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    What Is the Scariest Song of All Time? Poem? YouTube Video?

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    Times writers revealed their picks. Listen at your own risk.For Halloween, we asked writers and editors around The New York Times for the pieces of art or culture that they turn to when they need a good scare. The result is a collection of audio stories that will send a chill down your spine, make your hair stand on end and keep you entertained.The Spookiest Video on YouTubeMadison Malone Kircher, an internet culture reporter on the Styles desk, says “Ghost Car” is the most frightening online video she has ever seen. Warning: This one has a jump scare.The Spookiest Video on YouTube◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; Photo by Bob Olsen/Toronto Star, via Getty ImagesThe Scariest OperaThe final scene of “Salome,” Richard Strauss’s 1905 opera, might contain the scariest song ever written, according to our classical music critic, Zachary Woolfe. He found it “totally terrifying” when he first heard it as a child, and its intensity still overwhelms him years later.The Scariest Opera◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; Image: Getty ImagesThe Scariest Thing I Know About the UniverseOur cosmic affairs correspondent, Dennis Overbye, knows a lot of alarming things about the universe. But the one that haunts him most? At any moment, without warning, the whole thing could simply disappear.The Scariest Thing I Know About the Universe◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns, via Getty ImagesThe Scariest Song I KnowJon Pareles, chief popular music critic, describes why “The Downward Spiral” by Nine Inch Nails, off the 1994 album of the same name, is “perfectly designed to make your skin crawl: structurally, sonically and psychologically.”The Scariest Song I Know◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; Photo by 20th Century FoxThe Scariest Episode of TVMargaret Lyons, a television critic, dives into an episode of “The X-Files” so horrifying that executives felt compelled to pull it from syndication.The Scariest Episode of TV◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; Image: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Science Photo Library, via Getty Images.The Scariest Poem I KnowCésar Vallejo’s “Piedra Negra Sobre Una Piedra Blanca,” or “Black Stone on a White Stone,” isn’t what you might think of as a traditional Halloween poem. There are no ghouls or goblins in it. But for Juliana Barbassa, deputy Books editor, reading this poem brings up a question that’s much more haunting: “When we consider our single life, our one opportunity to live well,” she asks, “are we doing that?”The Scariest Poem I Know◆ ◆ ◆Illustration by Julia Moburg/The New York Times; American Genre Film Archive + Bleeding SkullThe Scariest Horror Movie You (Probably) Haven’t SeenYou may know Freddy and Jason and Chucky, but Erik Piepenburg, who writes a horror column, would like to introduce you to “The McPherson Tape.” When you watch this 1989 movie, he says, “You’re watching the birth of a genre.”The Scariest Horror Movie You (Probably) Haven’t Seen More

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      From ‘The Exorcist’ to ‘Bambi,’ These Movies Messed Us Up as Kids

