Movies For Fall

Now we are moving on to the scarier aspect of the season. Sometimes we want spooky and sometimes we want scary, so here we go with the scary. There are no shortage of scary movies or horror films in existence but as such it can actually be difficult to find good ones that are truly scary or disturbing. It's also harder to actually scare the audience these days because people know the tropes and anticipate them. These are my personal favorite scary movies that I love to watch year after year.

First up we’ve got Nightmare on Elm Street, the original of course. I really love this movie for lots of reasons but it boils down to the fact that it feels like what a horror movie should feel like. The stakes are clear and they don’t lean too heavily into tropes. I still have to watch something happy after I watch this movie or I am afraid of falling asleep.

We are sticking with the old school when I recommend the original Halloween. I think it was a groundbreaking film for the genre that is still incredible as long as you ignore the fact that the movie became an unnecessary franchise that kind of takes the magic out of the original film. Literally only watch the first one.

In that same vein we will still be watching the original Friday the 13th, another franchise that shouldn’t exist. The original movie was so good, why do you need anything else? This one perfectly showcases all good (and bad) horror movie tropes and it's fantastic.

The only time I will ever recommend a remake along with the original version is Prom Night. Our queen of scream Jamie Lee Curtis was obviously phenomenal in the original and it's truly a great horror film, but Brittany Snow played the lead in the remake and it was also quite good. I actually don’t think one is better than the other, they are both great movies and you should definitely watch both versions of this one.

Moving away from the old school for a minute we have Get Out. I think Jordan Peele is an incredible director that really understands the genre and therefore is able to subvert it. Get Out is more eerie and creepy than outright scary but I sometimes prefer that. I think psychological horror is an incredible genre unto itself and Get Out is a beautiful demonstration as to why.

Back to the old school we have the original Children of the Corn. The sequel was weird and unnecessary but the original is so good, I truly still hate being anywhere near a cornfield.

And last but not least we have Carrie. Now I don’t love the remake but I think this one is up to personal preference. I don’t think the remake is bad, I just prefer the original on this one so I will not direct one way or the other. You should just watch Carrie this season.

Some honorable mentions before we close out are The Prestige, literally one of the greatest movies of all time. Not outwardly scary but definitely creepy with one of the best twist endings of any film ever. And The Ferryman which was my first horror film ever (thanks dad I was 9) and therefore I think everyone should be as traumatized as I was. There are a million horror movies you could watch this season but I consider these classics and they are honestly very difficult to beat. They still creep me out even as someone that knows the tropes and what to expect. The mastery of the genre in these films is simply fun to watch and experience.