[birds chirping]

Melissa Harris-Perry: [sighs] The chill is in the air, the pumpkin spice lattes in our bellies. We can smell the warm apple cider and feel the crunch of autumn leaves beneath our feet.

[animal sounds]

Spooky season is here, and it's almost time to dust off those ghost and ghoul costumes in the closet and take the kiddos out for a trick or a treat, but nothing says Halloween more than the time oral tradition of settling in for a scary movie. I sold in with The Takeaway's favorite movie critic duo.

Kristen Meinzer: I'm Kristen Meinzer.

Rafer Guzman: I'm Rafer Guzman.

Kristen Meinzer: Together we host Movie Therapy with Rafer and Kristen.

Melissa Harris-Perry: These critics gave us their takes on the best Halloween movie prescriptions for different occasions. All right, let's just start with what you've been anticipating. What are the horror or Halloween movies that you've really been looking forward to this season?

Kristen Meinzer: Oh my gosh. I have to say this season, one of my favorites already came out. It was called The Black Phone. It just came out a month or so ago. It is about a young boy who is kidnapped back in the 1970s and held in a basement. The only other thing in the basement is a black phone where he receives phone calls from the other victims who've been abducted by this kidnapper, and they try to help him get out. That came out pretty recently, and it's a pretty good Halloween movie, I have to say.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Oh, I can't. [chuckles] What about you Rafer?

Rafer Guzman: I have to say, I feel like horror is having a little bit of a backslide these days. I was really looking forward to Nope, the new Jordan Peele movie, and I was disappointed by that. Halloween Ends which of course is probably not Halloween ending. I feel that that franchise will probably go on for as long as it continues to make money.

The Halloween Ends was not the big blockbuster that I think it was supposed to be. We had a real boom in horror, I think ever since Get Out, things like Midsommar. There was a real boom and all these great interesting horror movies. I don't know, I think things are in a tiny bit of a lull these days.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Can we go back for a second? Rafer, what was disappointing to you about Nope?

Rafer Guzman: I'm a big, big Jordan Peele fan. I was really impressed by Get Out and really impressed by Us, these two really interesting films that had a lot to say about race in the case of Get Out, about class I think in the case of Us, just all these really interesting things. Nope just didn't do it for me. I wasn't really buying the characters. I wasn't quite sure what the movie was trying to get at. I felt like a lot of themes and ideas cobbled together to me. I know a lot of critics liked it, some critics didn't, and I was one of them, but for me, Nope just didn't work that well.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I do want to get to movie prescriptions. Kristen, can you tell us about your prescription for a romantic horror movie night?

Kristen Meinzer: Oh, yes. I love a romantic Halloween movie. I really do. One of my very favorites is Warm Bodies from 2013. It builds itself as a zombie romcom inspired by Romeo and Juliet, and it takes place in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. In the movie, a zombie named R saves a still-living human girl from an attack. The girl, Julie, starts to bring something back to life in R. For the first time in years, his heart begins to beat again, but the issue arises, will the fact that R ate Julie's boyfriend's brains come between them, and will their love possibly save the world? Here's a clip.

R: What's wrong with me? I just want to connect. Why can't I connect with people? Oh, right. It's because I'm dead. I shouldn't be so hard on myself, we're all dead. This girl is dead. That guy is dead. That guy in the corner is definitely dead. These guys look awful.

Melissa Harris-Perry: [laughs] I get how that could be romantic.

Kristen Meinzer: It is funny. It is cute. Nicholas Holt, that is the voice you're hearing there is R, and I just think Nicholas Hoult is delightful in this. It made my heart bubble up with love for this zombie romance. I wanted that zombie to be alive. I wanted to have blood running through his heart. I wanted humanity to prevail, and it did. Oh, spoiler, it does.

[laughter]

Melissa Harris-Perry: Rafer, do you have a date night horror flick wreck?

Rafer Guzman: I do. You're going to have to go back a little ways back to 1984 for this one. It's a movie called Night of the Comet, one of my favorite teen flick horror comedies from that decade. Not that many people know it. It's got this Great Valley Girls versus Zombies premise, another zombie movie following Kristen's lead here. Two sisters in Southern California, Reggie and Sam living their normal lives, but there's a comet coming.

It's making the news. Everyone's expecting this rare comet that's going to pass by earth. Everyone gathers outside to watch it. What they don't know is that when the comet passes by anyone who's exposed to it turns into a zombie vampire. Through a few coincidences, Reggie and Sam, our heroines aren't outside. When they emerge, the world is essentially gone and now it's overrun by these ghoulish ghastly zombie vampires and they're trying to survive in this new world.

Speaker: Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be one of the last people on Earth?

Speaker: We are talking ghost town.

Speaker: Who would you see?

