![\"vampyr2\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/109\/2014\/10\/vampyr2.jpg\")
<\/a>As someone who tends to avoid scary movies\u2026 \u2026OK, as someone who stays as far away from\u00a0the horror genre as humanly possible (because SCARY<\/a>), coming up with a thematically-appropriate film for today is a bit tricky. My first instinct, for example, was to recommend a film more fittingly associated with an entirely different holiday: the weirdly-toned and mesmerizing stop-motion classic from Tim Burton and Henry Selick, The Nightmare Before Christmas<\/a><\/em>. (Which is streaming on\u00a0NETFLIX INSTANT<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0for those who are curious. Or who prefer their Halloween Christmas-y. Or the other way \u2019round.)<\/p>\nThen, I considered the hilarious Arsenic and Old Lace<\/a><\/em>, but\u00a0it\u2019s not particularly available in streaming form (unless you\u2019re willing to rent it from AMAZON($)<\/a><\/strong> and others). Besides, it\u2019s not scary<\/a>, so that seemed a bit \u201cLetter-Not-Spirit-ish\u201d to me.<\/a><\/p>\n But then I remembered a scary movie that I\u2019d a) watched in the past, and b) actually enjoyed. So, this is me doing something I might never do again: recommending a horror movie.<\/p>\n Legendary director Carl Theodor Dreyer\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Vampyr<\/a><\/em> is streaming on HULU PLUS<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and AMAZON($)<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>(And on YOUTUBE<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for free, though the quality\u2019s not quite<\/em> there.)<\/p>\n Director Carl Theodor Dreyer fuses fantasy and reality in this landmark tale, which ranks among cinema\u2019s greatest horror movies. Holiday reveler Allan Gray (Julian West) takes a room in an eerie European village inn and is awakened when an elderly gent lets himself in, leaving a parcel inscribed, \u201cTo be opened in the event of my death.\u201d Gray later witnesses the man\u2019s murder, opens the package and realizes a supernatural killer is on the loose.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n