Halloween season is upon us, and how to better to spend the days leading up to October 31st then by indulging in the best of the horror genre! Here is a list with monsters that reach beyond Freddy and Jason, or Frankenstein and Dracula…grab your friends, shut the lights, and hold on tight.  


1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The slasher film to end (or begin) all slashers! Seriously, no other horror film has been quite as successful as Toby Cooper’s 1973 grimy classic in its ability to produce enjoyable fear. A cannibalistic, crazed and somewhat primitive family (the most primitive of all being the monstrous, yet oddly childlike Leatherface), dwelling in the rural heat of Texas, attacks a rather irritating group of soon-to-be victims, one by one. Cooper successfully portrays intensely realistic, creative murders that occur within a sun-bleached, macabre landscape of ambiguous evil. Hit her, grandpa!

2. The Exorcist
Whenever a film successfully interweaves religion and horror, the result is a complex terror rife with holy imagery. After sweet 12-year-old Regan starts playing with the Ouija board in her attic, and speaking with “Captain Howdy,” she begins to behave erratically, causing her concerned mother to put her through a variety of medical and psychological exams, which only makes things worse. Soon, a troubled Catholic priest tries to cure Regan of her supernatural, demonic possession, which literally transforms her into a monster. Often parodied green vomit aside, the director’s-cut shows Regan crabwalking backwards downstairs and spewing blood, an image that is sure to terrify your dreams.

3. Halloween (obviously)
What’s Halloween without Halloween? And what’s a scary movie without a monster that possesses both human and superhuman traits? Good ol’ Michael Meyers is just that—a boy who killed his older sister and grew up to become an insane man with “demon eyes” and exceptional strength. If the infamous staccato music isn’t enough to draw you in, just wait until Laurie’s slutty friends are murdered. Sometimes it pays to be virginal, I guess.  

4. House of 1000 Corpses & The Devil’s Rejects
Rob Zombie’s influences (old-school horror, grindhouse, Charles Manson, cowboys, pin-up girls, sideshows, etc.) have been inherent in all of his artistic, filmic, and musical creations over the course of his unique career. House of 1000 Corpses, his first feature-length film, debuted his confident ability to concoct an experience of gore/horror, humor, and referential structure, by way of alluding to other films in the horror tradition, such as Texas Chain Saw, on which the film’s narrative and time period is based. In my opinion, House, with all of its crazy characters (the killers are the ones to root for!) and thrilling scenes of torture, is the truest horror film to emerge on this side of the millennium. The Devil’s Rejects, which is nearly as good, follows our devilish family on a Western-themed violent adventure. Less fantastical than House, our beloved perverse characters, now covered in grime, perform plenty of nitty-gritty acts of cruelty.  

5. The Shining
Kubrick’s version of Stephen King horror marries the stunning cinematography (wide shots, long takes), for which he is known, with abruptly shocking scenes of gore that are  perfectly timed and spaced out, creating a sense of “uncanny horror” that permeates the entire (seemingly timeless) landscape. The ever-maddening Jack and his family are trapped in the snow-covered mountains, moving within symmetrical and claustrophic surroundings, i.e. The Overlook Hotel, and trapped in a maze of destruction and mysterious telepathic connections. Come play with us.

6. 28 Days Later & 28 Weeks Later
The modern-day zombie film takes the Romero concept of the undead and transposes it to a more realistic scenario (in this case, the “zombies” are diseased humans who have become wild cannibals), making them all the more terrifying, as well as metaphoric. 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle, is refreshing in its slow delivery, hauntingly ambient score, and beautiful cinematography. Rather than relying on Hollywood-style shock tactics, blatant sexuality, or elaborate effects (perhaps because it’s British), the film’s actual script stands strong. The nearly-as-good sequel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, is faster, choppier, and more large-scale violent and real-world applicable, as the army starts shooting innocent civilians who might have been infected with the “rage virus.” 
7. Nosferatu & The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
These two 1920s German Expressionist films, by F.W. Murnau and Robert Weine respectively, are chillingly creepy, silent manifestations of terror. Nosferatu is essentially the story of Dracula, but the villainous Count Orlock is hideously inhuman, unlike the slick and sexy vampires in most Dracula¬-based films. As for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, dreams and reality are interchangeable and inseparable in a maddeningly distorted world, where the disturbing Dr. Caligari publicly unveils Cesare the Somnambulist, whom he has kept asleep in a box for twenty-five years.

8. Ginger Snaps
Most werewolf movies leave something to be desired (think Teen Wolf), but Ginger Snaps satisfies a plethora of viewers: those looking for something dark, something scary, or something sexy. Teen sisters Ginger and Bridget share a close bond, taking photographs of themselves as corpses, until Ginger is attacked by a werewolf and begins to experience some interesting transformations. With a healthy mix of fantastical gore and suburban realism, as well as excellent acting on the part of the young actresses, Ginger Snaps (and its sequel, but you can skip the third) is one of the best things to come out of Canada in recent years. 

9. Audition
When it comes to the Japanese, no bodily injury is too gruesome for cinema. Takashi Miike is famous for portraying brutal and oftentimes sexual violence, and though Audition might not be his most bizarre (see Visitor Q) or his most sadistic/masochistic (see Ichi the Killer), this film combines the beautiful with the grotesque in a purely shocking way. Here, the gorgeous Asami seeks personal revenge for years of abuse she suffered as a child by torturing her current love interest and cutting off his foot. Ouch!

10. Hellraiser I & II
As leader of the goth/industrial-looking Cenobites, Pinhead is one of the horror genre’s most unique villains. He was once a normal human being, but, after opening Lemarchand's box, which works like a puzzle, he was taken to another dimension (ostensibly Hell) and has become demonic, causing people pain with metal hooks. Hellraiser is interesting because it reveals the raw evil in both human and demonic characters, as well as blood-curdling special effects and a sexualized narrative. Hellbound: Hellraiser II possesses more over-the-top effects (typical of the ’80s) and an elaborate labyrinth in which the characters confront a gigantic, floating puzzle box; while it’s less brutally stark, it’s almost more entertaining.


Honorable Mentions:

The Crow – Brandon Lee’s infamous portrayal of a deceased, love-torn vigilante is heart-wrenching and also very cool
The Thing from Another World – black-and-white 1950s classic with on-point dialogue and an overarching sense of fear, and featuring a monster made of vegetable matter!

Evil Dead & Evil Dead II – campy horror at its best starring Bruce Campbell, tree-rape, colorful demons, and a dismembered hand with a mind of its own

Night of the Living Dead – as classic as zombie films get, incredibly tense without veering into the kitchsy and ultra-gory zombie-land that Romero would soon explore
People Under the Stairs – a young boy who lives in the ghetto sneaks into the house of a sadomasochistic, murderous couple
Strangeland – also sadomasochistic, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider directed this film and stars as a heavily tattooed torture fanatic with an array of pain-producing devices in his basement
Candyman – a monster who must be summoned by chanting his name at a mirror causes a string of murders in a racially divided urban landscape 
The Descent – a group of girls go cave-splunking and come face to face with a race of blind underground monsters, as well as their own inner demons
Shivers – David Cronenberg’s first feature-length features sex-crazed zombies infected by a parasite
The Hunger – vampires sucking blood from wrists, a performance of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Peter Murphy from Bauhaus, and David Bowie rapidly aging


Also frightening, but veering further from the “horror” genre:
Alien

El Topo
Freaks
The Brood
The Wicker Man (original)
Oldboy
The Unknown
Rosemary’s Baby
The Fly (David Cronenberg remake)
Beetlejuice
Blue Velvet

-Amy Dupcak