Halloween Horror Essentials (2020 Edition)
Grab your hockey masks and plastic machetes, Halloween is upon us once more. This season has always held a special place in my heart; being a child of October, I’ve always shared a special kinship with it. When I think of Halloween, I think of covering my eyes—I would cover my eyes when Michael Jackson transformed into a monster at the end of those Thriller reruns on MTV and I would cover my eyes as Freddie Krueger eviscerated Johnny Depp through the mattress in A Nightmare on Elm Street as it ran on AMC. I lived shamelessly as a coward for the first third of my life.
But the older I got, the more I learned to embrace the horror genre and relish in the thrill of its entertainment value. I desensitized myself to the nightmares I’d get by convincing myself that it was just a movie; the terrible things that I would see onscreen could never conceivably come true in real life, could it? Well, here we are in 2020 and let’s face it, Wes Craven himself couldn’t possibly dream up a scenario more existentially terrifying than the cursed year we’ve all been living through: civil injustice, brush fires, pandemics, raging storms, and Doolittle among the atrocities.
Scarier than a real life exorcism.
So maybe I’m being a little harsh and sure, maybe I don’t have any real right to complain given the ultimate scope of our collective struggle. But what’s Halloween without the trick-or-treaters? What does this holiday even mean if I can’t walk through the cobwebbed halls of a haunted house? This year, instead of trick-or-treaters, we’ve traded in for contact tracers. Instead of haunted houses we have…haunted car washes? Actually, those are pretty cool. But at the end of the day, we’ve been left no choice but to move on with the complete understanding that this Halloween just isn’t quite like the rest of them. The one silver lining? No crisis on Earth can deny us the right to settle safely at home and put on a good scary movie. In the spirit of upholding that tradition, I’ve compiled my own personal SLAYlist of Halloween favorites that captures the myriad flavors of what October really means to me.
Something Spooky
The Others (2001) - Directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Plot Summary: In post-WWII England, supernatural occurrences begin plaguing a mother and her two children upon the arrival of three mysterious caretakers who claim to have lived in the house many years ago.
Why it Belongs: This psychological mind-bender is an overlooked gem of the early millenia that is sure to set a haunting tone this Halloween season. With the rise of Shyamalan-ian horror, The Others made a splash upon arrival, but quickly faded to an echo in the years that followed. Among fans and critics alike, this film is remembered for its refined period-piece authenticity, its amazing cast led by Nicole Kidman, and its bone-chilling set pieces that became a benchmark of early 2000’s pop culture. Though almost two decades have passed, this film still retains an ageless quality, delivers genuinely scary frights with refined poise and creepy gothic sensibilities that horror fans really gravitate to. All in all, it’s an ambient horror tale with an engrossing story and a twist ending that is sure to rattle your cage and start your binge off right.
Where to Find It: Available for rent on Vudu and Amazon
Something Campy
The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - Directed by Drew Goddard
Plot Summary: Five college friends embark on the trip of a lifetime to a secluded cabin in the middle of nowhere, only to find that an ancient evil has been lying for them in wait.
Why it Belongs: This horror-comedy is the undisputed middleweight champion of genre sensibilities; it has supreme self-awareness, it’s sufficiently frightening, it’s thematically centered around youth culture, and it throws a wicked curve ball. Camp horror is traditionally characterized by its deliberate divergence from high art; much like punk rock counterculture, this movement steamrolls convention rather than conforming to it. The Cabin in the Woods is a fun deconstructive study in why horror tropes exist, giving insight into the lasting popular appeal behind classics like Evil Dead and Friday the 13th. Featuring some of the most unforgettable set pieces of the past century, this film is sure to entertain all fans of even the most moderate spectrums of horror.
Where to Find It: Now streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime
Something Foreign
Noroi: The Curse (2005) - Directed by Kōji Shiraishi
Plot Summary: A paranormal researcher gets more than he bargained for when he investigates a disturbance regarding a demonic entity from Japanese folklore.
Why it Belongs: For fans of slow burn horror, this found footage/mockumentary hybrid is a master class in pacing. Told in a stitched-together narrative style that combines camcorder footage with news broadcasts, what begins as an investigation sputters into a shocking dive into the twisted world of Japanese demonology. Noroi delivers an exceptional payoff for all those receptive to its cadence; rich in haunting imagery that is sure to stay with you at inconvenient sleeping hours, this Japanese horror gem is the essence of nightmare fuel.
