Ramblings and Retrospectives Halloween Special Part 1: Was that the boogeyman?

Hello again, and welcome to the first instalment of our wonderful Halloween specials. We thought that we'd start things off with the basics. And so, here is our little guide to one of the most important and oft-seen sub-genres, the slasher movie. These are the films you need to see....

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)

Plot: A van full of teens travelling through Texas find themselves stranded near a farmhouse. They shouldn't have gone inside...

Is it any good?: The first two-thirds of the film are still terrifying. Director Tobe Hooper has never matched his work here, building claustrophobia and tension to the point where you're really not sure if you can take it any more. The heat of the location and the rotten contents of the dilapidated farmhouse seem to seep off the screen. Despite the final third taking a comic turn, Leatherface and his family are still some of the most disturbing characters committed to celluloid.

Sequels: Hooper waited fourteen years before making a largely comedic sequel starring Dennis Hopper, and a third movie followed four years later. The fourth, and last sequel, is of interest purely because it stars a young Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger

Remake: Marcus Nispel directed the surprisingly good remake in 2003. Starring Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour, Jonathan Tucker, and R. Lee Ermey, the film's success is to blame for the tidal wave of remakes that followed. It's not as good as the original, but it's certainly not bad. A lacklustre sequel followed in 2006.

HALLOWEEN (1978)

Plot: As a child, Michael Myers brutally stabbed his sister and her boyfriend to death on Halloween night. Fifteen years later, he has broken out of the asylum and has returned home. Will Dr. Samuel Loomis, Michael's doctor, arrive in time to save Laurie Strode and her friends from the boogeyman?

Is it any good?: While it's generally acknowledged that the slasher genre was born with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, the first absolute slasher was John Carpenter's seminal horror. Originally titled The Babysitter Murders, it's simple, effecient and brutal. Surprisingly, it's not at all gory. Instead, Carpenter builds a sustained level of threat throughout, helped by his wonderfully creepy score. It still holds up, and it's one of the best horror movies ever. Starring Jamie-Lee Curtis as the prototype for "The last girl", and Donald Pleasance as the softly-spoken Loomis, it's one of those valuable horror films that genuinely scares.

Sequels: Halloween II ditches tension for bigger set-pieces and more gore. It's fun, but pretty disappointing. Halloween III is one of the strangest horror sequels ever, losing the Michael Myers plot for a story about possessed masks. A noble effort that doesn't quite work, it does have one of the best endings of the series, however. Halloween 4 returned to Haddonfield, bringing back Loomis and introducing young Jamie, the latest of Michael's targets. Halloween 5 continued in the same vein, but slightly more routine. Halloween 6 is pretty dreadful, and is notable only for a ridiculous plot twist, an early lead for Paul Rudd, and Donald Pleasance looking very ill indeed. Halloween H20 brought back some of the quality (and Jamie-Lee Curtis), but that good-will was obliterated by the dire Halloween: Resurrection, which finally killed off Laurie but didn't manage to kill Busta Rhymes

Remakes: Rob Zombie remade Halloween, and the result is generally regarded as awful. However, if you're a horror fan you'll love the cameos (Brad Dourif! Danny Trejo! Ken Foree! Udo Kier! Clint Howard!), and Malcolm McDowell has a blast as Dr. Loomis. It works best as a dark comedy, as Zombie fills the first half with every redneck cliché in the book. The remake was followed by a sequel that got an even worse reception.

FRIDAY 13th (1980)

Plot: A group of campers arrive to re-open Camp Crystal Lake years after it was shut down when a young boy drowned. This night, one by one, they are creatively picked off by an unseen assailant. Is it little Jason, risen from the lake to seek his vengeance?

Is it any good?: The short answer is: Yes. The original Friday 13th follows the rules that Halloween laid down, but added gore. With the help of effects maestro Tom Savini, director Sean Cunningham created an inventive, solid little slasher on a shoestring budget. The attractive teens are all killed off in imaginative ways, the acting is pretty impressive, and the twist, if you haven't seen Scream, is actually a bit of a surprise. And yes, that is Kevin Bacon as the camp counsellor in the short shorts. And, like Halloween, the music is excellent.

Sequels: The Friday 13th sequels are perhaps the most reliable sequels in the horror genre, in that they're mostly pretty awful with smatterings of inventive gore thrown around. There are a couple of guilty pleasures hidden amongst the dross. The best is Part 4: The Final Chapter (Hmm....), which stars Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover. New Line bought the rights to the series after Part 8, and slipped in a nod to their Nightmare on Elm Street series in part 9. Jason went off to space in the inappropriately entertaining Jason X (with a cameo from David Cronenberg), before facing off with Freddy Krueger in Freddy vs. Jason.

Remake: The recent Platinum Dunes remake by Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) cannot be reccomended. Making Jason fast is one thing, giving him tunnels all over the camp is another. And the less said about the cast, the better.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

Plot: Nancy and her friends start having the same dream about a man in a red and green jumper, a fedora hat, and knives for fingers. When her friend Tina dies horribly in her sleep, Nancy realises that what happens in the dreams, happens for real

Is it any good?: It's certainly one of Wes Craven's finest hours. Parts have dated rather badly, but some of the effects are still fantastic and the air of menace the director creates is fantastic. Robert Englund is perfect as Krueger, and Heather Langenkamp remains one of the best, toughest scream queens. There's some dodgy acting, especially from Ronnee Blakely as Nancy's mum, but John Saxon lends some dramatic weight as her Sheriff dad, and Johnny Depp has his first role as her boyfriend Glenn. A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the best examples of the genre.

Sequels: Part 2 is best-known for its homoerotic overtones (our hero takes a shower while his fetish gear-clad gym teacher watches), but it's got some good moments. Part 3 is the best of the bunch. Written by Frank Darabont, Chuck Russell, and Craven himself, it brings back Langenkamp and Saxon, and stars Patricia Arquette and Laurence Fishburne, it's nasty but fun, and treads the line between comedy and horror better than the later sequels. Parts 4 and 5 are essentially the same movie as Freddy became a one-liner machine, and Part 6 is the worst of the lot (bizarrely starring Iggy Pop as Freddy's dad). Part 7 is often overlooked, and predates Scream by quite some way. Langenkamp plays herself, being talked back into starring into another Freddy movie, while the people around her are haunted and murdered. Written and directed by Craven, it's meaner and cleverer than a lot of other horror movies. Freddy stayed dead until Freddy Vs. Jason, which was only partly saved by Englund's continued enthusiasm.

Remake: Platinum Dunes has a sequel in post-production, starring Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy.

Well, hopefully this gave you something to think about, or at least some rental ideas! Part 2 will look at more recent boogeymen, from Pinhead and the Candyman to Ghostface and Jigsaw. We'll also look at monsters, madmen, and things from outer-space!

The Dokken music video for Nightmare on Elm Street 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvb_PjZFQ4U