Five Scary Movie Set On Halloween To Watch This Halloween

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André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is based on the book series written by Alvin Schwartz. Set on Halloween in 1968, a group of teenage friends find the book written by the daughter of Bellows family, Sarah, in a secret room. One of the children, Stella, takes the book home, and as she reads the book, new stories appear and play out on the screen. Sarah is sending a message, but what is it? You have to watch the movie to find out. The film stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Gil Bellows, and Dean Norris.

Kevin S. Tenney’s Night of the Demons is a fun 80s horror comedy movie set on Halloween night when friends go to a party in an abandoned mortuary. Why? Because it’s spookier, that’s why. It stars Cathy Powell as goth queen Amelia Kinkade, horror darling Linnea Quigley, and Hal Havins. The film is perhaps most famous for Angela Franklin’s seductive dance to Bauhaus’s song Stigmata Martyr as she turns into a demon. Angela is the only character appearing in the entire series; the second film is also set on Halloween.

Trick ‘r Treat is a 2007 American anthology horror film written and directed by Michael Dougherty (in his directorial debut) and produced by Bryan Singer. The film stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox. It relates four Halloween horror stories with a common element in them: Sam, a trick-or-treating demon wearing orange footie pajamas with a burlap sack over his head. The character appears in each story whenever one of the other characters breaks a Halloween tradition. Despite being delayed for two years and having only a limited number of screenings at film festivals, the film received positive reviews and has since garnered a cult following.

The Coven is a 2015 United Kingdom fantasy horror feature film directed by John Mackie (director) and starring Dexter Fletcher. It is stated that the film is based upon actual events. The plot revolves around a Wiccan group, whose leader Uri Clef, and seven followers disappear. They were last seen at The Coven, a ring of trees in Queens Wood once used as a meeting place by practitioners of Cochrane’s Craft. Some schoolkids are drawn to visit Queen’s Wood in Highgate on Halloween.

Ginger Snaps is a 2000 Canadian supernatural horror film directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed. The film stars Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle  as Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald, two morbid teenage sisters whose relationship is tested when Ginger (who has started her period for the first time) is attacked and bitten by an unknown animal, and then later, during the next full moon, slowly starts to transform into a werewolf. The supporting cast features Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, Peter Keleghan, and Mimi Rogers.

RIP Kris Kristofferson

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Kris Kristofferson, the renowned award winning actor and country singer-songwriter, has died. He was 88. He was surrounded by family when he died “peacefully” at his home in Maui on Saturday, Sept. 28. Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force major general). Although his father tried to push Kris into the military, Kristofferson attended Pomona College and experienced his first national exposure in 1958, appearing in the March 31 issue of Sports Illustrated for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, American football, and track and field. In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a B.Phil. degree in English literature from Oxford.

Though he wanted to be a writer under pressure from his family, joined the U.S. Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, attaining the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training. During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division. During this time, he resumed his music career and formed a band. After leaving the army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. Struggling for success in music, he worked at odd jobs in the meantime while burdened with medical expenses resulting from his son’s defective esophagus. He and his wife divorced in 1968.

Among his songwriting credits are “Me and Bobby McGee”, “For the Good Times”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night”, all of which were hits for other artists. He release 21 solo albums and won several Grammy’s. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in the country music supergroup the Highwaymen, which was a key creative force in the outlaw country music movement that eschewed the traditional Nashville country music machine in favor of independent songwriting and producing.

As an actor, Kristofferson was known for his roles in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Blume in Love (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), A Star Is Born (1976) (which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor), Convoy (1978), Heaven’s Gate (1980), Stagecoach (1986), Millenium (1989), Lone Star (1996), and the Blade film trilogy (1998–2004). Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Following the release of his final studio album, The Cedar Creek Sessions, in 2016, the country icon formally announced his retirement from music in 2021 and shared that Morris Higham Management was representing his estate.

Married 3 times, he also dated Janis Joplin for a while. His second marriage was to singer Rita Coolidge in 1973, ending in divorce by 1980. Kristofferson married Lisa Meyers in 1983. Kristofferson and Meyers owned a home in Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, California,[31] and maintained a residence in Hana, Hawaii, on the island of Maui. Kristofferson had eight children from his three marriages: two from his first marriage to Fran Beer; one from his second marriage to Rita Coolidge and five from his marriage to his third wife, Lisa (née Meyers) Kristofferson.