Speaker: There's nobody, I mean there's nobody. [screams]

Speaker: What would you do?

Speaker: Hey, I'm sorry the end of the world makes me a little nervous. [screams]

Melissa Harris-Perry: [chuckles] There's something about the track that still feels so 1984, but I love that.

Rafer Guzman: Oh, well, it's a real-time capsule. I think one of the things I love about it is there's a radio station playing mysteriously, and what they're trying to do is go find the source of that radio station. If they can find the station, then maybe they'll find other living people. I won't spoil anything there, but I just loved this movie. It's very cute, it's funny, it's scary, it's romantic.

It's got a rare Hispanic leading man, Robert Beltran plays a leading man. Pretty unusual for 1984. It really fell off the radar at the time. It just never got traction, but one of the things that has kept it alive is that Joss Whedon the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer later said it was an inspiration for him when he was creating that series. I think it's given that movie a little life these days.

[music]

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, don't go running off to your zombie-safe house just yet. Kristen and Rafer have a few lighthearted Halloween movie prescriptions after the break.

[music]

Back with you now on The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry, and we've been running through some different Halloween movie prescriptions for this spooky season with Kristen Meinzer and Rafer Guzman. Speaking of things that have a little bit of funner lightness, I've got two kids. One is only eight years old, although, to be honest, she is the Halloweeny one.

[laughs] She's been walking around in red devilish horns and with a pitchfork and saying things like, "I killed my parents," for three weeks now.

[laughter]

I'm not so worried about that one, but my 20-year-old, I have to act like maybe she's six. Do you have some prescriptions for family horror movie watching?

Kristen Meinzer: Yes, I do. There are a lot of great Halloween movies, TV specials and so on, but one of my favorites just came out last year, Cruella. I know a lot of people have already seen Cruella or are familiar with it. It's the origin story of the Villain of 101 Dalmatians. Estella is a girl who is ridiculed for her unusual looks. She has half-black and half-white hair split down the middle, but she has dreams of making a name for herself in the fashion world. Of making it big.

It looks like she is about to when she befriends fashion legend Baroness Von Hillman, played by Emma Thompson, but things don't go quite as planned. Before you know it, Cruella becomes revenge bend and vicious. Emma Stone, by the way, plays Cruella.

Baroness: Who are you? You look vaguely familiar.

Cruella: I look stunning. I don't know about familiar darling.

Baroness: Your hair, is it real?

Cruella: Like my ball, I like to make an impact.

Baroness: What was your name?

Cruella: Cruella.

Kristen Meinzer: Now, I just want to point out this is not a traditional Halloween movie. It's not about trick or treating or about horror exactly. It's really just a villain's origin story, but I think of that as Halloween on its own way. I also think of costumes as very much in keeping with what I think of as Halloween. The costumes in this movie are unbelievable. They're mind-blowingly creative. In some cases, you think the costume is one thing, and then snap it turns into something else. It's just a fabulous feast for the eyes.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Rafer, you got some suggestions here for those of us with kiddos or even young adults who maybe are a little nervous about the horror and Halloween genre?

Rafer Guzman: Sure. I would go back to one of my all-time favorites, which is Gremlins also from 1984. I believe I'm stuck in the '80s on the-- [crosstalk]

Melissa Harris-Perry: I love Gremlins.

Rafer Guzman: It's great. I saw this movie when I was a kid and I was just so delighted by it. I feel like I'd never seen anything that was quite so inventive at the time. The story goes, it's about a father who's looking for a Christmas present for his son. He goes into Chinatown into a little curiosity shop, and he finds this adorable little creature named Gizmo, brings him home, but there are several rules that you must abide by with this pet. Here they are.

Speaker: You know there are some things I forgot to tell you guys, and they're really important. Number one, he hates bright lights. We know that, but you got to keep him out of the sunlight. Sunlight will kill him. Number two, keep him away from water. Don't give him any water to drink and whatever you do, don't give him a bath, and probably the most important thing, don't ever feed him after midnight.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I love this and I so remember that it's 1984 because pretty much for the rest of my childhood, my parents used this as a reason not to allow us to have late-night snacks. They were like, "We don't want you to turn into the scary gremlin." [laughs]

Rafer Guzman: During the pandemic back when you could rent theaters for quite cheap. We rented a movie theater for my son's birthday, and this is what he chose. I pitched to him and we chose that one. I was really happy that it held up. My kids were jumping out of their chairs one minute, and then they were laughing the next. The adults that I was with were also suitably scared and grossed out. We all remember the blender scene and the microwave scene in the kitchen.

[laughs] It's just great stuff. Also, it takes place during Christmas, so it's kind of your all-season holiday treat.

Melissa Harris-Perry: It is. There's that moment when they're all in the movie theater, singing with popcorn on their heads. It is really classic.

