LoC 28 Countdown: Top 50 Movies to Watch At Halloween

[Smoky]

# 1 - It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

11 lists, 168 points, highest ranking # 1 THE QUEEN!!!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is an animated television special, based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz.

It was the third Peanuts special (and first Halloween special) to be produced and animated by Bill Meléndez. Its initial broadcast took place on October 27, 1966, on the CBS network, preempting My Three Sons; CBS re-aired the special annually through 2000, with ABC picking up the rights beginning in 2001. The program was nominated for an Emmy award. It has been issued on home video several times, including a Remastered Deluxe Edition of the special released by Warner Home Video on September 2, 2008, with the bonus feature It's Magic, Charlie Brown which was released in 1981.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, a retrospective book was published in 2006 entitled, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: The Making of a Television Classic with the entire script, never-before-seen photographs, storyboard excerpts, and interviews with the original child actors who provided the voices of the Peanuts gang.

In the film's story, with autumn already in full swing, the Peanuts gang prepare for Halloween festivities. Meanwhile, Linus writes a letter to The Great Pumpkin; to Charlie Brown's disbelief, Snoopy's laughter, Patty's assurance that the Great Pumpkin is a fake, and even to Lucy's violent threat to make Linus stop. Linus laments in the letter that "more people believe in Santa Claus than in you [The Great Pumpkin]". Linus decides to spend his Halloween in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Great Pumpkin to arrive.

When Linus walks into the room after writing a letter to the Great Pumpkin, Lucy is sitting in front of the TV reading a TV Guide. The picture on the cover of the magazine is a picture of Lucy.

When the show ran briefly on NBC, the scene of Snoopy and Schroeder was cut out.

Actress Kathy Steinberg had almost finished recording all her lines of dialog as Sally when the producers received a phone call from Steinberg's mother informing them that one of Kathy's teeth was loose. Fearing that a sudden lisp would ruin the continuity dialogue, the producers rushed the young actress into the studio to finish recording her lines. Just as Steinberg was speaking her last line, the tooth came flying out of her mouth.

When Snoopy pretends to cross wartime France as a downed pilot, he passes signs pointing to two real locations in the Champagne country northeast of Paris, Chalons sur Marne and Pont a Mousson.

After this special originally aired, children all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nAzACHbW0tI&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/nAzACHbW0tI&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

[Smoky]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

[Relaxing Dragon]

# 1 - Plan 9 From Outer Space

15 lists, 203 points, highest ranking # 1 TorJohnsonRules

Since it was at the bottom of the page, it really had me going for a minute.

Great list all around, can't argue with any of the top 10

Here's mine (I might be forgetting that one of them made :

1. Trick ‘r Treat
2. The Nightmare Before Christmas
3. Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!)
4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. The People Under the Stairs
8. Shaun of the Dead
9. Midnight Meat Train
10. Hellboy
11. Clue
12. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
13. Coraline
14. Grindhouse
15. Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Wererabbit
16. Braindead
17. Evil Dead II
18. Repo! The Genetic Opera
19. Sweeny Todd
20. The Thing
21. Tremors
22. Halloween
23. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
24. Feast
25. The Mist

I new it didn't have much of a chance, but I was really hoping Trick 'r Treat would squeeze onto the list. Maybe next year Sam, maybe next year.

Also: No Willy Wonka? Really? Has everyone forgotten the candy part of this holiday?

[Tripe H. Redux]

Well here's mine then.

1.   The Worst Witch red
2.   Ghostwatch
3.   The Stone Tape
4.   Ghostbusters
5.   L'ultimo uomo della Terra
6.   The Rocky Horror Picture Show
7.   Quatermass and the Pit
8.   Grim Prairie Tales
9.   Freaks
10.   The Frighteners
11.   Little Shop of Horrors
12.   Blackbeard’s Ghost
13.   Addams Family Values
14.   The Body Snatcher
15.   Dead of Night
16.   The Haunting
17.   The Raven
18.   Magic
19.   Tales of Terror
20.   The Halloween That Almost Wasn't
21.   Masque of the Red Death
22.   The Watcher in the Woods
23.   The Paul Lynde Halloween Special
24.   Frankenweenie
25.   Halloween is Grinch Night

[Smoky]

I new it didn't have much of a chance, but I was really hoping Trick 'r Treat would squeeze onto the list. Maybe next year Sam, maybe next year.