RIP James Earl Jones

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Veteran American actor James Earl Jones, best known for being the voice of the Star Wars villain Darth Vader, has died aged 93. He died early on Monday morning surrounded by his family, agent Barry McPherson said. Jones starred in dozens of films including Field of Dreams, Coming To America, Conan the Barbarian and The Lion King. He was best known for giving the Star Wars supervillain Darth Vader his distinctive, gravelly voice.

During his career, Jones won three Tony awards including two Emmys and a Grammy, as well as an honorary Oscar in 2011 for lifetime achievement. In 1971, he became only the second Black man nominated for an Academy Award for best actor, after Sidney Poitier. Star Trek actor LeVar Burton was among the first to pay tribute to Jones, saying “there will never be another of his particular combinations of graces”. Also paying tribute, US actor Colman Domingo wrote: “Thank you dear James Earl Jones for everything. A master of our craft. We stand on your shoulders. Rest now. You gave us your best.”

Born in Mississippi in January 1931, Jones said he was unable to speak for most of his childhood because of a stammer. He explained he had developed his famous voice while working on how to deal with the stammer. Jones was best known for voicing Darth Vader in the original Star Wars film, which came out in 1977, and sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. He reprised the role in later film releases such as the first instalment of the Star Wars anthology series, Rogue One, and the third instalment of the sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – both released in the later 2010s. A different actor always donned the Darth Vader costume and provided the movement for the famous villain, including the late David Prowse, with Jones lending his deep and instantly recognisable voice.

He has also been called “one of the greatest actors in American history”. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honoured with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011.  Jones made his Broadway debut in 1957 in Sunrise at Campobello (1957). He gained prominence for acting in numerous productions with Shakespeare in the Park including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear. Jones worked steadily in theatre, winning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a boxer in The Great White Hope (1968), which he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation, earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.

In 1968, Jones married actress and singer Julienne Marie, whom he met while performing as Othello in 1964. They had no children and divorced in 1972. In 1982, he married actress Cecilia Hart, with whom he had a son, Flynn. Hart died from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016.

RIP Gena Rowlands

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Veteran American actress Gena Rowlands, who is known for roles including in The Notebook and Another Woman, has died at the age of 94. Rowlands, who was nominated for an Oscar for 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence and 1980’s Gloria, died at her home in Indian Wells, California. No cause of death was given, but she had been suffering from Alzheimer’s, according to reports. She quit acting in 2015 after winning four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and earning two Oscar nominations.

Both A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria were collaborations with her late husband John Cassavetes. Her Emmys were for The Betty Ford Story, Face of a Stranger, Hysterical Blindness, and The Incredible Mrs Ritchie. Born in Wisconsin, she moved to New York and starred in the Broadway debut of The Seven Year Itch. In 1956 she starred in Broadway play Middle of the Night. In 2015, she was given an honorary Academy Award for her long acting career.

She also starred in films Faces, Opening Night, Unhook the Stars, Yellow and Broken English, Hope Floats, Tempest, The Brink’s Job, Tony Rome and The Neon Bible. The Notebook was directed in 2004 by her son Nick Cassavetes, who recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about how his mother played a character suffering from dementia. Other than The Notebook, I’ve also watched her in Paulie (that very sweet scene where the bird shows, Ivy, his affection) & The Skeleton Key.

Three Movies I Have Watched & Love Featuring Golden Retrievers

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Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

If you’re a kid of the 1990s, then you remember this film! Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is a remake of a 1963 film based on a novel. The movie features three animals—Chance (an American Bulldog), Shadow (a Golden Retriever), and Sassy (a Himalayan cat)—who mistakenly believe they’ve been abandoned by their family and decide to make the trek across the Sierra Nevada to make it home. It’s an excellent film with plenty of adventure and drama, and you’ll love it!

Air Bud

When you think of movies starring Golden Retrievers, chances are Air Bud (and the accompanying sequels and spin-offs) is one of the first to pop into your head (at least if you’re of a certain age). This family-friendly flick features a dog named Buddy who is an excellent basketball player. There’s more to it than that, of course, such as learning to live with grief after the death of a loved one and dealing with bullies. The movie was popular when it came out, and it’s still fun to watch today!

A Dog’s Purpose

A Dog’s Purpose is another movie you just might end up crying over. This film features a reincarnated dog trying to find his purpose (so, the dog is only a Golden Retriever in one lifetime) and explores themes of dysfunctional families, loyalty, and grief. It’s an incredibly sweet story, but it’s another where you might want to have a box of tissues on standby.

