You can take your nieces and nephews trick-or-treating, you can veg and watch Hocus Pocus, or you can party it up like it’s the last Halloween you’ll ever spend in Provo. (Oh, wait! It is my last Halloween in Provo! Woot!) There are too many options for activities and parties. I still haven’t made up my mind — it’s fantastic! Here’s a list; thanks to Summer Heat for the help.

Friday, October 30th

FREE Haunted House (*)
@ 918 N on 50 E. Provo, 9pm-12am (Free)

Electro Hallows Eve Eve Dance Party (**)
@ The Red Door, 10pm-1am (Free)

Spark All Hallows Eve Event (**)
@ Spark Restaurant Lounge, 10:30pm-1am ($11)

Beautiful Nightmare (***)
@ Alpine Village, 9pm-1am

Thriller Dance (***)
@ UVU, 10pm-1am ($12-15)

Saturday, October 31st

Halloween Parade (*)
@ Condo Row, 11:30am-1pm (Free)

Dead Ball (**)
@ Velour, 7pm-12am ($7)

Haunted House Dance Party (**)
@ 50 E 842 N, Provo, 9pm-1am ($1 or canned food donation)

The Haunt (***)
@ The Loft, 9pm-1am

Pirate Island Masquerade Ball (*)
@ Pirate Island, 8pm-12am ($10-12)

The Dark Night II (**)
@ Studio 600, 8pm-1pm ($10)

The Howl — Utah’s largest and closest-to-a-real-party-as-you-can-get–in-Utah Halloween Party (****)
@ Utah State ($15-25)

Stars denote the scandaliciousness of the event: one star is not scandalous, four stars is outrageously scandalous.

Kristin Clift is an event correspondent for Rhombus.

Today’s horror movies will make you jump. They’ll startle and even disgust you. But this Halloween, if you’re tired of watching movies that are more “horrific” than genuinely frightening, you might take a look at some of Hollywood’s classic scare-fests. Though old movies might lack the jarring edits and industrial sound effects of more modern fare, their hair-raising stories and inventive (often low-budget) techniques literally wrote the book on how to shock an audience. It’s also no surprise that classic horror movies packed theaters for decades as perfect date movies.

Below are five films for a frightening Halloween. This list is not for people content with watching Saw VI or whatever other faux-horror sequel Hollywood is trying to pawn off this year. However, if you want to watch spine-tingling, atmospheric tales of terror that will leave you looking over your shoulder and turning on all the lights in your apartment, check out some of these films. All of them can be found on Netflix, but if you don’t have a subscription, check the Orem Library, which has one of the best movie collections in Utah County.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920): The oldest and only silent film on this list, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari tells the story of the eponymous doctor and his sleepwalking servant Cesare. The film unfolds a tale of murder, insanity and prophecy, with a particularly strange surprise ending. This film also exerts a strong influence on later horror movies, and is notable for its expressionistic and disconcerting sets.

The Invisible Man (1933): Adapted from H. G. Wells’ novella of the same name, this film follows Dr. Jack Griffin’s (Claude Rains) descent into insanity and violence. After experimenting with the fictional drug monocane, Griffin has become invisible, and unfortunately his invisibility wreaks havoc on his psyche as well. Of course, this story would go on to be remade again and again, but surprisingly none of the sequels ever managed to be as compelling as the original. The film also includes some impressive, un-cheesy special effects.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Another movie that has been remade a number of times, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is about aliens that come to earth and, well, snatch bodies. Though technically more sci-fi than horror, this film nonetheless feels like a noir-ish zombie movie and Cold War critique. Originally, the filmmakers wanted to end the film after one of the most desperate and unnerving scenes, but the studio execs felt such an ending would simply be too terrifying. Still, this film will leave you wondering if the people around you are your friends or zombie pod-aliens bent on world domination.