Also: No Willy Wonka? Really? Has everyone forgotten the candy part of this holiday?

I thought of Willy Wonka, and it's certainly scary enough, but it's just not one of my favorite films. I thought Trick 'r Treat stood a better chance, but you were actually the only person who voted for it.

This was the list I submitted to myself:

25. Frankenstein
24. House on Haunted Hill
23. Communion
22. Bram Stoker's Dracula
21. Dracula
20. The Sixth Sense
19. An American Werewolf in London
18. Plan 9 From Outer Space
17. Silver Bullet
16. Young Frankenstein
15. Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow
14. Thriller
13. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
12. A Disney Halloween
11. Little Shop of Horrors (musical)
10. Psycho
9. Ghostbusters
8. Fright Night
7. Scream
6. A Haunting in Georgia
5. The 'Burbs
4. Ed Wood
3. The Lost Boys
2. Arachnophobia
1. Beetlejuice

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

Somewhere, Eddie is smiling....   

[THE QUEEN!!!]

great list.... even though I never heard of most the horror ones. here's my complete list........................

orange made it

1.   It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
2.   Arsenic and old lace
3.   Legend of Sleepy Hollow (as part of Disney’s The Adventures of Icabod & Mr. Toad )
4.   Trouble with Harry
5.   The haunting (original)
6.   Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the were rabbit
7.   Hocus pocus
8.   Poltergeist
9.   Wait until dark
10.   Murder by death
11.   Ghostbusters
12.   Ghosbusters II
13.   Edward scissorhands       <------- quite shocked this didn't make it
14.   Rear window
15.   Invasion of the body snatchers (original)
16.   The birds
17.   Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
18.   Nightmare before Christmas
19.   Sixth sense
20.   Clue
21.   Frankenstein (original)
22.   Nosferatu (silent)
23.   Jurassic park
24.   Bell book and candle
25.   Bedknobs and broomsticks

(correct me if I missed one) 15 out of 25, though. Not bad.

[THE QUEEN!!!]

5. The 'Burbs

I am so angry with myself for forgetting this one! I would have ranked it quite high, too. Alas.

[Imrahil]

13.   Edward scissorhands       <------- quite shocked this didn't make it

(correct me if I missed one) 15 out of 25, though. Not bad.

That's a Christmastime movie, not a Halloween one.

[LucasM]

Well, after my post yesterday (in which I expressed confusion as to what could be in the top 4), I remembered Nightmare Before Christmas.  Though I watched its premiere airing (yes, I'm that old), I didn't even consider Great Pumpkin, I guess because I grew to so passionately dislike the increasingly bland Peanuts TV crap that started coming out shortly thereafter, and thereby ended up simply disliking the characters.

At any rate... here's my list, 'successes' in orange:

1. Frankenstein (1931)
2. Bride of Frankenstein
3. The Mummy (Karloff's, of course)
4. 20 Million Miles to Earth (Harryhausen 'monster' SciFi movie)
5. Young Frankenstein
6. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
7. Nightmare Before Christmas
8. Mad Monster Party (Rankin-Bass)
9. Dark City (the mood is perfect)
10. It Came From Beneath the Sea (Harryhausen)
11. House of Frankenstein
12. Curse of Frankenstein (Hammer)
13. Son of Frankenstein
14. Creature From the Black Lagoon
15. Fantasia ('Rite of Spring' and 'Night On Bald Mountain' segments only)
16. Aliens
17. Phantom of the Opera (Chaney Sr... or is that Cheney? )
18. Wolfman (Chaney Jr)
19. Corpse Bride
20. Dracula (Lugosi)
21. Beetlejuice
22. Dracula: Dead and Loving It
23. Ghostbusters
24. House of Wax (Vincent Price)
25. Daddy Day Care (TRULY horrific! [the idea of watching it again, not the content])

As can be seen, mine split roughly 1/2 classic Universal horror films and 1/2 fun or comedic films (with a couple idiosyncratic choices in the mix, of course).  I think its a shame the ONLY classic (pre-1950s) horror film that even made the list was Frankenstein.

