October is easily one of the most eventful months of the year which includes Halloween. This ancient holiday brings candy, dressing up, having fun, and above all, the genre of horror to fruition.
Horror movies as a genre started as early as the 1890s with “Le Manoir du Diable” also known as “The House of the Devil,” a fantasy story about the devil and his henchmen summoning various creatures, attempting to scare two cavaliers. Since this movie’s release, the horror movie genre skyrocketed in popularity, what we now consider classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974, Halloween in 1978, as well as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street from both 1980 and 1984 respectively built the genre up from the ground, leaving over 50% of the population today to enjoy horror movies both at home and in cinemas. This sparks a very important question, however, which horror movies stand the test of time as the best of the best, whether classic or recent?
Sleepaway Camp (1983)
Sleepaway Camp as a premise is quite simple. It follows our protagonist Angela Baker, a young girl who is sent to summer camp by her aunt with her cousin Ricky whom she had been living with after a boating accident tragically ended the lives of her brother and father, leaving her traumatized. Being sent to a new location isn’t easy for the quiet girl as she quickly gets bullied by other girls, though her cousin Ricky does his best to protect her. Throughout their time at the camp, mysterious ‘accidents’ occur to various campers and staff. With the basic plot out of the way, what makes this movie so important? Sleepaway Camp while being an overall ‘simple’ movie has a multitude of different genres mixed into it which helps it check multiple people’s boxes. It dabbles with comedy, romance, teen, and of course horror. Despite being severely underrated while also spawning four different sequels of varying quality, the movie houses some of the most creative kills for its time while having one of my absolute favorite endings of any horror movie.
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
What is easily one of if not the most influential horror icons, A Nightmare on Elm Street covered a very new and fresh topic at the time, that being dreams. Ever wake up with your heart pounding out of your chest covered in sweat? Perhaps you were dreaming about being in danger, maybe it was as simple as you tripping in your dream causing you to dart open right before suddenly hitting the ground. Now let’s take this concept and add a real danger into it, real-life consequences. That is precisely what Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street aimed to do, and of course, it did it nearly perfectly. The movie shares the story of Nancy Thompson and her group of friends as the iconic, finger-knifed Freddy Kruger haunts them, creating purgatory-like dreams for them to suffer through while attempting to pick them off one by one, Nancy actively searches for clues as to who this mysterious dream man is and why he is targeting her and her friends. The movie spawned many different installments including a Meta sequel, “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” a story where a demon takes the form of Freddy and haunts the staff of the first movie, the meta-ness of the film being one of the top influences for Wes Craven’s “Scream” which came out just two years later. While this movie may not be nearly as creative as future installments, the overall concept of a burnt-faced man with a razor glove of all things haunting your dreams is enough to make it one of the greatest of all time.
Scream (1996)
After the A Nightmare on Elm Street series made its mediocre final film, Wes Craven’s next big hit was undoubtedly Scream. during the latter half of the 90s, audiences were becoming bored with scary movies. Every one of them felt like the same movie with little to no differences. The genre needed a solution. Scream was the answer. Scream is known to have “saved the horror genre”, and for good reason. It brought new ideas such as the movie being extremely meta. Characters will often reference different horror movies, mock specific tropes, and even sometimes act aware that they, themselves are in a horror movie. What the film chose to do with popular actress Drew Barrymore in the first scene of the movie shocked theaters as well as hooked them completely. The film follows Sidney Prescott, a teenage girl whose mother passed away a year before the film takes place. Murders begin to take place around her once-quiet town, where the iconic masked killer Ghostface specifically seems to target her. Her boyfriend Billy Loomis is taken as the lead suspect due to timing. The movie becomes a massive whodunnit as everybody in the cast begins to suspect each other. Sidney believes this could be the same killer who murdered her mom. As stated, the movie saved horror as a genre from staying bland. Inspiring many writers to try out new things, as well as spawning imitators. Another thing Scream is famous for is the twist ending, as the ending of the film is widely regarded to be one of the best of the best. If you haven’t experienced this movie yourself, or want a good way to start the horror genre, it’s the first one on the list I recommend!
Hereditary (2018)
On the surface, Hereditary is a simple ghost-based horror movie including ghostly apparitions of family members who have passed away. However, the viewer will soon realize what the ‘real horror’ of Ari Aster’s Hereditary is. The movie follows Annie Graham, a mother of two with a family history of mental instability. Before the story begins we learn Annie’s mother had recently passed away, with the funeral close by. The movie brilliantly combines a realistic take on grieving along with supernatural elements, while the scenes ‘meant’ to scare you are quite great at what they set out to do, the real horror lies in the family growing ever more dysfunctional as loud screaming and arguments ensue nearly every step of the way during the latter half of the film. The domestic drama in this movie is so realistic, that it genuinely caused me to stop the movie and take small breaks in between scenes. As I’ve explained, the mix of scare horror and psychological horror is very prominent throughout the movie, it’s a key part of its DNA. Yet the ending of the movie somehow manages to catch you completely off guard, changing the entire tone and context of every single scene of the movie beforehand. It’s the type of ending that could confuse you and leave you unable to comprehend it for what could be hours after you finish it, and then suddenly everything clicks together. This is one of the few movies I’ve watched after it came out where I’ve been disappointed I didn’t go to see it in theaters.
IT (2017) & IT Chapter Two (2019)
Horror movie remakes are quite known for being poor. Often considered to have the inability to adapt a work and make it feel new, fresh, and above all, better. Stephen King, a pillar in the horror genre, published the novel “IT” back in 1986. It got an adaptation in 1990, a miniseries of the same name. The miniseries split the novel into two hour-and-a-half-long episodes. One is dedicated to the half of the novel that shows our protagonist’s childhoods, the other their adulthood. The miniseries was a big hit, however, people often criticized the second half feeling the adult actors couldn’t live up to the performance the children put on. In 2017 a remake of the IT miniseries was released to cinema receiving generally positive reviews from critics, then eventually gaining a sequel for the second half of the novel, IT Chapter Two. IT follows the town of Derry, a town in Maine where people disappear over six times more than in your average town. In the year of 1989 seven close friends named “The Losers Club” began to each get tormented by a shapeshifting clown which comes back to Derry to feed on humans every 27 years. The clown uses its abilities to transform itself into each of the kid’s various greatest fears, whether it be clowns, lost and or living family members, or even zombies, he will use them to his advantage. Where IT shines, similarly to the miniseries is the young cast that makes up the first half of the story. All of these teenagers were perfectly picked for their characters and all give-off performances that fit real-world teenagers. The adult cast of the second movie is spectacular as well, capturing not only the look of their respective child actors but also their personalities, making for a seamless transition from movie to movie. These two movies as one and individually, I can confidently say are one of, if not my favorite movies of all time.
