31 days of Halloween movies [part 6]

Previous 31 days of Halloween movies: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Welcome to my personal selection of horror movies to watch in this spooky month of October. 

This instalment features slashers, a beloved subgenre focusing on a psychopath who is hellbent on murdering a group of people. As a testament to this subgenre, many slashers have become franchises, usually following a masked killer and a final girl.

Slashers

Day 22

Halloween (1978)

If I had to say which slasher franchise was my favourite, it might be this one. I am a big fan of John Carpenter’s work and this one is no different. 

Halloween starts strong with a first-person view of a young boy who brutally stabs his teenage sister. Then 15 years later, Michael Myers escapes from the sanitarium and becomes fixated on Laurie Strode, a babysitter in Haddonfield.

Day 23

Saw (2004)

Though I find the later instalments of Saw to be little more than torture porn, no one can deny the awesomeness of the first film. And it has Cary Elwes, what more could you want?

Saw tests the morality of its victims, pitting each one against each other to see whether they will save others or just themselves and their families in some cases.

Saw starts with the two victims, Gordon and Adam, chained up in a rundown room, with a body lying in the middle of them. They discover two tapes, with one urging Adam to survive and the other telling Gordon to kill Adam to save his family.

Day 24

Haunt (2019)

Not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting much when I first watched Haunt, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. Combining slasher and haunted house themes, it has enough interesting kills to satisfy horror fans looking for new kills that may be tired of watching the old favourites.

Haunt starts with Harper hiding a black eye with makeup, as her friend Bailey convinces her to dump her abusive boyfriend, Sam. They attend a Halloween party where they befriend Nathan and Evan. 

Later on in the night, they come across a haunted house attraction and decide to see what it is all about. Signing liability waivers and having their phones put in a lockbox, they enter the house and find that they are impressed with how realistic the house is with the scares. But they soon realise they will be fighting for their lives, to escape this haunted house.

Day 25

Scream (1996)

The parody to end all parodies. Scream is the meta of horror films and it does it in a way that happens to be immensely enjoyable that one could almost forget it is a parody of films at the time.

The first is my absolute favourite, with probably the fourth coming a close second. But you can’t go wrong with watching the original where we first meet GhostFace and Sidney Prescott.

Starting with the iconic phone call scene starring Drew Barrymore, that ends in a double murder, it is set in the town of Woodsboro, California. Following the news of this brutal murder, the town is on edge with curfews and such coming into place. Nevertheless, soon after, our main girl Sidney is attacked in her home whilst waiting for her friend.

Day 26

Hush (2016)

From Mike Flanagan comes this house invasion cat and mouse game, featuring his wife Kate Siegel as the protagonist. It is a simple movie, but one that does not make you roll your eyes with silly decisions from the main character.

Hush begins in a remote area, following Maddie Young, a deaf-mute horror author who is struggling to write her next book, after the success of her first novel, Midnight Mass. A masked killer kills her friend and neighbour Sarah, who is almost at Maddie’s house. 

The killer soon realises that Maddie cannot hear and decides she will be his next victim, not before he stalks and taunts her. It is up to Maddie to use her smarts, to survive with no help coming to save her.

Day 27

Fear Street trilogy (2021)

My final recommendation is a trilogy, but you could watch any of them, though watching the first one, you will probably want to watch them all. If you ever read R.L. Stine’s books as a kid, this trilogy is based on a book series by the same name. 

Each film is based on a different period, with Part One in 1994, Part 2 in 1978 and Part 3 in 1666. They all have their own themes and styles, with references to films such as Scream and Friday the 13th. 

But they all surround the idea that Sarah Fier cursed the town of Shadyside before she was executed for practising witchcraft in 1666. And it is up to this group of teenagers, to break the curse of Sarah Fier and keep themselves alive at the same time.

Watch this space for more Halloween horror recommendations later in the month.

What movies are on your Halloween list this month?