I have been told that the English, historically, do not celebrate Halloween as aggressively as do North Americans.

Of course, that all depends on how one celebrates Halloween in the first place; I tend to turn off all the lights in the house, sneak down to the basement with Kate (and the bags of candy we tell each other we buy for the neighborhood kids, even though they never show up) and watch a horror movie.

We’re spending Halloween apart this year, what with me still in London for tomorrow night’s big gala awards thingie, but I’ve found a way to honor my tradition: I’m catching the BFI’s new restoration of Hammer’s “Dracula” — the one with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing — at a digital screening around the corner from my hotel.

I kind of hope no one else shows, for that basement-projector feeling, but I’m getting the sense that it’ll be reasonably well-attended; Roger Clarke, my fellow FIPRESCI juror, brightened visibly when I told him I was thinking of going, so we might be able to talk a few other people into coming as well, the better to collectively shriek and hiss at the good parts.

I will even offer to share my bag of candy.

Three more movies to watch today — with a fourth waiting on DVD back at the hotel — so this is going to be a short post.

Here’s some stuff for you to read while I’m away; consider my review of “Saw IV” as but an appetizer to two much longer pieces.

First, we have the Best Dramatic Movies About Rock Musicians, by my friend and colleague John Harkness over at Now Magazine. Epic and detailed, it’s one of those “I wish I’d written that” pieces. If you’re not at all interested in watching a horror movie on Halloween, this should give you plenty of counter-programming options. (And John, I’m picking up that BFI DVD of “To Sleep with Anger” for you tomorrow.)

And next, we turn to the ever-reliable Onion AV Club for “Hostel” director Eli Roth’s program for a hypothetical 24-hour horror movie festival. I can’t say I like Roth’s films — they’re too concerned with telling the audience how Extremely Extreme the director is than telling a story or constructing characters, the two most important elements of any horror film –but he knows his stuff, and his enthusiasm for even the most obscure shockers is always welcome.

As usual, the comments that follow the piece are just as interesting as the article itself; if you are looking for a Halloween horror movie, there’s plenty of inspiration in there. And hooray for everyone who mentioned “Son of Frankenstein” — nice choice!

Even with Daylight Savings ending locally here, the difference in London means I’ll be out at another screening when the weekend’s final box-office numbers are released.

Still, I think we can assume “Saw IV” wins the week, if its sizable Friday take is any indication; the only other national challenger is “Dan in Real Life”, and given the Halloween mentality, I can’t imagine it’s at the top of anyone’s must-see list.

Speaking of “Saw IV”, I saw the movie last night at a midnight screening in Leicester Square — which was an experience in itself — and, well, it is what it is: A feature-length celebration of preposterous torture and Kabuki-level suffering, tarted up with a patina of morality in order to be “about” something. But it’s not about anything at all, really, other than the resourcefulness of the production designer and the makeup team.

The “Saw” films are profoundly unnecessary contributions to horror cinema, and I’m really, really tired of the constant retconning required to find new traps and strategies for each new movie. Yeah, great, Jigsaw has a new acolyte. I’m still bored.

… and none of it has anything to do with the four movies I saw yesterday in London. Well, maybe “Shotgun Stories”, though to be honest it was kind of low on splatter.

No, this is about the release of “Saw IV” and my latest Sympatico/MSN movie column, built around my realization that, like the kids say, I just don’t get it, man.

But at this point, I kinda don’t want to.

While I’m rolling through my London screenings — four are lined up today; five, if I sneak off to the midnight show of “Saw IV”! — life goes on at home. Check out this weekend’s new openings!

“Control“: If you thought Michael Winterbottom was exaggerating the sense of atmospheric misery in “24 Hour Party People”, well … check out Manchester in black-and-white widescreen! Even if you don’t know Joy Division from New Order, Anton Corbijn’s Ian Curtis biopic is grueling, depressing, and entirely freakin’ awesome.

“Dan in Real Life“: If you’ve ever gotten really, really baked and found yourself wondering whether Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche and Dane Cook could all be in the same room without opening a hole in the art-commerce continuum, Peter Hedges’ film has the answer: Cinema survives, but with many wacky misunderstandings.

“Rails and Ties“: Look, it’s nice that Alison Eastwood hung around the set of “Mystic River” with her script, and convinced some of the actors and crew members to make it with her. I just wish they’d done it for a better director — one who could work around said script’s groaning contrivances and cliched characters. But damn, Kevin Bacon is great in everything these days.

“Sleuth“: Kenneth Branagh’s entirely wrong-headed remake of Anthony Shaffer’s plummy pas de deux wastes so very many things — game actors, a capable production designer, the audience’s time. But it’s not wholly Branagh’s fault, though he didn’t help matters much by feeding Jude Law his own line readings from 1994.

I have arrived in London, where the film festival people have put me in a ridiculously nice hotel and have asked me to see twelve movies in the next five days.

I can handle that, particularly when the walk to the main screening venue is so bloody beautiful — basically, I cross Trafalgar Square, cut through Charing Cross station and walk across Waterloo Bridge, and there I am at the British Film Institute, with its seductive gift shop and its welcoming press area, where Bourbon Cremes sit on a little plate for anyone who might be nibbly after a transatlantic flight.

My first screening’s in an hour. Have I mentioned how much I love my work?

Audiences went to see a decent movie this weekend, driving “30 Days of Night” to the top of the
box-office charts. Hooray for vampire movies!

Also encouraging: “Michael Clayton” and “Gone Baby Gone” placed fourth and fifth, with “We Own the Night” coming in seventh, demonstrating the audience for intelligent, adult filmmaking is still out there, and broad enough to support more than one picture at a time. (And “Things We Lost in the Fire” failed to crack the top ten, suggesting that said audience is able to detect crap at a distance.)

On the other hand, Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married?” and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s “The Game Plan” are still going strong in the number two and three slots, respectively, so it’s not all good news. But “The Comebacks”, which is horrible, barely made an impact in its opening weekend, came in sixth.

So basically, I’m good. How are you?