Along with eating candy, wearing costumes and carving Jack-o-lanterns to get in the spirit for Halloween, another great holiday pastime is throwing a killer party! However, what’s a good Halloween party without the great horror flicks? Here are two lists of hauntingly good movies to watch on Halloween. Whether you enjoy a nice scare or love to laugh, beware of what lies ahead!
The Scarier, the Better!
10. Pumpkinhead
What happens when a witch crosses a child’s soul and a deformed body with an evil spirit? You get this hot mess. The film’s main character, Ed Harley, thinks he’s doing the right thing by awakening an evil spirit to seek revenge on those who killed his soon, but things quickly start to go south. Proof that you should never mess with a monster.
9. Hellraiser
I don’t know one person who can look at Pinhead and not get the willies. Clive Barker re-imagined the idea of Hell in this film about a woman bargaining with sado-masochistic demons that are holding her ex-lover captive. Hellraiser steps up the scare factor to a bone-chilling degree.
Just as the fear attached to the walking dead started to wear off, Danny Boyle pulls a fast one on moviegoers by introducing the running infected. The quite tone of the film, along with the aspect of epidemic, generate a feeling of slow impending doom unlike a lot of horror films which rely on overwhelming the viewer.
7. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
It may be an oldie, but it’s a damn goodie! Horror hasn’t been the same since this chainsaw-wielding slasher was introduced. It made teens tpuhink twice about doing all the bad things their parents always warned them about. The overall tone of the film makes something as taboo as cannibalism seem like a deadly possibility.
While Freddy was the first psycho killer to make us laugh, more than likely those laughs were filled with nervous anxiety. Who can look at that burned face and those knives-for-claws and not feel skittish? This movie is what solidified Wes Craven’s career as a horror icon and also catapulted Johnny Depp into stardom.
5. Friday the 13th (1980)
Jason Voorhees may be known as the man behind the mask of this series, but his Momma is responsible for getting things started. One of the first horror films to portray a female killer, Friday the 13th is a Halloween must-have.
4. The Thing
While Alien introduced terror from the beyond, John Carpenter’s The Thing took it to a whole new level with the deranged and deformed concoctions its aliens inhabited. It doesn’t get much more claustrophobic than being stranded on Antarctica.
If you ever wondered who to thank for flesh-eating zombies, George A. Romero’s the man. Who would have thought that a small movie made back in 1968 could become one of the most thriving subgenres of horror? Revisit this horror classic but be sure to keep the lights on or you’ll find yourself looking over your shoulder in no time!
2. The Exorcist
Thirty-five years after its release, this film still holds up and scares the pants off of a new audience every year. Between Regan, played by Linda Blair, and her slowly deforming presence and the extremely foul language and behavior erupting from her, its no wonder Blair was a feared lady. This is horror at its finest.
1. Halloween (1978)
It isn’t Halloween until you watch Halloween. Michael Myers, in the most expressionless and terrifying mask to ever grace the big screen, returns to his hometown fifteen years after killing his sister to strike again. Halloween proves that the Boogeyman really does exist.
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Horror Ha-Has
10. The Return of the Living Dead
BRAAAAAAAINS! Mix the talking zombie and a handful of punk rockers and you get one of the greatest parody horror films of all-time. On a slow night at the medical supply store, two employees accidentally release noxious gas into the air that turns dead people into brain-craving zombies.
9. Idle Hands
The 1999 horror-comedy starring Devon Sawa will put you in the holiday spirit. Sawa’s right hand goes berserk and starts killing people, including his friends played by Seth Green and Elden Henson. It’s your typical teen movie gone horribly awry and is great fun! This one also introduced the world to Jessica Alba.
8. Scream
Wes Craven does it again with his re-invention of the slasher flick in the mid-90s. Combining satire and horror, Scream is the perfect film for horror fans and moviegoers alike.
7. Ghostbusters
Who DOESN’T love this movie? Featuring an all-star comedy team of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters is a great Halloween film because it has great key components: a kick-ass theme song, ghosts and killer dialogue. While you’re not likely to get spooked, you may get slimed, which is equally as good.
6. Fright Night
A teenager believes that his neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire and no one believes him. With the help of his best friend Billy and late-night horror host Evil Ed, they are hell-bent on finding out the truth. This movie has great laughs but also has a lot of great scares with amazing special effects.
5. Army of Darkness
The third film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy proves to be the funniest of them all. Bruce Campbell’s character gets sent back to the Medieval era to fight the undead and retrieve the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) in order to return home. This movie will make you laugh until you scream.
4. Zombieland
Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson travel the U.S. kicking some major zombie ass until they meet two girls, played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, who threaten to kick theirs. Amazingly funny and filled with a few great scares, Zombieland has quickly risen to the top of the zombie comedy genre. You’ll have to see this one in theaters, though!
3. An American Werewolf in London
John Landis’ satire of the werewolf genre is a film way ahead of its time. Witty as hell and sporting some great special effects (the transformation scene is to die for!), An American Werewolf in London doesn’t fail to entertain or scare the pants off its viewers.
2. Dead Alive
Before Peter Jackson made The Lord of the Rings trilogy or King Kong, he made what is still called the goriest film ever made. It is repulsive at times, terrifying and consistently funny; which is why it ranks so high on the horror-comedy must-sees.
I have seen this film over 200 times and love it more with each viewing. The film is overwhelmingly British, funny to the core and increasingly scary as it progresses. Nick Frost, who plays sidekick to Simon Pegg’s Shaun, best describes the flow of the movie when he says, “She’s like butter!” Of course, he was talking about Shaun’s mum.
