{"id":417,"date":"2017-10-30T14:11:08","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T14:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copyright.lboro.ac.uk\/research\/?p=417"},"modified":"2017-11-09T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:04:28","slug":"halloween-hollywood-five-films-hallows-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/research\/communication-culture-citizenship\/halloween-hollywood-five-films-hallows-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween in Hollywood: five films for All Hallows’ Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cFew holidays have a cinematic potential that equals Halloween\u2019s,\u201d wrote the American cultural critic David J. Skal<\/a>. For over a century now, US film studios have exploited the commercial possibilities of All Hallows\u2019 Eve as enthusiastically as any maker of frightening masks or baker of pumpkin pies. IMDB<\/a> currently lists 200 titles featuring the word \u201cHalloween\u201d alone.<\/p>\n

But it can still be hard to define a \u201cHalloween film\u201d. Skal takes it to be one in which the holiday is the \u201ccentral subject\u201d, rather than there merely to add atmosphere<\/a>. But this still leaves open the question of genre. As it turns out, the Halloween movie is a highly elastic category. The five titles I\u2019ve selected here show it ranges from horror to farce, and from parody to animation.<\/p>\n

1. Betty Boop\u2019s Hallowe\u2019en Party<\/a> (1933)<\/h2>\n