Scary movies aren’t just for Halloween.
(Though, they’redefinitely for Halloween, too.)
Horror aficionados watch terrifying films all year round, and you should feel free to do the same.
Sissy Spacek in ‘Carrie’.Credit: Everett Collection
DirectorRobert Eggers' ye olde slice of Pilgrim horror (a genre that needs to expand, stat!)
taps into the always-charged live wire of satanic possession in a God-fearing family undergoing a string of Job-like trials.
What makes this creepy little black magic folktale work so beautifully is its evocative sense of time and place.
Ralph Nelson/The Weinstein Company
Mark Korven’s soundtrack full of screechy, dissonant strings doesn’t hurt either.
And there’s a reason for that no relationship is more loaded with psychological baggage.
Sometimes the scariest threats are the ones you don’t see.
A24 Films
That is, unless she sleeps with someone else and passes the curse on like a bone-chilling chain letter.
33.Dead Ringers(1988)
David Cronenbergis creepy.Jeremy Ironsis creepy.
Put them together and what have you got?
Susanne Wuest in ‘Goodnight Mommy’.RADiUS-TWC
Before you answer, what if I threw inanotherJeremy Irons just to up the creep factor even more?
Needless to say, it does not go well.
You watch enough horror movies and you grow numb to machetes, axes, and chainsaws.
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But catching a glimpse of Irons' ‘‘surgical instruments for operating on mutant women’’?
That’s something you won’t be able to shake for a while.
If your mind is already drifting toward theTwilightsaga, fear not.
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This is a vampire story with bite both literal and metaphorical.
What’s less recalled is just how wellScreamworks as a great slasher movie on its own.
29.Hereditary(2018)
Seances, shock scares, and the supernatural.
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Like the most unsettling nightmares, it doesn’t all make sense, but the imagery is unshakable.
What could go wrong, right?
Anyone who’s seenTakashi Miike’s gruesome, cover-your-eyes finale knows the answer.
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Not for the weak of stomach.
27.The Babadook(2014)
Creepy kids are a dime a dozen in horror movies.
The real terror here comes in the ferociously unnerving performances of Davis and the saucer-eyed Noah Wiseman.
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WatchingSuspiriais like experiencing a dream a very, very vivid, strange, and scary dream.
The first was its introduction of ‘‘fast zombies.’’
But in28 Days Later, they move like rabid, caffeinated jackals.
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It was new, bold, utterly terrifying.
Boyle’s second twist was having his zombies not be zombies, per se, but infected people.
24.Poltergeist(1982)
‘‘They’re heeeerrre!’’
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Horror comes to suburban cul de sac inTobe Hooperand writer-producerSteven Spielberg’s ode to what lies beyond.
It’s all for you!''
A nightmare, actually.
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But the film wound up being so much more.
We’re still feeling it.
And we mean that as a compliment.
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Bonus: A youngJohnny Deppgets eaten alive by a bed.
As the picked-on telekinetic Carrie White,Sissy Spacekpivots from tormented to tormentor with the flip of a switch.
The prom scene is a Rube Goldberg contraption of suspense.
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And the final scare remains the best stinger in horror movie history.
Good luck sleeping after you seeRingufor the first time.
No (more on that later).
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Plus, this time the gore was in color.
12.Nosferatu(1922)
The granddaddy of all vampire films thanks to German maestro F.W.
11.Alien(1979)
“In space, no one can hear you scream.”
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Although technically not correct, that tagline forRidley Scott’s old-dark-house-in-space thriller is spot on.
After all, the first half ofAlienis like a noose that slowly tightens around its audience’s neck.
And the best part is, the good stuff is just getting started.
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10.Rosemary’s Baby(1968)
“What have you done to its eyes?!”
And despite its many gross-out F/X (thanks, Rob Bottin!
), no moment in the movie is more unsettling than watching cuddly Quaker Oatmeal pitchmanWilford Brimleygo insane.
Universal Pictures
Reviled at the time of its release,The Thinghas rightly been reappraised as one of Carpenter’s masterpieces.
6.Jaws(1975)
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
5.Psycho(1960)
What’s left to say aboutPsycho?
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This is the movie that invented the rules by breaking them.
Janet Leigh’s iconic shower death occurs so early in the film we’re left dizzy and disoriented.
This is where the modern horror movie officially begins.
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It doesn’t need additional subtext.
Leatherface and his clan of sadistic backwater cannibals seem to be bogeymen conjured from a diseased mind.
A copy ofChain Sawnow resides in the Museum of Modern Art.
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1.The Exorcist(1973)
The Exorcistisn’t scary.
A cat unexpectedly jumping from off-camera is scary.The Exorcistis so unsettling it will mess you up for weeks.
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Michael Gibson
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Universal Pictures
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Orion Pictures
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