Hi guys. It's Aphra, the Baking Theorist.
Welcome to the first episode of the Pie Chart.
This is the Halloween special,
where I list my top 5 family-friendly
movies and make a pie to celebrate each
of them.
I'm gonna start with an absolute classic
Tim Burton's Beetlejuice.
This movie is adored by everyone that I've ever spoken to about it
The plot follows a recently deceased couple who are haunting their old home
and the awful new family that move in.
Then the ghosts call upon
Betelgeuse, a devious poltergeist
to help them scare off the new owners
which doesn't sound particularly family-friendly, but somehow it is.
The style of the movie is quite cartoony,
which lightens up those horror elements.
And it ends in a really uplifting way.
The cast was brilliant.
Michael Keaton as
Beetlejuice has the perfect balance of
slapstick and creepiness, in what I think
is his best ever role.
Catherine O'Hara was deliciously awful as Delia,
the wicked stepmother.
It's worth watching for her outfits alone.
Winona Ryder was
so memorable as Lydia that I still hear
Shake Senora in my head whilst watching
her in Stranger Things 30 years later.
And it has 2 of the most adorable ghosts
in the history of film played by
Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin.
There are so many elements
of this movie that I love.
The styling of the house redesign, the
costumes,
the handbook for the recently deceased, the stop-motion effects,
and every single scene in the underworld.
Seeing the different way that death
affects each person and how they have to
live their death according to how they
live their life. ah, so good. It's funny
and gorgeously styled and brilliantly
acted. It's a must watch movie and
Halloween is a perfect excuse, even though
it doesn't feature in the movie at all.
My next pick probably won't
be a surprise to anyone who's come here
from my Instagram page. Well, I mean, none
of them are gonna be a massive surprise
to anyone, because they're all classics
but the Addams Family and Addams Family
Values are two of my absolute favorite
films. I have watched them so many times
I think everyone knows who the Addams
family are, so I don't feel the need to
actually explain them. But the adaptation
from the 90s is my favourite. I'm sure
that my age plays into it as they were
from my generation but I don't think
that anyone can deny how great this cast
is. Christina Ricci was a great Wednesday
Addams in the first movie but by the
second one, she was truly fantastic.
Anjelica huston was stunning as
Morticia Addams and her chemistry with
Raul Julia's Gomez was perfect.
And Christopher Lloyd is just always brilliant
I deeply love both movies but
if you can only watch one at Halloween
I'd recommend the first in the series.
Although neither focus on Halloween, as
every day is Halloween for The Addams
Family, the sequel is set in a summer
camp and also focuses on Thanksgiving, so
it's probably less Halloweeny than the
original. But it's brilliant, just watch
them both if you can. I've actually seen
the original movie five times this week
because my son is 2 and has decided that
the scene where Thing gets a job in the
mailroom is beyond hilarious and it's
one of the few things that he wants to
watch on repeat that I truly enjoy and
actively watch each time. We'll just keep
on with the Christina Ricci appreciation
parade for my third pick...
Casper! This film has a 
bit of everything, it's funny
and mildly scary, sad but uplifting,
there's adventure and teenage drama.
I can't help but sob every time I watch
this movie, generally twice.
If you watch this for the first time when you're a
kid I think it's impossible not to love it.
So if you want your kids to have the
exact same brilliant taste as you do,
remember to start them off early on
classics like this one. And it's actually
set on Halloween, there's a giant party
with all the trimmings. As a young
British kid who really didn't have any
Halloween experiences like that, it was
one of the movies that inspired my deep
love of this time of year. And my childhood
Halloween fantasies absolutely included a
ghostly Devon Sawa sweeping me off my feet.
On paper the plot of this movie
should be a lot darker, and the
resolution isn't nearly as heartwarming.
A bereaved man and his daughter, Kat,
travel the country, trying to connect
with the ghost of his dead wife. Then
when they eventually find ghosts, one
(Casper) befriends Kat while the other
three kill her dad.
