Halloween is the best time of year to watch scary movies but
with thousands of options it really is hard to choose just one. With that in
mind Geek Manor has compiled a list of the top ten movies to watch this Halloween.
You can pick one or two or watch the whole list but we guarantee you will not
be disappointed.
The best place to start your Halloween festivities is with House on Haunted Hill (1959)
starring Vincent Price. This is a classic movie about the strange millionaire
Fredrick Loren, his demented fourth wife Annabelle, and the party they host in
a house on Haunted Hill. Five guests are invited to the haunted house knowing
they will be locked inside until morning and whoever should survive the
experience will receive $10,000. However, not all of the guests have the well-being
of the others in mind and there is far more haunting the Haunted Hill than
anyone realized. While this movie is quite dated it still holds a creepy
ambience that can send chills up any spine.
For our purposes you can ignore the Mr. Toad portion of the
popular Disney release The
Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad (1949) but it is a great movie for
people of all ages. The movie is an adaptation of Irving Washington’s The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820). Ichabod Crane, a superstitious schoolmaster, competes
with Brom for the favor of the town beauty Katrina Van Tassel and Brom
decides to tell Ichabod the story of the Headless Horseman to scare him away. Sure
enough when Ichabod leaves to head home for the night… Well, that might be
saying too much. Bing Crosby, singer extraordinaire, narrates this terrifying
tale.
In 30 Days of
Night (2007) we visit the tiny town of Barrow, Alaska where the sun sets
and does not come back up for thirty days. What better place is there for a
horde of hungry vampires to chow down without having to worry about catching a
nasty tan? These vampires do not sparkle and they are not
interested in becoming your boyfriend. They just want to eat you. What will you
do to survive? What would you do to protect the people you love? Those are the
kinds of questions this movie tackles and it does it so well. This is a great
survival horror movie.
“They’re here,” says Carol Anne, child star from the movie Poltergeist (1982), and we
shiver in fear and anticipation. What begins as a simple and somewhat charming
haunting quickly turns into a terrifying experience when the dark entity
haunting the house kidnaps little Carol Anne. The family calls on a team of
parapsychologists to help save their daughter. This movie is excellent on its
own but for more fun you can follow it up with Poltergeist II: The Other Side
(1986). Very few sequels live up to the originals but this one expands the
story in interesting ways and makes the first movie even better. Unfortunately
the third movie does not live up to the same standards so you can skip that
one.
Sam Raimi may not make the best super hero movies but his
strength has always been horror films. The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992) are all
great films for the horror buff but Drag Me to Hell (2009) really
is Sam Raimi at his finest. Poor Christine is a bank loan officer who is
pressured into evicting a nice old lady from her home. It is just too bad that
nice old lady has the power to curse Christine drawing supernatural forces to haunt
her and drive her to her inevitable doom. Raimi has a unique talent at producing
scares and grossing out his audience while making them laugh at the same time.
This perfect balance keeps you on edge right up to the surprise ending.
What good would any top ten list be without something
starring Michael J. Fox? No good! The
Frighteners (1996) is directed by Peter Jackson and stars Michael J. Fox as
Frank Bannister, a man who gains the ability to see ghosts after a near death
experience. Frank recruits ghosts to haunt homes so he can come in and “clean
the house” of all supernatural activity. It is the perfect con job. Well, it is
until the day the Grim Reaper starts killing people and carving numbers into their
foreheads. Frank and his ghostly friends are the only ones who can see the killer
ghost forcing them to investigate the murders and bring a stop to the Grim
Reaper’s rampage.
Very few movies are as horrific as The Exorcist (1973) a movie
about Reagan MacNeil, a young girl who makes the ultimate mistake. She plays
with an Ouija board. Through the board an evil entity possesses her and starts to torture her and those around her. When medical science
cannot cure the child her mother calls upon an exorcist to rid them of this
evil entity. Thus begins an epic battle of good versus evil and the prize is
the soul of a little girl. Or is it?
For a little bit of science fiction and horror one need look
no further than John Carpenter’s
The Thing (1982). At a remote U.S. geological station in the Antarctic
strange things start to happen when two Norwegians in a helicopter chase a dog
into the American camp and then accidentally blow themselves up with a hand grenade.
Why were they chasing a dog? What happened at the Norwegian site? Why is
everyone acting so strange? It is because some of them have been replaced by
The Thing. But who?
Zombies have become quite popular (almost as popular as
lovable vampires) but you need to look no further than the first great zombie
movie The Night of the Living
Dead (1968) to get a full dose of zombie awesomeness. This is the iconic
zombie movie created by John A. Russo and George A. Romero in which the dead
begin to rise from the grave to haunt the living. Survivors find themselves corralled
into a rural house with no hope of being saved and no one to lash out at but
each other. Classic!
Perhaps the best movie you could ever watch on Halloween
would be none other than John
Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). On a miniscule $300,000 budget (later
extended to $325,000 to allow them to add Donald Pleasence to the cast)
Halloween is the story of Michael Myers, a young sociopath who kills his sister
and is institutionalized. Years later he returns to finish the job by killing
off the remainder of his family and anyone who gets in his way. However, he isn’t
happy just stabbing them and being done with it. He stalks them, watches them
and terrifies them before going in for the kill. Enter Dr. Sam Loomis who is
perhaps their only hope of stopping Michael Myers.
“I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another
seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind
that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil.”
Whether you watch any or all of these movies we hope you
enjoy at least one of them this Halloween. Have a great holiday and keep your
eyes open. You never know what is creeping around in the shadows out there.
Top Ten Movies for this Halloween Recap
10 – House on
Haunted Hill (1959) starring Vincent Price
9 – The
Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad (1949)
8 – 30 Days
of Night (2007)
7 – Poltergeist
(1982)
6 – Drag Me to Hell (2009)
5 – The
Frighteners (1996)
4 – The
Exorcist (1973)
3 – John
Carpenter’s The Thing (1982)
2 – The Night
of the Living Dead (1968)
1 – John
Carpenter’s Halloween (1978)
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