Welcome To Frightnight!

First featured in Scottish Autism's Autitude Magazine I thought I'd share Amelia and Embeth's favourite freakishly fun family friendly films for Halloween here for those who haven't read it.

 

Corpse Bride (2005)

Tim Burton's stop-motion classic - featuring the voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Joanna Lumley and the fang-tastic Christopher Lee - centers
on the poor lovelorn Victor and his bride to be Victoria whose parents arrange for the pair to be wed in the hope of elevating Victor's nouveau riche parents to the upper classes whilst restoring Victoria's families wealth and standing. 

Although the pair hit it off immediately, Victor ruins their wedding rehearsal by forgetting his vows and setting Lady Everglot's dress on fire and so flees to a nearby forest where he spends the night practicing his vows on a tree and placing the wedding ring on an upturned root. 

Scarily though the root is actually the finger of a dead woman named Emily, who rises from the grave claiming that she and Victor are now married and with that whisks him away to the Land of the Dead.....                                                              

 

The Monster Club (1981) 

Famed horror author R. Chetwynd-Hayes (John Carradine) is approached by a strange man named Eramus (the legendary Vincent Price) who turns out to
be a hungry vampire. Eramus bites the writer, and in gratitude for snack, offers to take him to the Monster Club, the secret nightclub frequented by all manner of ghouls, goblins and strange supernatural creatures where Eramus tells Hayes 3 ghastly tales of the macabre for him to use as the basis for his new
book....

Billed as 'The horror film that's fun!' on release, cult producer Milton Subotsky's homage to 60s/70s portmanteau horror movies is a gloriously camp - and occasionally scary - throwback to the classic days of horror.

 

For teens brought up on shows like Stranger Things why not show them how it all started with Fred Dekker's criminally under-rated  

The Monster Squad (1987)

The aforementioned squad is a club of pre-teen misfits who meet up to share their love of the classic monster movies of yesteryear but when a group of famous monsters led by Count Dracula arrive in town to create havoc (and destroy the world) it's left to the group to save everyone....with a little help from
Frankenstein's Monster that is!

 

The Rankin/Bass movie Mad Monster Party (1967) might not be as well known as their bigger hits like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman but this stop-motion musical comedy - co-written by Mad Magazine co-founder Harvey Kurtzman - is probably their most fun movie and an obvious influence on folk like Tim Burton and Henry (Nightmare Before Christmas) Selick.
 

The plot centres on Baron Boris von Frankenstein (voiced by the legendary Boris Karloff) who, after discovering the secret of total destruction, sends out messenger bats to summon all monsters to his tropical island to inform them of not only his
discovery but to also announce his retirement as head of the Worldwide Organization of Monsters.
 

The Baron plans to make his well meaning nephew Felix Flanken (who is unaware of his family roots) the organizations new leader, much to the annoyance of Frankenstein's assistant Francesca who persuades the arriving monsters (including
Count Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, The Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon) to help her take over.... 

 

ParaNorman (2012) 

Sam Fell and Chris Butler's animated movie tells the story of Norman Babcock, an 11-year-old boy who is able to see - and talk - with the dead, including his late
Nan and various ghostly inhabitants of his town.
 

Obviously no-one believes this and so Norman is left isolated from his family and bullied at school.
 

Neil, another boy in his class, is also bullied so him and Norman soon become best friends.

But all this is about to change as when rehearsing a school play commemorating the town's witch trials from three centuries ago, Norman's seemingly mad great uncle, Mr. Prenderghast, bursts in to explain that the town is in great
danger from an evil supernatural force and only Norman can
protect it....

 

Coraline (2009).

Henry Selick's stop-motion animation based on Neil Gaiman's novella tells the tale of Coraline Jones who, neglected by her workaholic parents, is left to her own devices after the family move to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon. 

Becoming friends with the landlady's grandson, Wyborne - and a curious black cat who follows them around - she comes across a small button-eyed ragdoll that is an exact copy of her which leads Coraline on an adventure to an idealized parallel world hidden behind a hidden door, unaware that the alternative world contains a dark and sinister secret that may cost her her life.....
 

Enjoy….and stay scared!