Where to Find It: Now streaming on Shudder
Something Cosmic
Event Horizon (1997) - Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Plot Summary: A rescue fleet is sent to investigate the distress signal of a rogue ship that had been lost in the cosmos for years, only to find that the dimensions it came from sent something home with it.
Why it Belongs: Widely known for the massive cult following it has gained in the 23 years since release, Anderson’s blood curdling film balances sci-fi elements with Lovecraftian cosmic horror that genre fans still recognize as one of the scariest movies of all time. With a cast led by Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill, Event Horizon hurls audiences through unknown galactic dimensions to the depths of Hell and back, refusing to loosen its grip for one second until the very end. This movie is cool, shocking, chaotic, depraved, and one hell of a thrill ride.
Where to Find It: Now streaming on Amazon Prime (with ads)
Something Strange
The Lighthouse (2019) - Directed by Robert Eggers
Plot Summary: Cold and stranded on a remote island in the late 1800’s, a pair of lighthouse keepers undergo a slow, surreal descent into complete madness.
Why it Belongs: This black-and-white psychological horror is one of the most mystifying movie experiences of the last decade with full credit to its visionary writer/director, Robert Eggers. Hot on the heels of his indelible debut in 2015’s The Witch, Eggers has proven himself a filmmaker with an acute sense for building tension and atmosphere through sheer force of authenticity. In every shot, you can feel the cold, grey solitude on the secluded rock that our protagonists endure. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson deliver career-defining performances as a pair of lighthouse keepers who think, speak, and feel like they’re crafted with complete historical precision. Their drunken plunge into obscurity is set to a malevolent score by Mark Korven that perfectly establishes the moody tone and serves as a harbinger for what grim fate awaits. All hope abandon ye who enter this film.
Where to Find It: Now streaming on Amazon Prime
Something Lovely
Spring (2014) - Directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
Plot Summary: Reeling from the death of his mother, Evan embarks on a European vacation where he meets a beautiful young woman with an ominous little secret.
Why it Belongs: For the past eight years, indie darlings Benson & Moorhead have quietly been making some of the decade’s best and most unique horror films. Their collective artistic vision is undeniably original, leveraging the hardships of a modern human experience and marrying it with unspeakable horrors of the unknown. This heartfelt horror-drama follows a broken young man on his search for substance, and inevitably finds it in a fearsome creature he doesn’t quite understand. It’s got some really impressive effects and some very well made set pieces but what really consumes you is the realism of their relationship. Through their unfolding interactions, we ask ourselves what it means to unconditionally accept, despite imperfections. This is the true innovation of Spring—it ultimately reframes the way we define being human.
Where to Find It: Now streaming on Shudder
Something Awful
Thirteen Ghosts (2001) - Directed by Steve Beck
Plot Summary: A late business magnate bestows a labyrinthian glass house to his only living relatives, only for them to realize that it houses thirteen vengeful spirits…and they’re all hungry for blood.
Why it Belongs: If the horror Olympics existed and I could give a participation medal to any one movie, it’d be this by a landslide. This movie was decimated by critics and truth be told, it’s not that hard to figure out why: it’s obnoxious, cruel, poorly edited and pretty damn corny. But you can feel a worthy effort to make it something better than it turned out to be. From a set design standpoint, the architecture of the glass house is genuinely intriguing as it shifts, unleashing a new spirit into its corridors one by one. These spirits look hideous and though their origins are only implied in the movie, a special feature establishes a full-blown mythological backstory for each one. There’s always some redemption in bad art and for the purposes of this movie, I can’t help but imagine that in some alternate world in a different director’s hands, we got a version of Thirteen Ghosts that became an instant classic.
Where to Find It: Available for rent on Vudu and Amazon
Something Retro
The Thing (1982) - Directed by John Carpenter
Plot Summary: When a parasitic alien creature infiltrates a research team on a secluded base in Antarctica, they turn against one another in a desperate fight for survival.
Why it Belongs: With everything going on in the world, there may not be a movie that more accurately captures our underlying paranoia than Carpenter’s timeless masterpiece, The Thing. Binding relentless intensity with grotesque creature effects, this film takes alien horror to new heights. What makes this film so effective is that it’s essentially a whodunit where the traitor turns out to be a freakish alien symbiote. Viewers are thrust among the unstable crew of a research base in the heart of the tundra and Carpenter grips you with unspeakable terror in knowing that at any moment, the person next to you can turn. When stranded and left to our own devices, human instinct will rise; it’s not about the alien organism who invades human hosts or even the monstrosity it turns them into, it’s about what people are inherently prepared to do in times of desperation.
Where to Find It: Available for rent on Vudu and Amazon