31 horror movies for the 31 days in October
Get in the spirit of Halloween by watching 31 horror movies in 31 days.
I was born on Friday the 13th. It is a fun little anecdote I get to bust out from time to time at a party or gathering in a vain attempt to make myself seem just a bit more interesting. People usually seem at least mildly interested in this fact. They’re probably placating me but whatever. I’ll take what I can get. I bring that up because I am making a vain attempt to get you interested in this column. There are a lot of horror fans and Halloween fans out there but how many of them were actually BORN on a Friday the 13th?
I have more credibility than most people when it comes to horror movies. That is what I am getting at. I am sure there won’t be a single person on the Internet that disagrees with the curated list that is about to follow.
What list, you ask?
We at FanSided want to help you celebrate Halloween in style. I’ve always wanted to watch one horror movie a day in October and damn it, this year I am going to do it and if you like, you can do it with me. As such, I spent 45 minutes on a Saturday morning last week putting together what I think is a fun and versatile list of horror movies that will help you (and me) make the most out of the “spooky season.” I’ve included some reasoning and notes with each movie. Feel free to make changes to my lineup or even throw it out completely and make your own. The goal is to have fun. Halloween only happens once a year.
Oct. 1, Tuesday: Jaws (1975)
We are going to start off with a classic here. Snobby types will tell you Jaws isn’t a horror film. They do the same with other “prestigious” movies like Silence of the Lambs and Seven. Haughty jerks think the horror genre is too low brow so if a big star turns up in a movie or it generates Oscar buzz, all of a sudden it is classified as a thriller. Screw all that. Jaws is a horror film and maybe one of the best horror films ever. People got absolutely batshit afraid to go swimming after seeing this movie in 1975 and who can blame them? Anyway, we’re going with Jaws here because it is Oct. 1 and we’re still close enough to summer to that many of us still have stockpiles of White Claw we need to finish off before we switch over to whiskey season. May as well make it a theme evening.
Oct. 2, Wednesday: Friday the 13th, Part 3 (1982)
Sticking with our summer theme, I decided to go with a classic summer camp slasher. It is hard to pick a Friday the 13th movie to go with and if you ask eleven fans of the franchise which installment is the best, you might get eleven different answers. I considered going with the original here but decided to place it (SPOILER) later in the list, mainly because I wanted this viewing to link up well with the next movie on this list. We’re trying to create a flow here people, roll with me.
Friday 3 is one of my favorites. It is peak Friday. You have horny teenagers, a crazy guy that tells the horny teenagers they’re all going to die and you have Jason graduating from wearing a potato sack on his head to sporting his iconic hockey mask. The film features some great characters like the annoying, looser goofball Shelly and my favorite final girl from the series, Chris.
Oh yeah, and it is in “3D.”
If you only had one Friday the 13th movie to show someone to give them an idea of what a Friday the 13th movie should be like, this is the one.
Oct. 3, Thursday: The Final Girls (2015)
If you haven’t seen this movie, you are in for a treat. The Final Girls is an absolutely fantastic, underrated horror-comedy gem. The movie plays off of the classic horror tropes you just experienced last night watching Friday the 13th, Part 3 but unlike other films that have taken this approach, like the Scary Movie franchise, The Final Girls uses the form to tell an actual story about actual human people and the results are fantastic. This movie is funny, clever, occasionally scary and also heartbreaking. The movie successfully celebrates the genre and also explores grief and loss at the same time. The Final Girls nails it.
Oct. 4, Friday: The Evil Dead (1981)
As we head into the weekend for our Oct. 4 film, let’s go with a great party movie. If you have been flying solo so far, tonight is the night to invite over some friends to enjoy a true classic. Evil Dead has everything. It is hilarious, has some truly scary moments and features some of my favorite horror makeup of all-time. The low-budget masterpiece from Sam Raimi served up a major dose of inspiration to horror filmmakers that followed it.
Oct. 5, Saturday: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Great horror films can spawn some great spoofs, as we just saw with The Final Girls. This movie is basically “horror Inception.” I really don’t want to give too much away because the movie is just too much fun but if you love the genre, you will find this funny entry from Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard delightful. This is another crowd-pleaser so invite over all the friends who couldn’t make your Evil Dead screening on Friday night.
