My 31 favorite horror movies (10-31-17)

Before Halloween and October are over, I want to share my 31 favorite horror films with you. Luckily, I’ve been able to watch many of these the past few weeks.

My All Time horror movie list:

1. The Exorcist (1973): To me this is the ultimate horror film. It has the ultimate “bad guy”, the story builds and builds and culminates in one of the best third acts in horror history. The acting was brilliant all around, the movie was chilling throughout and truly scared you. Scared is a feeling, it’s felt. Too many horror flicks think horror is gore, visual tricks and sudden shocks. A slow burn scare is the ultimate scare. Sometimes losing all control is scarier than death. Speaking of losing control, my mom saw The Exorcist in the theater while she was pregnant with me. She didn’t make it the end because she was constantly throwing up watching the film. Can’t argue with that.

2. The Shining (1980): Talk about a creepy feeling movie. Again, the acting is fantastic and Nicholson is at his creepy best. Watching his slow mental breakdown is powerful. The story is fascinating and why wouldn’t be- it’s based on a Stephen King book of the same name. When I finally had the chance to see this in a theater with surround sound, holy crap, the film became even scarier. From Kubrick’s vivid colors to the scariest little sounds and score to Jack’s creepy descent into madness. This is quintessential horror.

3. Halloween (1978): The original slasher film. This John Carpenter classic set the tone for the genre for the next generation of films. It’s iconic villain; Michael Myers, is father to all the Jason’s, Freddie’s and everyone who came later. Halloween has influenced hundreds of horror movies since and we know why

4. Night of the Living Dead (1968): This is one of the greatest horror movies of all time but not just for the horror. Yeah the zombies were wonderful but what really made this incredible was the struggle not just with the undead but the living as well. Issues of race were as important as survival and that realism sets this George Romero classic in a class by itself. They're coming to get you Barbara!

5. Carrie (1976): Could this film have been cast any better? From Carrie to her mom to a young John Travolta to all the mean girls, the cast and acting were good. The story was unique and new, yet another Stephen King adaptation. The story is fascinating because quite frankly, in the end we are kind of rooting for the “bad guy”.

6. the Evil Dead (1981): while the sequels are legendary for other reasons, this low budget first offering from Sam Raimi was unique and creepy as hell, not to mention gory and graphic in ways we hadn’t seen before. I’m not necessarily a fan of gory and graphic, you can’t ignore the first films to do it. The Evil Dead made the most of a small budget providing some big scares.

7. Rosemary's Baby (1968): A frightening cult plot and wonderfully acted by all involved, this is another story that builds and builds. How deep does the rabbit hole go? When people are so nice they are creepy, perhaps they’re in a cult with a plot against you, lol.

8. Psycho (1960): I was on the fence as to whether I’d call Psycho a horror film or a psychological thriller, it’s influence on horror films cannot be denied and that’s why I’m including it here. Anthony Perkins was perfect as Bates and Hitchcock goes in a slightly different direction but scores big with this classic.

9. Poltergeist (1982): When the horror comes home. In Poltergeist, it’s not an old haunted house, a mansion, a castle or some historic locale. It’s a brand new home in a brand new housing community… that just happened to be built on an old Native American burial ground. Another well acted film, who can forget little Carol-Anne? Poltergeist reminds us that we should know about the history of the area we buy our home in.

10. Amityville Horror (1979): Speaking of haunted houses and Native American burial grounds! This movie is aided by the fact that several gruesome murders really did take place in the house. The debate on whether the home is haunted has raged on for decades and this movie helped to keep the debate going. Much like in the Shining, watching the slow burn psychological breakdown happen is riveting. What’s the breaking point? Can they find their way back? Just how powerful can a haunted house be? I don’t know if the stories outside of the murders are true but I wouldn’t walk within 50 feet of that house!

11. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974): The first film to really explore the gore and brutality elements of horror. Leatherface is iconic and pretty damn scary but another important aspect in horror is location. What’s scarier than running out of gas in a rural location in Texas, or in many underdeveloped places in the south?

12. Dawn of The Dead (1978): Another Romero classic full of zombies and social commentary. I find this film to be an early blueprint for The Walking Dead

13. The Fog (1980): Beware the Fog! A tale of revenge and reckoning, the Fog scores with an overall creepy feeling that basically lasts the entire film. As with any John Carpenter film, the score is great and the tone is perfect. I find this to be an underrated and mostly forgotten film but I find a great deal of scares when the horror comes in everyday things, natural phenomenon. It’s just a fog bank, right?

14. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984): What’s crueler than a homicidal maniac? One that taunts you as he kills you. Wes Craven took the slasher genre one step further than Myers and Jason with Freddie Krueger. Freddie has one liners but was still scary. If you aren’t safe in your dreams, where are you safe?

15. Trick r Treat (2007): A collection of scary stories separate but connected. This collection picks up where Creepshow and Tales From The Darkside left off and made a better film.

16. The Omen (1976): What would you do if you were somehow the parents of the anti-christ? But he’s just a little boy! While not on the level of some the greatest horror films, this creepy movie boasts one of the most unlikely villains: a little kid.

17. The Babadook (2014): One of the few recent films I’ve included. This film reminds us that horror and fear take place in the mind. This movie crosses the line from psychological thriller to psychological horror.