RIP Patti Yasutake

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Patti Yasutake, who was a regular on “Beef” and played Nurse Alyssa Ogawa on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” died Aug. 5 in Santa Monica of cancer. She was 70. On Netflix’s “Beef,” Yasutake played George’s mother Fumi Nakai. She is most famous for her “Star Trek” role as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa in the tv series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the movie Star Trek Generations and Star Trek : First Contact.

She started her career working with Mako at East West Players theater company. She also worked with the other companies including Los Angeles Theatre Center, South Coast Repertory, the Westwood Playhouse. Her television acting career began in 1985 with an appearance on the show T. J. Hooker. Yasutake’s major feature debut came in Ron Howard’s 1986 comedy “Gung Ho,” and she went on to star in the TV series adaptation as Umeki, a Japanese wife trying to become more Americanized. Her other TV guest appearances included “The Closer,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Bones,” and films including “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” “Blind Spot” and “The Road to Galveston.”

More recently, she appeared on Boston Legal. She resided in Hollywood, California. She was married. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female in 1988 for her role in The Wash. She also directed for the theater, staging premieres including “Doughball” at East West Players and “Father, I Must Have Rice” at the Ensemble Studio Theater, along with a reprise of “Tea” at the Odyssey Theater. Overall she played Nurse Ogawa in 16 episode of TNG. she auditioned for the part of an unnamed conn officer on The Next Generation but wasn’t cast. After she first appeared as Nurse Alyssa Ogawa in the fourth season episode “Future Imperfect” in 1990 she wasn’t convinced to be called back and play this part again. Yasutake was also a contender for the role of Keiko O’Brien, introduced in the same season, but the role was cast with actress Rosalind Chao.

In 2001 she provided additional voices for the video game Star Trek: Armada II. In 1993, Yastutake also portrayed Alyssa Ogawa in a Hallmark television commercial in North America where she is seen questioning the shipboard computer about the features of the USS Enterprise-D “Keepsake” ornament. She has had movie roles in Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot, Dangerous Intentions, Drop Dead Gorgeous and The Coverup. Born in Los Angeles, she was raised in Gardena and Inglewood and graduated UCLA with Honors in Theater. She is survived by siblings Linda Hayashi and Steve Yasutake.

RIP JAMES B. SIKKING

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James B. Sikking, the American actor who played two great characters in Steven Bochco created series in the no-nonsense Lt. Howard Hunter on Hill Street Blues and the good-hearted doctor dad on Doogie Howser, M.D., has died. He was 90. Sikking died Saturday at his Los Angeles home of complications from dementia, publicist Cynthia Snyder announced. 

Although best known for his TV work, Sikking did have notable turns on the big screen as a mocking hitman in John Boorman’s Point Blank (1967), as the stuffy Captain Styles in Leonard Nimoy‘s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and as the director of the FBI in Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief (1993). After spending the better part of two decades showing up on such shows as The Outer Limits, Honey West, The Fugitive, Hogan’s Heroes and Mannix, Sikking was cast as the pipe-smoking Hunter, leader of the SWAT-like Emergency Action Team, on NBC’s Hill Street Blues.

One of five kids, James Barrie (named for the Peter Pan author) Sikking was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1934. His mother, Sue, founded the Unity by the Sea Church in Santa Monica in gratitude after she recovered from a nearly fatal automobile accident. His father, Art, followed his wife into the ministry. After military service, graduated from UCLA in 1959 with a theater degree. He then appeared on episodes of Perry Mason and Assignment: Underwater in 1961 and later in films including The Carpetbaggers  (1964), Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and In Like Flint (1967). From 1971-76, Sikking played Jim Hobart, a surgeon with a drinking problem, on the ABC soap General Hospital, and he was the distant father of Jim Carrey in the acclaimed 1992 Fox telefilm Doing Time on Maple Drive.

Sikking appeared on 144 episodes across all seven seasons (1981-87) of the acclaimed drama and received an Emmy nomination in 1984. Bochco turned to Sikking again for Doogie Howser, and he played Vietnam veteran turned family practitioner David Howser, husband of Belinda Montgomery’s Katherine and dad of Doogie (Neil Patrick Harris), on all four seasons (1989-93) of that ABC show. He then portrayed a cop again for Bochco on Brooklyn South, which lasted one season (1997-98) on CBS.  He got hired for his one-day gig on The Search for Spock through an offer from producer Harve Bennett, his onetime UCLA classmate. He was a good friend of the film’s director and co-star, Leonard Nimoy, with whom he worked a number of times.