Oct. 6, Sunday: Train to Busan (2016)
Okay, folks, we’re shifting gears. We’re on to zombies and I thought I would kick things off with our first foreign film, Train to Busan out of South Korea. I kicked around putting Night of the Living Dead on this list and if foreign films aren’t your deal or you just can’t bear to skip the George A. Romero classic this October, this is a good place to sub it in. That said, I think you should give Train a chance. While it doesn’t reinvent the genre, the movie does a great job of playing with the cramped space of a bullet train. This one is a lot of fun.
Oct. 7, Monday: 28 Days Later (2002)
The zombies run. I repeat; the zombies run. Not only is this post-apocalyptic film a modern classic, but it also features one of the best horror scores ever. Many thought the zombie genre was played out but this 2002 release gave zombie movies the shot of adrenaline they needed to return from the dead.
You see what I did there?
Oct. 8, Tuesday: Shaun of the Dead (2004)
With 28 Days Later bringing zombies back in a big way, in 2004 audiences were treated to the masterpiece that is Shaun of the Dead. Two parts hilarious and one part scary, I find the script more and more brilliant with each viewing. If you haven’t seen it, the first half of Shaun of the Dead is essentially the same as the second half of Shaun of the Dead only the second half has zombies. It is a wonderful tribute to zombie films and also very cleverly explores the story of a man so reluctant to grow up that it takes a zombie apocalypse to convince him to get his act together.
Oct. 9, Wednesday: Nosferatu (1922)
We’ve done zombies justice so let’s move on to vampires. Nosferatu is the granddaddy of all vampire films. This 1922 German entry is basically the Dracula story under a different name because the Bram Stoker Estate would not grant the filmmakers the movie rights to the book. Interestingly, the Stoker Estate sued the makers of Nosferatu and according to the film’s Wikipedia page, all copies of Nosferatu were supposed to be destroyed. Thankfully, some copies survived.
In this film, Drac is a dude named Count Orlok, played by Max Schreck. If you are used to vampires being super sexy a la HBO’s True Blood, that isn’t what you’re getting here. Count Orlok basically looks like a rat. Schreck is fantastic and his performance really has a “this guy is not human” feel. This silent film is without a doubt, one of the most influential horror films ever made and it should be every person’s entry point into vampires.
Fun Fact: Great Lakes Brewery makes an absolutely phenomenal red ale called Nosferatu. Get some for your screening if you can.
Oct. 10, Thursday: Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Gary freaking Oldman plays freaking Dracula. What more do you want me to say?
Oct. 11, Friday: Fright Night (1985)
The original Fright Night is my favorite vampire movie. The movie has a great sense of humor but also has some excellent scares. Plus it features “Evil Ed” one of the greatest horror movie characters ever.
Oct. 12, Saturday: Poltergeist (1982)
Time to move things on to ghosts. This sneaky scary movie pares iconic horror director Tobe Hooper with Steven Spielberg’s screenplay and story. Throw in Craig T. Nelson of Coach fame and you have a pretty formidable threesome. Great popcorn flick.
Oct. 13, Sunday: Another Evil (2016)
Do you remember that dude who started working in the warehouse during the last couple of seasons of The Office? Nate Nickerson? He was played by an actor named Mark Proksch, who co-stars in our October 13th film Another Evil. This movie is pretty under the radar and that is a shame because it is so, so damn good. Mostly funny and then extremely unsettling, this offbeat horror-comedy about a guy hiring a “ghost assassin” to rid his home of some unwelcome squatters from the other side deserves to be seen by wider audience. Tell your friends.
Oct. 14, Monday: The Fly (1986)
We move on from ghosts and hauntings to creatures and what better film to start with than 1986’s The Fly. This is actually a remake of a 1958 film under the same title but the 1986 version features incredible special effects and outstanding performances from Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. This one is not for those with a weak stomach.
Oct. 15, Tuesday: American Werewolf in London (1981)
We can’t do creatures and transformations without a good werewolf movie so why not go with the greatest werewolf movie ever made. With all due respect to Teen Wolf, American Werewolf in London features the absolute best transformation scene ever filmed. Suck it, CGI.
Oct. 16, Wednesday: Psycho (1960)
It is Oct. 16 and as we pass the halfway point, we’re moving firmly into slasher territory. Arguably the first slasher film ever made, we should be put in prison for starting anywhere other than Psycho. Horror fans owe a lot to this movie. From the incredible score and iconic shower scene, Psycho continues to have a massive influence on screenwriters and directors.
