Thirty-two Monstrous Movies for Spooky Season
Posted on October 13, 2020
by Eric P
Now, everyone’s tastes are different. If you love high-octane fast-zombie action movies you might not seek out a gloomy picture about gloomy people trying to evict a gloomy monster from their gloomy lives. (This synopsis applies to roughly 90% of all recent horror movies.) Meanwhile, if you prefer atmospheric ghost stories, you probably won’t enjoy watching two hours of a sadistic flight attendant meticulously eviscerating a stranger with a melon baller.
So it’s safe to say not every movie mentioned below will appeal to you. Truth be told, some of them aren’t even scary. But this is my guarantee to you: they’re movies, and they’re on a list.
Try getting yourself a better guarantee than that in this topsy-turvy world.
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Just being low-budget and set at an abandoned carnival is enough to make this movie automatically creepy, even before the ghosts show up.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Probably among the most influential movies ever made, this canonical zombie picture goes easy on the makeup and heavy on the tension. Features a handful of scenes that will stick in your nightmares.
Halloween (1978)
Halloween wasn’t the first slasher movie, but its atmospheric sense of menace and needling piano score set the template for most that came after.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Rick Baker won an Oscar for his werewolf transformation makeup but the real stars of the show are the film’s mordant sense of humor and the main character’s mounting sense of dread as he realizes night life will never be the same.
Poltergeist (1982)
One of the few movies on this list that’s suitable for hardy children (spoiler alert: nobody dies who isn’t already dead), Poltergeist embeds its savvy scares in a skeptical portrait of 1980s suburbia.
Gremlins (1984)
This bratty joyride is technically more of a Christmas movie than a Halloween movie, but it’s got more monsters per square inch than just about any other title on this list.
The Fly (1986)
The 1958 movie “The Fly” had a couple of indelible moments, but David Cronenberg’s inspired body-horror remake has a lot more mucus.
Scream (1996)
By being a slasher movie that comments relentlessly on the conventions of slasher movies, Scream manages to have its cake and slaughter it too.
The Others (2001)
A WWII-era Nicole Kidman is isolated with her kids on an island, and if that doesn’t scare you then you must not have lived through a pandemic shutdown with remote schooling.
The Ring (2002)
Purists probably prefer the Japanese original, which I haven’t seen. I’m just glad that VCR ghost girl hasn’t figured out a way to haunt Netflix.
The Descent (2005)
Any therapist will tell you that nothing exposes interpersonal tensions like spelunking together in a cave full of monsters.
The Orphanage (Spanish, 2007)
The whole abandoned-orphanage-with-a-poisonous-past thing is pretty spooky, but the film folds its scares into some legitimately mournful storytelling.
Let the Right One In (2008, Swedish)
Though it has the requisite explosions of vampire violence – more artfully rendered than is the norm – this terrific movie resonates for the humane and empathetic depictions of its characters, as well as its pragmatic treatment of the logistical challenges inherent in being a twelve-year-old immortal.
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Anyone who watches Sam Raimi’s pulpy tale of a loan officer punished for her selfishness with a supernatural curse will themselves also be cursed – cursed with a nasty and rollicking good time, that is. (See what I did there?)
Grave Encounters (Canadian, 2011)
The victims of the haunting in this found-footage thriller are reality TV producers, so we don’t feel too bad for them.
Mama (2013)
Jessica Chastain tries to adopt two feral girls raised in the woods by a malevolent presence, setting off the world’s worst custody battle.