Survivors include his second wife, Florine, an author whom he met at UCLA and married in September 1962; children Emily and Andrew; and grandchildren Lola, Gemma, Hugh and Madeline.

RIP SHANNEN DOHERTY

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American actress Shannen Doherty, known for her roles on the wildly popular series “Beverly Hills, 90210” and on the witchcraft fantasy “Charmed,”, has died after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. She was 53. Her death was announced by her publicist. Shannen was famous for her bad girl reputation in Hollywood. Doherty rose to fame in 1990 as the fresh-faced brunette Brenda Walsh on Fox’s “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Along with her twin brother Brandon, played by Jason Priestly, the Walshes were the classic fish-out-of-water family that had recently moved from Minnesota to Beverly Hills and were constantly amazed at the antics of the L.A. rich kids.

Born in in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in her mother’s Southern Baptist faith she was of Irish and Native American descent. In 1982, Doherty had guest spots on TV series including  Voyagers!  and Father Murphy, The same year, 11-year-old Doherty won the recurring role of Jenny Wilder on Little House on the Prairie, and also appeared in episodes of Magnum P.I & Airwolf. In 1985, she starred as Maggie Malene in the teen movie comedy Girls Just Want to Have Fun alongside actresses Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker. Doherty was cast as the oldest Witherspoon sibling, Kris, on the family drama Our House, which ran from 1986 to 1988, a role which garnered her several Young Artist Award nominations.

Doherty’s first major motion picture role was in the dark comedy Heathers, which premiered in 1988. She garnered worldwide attention and fame for her breakout role as Brenda Walsh in the Aaron Spelling-produced TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1990. In 1991 and 1992, her portrayal of Brenda earned her a Young Artist Award nomination for Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Series. Doherty left the show after the fourth season in 1994. She appeared nude in Playboy magazine, first in December 1993, followed by a spread in March 1994. She posed for the magazine again in December 2003 and was featured in a 10-page pictorial.

Doherty’s career afterward consisted primarily of made-for-TV movies, though she also had a lead role in Kevin Smith’s 1995 film Mallrats and later cameoed in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In 1998, Spelling again cast her in another of his television series, Charmed, in which she played one of the lead characters, Prue Halliwell, the oldest of three sisters who are witches. Doherty also directed a few episodes for the series during the second and third seasons. Doherty left the show in 2001 at the end of the third season, resulting in her character’s death. Reportedly, her departure was caused by on-set and off-set tensions between Doherty and co-star Alyssa Milano.

In 2003, Doherty hosted the Sci Fi Channel candid-camera show Scare Tactics during its initial season. From 2004 to 2005, in a return to her prime-time soap roots, Doherty starred as a regular on the short-lived TV series North Shore, where she starred as Alexandra Hudson. Later in 2005, she was in the pilot for a comedy, Love Inc. In 2006, Doherty produced and starred in her own reality show, Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty, which premiered on the Oxygen channel. In 2008, 14 years since her last television appearance as Brenda Walsh, Doherty joined the cast of the Beverly Hills, 90210 spin off for The CW Television Network for a reported $40,000–50,000 an episode. She returned as a guest star in the new series, reprising her old role of Brenda in four of the initial six episodes. On July 21, 2011, WE tv announced that Doherty would star in a one-hour reality series that would follow her and her fiancé, Kurt Iswarienko, as they planned their wedding in the show, Shannen Says. Doherty and her former Charmed co-star Holly Marie Combs would star in their own road-trip reality show called Off the Map with Shannen & Holly, which premiered on Great American Country on January 2, 2015.

In November 2016, Doherty joined the cast of a Heathers television series,playing mother to one of the characters. Doherty once more reprised her role of Brenda Walsh for the six-episode sequel BH90210, which debuted August 7, 2019, on FOX. In 2021, she was in the movie Fortress starring Jesse Metcalfe, Bruce Willis, which was released to select theatres. In early 1993, Doherty was briefly engaged to Max Factor heir Dean Jay Factor before he filed for a restraining order on May 25, 1993. On October 11, 1993, Doherty married Ashley Hamilton, the son of actors George Hamilton and Alana Collins. They filed for divorce in April 1994.

In 2002, Doherty married Rick Salomon, but the marriage was annulled after nine months.On October 15, 2011, Doherty married photographer Kurt Iswarienko in Malibu, California.In April 2023, Doherty announced that she had filed for divorce from Iswarienko.