Casper discovers that his father spent
his entire life building machine to
bring him back from the dead and then he
gives up his one chance to live again to
save Kat's dad and prevent her from
becoming an orphan. His grand prize for
this is to meet Kat's dead mother and
then seemingly have about 15 minutes as a
human so that he can dance with Kat.
In the movie it feels like a great prize
and it's
only as an adult that I feel like Casper
really got the short straw. But I still
adore it and I highly recommend it. Movie
four is another Tim Burton masterpiece
The Nightmare Before Christmas. I
probably could have done a whole list of
Tim Burton films, to be honest, but I
tried to limit it to two. And this one is
the most relevant as at least some of
the events occur around Halloween and
the whole thing is set in Halloweentown.
Obviously there is a lot of Christmas
involved too, which is why I think it's
best to just watch this twice a year and
that way you don't have to have the
debate about whether it's a Christmas
movie or a Halloween movie. Catherine
O'Hara makes another wonderful
appearance on this list as Sally, the
ragdoll romantic interest of Jack 'the
Pumpkin King' Skellington. We see their
adventures as Jack tries to take over
the duties of Sandy Claws and run
Christmas his way. The music in this film
is brilliant. I am trying with all my
might not to just burst into song with
'This is Halloween'. The stop-motion animation
was also so beautiful and the
oogie-boogie man is genuinely creepy.
It's an all-around delightful film it's
probably slightly darker than the other
options in this list but again the
stop-motion style stops it from being
really scary in those horror moments.
Movie 5 is I think the most
quintessential Halloween film
Hocus Pocus is about three Sanderson sisters, a
deadly trio of witches who were killed
300 years ago but who are resurrected by
the lighting of the Black Flame Candle
by a virgin. And the virgin in question
is Max Dennison. So he (along with his
sister, the girl he fancies and a talking
cat called Thackery Binx) then have to
try and banish the witches back to where
they came from. I love this movie so much,
as you can probably tell. The cast is
perfect. Bette Midler puts on an
incredible performance as Winnie, the
sound of her shrilly calling for the
book still echoes in my ears. Sarah
Jessica Parker perfectly captures the
beautiful ditzy sister role in Sarah. And
Kathy Najimy is spectacular. Her facial
expressions, her tone of voice and the
delivery of the lines, ugh, she's just the
best. I was also very much in love with
Omri Katz, who plays Max.
And if you don't know him from Eerie
Indiana, you should. That show was great.
Just go and watch that. And Thora Birch
she was also excellent, she managed to be
sassy without being irritating and she
seemed far older than her years.
The costumes in this film are great. Not just
the stunning dresses worn by the
Sanderson sisters, which have been
recreated for cosplay and Halloween
costumes ever since, but also the clothes
worn by the rest of the cast. My image of
American fashion has always been molded
by the films that I watch and I think
that there's some real 90s classic
outfit choices on display in this one.
And the Halloween parties in this film
made me incredibly jealous.
It still shocks me that this movie was a
flop when it was first released, as it's one
of my favorite childhood movies. But it's
absolutely no surprise that it
became a huge cult classic. So, as you may
well have guessed, my number one pick
that gets the biggest slice of pie is
Hocus Pocus. If you can only watch one
movie on Halloween, this is the one that
I would suggest.
So I know I'm releasing this after Halloween,
which is a bit of a fail,
but maybe I'm just getting everyone super prepared for next year.
And also I really wanted to eat these
pies on Halloween, so that delayed me a bit.
I'll definitely be more prepared when I get
to do the next seasonal edition of the
Pie Chart and if you have any
suggestions of themes for future
episodes or pies that you'd love to see
put a comment down below and I'll see
what I can do. Please like, comment,
subscribe and all those things. I'm also
over on Instagram at Aphrahannahbakes
where you can check out more of my pies,
biscuits and gingerbread builds. Bye!
