In observance of that autumn spell when we celebrate the primal, compulsive instinct of fear, Rainestorm highlights 31 days of spooky scares to season the eerie atmosphere of Halloween.

Reign of terror: 1992

The horror… the horror: More like Oliver Stone’s Dracula, so infused is it with his frenetic cinematic stylings. This umpteenth adaptation of the horror classic hews closer to Bram Stoker’s novel than any previous version, though that’s not to say it doesn’t take its liberties. It is also a madhouse of editing and camera trickery. Yet that’s precisely its appeal. Eschewing computer technology in favor of practical, in-camera effects, Director Francis Ford Coppola demonstrates what good old-fashioned ingenuity can create when one is restricted by the tools he can use. Apparently, very little effects work was done in post-production and the result is a film of manifest tangibility. Long after Avatar is dismissed as the overblown cartoon it really is, this Dracula will remain as a shining example of the difference between vérité and virtuality.

Halloween haunt: All the usual staples but with a gorgeously flamboyant air. The ride to Dracula’s castle is effectively creepy in the fog-strewn night. Dracula himself works supernatural wonders in the shadows, and the entire film is overlaid in gothic darkness.

Tastiest treat: Really any scene in which Keanu Reeves attempts to speak with an English accent. But the most chilling sequence has Dracula serving up a living infant to his ravenous brides.

Check the candy for: Monica Bellucci, sure to stoke fanboy lust as one of those seductive brides.

Devilish discourse: “Ja, she was in great pain! Then we cut off her head, and drove a stake through her heart, and burned it, and then she found peace.”

Goes great with: The Wolfman (2010). It should have been so much more than it is but Joe Johnston’s retelling of George Waggner’s Universal classic is a pleasant enough time-waster that manages to nicely bridge the gap between practical effects and CGI (much as he did with the underappreciated Jurassic Park III). His filmmaking style here seems to take its cues from Coppola’s Dracula and the overall effect is rather similar.