Spook-a-Rama: The 7 Best Halloween Movies

Halloween is a great time to get your movie on! Whether you’re staying in and intending to spook only yourselves or inviting over the posse for a scream-fest of epic proportions picking the right movies is going to make or break the evening.

If you’re looking for more than recycled horror clichés these are the movies to plan your fright night viewing around…

7. The Exorcist (1973) dir. William Friedkin

There is very little as horrifying as a child being used as a tool of Satan. Linda Blair, the child in question, gave a performance so convincing that even today genuine concerns about becoming possessed remain, 20 years after first seeing the film. That is why this movie should be on your list. That and pea soup vomit…

6. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) dir. Jim Sharman

Its B-Movie roots and cult status make this outlandish film adaptation of the stage musical a great choice for October 31st based tomfoolery. If you’re going to do it though it has to be done properly. That means dance moves and suspenders, “Let’s do the time warp aaagggggggaaaaaaiinnnn! // It’s just a step to the left! // And jump to the right…”

5. Night Of The Living Dead (1968) dir. George A. Romero

You know when you check your house to see how zombie proof it actually is and where you’ve replaced the ‘in case of fire’ instructions with ‘what to do in case of zombie apocalypse’? Yes. Well it’s because of this classic. George Romero is responsible for pretty much everything zombie related in popular culture. When it comes to dealing with the undead, this is where it all began… “They’re coming to get you Barbara!”

4. Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven

At the start of this article there was a mention of avoiding horror clichés, yet this flick is full of them. However, it’s ok because that’s the point. Director Wes Craven set out to pay homage to exactly those moments in spooky movies where we know what’s coming. It all gets dealt with by a knowing nod here and a tongue in the cheek there and at the end what are you left with. A conventional and brilliantly scripted slasher movie. Genius.

3. The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter

Remoteness is the name of the game in this John Carpenter treat. Everything is more sinister when you’re isolated a million miles from anywhere in an Antarctic research centre, and guess what? That is exactly where this tale of aliens that assimilate into your pals is set. Paranoia and terror ensue. Exactly the two things that should be on the agenda for a successful Halloween.

2. The Shining (1980) dir. Stanley Kubrick

Prepare to be creeped out. Unoccupied hotels, ghostly talents and a writer with a serious case of blank-page-itus merge together in one of the most frightening films ever made. The insidious descent of family man Jack Torrance in psycho-maniac-killer is a real trip and one that will give you and you co-watchers plenty to chat about… that final zoom for example.

1. Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter

What else!? It’s the seminal slasher flick and features a killer described as being ‘purely and simply evil’. Add to that his bland and bleached out rubber mask with blue coveralls and you’ve horror cinema gold. And if that wasn’t enough there’s also the awesome Donald Pleasence and a very young Jamie Lee Curtis. Quality.

When not planning the scream-a-lot film festival that takes place in his living room every year, Tobias Monroe writes on the more spooky gifts available at Find Me A Gift – http://www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk/

Read more Halloween lists on Taste of Cinema by clicking the pumpkin image below!