As the nights get colder and Halloween approaches, it’s the perfect time of year to turn off the lights, sink into the couch, and watch scary movies. If you want to feel your toes curl and your skin crawl, check out the following fantastically frightening films.
Funny Games
This film is not for everyone. Indeed, it’s so shocking and violent that when it was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, a third of the audience had left by the time the credits ran. However, if you have the stomach for it, Funny Games is not only one of the scariest films you’ll ever see, it’s also an intelligent psychological thriller. The Austrian film’s plot sees two young men taking a family hostage and torturing them with sadistic games, such as a counting game that decides which family member will be shot.
Halloween
What better time to watch the classic Halloween movie than at Halloween? John Carpenter’s archetypal slasher picture has been scaring generation after generation since it was released in 1978. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis in her debut film appearance as babysitter Laurie Strode, Halloween’s plot concerns an inmate of a sanitarium who has been committed for murdering his teenage sister on Halloween when he was only six years old. Fifteen years on, the inmate Michael Myers has escaped. And he’s returned to his hometown, where he begins to stalk Strode. Halloween spawned many sequels over the years, and two more are coming soon. Halloween Kills is scheduled for release in 2021, and Halloween Ends is due to hit screens in 2022. And if you want yet-more Halloween chills and thrills, check out the Halloween slot game that’s based on John Carpenter’s franchise, which you can play at a casino online.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The first film in the long-running franchise is still the best and the scariest. Indeed, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is the epitome of 1970s video nasties. Despite being low on gore by today’s standards, its gritty intensity and realism make it a true horror classic. The 1974 movie follows a group of friends who become victims of a family of cannibals, headed by one of horror’s most famous psychopaths, Leatherhead. If you want to jump out of your seat this Halloween, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre flick will do the trick.
The Exorcist
You couldn’t imagine a movie today having the reaction that The Exorcist got upon its release in 1973. Some viewers of the film fainted or vomited after watching the most disturbing scenes, and there were even reports of people having heart attacks and miscarriages. Cities tried to ban it. People were up in arms. And it didn’t get an official video release in the United Kingdom until 1999! Although it’s fairly safe to say you won’t have a miscarriage when watching The Exorcist today, you will most certainly be scared. Nearly fifty years later, the classic horror film about the possession of a twelve-year-old girl and her exorcism performed by two priests is as much of a masterpiece as it has always been.
The Shining
Whether you are a fan of the horror genre or not, any movie buff cannot help but appreciate the magnificence of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. If you haven’t yet seen the movie based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, you don’t know what you’re missing. The Shining follows Jack Torrance, memorably played by Jack Nicholson, and his family, as they move into the isolated Overlook Hotel to look after the building during the winter months. Some years before, the hotel had another caretaker. He had gone insane and shot his family. After Torrance, his wife, and his child Danny, who has secret psychic abilities, get snowed in, Torrance’s behavior begins to intensify and get stranger, and the hotel itself seems to be full of supernatural nightmares. This gripping film shines as brightly as it did upon its release in 1977, and it’s just as scary.
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