There are some movies that just scream, "Autumn is here!" These are my favourites.
 |
Varsity Blues I don't even want to say how many times I watch this movie every fall. It takes me to another place, another time. I can smell hot chocolate and hear the voices of the crowd. I can see the glare of the floodlights and feel the bite of cold on my nose. It's Friday night in the stadium and I'm years younger. Varsity Blues isn't just an awesome movie with some of my favourite actors, it's 100 minutes of pure nostalgia. |
 |
Dead Poets Society Dead Poets Society is one of my favourite films, period. It also appears on almost everyone's list of favourite movies for the fall. Why? Because it's about learning, because it's about friendship, because it's about finding yourself, because the actors are amazing and the story is heartbreaking, that's why. |
 |
Good Will Hunting Autumn is a magical time because it's about beginnings and endings at the same time. A new school year is starting, while all the plants are dying. Good Will Hunting captures that feeling perfectly. There's a sense of loss, balanced against the hope of brighter things to come. |
 |
Scream This has got to be one of my favourite horror movies because its so damned funny. (I know, I have a weird definition of horror but, hey, I like my horror funny.) The actors really spark off one another and it manages to pull off some great scares too. And, since Scream centres around high schoolers, you've got that school time feeling that so quintessentially autumn. |
 |
The Others The Others is one of those movies that captures the stark feeling of autumn as it draws to a close. The nights creep ever closer; the trees are bare; there's an oppressive air of worse things to come. The darkness, the isolation, and the suspense of The Others make it a perfect film for a late autumn frightfest. |
 |
You've Got Mail Let me get this out of the way now: You'll never see When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless in Seattle on any of my movie lists. I think they're overrated. You've Got Mail is a much, much better love story for autumn. The autumn imagery was fantastic and, hey, how autumnal are books? Autumn is definitely a time for reading! |
 |
Persuasion Persuasion isn't on this list solely because Ciarán Hinds is one sexy Wentworth (which he is) or because autumn is a time for classics (which it is). It's here because the movie's loss and grief is set beautifully against a backdrop of autumn's yearning for days gone by. And, oh yeah... because Ciarán Hinds is one sexy Wentworth. |
 |
Needful Things If you want to know what autumn on the East Coast looks like, watch a Stephen King film. Needful Things has that going for it but also plays on the darker side of autumn: the decay, the uncertainty, the growing darkness. It peels away the sense of community that we show outsiders to reveal the seething hatred lurking beneath. |
 |
Children of the Corn Ah, autumn. Time of the harvest... and freaky little kids killing their parents. Of course I'm talking about Children of the Corn. One of my favourite things about Michigan in the autumn is the sun rising over rows and rows of corn. It's a very autumnal image for me. If you don't think cornfields can be scary, you've never lived next to one. |
 |
October Kiss Here we have one of the very few Hallmark movies that doesn't make me want to vomit. Sure, October Kiss is ultra cheesy, feel-good pulp, but you've gotta have some of that with all the horror on this list. It's got a kooky family that comes to rescue a floundering family and makes everyone - especially the father, of course, fall in love with her. It's also doused in Halloweeny goodness, which is a must this time of year. |
What are your favourite movies for fall? Does your list look anything like mine?