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      Our first horror movie is often a memory imprinted on our brain and, for some of us, our heart.How young is too young to watch a scary movie?With Halloween approaching, we asked you, the reader, to share your experiences of this rite of passage. Nearly 1,000 people responded with indelible memories; for some, watching a scary movie at a young age inspired a lifelong love of horror movies.Among those we heard from, the most common ages to be exposed to a hair-raising movie seemed to be from 7 to 10, peaking at age 8. But many were also freaked out as teenagers and even as adults.You watched them at the local movie theater; on a black-and-white television; at your neighbor’s house when your parents thought you were being closely supervised; with an older sibling who let you tag along; or with a grandparent who thought the PG-rated “Poltergeist” was a great choice for movie night.“The Exorcist,” William Friedkin’s horror masterpiece that turns 50 this year, was mentioned most frequently as your first scary movie, followed by “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Birds” and “Psycho.” But even Disney’s 1942 animated film “Bambi” traumatized many.You also had us looking up lesser-known, eerie cinematic moments: the “wheelers” in “Return to Oz” (1985); the creepy hearse driver’s smile in “Burnt Offerings” (1976); the haunted organ music in “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” (1966); and Large Marge’s jolting transformation in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” (1985). We also appreciated the crisp, black-and-white splendor of Gort the robot in “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951) and the unexpectedly heart-wrenching ending to the Japanese Kaiju movie “Rodan” (1956).Here are some of our favorite responses.‘The Exorcist’ Still Haunts You”The Exorcist” was mentioned most frequently as your first scary movie.Warner Bros.“My parents were watching it, and it was back when TV only had like five or six stations over the airwaves. This was in a cabin in rural Michigan on a B&W set. I remember my parents telling me it was better to watch it to the end and see the resolution. Later that night, my father got food poisoning and was throwing up a lot. After watching that movie, I thought he was possessed.”— Bill Lester of Long Beach, Calif., on seeing the film at age 7.“My parents did not know and would not have approved. I am now 53 years old so we did not even own a VCR. A babysitter brought one over for the weekend, and we watched not only ‘The Exorcist’ but also ‘Deliverance’ (was our babysitter Hannibal Lecter?).”— Jeff Knops of Seattle, on seeing the film at age 9.“I was so frightened that I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head so that I didn’t have to watch it. It didn’t work. The sounds of the movie scared me just as much. I couldn’t sleep for months. Later I snuck into it a second time in order to overcome my fear. It was equally traumatic.”— Jay Frisch of New York, who sneaked into a theater to watch it at age 13.“My mother’s boyfriend would take me and my 5-year-old sister to horror movies. This was in the ’70s, when you could take kids to terrible movies at second-run theaters, apparently. He told us we were going to see “Benji,” the dog movie. This was not recognized as abuse back then. Many things were not. My sister still has nightmares about it — she’s 51 now.”— Jodi Peterson of Central Illinois, Ill., on seeing the film at age 8.Sketchy SupervisionDon’t let the Blob touch you!Paramount Pictures“One girl of 14 who had been tasked with watching me for the day suggested we all watch ‘The Ring.’ She called my mom to ask for permission, but my mom had misunderstood and thought I’d be watching ‘Lord of the Rings.’”— Holly of Arlington, Mass., on seeing “The Ring” at age 9.“My parents had absolutely forbidden me to watch this movie. Uncharacteristically, they forgot to tell the babysitter. In my memory, I barely slept a wink. I could not go to my parents for comfort, because they had forbidden me to watch the film. I could not go to my sister for comfort because she would certainly inform my parents. So there I lay, rigid, hypervigilant and terrified.”— Tess Tyson of Gig Harbor, Wash., on seeing “The Birds” at age 6.“My mother was out and my 10-year-old cousin was watching me. ‘The Blob’ was on the Friday Night Frights. He made the judgment call I could watch it with him, rather than risk missing any of it by putting me to bed.”— Eric Gansworth of Tuscarora Nation Indian Territory, Tuscarora, N.Y., on seeing “The Blob” at age 5.“I was spending the night with my friend Matt. His mom was at a party so it was just the two of us in the house. Matt’s house had HBO, which meant scary movies in all their R-rated glory. Ten-year-old machismo made us eager to watch. So we watched it. Jiffy Pop and Coke were consumed. Super fun! But THEN when it was time to go to bed, Matt said, “I’m going to sleep in my mom’s bed and wait for her to come home,” leaving me alone in his room in a sleeping bag. I was petrified. Absolutely petrified.”— Jason Heck of Belton, Mo., on seeing “Halloween II” at age 11.You Call These Children’s Movies?!The Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, fueled many of your nightmares.MGM“My earliest and most vivid encounter with sheer terror took place in a movie theater when I was 3 years old. It was at the Fresh Pond Cinema in Cambridge, Mass., not during a showing of ‘Cujo’ or ‘It,’ but another dog and clown horror classic (masquerading as a kids’ movie), ‘Air Bud.’ Still indelible in my memory is a particular scene in which the sottish, spiteful clown re-emerges intent on snatching Buddy, our endearing, basketball-dunking dog pal, away from his newfound, but kind, young companion. Even now, I’m not sure what was scarier: watching the clown reappear on the screen, or the deafening, collective cry of fear that erupted from me and the rest of the audience of toddlers.”— Clare Goslant of Cambridge, Mass., on seeing “Air Bud” at age 3.