Movies to watch this Halloween - Part 1: Seasonal Delights

The weather outside has dipped below 90 degrees here in Virginia, so you know that Fall is here. College football games? Done it. Fall Festivals? Been there. Now, the real fun begins, because the greatest holiday in the world is two weeks away. Bring on Halloween! Candy, costumes, decorations, haunted houses, and old horror movies on television all combine to make this the best season of the year. I can already hear the Christmas apologists lining up to espouse the virtues of America's most celebrated holiday, but you can shut your pie hole, because you are defending a bloated and misunderstood debt fest. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Christmas (and it's my wife's favorite), but there is something so delightfully unnecessary about Halloween. And plus, Christmas is about birth, peace, and family. Halloween is about ghosts, murder, pranks, and candy.

OK, so we have 13 days until Halloween, which gives you an opportunity to watch, in my opinion, about 25 horror movies. with so many quality scary movies worthy of your viewing time, I thought I would suggest 25 horror movies that will help set the mood this holiday season. While not a ranking of he 25 best ever - that's for another day, this is 25 that will motivate you to kidnap children, slip razor blades into apples, and throw toilet paper in your neighbors' yard.

I'll start with 5 Halloween themed films:

1. Halloween

The classic. John Carpenter's masterpiece excels on so many levels. The score is tense, the violence is realistic, and this movie is still capable of creeping me out 25 years and dozens of viewings later.

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Not scary, but great for the whole family. Usually they replay this one on IMAX this time of year, you should totally check it out. The wife has never seen this one, so I can pass it off as a Christmas movie. This one is a lot of fun and a perfect of example of the genius of Tim Burton.

3. Trick R Treat

This long-delayed new release (now available on DVD) is a Halloween-themed anthology that is quite entertaining.

4. Night of the Demons

A 1980's guilty pleasure dying to be discovered by you this Halloween. WARNING: boobies all over the trailer. Which to me, doesn't say WARNING, it says WATCH ME.

5. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

Yes, its another Halloween franchise movie, but this is the one without Michael Myers. And you know what kids, that is not a bad thing. Check this one out, its creepy, funny, has melting heads, and a star with a great mustache!

And sing along with me: "Thirteen days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Thirteen days til Halloween, Silver Shamrock!"