With Halloween just around the corner, we at Twitch thought we'd provide a valuable public service of listing some our contributors' top picks for movies to watch this weekend. In this, our second installment, our writers have unearthed some more familiar and some forgotten titles that they urge you to seek out ASAP.

Be sure to check out the first part of this feature from yesterday for some wonderful and weird picks from the Twitch crew.

Josh Hurtado

This was only de la Iglesia's second film, but up until the release of The Last Circus, it was my very favorite and it still holds a dear place in my heart.

Unfortunately, Day of the Beast has never been released on DVD outside of Spain. Fortunately, that DVD has English subtitles. If you enjoyed The Last Circus but wished it was a little darker, try this one on for size, I think you'll like it!

Mad Love (1935)

Mad Love is among the earliest film adaptations of the classic horror tale, The Hands of Orlac. In it, a classical pianist has his hands damaged beyond repair, or so he thinks. A mysterious doctor appears who promises to give him new hands, in this case, they come from a recently executed murderer whose specialty was throwing knives. I think you can see where this is going.

Directed by the renowned cinematographer Karl Fruend, who was responsible for lensing Fritz Lang's Metropolis among others, Mad Love brought German superstar Peter Lorre to Hollywood for his first English language role, and Lorre is astonishingly good. Opposite him is Dr. Henry Frankenstein himself, Colin Clive, who turns in just as manic a performance in this film as in his previous blockbuster. Mad Love was only just recently released on DVD in the Hollywood's Legends of Horror Collection, along with several other classic 1930's tales. It is definitely worth seeking out.

Peter Gutierrez
Short films probably don't get screened enough come Halloween despite the fact that as fun-sized morsels of horror, what can beat them, really? Even if you aren't crazy about any given film, just wait about ten minutes and, guess what?, it's over. Well, here are a few that you're apt to wish would simply keep going.

Lump (2006)
Finally, as a nice bonus on the recently released DVD of Faye Jackson's Strigoi, you can find her stunning short film Lump. Terrific editing and strong acting combine to create a hallucinatory dose of body-horror that expertly leverages the anxiety of anyone who's ever had to contend with the mysteriously impersonal ways of the medical community.

The Other Gods (2006)
Mike Boas's animated The Other Gods isn't just another H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, but one that's meticulously fashioned in a 1920's style, as if made during the author's lifetime. In fact, many fell for Boas's prankishness at the time of release, reviewing The Other Gods as if it were a true "lost film." By the way, it also happens to function as the perfect appetizer for an evening of horror in that you can read it as an allegory for horror fandom itself--after all, we're all on a journey to catch a glimpse of those hidden gods who lurk just beyond the eclipse. Best of all, you can watch the film here for free.

(Baby) It's You (2011)
Also available online, and a highly effective three-minute palette cleanser to boot, is (Baby) It's You. This charmingly atmospheric exercise in stop-motion combines pop music and the mad scientist archetype in a way that should be engaging for youngsters while not shying away from some darker undercurrents that you'll pick up on.

As for Peter's feature entries:

The Worst Horror Movie Ever Made (2008)
Moving from the sublime to the ridiculous, we have Bill Zebub's sublimely ridiculous The Worst Horror Movie Ever Made, in which New Jersey's favorite outlaw filmmaker remade his own flick from just a few years earlier. A demented picaresque that features many of the auteur's hallmarks--death metal soundtrack, sleazy nudity, equal opportunity offensiveness--this film probably represents the ultimate play-in-the-background video for any half-edgy, half-goofy Halloween party. An axe murderer, lesbian vampire, flesh-eating ventriloquist dummy, and randy female werewolf are just some of the monstrous characters that parade across the screen in sketch-like fashion. In between these appearances there's a lot of wildly tangential social/religious satire. Lines are flubbed, offscreen actors can be spotted in reflections, and it's a miracle that the wires attached to the giant spider don't get hopelessly entangled with those of the giant bat when the two battle--but who cares? That's entertainment. Available at BillZebub.com, Amazon Instant Video, and, one would hope, wherever the freedom of (extreme yet honest) artistic expression still thrives in the modern world.

Charles Webb
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
I'm long past sick of the resurgence of zombies in pop culture and yet chances are that at some point this weekend, I'll be rewatching this "punks x zombies" classic. I confess--I'm powerless before Dan O'Bannon's film, and more than almost any other, it's in my horror movie watching DNA. From the tongue-in-cheek tone of the whole thing at the start, to the brilliant effects work (the Tarman is an icon), to the downright blackest nihilism of that ending, Return of the Living Dead is my definitive Halloween movie.

Allow me, if you will, to repeat some loving words I directed towards this movie a year ago: I've been in the tank, as they say, for this movie since the first time I saw the "Tarman" zombie shamble towards clean-cut Tina (Beverly Randolph) some 20-some odd years ago. That blackened, oily zombie with the seemingly loose joints played by Allan Trautman lived in my bad dreams as a kid and was the kind of thing I'd talk up when telling my friends about this messed-up horror movie I'd seen. It's a testament to the effects work lead by Allan Apone that the Tarman still holds up today.

Actually, most of Return holds up given the brisk pacing and a cast of characters that never (well rarely) grates - a problem endemic to zombie films. Sure, some of the performances aren't strong (many of the kids in the Suicide's crew were fairly new actors) and some of the veterans weren't afraid to ham it up (Karen's Frank is a screwup in life and un-death). But these elements only add to the charm of an unofficial sequel that itself spawned numerous follow-ups (don't watch these).

X-Cross (aka XX) (2007)
I'm not even going to try to convince you that director Kenta Fukasaku (Battle Royale II, Yo-yo Girl Cop) oddball, split timeline slasher flick is any good--it staggers towards competence. But this movie is such an exuberant, bizarre pop confection filled with acid attacks, severed limbs, giant scissors, and chainsaw fights, and succeeds thanks to its "kitchen sink" approach that's unafraid (and unashamed) to throw in one strange twist after another.

Its leads are Aiko (Ami Suzuki) and Shiyori (Nao Matsushita)--the pretty, self-centered one, and the mopey one trying to get over a breakup--who retreat to the out of the way village of Ashikari, known for its hot springs, but not so well known as to be on any map. The girls get separated, and the creepy locals--all awkward, creepy, and male--want to drag Shiyori into some bizarre ceremony that's crucial to the prosperity and continued longevity of the village. Did Aiko lure Shiyori to the village? Maybe, maybe not. But she's got problems of her own with an Elegant Gothic Lolita wielding a giant pair of scissors with a grudge who wants to chop Ami into tiny little pieces.

It's a film aimed squarely at teen audiences, it's all about keeping something odd or interesting happening on the screen at any moment. But more than that, it's a movie about the friendship between girls (let's call it a "sisters before misters" ideal) that's strangely affecting by the time the final credits roll.

Ryland Aldrich

Set in the creepy Yankee Pedlar Hotel, The Innkeepers is about a pair of dorky 20-somethings trying to figure out if the weird occurrences taking place inside the hotel are truly the work of something from the other side. The film is full of comedy but it isn't a send-up of the horror genre. It's a true horror comedy that takes itself just seriously enough. I like to think of the movie like a roller coaster ride. West gives you all the horror thrills with the comfort of a safety bar locked tightly in place. Sit back and enjoy the feeling of those chills tingling up your back, all the while knowing you'll be none the worse for the wear when the ride comes to an end. Then you can go get back in line and ride it all over again.