Halloween is

a week away.

To celebrate

what is one of my favorite times of the year I enjoy renting horror movies,

both good and bad, and having a horror movie marathon. I can find something

enjoyable in nearly every scary movie, whether it is the awful acting

of a terrible film called "Bats," the absurd plot line of "Leprechaun

5: In The Hood," or the genuine craft of a suspenseful horror classic

like "Halloween."

Of course,

other things are scary this year, so my first few picks tend to deal with

events from the past year.

Remember all

of those shark attacks during the summer? Why not rent "Jaws,"

Steven Spielberg's classic film about a beach terrorized by a man-eating

shark. Is it scary? Kind of. There are several jumpy moments and the famous

music always tends to get the heart beating a little faster. What will

make it less scary now is the fact that nobody will be going to the beach

for at least seven months or so. The acting is top notch, even though

the shark doesn't always look real.

The word on

everybody's lips these days seems to be "anthrax," so a movie

about bioterror could be worth a rental. My pick for this is Stephen King's

"The Stand." Lauded by many as King's best book, the story was

made into a mini-series by ABC. The program stayed very true to the novel,

which dealt with a superflu wiping out most of the world's population.

The survivors, both good and evil, attempt to reconnect and rebuild society.

The movie stars Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald and many more recognizable actors

and actresses.

Now for my

classic picks, and these are in order from best to worst.

"Halloween"

scariest movies that I have ever seen. Jamie Lee Curtis is terrific in

the film as a kind of a wallflowerish baby-sitter. She is also strong,

resourceful and funny. This film launched her early career as a scream

queen and is well worth a rental.

"Nightmare

on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors" is my absolute favorite of the

series. Patricia Arquette is the heroine and Laurence Fishburne plays

an orderly in the mental hospital where Arquette's character is set. The

"Elm Street" series hadn't had that kind of star power since

Johnny Depp starred in the first film. The plot is the same as the rest

of them. Freddy Krueger stalks the children of Elm Street in their dreams.

He is defeated by several of the patients, who really weren't that crazy

after all, but comes back several more times in later films.

If you are

familiar with the series, I also recommend "Wes Craven's New Nightmare."

The film dealt with the actors in the series being stalked by a real entity

that had taken the form of Freddy Krueger. The film was made before "Scream,"

which is another must-see if you haven't already, and is just as tongue-in-cheek

about the horror movie genre as the latter film.

Other good

rentals would be "Bram Stoker's Dracula," "The Omen,"

"The Changeling," "In The Mouth of Madness," "Poltergeist"

and "Dead Alive."

Now for the

bad picks. If you like to laugh at absurd story lines, awful acting and

just bad movies in general here are some of the best.

"Pet Semetary"

- Sometimes dead is better, especially when creatures return from the

Pet Semetary as demonic versions of their former selves. Fred Gwynne's

Maine accent is hilarious.

"Man's

Best Friend" - A genetically enhanced dog terrorizes a neighborhood.

In one scene, the dog lifts his leg and melts a fire hydrant. Classic.

"Jack

Frost" - Somehow, and I seriously forget how, a killer gets put in

the body of a snow man. The snow man, of course, terrorizes a town. This

is not a good film, but sometimes you just have to laugh and wonder how

it got made.

Other bad ones

are "Popcorn," "The Funhouse," "Texas Chainsaw

Massacre II," and, gosh, there are just too many more to name.

Have a happy

Halloween and enjoy the movies.

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