It's one of my favourite times of the year! I love watching horror movies all year round, but there's something about that brisk October air that makes me want to sit down, have a couple frosties and get scared. I'm going to give some more picks over the next two issues that are classics from the ‘80s with that special B movie feel that I hope you'll also enjoy leading up to and during Halloween.

Critters (1986)
This movie is a mixture of sci-fi and horror. In a small little town, a meteor lands and unleashes a horde of carnivorous little monsters called “Crites.” These little guys that look like a cross between a demon and a porcupine terrorize a small town while intergalactic bounty hunters blow up everything in their paths while trying to kill every last one of them. This movie spawned two sequels!

Troll (1986)
Watch in horror (or laugh your ass off) as this little troll guy unleashes his fury on an apartment building and their residents. The Troll slowly turns each apartment into this fantasy-like garden and turns the owners into ghastly troll like creatures. For 1986, the costumes are pretty decent. Watch this movie to see a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus (of “Seinfeld” fame) get into a fight with the Troll! This movie also spawned a sequel and you can get both movies on one DVD.

I don't know what it was about this movie, but when it came out and I saw it, I was afraid to go down into the basement for a couple of weeks. Now that I've watched it over again, I can't believe I was frightened!

As an extra WTF, read about this movie on Wikipedia and how there is some sort of strange relation to this movie and the Harry Potter novels. After all, the boy in this movie is named Harry Potter Jr.

Ghoulies (1985)
Oh boy. I remember when City TV aired this one when I was a wee lad. This movie gave me nightmares for at least a year.

A bunch of teens head to a relative's mansion to have a fun weekend. Instead, one of the teens finds a book on black magic and decides to embrace the occult and conjure up demons. One by one, his friends are attacked until there's a final showdown. The special effects are the best, but this movie is really creepy. It has three sequels but I've only seen part two (which is really good) and three (they go to college for good times - bah). You can get part one and two on one DVD as well.

If you watch Ghoulies 2, you'll see that Troll and Ghoulies 2 both feature some of the same creatures (mainly because they shared the same make-up/special effects company).