The Night of the Hunter

With Halloween around the corner, I thought I'd dig out some items that are seasonally appropriate... with that in mind, gather the kids around the MP3 player and listen to a scary story.

Most probably wouldn't consider THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER to be Halloween fare. Specifically, it's not - but it's plenty scary, the kind of scare that follows you in dreams, if you were young enough to see it on the Late Show. It holds up, and it's the kind of film for Halloween that you can let the kids see as well.

Part of what makes the film work so well is the music by Walter Schumann (who's also known for co-composing the theme for DRAGNET). RCA did release an album, but instead of being merely musical selections, got Charles Laughton (the director of the film) to also perform a reading of the story with the underscore. Most of the time, this drives soundtrack listeners nuts, but this is one of the few times when it works well... pretend that you're listening to an old-time radio broadcast - or, to be more contemporary, listening to an audiobook performance.

Check it out