How many clubs have you seen posting about hosting horror movie nights? Follow-up question: How many of them were showing movies like The Conjuring, Insidious or The Shining? All of them are classics, of course, but also painfully basic. If you’re desperate for some more original recommendations to close out this spooky season, look no further!
- “Carnival of Souls”
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To all of the skeptics of black and white horror movies, trust me: this one packs a serious punch.
Summary: When a car full of teenagers drives off a bridge and sinks into a river, it is marked down as an incredible tragedy…until one of them walks out of the river hours later, seemingly unscathed. The fact that weird corpses start following her around afterward is such a crazy coincidence!
- “Arachnophobia”
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Featuring: Jump scares so intense that I jumped out of my seat three times when I was looking for this GIF!
Summary: A butterfly hunt gone wrong lands one of the researchers in a casket back to America…with an eight-legged passenger and its oozing egg sac along for the ride.
- “The Others”
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Creepy British kids, the 9th Doctor and Nicole Kidman? Could there be a better cast?
Summary: A hyper-religious widow tries to protect her children from the sun by shutting all of the windows and locking all of the doors but worse things find their way in.
- “Verónica”
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In case you needed a reminder to never play with a Ouija board: don’t!
Summary: In 1991, a young girl named Verónica experimented with a Ouija board during an eclipse and effectively brought about the first police-documented case of paranormal activity in Spain.
- “Poltergeist”
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Take a breather from creepy horror movie children by rooting for Carol-Anne, who is a) adorable and b) trying her best.
Summary: Just another happy American family living in a comfy suburb, nothing to see here! Except that the youngest daughter hears voices inside the TV…and the weird tree in the backyard has a face…and that clown doll is a big no!
- “Sinister”
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If for no other reason, watch it for the guy who played lovable hypochondriac Eddie in It: Chapter Two, whose nervous performance shines just as brightly in this very dark movie.
Summary: A struggling true-crime writer moves his family into a crime scene to get inspiration for his upcoming novel, but a box of horrifying film reels in the attic gives him enough material to write a whole new series.
- “What Lies Beneath”
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While it does start off a bit slow, trust me: my sisters have been scared of bathrooms for the past 15 years over this.
Summary: A mother struggling with empty nest syndrome and a strained marriage chooses to focus her energy on the turbulent relationship of the couple next door…the wife going missing couldn’t have anything to do with the lady showing up in her bathtub, right?
- “The Woman in Black”
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In which Daniel Radcliffe is a big dummy.
Summary: When a widowed lawyer is given one final chance to keep his job and support his son, he eagerly agrees to it, even though everyone along the way begs him to go home. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t go home and everyone else pays the price.
- “The Haunting of Hill House”
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Fun tip: Look for the “hidden ghosts” in the background to send even more chills down your spine!
Summary: The Crains were driven apart by the traumas of living in a haunted house decades before, but another death in the family brings them back together to figure out what exactly happened to them there.
Happy watching and Happy Halloween, Her Campus readers! Get ready to be spooked!