18. Prince of Darkness (1987): Another John Carpenter entry and another underrated film. Again we have the ultimate battle between good and evil except evil comes and good, or God, is nowhere to be found. How do we stop it? What chance would we have? Plus we get a cast full of actors who appeared in previous Carpenter films.

19. Scream (1996): It was both parody and paid homage to the genre. A slickly written film expertly directed by Craven, Scream might not have generated any from the viewer but it might have made you jump a few times and the twists, turns and subtleties made this a movie that did it’s homework and charted some new ground. A fun horror film but thankfully they knew not to make it too silly or comedic.

20. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920): A legendary offering that influenced the horror genre greatly. This film knows that the key to horror is playing with your mind. It featured the first ever “twist” ending and visually must have been a thrill ride to see nearly 100 years ago in a theater.

21. It (1990): A Stephen King adaptation about a very old killer clown that targets and kills kids. That in itself is pretty damn creepy. The way Pennywise torments and terrorizes the kids is both frightening and cruel. It makes for a pretty damn good horror film even if it’s a bit long. The cast is a who’s who of 70s/80s actors but Tim Curry slays as Pennywise.  

22. Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984): great characters and development, something often lacking in slasher films. It's not about how many, how fast and how gruesome we can make the kills. It's about how meaningful they are. We’re given just enough about them that we aren’t automatically rooting for Jason here. A young Crispin Glover and even younger Corey Feldman. One survived, one didn’t.

23. The Birds (1963): Part of what makes zombie movies terrifying is the fact that we have no control. If the dead turned to zombies, there isn’t much we could do but try to survive for as long as we could. There’d be too many of them. This is true in The Birds. How can you fight and defeat ALL the birds? Can you imagine people coming out of the theater after seeing this in 1963-64 and immediately seeing a flock of birds? They might feel a little nervous. That’s a good horror movie.

24. Friday the 13th (1980): yes, I have a sequel slightly above the original. First off, Jason isn’t really in this film but his mom does an admirable job of dispatching teens in his wake. This film was important for 2 reasons, 1- introducing the long standing franchise and 2- it might have been one of the first films where the viewer might have been rooting for the slasher/killer. In Halloween, you root for Jamie Lee Curtis, but in this film where the teens are not exactly depicted as upstanding kids, you might be inclined to feel like they deserved it except unlike in Carrie, where the title character takes revenge for those who wronged her, Mrs. Voorhees and subsequently Jason take revenge on kids who probably had nothing to do with his death.

25. Child's Play (1988): Dolls can be creepy. This movie made them creepier. The soul of a mass murderer lives on in a child's doll. 

26. Christine (1983): Yet another John Carpenter directed film on my list. It’s also another Stephen King adaptation. In this case it’s not a house or even a person possessed by an evil spirit; it’s a car. A classic car no doubt. I find this film to be minimalist and creepy. Keith Gordon is great in the title role and you go from rooting for the car at times to finally realizing that it has to be stopped.

27. Phantasm (1979): Beware the Tall Man! This cult classic is scary and a bit uneven but it’s raw and creative. It lives in its own world. Imagine a frightening funeral director who’s very ambitious about his business. The creep factor is raised with the accessories and help he uses to achieve his ends. The tall man alone makes the film memorable.

28. The Blair Witch Project (1999): The origin of found footage films. This low budget creeper is good because it is low budget and while the shaky camera work annoyed some, I found it to be realistic and it added to the fear. This might have been higher on the list if I better understood what was going on for most of it, but that doesn’t make it that less scary.

29. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982): How many more days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween? An unusual and underrated entry on this list for sure. People who hate this film usually do so because it has nothing to do with Michael Myers and the first 2 movies. Initially, that's why I didn't like it either but on its own, it’s a pretty scary story. Can you imagine Halloween masks killing kids and anyone who wears them? Plus tell me you didn’t hear the Silver Shamrock jingle when you saw this was on my list.

30. Saw (2004): While I can’t stand the Saw franchise, you can’t argue with the original. It’s more twisted, gory and sick than I’d prefer my horror to be but it was creative and unique. As horrifying psychologically as it is visually.

31. The Prophecy (1995): Since it’s my list, I’m gonna end this with one of my favorites. This is a story about a centuries old war between angels and demons. Humans are the wild card in this war and fight is on. Christopher Walken is quite entertaining as the angel of death; Gabriel. Viggo Mortensen is so creepy as Lucifer.

Special mention: While not "horror films", these films are Halloween musts and classics nevertheless.

-Hocus Pocus (1993): While not the scariest film, it's a Halloween staple and loads of fun. The Sanderson sisters return after 300 years to eat children and stay young forever. While completely evil, Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker are entertaining and charming running amok on a modern day Halloween!

-Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): In the town of Halloween you'll find every spooky thing you can think of... and Oogie Boogie! While Nightmare is more of a Halloween themed Xmas film, you can't go wrong throwing it on in October, or any other time for that matter. It's a collection of charming characters, creative storytelling and fun fun fun!

Honorable Mention (just missed): The Strangers, Paranormal Activity, Sleepy Hollow, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Nosferatu, the Ring (Ringu), The Grudge, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

With my list I went for what I consider to be true horror films. I intentionally left off some films with horror elements but might be considered other genres. For example, I consider The Thing and Alien(s) sci-fi thrillers, Army of Darkness a dark comedy, Jaws, Silence of the Lambs and Don’t Look Now psychological thrillers

What’s your favorite scary movie?