“The wicked witch was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. I screamed and shut my eyes every time she appeared. That same year, after I had watched ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ I was cast as a wicked witch in my second-grade play. I cried and cried when I came home. I had wanted to play the fairy princess. My mother taught me how to cackle. And she said I’d be the star of the show. She was right.”— Cathy Arden of New York, on seeing “The Wizard of Oz” at age 7.“It was supposed to be a children’s movie, but the scene of Bambi’s mother dying in a forest was something I found terrifying!”— Carter Bancroft of Huntington, N.Y., on seeing “Bambi” at age 5.“My older sister and I were dropped off at the big movie theater for the Saturday matinee. She left me all by myself and went off with her girlfriends. This was before parental helicopter-ing. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ would later be broadcast annually on TV. Kids were able to cuddle with grown-ups in the safety of their own home, with the happy songs, cute little Munchkins and Dorothy’s funny friends. There’s no place like home. That’s a whole different process than I experienced, and it was a whole different picture for me. It was not so much my young age, but watching a family movie in that wild setting, having such a powerful effect on my senses, made it my first scary movie. I was scarred for life.”— Don Feiler of Mattituck, N.Y., on seeing “The Wizard of Oz” at age 5.‘Innocent’ FearJamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in “Halloween II.”Universal Pictures“The menacing, manic Caligari with his long white hair and elongated hat terrified me as he danced around the tilted landscape and jagged windows. I could not wait for it to be over and for the threatening nonsense to stop. When it was, and my heart stopped racing, I realized I just had my first experience of art.”— Kathleen Brady of New York, on seeing “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” at age 14.“I’m sure I played it cool in front of my friends, but I laid in bed that night filled with dread, fear and regret. Michael Myers was coming for me. I finally went into my parent’s bedroom and woke up my mom and told her what was necessary at the moment — I wasn’t feeling well and needed her help. She took my temperature and tucked me back into bed and I think could tell I just really needed her right then. She sat on my bed and read me stories from a book she kept at her own bedside until the screams of Jamie Lee Curtis were replaced by the laughter of Erma Bombeck, and I was able to drift off to sleep. To this day I’ve never told my mom the truth of why I needed her that night. Maybe she knew all along. But I’m sure it was the last night of her soothing one of her babies to sleep.“My mother is now 90 years old and her senior living facility is showing Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ this weekend. I’m planning to go watch it with her and perhaps afterward we will drink hot tea, finally tell this story, and read her Erma Bombeck book to distract us from any lingering fear. And isn’t that why we watch scary movies? They play out our fears and anxieties on the screen and remind us to find safety in those people and places who make us feel loved.”— Beth Martinez of Austin, Texas, on sneaking into a showing of “Halloween II” at age 14.“The sheer volume of spiders haunts me to this day. I am now a horror cinephile, but that movie wrecked me. The climax has spiders pouring out of the walls, the pipes, the television screen. And when it ended, I experienced this crazy sense of euphoria and pride at having survived something so terrifying. Unfortunately, it also instilled a lifelong fear of all things creepy and crawly — but honestly? I’ve been chasing the high of that first horror movie my whole life.”— Andrew Gombas of Queens, N.Y., on seeing “Arachnophobia” at age 8.“Being frightened by things that can’t really happen is both thrilling and teaches you perspective. Now that I’m grown up, I have a hard time watching scary movies because of all of the scary things that have happened to me in real life. I miss that ‘innocent’ fear.”— Erin Walla of Norway, Mich., on seeing “Horror of Dracula” at age 7.What Were My Parents Thinking?“Here’s Johnny!” is one of the classic phrases spoken by Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.”Warner Brothers“I actually watched this with my dad. Forty-three years later, I continue to jokingly ask, ‘Why did you think this was a good idea?’”— Derik Frederiksen of Seattle, on seeing “The Shining” at age 6.“The fact that no one in the room thought it was a bad idea for a child to be watching gave me true Gen X cred.”— Lynwood Lord, Media, Pa., on seeing “Alien” at age 9.“Why the title didn’t give them pause, I’ll never understand. I had my eyes covered through most of it, so I didn’t see much of the film; the soundtrack was scary enough. When the movie ended, the lights came up in the theater, and still, the stunned crowd sat silent, no one moving. I couldn’t understand why no one was running out of there, and in my little-kid, high-pitched voice, I yelled out, ‘Let’s get out before it starts again!’”— Joey Moskowitz of Paradise Valley, Ariz., on seeing “Psycho” at age 5.Skeptical, but Still ScaredSadako in “Ringu,” the Japanese original of “The Ring.”Basara Pictures“I remember being scared but also dubious of the entire premise of the movie. I just didn’t believe it was plausible for you to run for your life and the guy to catch up with its leisurely stroll.”— Eva Edith of Wasco, Calif., on seeing “Halloween IV” at age 8.“I remembered the scene of Sadako crawling out of the television set very vividly. The only scene that I covered my eyes was when they played the ‘cursed video’ that would give you a call after you’d seen it. Funnily enough, my mom also looked away from the screen. We were a superstitious Asian family, so we weren’t taking any chances.”— Ryan Oquiza, Ashburn, Va., on seeing “Ringu” at age 7.“I remember trying to act cool and not scared, surrounded by my newfound middle school peers. I still had to hide my eyes sometimes. The scene where the demon pops up behind the dad scarred me for life. I had to keep my bedroom door open with the TV on in the next room for the next six months. I swore my house was haunted after that movie.”— Sheridan Posschelle of Denver, on seeing “Insidious Part 1” at age 13. More

