Throughout most of my life, I was convinced I hated horror films. When I was a child, my dad told me he had to sleep with the lights on for a month after bearing witness to the first Friday the 13th back in 1980, which put me off watching them altogether.
Then, a few years ago, my boyfriend put on John Carpenter’s Halloween. I was expecting the mere sight of the film’s psychopath antagonist, Michael Myers, to leave me cowering behind the covers. Instead, it captivated me – this man had murdered his entire family as a child for no apparent reason. I was horrified. And gripped. I devoured the whole franchise over one weekend, and my love for horror films was born.
Horror films are often dismissed as being lowbrow, but to make a good horror film takes artistry. To me, the truly scary horror films are the ones that serve as metaphors for the hidden truths we bury deep within ourselves – the ones we are afraid to confront.
The films I’ve watched that aren’t scary are usually the ones devoid of purpose other than to shock or entertain, like Final Destination and Scream, which are both so over-the-top in their premise that they verge on being comedic.
In the spirit of Halloween, a friend challenged me to watch a different horror film every day this month. I’ve watched 25 so far – these, in my opinion, are the scariest ones to watch this Halloween weekend, guaranteed to stay in your thoughts (and nightmares) long after the film ends.
The Exorcist
This movie was so shocking when it was released in 1973 that some audience members actually vomited. Others fainted. While we have become considerably more desensitised to shock and terror over the years, the film remains just as harrowing today because of how brilliantly the film’s director, William Friedkin, blends mundane American life with absolutely unhinged scenes of demonic possession.
Originally a documentary maker, Friedkin based The Exorcist on William Peter Blatty’s book about the true story of the last known exorcism performed in the US. He also chose lesser-known actors over bigger names like Audrey Hepburn and Marlon Brando (who were both considered for roles), making the characters they played both solid and believable. All these factors add to the too-close-to-home feel of the movie and left me questioning my own sense of morality.
Insidious
Insidious has long been a horror film I’ve been nervous to put on because of how much its reputation precedes it. I was right to be nervous. Known for being one of the most terrifying horror films to be released in the last decade or so, this film plagued my thoughts before I went to bed, so much so that I ended up having to put some cartoons on the TV to rewire my brain. In a nutshell, it follows an ill-fated family who start witnessing demonic apparitions in their home after their son falls into a coma. An essential watch if you want to be genuinely scared, although my best advice is to watch with others… and not before bed.
The Shining
Upon a first watch, The Shining left me with more questions than answers. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film is based on a Stephen King novel (although the author apparently hated Kubrick’s adaption) and tells the story of a man driven mad by supernatural forces as he and his family take up residence in an empty hotel in the dead of winter. It’s a horror film devoid of much blood or gore, but the intense psychological depths that Kubrick goes to left me with an unshakeably uncomfortable feeling after the movie ends. Watch to hear Jack Nicolson deliver his famous “here’s Johnny!” line if nothing else.
The Babadook
Australian film The Babadook is a cautionary tale of what happens when we don’t confront our unresolved traumas. As someone who has experienced grief and the heavy weight it can hold over your life, I found the story of a mother grappling with single parenthood after the death of her husband relatable and profoundly moving. The fact that the film handles human vulnerability against an increasingly sinister backdrop is what makes this film so scary – even The Exorcist director, William Friedkin, said he’d “never seen a more terrifying film”.
The VVitch
Blending historical narrative and folktale, The VVitch is unlike most horror films I’ve seen in that the story unfolds at a slow pace while still feeling eerie and terrifying at every moment. Set in 1630s New England, this movie by Robert Eggers paints the portrait of a family who begins to unravel as they are left isolated in the wilderness after being banished from their settlement for their hardline religious doctrines. With brilliant performances from Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Ineson, The WWitch succeeds in being much more than a horror movie and will impress the most unwilling of horror movie watchers.
The Thing
At first glance, you wouldn’t think The Thing is a horror movie, as its sci-fi dominant themes make it more similar to Alien in nature. Directed by Halloween’s John Carpenter, the film failed to make much of an impact when it was released in 1982, facing competition from Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, but later received a cult following. The plot centres a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous “Thing”, an extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates, other organisms.
What makes the film so scary is not the creature, but the inherent paranoia all the characters feel upon its introduction. The Thing can take any form it wants, meaning any member of the crew could be someone other than who they claim to be – making for an undetermined yet tragic ending.
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