Halloween arrives, the famous party in which everything is dyed in dark colors, horror movies, macabre costumes and shiny pumpkins. One of the most anticipated nights on the calendar, above all, due to the playful and fun character it has acquired in recent years.
Beyond celebrating a specific reason, most of us take the opportunity to have a fun time with friends. For their part, the little ones have fun painting and making masks, donning a monster, witch or superhero costume, as appropriate, and, all together, walking through the neighbors’ houses to collect candies.
This year, the Halloween party will be different due to the pandemic. There are many doubts that it will develop in the same way. Everything indicates that, if it is held, it will be on a smaller and more familiar scale, with video calls and fun at home.
No problem, we adapt to the situation. And, for this reason, we want to take the opportunity to recommend some fictions that will make you spend a scary Halloween night. Prepared? Here we go.
Van Helsing
We start with a film that can be seen by all audiences -the recommendation is for children over seven years old-. This is Van Helsing , a great adaptation of the story of Count Dracula that captivates from the first minute.
The reasons? A good mix of action and fantasy that maintains the tension at all times. The performances are wonderful and the mythological creatures are perfectly introduced into the plot, which makes it more interesting: vampires, bats, werewolves, Frankenstein’s monster…
All of them give life to this feature film, released in 2004 and set in Transylvania at the end of the 19th century, which will easily transport you to the mythological and dangerous environments associated with these dates.
Scream
We go one step further. Or a few. If the previous one is a tape that children older than seven can see, this one is only for adults: the scenes are really scaring.
Scream is a horror film, released in 1996, which is remembered almost 25 years later as one of the most iconic of the genre. Surely, even if you haven’t seen it, you know the protagonist’s white mask and black tunic.
A bit disturbing, isn’t it? This dialogue, through an anonymous phone call, places us in a chilling plot that makes our hair stand on end; above all, because fear is mixed with the most absolute uncertainty and a strange game in which the murderer asks questions and gloats over classic horror movies.
REC
If you are a fan of these, you will know that there are many cliches to scare -children, murderers, abandoned houses, forests…- and any original element is welcome. Well, this is precisely what this Spanish film, released in 2007, achieves.
The format is innovative, since it is recorded as a journalistic documentary: an information team follows the firefighters in one of their programs. They come to the rescue of an unusual situation in a building, in which a neighbor bothers others with her screams. But why does she do it?
To find out, you have to see it, we are not going to spoil it. We will only tell you that the “live program” format keeps you on edge at all times, giving it a disturbing realism.
Movistar+ has a wide range of films of all kinds. On this subject, you can also see Frankenstein by Mary Shelley , about the mythical monster; Dracula, the legend never told , about the controversial figure of Vlad ‘The impaler; The Cabin in the Woods , about five friends who spend a weekend in an isolated house, or Stephen King’s Fog , about a mysterious fog that surrounds a crowded supermarket, among many others.
Castle Rock
As for series, the horror genre does not have as much experience as in feature films. It is starting, we could say. But there are already some interesting titles that can entertain you during this Halloween night.
The first of the recommendations is a recent series, from 2018, which already has two seasons, due to the success of the first. Castle Rock takes us to a town in Maine, the US state where many of the horror writer Stephen King’s stories usually take place.
Specifically, it places us in Shawshank prison, where an inmate appears in a remote corner. Everything indicates that it is related to some strange events that occurred there, which end up involving the entire town.
Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels
Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels is not going to leave you indifferent either. This series, premiered this year exclusively on Movistar, takes us back to a time of beginnings, social changes and glamour: the 30s in Los Angeles.
In Hollywood, two detectives investigate a gruesome murder that appears to have supernatural elements. If this doesn’t make it more interesting, mix in prophecies and death cults. Can you think of something better to watch this Halloween?
The expedition
If, instead, you prefer to disconnect from the television and read, we also have some great recommendations to have a scary time.
Among the great authors of this genre we find Stephen King, Agatha Christie or Edgar Allan Poe. Of the first, on the Nubico book platform for smartphones, tablets or eReaders -with more than 60,000 novels and 80 magazines- they have selected these: Doctor Sleep, Mr. Mercedes, The Long March, 11/22/63 and The Expedition.
The last one, The Expedition , is especially light and easy to follow, as it consists of several short stories. This format is great for enjoying Halloween, even with friends or family: short scary stories that you can read aloud.
Podcasts, another alternative
Now, Nubico has made the leap to TV and has its own Living App Nubico Audiolibros, in which literature uses audio as a communication channel. Have you ever wondered what the voice of this or that character would be like?
Although if what you want is to listen to podcasts on other topics and not necessarily about fear, you have to know the integration of iVoox in Aura and Movistar Home. Just say out loud: “OK Aura, put on a podcast” for the smart device to play a radio program.
This is the future of smart homes, where gadgets will talk to us. At the moment, they are limited to identifying and recognizing our voice and words, but who knows how far they will go.
Technological possibilities, in this sense, are interesting and cause some uncertainty, but Halloween is not the time to focus on them, but on the fantastic and dark creatures that star in these days.
