10 Scariest Horror Movies Set At Halloween

The ongoing debate over whether violent video games have a detrimental effect on impressionable young minds is poked fun at with gory glee in cult director Jeff Lieberman’s (Blue Sunshine, Just Before Dawn) dark comedy-horror about a bratty video-obsessed boy who mistakes a bona fide serial killer dressed in a Satan costume for a character from his favourite game and befriends him.

As the lad unwittingly joins his new mate on a killing spree that lets him act out all those violent fantasies video games supposedly encourage, the killer amusingly uses the holiday as a perfect cover to commit his crimes casually arranging dead victims like Halloween decorations and wearing an array of costumes – including a rather creepy Jesus ensemble – to disguise himself in broad daylight.

Though there’s a darkly satiric undercurrent running throughout the film, the giggles you get are of the uneasy variety and there’s something undeniably sinister about the anonymous, ever-silent serial killer whose motive for murder we never learn.

He’s like a gonzo take on Michael Myers with the violent antics of he and his new pre-teen partner in crime juxtaposed uneasily with the film’s idyllically suburban backdrop and Halloween merrymaking.

What’s really unnerving, though, is its final chapter when the movie takes a turn for the dark as the naïve young lad realises he’s actually dealing with a genuine psychopath.