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      ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’: A Hit That Initially Unnerved Disney

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      The filmmakers look back on its 30th anniversary and recall how uncomfortable it made executives. They didn’t expect the celebrations around it today.“What’s this?” Jack Skellington sings excitedly when he first comes across Santa Claus’s snowy, colorful village in “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” That’s also what Disney executives asked with concern about the idiosyncratic stop-motion animation musical when they saw a rough cut.“Anytime you’re doing something like that, which was unknown: stop motion, the main character doesn’t have any eyeballs and it’s all music, what’s to feel comfortable about?” Burton said during a video call from London. “Of course they would be nervous about it.”Burton’s “Nightmare,” currently back in theaters to commemorate its 30th anniversary, is now more popular than ever: This weekend the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles is holding a series of live concerts around the film, Disney theme parks feature seasonal attractions inspired by its characters, and merchandise, from board games to housewares, abounds.But the eccentric and endearing movie wasn’t always a ubiquitous part of our holiday watch list. Back in October 1993, “Nightmare” was released not as a Disney title but under the studio’s more adult-oriented label Touchstone Pictures.“They were afraid it might hurt their brand,” the director Henry Selick said in a video call from his home in Los Angeles. “If they had put the Disney name on it right then, it would’ve been much more successful, but I understand it just didn’t feel anything like their other animated films.”Based on Burton’s original story and characters, the unusual picture was directed by Selick, by then a seasoned stop-motion artist with spots for MTV and a variety of commercials to his name. Burton’s frequent collaborators Michael McDowell and Caroline Thompson wrote the screenplay.Sally (Catherine O’Hara) and Jack Skellington. She was the subject of a sequel novel last year. Touchstone PicturesOver the course of its original run, “Nightmare” grossed $50 million at the domestic box office. And while that number is by no means dismal, it’s a far cry from Disney animated hits like “Aladdin,” which just a year earlier brought in $217 million from U.S. screens alone.At the time, Disney couldn’t figure out how to market the operatic saga of Jack, a lanky, sharply dressed skeleton, infatuated with bringing the wonder of Christmas to his monstrous friends in uncanny Halloween Town.Selick initially worried that the number of songs Danny Elfman had composed for the movie, a total of 10 tracks for the brisk 76-minute run time, would alienate viewers. In retrospect, he said, the memorable tunes were crucial to the film’s eventual success, once audiences connected with its unconventional rules of storytelling and design.These days Selick can’t go a week without running into a fan wearing a sweater, hat or other apparel emblazoned with “Nightmare” imagery.“This year there’s a 13-foot-tall Jack Skellington you can buy at Home Depot, and people have them on their lawns,” Selick said. “I like that because it’s pretty bizarre and extreme. That’s not just a T-shirt, that’s a real commitment.”For Burton, the character of Jack Skellington embodies a preoccupation common in his work over the years: the terrifying notion of being misunderstood. “The conception of it was based on those feelings growing up of people perceiving you as something dark or weird when actually you’re not,” he recalled.Selick compared the skeletal antihero’s amusingly manic behavior to Mr. Toad from the animated classic “The Wind in the Willows,” one of his favorite Disney protagonists. “I’ve always been drawn to characters like Jack Skellington,” Selick said. “He gets carried away with something new and goes way overboard with his enthusiasm.”Burton, who grew up in the Los Angeles area, where Latino culture has a strong presence, also holds a special affinity for Día de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday that embraces mortality as a natural part of life’s cycle. That was among his many inspirations for “Nightmare. ”The film was initially a modest hit that Disney released under its adult label, Touchstone.Touchstone Pictures“I always felt a connection to that celebration. People think of it as a dark sort of thing, but it’s quite light,” Burton said. “That’s where the juxtaposition of those feelings of dark imagery with more spiritual positive feelings connected with me very early in life.”For stop motion as a technique, “Nightmare” represented a watershed right before the advent of computer-generated animation. Selick credited the director of photography, Pete Kozachik, for introducing the tools that set the production apart, namely designing and building the rigs that allowed the heavy Mitchell film cameras to move a frame at a time.“That made the film so cinematic,” Selick said. “All the stop motion before had been done in lock shots or really simple little pans,” the mostly static visual language that limited other stories told in the same medium. But, Selick continued, “what Pete brought was this freedom of camera movement, which really turned it into a bigger movie.”While there was talk of turning his concept for “Nightmare” into a TV special or realizing it in hand-drawn animation, Burton — who as a child adored Ray Harryhausen’s creations and Rankin/Bass tales like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” — held out until there was a team to do it in stop motion.“If you’ve ever been on a stop motion set and you see its tactile beauty, it is like going back to the beginning of making movies in the sense that it’s all about artists making puppets, sets, there’s a feeling that’s unlike any kind of thing,” Burton said.Decades before he directed the stop-motion features “Corpse Bride” (2005) and “Frankenweenie” (2012), both of which earned him Oscar nominations for best animated feature, Burton dove into the painstaking technique with a 1982 short film, “Vincent.”“Other mediums are great, but for me that’s the most pure and beautiful one,” Burton added.Selick admitted that for a while the general public’s lack of awareness that he had directed “Nightmare” upset him. He’s now made peace with the lack of credit because this milestone in his career wouldn’t have happened without “Tim’s brilliance and ideas.”“I could still certainly win bar bets for the rest of my life,” he said with a cheeky smile. “‘For $20, who directed “The Nightmare Before Christmas”?’”The movie has inspired Disney theme park celebrations, concerts and merchandise.Touchstone PicturesFor Selick, one of the indicators that the movie had become a classic came a few years after the lukewarm reception to the theatrical release, but before Disney had fully embraced it. The director recalls children coming to his house trick-or-treating on Halloween night in homemade costumes of “Nightmare” characters before officially licensed versions existed.“I’d sometimes bring them in with their parents and show them the original figure of Jack as Santa in his sled with the reindeer that I kept, and they would just scream with joy,” Selick recalled while pointing his camera to the fragile figure in a glass display case.“It’s not really mine or Tim’s or Danny’s anymore,” Selick said. “It’s the world’s movie, and I kind of like that.”Since 2001, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland has been transformed every fall into a “Nightmare”-inspired attraction known as Haunted Mansion Holiday. And each year, from early September through October, Disneyland holds the Oogie Boogie Bash, a Halloween party three nights a week featuring and named after the movie’s rambunctious villain.Burton believes these displays epitomize the film’s evolution from unclassifiable oddity to a uniquely beloved property. “When I see that, I go back to the early days when the film was first being done, and thinking of the journey that it’s taken, this symbolizes it in a very strange way,” said Burton.Selick added that he was invited the first year of the Haunted Mansion Holiday. “They didn’t try to turn it into one of their other characters,” he said. “They really got the aesthetic of the designs just right.”A sequel novel, “Long Live the Pumpkin Queen,” focused on Jack’s romantic partner, Sally, and a prequel comic, “The Battle for Pumpkin King,” were published in the last year. Yet three decades on, Burton maintained that the original animated film was a one-of-a-kind feat.“In a certain way that’s the beautiful thing about it as it is. It’s one movie. It’s stop motion and it tells its story. And that helps make it special for me,” Burton explained. “It’s its own thing, there aren’t five sequels and there’s not a live-action reboot.” More

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      Halloween TV: Five Shows That Mix Horror and Humor

