With Halloween approaching, now seems like a good time to make some horror and thriller film recommendations. Here’s my list of the top five scariest movies to watch this October.
# 5. “Best president in my lifetime. Hands down.”
Each numerical entry on this list will get progressively darker and more terrifying. But for now, let’s start light.
Horror comedy may seem like an oxymoron, but when done right, they can provide great movies that range from goofy parodies to the type of dark humor that even your favorite edgy stand-up comedian might be put off by. On the lighter side, you have comedy classics like Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein (1974) or Ghostbusters (1984). I came close to reviewing the British cult-classic Shaun of the Dead (2004), but elected something a little more twisted and a little more recent: Jordan Peele’s Oscar winning Get Out (2017).
At this point, you’ve likely seen this modern-day classic, but if you haven’t, for the love of God, get to it. This is the type of movie that will be studied and discussed on and off college campuses for decades to come. Intertwining legitimate tension and scares, big laughs, and enough cutting social commentary to fill more essays than we could even publish, Get Out is as funny as it is disturbing.
# 4. “We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms.”
Perhaps no genre of film is as inherently tension filled as the mystery genre. The journey of a good “Whodunit” or disappearance film is filled with many twists and turns, and in many cases, scares. Director David Fincher certainly deserves an honorable mention for great mystery movies like Gone Girl (2014) and Se7en (1995). Although, be wary, Se7en is still one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. A scary movie list would not be complete without at least one spot going to the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. I’m giving the number four spot to his mystery masterpiece, Rear Window (1954).
As you could probably tell from the release date, this is one of the slower films on this list, but that doesn’t undermine how tense and incredibly well made this movie is. From the get-go the audience is put into the shoes, or in this case wheelchair, of a man with a broken leg who begins spying on his neighbors, only to begin suspecting that one of them has murdered his wife. Full of great acting, beautiful cinematography, and a killer premise, Rear Window is, to me, Hitchcock’s greatest movie.
#3. “I admire its purity. A survivor. Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”
Maybe the most iconic component of a horror movie is the villain. The villain is the singular source of evil 一 an unstoppable force who is only seeking to harm the protagonists.
In many stories, the villain is a human being, like Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990) or Max Cady in Cape Fear (1991). While these people are utterly terrifying, creature features, can be just as, if not more, scary.
The creature feature typically follows human protagonists going up against a real-world animal, or some sort of fictional monster. John Carpenter’s super gross but incredibly fun The Thing (1982) is a great example. Although Jaws (1975) might be my personal favorite of these top two finalists, it’s really more of a summer watch. For Halloween viewings, it has to be Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).
Alien is indisputably the queen of sci-fi horror. It is claustrophobic, atmospheric, and never without tension or terror. It is essentially a slasher movie in a spaceship, but instead of a human villain, we have HR Giger’s iconic Xenomorph. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the film’s protagonist and one of cinema’s best heroes, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley.
And remember… “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.”
#2. “Come play with us Danny…”
The three previously listed sub-genres are inarguably scary, but they share one comforting trait among them. The threats are real, or at least more realistic. They are physical beings in a physical world that we can overcome in a physical way. But what about a threat that we can’t even comprehend 一 one that isn’t from any world or realm that we know of, one that isn’t a man or beast, but something else entirely?
Enter the world of supernatural horror. A classic example might be Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and the dangers of the Faustian bargain. Perhaps the most famous of the supernatural scary movies would be 1973’s The Exorcist, commonly regarded as one of, if not the, scariest movies of all time. Though I’m a fan of the movie, it doesn’t take the number two spot. For most of its runtime it is a solid, well-acted thriller, but really it’s only truly exceptional for the last twenty minutes of the movie.
But when it comes to the supernatural, you really can’t beat a good ghost story. For the number two pick, I’m going with the much beloved, constantly quoted, and often parodied (“Shh! You wanna get sued?”) The Shining (1980), directed by Stanley Kubrick.
The Shining is a little slower, and certainly more abstract than the other movies on this list, but its slow pace is one of the key components that make The Shining as good, and as utterly horrifying, as it is. Low on actual violence and bloodshed (although don’t get too comfy, it’s definitely in there), The Shining rolls together components of cabin fever, insanity, and the supernatural to create one of the all-time classic horror movies, filled with a sense of mystery, isolation, and terror.
#1. “A census taker once tried to test me…”
We’ve covered what we understand, and what we do not, and how they can both scare us. But what about what we’re too scared to even try to understand? What about when we’re too frightened to admit what might actually exist … inside of us?
The number one slot goes to psychological horror. I was about an inch away from doubling-down on Hitchcock and going with Psycho (1960), but when it comes to the horrors of the mind, you really can’t beat The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
A rookie FBI agent has to catch a serial killer, and in order to do it she has to interview another serial killer to get inside the mind of an “expert.” Yes, it’s just about the most intriguing and terrifying premise of all time.
I’m not going to talk too much about this one, because if there’s one movie that I’ve named that I really want to recommend, it’s this one. I really think you should just see it.
My favorite leading actress performance paired with my favorite supporting actor performance combine to make my favorite movie hero with my favorite movie villain.
The Silence of the Lambs is one of the realest renditions of scary you’ll see, and also one of my favorite movies of all time. •
