The Perfect Movie Night

Hallowe’en is a great ritual. At a certain age, though, it can be difficult to figure out what to do with yourself on such a night. You’re too old for trick-or-treating, too young to take someone trick-or-treating, and too lazy to dress up for a costume party. What you want is something quiet. What you need is a movie night.

The movie night is perhaps the greatest of all pop culture rituals. Naturally, it is also one of the most difficult rituals to pull off. Like so many other things in life, the perfect movie night looks casual but takes hours to put together. There are a few essential elements to take into consideration, and getting them to come together just right is tricky. Take a look for yourself.

Guest List

It’s a shame to say this about your friends, but you have to be careful about who you invite. Some of your friends are movie talkers. Others need to watch in complete silence. Some of them like to watch a movie straight through, while others break movies up into digestible chunks. You can probably get away with a quick word of warning to both the talkers and the quiet ones if you choose to combine them. The act break folks, on the other hand, are best left to their own devices.

Seating

The flip side to your guest list worries are your space worries. How many people can sit comfortably on your couch? Can you bring in big floor cushions and extra chairs? Will those people still be able to see the screen? Inviting twenty people over when you can only seat ten is just plain stupid, so think ahead.

Snacking

Movie snacking options vary on all but one point: bite size. If you can hold and eat it with one hand, it’s a movie snack. You could go traditional with popcorn and Hallowe’en candy. You could lean toward healthier options with veggie and fruit trays, but the crunch of those snacks can be distracting. To muffle the noise, try chocolate fondue. It’s easy, it’s interactive, and it’s tasty. It’s a win-win-win.

Noise and light

Nobody likes to listen to half a phone conversation, and they especially don’t like to pause a movie they are enjoying to do it. Put those phones on silent.

As for the lights, dimming them or turning them off increases the chances that people will behave the same way they would in a darkened movie theatre. If, however, your friends are the kind of people who disturb everyone around them in the theatre, you might need to keep a few of these cards on hand.

Movie Selection

Truth be told, you can screw up any of the above and still get away with it if you get the movie right. Movie selection is, obviously, the key element in putting together the perfect movie night.

Go easy on yourself: select the movies in advance. Any time two or more people enter a video rental place without a specific movie in mind, an hour is automatically lost from their lives. It takes forever to find a movie that everyone will agree to watch, and the time lost exponentially increases if you dare to throw a second viewing option into the mix. Then again, even if you only intend to show one movie, it’s not a bad idea to pick two up. Your friends get to feel democratic when you let them choose between the two, and you get to avoid the video rental nightmare.

When throwing a movie night on a holiday, movie selection gets a lot easier. You can choose something thematic, or you can choose something anti-thematic. For Hallowe’en, you can go with the traditional choice of a horror movie or the unconventional choice of a musical or comedy. Which would be best for your movie night depends on the crowd. If you can’t decide, combine the two. Horror-comedies do exist, after all.Shaun of the Dead is a hilarious parody of horror movies in general and zombie movies in particular. There are plenty of laughs combined with enough gore to satisfy both genres. You could make it a double feature with the hor-com classic Evil Dead II. And if Grindhouse ever sees the full DVD release is so richly deserves, it would make an excellent Hallowe’en movie night selection. It’s already a double feature with a built-in intermission, tons of gore, and enough ridiculousness to keep everyone in stitches.

With a little advanced planning, chances are your next movie night will rock. It may even become your new favourite ritual.

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