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      “Creepshow,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and other shows serve up humor with their horror.Sorting through the seasonal bounty of horror and supernatural television series timed to Halloween, I have focused on shows that approach the grim task with a sense of humor. Here, in alphabetical order, are five series released this month that put more emphasis on wit than on sheer terror.‘30 Coins’The Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia careens through the conventions of the religious conspiracy thriller in this preposterous and highly enjoyable series that combines a “Da Vinci Code”-style premise with extremes of gore and a circling, tenuously comprehensible plot.In the first season, a Spanish village became the site of a battle among Roman Catholic cabals and emissaries of Satan over Judas’s 30 pieces of silver, which if collected would give their owner unimagined power. Or something like that. Fighting back against these forces of evil was a motley crew that included a renegade priest, the village’s unhappily married mayor and a plucky veterinarian.Paul Giamatti plays a cult leader in the new season of “30 Coins.”Manolo Pavón/HBOIn Season 2, which premiered this week on HBO and Max, the apocalypse has been averted but its likelihood is still palpable, and the number of creepy beasts in the manner of Bosch and Guillermo del Toro has exponentially increased. Also joining the show is Paul Giamatti as a science-fiction-writing cult leader who is human in form but as frightening as any beast.‘Creepshow’Now in its fourth season on the horror-centric streaming service Shudder (as well as AMC+), this anthology series wears its comic-book sensibility and B-movie aesthetic proudly. And the best of its 22-minute stories (two per episode) also exhibit the cleverness and industriousness that contribute to real pop-culture satisfaction. You’ll see the first twist coming, but the second and the third may take you by surprise.“Creepshow” doesn’t reach too far for its inspirations — Season 4’s familiar scenarios include a persecuted vampire family, a werewolf in a “Little Red Riding Hood” situation, a haunted video game and a cursed pair of 3-D glasses.But along with its unpretentious nature comes a willingness to be self-referential and provide fan service, and some of its most entertaining segments are unabashed in-jokes. The Season 4 opener, “The Hat,” suggests that the novels of a writer strongly resembling Stephen King were actually composed by a snappy homburg that refuses to stop writing. In “George Romero in 3-D,” Romero comes back to life in animated form to battle ghouls of his own creation. King and Romero were, of course, the writer and director of the 1982 film “Creepshow” from which the series was spun off.‘The Fall of the House of Usher’Mike Flanagan’s fifth horror mini-series for Netflix (a collection that began with “The Haunting of Hill House”) is, if you care about consistency with the source, a serious mismatch. The genuinely morbid intensity of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing, on prominent display in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is out of tune with Flanagan’s well-upholstered, tongue-in-cheek, slightly synthetic approach to horror, where everything is right there on the surface.But that surface is often diverting, if not particularly frightening or memorable, and Flanagan can be counted on for large, capable casts. The eight-episode “Usher” offers Bruce Greenwood and Zach Gilford as current and past versions of Roderick Usher, reimagined as a Sackler-like big-pharma executive; Carl Lumbly as a prosecutor named Auguste Dupin; a raspy Mark Hamill as a corporate fixer named Arthur Gordon Pym; and T’Nia Miller as an Usher offspring named Victorine Lafourcade. The Flanagan regular Carla Gugino cycles through costumes and makeup, “Kind Hearts and Coronets”-style, as a seductive angel of death.Dupin, Pym, Lafourcade and many others are named after Poe characters who had nothing to do with “Usher,” an indication of how Flanagan’s series is less an adaptation of the original — it isn’t really that at all — than a Frankenstein’s-monster collage of references to numerous Poe stories and poems. Episode titles — “Murder in the Rue Morgue,” “The Pit and the Pendulum” — clue you in to the style of gruesome death that’s about to take place. Passages of Poe’s prose and poetry are frequently incorporated into the dialogue, making for very flowery conversations. Gugino’s character is named Verna, an anagrammatic nod to Poe’s favorite bird.Flanagan’s biggest change is to expand and update the story into a carnivalesque critique of capitalist greed and inhumanity. Roderick Usher, childless in the original story, now has six heirs whose lives are a catalog of wealth-and-entitlement motifs: nightclub bacchanals, sex with subordinates, wellness profiteering, antiquities looting, crisis management, A.I. infatuation, baking silly trompe l’oeil cakes. Poe’s Ushers were doomed by malaise and sheer malevolent ambience; Flanagan’s have to die because they’re a virus on the earth. As apocalyptic metaphors go, his “Usher” is reasonably entertaining.‘Shining Vale’Jeff Astrof and Sharon Horgan’s series cunningly blends horror, satire and situation comedy in its picture of a modern American woman’s dilemma: Has Pat Phelps, the struggling writer played by Courteney Cox, been driven crazy by the stresses of marriage, motherhood and career? Or does she act like a crazy person because her house is haunted and she’s fighting off demonic possession?Courteney Cox, left, and Mira Sorvino, in the new season of “Shining Vale.”StarzThe first season of “Shining Vale” on Starz was a riff on “The Shining,” with Pat eventually taking an ax to her suburban Connecticut manse and to her feckless husband, played with simpering perfection by Greg Kinnear. Season 2, whose third episode premieres Friday, tackles another celebrated film, “Rosemary’s Baby”; the herbal tea a neighbor provides to calm Pat’s nerves after her release from a psychiatric ward has the unexpected side effect of reversing her menopause.The avenging (but often friendly) spirit played by Mira Sorvino in Season 1 has supposedly been electro-convulsed out of Pat’s head, but luckily Sorvino returns, now playing the concerned neighbor. She and Kinnear, along with a stellar supporting cast that includes Judith Light, Merrin Dungey, Parvesh Cheena, Allison Tolman and the great Harriet Sansom Harris (Bebe in the original “Frasier”), bring a comic harmony to the show’s indelicate balance of tones.‘Wolf Like Me’A melancholy Australian romantic dramedy with werewolves, Peacock’s “Wolf Like Me” mixes tones and tropes in the manner of “Shining Vale” but with a quieter, less satirical effect. When “Shining Vale” sags, it goes flatly jokey; when “Wolf Like Me” runs out of energy, it gets blandly sentimental.But when the creator, writer and director of “Wolf Like Me,” Abe Forsythe, is on his game, it’s a funny, lovely and moving show that can tap straight into your emotions. Also crucial are the performances of Isla Fisher as Mary, an American werewolf hiding from the world in Adelaide, Australia, and the young actress Ariel Donoghue as Emma, a girl devastated by the loss of her mother who becomes Mary’s de facto stepdaughter and develops a fierce loyalty to her. Josh Gad plays Gary, Emma’s father and Mary’s unlikely new boyfriend, and does a nice job of staying out of Fisher and Donoghue’s way.Season 1 brought this accidental trio together, introduced a teasing note of magical realism (along with the outright full-moon supernaturalism) and established the theme of love’s triumph over grief and alienation. In Season 2, the focus shifts to Mary’s pregnancy, which is both a blessed event and a five-alarm crisis. Forsythe’s inventiveness occasionally runs low, and the characters can get strident and unengaging, but he builds to an exciting and wrenching finale that’s also a dire cliffhanger. More

