10. House On Haunted Hill
This is the ultimate haunted house film,
forget The Haunting or The Legend Of Hell House, this came first. Starring the
legendary Vincent Price playing a billionaire who rents out a creepy house for the
night to host a birthday party for his wife and invites 5 guests promising them
each $10,000 if they can survive the night. This is very creepy, with some
clever jump-scares and edge-of-your-seat sequences, but it’s fun and it never
takes itself too seriously. Don’t be put off that it’s black-and-white, it’s
very entertaining that you’ll forget about it in 5 minutes. The 1999 remake is just as entertaining, however adds way too much to the plot
making a fairly simply story needlessly complicated and the said additions are pretty
lazy and cliché, so I highly suggest you stick with the original.
9. Ginger Snaps
Brigitte and Ginger are two strange
sisters, who like to stage brutal death pictures of themselves, are one night
attacked by a werewolf and Ginger is bitten. Slowly Ginger develops wolf
features and act aggressive, while Brigitte tries to find a cure. A cool spin
on the werewolf films and has clever metaphors of puberty. Stand out moment is
the Halloween party, by that time Ginger’s wolf features have become completely
however everyone thinks it’s just a very a cool and creative costume.
8. Hocus Pocus
Three sister witches are hanged during the
Salem witch trials and 300 years later in modern day, a bunch of kids
accidently resurrect them. It’s the three main actresses-Bette Midler, Sarah
Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy- who make this movie an enjoyable Halloween
flick, as these wicked witches creating havoc while being fish-out-of-water in
the modern world. The stand out moment is when the witches have a musical number at the town hall party.
7. Fright Night
A teenage boy suspects his new neighbor is
a vampire. Unable to convince anyone of his suspicions, he uses his love for vampire films to
prove his case. He sorts the help of his favourite vampire slayer
actor Peter Vincent (played by Roddy McDowell) who demonstrates the traits of
vampires and even has a dig at the horror genre at that time. Stand moments
include the disco scene where Amy is dancing with the vampire and there’s no
reflection in the mirror wall and the scene where a wolf slowly morphs back to
human (a practical effect). The remake is decent and has it’s own look at the
vampire, but the original is definitely more memorable and clever.
6. Beetlejuice
A haunted house film that is from the ghosts’
perspective and it’s the ghosts who are normal people and the living
inhabitants who are the weird ones. After unsuccessfully trying to scare the
inhabitants out, ghost Adam and Barbara call upon a bio-exorcist Betelgeuse
played by an unrecognisable Michael Keaton. The film is incredibly funny, the
characters are incredibly memorable especially goth girl Lydia, played by
Winona Ryder and Betlegeuse who is only in it for about 15 minutes. This was
Tim Burton’s breakthrough and he was able to make an incredibly creative style with
practical effects with a pretty limited budget.
5. Shaun Of The Dead
The first of the Cornetto trilogy and is a
clever tribute to the horror and zombie genre. Set in a mundane community that
we all recognise and relate to, it cleverly satirises what this environment
would be like with zombies. The methods the characters come up with are clever
and hilarious that you would never see in any straight horror film, the standout is when they to pretend to be zombies to fool the real zombies. But it’s
not just satire, it’s still has suspense and heartbreaking moments without losing
it’s core. The gore is very excessive but never to the point where you’ve had
enough. Simon Pegg is the title character is the selling point, he plays a man-child who needs to learn responsibilities yet he is a very likeable character and relatable.
4. The Cabin In The Woods
A group of five teenagers take a break in a
cabin in the middle of the woods, in this isolated area they party, get up to
things they shouldn’t not knowing they are in danger. How unoriginal does that
sound? Very, most horror films are like that… but that’s the point! It knows
that and in fact takes every cliché in horror films and puts it’s own spin on
them and around this it creates this whole original story that keeps you
guessing. There are countless nods to horror film, some in your face and others very subtle that it takes a lot of rewatches to see them all. A must see for every horror fan.
3. The Watcher In The Woods
A horror film for children. A family move
to big old house with a creepy landlady (played by Bette Davis) and weird
things happen- the older sister Jan is seeing creepy images of a similar
looking girl blindfolded and the little sister Ellie acts weirdly like she’s
possessed. Jan connects the weird going-ons to a tragic mystery that happened
30 years ago. For a children’s film it’s very suspenseful and atmospheric, kids
would certainly be frightened yet it doesn’t go too far that it would cause them
trauma or offend their parents.
2. Halloween
Really this should number 1, I mean it’s
called Halloween after all. And don’t get me wrong it’s still a classic and one
of the best horror films ever made. It is still more spine-chillingly
suspenseful than most horror films today wish it could be. Michael Myers is one
of the most iconic horror villains, with an instantly recognisable white mask
and simplicity. This was made before slasher clichés became a thing, in fact
they spawned from rip-offs of Halloween that they didn’t understand how it
worked in the first place. Yes Jamie Lee Curtis is the virginal final girl
while her friends have sex, drink and smoke, however the film treats them all
like real people with personalities and are not unlikeable so you care when
they are in danger. Donald Pleasance is a standout as Michael’s psychiatrist Dr
Loomis. The opening titles with the pumpkin is simple and creepy and the closet
scene is still heart pounding. The sequel Halloween II is pretty good
continuing where the first film left off, not as good but worthy. The rest of
the sequels not really, they have none of the suspense of the first film and
struggle with the direction to go due to the simplicity of the original plot,
although Halloween H20 is decent only for the direction it takes Jamie Lee
Curtis’ character, which gets ruined by it’s follow-up Resurrection. Rob
Zombie’s remake series is ok, just look at them as there own thing but still
the masterpiece the original.
1. Trick ‘r Treat
This film just worships Halloween and
celebrates it for all it’s worth. It’s an anthology of 4 stories set in the
same neighborhood at the same, occasionally crossing over. The stories are – A
school principle who is secretly a serial killer; a group of kids collecting a batch
of pumpkins in memorial of a tragedy known as ‘Halloween School Bus Massacre’;
a young woman is searching for a date for a party and finds herself being stalked
by a vampire; a mean old man ‘the Scrooge of Halloween’ gets his just desserts.
All the stories are being watched by Sam, a mysterious trick-or-treater wearing
a burlap-sack mask. Everything about this film just screams Halloween, even has
a character briefly talk about the origins of the holiday, also has nods to
classic horror films (even a nod to John Carpenter’s Halloween). It’s over the
top, makes a lot of moves that a lot of mainstream horror films wouldn’t do
(which may explain it’s constant delays and limited release) it will shock you
for most of it but it isn’t really scary. It is most all fun, now go see it!
Hope you all enjoyed this list and that I managed to get you watching at leat one of them this Halloween. Here's some runner ups: A Nightmare On Elm Street, Paranorman, Insidious, Poltergeist, Oculus, The Addams Family. I'm getting ready to watch Crimson Peak which looks awesome.
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