13 Great DVD's for the Halloween Season

1.Young Frankenstein [1974]: "Abby Normal."  "Putting on the Ritz!"  The flaming finger.  The gags never get old in this spectacular spoof that still manages to capture the look and feel of the classic Universal monster movies.

2.Halloween [1978]: Hard to believe that no film had focused on All Hallow's Eve before John Carpenter's masterpiece.  Renowned as an ur-slasher movie, this one actually succeeds because of eeriness rather than graphic violence.

3.Dark Night Of The Scarecrow  [1981]:

"Bubba didn't do it!"--but the scarecrow does avenge (in most American-Gothic fashion) his murder by a lynch mob.  One of the scariest movies ever made for network TV, starring Charles Durning as a mailman so odious, he makes Seinfeld's Newman seem like Santa Claus.

4.Something Wicked This Way Comes [1983]: The carnival comes to Greentown, on a direct train from the October Country.  Jonathan Pryce shines as the sinister Mr. Dark.

5.The Nightmare Before Christmas [1993]: No October is complete without a trip to Halloween Town.  With its musical numbers and countless offbeat characters, Tim Burton's film plays like a wonderfully macabre version of The Muppet Show.

6.Scream [1996]: Halloween-by-proxy in this self-conscious effort from Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven.  The movie that ushered the slasher film into the postmodern age.

7.Saturday Night Live - Halloween [1998]: Hysterical compilation of holiday skits, featuring your favorite SNL alum plus guest appearances by John Travolta, James Woods, Neve Campbell, and Pamela Anderson.  Don't miss Ana Gasteyer's riotously deadpan impersonation of Martha Stewart.

8.Practical Magic [1998]: This film proves that the Halloween season can also be a time of charming romance.  Standout performances by Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters who, with the help of their witchy aunts Stockard Channing and Diane Weist, fight a century-old family curse that causes any man they fall in love with to meet a tragic demise.

9.Idle Hands [1999]: Demonic, disembodied hand wreaks havoc on Halloween.  A horror comedy ahead of its time, featuring a young Jessica Alba.

10.Cry Wolf [2005]: The best of the post-Scream slew of teen horror movies, this one set at a boarding school in October.  Clever script, blood and guts, and Jon Bon Jovi.

11.Monster House [2006]: A supremely animated and surprisingly funny movie that draws on the time-honored Halloween plot device of the cranky neighbor in the creepy house who's always chasing kids away from his property.  A film to delight adults and youngsters alike.

12.Halloween [2007]: Bashing Rob Zombie is as popular as zombies themselves these days, but the director's ambitious remake provides an excellent, extended portrait of Michael Myers as a young sociopath.

13.Trick 'r Treat [2009]: The Pulp Fiction of Halloween movies, with its fragmented structure and overlapping storylines.  Long delayed (thanks in large part to its depiction of violence against children) before its straight-to-DVD release last October, this one is an instant classic.