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      SAG-AFTRA Advises Actors Against Character Costumes Amid Strike

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      The SAG-AFTRA union told its members not to dress as characters from major productions and post pictures, which could be seen as promoting the work of companies they are negotiating with.Barbie, Ken and Wednesday Addams costumes are out. Ghosts and zombies are in.Halloween this year is tricky for actors on strike, under new union guidelines that tell them how to avoid crossing the virtual picket line: Don’t dress as characters from major studio productions or post photographs of the costumes online.“Let’s use our collective power to send a loud and clear message to our struck employers that we will not promote their content without a fair contract,” the union, SAG-AFTRA, said in the guidelines on Thursday.The union urged its members to “celebrate Halloween this year while also staying in solidarity.”SAG-AFTRA, representing more than 150,000 television and movie actors, has been on strike since July while it negotiates a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major movie and streaming companies including Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros.Generally, the union encourages striking members to share photographs of their union engagement and the picket line in order to amplify their demands, which include increased residual payments from streaming services, a wage boost and protections regarding the use of artificial intelligence. But SAG-AFTRA said its Halloween guidelines were intended “to make sure our members don’t inadvertently break strike rules.”The guidelines urge members to choose generic costumes — of zombies, spiders or ghosts, say — or to base their costumes on characters from animated television shows.In its coverage of the new guidelines on Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter highlighted some of the rules’ technicalities. For example, a costume based on Barbie, which is owned by Mattel, could suggest that the wearer was promoting the summer’s biggest movie from a major studio.“Presumably, actors could dress up like struck characters if they weren’t seen publicly in their costumes, but it’s probably best not to risk it — after all, nothing is scarier than getting called out for scabbing,” the publication wrote, using the slang term for someone who disregards a strike.Social media photos of costumes inspired by content covered by the strike could be considered publicity work, according to the union. It was not clear how actors would handle dressing up as Barbie or J. Robert Oppenheimer at events that would not be publicized or whether actors would influence the costume choices of their family members.“I look forward to screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 year old all night. She’s not in the union but she needs to learn,” the actor Ryan Reynolds said in a joking post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.John Rocha, a union actor and the co-host of “The Hot Mic,” a film review podcast, called the decision “foolish” and said he hoped that SAG-AFTRA would reverse course.“Partying at Halloween dressed as the characters their fellow SAG actors brought to life (while they blow off some steam) should be ENCOURAGED,” he said on X.Negotiations between the entertainment studios and the union collapsed last week, with both sides saying they remained far apart on the most significant issues. More

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      James Wan Prefers Peter Jackson’s Gory Horror Comedies

