Whether you’re a horror fanatic or a scaredy cat, watching horror movies is a great way to get into the Halloween spirit. I am personally the former, so here are five drastically different scary movies to watch this spooky season.
Nosferatu
The original Nosferatu was a 1922 German silent film, but in 2024, Robert Eggers took the same concept and made it more palatable for audiences a hundred years later. Nosferatu (2024) is a gothic horror film based on the ancient interpretations of vampires. The film is set in the early 1800s, and estate agent Thomas Hutter must travel to Transylvania to meet Count Orlok for a business meeting. While he is away, his troubled wife, Ellen, is plagued by visions and psychosis while placed under the care of friends Friderich and Anna. Ellen continues to endure these horrors as Thomas faces the imminent threat of Count Orlok. Eggers is known for his work in folk/gothic horror, but taking on such an iconic project is no easy feat. Regardless, Eggers pulls it off beautifully. Nosferatu’s portrayal of vampires is drastically different from the sexy and seductive vampires of Twilight and Interview with the Vampire, but if you are a vampire or gothic horror fan, I would recommend checking it out.
Funny Games
Funny Games is a 1997 Austrian-language film by Michael Haneke. It follows two young men, Peter and Paul, who take a family hostage in their own home and subject them to sadistic torments. Funny Games falls more into the category of psychological horror/thriller, but it still has some genuinely terrifying moments. The film contains countless uncomfortable scenes of the violent humiliation of the family in their own place of comfort. Funny Games is one of the only fourth wall breaks in film that I think works without being too cheesy, as Paul occasionally looks to the audience for their opinion of their crimes. Funny Games is also unique because Haneke remade the film ten years later with the same plot, but in English, and with different actors. Regarded as “a film so evil, they made it twice”, Funny Games is one of the most underrated films in the horror genre.
Tusk
Body horror is a prominent subgenre of horror movies, but it is often the same movies that are talked about when it comes to discussions of body horror films. For a more unique choice, I have Kevin Smith’s 2014 horror-comedy film, Tusk. The film follows Wallace, an American podcaster who travels to Canada for an interview. He discovers that his original interviewee has passed away, so he instead interviews Howard Howe, a retired sailor. When Wallace arrives at Howe’s home, he drugs with, and Wallace awakes strapped to a chair with his leg amputated. Howe reveals he is obsessed with a walrus who saved his life after a shipwreck and is determined to transform Wallace into a walrus. Tusk is a mind-bending, deeply unsettling film with occasional moments of comic relief. It is equal parts horrifying and hilarious, but definitely proceed with caution. It is certainly not everyone’s cup of tea.
Saw
One of the most iconic horror films of all time, James Wan’s 2004 directorial debut film, Saw. It is one of the pioneering films of “splatter” horror, a genre that includes graphic depictions of gore. The film follows the mystery of the Jigsaw Killer, who kidnaps his victims and subjects them to various “games” in which they must endure self-inflicted bodily pain to survive. The primary plot of the film follows Adam, a photographer, and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, an oncologist. The two men awake, chained up in a ramshackle bathroom with an unidentified corpse lying in front of them, seeming dead from suicide. They soon realize that the Jigsaw Killer has kidnapped them and must endure his twisted games to survive. Saw is a horror classic that genuinely puts the low-budget/splatter horror genre on the map. Although the whole Saw franchise can be a little chaotic, the first film will forever be one of my favorites.
Se7en
From critically acclaimed director David Fincher comes the 1995 crime/horror film Se7en (pronounced “seven”). Se7en’s dark aesthetic almost ventures into neo-noir genre territory, but it is primarily a crime thriller. Set in an unnamed city, retiring police chief William Somerset is partnered with loose cannon cop David Mills for one last case. Following a murder scene in which a man is forced to eat himself to death, the detectives find the word “gluttony” written on his wall, leading them to believe that the killer is committing murders based on the biblical concept of the Seven Deadly Sins. Somerset and Mills are then caught in a cat-and-mouse game with the sadistic killer. To me, Se7en is the perfect crime horror film, a perfect balance of spooky gore and jump scares while maintaining the sophisticated noir detective vibe—definitely a perfect watch for this Halloween season.