Dying to find a new movie to watch to get you into the Halloween spirit?
We have been buried in DVDs and YouTube clips of horror movies, mysteries and supernatural flicks to conjure up a list of 13 spooky films with local ties to Cincinnati.
No matter your taste for blood or chills or happy haunts, there is something here for every body.
1. “Hocus Pocus” (1993)
A Halloween staple, this Disney classic introduces the Sanderson sisters, a trio of witches from the 17th century portrayed by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Cincinnati’s own Sarah Jessica Parker (who spent much of her childhood in Clifton). Watch it for the first or 101st time to prepare for “Hocus Pocus 2” coming to Disney+ next fall.
2. “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996)
Our local movie star George Clooney appears with Quentin Tarantino as fugitive bank robbers who hole up in a Mexican strip club filled with vampires in this violent action film from Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. This one is as gory as it gets.
3. “Detention” (2011)
Josh Hutcherson of Union, Kentucky, stars in this extremely offbeat comedy horror film from music video director Joseph Kahn. It seems like a high school slasher flick but veers into time travel and aliens at an absurd pace.
4. “Nightmares” (1983)
This horror anthology features four stories, including one with Over-the-Rhine resident and voice of the streetcar Emilio Estevez about a video game hustler trying to reach the mythical level 13 in “The Bishop of Battle” game. Another tale features Albert Hague, an alumnus of Cincinnati’s College of Music who composed the music for “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”
5. “The Mark of Zorro” (1940)
Matinee idol Tyrone Power, a Purcell High School graduate, was famous for his swashbuckling adventures. His turn as the noble bandit Zorro set the standard for costumed heroes, and in Batman lore, it’s the movie that a young Bruce Wayne saw in the theater the night his parents were murdered and inspired him to become the Dark Knight.
6. “Jaws” (1975)
Steven Spielberg has directed a number of scary movies, from “Duel” (1971) to “Jurassic Park” (1993), but his tale of a terrifying great white shark is the biggest and best. The Cincinnati native made people afraid to go into the water and ushered in the era of the blockbuster. Ba dum …
7. “Poltergeist” (1982)
Perhaps less well known is that Spielberg wrote this classic ghost story but it was directed by Tobe Hooper with heavy creative input from Spielberg. The early death of child star Heather O’Rourke – the little girl who touches the TV and says, “They’re here ...” – fueled rumors that the movie is cursed.
8. “A Fool There Was” (1915)
Silent film star Theda Bara (born Theodosia Goodman in Avondale) was the original vamp, short for vampire, meaning a femme fatale seductress. Bara made a career portraying vamps, but her first film is one of only a few of hers that survives.
9. “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956)
Jimmy Stewart and Cincinnati native Doris Day play American tourists in Morocco whose son is kidnapped in this Alfred Hitchcock suspense thriller. The film also gave us Day singing “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).”
10. “Dracula: Dead and Loving It” (1995)
Everyone chews the scenery in Mel Brooks’ spoof of the legendary vampire, played by the equally legendary Leslie Nielsen. Blue Ash native Amy Yasbeck (TV’s “Wings”) co-stars as Mina, whom Dracula wants to turn into his undead bride.
11. “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017)
This psychological thriller from Yorgos Lanthimos turns a modern revenge plot into a “Sophie’s Choice” decision. Starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, it was filmed at Christ Hospital, Hyde Park, Blue Jay Restaurant and Roger Bacon High School.
12. “Wrong Turn” (2021)
A group of friends hiking the Appalachian Trail – filmed in Hocking Hills and around Cincinnati – meet a group of cultists in the woods in a reboot of the “Wrong Turn” horror franchise, proving that no one learned a thing from the series’ previous six movies.
13. “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983)
Another anthology movie, this time with stories adapted from the classic 1959-1964 television series “The Twilight Zone” created and hosted by Rod Serling, who started on WLW radio and WKRC-TV in the 1950s. One segment is directed by Spielberg, but the best was helmed by “Mad Max” director George Miller, in which John Lithgow sees a gremlin on the wing of an airplane at 20,000 feet.
Bonus movie:Horror romance starring Timothée Chalamet filmed in Cincinnati
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