[laughs] I have not introduced my eight-year-old to Gremlins. I think we're going to watch some Gremlins. Kristen, how about those who want a little levity with our horror? What is your prescription for satire comedy lovers?

Kristen Meinzer: I love a movie, which Rafer, just full disclosure I know he is lukewarm on this movie. It's called Velvet Buzzsaw. It came out in 2019, and it takes place entirely in the art world. What happens is that some art is discovered by a completely unknown person. "Who made this art? This is really captivating. Maybe those of us who are in the art world, maybe we'll take some of this art without permission. Maybe we'll start displaying it. Maybe we'll make millions off of it and maybe we will be killed by this art."

Speaker: Some spirit.

[music]

It's connected to his art. Something truly strange is going on.

Kristen Meinzer: If you like a send-up of rich people, if you like to see people who take themselves too seriously be taken down a notch, this movie is such a delight. It is so funny. The acting is hilarious. We have Jake Gyllenhaal, we have Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Daveed Diggs, it's an all-star cast, John Malkovich. Everybody is so intensely smart. Everybody is so intensely cultured and everybody will be destroyed.

Melissa Harris-Perry: So good. Now, Rafer apparently you are a little lukewarm on this one. Let's hear from you. I know you've got a prescription here around the best '70s horror movie. We've been in the '80s et's go back to the seventies.

Rafer Guzman: I thought I would choose something that's a little obscure that maybe most people haven't seen. If you go back to the horror movies in the '70s, you always think of all the bad children's horror movies, The Exorcist, The Omen, et cetera, et cetera. One of my favorites that didn't get that much attention at the time, is a movie from David Cronenberg called The Brood from 1979. An extremely weird movie about a couple that gets divorced.

The woman played by Samantha Eggar, the great British actress. She's got a troubled past and she's entered herself into one of these '70s self-help cults that is dabbling in this idea of psychic rage that can manifest itself in the body. It's called psycho-plasmics. This leads to some very strange manifestations when a lot of these little children start running around the city killing the adults.

Speaker: The thing has no belly button.

Speaker: That's right. That means this creature has never really been born. At least not the way human beings are born.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Whoa.

[laughter]

I now feel like maybe my eight-year-old who kept saying, "I killed my parents," saw this movie late at night when she was eating after midnight. [laughs]

Rafer Guzman: I would really strongly advise against showing the eight-year-old The Brood. This was an extremely weird and very upsetting movie that did not delight the critics at the time. Roger Ebert of all people called it reprehensible trash, but I got to say I thought it was a delight. It's strange, it's brilliant. One thing I love about it is Cronenberg wrote the movie following his own divorce, and it happened to come out the same year as Kramer versus Kramer. It's kind of your anti-Kramer vs. Kramer movie, but if you've got the stomach for it, it's a great horror movie.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I love that you love things that are just appalling in this way.

[laughter]

Rafer Guzman: Thank you. I do

Melissa Harris-Perry: It leads me to wanting to ask for both of you. What do you love about Halloween?

Kristen Meinzer: Oh my gosh. At this point in my adult life, living in New York City, I just love the culture around Halloween. In New York, unlike a lot of other parts of the world, a lot of the kids just go trick or treating up and down the main thorough fairs. They go into all the drug stores, the grocery stores, the bars, the restaurants, and the bartender will give them a piece of candy, or the proprietor at the corner store will give them candy.

To see families going up and down the streets doing this thing that I think is so unique-ly-- It's our city and the whole city opens up to the kids in costumes. I love that. I love to sit at a bar on the corner and just watch all the kids go by and do that.

Melissa Harris-Perry: I love that. Rafer, how about for you?

Rafer Guzman: You wouldn't know it to look at me today, but I'm actually an old goth rocker. I always loved goth. I loved that whole-- I loved dressing up all in black, I loved putting makeup on and walking around with the black fingernail polish. I did the whole bit. Halloween to me was great because now I just fit right in and I could walk around town and no one ever looked at me strange. You remember the great band ministry. It's like the song says every day is Halloween. When I was a teenager, I always felt like Halloween was the one time of year I didn't feel completely alienated. Maybe that's why I like Halloween.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Oh, I love that. Those are both such fantastically subversive responses. The kind of urban culture building associated with Halloween and seeing our kids out and about in that way. Also, Halloween is amongst us all the time. It's a moment when we can shed some of that respectability narrative and be our full selves. I love that a lot. Rafer Guzman is a film critic for Newsday and Kristen Meinzer is a culture critic and host of the podcast By The Book. Together, they co-host the podcast Movie Therapy. Thanks so much for being here.

Rafer Guzman: Thank you, Melissa.

Kristen Meinzer: Thank you and happy Halloween.

[music]

 

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