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A rather light day in the news today, so we’ll start with the good stuff…

Popular Culture

Friday Night Lights is back! Hallelujah! This criminally under-watched show about life in a small, economically recessed Texas town is one of the best shows on television, hands down — and it’s finally back from a break that seemed far too long for its die-hard fans. If you haven’t seen FNL, you must remedy the situation. (After all, the DVD sets are only $20 at Wal-Mart. How can you afford not to?) Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are two of the best, yet most underappreciated actors on television — something I hope will change as the show takes big steps into a constantly evolving and uncertain future. Get psyched for season four with James Poniewozik’s great preview article. [Time]

Also, ABC’s Modern Family rounded into their sixth episode of the season tonight. I’m not a huge fan of ABC (I generally loathe their programming as a core principle), but Modern Family is the best new show of the fall TV season — and I love Community as much as the next guy. It just seems to me that Modern Family is a little sharper and has a little more heart. Tonight wasn’t their best episode, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t pretty great. As per usual, The A.V. Club has their customary recap. [The A.V. Club]

Sports

If you consider yourself a sports fan and you’ve never read any of Bill Simmons work, well, I just feel sorry for you. One of the best (and certainly the funniest) sports columnists around, Simmons effortlessly blends a fan’s perspective of both sports and pop culture to absolute perfection. If you’re not familiar with Simmons, you need to be. If you already are, then you’ll probably find this video (with Kenny Mayne) to be pretty funny. [ESPN]

I’m 99 percent sure this is a huge joke, but it’s not a laughing matter: J.J. Redick should never, under any circumstances, be allowed to record a rap album. I don’t care how semi-ironically hilarious his blog is. [J.J. Redick]

Politics

A slow news day in the political realm today, but there was some worthwhile commentary.

Andrew Sullivan thinks those dastardly Democrats have really put the GOP between a rock and a political hard place with their “opt-out” version of the public option. He may be right. [The Atlantic]

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If I’ve learned one thing about football this season, it’s that Peyton Manning is even better than anyone thought. If I’ve learned two things, the second is that life and football are significantly more enjoyable when you pledge allegiance to no team.

I grew up in a home where, because my dad went to BYU, everyone in the home was a BYU fan. For years I was raised on Cougar football and schooled in the ways of passing attacks and the overratedness of having a good defense and special teams. (Full disclosure: turns out having a good defense and special teams is not overrated.) I’ve lost my voice many times over the years of attending BYU games in Cougar/LaVell Edwards Stadium. I’ve seen every Mountain West Conference team at least once, and I’ve seen out-of-conference opponents as well. On the flip side, I’ve been to two Utah Ute football games in my life — a win against Wyoming and a win against Utah State.

While I am a fan of the big three professional sports (and trying to be a fan of hockey and soccer as well), I’ve lost almost all interest in college basketball because nobody around here is really any good and college basketball is, for the most part, sloppy.  I can’t stand watching NBA games because of the referees. Star treatment in the NBA is real and more out-of-control than our national debt and the BCS combined. Soccer and hockey are rarely on TV and not worth paying for an Internet viewing subscription. Sadly, I don’t have much time to watch a full baseball game anymore. Hence, football has become the sport I watch most, and I have no problem with that. I try to catch a few NFL games each Sunday and I never miss a Colts game if it’s available, but I love college football and I’ll watch just about any game I possibly can.

I’ve put a lot of time and effort into learning more about football and becoming familiar with a greater variety of football programs around the country. I even took a class on coaching football. Understanding the game on an in-depth level makes it easier to appreciate what you see a team do on the field and, for me, it’s made it impossible to dislike teams. I’ve found that I have a greater appreciation for the amount of work it takes to execute a game plan, especially when we’re dealing with students who also carry a full-time school schedule.

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This past week, ESPN’s wildly popular Saturday morning pre-game show, College GameDay, made its first ever trip to Provo as BYU took on the Horned Frogs of TCU. While the game may not have lived up to the hype, many people camped out Friday night in order to get into the show’s live taping at 8:00 a.m. For those of you unable to make it, Rhombus correspondents Jake Welch and Ben Wagner were on the scene to offer you a glimpse into the GameDay experience.

Jake Welch and Ben Wagner are sports correspondents for Rhombus. Follow them on Twitter @jraywelch and @ben_wagner, respectively.