5 Halloween Comedies

1. Hollywood Boulevard: the ultimate movie from Roger Corman's New World Pictures, 1970s breeding ground for such all-but-forgotten talents as Joe Dante (The Howling), Allan Arkush (Rock 'n' Roll High School) and Jonathan Kaplan (Truck Turner). Where was Paul Bartel's Oscar for his nuanced performance as the pretentious director who, in his Oscar-clip moment, feeds a guy in a Godzilla suit his motivation for his upcoming scene!?

 

2. Return of the Living Dead: the other sequel to the classic Night of the Living Dead, this one squeezes laughs from the notion that the government covered up the great zombie creep of '68. "Uh-oh, Trash is taking her clothes off again...."

 

3. Evil Dead 2: There have been so many different versions re-released of the third Evil Dead movie (Army of Darkness) that you might have forgotten how flat out entertaining Sam Raimi's second installment is. You'll never look at a copy of A Farewell to Arms the same way again after watching Bruce Campbell's hour and a half of glory.

4. Bucket of Blood: From Corman the producer (#1) to Corman the director. Along with the original Little Shop of Horrors, this is Roger's and writer Charles B. Griffith's black comedy masterpiece. Funnier than Howl.

5. Demon Seed: Can any movie of high-tech paranoia compare to this one, in which a supercomputer knocks up Julie Christie's heroine? 

 

—Paul Sherman