User blog:AustinDR/Favorite Movies to Watch During Halloween

1) Halloween (1978): This horror classic set the precedence for future slasher films. On one Halloween night, Michael "Audrey" Myers brandished a knife and stabbed his older sister to death. He was six years old at the time, and it seemed that there was no provoked reason as to why he did that. Years later, Michael returns to Haddonfield, Illinois, to reign terror on the town. What made the first film great was the ambiguity to Michael Myers. While other films in the franchise lean more towards interpreting that he was a supernatural force of pure evil, the first film is more ambiguous to Michael's true nature. While the ending kind of removes that level of mystery, it is nevertheless one of the many instances of Michael Myer's humanity being up in the air, so much so, you could argue that both view points are correct in their own way. One factoid: when John Carpenter attended a field trip with his college class, they went to a mental institution. When there, Carpenter met a young boy - around 12-13 - who gave him the most sinister, schizophrenic stare, Carpenter felt distressed and unsettled by it. Thus, this would come to embody Michael's evil in the films.

2) A Nightmare on Elm Street: The late Wes Craven first envisioned the Springwood Slasher when he read a newspaper article about South East Asian refugees dying in their sleep...even though they were completely healthy prior. And he based part of his inspiration on Krueger's infamous weapon - his blades-encrusted glove - on his pet cat when he noticed the cat scratching the couch one day. A prolific child murderer in life, Freddy Krueger had since become a vengeful spirit, bent on murdering the children of those who had burned him. 3) Saw: Before the series later became more preoccupied with the various death traps, the Jigsaw Killer comes off as a truly fascinating horror movie villain. Unlike most serial killers, he isn't out to kill anyone with no rhyme nor reason; instead, he would select those he felt were unappreciative of their lies, so to him, putting them through these excruciating trials are supposed to force them to reevaluate their lives. The series is also well-known for its puppet mascot, Billy.

4) The Conjuring franchise: The first Conjuring film plays with the tropes that tend to appear in horror movies and place them on their heads. One of the best scares from the first film was how it made it seem that Bathsheba was lurking inside the wardrobe...only for the camera to pan out, revealing she was on top of it. The Conjuring II provides us with the Demon Nun Valak, and a few more scares such as with the Crooked Man. The Conjuring II is also good because it acknowledges how in real life, Ed and Lorraine Warren are both relatively controversial figures because of their "investigations." For instance, they were well-known for getting involved with the Amityville Horror, but I personally believe that a lot of the alleged "haunting" was actually made up.

5) Child's Play: To me, the first film, second, third, Cult, and Curse were good, but Bride and Seed were awful because they represent a time the series attempted to be more comedic. The first film follows a serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, running from the authorities only to get fatally shot. Before succumbing, Charles discovers a "Good Guy" doll, and through the power of voodoo, he transfers his soul into it. The rest of the series features Chucky killing all in his way so he could transfer his soul into a new body, originally selecting his archenemy Andy Barclay as his new host due to him revealing his existence to him as a young child.

6) Coraline: Based on the novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Coraline concerns a young girl, named Coraline Jones, moving into a new house which is subpar to say the very least. While there, she discovers a key that led to another world. In that world, Coraline had nearly everything that her heart could even hope to desire. But as in all of these films, there is always something darker lying under the surface, and Coraline learns to be careful on what to wish for. For a "PG" rated film, it's honestly surprising that Coraline could be ranked as a "children's film" given its haunting imagery or the fact that three kids prior to Coraline were lured into the Other World only to then have buttons sewed over their eyes and souls ripped out.

7) Orphan: Something is wrong with Esther, indeed. With this film, it did what it was supposed to do: be disturbing. The fact that Esther Coleman was actually a midget rather than a child makes so much sense in hindsight, but the only hiccup would be when she was getting a checkup, and somehow the doctor neglected to notice the differences between her bones and a child's. I mean, it wouldn't be that hard, would it?

8) The Omen: Damien Thorn will always go down as horror's most scary child. Being the son of the Devil himself would do that for you. Hauntingly, real-life events happened to many of the cast members relating to the making of the film such as the late Gregory Peck losing his son, or an interstate that had 66.6 miles on it.

9) The Shining: Swinging the axe in at number 9 is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. I feel the scariest aspect of the film is how it is deliberately presented as ambiguous as to whether the hauntings in the Overlook Hotel were real, or if it's just Jack Torrance losing his sanity. This film has been referenced numerously in popular culture with Jack Nicholson's immortalized "Here's Johnny!" scene being parodied so much so, it could very well become its own horror trope.

10) IT: In this, I'm including both the 1990 miniseries as well as the 2017 theatrical adaptation. Both are good in their own ways. The 1990s miniseries is admittedly more humorous now than it was back then due to Tim Curry hamming up his role as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The 2017 film adaptation does some things with the character that I like. Skarsgard's depiction of the clown is one of a feral beast that is hardly restraining the true beast from emerging. It was one of the first films that introduced me to Stephen King's works, and have had become one of my favorite authors because of it.

11) Misery: Unlike some of King's other works, Misery is actually something that could realistically happen. A celebrity being held captive by a rabid fan is something that has the plausibility of happening more than a possessed car killing people or a shapeshifting Lovecraftian horror that feeds on children. The scene where Annie Wilkes breaks Paul's legs to keep him from escaping is genuinely disturbing to this day.

12) Lights Out: In this film, the monster is a young girl who in life had a skin disorder where she would break out in daylight. She died in a botched experiment to correct it, and latched herself onto her "friend" in order to live on. The ghost girl has the ability to attack when her surroundings are pitch dark.

13) Get Out: While more of a thriller film than a legitimate horror movie, I loved this movie. The twist of what the Armitage family was doing with those African Americans that they lured to their house is truly surprising. I anticipated the movie revealing that the blacks would be brainwashed into servitude, but what actually is going on is much more original.