These spooktacular movie recommendations are guaranteed to freak you out! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the spooky movies that are essential Halloween viewing — whether you’re watching through your fingers or gleefully taking it all in.
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00:00Not here already!
00:02You're next!
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the spooky movies that are essential Halloween viewing,
00:11whether you're watching through your fingers or gleefully taking it all in.
00:14Wendy!
00:18Yes?
00:21You've got a big surprise coming to you.
00:25Number 10, Get Out.
00:27Do they know I'm black?
00:32No.
00:36Should they?
00:37It probably goes without saying that while horror movies constitute some of the most beloved and influential in all of cinema,
00:43the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does not tend to concur with that popular sentiment.
00:49Sometimes, however, certain pictures are so adept at speaking to the current moment
00:54and executed at such a high level that the Academy is forced to take notice.
00:59Jordan Peele's Get Out is such a film.
01:02Get out.
01:04Sorry, man.
01:05Okay.
01:06Get out!
01:07Yo!
01:08Yo!
01:09Chill, man.
01:10Get out!
01:11Chill!
01:12Chill, man!
01:13A deft satire of racism, Peele's film not only has cleverness to spare, it's a legitimately terrifying slow burn.
01:20It's no surprise, then, that Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as a result of his tremendous efforts.
01:27Talk about a real-life plot twist.
01:29Now, sink into the floor.
01:33Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
01:34Sink.
01:38Number 9, The Blair Witch Project.
01:41I just want to apologize to Mike's mom and Josh's mom
01:49and my mom.
01:51It feels like it's sometimes forgotten that the film that ushered in an era of found footage filmmaking
01:56was a genuine cultural phenomenon at the time of its release.
02:00Driven largely by what could be considered as the first viral marketing campaign,
02:04would-be audiences were led to believe that the events depicted in Blair Witch were real, leading to significant buzz.
02:10What he did is he took the kids down to the basement by twos and he made one face into the corner.
02:16Really?
02:17And then he would kill the other one.
02:19And then when he was done with that, he'd grab the one out of the corner and kill that one, too.
02:23While, of course, the film is entirely fictional, that feels secondary when you're watching it.
02:28Its shaky, amateurish camerawork, remote setting, pervasive creepiness, and deep lore will have you making a snack of your fingernails.
02:36Blair Witch's style is often imitated, but never truly duplicated.
02:41I am so, so sorry for everything that has happened.
02:49Because, in spite of what Mike says now, it is my fault.
02:56Guy, Guy, listen. Let's make this a new beginning, okay?
03:00A new openness in talking to each other, because we haven't been open.
03:05What do you do when you feel you can't trust anyone around you, not even your own husband?
03:10That's the question at the heart of Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby,
03:14a thrillingly unsettling psychological horror film that has routinely been ranked among the genre's best in the decade since its initial release.
03:21No pope ever visits a city where the newspapers are on strike.
03:25I heard he's gonna postpone it until it's over.
03:27Well, that's showbiz.
03:31That's exactly what it is.
03:33Mia Farrow's Rosemary, the wife of struggling actor Guy,
03:36played by influential indie filmmaker John Cassavetes,
03:39slowly begins to discover that she's involved in a deeply rooted satanic conspiracy with sinister aims.
03:46The audience can only spectate as Rosemary falls further and further into madness.
03:51For a taste of real-life horror, read about the genuinely hellish experience that was making Rosemary's Baby.
03:58No! It can't be! No!
04:05Look at his hands! His feet!
04:10Elizabeth. She's dead.
04:13Elizabeth is alive and she is well.
04:16I don't believe you.
04:18I have truth.
04:19The brainchild of trailblazing horror director James Whale,
04:23Bride of Frankenstein is a perfect example of the vanishingly rare sequel that improves on its already legendary predecessor.
04:30While the first Frankenstein warned against playing God and the terrifying implications thereof,
04:35Bride uses its genre trappings to deepen those themes in an even more heartbreaking way.
04:40Who is it?
04:43You're welcome, my friend, whoever you are.
04:50Who are you?
04:52Bride of Frankenstein reached an uphill battle to reach audiences,
04:56subject to significant censorship and even outright bans in a number of countries worldwide.
05:01Whale's film Overcame attempts to suppress it to become an all-time classic of horror cinema.
05:06Clocking in at only 75 minutes in length, it is essential viewing for a quintessentially dark and stormy night.
05:13She hate me like others.
05:20A census taker once tried to test me.
05:23I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
05:31Remember earlier when we said that the Academy generally doesn't vibe with horror?
05:36Jonathan Demme's procedural thriller Slash Slasher is the exception that proves the rule.
05:41You might already know the plot's broad strokes.
05:44FBI upstart Clarice Starling is tasked with interviewing cannibalistic serial killer
05:48and formerly respected psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter as a means of gaining insight into the mind of Buffalo Bill.
05:54The moniker given to a new killer with the hopes that he can be stopped before it's too late.
05:59Only the third film ever to sweep the Oscars Big Five categories, including Best Picture.
06:04Lambs is both a gripping journey into the darkest parts of the human psyche
06:08and a powerful affirmation of horror's ability to traverse multiple genres.
