It’s getting ready to be that time of year again - Halloween. I’m sure that every movie blog is going to recommend their favorite scary movies to watch on Halloween, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Here are my recommendations:

The Exorcist
In my opinion, this is probably the scariest movie of all time – it’s so evil! I remember being traumatized as a young kid after watching this movie for the first time. I couldn’t sleep for weeks. I just knew that I was going to be possessed because I had played with an Ouija board, just like Regan did in the movie. It also didn’t help that my mom explained that the movie was based on a true story. The possession took place right here in Maryland, in Mt. Rainier, to a little boy named Robbie. She claimed to have visited the house on Bunker Hill Road where the child lived. She told me that the house still had an eerie feeling. It’s been over 20 years since the first time I’ve watched this movie and it still scares the shyte out of my every time I see it. I’m not sure that I’ve ever watched it all of the way through without closing my eyes or turning my head for at least a second or two.

Friday the 13th
All of the movies in the Friday the 13th series are so campy and cheesy, but I still love them. Every time I watch one of these movies, I ask myself “Why do these people continue to send their kids to this camp year after year??” I mean, every year this crazy murderer guy, who can’t be stopped, kills tons of camp counselors. Then one of the teenaged counselors finally “kills” Jason. The next year, new kids and counselors come to the camp and the same thing happens. Didn’t anyone ever think to just close the damned camp?! The plot may be unrealistic, but it’s still a good watch this time of year.

Halloween (1978)
This is one of John Carpenter’s finest films. The plot (and name, obviously) of the movie just sets itself up to be a must watch on Halloween: In 1963, 6 year old Michael Myers brutally stabs his 17 year old sister to death. He is sent to a mental institution. 15 years later he escapes, days before Halloween, and decides to terrorize and murder a group of local high school kids. And he wears that creepy mask. Perfect.

Nightmare on Elm Street
We all have to sleep sometimes, right? That’s the premise that makes the Nightmare on Elm Street series scary. A “boogie-man” who kills people in their dreams makes for an amazing story because it makes everyone equally vulnerable. Plus, Freddy Krueger is one of the coolest horror flick villains ever. The Nightmare on Elm Street movies are often more funny than they are scary. I recommend buying the series boxset, which includes 3D glasses to view the ending of “Freddy’s Dead”. I know its kind of cheesy, but it’s still something fun to watch on Halloween.

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
In my opinion, this is the best zombie movie ever. And now that has fallen out of copyright, you can legally watch the film in its entirety online, or download the MPEG4 for your iPod or PSP:

Nosferatu (1922)
One of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen. I’m not a huge fan of Dracula or vampire movies, but this one gives me the chills. Max Schreck delivers one the creepiest performances in film history as Count Orlok. This one is also available to watch or download in its entirety:

The Ring
The Ring is one of the best scary movies released within the past few years. It has that urban legend-“Black Aggie” type thing going on with the cursed videotape, creepy kids, and tons freakish visual effects. I still get goose bumps every time I see little Samara walk out of that TV set. Those of you from Maryland will understand the “Black Aggie” reference.

Se7en
Se7en is one of my favorite movies of all-time. The day this movie hit the theatres, my friends and I decided to cut school and go see it. You could hear a pin drop in that theatre. People just sat there on the edge of their seats, quietly, waiting to see what would happen next. When the “air-freshener guy” gasped for air, everyone jumped and screamed so loudly that you could probably hear it a block away. Kevin Spacey’s portrayal of the intelligently twisted serial killer John Doe is just plain disturbing. This film was so brilliantly written that I can watch it over, and over again without ever getting bored with it.

Silence of the Lambs
Kevin Spacey as John Doe was great, but nothing can top Anthony Hopkins’ role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. I mean, he was locked away, behind bulletproof glass and still managed to be threatening. What I find strange is that you can’t help but to like Dr. Lecter, even though you know he’s a manipulative, cannibalistic, serial killer! I’ve seen this movie hundreds of times and the scene where they find that guard hanging from Hannibal’s cell still turns my stomach.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Every time I have to travel through western Maryland and West Virginia - through the boonies, I still think of this movie. That family of socially isolated, backwards, cannibalistic psychopaths have been making the boonies scary (scarier?) since 1974. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a classis horror flick that deserves a watch this time of year. That awful meat hook scene still gives me nightmares…

28 Days Later
For those of you who don’t enjoy zombies who walk slowly, mumbling “braaains… braaains…” this is the movie for you. The opening scene of the movie gives me the chills… Just imagining waking up from a coma, in an abandoned hospital in the center of a deserted city gives me the willies. Then thinking about leaving the hospital just to find that everyone you know is dead because zombies have taken over is just plain bone chilling. And these zombie aren’t like the ones from Night of the Living Dead – they’re quick and possess an almost super-human ability to hunt down their prey. Pretty nasty.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the post and the movies. I only list 10 - there are plenty more I could have added. If you’d like to add any, make sure to leave a comment and list your favorite scary movie picks for Halloween!

Tags: halloween, horror movies

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Lists, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.