I decided to watch a bunch of scary movies in the month of October, aiming to see a few I hadn’t ever seen before. Most of these were with my boyfriend, who was really surprised at some of the classics I hadn’t yet seen. We managed to catch some but not all of the ones we wanted to, so the project may continue through the fall and winter months. Why limit it to just October, after all? Dark and dreary weather seems perfect for this kind of thing. Of course, I’ll make an exception for the month of December, during which I plan to watch nothing but Love, Actually, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, The Holiday, et al.

So here’s what we saw:

Paranormal Activity 1 and 2

We watched the first one together, but he deemed it too creepy to watch the sequel. It was really, really creepy, I cannot lie. However, that’s kind of the point, as far as I’m concerned, so I went ahead and watched the second installment on my own, on Halloween night, and live tweeted it with Clarabella so I would not feel so alone. I did not die of fright.

Jennifer’s Body

This came on cable one day when we were sitting at home working on school stuff (at his house; I don’t have cable) and I demanded that we watch it. It’s fantastic; if you haven’t seen it you should check it out. Unless you’re one of those people who dislikes Diablo Cody (I am a big fan, myself), in which case skip it, and also hmpf.

Twilight, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn Part I

Twilight and New Moon came on cable, too, so we watched them. I believe my boyfriend is a secret Twilight fan, or at least he has a secret fascination with the movies. We saw Eclipse in the theater together years ago, at his request (which is why we skipped it this time), and he was the one to request Breaking Dawn when he saw I’d bought a copy of it. He seemed to have no complaints about watching all three of these movies, although he would absolutely deny being a fan of any of them, for the record. I mean, yes, they are terrible. (Terribly awesome.)

From Dusk Till Dawn

I can’t believe I somehow missed seeing this movie back in the day when I was a big Tarantino fan (essentially during the Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction days — I mostly boycott him now after having seen him in interviews and growing to despise his public persona). This was really good, and I have to say I liked the Tarantino half (the first half) much better than the Rodriguez half (which starts when they walk into the strip club). A vampire flick is always cool with me, but in this case I liked the psychological suspense of the first half better.

The Crow

We watched this on October 30th, Devil’s Night, as was only appropriate. The Crow is another 90s flick that completely passed me by at the time. I suspect I simply wasn’t allowed to watch it, and then when I moved out and went to college, I never got around to it. It definitely takes me back to those days, though: the style, the soundtrack, the clothes — it was like paying a visit to my high school days. One of my favorite parts, I must admit, was repeating everything Bai Ling’s character said right after her, in a ridiculous approximation of her accent. “I like….de preeety lights….”

So now, I still need to see Poltergeist and Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street and probably Paranormal Activity 3. I’ll put those on the queue for some time soon.