Welcome to The VERB!

Some folk I know consider me a bit weird because I like to be scared. Where did it come from, this sick desire to feel my heart race and my eyes bug out? Who knoweth? Who careth? But I'll tell you one thing, it's becoming harder and harder to get my fix.

Here we are, in my favorite month of the year. The winds are changing. The leaves are turning. The pumpkins, haystacks and cornstalks are popping up at neighborhood stands. And my famous pumpkin pies are not far from sliding into the oven.

So what's the next thing we do after we drag the huge orange bins from the garage and commence to scattering Halloween spookiness all around? You are correct—we watch scary movies.

And it's not that they're in short supply. I can easily fill my Netflix queue with a slew of Halloween-themed movies, but the majority of those gems consist of gore and torture and big-breasted girls who do really small-minded things. Hear a noise outside? Well, let's run out there and investigate. See a man on the side of the road with a machete? Well, let's pick him up.

It's downright depressing.  

In a recent Twitter poll, I asked fellow tweeters to name the scariest novel they've read as an adult. Know which book blew all the others out of the water? The Exorcist. A most excellent and scary story indeed. One that certainly kept me awake many nights after I read it. But this demonic tale was published in 1971. Has nothing come along since then to rival its terror?

That's debatable. But this is what I fear: many of today's storytellers have lost touch with suspense. Oh, they've nailed the Boo! moments, but they don't have a clue how to create ambiance. A generous mixture of milieu and mood. It's really what storytelling is all about: creating a world that readers and viewers long to revisit. A world where one never tires of the characters or the dialogue or the events. And in that distinct world, something wicked this way comes. It's an old technique, to be sure, but one I hope never goes out of style. Despite all the "instant gratification" talk these days, we readers and viewers still possess the ability, nay, the need to anticipate. 

So if I had to make a list of my Top 15 Halloween Movies, where everyday people are dropped into vulnerable situations, it would look like the one below. These films contain solid stories, vivid characters, dynamic dialogue and scary, unsettling milieus. Some are as humorous as they are suspenseful, and that too is part of the charm. Every year, I can't wait to revisit them.

Watch them, if you dare. Analyze them. Maybe you'll like them, maybe you won't. But one just might inspire you to write a story that we'll all be reading or watching in the not-too-distant future.

The 'Burbs
Duel
Hocus Pocus (This one we run in a loop on Halloween night as we're doling out the candy. The kiddies love it!)
The Lost Boys
The Others
Psycho
Rear Window
Rope
Secret Window
Silver Bullet
Sleepy Hollow
Sweeney Todd
Them
Vacancy
What Lies Beneath

  Elizabeth Guy     
Editor    

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This issue 
was published 
under the musical 
influence of...



Alejandro Amenábar
The Others
soundtrack