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      The director of 21st-century horror blockbusters (and “Aquaman”) on the movies, food and trading cards that get him through the Halloween season (and beyond).From “Saw” to “Insidious” and “The Conjuring,” James Wan has been a director, creator and producer on some of the biggest horror franchises of the last two decades. Even when he’s gearing up for films outside his genre (Wan’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” drops next year), he’s never far from the horror conversation. The trailer for the Wan-produced possessed doll film, “M3GAN,” lit up the internet when it was released earlier this month. So, it’s not surprising that Wan takes the Halloween season seriously. To start, there’s the annual pilgrimage to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.“I get to take a break from work and indulge my horror craving,” he said in a recent video interview. “But I’m not watching it, I’m walking through it and experiencing it in a more tactile way. I like to be scared. But, ultimately, it’s fun. You know the guy chasing you with an ax isn’t actually going to ax you.”And then, of course, there are the films. Wan rotates through some of his favorite horror films in October, like “Chopping Mall” and “Night of the Creeps” — or “The Frighteners,” which he says is full of the director Peter Jackson’s unique sense of humor.“Sadly, most people today know him from his ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, but for hardcore fans we all grew up with ‘Dead Alive,’ ‘Bad Taste,’ and ‘Meet The Feebles,’” he says. “In his gory horror comedies, his horror set pieces are so over the top — blood spraying everywhere — it’s just hilarious. And that’s what I see in ‘The Frighteners,’ a little bit of that cheekiness peppered throughout.”Here, Wan talks about the places, movies and food that he enjoys throughout the year. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “The Last of Us Part II” During the pandemic, I played “The Last of Us Part II,” like, five times. It feels like I’m actually playing a movie. These games are so in-depth, you spend hours and days and even weeks with the characters and the story, and you get caught up with them emotionally. And that’s what “The Last of Us Part II” did so well: It was exciting, it was scary, but it was ultimately driven by emotion.2. “Mars Attacks” Trading Cards I grew up collecting toys, comic books and trading cards. During the pandemic, I got back into collectibles. I went on eBay and tried to collect all of the “Mars Attacks” cards. Unfortunately, the originals are almost impossible to find, so I had to buy some reissues. I collected a lot of sports cards in my high school days, so now it’s kind of fun to collect non-sports ones, like “Mars Attacks.”3. Home Theater When I was renovating the home that I’m in now, one of the things I really wanted was a really good home theater. I’ve got nice recliners, a big screen, high-end projectors, a great sound system and the room is fully soundproofed. The first full movie I watched in there was “Tenant.” It’s my pride and joy of the house.4. 1978 Rolex “Pepsi” Another thing I like collecting are vintage watches. They don’t have to be big and fancy. I enjoy the idea of so much artistry and engineering going into something that’s so small. The older the watch is, the cooler it is to me. One of my favorites is my red and blue 1978 Rolex GMT-Master 1675 “Pepsi.” I thought it was fun to get a watch that was, basically, as old as me.5. Netherworld Haunted House One of my favorite haunted houses that I’ve been to is called Netherworld, near Atlanta. A group of us went when we were shooting “Furious 7” around Halloween. There are a lot of cinematic ideas that they put into it. It’s really cool to see them pull off a lot of the gags with cool animatronics, great lighting, fog, and other old-school film tricks, which is the stuff I like about old-school horror films.6. My Mother’s Laksa I grew up on a spicy Malaysian noodle dish called Laksa. It’s not an easy dish to get in America and usually when they do make it, it’s not quite like the one I grew up with. Where I was born in East Malaysia, they make Laksa with spicy shrimp paste, while the rest of the world seems to make it with curry paste. And it just has a different flavor. It takes a lot of work and patience to make — which I don’t really have the time for — so, I just wait until my mother visits me from Australia. She brings all the ingredients and she cooks it for me.7. My Courtyard Garden When you see Rob Zombie and then you see his crib, you kind of go, Oh yeah, that makes sense. When people come to my place, they notice that it’s very different from the kind of movies I make. I need a space that’s calm, light filled, and peaceful. I love my courtyard. It’s a peaceful place for me to go out in the middle of the night, pace back and forth and just think.8. “The Cuphead Show!” Late at night, just before bed, my wife and I have been watching “The Cuphead Show!” on Netflix. It’s a cartoon based on a video game, Cuphead. It’s about a pair of cups who are brothers. I love the old-timey cartoon aesthetic. It’s a nice palate cleanser.9. Antique Music Boxes I have a handful of antique music boxes. I love the way they cram such smart engineering into tiny little boxes. I have one on my coffee table that’s about the size of a child’s coffin. I also have an old gramophone that I like to play every now and then. It freaks my wife out because it sounds like something that’s straight out of one of my horror films — you know, that crackly record player that’s playing some old-timey music.10. The Uffizi Gallery I’m a big fan of Italian art and culture, from artists during the Renaissance to Italian horror directors like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. When we went to Florence a few years ago, I said we had to visit Uffizi Gallery. The place is filled with the most incredible artwork from artists like Rembrandt and Caravaggio. It was amazing. To see the works of artists I grew up admiring was one of my favorite life experiences. More

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      ‘The Curse of Bridge Hollow’ Review: Attack of the Halloween Décor

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      A father and daughter team up to save a town after she sets loose a spirit that brings spooky decorations to life.“The Curse of Bridge Hollow,” a lighthearted horror comedy from the director Jeff Wadlow, boasts an appealing premise: The plucky teenager Sydney (Priah Ferguson), futzing around with a Ouija board, unwittingly sets loose a demonic spirit, which brings to nefarious life every Halloween decoration in town. Her father, Howard (Marlon Wayans), is a high school science teacher and hard-nosed skeptic; when the awakened skeletons, zombies and clowns terrorize the town, the rational father and credulous child must team up and meet each other’s views halfway. And in what seems like the perfect conceptual addendum, the town is widely renowned for its Halloween decorating. “Everyone picks a theme, and then you go big time on that theme,” explains a zealous neighbor (Rob Riggle), whose yard is decked out with zombies in tribute to “The Walking Dead.”This setup promises a gleeful escalation of comic pandemonium, but the film fails to deliver. One early set piece, in which deadly spiders run amok in a nursing home, shows potential but swiftly devolves into a tedious slog of limp action clichés and irreverent quipping. The most flagrant problem is the film’s lack of visual imagination. Wadlow, a good horror director, seems hamstrung by the family-friendly context and struggles to develop tension in the absence of a plausible threat of violence. (For a movie rife with fights and chase scenes, it has a body count of zero.) The creatures are dull and unoriginal across the board, failing to capitalize on the range of styles of decorations, while the evil spirit who is the film’s ultimate villain looks like he’s been outfitted from the discount bin of a Spirit Halloween.The Curse of Bridge HollowNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      Things To Do in New York: Halloween Events and Activities

