10 Horror Flicks For Halloween

For those that love Halloween as much as I do, you should know the holiday often passes by in a fleeting night of costumes sometimes dwelled on for weeks or months beforehand and lots of candy, maybe alcohol. But planning out the most relevant and clever costume for the year does not need to be the only thing that makes Halloween a month’s endeavor. If there is any time where horror films are of the utmost importance, October is the month.

Last year, those of us behind Fahrenheit 406 took three nearly full 24-hour day periods to watch all of the horror movies in our collections combined. This resulted in a wonderful plethora of films in a genre with so many sub-categories of the most differing quality. Picking at random from the pile, there would be something like John Carpenter’s Halloween followed by Joon-ho Bong’s The Host and then John Stockwell’s awful 2006 beach slasher Turistas. While this process was exhilarating, and always a first viewing for at least one person, it’s hard to convince most people to endure a marathon of that caliber.

So, in the 20 or so days until Halloween, here is a list of 10 essential horror films. Naturally, this list is going to be catered to the lesser horror fan, maybe those of you who tend to shy away from the genre. Let this possibly be your gateway.

 

10. The Exorcist (1973)

William Friedkin’s classic groundbreaking film on the wild process of possession and those who try to conquer possession has become more or less an essential for just film watching in general. Linda Blair plays the lead girl in a ferocious performance that, even today, has a great deal of shock value. Her demonized self is not only terrifying in movement and appearance, but also has some of the most offensive insults of any major film character, some of which are hard not to find pretty funny these days. Joined by a supporting cast of great actors Max Von Sydow and Ellen Burstyn, Blair leads The Exorcist through classic scene after classic scene, right up until an ending that has stuck with audiences for decades. This film is important anytime of the year, but certainly helps with the mood of Halloween. And in viewing horror films since, The Exorcist really proved to be a game changing picture.

9. Day of the Dead (1985)

Really, I would recommend any of the first three films in George A. Romero’s franchise that invented the modern cinema zombie. Night of the Living Dead has the quotes everyone should know, and Dawn of the Dead pioneered the zombie film formula seen time and time again since. This third film sticks out in my mind as being the most interesting and therefore most memorable of Romero’s films. The special effects from master Tom Savini alone are a solid reason to seek this film out, but on top of the visuals, Day of the Dead provides a new layer to the zombie horror flick with Bub. Kept locked in a lab, Bub is a zombie undergoing tests to prove that these undead walkers still have humanistic qualities in them, and could perhaps have a brighter future. It’s a plot line that results in a zombie film with more conflicting emotion than even a full series like The Walking Dead.

8. The Mist [Director’s Cut] (2007)

Speaking of The Walking Dead, that show was not the first foray into horror from Frank Darabont, who famously adapted two other Stephen King stories into modern day classics: The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Those, however, happened to be of King’s non-horror works. The Mist comes in as Darabont’s third King adaptation, this time with the blunt terror that we love King for. Many people end up disagreeing that this film is as great as I hold it to be. The film did fairly well in the box office and critics applauded it just for having some depth and not falling in line with 21st century “torture porn.” But often people found is premise boring and the effects pretty lame for ’07. Find the director’s cut. This version of the film is in beautiful black and white, as Darabont intended, and thus allows some of the effects to be more subtle and thus more scary. The Mist is a fantastic examination of how people relate to one another in the midst of a horrific situation. In my opinion, a far superior take on the idea than Darabont’s TV series.
For another sci-fi/horror film drastically improved by the directors cut, see I Am Legend (2007)

7. Black Christmas (1974)

Bob Clark is most famous for a film that is a must-see for one of the biggest holidays of the year. In fact, you can almost barely avoid seeing the film on the days surrounding it. That film is Jean Shepard’s A Christmas Story. Many people don’t realize that ten years prior to the family classic, Clark directed a Christmas film that could not be more opposing in every way. I like to think Black Christmas pioneered what would become a ridiculous trend of using holidays as horror film centerpieces (a sub-genre hilariously parodied with Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving trailer in Grindhouse.) The slasher is a classic the-killer-is-in-the-house plot, but executed with an almost choking sense of suspense. While many of the descriptors for this film probably make it really unappealing to the lesser horror fan, Black Christmas is unique and worth the time.
Also, Margot Kidder, right?

6. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Technically, this film weighs a little more on the dark comedy side, with some sharp injections of horror throughout. An American Werewolf in London is perhaps one of the greatest products of the 1980’s. Directed by John Landis, the film opens with two college graduates backpacking through rural England on an especially foggy and dark night. The first scene really captures the mood of this film as the two walk through a desolate and undoubtedly dangerous landscape, but share the same banter they probably had in the day time. One thing leads to another and the film follows the process of becoming a werewolf in a metropolitan setting. Part comedy, part bloody horror with genius special effects (namely the transformation scene), and part romance, An American Werewolf in London is a beautiful film, and probably the most lighthearted of this list. I recommend placing it halfway through your viewing. Sidenote: Best cleverly chosen soundtrack and also easily one of the best ending cuts of any film.

5. The Thing (1982)

The obvious Halloween recommendation would be John Carpenter’s Halloween (I mean, right?) But Carpenter went on to make a much more thrilling, terrifying and visually stimulating horror film with The Thing. The film has some of the best ingredients as far as scaring the shit out of people: a remote, quiet and dark setting, a monstrous enemy that takes the shape of people, and one of those scenes where something is up with the dogs and you know someone has to go check it out. Another film on this list with fantastic special effects, as well as great performances from Kurt Russell and, what’s that, Wilford Brimley? Yeah, check it out.

 

 

 

4. Suspiria (1977)

You know how even if you say you are desensitized to on-screen violence and what not, but you still have the impulse to cringe and slightly divert your eyes from the grotesque scenes? Well, Suspiria conflicts you with making those scenes into simultaneous works of stunning art. Dario Argento, one of the biggest names in European horror, directs this visceral, technicolor dream-like film about a girl’s experience at a new school, specifically a ballet academy at the end of a really long cab ride through the woods. What lies under the surface, though not far under, is a crippling force of evil and danger. Capturing the true horror of any film in words is pretty hard, but here it’s truly impossible.

 

 

3. The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s loose adaptation from Stephen King’s classic novel proves still to be the best example of a film that easily trumps the book, and does so by being so loosely based. The Shining drops almost all of the back story from the novel, leaving the audience with what appears to be a healthy family taking residence over the winter at a big, beautiful hotel resort in Colorado. Kubrick’s filmic voice is what carries this film to be so superb and so intensely scary, using small patches of the 2 1/2 hour duration to show real terror, and leaving the rest to dwell in suspension so thick that when he cuts to a simple title card showing the day, everyone jumps out of their seat. Jack Nicholson gives one of his greatest performances as  Jack Torrance, very gradually going blindly insane from the isolation, the silence and the life within the walls and rooms of the empty hotel. Also: fantastic teaser trailer

 

2. 28 Days Later… (2002)

One of my often made mistakes is citing this as my all-time favorite zombie film. In fact, 28 Days Later does not deal with zombies, and that may be the most scary factor. After an outbreak of monkeys being tested with basically a rage serum, the majority of the world kills itself with a population of monstrous, violent, and very alive people. This film is scattered with brilliant images and cinematography. Cillian Murphy walking around the eerily empty streets of London. The bodies in the church, illuminated by the stained glass. The silhouettes of infected people pouring down the underground tunnel like rats chasing after the small band of survivors at the film’s center. 28 Days Later rewards you with genuine horror but also beautiful sequences of heartwarming human relations. In all my days of looking at the world of film through a more serious or analytical lens, 28 Days Later has remained one of my favorites of any genre. If you haven’t seen it, please do.

 

1. Psycho (1960)

Applauding other films for their handling of suspense is perfectly fine, as long as one is consistently acknowledging Hitchcock, who invented everything we know about being scared by merely a series of edits on a screen. Few will disagree that Psycho is the quintessential scary movie. Everyone knows the reference to the shower scene, or has seen some parody on the Bates Motel. Psycho proved that it’s not just images of scary things  happening, it’s how those images are presented. The cutting of a scene can directly effect what makes people jump or feel nervous or even just make their heart beat faster. By exploring every facet of the filmmaking process, Alfred Hitchcock took audiences to a whole new level of being scared, not of the blob or the creature from the black lagoon, but of people right here. Psycho is a masterpiece, and will more than adequately put anyone in the right frame of mind for the time of year dedicated to appreciating the art of being scared.