Sarah Michelle Gellar

A few Salem folks on the street were scared by the fact that the average American eats about 25 pounds of candy annually, much of it at Halloween.

But more than 800 Salem-area residents intentionally sought to be spooked this year by the film "The Grudge," making it the top horror-flick rental at the local warehouse of the DVD-rental company Netflix.

"The Grudge," a 2004 screamfest starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, is about an American living and working in Tokyo. She is exposed to a curse that causes rage before it kills them and spreads to another victim.

Netflix spokeswoman Karen Coston-McCarthy reported that "The Grudge" was requested 816 times in 2005. Close on its bloody trail was "Saw," rented 812 times, and 2005’s "The Ring Two," which was requested 707 times this year.

Coston-McCarthy said in Salem, "Salem’s Lot" was rented 99 times, coming in as the 31st most rented horror film, but she couldn’t differentiate between the 1979 version of Stephen King’s vampire classic starring David Soul, James Mason and Bonnie Bedelia and the 2004 USA Cable TV miniseries version starring Rob Lowe.

"Carrie," King’s 1976 hit movie starring Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie, was at the bottom of Salem’s top 100 horror flicks rented through Netflix.

Local DVD and video-rental stores report brisk scary-movie rentals this time of year.

Kristene Jackson, 24, and her mother, Teresa McDonald, were in the South Salem Hollywood Video store this week searching for a video to watch on Halloween night.

McDonald said she’s already ordered three DVDs through her Netflix membership, but she was too eager to see the new horror film, "House of Wax," which came out on video Tuesday, to wait another week for it.

"We haven’t seen it yet and we’ve been waiting for it to come out," McDonald said.

The pair were excited to find the film on the shelf. Of course, they were waiting for the 2005 version, not the 1953 original that starred Vincent Price and Carolyn Jones (Morticia in the original "The Addams Family" TV show).

The remake, which bills itself on the IMDb Web site as a "prey, slay and display" thriller, stars Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton. It’s the story of six friends stranded in a ghost town that has a towering wax museum. Its two curators are reported to have a "unique" way of making wax figures look real.

The women said they will take Jackson’s son, Christopher, 9, trick-or-treating early and then watch the horror movies between doorbell rings when they get home.

"We should get in at least two or three movies," Jackson said, as they took their rental to the counter.

Christina Secrest, the store’s assistant director, said newer horror films seem to be more popular than the classics.

"The one we can’t keep on the shelves right now is "Land of the Dead," Secrest said.

She noted that several others also go fast. She said director Tim Burton’s 1999 "Sleepy Hollow," starring Johnny Depp as Constable Ichabod Crane who investigates murders by the headless horseman, is very popular, as is "inexplicably" Tim Burton’s "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which stars Danny Elfman.

"I don’t understand why the King of Halloweentown trying to understand Christmas is a hit at this time of year, but it is," Secrest and one of her associates said.

She said a "lot of people" rent the 2005 remake of "Amityville Horror," and both of the "Rings" movies are hits.

"We’ve pulled the horror films out to two front display racks to help people find them. They’ve been renting them all month long, I guess to get in the mood," Secrest said.

One woman at the Hollywood Video counter, Tiffany Gehman of Salem, said she won’t watch horror films.

But she was renting a DVD called "Bed & Breakfast" with the word "bed" scratched out and written over it in bloody-looking type was the word "Dead," hence the title became "Dead & Breakfast."

Don’t assume it’s a horror film, Gehman said. "I don’t watch scary movies, I can’t get to sleep if I do, but this is different. It’s a spoof of zombie movies, really."