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One of the best success stories at the Box Office this year is the small scale horror flick Paranormal Activity. Directed and starring Hollywood nobodies, and made on a budget of less than $20,000, the movie uses simple visual effects to give the audience good horror chills. Even Stephen Spielberg has said he experienced some haunting events when having a personal screening of the film.
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My brother used to have a toy that looked very similar to Chucky from Child’s Play, and it scared the hell out of me. A doll that is possessed with a killer’s soul is something that even kids can even understand. It is both funny and disturbing to see an innocent play toy murder people and swear constantly. Check out Child’s Play if you’re looking for a good scare this Halloween.
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One of the best zombie movies of all time, Shaun of the Dead mixed comedy and horror in a way rarely seen in film. You laugh just as much as you squirm. British comedy men Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play two guys seeking shelter with friends from a zombie outbreak in the safest place they know, their favorite pub. If you have not seen this film, it is by far a must watch. Check out the trailer below.
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Witches suck, especially when it’s witches who are looking to suck the souls of children to feed their eternal youth. In Hocus Pocus, three Salem witches were put to death for stealing the life-force from children 300 years ago, but when youthfully stupid Max lights a magic candle, they come back to life on Halloween night. Can this group of teenagers and kids stop the three Sanderson Sisters from absorbing their lives before sunlight? Will Max and a talking cat named Binx be able to hold off the witches and stop their sinister plans? Watch Hocus Pocus this Halloween to find out.
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Disturbing and shocking, Hard Candy is so psychologically sickening that it deserves to make the Halloween list. It does not have the ghosts and demons we see in supernatural flicks, but instead shows the audience true monsters that exist in our world. Themes of voyeurism and pedophilia are treated accurately, which is why it is so disturbing. Ellen Page, before gaining fame in Juno and X-Men: The Last Stand, does an incredible job playing cat and mouse with Watchmen’s Patrick Wilson. If you are looking for a truly stomach-churning movie, check out Hard Candy.
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As a kid, I really had a hard time enjoying Gremlins. A kid down the street had a stuffed animal that looked like Gizmo, and for some reason I had this fear that it was somehow actually a gremlin. Needless to say, I never got near that stupid thing. But for Halloween, a good creature flick is always a pretty good decision.
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Crazy people make Halloween fun. When author Paul Sheldon is rescued from the snow after his car gets in an accident, he quickly learns the Good Samaritan is such a fan that she never wants him to leave. Being helpless in the hands of a total stranger is scary enough, but when the stranger is a maniac that is set on never letting you go, that’s something else.
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Although it isn’t exactly a Halloween-inspired pick, Jaws is by far one of the most scariest movies of all time. A movie so intense that vacation resorts saw a hit on revenue because people were afraid to go into water. My family has said people did not even swim in the Great Lakes back in Michigan because of shark fears, even though sharks do not swim in fresh water. So to play up the primal fear people have about the monsters swimming under their feet, Jaws is a great scare pick!
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Although it comes across as spoof of horror/slasher films, Scream still maintains a great eerie feel. The killer’s costume, the calling motif, and playing up the staples of other slasher movies keep the audience guessing if the victims will continue making the same mistakes their counterparts do in other films, or wise up. The opening, in which Drew Barrymore is stalked down, is one of my favorite horror movie openings. Watch it below.
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Estimated to be portrayed a record 160+ times in film history, Dracula is practically a genre of film to itself. One of the best adaptations of the Count’s foray into bloodsucking is 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Starring a list of some of Hollywood’s biggest names, Dracula tells the story of the classic vampire as he travels from Transylvania to England, looking for his former love. Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins, Winona Ryder and Gary Oldman give some of their best performances in the retelling of Stoker’s work.
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I get so much crap for liking this movie, but I think it’s worth mentioning on this list. Starring Thomas Jane, The Mist puts a group of confused and scared survivors trapped in a supermarket isolated from a strange fog outside. What’s inside the mist is the question of many of the people, as the creatures begin to struggle into the building. The movie is not perfect, but has a good spooky feel perfect for Halloween.
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Visually disturbing and graphically entertaining, Hellraiser showed the world one of the most demonic and evil visions of the supernatural realm. When a man unknowingly purchases a demonic puzzle, he soon discovers it opens our world to the monsters that the puzzle entraps. Clive Barker’s horrific film still remains in cult status today, as with it’s main antagonist Pinhead, and is in works to be rebooted.
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Jamie Lee Curtis got her career started by being chased by a murderous lunatic. Not Gary Busey, but her insane brother Michael Myers. In Halloween, Michael escapes a mental institution after years of incarceration for murder as a child, to find his sister. Directed by horror genius John Carpenter, the movie is a classic slasher film and was a pioneering movie when it comes to franchise killers.
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Based on the graphic novel of the same name, 30 Days of Night puts vampire horror in one of the best suited places for the bloodthirsty monsters to roam: Alaska. Since the Northern Territories experience extended periods of perpetual sunlight/darkness, it would not serve to be a great place to live, but more like a vacation spot. A cool, original setting for the spawn of Dracula makes 30 Days of Night a great Halloween pick.
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I will never forget the kid in middle school that ruined the ending of The Sixth Sense for me. That did not stop me from going to watch it. There are a lot of people who are divided on M. Night Shyamalan’s talent as a director and storyteller, especially concerning Signs, The Village, and Lady in the Water. His first feature film, The Sixth Sense, still remains his best work, and quite possibly the best suspenseful horror movie of the last ten years.
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Wes Craven is a staple of the horror film genre. One of his most classic movies is 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although they ended up later become more cheesy then scary, the original was by far the best in the series. It was the first feature that box office star Johnny Depp acted in, and enjoyed the most successful career out of the whole cast. Whereas Jaws made people afraid of the ocean, A Nightmare on Elm Street made people afraid to sleep.
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One Halloween a few years ago, IFC (Independent Film Channel) aired a movie called The Wicker Man. I had heard of it, and decided to watch it. When I finished watching it, I was not sure what I had just watched. The movie lacks jumpy scares and has a British cast (frightening by itself) and actually thought it was a good horror movie. 1973 was a simpler time, but the premise of the movie and how it unfolds at the end is quite disturbing.
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Before making incredible films such as Lord of the Rings and King Kong, Peter Jackson directed a widely underrated supernatural thriller/comedy called The Frighteners. In it, Michael J. Fox plays a man who, after witnessing the death of his wife, learns he has the ability to see ghosts, and exploits it. His interests change after discovering a malevolent spirit is going around killing both the living and the dead. Blending comedic interactions with fairly decent visual effects and a interesting spiritual slant, The Frighteners is a good, original movie great for the Halloween mood.
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When Saw was released in 2004, audiences around the country had never seen such gore and gratuitous blood in a film. Although the cast and production level were direct-to-DVD, the film got such a positive response at Sundance (the version shown was actually NC-17), and the movie got a feature film release. Jigsaw’s traps and rationale make Saw both an original and provoking feature. With graphic violence and engrossing plot devices, Saw is a great pick for Halloween this year.
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Alien was the first truly horrific sci-fi film to tackle the subject of aliens without giving them a loving/peaceful spirit or cheesy attitude. Director Ridley Scott was introduced to audiences with graphic scenes of murderous creatures stalking their victims both with ferocity and stealth. Audiences also were first introduced to Sigourney Weaver, who has gone on to enjoy a great career in film both with the character Ripley from the Alien franchise, as well as other venues. Read more about Alien below.