[I, too, had a "WTF?" moment with the faux #1 choice.]

Happy Halloween, all!  I'm bushed and off to watch one of these fine films.  Bushed because I got about 120 kids in just a bit over an hour!  (My subdivision has a grade school in it, so most people living here have kids.)  Most kids LOVE my house... not for the decorations, but because they not only get a full-size candy bar (or Famous Amos cookies, or chips), they also get a little Halloween-related toy (things like scary 'party favors' that I buy 1/2 price the day after the previous year's Halloween).

[Smoky]

5. The 'Burbs

I am so angry with myself for forgetting this one! I would have ranked it quite high, too. Alas.

I was hoping maybe some people would remember The 'Burbs beside me, but it just wasn't to be. It's a great, weird little 80's gem. I'm kind of sad no one else voted for Ed Wood, too. And apparently I'm the only one around who loves Arachnophobia. But the list was fun, anyway.

I left Nightmare Before Christmas off my list, because even though I love the concept and the fact that it's a stop motion film, the actual movie just grates on me somehow. The music and the character designs just rub me the wrong way for the most part. And Charlie Brown didn't make it just because I've never been into Charlie Brown and don't really remember the special.

[Tripe H. Redux]

And apparently I'm the only one around who loves Arachnophobia.

I love a specific scene in Arachnophobia...

Apparently nobody else likes the Corman EAP adaptations.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Happy Halloween, all!  I'm bushed and off to watch one of these fine films.  Bushed because I got about 120 kids in just a bit over an hour!  (My subdivision has a grade school in it, so most people living here have kids.)  Most kids LOVE my house... not for the decorations, but because they not only get a full-size candy bar (or Famous Amos cookies, or chips), they also get a little Halloween-related toy (things like scary 'party favors' that I buy 1/2 price the day after the previous year's Halloween).

You're getting pretty high on my Love List, just so you know

I hope you still have some quality decorations in the yard to back up the sweets inside.

[Imrahil]

My List, with Winners in Orange:
1. Ghostbusters
2. Young Frankenstein
3. The Nightmare Before Christmas
4. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
5. Beetlejuice
6. Sleepy Hollow
7. Shaun of the Dead
8. Bugs Bunny's Howl-O-Ween Special
9. Fright Night
10. Bram Stoker's Dracula
11. A Disney Halloween
12. The Lost Boys
13. Army of Darkness
14. Return to Oz
15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
16. The Mummy (1999)
17. The Frighteners
18. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
19. The Omen
20. Poltergeist
21. An American Werewolf in London
22. Hellboy
23. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
24. Teen Wolf
25. Watchmen

14/25. Wow, not bad.  Thanks, Smoky, for some...GHOULISH fun...

[Rattrap007]

1. Student Bodies (1981) - funny spoof on 70s slasher movies
2. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
3. Repossessed - Leslie neilson parody of Excorcist
4. Monster Squad (Wolfman's got nards!)
5. Aliens
6. Shaun of the Dead
7. Dawn of the Dead (original)
8. Return of the Living Dead
9. Day of the Dead (original
10. Evil Dead
11. Friday the 13th (original)
12. Halloween (original)
13. Nightmare on Elm Street (original) [god there are a lot of remakes of my list items!]
14. Poltergeist
15. Lost Boys
16. American Werewolf in London
17. The excorcist
18. Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
19. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
20. Near Dark
21. Rocky Horror Picture Show
22. Tremors
23 Ghostbusters
24. It
25. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes


15/25... not bad.. was hoping that #1 and #2 would make it for the fun factor...