It’s Devil’s Night, one more day until Halloween, and I have one last list of scary movies to recommend. The horror of the demonic is quite a popular sub-genre of film. These movies focus on how evil lurks beneath the surface (demonic possession) or how evil manifests itself in the form of actual demons walking the earth.

Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is a quintessential example of dark forces scaring a couple to death. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie play a couple who move to Venice after the death of their child. They meet two elderly sisters who have something sinister about them. The film is based on the Daphne Du Maurier story.

Other classic examples are of the horror of demonic from the 1960s and 1970s (funny how they all clustered in that time period):

Rosemary’s Baby (1967)

The Exorcist (1973) - I love me some vintage Ellen Burstyn.

Demon Seed (1977) - yay, more Julie Christie! But poor her, a scientist has impregnated her with a horrible evil entity.

One of my favorite Denzel Washington movies is Fallen from 1998. He plays Detective John Hobbes, a determined homicide detective that notices a trend of similar serial killings that could only be committed by a man that was executed. Somehow the killer’s spirit can move from body to body, which makes him an exceptionally hard to catch criminal!

And most people didn’t like Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton, and Rachel Weisz, but I really liked it. The story was intriguing, altho some of the dialogue could use some work. Nevertheless I think director Francis Lawrence’s did a good job of keeping you fascinated by balancing special f/x with a story of the anti-hero John Constantine.

Happy Devil’s Night, party safe by watching scary movies in the safety of your home and put those finishing touches on your halloween costume.

Francis Lawrence did a decent job with his first movie Constantine. I actually happen to like that movie despite Keanu’s cheesy dialogue. Thus, I gave I Am Legend a chance to sway me regardless of the lukewarm reviews.

I knew the movie was going to be pretty bleak, but Will Smith talking to mannequins for comfort was really sad. He seriously loses everything and works alone to find a cure day in and day out. I think the ending was a bit heavy handed with the messiah metaphor though.

Nevertheless, it was beautifully shot. I really believed that Robert Neville was the last man on earth. The production design of the overgrown city was so detailed with lions and deer bounding through the frame. The dark seekers coulda looked more realistic with less cgi and more make up in my opinion. Instead they seemed to be completely computer generated. Still, they were scary enough. I’d give this version a grade B.

Bonus: Discussion on /Film about IAL alternate ending, which I haven’t seen yet. Sadly, the alt ending was pulled from YouTube, but is included on the two disc dvd.