Halloween is gone. It’s lost its touch. While half the population prepares for semi-memorable costume parties at homes/offices/clubs, the other half is deciding how large this year’s bag or bucket needs to be to meet candy fulfillment projections. Neither side is scared of an angsty slasher sliding through the afterparty undetected, or frightened by the possibility of a boogeyman pulling you into the shadowy underworld while on a late night’s walk home. And that’s a shame. I grew up being absolutely terrified of these things. Our parents, our older siblings—they made sure we were frightened and on the verge of soiling our costumes when the entire month of October came around.
So this week, we’re playing our part in bringing it back. We’re listing off a few horror movies that will hopefully find their way onto your screen in the next few days and give you a feeling significantly more memorable than that of another night dancing or eating large amounts of candy. If you’re in NYC, might be worth checking your local theater listings this weekend for throwback horror movie features.
The Ring (2002)
Little Jimmy was definitely a changed man after seeing this one. The Ring was met with surprising critical acclaim and totally f*cked me up. Lots of peeking around shower curtains went down after my viewing…along with running out of any room after turning off the lights. You know the twisted, dead faces screwed with you. Don’t lie.
— Jimmy Larkin, Tour Manager for Dave Matthews Band
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
Rob freakin’ Zombie literally killed it with his directorial debut in 2003. Strange camera work, over-the-top gore, and some seriously f*cked up characters made this one of my top three movies ever, at least for a long stint. Enjoy the execution scene and Baby’s laugh, they’ll stick with you for a while.
— Kingsley Spencer, Web Director
Halloween (1978)
I grew up indulging in every type of horror film that I could convince my dad/babysitter to rent for me from Blockbuster—all the summer camp slashers, all the demented + mutated hillbillies films, and every single one of the Saw-esque, situational torture flicks. And while a lot of those probably did some damage to me mentally, none of them instilled day-to-day fear in me more than Michael Myers from Halloween. Dude is 110% void of all emotion—a killing machine designed to show up on a holiday that makes his masked presence #allgood, slowly chase you with the largest blade in your mother’s Kitchenaid knife set, and then kill the living f*ck out of you when you ~finally~ think you’re safe in some closet (that your killer used to hang out in when he was a neglected child). John Carpenter really came through 1978 and decided to f*ck up some future generations with this one.
— Michael Kilcullen, Associate Editor
The Exorcist (1973)
Hell no! No to Captain Howdy. No to the priest. No to the music. No to the entire thought process that went into developing this masterpiece. Anything this fucked up based on actual events is not okay in my book. I’ll take the man-eating sharks, clowns and even people trying to break into your home in the middle of the night over a little girl that has the devil inside of her any day—fuck that shit. No way. I don’t even like typing this review. Done.
— Eddie Berrang, Publisher
Scream (1996)
When I was younger my dad used to let me watch scary movies without my mom’s knowledge. One of the more notable was Scream —I loved it. So much, in fact, that I dressed up like Ghostface for Halloween when I was 7. These days, I hate any and all scary/horror/slasher-type movie. One of those people who puts the blanket over their head and plugs just one ear so I can still kind of know what’s going on. Might have something to do with the childhood of scary movies, but I can’t be too sure.
— Caitlin Cotroneo, Senior Project Manager
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
I don’t think there is another answer to the question of “What’s the best horror movie of all time?” other than Silence of the Lambs. I don’t remember when I first saw it, but it was (and continues to be) the one movie that ALWAYS scares me. Nightmare-inducing and created a significant demand for chiante—not a bad showing for Sir Anthony Hopkins.
— Autumn Berrang, Business Development
Jaws (1975)
Yes, not your typical horror movie, but when it came out it was classified as such and scared the poop out of me when I was younger. Not a fan of easy blood-porn, I appreciate much more the ability to be subtle yet scare the shit out of people at the right moments… albeit, most of the subtleties of this movie only happened because the shark rarely worked during filming. Still managed to scare a generation of beach-goers. I remember the first time I watched it on my 10th birthday, on a VHS tape while on a boat in the ocean with a few friends, and like clockwork, the boat rocked every time Jaws attacked. Thanks dad.
— Bronson Lamb, Managing Director
Stay tuned next week for a less terrifying Team Huddle.
