Every year, my friends and I pick one scary movie to watch, and one decidedly un-scary movie to watch (Roman Holiday and has been popular lately) on Halloween. But every year since the Paranormal Activity revolution began, there have been fewer and fewer legitimately scary movie to choose from, and more and more blood-saturated, cheap scare movies popping up at the box office. But for every three movies made by James Wan, there is one modern movie that balances good filmmaking with a serious scare factor to make a horrifying product deserving of the top spot on someone's Halloween watch-list.
1. Let the Right One In (2008)
This is one of my favorite "horror" movies, but it doesn't exactly fit in the horror genre. This beautifully shot Swedish film revisits the classic vampire story, but despite its undeniably scary moments, it's also a compelling and heartbreaking film about the vulnerability that comes along with childhood. For a brief summary, Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a lonely boy, bullied at school and (naturally) filled with anger towards his tormentors. He finds a kindred spirit in Eli, a 12 year old girl - well, more or less 12 – who can only survive on blood. The chemistry between Eli and Oskar is near perfect and the performances of both young actors are truly incredible. Let the Right One In is one of those movies that lingers long after it's ended, leaving images in your mind that are hard to forget. The violence, though brutal, is sparse and used to further plot instead of play on the primal fears of the audience, and somehow, even the most shocking scenes are done in a subtle, beautiful way. And be warned- you may never look at a swimming pool the same way again.
2. 28 Days Later (2003)
Remember the days when zombies were sluggish, stupid bodies moving around with their arms outstretched, moaning 'brains'? That time is long gone thanks to Danny Boyle's terrifying masterpiece 28 Days Later. These beings move with unnerving agility and use vicious force to rip apart their prey, making a new era for the classic zombie genre, while still maintaining some of the dark humor originally associated with it. The contagious virus plaguing the 'zombies' breaks out when animal activists break into a lab where scientists are conducting experiments on chimpanzees. Little do they know, as they let loose the chimps, they're also letting loose the "rage" virus. 28 days later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a trashed and deserted hospital. He joins a group of survivors, traveling across the UK in an attempt to find safety, but soon discovers that the savagery of his own kind is far worse than that of those infected. 28 Days later is clever in its work. It's a commentary on modern society that doesn't come across as preachy, and a horror film that doesn't come across as talking down to its audience.
3. Antichrist (2009)
I have never felt so deeply unsettled and sick to my stomach from watching a movie as the first time I saw Lars Von Trier's Antichrist. It's a beautiful film from the first frame to the last, but the subject matter is in stark, horrifying contrast. It all starts with the death of a child. While the unnamed couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) have sex in another room, their young son falls out of their apartment window. They retreat into the forest in an attempt to deal with the guilt and grift that came from the death of their child, but the wife is broken from the incident, and even the husband (who is a therapist), can't fix her. The film is split into three parts, and as each segment progresses, things spiral more and more out of control. Von Trier succeeds in making a movie about the true hell of a failed marriage, and as it crescendos you'll feel your stomach turn more than once...
4. The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Cabin in the Woods has been polarizing between the people I know, but I think it's one of the best horror films of the past 10 years. It's always a risk to try deconstructing a genre film, but Cabin makes it work, playing off of the cliches and archetypes associated with horror films, while still managing to pack the horror itself. There's really no way to explain what happens without spoiling some of the best parts, so all I will say as far as summary goes is that a group of teens go into a cabin in the woods. You think you know the story. I promise you, you don't. The ending is wacky- that's what I hear the most criticism towards, but this is a movie that's earned the right to break the rules, and it doesn't feel disappointing at all, merely off-beat. The less you know going in to this film, the better.
5. [REC] (2007)
Handheld camerawork is something that usually makes me cringe, but REC is a found-footage film that makes me cringe for a completely different reason. It's the story of news reporter Angela and her cameraman as they cover the seemingly uneventful night shift of a local fire station. After receiving a call from an old lady in distress, the firemen and TV crew arrive at her apartment building to the sound of screaming. Things go from bad to worse as the government suddenly seals the building from the outside, trapping the TV crew inside and leaving them with no choice but to keep filming as the nightmare progresses. REC is a zombie movie at its heart, but more importantly, it's a film grounded in reality. There's not a heavy emphasis on gore, jump scares, or special effects, and instead it lets the story and acting shine. The pace and tension build in a perfectly timed manner meant to create suspense and that uneasy feeling in your guy, and when all hell breaks loose in the climax, there's nothing left to do but grip your friend while it all plays out.