Everyone knows that nothing makes a better pair than a big pile of Halloween candy and a marathon of spooky movies. With the noticeable lack of good horror movies that have come out this year, here are five great ones you’ve heard of, but probably haven’t gotten around to seeing yet. From zombies and murderers to ghosts and ghouls, there’s definitely something in one of these films that will make you jump out of your seat.
5. The House on Haunted
Hill (1959)
Some people are just creepy. Famous actor Vincent Price was one of those people. So, when he and his fourth wife offer five people $10,000 just to stay in a house with them for a night, it’s hard to see why they accepted. Of course, the house does its best to make sure no one gets that money, and before long there are ghosts, murderers, skeletons, and practically everything that could ruin a late 50’s sleepover. While this is a pretty campy movie by today’s standards, it’s got some spooky moments as well as Price’s aforementioned creepiness, and may even extract some frights from the faint of heart.
4. Poltergeist (1982)
One of the oldest horror movie rules in the book: little children saying seemingly innocent things can be absolutely terrifying. When a young family discovers that they may not be the only ones inhabiting their new home, things go awry pretty quickly. Director Tobe Hooper and writer Steven Spielberg play to the things that terrified us at an early age: spooky shapes outside the window, the monsters in the closet, and things that make noise in the night. Plus, the famous scene of Carol Anne by the blank TV saying the iconic line, “They’re here!” stays in your mind long after you’re done watching.
3. Alien (1979)
What’s scarier than a seemingly indestructible, predatory being that is set on consuming you in a messy way? Being trapped with said being on a space ship. Long before she was fighting alongside blue aliens in Avatar, Sigourney Weaver faced off against a much different breed of extraterrestrial. This is definitely a more violent and gory film than some others on this list, but most of the scares come from now-famous director Ridley Scott’s ability to create absurd amounts of tension in the sterile, claustrophobic atmosphere of the intergalactic mining vessel that Weaver commands.
2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
If you’ve ever seen anything with a zombie in it, you have George A. Romero and this classic to thank for it. This pioneering movie even predates the term “zombie,” as they are consistently referred to as “ghouls.” After an unexplained uprising of the undead, five people are trapped in an isolated farmhouse as they fight off the hordes and await rescue. Don’t let the black-and-white fool you, the scares have held up pretty well in the last 44 years, and it is still more than equal to some modern zombie flicks in its more bizarre moments.
1. Halloween (1978)
How could you not watch Halloween on Halloween? Nowadays, Jamie Lee Curtis is mostly known as yogurt’s number-one fan, but in 1978 she was a babysitter being chased by her murderous and unstoppable older brother in a low-budget slasher film that has been copied countless times. There are a lot of ways that this film can be called a direct descendant of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. Perhaps the most direct is that Halloween star Curtis is the daughter of the woman killed in Psycho’s famous shower scene. Though the many other copycat movies (Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp, etc.) often have an element of humor in their own ridiculousness, there is nothing funny or ridiculous about Halloween. It is really just that scary. Director John Carpenter really gets that you don’t need big money to make big scares, and this one will have the meeker viewers sleeping with the lights on for a lot of Halloweens to come.
