People are often surprised when I tell them about my love of horror movies. It’s not that I like to see blood and guts, per se. Actually, I used to avoid horror movies at all costs.
Traditional slasher elements can make films more interesting, but I’ve never found gore to be essential to a horror movie’s success. Although I initially abhorred horror movies, I eventually grew to love them; it’s become a favorite thing my dad and I do together. He, unlike me, prefers slashers over tense, dread-inducing films. He’ll recommend the Insidious series to anyone who will listen.
As an English major, I’m trained to look for the deeper meaning behind any form of media, be it a novel, a Reddit thread, or an advertisement. I began to question whether this kind of thinking could apply to the movie genre I’ve grown to love.
Through this, I’ve found some of my favorite films of all time. I can’t name every horror or thriller movie with heavy symbolism; otherwise, this article would be thousands of pages long. Instead, I’ll list a few that I’ll definitely be re-watching this spooky season.
Sinners (2025)
There’s only one word to describe this movie: masterpiece. It’s truly a testament to the strength and resilience of Black culture and showcases just how much popular media can trace back its origins to it. The score is also enchanting; the music knows precisely when to fade into the background and when to crescendo.
In the film, music also seems to have a kind of otherworldly power that connects past and future, highlighting how intertwined song and culture are. The protagonist of Sinners is a young preacher’s son named Sammie, whose musical talents pierce the veil between the physical and spiritual realms. When he plays his guitar and sings, the music connects him and those around him to his past and future. Dancers from all eras of history suddenly appear, creating a tangible expression of music’s power.
As seen in songs like “Rocky Road to Dublin,” the music reveals more about the film’s cast. One of the main villains of the film is Remmick, a centuries-old Irish vampire whose family and culture fell victim to colonization; his main goal in Sinners seems to be recreating the bonds he once lost. Vampirism in Sinners is representative of cultural appropriation and colonization, a parasitic leech on society that, as the film goes on, becomes increasingly grotesque.
When Remmick coerces those he’s newly turned into vampires into singing an Irish brogue with him through his hive-mind powers, he’s trying to regain the community he lost to colonization. In doing so, however, he becomes the colonizer. Remmick goes after Sammie’s songs, culture, and history because he has none of his own.
I can’t say much more without spoiling this movie, but if you decide to watch one film from this list, let it be Sinners.
The Witch (2015)
This movie is the epitome of folk horror, my favorite genre of film. The Witch centers around Thomasin, a teenage Puritan girl, and her family, who have just been cast out of Salem. While not explicitly stated, it’s heavily implied that the family is ostracized from their Puritan settlement because the father, William, has committed some religious heresy.
Religion is an almost oppressive theme in The Witch. As the film goes on and the family is killed off one by one, the viewer sees those who remain turn to fanatic Christianity as their only solace.
One of my favorite parts of the movie is the inclusion of Black Phillip, a goat on the family farm who’s obsessed with Thomasin’s younger siblings. If her siblings are in trouble, they’ll simply say that anything they did wrong was Black Phillip’s idea, that he told them to do it.
When Thomasin finally speaks with the goat at the end of the film, he transforms into a handsome man and tells her of all the luxuries that he could give to her if she gave in to temptation and forfeited her soul. She agrees.
In the Bible, sheep are considered to be representative of the righteous, while those condemned are goats. With this in mind, Black Phillip seems to be a symbol for the devil. When Thomasin speaks with the goat man at the end of the film and agrees to sign her name in his book (a common belief about witchcraft at the time), she may see this as a form of self-actualization, of separating herself from her former family unit.
I wouldn’t describe The Witch as your typical horror movie. It’s creepy, sure, but it’s also much more complex than one would think at first glance, which makes it a fantastic watch this fall.
The Prestige (2006)
While not technically a horror film, The Prestige is firmly a psychological thriller. This movie holds a particular place in my heart because my friend, Nadia, introduced it to me. She told me that I would absolutely love it, but I was skeptical. However, as I settled into the pleather couch that every Ragans dorm seems to have, I quickly found myself becoming engrossed in the film. When the end credits began to play, the first words that left my mouth were, “I need to watch this again.”
The Prestige, as it centers around the arts of sleight of hand and magic, is one of those films that you have to watch at least twice to catch all the details you missed the first time. Even the movie’s name seems like a kind of double entendre.
In terms of a magician’s act, the “prestige” is the final, most crucial portion of the trick. It’s the act of bringing back an object that they vanished. Think of any stereotypical magic trick, pulling a rabbit out of a hat, for example. The magician shows the audience the rabbit, disappears, then, after a suitably dramatic interval, pulls it from their hat with a flourish. The trick centers on bringing the rabbit back, not on its vanishing.
The film follows two competing magicians, formerly partners, who try to figure out the method behind the prestige of each other’s acts, each attempt more daring and deadly than the last. Some of the tricks they focused on are the “magic bullet,” the water tank, and the mystery of the collapsing bird cage. I really can’t write anymore without giving away the central plot, but I promise it’s worth watching!
I can’t wait to re-watch these horror movies this fall, and I hope that you’ll give them a try this spooky season!
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