It's Jack Clayton's best, most effective film. There are parts of his adaptation of "Something Wicked This Way Comes" that are unexpectedly scary too, in a "Watcher in the Woods"/"Witch Mountain" sort of way.

Completely agree about "The Boogeyman" short story (both its scariness and its absurdity) and "Gramma." Harlan Ellison's adaptation of the latter for the '80s "Twilight Zone" scared the living shit out of me.

Just read on "Ain't It Cool News" that Shyamalan has finished his script for "Birthday Party: The Movie." [SPOILER ALERT] Apparently, the protagonist's birthday is on February 29th, and he sends all his friends invitations for a party he's to host on that date, but only realizes on the first of March that it's not a…

I don't believe in ghosts, but that incident was ridiculous in its uncanny coincidence. I mean, right when I was reading the scariest, most tense part of the book, bam, the lights go out for no earthly reason.

That "frolic in brine, goblins be thine" line in "Ringu" creeped me out, but I've come to understand that it's a not-quite-accurate approximation of something that's not easily translatable. Mistranslation or not, I thought it had an effectively eerie Christina Rossetti ring to it.

SPOILER: Unifying underage gangbang.

I thought the whole birthday-party sequence was effective, with ghosts that actually wanted to cause the kid harm.

I just watched this, somehow never having seen it as a kid, and I thought it was scarier and better executed than "Poltergeist." Those wee demons are creepy as hell, creepier even than the ones in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." Also, one of the most disturbing things in the movie is the manhandling of the dead…

BEEP BEEP RICHIE. The book is terrific, but Tim Curry is awesome in the miniseries. The giant spider, not so much.

I prefer the American remake over "Ringu" because Samara is presented as a truly malevolent, ever-widening-black-hole force of destruction (let's just ignore "The Ring Two"), whereas the Japanese original has that flashback sequence that allows some sympathy for Sadako.

I love the original "Black Christmas." Those phone calls are freaky as hell, and that one shot of the killer's eye … and when he speaks to himself in his high-pitched "mom voice" … great movie.

"The Innocents"
Scariest movie, in my opinion, the best haunted-house movie, and one of the few films I can think of that is better than its source material, which is really saying something in this case. I also love Robert Wise's "The Haunting," but it can't beat Shirley Jackson's novel.

Reading "The Shining"
The year I stopped trick-or-treating (I must have been 13 or so), my parents took my kid sister to my grandparents' neighborhood to collect candy, since we lived in the country and the nearest house was about five miles away, and I stayed at home by myself, reading "The Shining." It was a mild,…

That's evidently an actor named Tony Kgoroge. But I suppose they all look the same to you, you racist motherfucker.

Irglova is pretty irresistible in "Once." I like the picture of her with this review; her hair looks like it's actually been washed recently, unlike her usual look.

I liked "Once" well enough, and I own the first Swell Season album and plenty of Frames albums, but I guess, as an American, I'm a little baffled by the way Hansard generally seems to be perceived here in the U.S. I mean … "Once" was a hugely profitable movie, he won an Oscar, he fronts The Most Popular Band In…

You're welcome. Stupid and disgusting is my middle name.

Of course they're lesbians together. They're identical twins — it's like touching yourself! Each knows the other's body as intimately as her own! It would be crazy for them *not* to have sex with each other, right?

No message could have been any clearer.

Yeah, The Jackson 5 version was the original, and I agree that it's one of Michael Jackson's best vocals. Hayes's cover is great, though.