The Greatest Horror Films for Halloween
The Greatest Horror Films for Halloween
A review of the best horror movies throughout the age of cinema, watchable any time of year.
Halloween is upon us, All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints Eve on October 31st holds Christian tradition, with the more ancient pagan festival of Samhain and the Mexican derived Day of the Dead and All Souls Day on November 1st. A time for remembering the dead, saints and martyrs, since ancient times used for ceremony and feasting, costume worn to ward off unwelcome spirits, with harvests stored, the dark half of the year arrives, bonfires are lit to let the light into darkening evenings as winter descends. Halloween’s roots are deep over centuries and millennia, from the likes of Gaelic and Celtic tradition, costume directly descended from pagan origins, it is from this the modern twist of horror, the supernatural, and the arcane is derived.
Whatever form your Halloween takes, whether dressing up as a skeleton or vampire, or the more contemporary American way of dressing as a giant Reese Peanut Butter Cup or demonic Trump, Halloween for many is about watching a damn good film. A horror movie of course.
So to give you some inspiration and recommendations while you reach for your snakebite and black, here are my personal recommendations from a mix of memory and research to remind myself of the best ones I’ve watched:
My general observation is that the 1970’s to 1980’s was a prime time for truly great horror films; remakes often poor, much modern cinema horror is disappointing and often fixated on violence or body horror rather than plot, narrative, cinematography and a great story; that said there is still some great horror genre cinema being made.
Recommendations:
The Shining (1980) – Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel – possibly the greatest horror film of all time. Written by Stephen King. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Jack Nicolson, Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers. What more do you need? “Here’s Johnny!” A must see.
Nosferatu (1922) – The 1922 Weimer cinema classic directed by F.W Murnau. Basically, Nosferatu is Stoker’s Dracula on screen for the first time and played as Count Orlok to try and avoid a legal case from the Stoker’s estate. Striking imagery. There are many different prints and soundtracks to this silent movie. Try the 89-minute BFI endorsed version.
Nosferatu (1979) 1979’s Nosferatu directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski is hugely recommended, with its rich dreamlike quality, capture of raw nature, its imagery perhaps closest to Stoker’s novel and his original vision than any other movie.
Don’t Look Now (1973) – Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. In Venice. Classic horror meets thriller. A must watch this.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes and their creepy neighbours. Directed by Roman Polanski. Features Anton LeVey who was founder of the real-life Church of Satan.
Hellraiser (1987) – Doug Bradley plays the character that came to be known as Pinhead. A classic horror film. The sequels decline in quality, but this is the original and best - written and directed by Clive Barker. Hellbound: Hellrasier II (1988) and Hellrasier III: Hell On Earth (1992) are worth a watch too, but don’t bother after that with any remaining sequels.
Possession (1981) – Isabella Ajani and Sam Neil in this often-underrated classic. The title says enough about what to expect. Filmed in West Berlin during the Cold War.
Ring (1998) Original Japanese Version – Scary deep wells and TV screens. Superior to the US remake.
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1920) – classic Weimer cinema and the oldest ‘horror’ on the list. The story of an insane hypnotist and a somnambulist.
Halloween (1978) – John Carpenter’s classic with Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. The architype American teen slasher horror movie that set a trend for 80’s commercial horror. Carpenter also creates his own epic music soundtracks.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) – Kids go into the woods with a VCR camcorder. What could possibly go wrong? Beware, the witch.
Dracula (1992, 1931, 1958) Gary Oldman, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, in that order.
The Devil Rides Out (1968) – Writer Dennis Wheatley’s classic on screen.
The Wicker Man (1973) – The greatest English folk horror film of all time. The BFI describe The Wicker Man, The Witchfinder General and Blood On Satan’s Claw as the Unholy Trinity of English Folk Horror. I disagree. The Wicker Man is far superior to the others. A must watch. A detective investigates a missing child on the Scottish island of Summerisle and soon strange things begin happening, all with pagan overtones. Christopher Lee plays the patriarch Lord Summerisle. Edward Woodward is Sergeant Howie. The Witchfinder General (1968) is overrated, Vincent Price the only redeeming feature. Blood On Satan’s Claw (1971) – is not in the same league as The Wickerman. Countryside superstitions. The devil is afoot. Of all three often oddly batched together films, watch the original 1973 Wicker Man, not the 2006 remake. Avoid the latter by a country mile.
Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) – M.R. James classic starring Michael Hordern.
Black Sunday (1960) aka The Mask Of Satan – Barbara Steele plays the vengeful witch.
Psycho (1960) – Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s film. Classic end twist.
The Omen (1976) – the beginning. The devil’s afoot again, as a right little devil. Sequels follow, after two sequels don’t bother any further. This original is recommended.
Carrie (1976) – Bloody revenge. Who will ask Carrie to Prom night?
Eraserhead (1977) – Lynch’s first full feature film. A strange decaying industrial world of hisses, steam and distant fog horns. Classic Lynchian cinema. Featuring In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song), a song title that says much about this film, later covered by The Danse Society as In Heaven (Everything Is Fine). Pixies later covered the song too.
The Exorcist (1973) – Worth the hype.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) – Hicks with a chainsaw.
Dawn Of The Dead (1978) - George A. Romero’s classic, now with a Cannes Film Festival cut available digitally.
Let The Right One In (2008) – Nordic vampirism.
Frankenstein (1931) – The monster. It’s alive! Shelley’s novel brought to life for the first time on film and still the go to screen version. Iconic imagery.
Night Of The Demon (1957) – Kate Bush sampled this film on the Hounds Of Love.
The Vampyr (1932) - Based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s In A Glass Darkly.
Onibaba (1964) – Japanese folkish horror. Love, lust and loss. Set in the time of tribal wars. A mother and daughter-in-law face a way out of rural poverty by any means possible.
The Thing (1982) – sci-fi meets horror in the Arctic. Directed by John Carpenter starring Kurt Russell.
Kill List (2011) – directed by Ben Wheatley (who may or may not be related to horror writer Dennis Wheatley), written by Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley. Hired contract killers and a satanic cultish group. British contemporary horror. Dark and violent. Wheatley also directed A Field In England (2013) which is also recommended, and set in a psychedelic Civil War England. Magic mushrooms anyone?
Get Out (2017) – Creepy freaky white Americans with racist overtones and strange going’s on in this contemporary psychological horror.
Haxan (1922) – Amazing imagery and goings on in this early cinema Swedish horror film exploring witchcraft.
Enys Men (2022) - Written and directed by Mark Jenkin and starring Mary Woodvine, set in 1973 on an island off the Cornish coast. Jenkin’s first horror, he also did the soundtrack, edited the film, and did the cinematography. Jenkin makes great cinema.
There are many more films I could list. I don’t claim to be an authority on horror, but these are my immediate standout personal recommendations.
I have still not watched The Witch (2015) directed by Robert Eggers and starring Anya Taylor Joy set in 1630s New England, Midsommer (2019) a U.S./Swedish cultish folk horror movie and The Substance (2024) starring Demi Moore which critics have praised and called “visceral feminist body horror”. I cannot pass comment or recommendation on them yet. But, I plan to see them.
So of the 34 movies recommended above, take your pick and enjoy this Halloween entertainment, and remember horror movies are not just for Halloween…
Have I missed a horror themed movie you love? Let me know.