Fright fest in the fall

Here we are at last. The change in the temperature and the colors in the trees are all saying that fall is finally here. After a summer of 110-degree days, I really appreciate the coolness in the air.

As I have said before, October is my favorite time of year. Being the confirmed Halloween junkie that I am, I can?t wait for the annual trick or treat ?round the square when all the little ghosts and goblins show off their costumes and get candy. I admit this year I thought that Halloween costume stores being set up in August was probably a little early, but still, let?s get into the spirit of things.

As I do every year, I like to give a list of 10 horror movies for the reader to peruse, just to get the party that is October started. This year I?ve decided to turn my attention to the elements of nature. This can include our fine feathered and furry (and let?s not forget scaly) friends, as well as nature itself.

It?s really not nice to fool with Mother Nature, and it?s a good way to get a much-deserved comeuppance. In many movies the great outdoors tends to be breeding grounds for horror movies. I don?t exactly understand why. I tend to think we are considerably safer walking on a path in Lake Darling State Park that we would be walking on the streets in Des Moines.

In any event, without further ado, drum roll please, here is Dave?s top 10 list of nature-inspired horror movies.

10) Mega-Python vs. Gatoroid: True fun, although not likely to win a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Turn brain off and enjoy. Take 1980s pop stars Tiffany and Debbie (sorry, Deborah) Gibson ? neither of whom I actually paid any attention to at all during the 1980s ? and put them in a movie with giant predators, you are going to have fun. A snake-obsessed scientist releases pythons into the everglade, which grow tremendously in size. The local game warden feeds steroids to alligators in hopes that they will get rid of the pythons. The funniest part is that in the movie the two make fun of the alleged rivalry they had as musicians. At one point, they come to blows in the middle of a fancy fundraiser and in front of former Monkee Mickey Dolenz. This is just before Dolenz gets munched. Well worth the cost of admission.

9) Piranha 3D: Isn?t it amazing some of the coincidences that happen. A swarm of pre-historic, man-eating piranha fish escape into a lake during an earthquake, while thousands of students are visiting the lake for spring break. Nice tip of the hat to the movie Jaws at the beginning. Jerry O?Connell steals the show (well, not counting the big swarm of piranhas who are the real stars) as a sleazy movie producer.

8) Snakes on a Plane: In an effort to eliminate a whistleblower before he can testify, a gangster releases a crateful of poisonous snakes with bad attitudes onto a plane. They get to match bad attitudes with federal agent Samuel L. Jackson. This is what the old Airport movies should have been. While the horror aspect may go out the window (I found myself cheering whenever the snakes jumped out at victims in the early scenes on the plane) the fun of the movie is there.

7) Alien: We can call the creature in this an animal. The creature actually was the brainchild of surrealist artist H.R. Geiger. The overall creepiness of the alien (which was never duplicated in any of the sequels) and the claustrophobic inside of the ship made for an eerie movie. The galley scene is a classic. A group of astronauts discover a derelict space ship on a distant planet. They accidentally awaken an alien life form, which sets about trying to kill them off.

6) Friday the 13th: The first time I saw this movie was the day before I left for church camp. As you can guess I was a bit paranoid during my time there. Yes, this is the one where Jason?s mother is the baddie. I know that was a spoiler. Next, I?ll be telling you that Darth Vader is Luke?s father. A group of teens are planning to reopen the deserted Camp Crystal Lake, located miles from anywhere. In this movie, the wilderness cutting off contact with civilization is really one of the performers. A sudden storm traps the kids at the camp. Do I really need to go on about what happens next?

5) Evil Dead: I think Bruce Campbell is all of 20 years old in this 1981 movie. This is the one that started it all. Campbell plays the average Joe who is trapped in a cabin deep in the woods and must represent when his friends are killed off (sort of) by evil spirits released from an ancient book. There have been several spin-offs to this, including a comic book series in which hero Ash takes on both Freddy and Jason. This was even made into a stage musical. It is kind of strange trying to picture ?Ashley? of this movie being the same character as ?Ash? from the movie ?Army of Darkness.? Hail to the king baby.

4) Watchers: Vintage 1980s fare. It is about an experimental ultra-intelligent golden retriever who escapes from a government research facility and is being hunted by a big monster that likes to chomp anything he comes across. Enter ?80s teen icon Corey Haim, who manages to use his Corey magic to avoid evil government agents, transport the dog to a cabin in the woods, and create a bunch of Rambo-style weapons to battle the monster. He also manages to save his girlfriend. Whatta guy. Chuck Norris has nothing on Corey. BTW: In the Dean Koonz novel the movie was based on, Haim?s character is 36 years old and a former Delta Force soldier.

3) Pinata ? Survival Island: This is a fun romp. The villain in this flick is a possessed piñata. No, I?m not joking. The piñata, which has been used to hold all the evil of an entire village, comes to life to terrorize a group of college kids. The kids are conveniently on a deserted island for the annual scavenger hunt. So, this clay piñata, which keeps changing forms, goes around collecting souls. In this movie, you don?t crack open a piñata, the piñata cracks you open. Buffy fans will recognize the protagonist as Nicholas ?Xander? Brennan.

2) Twister: For the first time I?m including a movie that was made by Amblin Entertainment. This 1996 thriller is a fun ride. Yes, I?d say tornadoes count as a natural threat. The film is about a group of tornado-chasers trying to deploy an information collection unit in front of a tornado. In true horror movie fashion, the tornadoes are the star of the movie and the characters are really there to drop a few one-liners. This was also the first Hollywood feature film to be released on DVD, by the way. A couple of pieces of trivia ? a drive-in movie theater in Ontario which was scheduled to show this movie was destroyed by a tornado in a fashion similar to the movie?s drive-in being destroyed. Also, a farmhouse that was used to shoot many scenes in the movie was destroyed by a tornado the owner said was ?eerily similar? to the fictitious tornado in the movie.

1) Jaws: For a PG-rated horror movie, this one delivered the goods. It was cub director Steven Spielberg?s second time behind the camera and, despite a stream of off-camera SNAFUs, the movie turned out to be one of the all-time horror greats. The thump-thump from the soundtrack is now a classic. The shark is made of rubber and sitting on an underwater crane, but you don?t care because the rest of the movie is so good. Due to several mechanical problems with Bruce (the mechanical shark) much of the action happens under water and out of sight of the audience. This really is a fortuitous blunder. If Spielberg would have just shown the shark, the buildup to the payoff wouldn?t have been nearly as suspenseful as it was. If you have never seen this, you are missing out. It literally made people afraid to go into the water.  Oh, by the way, avoid Jaws: The Revenge (the third sequel) like the plague. It has been named in many places as the worst movie ever made.