Though the holiday is best known for the phrase “trick or treat,” it seems that Halloween is far more populated with treats than it is with tricks. October brings with it a slew of fun costumes, guilt-free candy binges, above average parties and most importantly, scary movies.
As the leaves begin to fall and the jack-o-lanterns are lit, the itch for a scare — or a gasp at the very least — is hard to ignore. Luckily, the horror genre grows bigger each year. Now, more than ever, there are plenty of movies to satisfy even the most skittish viewer.
Here are just a few that are worth a watch this spooky season.
“Hush” (2016)
If you’re looking for an eerie, quiet and haunting movie, Mike Flanagan’s “Hush” is a great place to start. The film follows Maddie, a deaf writer who isolates herself in the woods to write her next book. Naturally, a killer, sporting one of the creepiest horror movie masks of the last decade, happens upon her house and decides she is his next victim.
Flanagan doesn’t shy away from Maddie’s deafness, making the atmosphere all the more haunting. Many horror movies are flooded with background music that forces the audience to feel afraid. But with “Hush,” we live in Maddie’s world, where there exists an absence of dramatic music and tension-breaking jokes. Almost every sound is real, and the subtle taps of footsteps, muffled pounding on windows and knives cutting flesh make up the bulk of the film’s soundtrack.
Whether you watch this alone or clutching the arm of a loved one, “Hush” is one of those movies that’ll make you triple-check the locks before you go to sleep.
“Train to Busan” (2016)
As important as zombie movies are to the horror genre, few pack the punch that “Train to Busan” does. Even some of the best from the zombie subgenre, such as “Dawn of the Dead,” “Shaun of the Dead” and “Zombieland,” can’t live up to the sheer quality and scale of Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 film.
“Train to Busan” follows workaholic father Seok-woo and his daughter Su-an, both of whom are stranded on the last train to a quarantine zone as a zombie epidemic spreads across the country.
The beginning of “Train to Busan” feels a little like “The Breakfast Club”: a gang of vastly different characters are stuck in one place, forced to get along or suffer (or in this case, die). Any viewer can find at least one character to root for and one character to hate, a fact that makes the film both a delight and a terror to watch.
While Seok-woo and Su-an are the central story, Yeon makes sure to give each quirky group their moment to shine, making each turn from human to zombie more heartbreaking than the last.
Danger is right around every corner, and it’s hard to choose which danger is the right one to face. There is never a moment for anyone to relax, viewer included. And with some of the best special effects of the modern zombie genre, it’s tough to find a more complete zombie film than “Train to Busan.”
“The Evil Dead” (1981)
It’s often the case with horror movies that the invisible is a bigger threat than what's in front of our eyes. Supernatural films like “The Conjuring” and “Poltergeist” have been making viewers invest in cross necklaces and avoid creepy dolls for years. But “The Evil Dead” will leave you in shock, or at the very least disgusted, long after the film’s end.
The film follows five college students as they vacation in a rural cabin, where they find and play a tape of incantations that resurrect a demonic spirit.
Admittedly, “The Evil Dead” is on the list of films with the most “horror movie decisions” that will have you yelling at your screen the entire time. But it’s these questionable decisions that result in some of the most intense action of the early horror genre.
Director Sam Raimi artfully balances guts and gore with an undertone of existential dread and the pains of friendship in crisis, leaving viewers with far more than a demon to ponder as the credits roll. While later sequels and copycats have attempted to reclaim this emotional narrative and unique action, nothing has quite lived up to the original.
“Eyes Without a Face” (1960)
If jump scares and gore aren’t in the cards this Halloween, “Eyes Without a Face” offers a more atmospheric take on the horror genre. Georges Franju’s 1960 film follows a doctor as he tries to reform his daughter’s face after an automobile accident by grafting other women’s faces onto hers. With more subtle terror going on throughout the film, “Eyes Without a Face” excels at making shivers crawl up your spine at every moment possible.
“Eyes Without a Face” is a tale of captivity, obsession, beauty and the quest for perfection. Although the gore of the facial graft procedure is shown only once, that singular moment is enough to leave a haunting image throughout the entire film.
As murders continue and the environment becomes more and more tense, the doctor’s daughter becomes a classic “final girl,” a sympathetic symbol of escape from a sinister home that’s the stuff of nightmares.
“Scream” (1996)
For all the scares horror movies bring, they’re often at their best when they lighten the mood. The genre is no stranger to parody and humor, with options like “Scary Movie” and “The Blackening” spanning decades, but “Scream” was one of the first and arguably the best to play on the genre that it calls home.
Wes Craven’s 1996 film follows a group of high school students, a television news reporter and a police officer as the town is terrorized by a killer known as “Ghostface.”
The plot is simple enough, but Craven’s subversion of expectations and quick humor turned “Scream” into a horror essential. When the narrative approaches predictability, the plot twists on its head — leaping away from the genre and acknowledging its presence within it at the same time.
The star-studded cast is a thrill to watch, with clever and funny writing amplifying already fantastic performances. Once it’s over, it’s hard not to want more of the town of Woodsboro, the final girl and Craven’s spunky tale. Luckily, there’s five more “Scream” films and a TV show to tide you over until next Halloween.
Gabriella is a junior from Los Angeles, concentrating in English, Modern Culture and Media, and Literary Arts. If she’s not at the movies, you can find her coaching the Dodgers from her dorm, plotting her future Big Brother win, or perfecting her chocolate chip cookie recipe.
