Not going out this Halloween? Maybe you’d like to stay in and scare yourself silly instead.
If dressing up and making a ghoul of yourself isn’t your cup of tea, chances are you’ll be staying at home for Halloween this year. Since you’re not going bobbing for apples (that can be a euphemism if you like), you’d better crack on with a scary movie instead.
Here’s a few options for you. There’s something for all the family: supernatural spirits, evil monsters, murderous rampages and gore galore. Enjoy. Or not, actually.
1. The Descent
Photo: Pathé
After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty creatures.
–IMDb
Claustrophobes, this is not the film for you. Crawling through tight holes deep underground is terrifying enough, but when the friends discover that they’re not alone down there, things take an even nastier turn. Tense and intense in equal measure, and with buckets of blood to spare.
2. Green Room
Photo: A24
A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar.
Yes, that is Patrick Stewart. Yes, he is the leader of a Nazi skinhead movement. Yes, he is fucking terrifying. Green Room is gory and gruelling, with one of the most upsetting scenes of mutilation in recent memory. This film is one of the last to star Anton Yelchin, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
3. Jaws
Photo: Universal Pictures
When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and a grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.
You’ve got to throw a few classics into the mix, and there are few films more iconic than Jaws. For a film set in the daylight hours, Jaws has some truly heart-racing scenes of terror, and more than a few grizzly deaths. If you’ve never seen it, trust us when we tell you that Jaws is a thoroughbred horror film.
4. Kill List
Photo: Optimum Releasing
Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
–IMDb
Kill List is a hard film to watch. Bleak, brutal and unforgiving, the film forces you to look right into the eyes of human monsters and the depths of depravity that they sink into. If the thought of hammer torture makes you squirm, you 100% should not watch this.
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Photo: Bryanston Pictures
A group of five hippies on a road trip through the backwaters of 1970s rural Texas fall prey to a murderous cannibalistic family made up of a leather-masked chainsaw-wielding maniac, his knife-wielding grave robber brother, and their cannibal chief father.
Setting the template for the slasher genre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most notorious horror films of all time, yet there’s hardly any gore to be found. It’s all down to Leatherface, his hideous family of miscreants and the terror they inflict on the innocent hippies.
6. Snowtown
Photo: Madman Films
Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother’s new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighbourhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
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Set in the backwaters of Australia, the vigilante justice inflicted on a local paedophile spreads beyond the control of the young protagonist, and it’s all the worse because it really happened. Featuring a truly hideous torture sequence in a bathtub, there’s little release from the bleakness of Snowtown. Directed by Justin Kurzel, the man at the helm of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed.
7. The Shining
Photo: Warner Bros.
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
The Shining is so ingrained in popular culture that you feel like you’ve seen it even if you haven’t, but if you haven’t seen The Shining, then you haven’t seen The Shining. The iconic scenes are iconic for a reason, but the most horrifying sequences are the ones you haven’t seen.
8. The Babadook
Photo: Entertainment One / IFC Films / Icon Productions
A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
Another gift from Australia, you probably heard a lot of buzz about The Babadook back when it came out in 2014. If you haven’t managed to see it yet, do so immediately. It’s a classic horror tale told with imagination and invention, and trust us, the kid gets less annoying as the film goes on.
9. Alien
Photo: 20th Century Fox
A commercial crew aboard the Nostromo is on its way home when they pick up an SOS signal from a distant moon. Answering the call, the crew soon discover that they are not alone – there is alien life aboard the ship.
–blazesnakes9, IMDb (edited)
“In space, no one can hear you scream” – the tagline puts it better than we ever could. The Alien is one of the scariest and most memorable movie monsters ever, from the xenomorph to facehugger to the ches- wait, we won’t spoil it in case you don’t know what’s coming. And that’s not even the scariest bit.
10. The Ring
Photo: DreamWorks Pictures
A mysterious video tape is killing off everyone who watches it. Whenever a victim watches it, the phone rings, telling them they have only one week to live. A young reporter named Rachel investigates the events, but after she and her young son watch the tape, it becomes a race against time to discover the truth behind the tape.
–IMDb (edited)
The Ring was a phenomenon in the early ’00s and generally thought of as one of the freakiest films of the time. It’s been a long time since anyone watched a video tape, cursed or otherwise, but The Ring is still as terrifying as it was nearly 15 years ago. Just don’t watch it (the tape, not The Ring).
11. Paranormal Activity
Photo: Paramount Pictures
After a young couple moves into a suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic, but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.
Found footage horror was nothing new when Paranormal Activity came out, but the steady premise and tension-tightening story wound audiences into such a frenzy that they nearly screamed themselves hoarse. Properly scary stuff.
12. The Conjuring
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorised by a dark presence in their farmhouse.
After years of torture porn and jump scare movies, it was great to see an old-school horror movie make it into the cinema. Relying on atmosphere and creepiness to get its scares, The Conjuring is a creaky floorboards and demonic spirits kind of movie, out to chill and thrill you.
13. The Fly
Photo: 20th Century Fox
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
–IMDb
Special effects movies from the ’80s rarely stand the test of time, but The Fly is one of a kind. Watching Brundle leave his humanity behind and slowly morph into the hideous fly creature is the stuff of horror legend. And it stars Jeff. Motherfucking. Goldblum.
