The worst part of watching horror movies isn’t the disturbing imagery, loud jumpscares, or even the bad acting. It’s when your friend nudges you during the rolling credits and says, “that wasn’t even scary!” Usually, that’s what makes or breaks a horror movie for the average theater-goer. If the film failed to scare them, it must suddenly be unworthy of acclaim. Though this movie genre has the word “Horror” in its name and are often referred to as “Scary Movies,” general audiences aren’t wrong for expecting to be scared—they are simply being misled.
Ever finished a Horror Movie that didn’t scare you? If so, would you still classify it as horror? What if you are someone who doesn’t get scared of horror movies? Does the genre then not exist to you?
Horror is more than scaring the audience, and fear is a feature that does not need to be included. At its core, the genre simply entails for characters to be placed in terrifyingly dreadful situations often with monsters, over-the-top killers, or other supernatural elements. Near the inception of horror movies, non-frightening films were a foreign concept. However, as these movies aged, they were recontextualized due to changing perceptions, and so was the genre as a whole. Scary movies from nearly a century ago were able to terrify people of all ages in their time due to the unfamiliarity of what was projected on-screen, but due to an oversaturation of gore, violence, and the ever-growing skills of visual effects artists, audiences today see the effects of old movies as plain goofy. However, despite such films’ inability to scare you and instead make you laugh in ridicule, they’re still horror. They aren’t more or less horror compared to a movie that has caused you many sleepless nights. I am not just excusing movies that aren’t scary due to their year of release—if a film released this year has the same tone as Dracula (1931), it would still be horror.
Horror does not have to deal with adult themes either—something as silly and childish as Scooby-Doo can be put in this genre as well. Scooby-Doo includes many horror staples such as creepy creatures, haunted mansions, stormy nights, and other famous tropes. A movie or show should not be dismissed from a genre due to it being targeted toward a younger audience, and I advise people to try to enjoy some of a film’s other aspects before making an opinion based on its scares. A non-scary film may be well-made, its plot outstanding, its performances great, and perhaps it has some gnarly practical effects. If you really cannot find anything to enjoy in a movie, my one last resort before deciding it holds no value is to try to have fun with it. Try to laugh at it, and commend it for its poor quality and foolishness. One can say they enjoy a movie, and still think it’s bad.
Horror is a versatile genre and isn’t just a vehicle for fear. For those who believe a movie is a good horror because it scares you, I encourage you to take a critical lens—are the scares truly effective, or are they just loud noises? I would hate for a film with passion and talent behind it to be overshadowed by a poorly made movie due to a lack of jump-scares. When talking about movies with my friends, films from the 80s and 90s tend to be disregarded for their “fake-looking” effects or lack of jumpscares. Scream (1996) was quickly turned off when watching because one person kept reminding us how unfazed he was by the movie. He had preconceived notions of horror and refused to consider anything else, and made his detest of “old” movies clear by saying he did not care for movies from the 90s. When picking something to watch instead, he wanted to watch the latest Scream film, despite not watching the previous installments solely because of their release dates. I implore you: please don’t be the person who bashes older movies and praises new ones without any knowledge of them. There are good modern horror movies too, but a lot of the time these newer films often don’t get the attention they deserve from large audiences.
With all that being said, here is a list of movies (in no particular order) you should consider watching this Halloween. Some are, in my opinion, extremely good. Some are not, some are old, and some are meant for children. At the end of the day however, they’re all horror.
10. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
Directed by Bruce Pittman
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a superior and unrelated sequel to Prom Night (1980). Prom Night II revolves around a wrongly killed sexually active Carrie rip-off coming back from the grave to get revenge on her high-school-sweetheart-turned-principal while ensuing mayhem on others in her way. While having story elements from Carrie, there are also some sequences reminiscent of the Nightmare on Elm Street Series.
9. Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Directed by Michael Dougherty
In this Horror Anthology, four stories are interwoven by a seemingly unthreatening trick-or-treater who ensures you face the consequences for disobeying the rules of Halloween. The tales include werewolves, zombies, and murderous neighbours. It is safe to note that Trick ‘r Treat is probably the film on this list with the cutest antagonist.
8. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
Despite being the only film in the Halloween Franchise to be fully separated from its poster boy, Michael Myers, Season of the Witch manages to be a fun self-contained story. Well, as fun as a film can be when it’s about a well-established costume company purposely killing children nationwide with their products.
7. Fright Night (1985)
Directed by Tom Holland
Fright Night is a classic boy-who-cried-wolf movie…but with a vampire. Technically, it is also a literal boy-who-cried-wolf movie, because these vampires can transform into animals other than bats, including wolves…but you get the idea.
Also, side note: no, it’s not directed by THAT Tom Holland.
6. Tenebre (1982)
Directed by Dario Argento
Tenebre is a mystery slasher from the director of the beloved Giallo film, Suspiria (1977). It follows an author travelling in Rome who gets entangled in a series of murders inspired by one of his works. In the mid-eighties, the film found itself on the “video nasties” list, a list of movies banned from being sold in video stores in the UK due to their strong themes of violence or sex.
5. Serial Mom (1994)
Directed by John Waters
A suburban mom takes offence at allegations towards her family and uses them as a motivation for her killings. The murders are unbeknownst to the rest of her family and so is the fact that the initial allegations are true.
If you are unfamiliar with John Waters and his work, go on Google Images and look at his funny moustache—you will thank me later.
4. Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman (2000)
Directed by Kathi Castillo
This is another literal boy-cries-wolf story, this time revolving around your favourite singing rodents. As my gateway into horror, I don’t think I’d be making this list right now without its existence. Although I wouldn’t say this is the best movie on this list or even my favourite, it is definitely the most special and is worth the watch.
3. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
Directed by Jim Stenstrum, Hiroshi Aoyama, and Kazumi Fukushima
This film is highly regarded in the Scooby-Doo fandom for being the best and most different Scooby-Doo movie. The gang faces real creatures as opposed to greedy criminals in costumes. The film has much to love, from its distinct animation and voice-acting cameos to its original songs.
2. The Monster Squad (1987)
Directed by Fred Dekker
While being very outdated in some aspects, this movie is great if you want to maximize your amount of spookiness intake from a single movie. The Monster Squad has a group of children facing off against an abundance of classic monsters made famous by Universal monster movies from the 30s and 40s, including Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster and The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
1. The Faculty (1998)
Directed by Robert Rodriguez
This film from the director of Spy Kids (2003) was originally panned by critics but is now seen as a cult classic mix between Scream (1996) and The Thing (1982). The movie features many notable stars including Elijah Wood, Clea Duvall, Robert Patrick, and Jon Stewart.
