let me hear you scream

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Halloween can seem like the season for fishnet stockings more than anything else, but really it’s the season to creep yourself out unnecessarily. Hosting a scary movie night makes a fun, low-key party prior to (or in lieu of) the big scary night.

Serve popcorn, sliced apples with caramel dipping sauce and some spooky drinks, and you’ve got the makings of an excellent evening in. All you have to do is select the perfect movie — no small task.

We all have different fright thresholds and movie preferences — some of us prefer to hang on to our bejesus rather than getting it scared out of us, while others find sheer terror thrilling in the best possible way.

To help you hone in on your demo, I’ve broken movies down by categories. Below find my not-at-all-expert top picks, some obvious, some not. And by all means, add your favorites.

Vintage
Psycho

Classic
The Exorcist (In particular, the recent version with the crazily creepy scene featuring Linda Blair crawling around on her fingers like some freaky human spider.)

Eerie
Lady in White (My brother calls this the single most terrifying movie of his childhood — are he and I the only ones who have seen this film starring a young Lucas Haas and Mona from Who’s the Boss? It’s a good, old-fashioned ghost story with no gore that's appropriate for older children.)

Campy
Return to Horror High (You’re far more likely to laugh than scream with this film featuring a young George Clooney.)

Kid-Friendly
The Nightmare Before Christmas

The list above is only the tip of the scary movie iceberg. I asked some film-buff friends for good scary-movie picks and received more suggestions than I could list here. Find below a not-remotely definitive list giving you more options in the categories above, plus a few new ones. Some of these I’ve seen, some I haven’t, and many could go in more than one category.

Vintage (or: Made Before 1965 & Less Likely to Scare a Modern Audience)
Frankenstein (1910)
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922 German expressionist film)
The Wolf Man (1924 film)
Dracula (1931, which would be fun as a double feature with Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1992 starring Winona Ryder)
The Mummy (1932)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Them! (1954 — surely a movie about giant ants is irresistible….)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Blob (1958)
The Haunting (1963)

Classic (or: Bona Fide Scary and/or Seriously Gory)
Halloween (We should all see young Jamie Lee Curtis scream her head off at least once.)
Nightmare on Elm Street (A surprisingly meta horror story.)
Dawn of the Dead (For a comical double feature, pair with Shaun of the Dead.)
Carrie
The Shining
Poltergeist
The Amityville Horror (The fact that this is based on a true story ups the scary factor.)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Suspiria (An Italian film known for a particularly gruesome scene.)
Pumpkinhead
Gremlins (Am I pushing it by putting this one in the “Classic” category? I suspect I am. But I wasn’t allowed to see Gremlins when I was little, so it’s always had a super-cool sheen to me.)

Eerie (or: More Suspense, Less Blood)
Rosemary’s Baby
Twilight Zone: The Movie
The Stepford Wives
The Fly
They Live (A sci-fi cult classic from 1983 about a declining American economy. Bonus points for being terrifyingly topical.)
The Others

Campy (or: Laughably Ridiculous)
Psychos in Love (A high school favorite of a friend — this movie features two serial killers who fall in love and has the awesomely apropos tag line: “Love Hurts.”)
Leprechaun (Any movie where Jennifer Aniston battles a deadly leprechaun is a must-see in my book.)
Ghoulies
Plan 9 from Outer Space (Considered by some to be the worst movie ever made.)
An American Werewolf in London
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Killer Klowns from Outer Space

Kid-Friendly (or: Gore-free and Low on Terror)
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Little Monsters (with Fred Savage and Howie Mandel)
Beetlejuice
Disney’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods

Certifiably Terrifying
28 Days Later

Totally Insane
Dead Alive (By The Lord of the Ring’s Peter Jackson and released as Braindead in New Zealand, this is considered by many to be the goriest movie ever made.)

Crazily Specific
"Blink" from the new version of Doctor Who, Season 3, Episode 10 (My friend says you’ll never look at statues the same way again.)

Enjoy!

Comments

This is such a comprehensive list! Love it!

My friends have been talking about doing a Saw movie marathon on Halloween. I, however, have been wanting to see The Strangers ever since I was totally creeped out by the trailer in the spring.

I didn't see the all time scariest of the scary movies here- the one that scared me the most was The Ring. You should also add M. Night Shyamalan's Sixth Sense, Signs, or The Village. Lastly, don't forget George C. Scott in The Changeling. Genuine shivers!