photo credit: Shiv Majmudar
Halloween season is the time of year when horror comes out of the shadows and into the mainstream culture. That’s the reason I love October so much. The entire year, this beautiful genre is in hibernation, until it seems that everyone is talking about our dark obsessions. But when it comes to spooky stuff, some people may be, well. . . in the dark. That’s where I, your columnist come in. Here are three different horror movies to watch this Halloween season, and if I convert you into plunging yourself into the abyss year-round, consider my job done. So, without further ado, here are three different horror movies for each type of viewer. Come with me. And careful, the lights are off.
SUPERNATURAL: It (2017)
Rating: 8.9 out of 10
My love of the novel drew me to this film, and it’s probably one of the best supernatural horror movies in recent history. Oftentimes, the supernatural is used in horror to deal with real-world terrors. “It,” the tale of seven children who band together to fight an ancient evil, is as much of a story of nostalgia, trauma, and coming of age as it is a movie with a very scary clown. The film hit all the beats of the book. The humor, the scares, the nostalgia—it’s all there, freshly done for a new generation. Bill Skarsgard is a grinning, nightmarish force of nature as Pennywise. I found myself captivated by his performance. He caught dark lightning in a bottle. The Loser’s Club was also brilliantly portrayed by the young actors. They bantered, screamed, and stuck together through a hellish summer. If you dismiss horror because of paper-thin, underdeveloped characters, “It” is the opposite of that. As in the novel, it is hard to resist the Goonies-like charm of the Loser’s Club, and these are protagonists you will be rooting for the entire time as they each fight their own demons. “It” possesses the same heartbeat as the book it was based on, while also reinventing the story for a new generation. If the supernatural is your thing, check out this movie. “It” is what horror’s all about for me personally. I love the demons as much as I love the people who fight them.
SLASHER: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
This film turns 50 years old this October. And it’s been a bloody, sun-drenched grindhouse classic for all that time. Although Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece may not top the glorious gore of the “Terrifier” movies or the latest “Saw” contraption, it remains brutal, grimy, and shocking. If you want a slasher, try going back to the roots. Like a lot of older horror movies, you can view it from a fifty-years-ago perspective or a 2024 perspective. From both vantages, it still left me shaken and pleasantly surprised. Along with inspiring a lot of modern slasher tropes (the masked killer, power tools, final girl), it still delivers the perfect amount of blood, shock, and suspense. From Sally Hardesty escaping in the truck to Leatherface swinging his chainsaw as the sun rises, this is a movie that will carve itself into your psyche. No matter how you judge this film, you can’t deny that it’s a gritty, gruesome movie that has ripped its way to horror history. It is the first modern slasher. If you haven’t somehow seen it already, do so. After, you won’t look at meat hooks the same way again.
CLASSIC: The Shining
Rating: 10 out of 10
More than one movie on this list could be described as a classic, but “The Shining” deserves the nod. My first time seeing this was special. Parts of it have burned themselves into my brain—the blood in the elevator, Danny’s finger, the snow, the emptiness, the strange architecture, the maze. My love of Stephen King made this film even better for me. I was impressed by what Kubrick did with the story. Whenever people start talking about acting, Jack Nicholson’s performance will be my go-to to bring up. Although King himself famously hated the movie, and I can see where his gripes may lie, this movie is an undisputed classic. I’d contrast the film and the novel a bit, but I’ve decided that it’s best to view the two separately. Both rock in their own right. If someone is going back to the classics this Halloween, nothing is better than “The Shining.” If I could rewatch only one of the three movies I’ve reviewed here for the rest of my life, it would be a this one. It made me feel desolate on the inside…in a good way, of course. “The Shining” deserves to be watched forever, and ever, and ever…