06:14It places the lotion in the basket.
06:17I want to see my mommy.
06:22It is he who commands you, he who plans the heights of heaven to the depths of hell.
06:28If Rosemary's Baby was influential in setting the tone for horror films to come,
06:33The Exorcist was responsible for taking that baton and running with it.
06:37Far, far away.
06:39What on the surface would appear to be a time-honored tale of demonic possession
06:43reveals itself to be something much deeper, more thoughtful, and above all, reaching new frontiers of scary.
06:50In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
06:56by this sign of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
07:01The Exorcist's considerable influence and legacy are perhaps best summed up
07:05by American genre appreciation magazine Cinefantastique, writing that
07:09quote,
07:14legitimizing it in the eyes of thousands who previously considered horror movies
07:18nothing more than a giggle.
07:20The power of Christ compels you!
07:23The power of Christ compels you!
07:26The power of Christ compels you!
07:31How do we kill it, Ash?
07:34There's gotta be a way of killing it. How?
07:36How do we do it?
07:38You can't.
07:39This iconic sci-fi horror flick is notable for a number of reasons,
07:43chief among them that it stands as director Ridley Scott's mainstream breakthrough.
07:47Beyond that though, Alien is a towering achievement in horror,
07:51owing to its incredible performances,
07:53intricate production design,
07:55tense direction,
07:56and Oscar-winning visual effects,
07:58courtesy of legendary Swiss artist H.R. Giger.
08:01Do you remember some...
08:03a horrible dream about...
08:05smothering it?
08:07Met with relatively mixed reviews at the time of its release,
08:10Alien has been considerably re-evaluated,
08:13and is widely considered to be one of the greatest horror films ever made.
08:17Film critic David Edelstein once commented that quote,
08:28Ash, are you kidding?
08:29This thing bled acid, who knows what it's gonna do when it's dead.
08:33Think it's safe to assume it isn't a zombie.
08:40As you might have noticed by now,
08:42a number of films on our list were released to polarized,
08:45and even sometimes outright negative critical receptions.
08:48The Shining might take the cake,
08:50having been straight up panned by some critics at the time of its cinematic debut in 1980.
08:54Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel
08:57takes significant liberties with its source material,
09:00much to the continued chagrin of author King.
09:16However, by considerably altering the book's narrative structure and focus,
09:20Kubrick arguably drilled down even further into what made King's novel so terrifying.
09:25Bolstered by its dreamy atmosphere,
09:27technically innovative cinematography,
09:29and a pair of powerful lead performances by Jack Nicholson and particularly Shelley Duvall,
09:34The Shining is now the furthest thing from divisive.
09:55Well, we couldn't not, right?
10:07Pay no mind to the countless cash-in sequels that followed
10:10and threatened to permanently dilute the franchise,
10:13with the possible exception of the underrated Halloween III season of The Witch.
10:17The influence and importance of John Carpenter's 1978 classic,
10:21and believe us, it earns that title,
10:23cannot be understated.
10:25While it didn't invent the slasher movie sub-genre,
10:28it is inarguable that Halloween crystallized the essence of the genre,
10:32paving the way for innumerable horror filmmakers to follow in its nightmarish suburban footsteps.
10:47Plus, it gave us one of the all-time great movie villains,
10:50no, movie characters, period, in Michael Myers,
10:53whose stark white William Shatner mask still haunts our dreams,
10:57and probably yours too.
11:04Before we unveil our top pick,
11:06here are some honorable mentions.
11:08Night of the Living Dead,
11:10the mother of all zombie movies.
11:21Carrie, Brian De Palma and Sissy Spacek remind you that high school is hell.
11:35The Thing,
11:36John Carpenter's paranoid chiller brilliantly reflects Cold War anxieties.
11:41Video Drone,
11:42not only is this Canadian cult classic thought-provoking,
11:45it's downright nasty too.
11:50The Ring,
11:51this PG-13 flick proves that horror isn't all about blood and guts.
12:10The regular tape, people run it, I don't know.
12:12You start to play it,
12:14and it's like somebody's nightmare.
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12:32Number 1, Psycho
12:40It seems fair to say that legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock,
12:43who was often referred to as the master of suspense,
12:46was not one to politely play by the rules.
12:49Such was the case with the micro-budget horror masterpiece Psycho,
12:53which smashed just about every rule that Hollywood had put forth in previous decades.
12:58You know, I think I must have one of those faces you just can't help believing.
13:02Is anyone at home?
13:03No.
13:04Well, there's somebody sitting out in the window.
13:06Even though Psycho is now over 60 years old,
13:09we feel that divulging elements of its famously twisty plot
13:13would do first-time viewers a terrible disservice.
13:16Hitchcock himself even mandated that contemporary movie theaters forbid late admissions.
13:21If you only have time for one film on Halloween Eve,
13:24make it Psycho.
13:25Just don't knock on the doors of any creepy remote motels
13:28while you're out trick-or-treating.
13:31Did we miss your favorite horror movie?
13:33Don't hesitate to let us know in the comments below.
13:36Oh my God.
13:40She's so drunk.
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