, I have concluded there is simply nothing like this movie. No words in the English language could ever be powerful enough to convey exactly what this film is and how it exists in the canon of popular culture.
The Klowns themselves aren’t exactly scary in looks, but the sheer gruesomeness of their crimes – hidden by the unserious nature of clowns – keeps the viewer on their toes throughout its 88-minute runtime. It’s not a particularly well-done movie. The dialogue sounds like a “Riverdale” episode at times and the computer-generated imagery (CGI) is questionable at best as it appears that the entire almost two-million dollar budget went into the costumes for the Klowns. But it’s definitely a movie you need to see at least once in your life.
Whether or not you have plans this Halloween- if you need a quick refresher to get yourself into the spirit, consider taking a look at these films. But don’t blame me if “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” changes your life for the worse.
