Big fan of horror movies? Don’t which classics or underground horror films to watch? Here’s a list of 10 halloween movies to stream or watch during the month of october. Fair warning, these films are not for the faint of heart.
1. Halloween (1978)
A classic, chilling story of a mad man who comes home to create more bloodshed in his family. Anyone standing in his way isn’t so lucky either. Michael Myers is an iconic figure in horror cinema and John Carpenter creates a shadow of a movie monster that is just a human with a butcher knife. Add in a chilling score, and we have ourselves a halloween classic.
2. The Exorcist
The mother of all possesion films. The Exorcist has haunting cinematography, fantastic make-up design, a great score, terrific performances, and one of the most human and emotional films that tries to humanize every character, making the final exorcism sequence all the more nail-biting and terrifying. The Exorcist is a triumph in horror films, and a must-see for any film lover. Forewarning, there are a plethora of graphic, disturbing images so be warned.
3. The Shining
Jack Nicholson’s slow descent into madness makes this film all the worth it as Stanley Kubrick utilizes every set piece and his actors’ energy to make a maddening and authentic horror movie feel.
4. Ringu (1998)
The original Japanese horror film that would inspire the American remake (The Ring), is all the more terrifying in its masterful instense buildup to every moment of horror in this film. It’s creepy, disturbing, and will make you double check every corner in your room.
5. The Texas-Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Leatherface is perhaps the creepiest and intimidating horror movie killers who barely speaks a word, if not, not at all and he cuts into his victims with chainsaw and stores their bodies for his hillbilly cannibal family. This film is pure insanity and each death in the feel leaves you feeling disturbed and horrifies as to what isn’t showed but only implied, as seen in a particular sequence where a man takes a hammer to the head and his twitching body is dragged into a room by the leatherflace who slams the door. We don’t know what happens immediately after, but we’re only left to imagine the horrors of what is happening after that moment.
6. The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2
Okay, this is cheating, but these are two films that have to be seen back to back to fully appreciate the work of James Wan, who doesn’t rely on jump scares but rather building tension with great payoff to scare the audience. Also, add in some horrifying images of a murderous ghost and demon-nun and we have perhaps the best horror series of the 21st century.
7. Scream
Funny, smart, and an intense twist on the horror movie genre, Scream makes fun of the old horror cliche while creating new rules and cliches in its universe.
8. Nightmare on Elm Street
The concept itself of a man who can kill you in your dreams is enough reason to want to check this classic out.
9. The Devil’s Backbone
Ghost Children. That is all.
10. Sinister
Homemade video tapes of violence, a creepy cult of children, and a terrifying villain makes all for a creepy and unsettling watch.