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      Haunt the streets at Halloween parades. Dance at a “Zombie Prom.” Or find your way through a corn maze. We’ve got you covered on how to celebrate.During Halloween, it’s OK — even encouraged — to frighten your neighbors and devour mounds of Twizzlers and candy corn without judgment. This tradition was partially halted by the pandemic, as walk-through haunted houses mutated into drive-throughs and theaters shut out viewers, while streaming services welcomed them.As in-person programming bounces back, here’s a guide to pumpkin picking, drag shows, haunted houses and more to enjoy throughout New York City with friends and family. All scare levels are welcome.Frights for the FamilyIn its 49th year, the Village Halloween Parade returns on Halloween Day with hundreds of puppeteers, dancers, artists and musicians marching — or crawling — along Greenwich Village. The parade, which begins at 7 p.m. on Sixth Avenue between Spring Street and 16th Street, encourages thousands of costumed New Yorkers to walk alongside the performers.At the annual Bronx Halloween Parade, beginning Oct. 22 at noon, Halloween enthusiasts can enjoy a similar experience as the New York Police Department marching band, the Philadelphia 76ers drum line and dozens of community organizations haunt the streets for about a half mile, from Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue to Dawson Street and Rogers Place, adjacent to Bill Rainey Park. The comedian Radel Ortiz will host the post-parade festivities, and all ages are encouraged to participate in a costume contest for a cash prize.Run as you are, whether in a witch costume or your racing attire, during the NYCRuns Haunted Island 5K and 10K. The race takes place early on Oct. 29, wrapping around Governors Island — twice for 10K runners — and provides age and gender-specific awards. All racers can enjoy a ferry ride, a post-race breakfast and Halloween candy. Governors Island will also host Pumpkin Point, its annual pumpkin patch and fall festival at Nolan Park (Oct. 22-23 and Oct. 29-30), where guests can enjoy pumpkin picking with a suggested donation, arts and crafts, pumpkin painting and trick-or-treating. Pumpkins that don’t find a home will be composted or donated locally to organizations combating hunger.At the Amazing Maize Maze at the Queens County Farm Museum, visitors can join a scavenger hunt through acres of towering cornstalk.Matthew BorowickAt the family-run Decker Farm on Staten Island, visitors can handpick the perfect pumpkin, hop on a tractor-towed hayride exploring the 11 acres of farmland, wander through the children’s hay maze and even chuck a gourd (exactly what it sounds like) on October weekends and Oct. 10. The farm, established in the 19th century and a designated New York City landmark, also welcomes guests for fall-themed family portraits and pumpkin painting.In the Amazing Maize Maze, located at the Queens County Farm Museum, visitors can embark on a scavenger hunt through acres of towering cornstalk on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October and on Oct. 10. For an added challenge, Maze by Moonlight allows visitors to venture through the path at night on four select dates, using only a flashlight to guide them.If you’re in search of a different leafy plant this season, watch “Little Shop of Horrors” Off Broadway at the Westside Theater/Upstairs, Tuesday through Sunday on select afternoons and evenings. The 40-year-old musical, created by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, follows a bloodthirsty plant, Audrey II, that catapults a geeky flower shop assistant, Seymour, to stardom. The musical, inspired by Roger Corman’s 1960 black comedy, has since grown into one of the most produced shows in high schools nationwide. As the plant’s size multiplies, so does Seymour’s prominence. The story reminds viewers “of the special potency of grisly things that come in small, impeccably wrapped packages,” the former New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote in a 2019 review.The streaming service Disney+ has resurrected the cult classic that follows three kooky sisters who cast spells on the unfortunate youth in the city of Salem, Mass. In Anne Fletcher’s “Hocus Pocus 2,” Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy reprise their witchy roles as they zap into the 21st century, summoned by a charmed candle. The sisters run amok using Roombas instead of flying broomsticks and chug anti-aging creams in a local pharmacy. A treat for the whole family, the film embraces existing fans and attracts new ones.“RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag” in Los Angeles last year. On Oct. 30, the drag queen Yvie Oddly will lead the show at Kings Theater in Brooklyn.Emma Mcintyre/Getty ImagesHorror With a Hint of GlamHouse of Yes, a club in Bushwick, Brooklyn, known for theatrical, sky-high performances and pulsating rhythms, has a full slate of Halloween-themed events such as “Vampire Ball” (Oct. 20) and “Zombie Prom” (Oct. 27), where guests are encouraged to dress as “bloody (bat)dies” and “gory ghouls.” A Halloween edition of the venue’s popular variety show “Dirty Circus” will begin Oct. 26 and conclude with “Absolutely: A Halloween Drag Spectacular” on Halloween night.Kings Theater will also host a night of drag queen royalty with “RuPaul’s Drag Race Night of the Living Drag,” led by Yvie Oddly, the absurdist drag queen and Season 11 winner, and featuring eight other performers in an interpretation of Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”Particularly PetrifyingThe NYC Ghosts tour visits eight to 12 locations throughout the city, including the Morris-Jumel Mansion, which served as Gen. George Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War, and a Revivalist Greek brownstone called the House of Death, where Mark Twain lived for about a year. Tours range from an hour to 90 minutes and are held nightly throughout the year.For a true bloodcurdling experience, Blood Manor, a 10,000-square-foot haunted house in TriBeCa with clowns, corpse brides and cannibals, would be a good place to start. The renowned Halloween destination, where Kevin Hart and Jimmy Fallon shrieked in terror in 2016, has welcomed the fearful and fearless for more than a decade. This year, the house brings attractions like “Maggot Invasion” and “Hannibal’s Hell” as well as killer clowns and a paranormal battlefield. Attend at your own risk on weekends and select weekdays through Nov. 5.For those willing to venture outside the city, Headless Horseman Haunted Attractions, upstate in Ulster Park, guarantees a horrifying immersive experience along its 65-acre property with escape rooms, haunted houses, a corn maze and a new walk-through trail. More sinister than the special effects are the masked serial killers and squealing clowns in each dimly lit, blood-smeared room. It’s open Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, with Children’s Days, which tone down the thrills, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday in October. More

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      5 Movies to Watch for Halloween

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      5 Movies to Watch for HalloweenErik PiepenburgIn Manhattan, watching with the lights out 👻 [embedded content]Cult: ‘Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker’Starring ’70s teen hearthrob Jimmy McNichol, this movie is one of the few classic slasher films to feature a positive portrayal of a gay character. But it’s Susan Tyrrell who turns it into a camp showpiece.Find where to stream it. More