Halloween movies are hit or miss.Anthology movies are the same.My interest in holiday horror keeps me coming back for more nevertheless.Tales of Halloween has been fairly well reviewed over the years.As intimated, it’s an anthology film.There are ten separate stories squeezed in, leading to an average of nine minutes per episode.To make matters more interesting, each story has a different director.The end result is kind of like a pillowcase after trick-or-treating, you get some good stuff and some you’d rather not have received.The movie’s also a comedy horror so you’re meant to laugh throughout.Kind of like Halloween itself, I suppose.At least for some people. The movie didn’t do anything for me.There were no takeaways, and nothing really memorable.
Halloween is an unusual holiday. For one thing, the way it’s celebrated is fairly recent. Childhood memories of costumes and trick-or-treating and ghosts and goblins are all pretty new. Well, maybe not the ghosts. For some of us it’s a spiritual time. A reflective season. I’m not sure how anybody can not try to figure out what life’s all about. Some of us have steered our lives (in as far as we actually steer them) in the direction of trying to figure these things out. For me, Halloween is a time of spiritual growth. Not exactly fun, but enjoyable nevertheless. I know it’s different for different people. Some people live for the fun and the partying. It’s like that pillowcase all over again. There is, at least in my experience, no perfect Halloween movie. I won’t stop trying to find it, however.
John Carpenter’s Halloween is the movie that really kickstarted films based on this particular holiday. Although I’m no fan of slashers, I do enjoy this one from time to time. It’s a well-made movie, moody like autumn. In Tales of Halloween, the background movie in two segments is Night of the Living Dead, a classic by any standards. Carnival of Souls is shown in another episode. Horror is a notoriously self-referential genre. Last year I watched Trick ‘r Treat, another such anthology film. It likewise made little impact. On me, anyway. Perhaps Halloween isn’t about horror after all. It’s a time for reflection. And pretending. Since we all pretend most of the time it is perhaps the most natural of holidays. Pretense on other holidays, although it happens, is considered in bad taste. At least on Halloween we can be honest about it. Some day someone may actually capture that in a movie.
