LA FLORIDIANA "I Married The Dead!" A True Florida Horror Story....A Visit With A Comic Book Hero  by Will Moriaty
THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Ray"  by Mike Smith
THE ENLIGHTENMENT Recommended Viewing For Halloween  by Terence Nuzum
ODDSERVATIONS The Halloween Horror Picture Show 2004...."Filthy" plays "Flicks on Fairbanks", Orlando...."Do They Know It's Christmas?" '04, Oddservations Calendar....and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  by Andy Lalino
SPLASH PAGE Rakuween Turns 5!!!  by Brandon Jones
MIKE'S RANT Happy Birthday....Babe Who?....Shaking With Antici -- pation....Aaargh!....Love Those Brits....Vote!....Meet The Beatles, Part 40  by Mike Smith
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OK people, so I was planning this special Halloween Enlightenment on mysterious murders and corpses but time ran short. I decided to go all last-year's-Halloween-Enlightenment on ya and give you some horror movie picks to watch this week and weekend for this year. Most of these are rarely seen or mentioned, but all are classic and terrifying in their own right. Besides, what would this column be if it was not enlightening the blind?

Dementia 13 (1963): None other than Francis Ford Coppola directed this seemingly post-Psycho cash-in concerning axe murders on an English estate. Oddly grim and downbeat with early gore and eerie setttings make this a must for Halloween viewing.

The Clown Murders (1976): Odd mix of a crime thriller and slasher film. A group of friends plan a kidnapping which backfires as emotions and tension set in on a desolate farm. Added to the mix, a killer in a clown mask is stalking them for reasons best left unsaid till the end. Notable for, hands down, the creepiest shots and scenarios of a clown mask ever (clownaphobics beware: I still can barely watch it without freaking out) and a young John Candy in his only (I believe) dramatic role.

Deadly Blessing (1981): The best of Craven's post-Hills Have Eyes pre-Elm Street films has Sharon Stone and company terrorized by Ernest Borgnine and his group of local quakers and possibly (I'm not telling) their demonic homonculus. It also has an appearance by horror fave, Michael Berrymen.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964): The first of Brazilian director Jose Mojica Marin's Ze Do Caixao (Coffin Joe) film series has Joe murdering his friend for his gal, raping her, denouncing God, eating pork on Sabbath, and, lord, everything else in the book of sins until he is terrorized by spirits and driven to an early grave. Essential.

Deathdream (1976): Just as atmospheric as Ormsby and Clarke's other outing, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. This time, the zombie is a Vietnam soldier returning to his family, Monkey's Paw tradition. The film shot in Brookesville is not only a horror classic but also a serious metaphor for Vietnam and its effects on the returning troops. It claims also to be the first movie to tackle the subject onscreen. Possibly Bob Clarke's finest hour and defintly one of the best and darkest films of the '70s.

Eaten Alive (1977): Tobe Hooper's followup to Texas Chainsaw Massacre is loosely based on real-life psycho Joe Ball who fed his motel patrons to his alligators. Robert Englund has an early appaearance with the line that Tarintino ripped for Kill Bill, "I'm Buck and I'm rearing to fuck". Most notable besides the plotless mayhem of the film's structureless plot are the weird couple who seem crazier than Jed the killer and whose story is never explained. The film, shot on a backlot, evokes an almost conscious homage to the Italian horror film lighting of Bava and Argento. Not up to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but still great if you like gritty '70s slasher films. Its unique look has never been seen again.