As an avid horror fan, Halloween is my favorite time for movies. I feel like a kid in a candy store when new horror movies come out. In my most humble opinion, horror movies from today really aren’t that scary (at least from the ones I’ve seen). Some of my personal favorites are the Conjuring 2, the Quiet Place, Scream, the Purge movies (no matter how tacky), and the parody Scary Movies – even though they aren’t really considered horror, they’re still pretty good for Halloween. My favorite horror movies are ones that are: one, self-aware and tacky without trying to hide it, or two, accidentally funny. Horror movies that are so bad they’re comical, are my favorites. 

The Conjuring movies, or just any movies in that cinema universe, are gold. They are the exact definition of good bad movies. Among good bad movies, there are also plain bad movies, like La Llorona and The Nun. But, The Conjuring 2 is a diamond in the rough, surrounded by all these jokes. The Conjuring 2 is actually good; it didn’t quite shake me to the bone, but it gave me a good spook with cheap jumpscares. 

The Quiet Place was good because it was unconventional. A horror movie almost completely in silence isn’t very common. It makes the scares louder, and the thrill more intense. A lot of the scary scenes are done with no talking, with an eerie score thundering in the background, making you more anxious as it gets louder. Instead of the cheap jumpscares used in the Conjuring universe, the Quiet Place uses the lack of sound to scare the audience when suddenly there’s a booming score in the background. I also liked how emotionally motivated the characters are. It’s just a family trying to survive in the post-apocalyptic world the movie is set in. 

Scream is a classic that really doesn’t need an explanation, but I’ll provide one anyways. It’s not so much a horror as it is a mystery thriller, in my eyes at least. The twist at the end is phenomenal and one I would’ve never seen coming. The deaths are comical and executed perfectly. It has that perfect amount of self-awareness while also managing to get a good jump out of you in some parts. My only complaint is the amount of sequels and spin-offs that came off the movie. There was a whole franchise built around a movie where there was already an ending. Of course, we can’t blame the movie for being such a hit that the creators wanted to profit off it more, but I don’t really like when there’s whole franchises built off movies that don’t have cliffhanger endings. 

The Purge movies are just plain awful, but they were my introduction to the type of horror that doesn’t scare you out of sleep. If you’re just petrified of everything, the Purge movies are perfect for you because they’re not scary at all. There was this one scene in the first movie, where I actually laughed because the character tripped over nothing, and then the villains found him. These movies don’t try to hide the fact that they suck; they’re not quite self-aware but we know they’re just doing it for the check. The concept is cool, but it’s unfortunate they couldn’t execute it in an actual scary way. 

The parody Scary movies are some of my favorites. They take classic horror movies that might’ve scared you and turn them into a good giggle. The jokes are cheesy and sometimes gross, but if you have an immature sense of humor (like me), you’ll find all the fart and poop jokes funny. Somehow, the movies keep their PG-13 rating while making dirty jokes. My most memorable one is Scary Movie 4: there are a couple scenes that have just been ingrained in my brain that I couldn’t forget it even if I tried. I also know Netflix has Scary Movie 5, so you could definitely watch that tonight. 

Some honorable mentions would be the newer movies that came out: The Invisible Man, being one of them. I believe it is based on a comic, and I watched that one in theaters. I don’t know if it was the booming speakers, but I did jump at some parts. The main actress, Elisabeth Moss, was made for horror – she played the part so well, and looked completely unhinged in the parts she was meant to be. In this genre, I sometimes forget that actors can actually execute their scenes well. Another honorable mention, that I actually haven’t seen, but have heard great things about is Hereditary. I watched a movie commentator on Youtube and she was scared to death after she finished the movie. Not to mention, a lot of people have had great things to say about it, so I had to include it even though I haven’t seen it. 

That concludes my list of horror movies to watch this Halloween. I know a lot of these aren’t everyone’s favorites, and these aren’t really great depictions of horror. And, yes I haven’t seen any of the classics like the Nightmare on Elm Street, or any of the Halloween movies, but they don’t really interest me. I don’t watch horror to get scared; I watch horror to make fun of the movie or laugh at the jokes that they sometimes provide. I hate serious scary movies that try to act like they’re something different from the rest when they’re nothing special – not saying the classics are like that. It’s a niche category of horror, but I enjoy it. There’s enough scary things in the world that I don’t mind liking bad horror movies. Anyways, Happy Halloween!