A Nightmare on Elm Street

Freddy Krueger is such an iconic bad guy, and if you wanted to see a young Johnny Depp before he just started playing Johnny Depp in various roles, this is a good chance. This one definitely is not a pure B-horror film, but it has some of those elements because of the time it was created and just how it’s aged. It still have a wonderfully terrifying slasher in it, and it hits on that peak slasher feel. Probably my favorite slasher franchise out there.

Hellraiser

I think what is so interesting to me about this one is the premise. This idea of people putting themselves through torture to feel basically, and this puzzle box and really Pinhead just make it an iconic horror film. The first one, especially does a good job of not just being about the world of the Cenobites but about the people who go there, eventually it becomes a bit more about the world and about the torture as you watch through the series, but overall quite enjoyable and interesting.

Friday the 13th

Another one that spawned a franchise, you think about the iconic character of Jason Voorhees, but he isn’t actually the villain in the first one. This is one that it’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but I need to go back and see it again. But it is one of the iconic horror films, and really spun out not only it’s on franchise but so many others that have that camp as the backdrop as well as a very good episode of Psych.

Re-Animator

This is a B-movie through and through based loosely off of Lovecraftian lore, and Frankenstien-esque monster, it is about a man who decides to bring someone back to life. Another series that it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember it fondly as some glorious horror fun that isn’t too horrific and falls more in the line of just an interesting idea and B-execution and a good time. The main character portrayal is amazing as well, Jeffrey Combs is great as Herbert West and in that B movie role.

Sleepaway Camp

I don’t know that I’d as highly recommend this one as some. When I talk about how Friday the 13th spawned some other films, this is one. I think that this one, as compared to others on the list, takes itself a bit more seriously. With that said, it was well done film with a twist at the end, which I don’t know if it was shocking, I kind of figured it out, but it was interesting, though fairly well lead up to.

The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell.

If you need more reason than that, this movie is just a classic B-Horror film, it blends in a lot of horror with comedy as well. As compared to other of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s work together, this one is a whole lot more about the gore and horror than future installments. Still, The Evil Dead is one of the iconic 80’s horror films and worth checking out.

Gremlins

I feel like Gremlins is another amazing horror trope, where you get something that looks maybe a little bit cute, or at least not dangerous and then something happens and everything goes insane. Which of course is wonderfully fun, and as I’m looking at it, so many of these spawned franchises, whether or not any of the sequels were that great, but definitely checkout Gremlins for a weird spin on a creature feature.

They Live

Is this horror, kind of, but ultimately I would say that this is a wonderfully dystopian 80’s story with some horror elements, kind of in line with something like Soylent Green (which was from the 70’s so not on this list). They Live is just incredibly B as the try and pull in a popular wrestler to do some acting, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and while his performance isn’t horrible, this film is just all over the place and so much fun. It has several iconic scenes for something that critically can’t be called that good.

Now, there are a lot of great other horror films out there from the 80’s that are much more actual horror that I could talk about. These are just some of the weirder and what I would call iconic Halloween ones. While horror always gets associated with Halloween, these are the ones that people so often talk about. What are some of your favorite Halloween horror films, not the ones that are amazing horror but that blend that goofiness of Halloween together with the dark side of Halloween?

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5- Cabin the Woods
This one falls into a lots of the categories. The story is fairly surreal, but works well in my opinion, as you get your standard cast of horror heroes, but the world of horror seems like it’s a little bit different than normal. I think this film really shines if you’re a fan of horror, because the easter eggs that are dropped in this film come on thick and the story pulls in many a trope. This film also does have a fair amount of gore, so that’s one of those things to watch out for if that’s the part of horror films that you might not like.

4- Descent
Another scary movie, this one is definitely a horror film in the truest sense and my second favorite Neil Marshall film. Descent puts you in that claustrophobic mindset and then there are things in the dark that you don’t know what they truly are. There is an American ending, because the other one was deemed too scary or sad or something like that, don’t watch the American ending, there is much more depth in the other one. And it really raises the creepy factor. It’s a movie that I need to watch again as I really remember it fondly.

3- Nightmare on Elm Street
Here’s that campy movie that we were looking for. Though, it’s only campy because of the age of the film. Wes Craven’s horror series, Nightmare on Elm Street stands up pretty well, and it’s very much a classic. Freddy Krueger is a very good villain and the concept of how he can get you works really well. And there are plenty more cheesy sequels to watch to this film, if you want. Another one that I should watch again as it’s been a while, and I have the great looking box set.

2- Tucker & Dale vs Evil
Yes, even more campy movies, this is just a straight up spoof of horror films while keeping in basically every horror trope that you’d expect. It would be easy to say that this is more comedy than it is a scary movie, but it definitely fits into that Halloween vibe as you see tropes get played out repeatedly, just with a slight twist on them. This film is probably the best for the non-horror fans on the list because it leans more into comedy, there is some gore again, but that is done for comedy as well.

1- Dog Soldiers
Neil Marshall is back on the list, and for me, this is his best film. It has a great amount of suspense, you don’t have your incompetent group of teens in this film, but it still feels tense the whole time. Like Descent, this film limits where the characters can go, and that just adds to the tension by a long ways. It’s also a werewolf film, and normally I’ve found those to not be that scary and more in the area of camp, but this movie is scary, and it does it while not having a ton of special effects or big names in it. I’d highly recommend this film as one of the better Halloween scary movies out there.

There are so many more movies I could have put on this list, maybe I’ll do a larger horror movie list at some point in time. I watched the “classic” My Name is Bruce recently, there are movies like Repulsion and The Fearless Vampire Killers that are great. And there are many more that I need to check out as well, such as having the original IT on the self and IT Chapter 1 that I could and should watch this Halloween season.

What are some films that really scream Halloween to you? Do you even like scary movies?

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