Oct. 17, Thursday: It Follows (2014)
It Follows is one of the best horror movies to be released this decade. It offers a simple yet terrifying premise. The main character in the movie has sex with a guy she has been seeing only to find herself attacked and tied up by him post-coitus. He explains that he has just passed a sort of curse onto her, through the act of having sex. She will now be followed by, for lack of a better word, death. Death can take any form and moves slowly but if it catches her, it will kill her. The only way for her to survive is to pass along the curse to someone else. If she successfully passes on the curse, Death will then begin stalking the new victim. However, there is a catch. If Death catches a victim, it will then go back to stalking the last person to pass on the curse so it is in everyone in the chains best interest to not only pass on the curse but to see that the person they passed it on to passes it on as well, so they can get farther and farther away from potential annihilation. Like Death, this movie takes its time but it is incredibly effective. It also deals with interesting themes like the way society tries to take ownership of female sexuality.
Oct. 18, Friday: Friday the 13th (1980)
We are firmly in stalker/slasher territory now and so I wanted to bring it back to the original Friday the 13th. Simple but effective, this movie drops an underrated twist on the audience. Plus, you get to see a young Kevin Bacon get stabbed in the throat.
Oct. 19, Saturday: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
An absolute masterpiece, the original Nightmare on Elm Street is director Wes Craven’s finest work and that is saying something. Robert Englund’s performance gets a lot campier in the sequels but in this film, he has Freddy at his scariest. NoES is a great look at children paying for the sins of their parents and being forced to grow up too fast.
Oct. 20, Sunday: Candyman (1992)
A seminal work in black horror, Candyman is one of the scariest movies to come out of the ’90s. As someone who is allergic to bees, it is especially unsettling.
Oct. 21, Monday: Scream (1996)
After a decade-plus of setting the standard in horror, Wes Craven directs an excellent script from Kevin Williamson. The movie has great fun with horror tropes while also serving as a love letter to the genre.
Oct. 22, Tuesday: Alien (1979)
Okay. Now that we are done with slashers we have to go where many horror sequels go when the producers run out of ideas: space! With all due respect to Leprechaun 4: In Space, we had to start with Alien here. The 1979 classic features some seriously frightening moments and also the most badass heroin on horror history, Ripley, played by the indomitable Sigourney Weaver.
Oct. 23, Wednesday: Event Horizon (1997)
We get one more space film here and despite its 22 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, Event Horizon is beloved by hardcore horror fans because, well, it’s awesome.
Oct. 24, Thursday: The Shining (1980)
We’re in the home stretch and Halloween is fast approaching. That means it is time to step up our game. We go from the cold of space to the cold of…well, Earth. The Shinning should need no introduction, even to the casual horror fan but if by chance you’ve never seen it, you may want to call off work tomorrow because you aren’t likely to get a lot of sleep tonight.
Oct. 25, Friday: The Thing (1982)
Master of horror, John Carpenter teams up with Kurt Russel and Wilford freaking Brimley. Throw in a parasitic alien and you have yourself one hell of a Friday night.
Oct. 26, Saturday: The Babadook (2014)
This movie really knocked me for a loop. I loved it so much, I insisted my wife, who is not a big horror fan, watch it with me. She begged me to turn it off during the last 45 minutes. The movie offers a stunning look at a woman desperately trying to hang on to her sanity. It’s original, scary and flat out brilliant. It stands alongside It Follows as a breath of fresh air for a genre that has a less than stellar track record with how it treats female characters.
Oct. 27, Sunday: The Children (2008)
This movie isn’t going to be for everyone. It is about killer children and people defending themselves against killer children which means they need to kill some children. I first saw it in a packed theater at a horror festival and the crowd went absolutely wild for it. If you are someone who draws the line at murderous toddlers, I totally get it. I walked out of The Mafu Cage because I just had no interest in seeing an animal get tortured. I loved The Children, though. Not sure what that says about me as a human being but here we are.
Oct. 28, Monday: The Conjuring (2013)
This sleeper hit from 2013 launched a franchise of “not quite as good as the original sequels.” Some “Conjuring Universe” films are more successful than others but none of them approach the effectiveness of the O.G.. The strong cast featuring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson with direction from James Wan. The movie plays around with your typical haunted house tropes and then moves into a possession flick. The last thirty minutes are a thrill.
Oct. 29, Tuesday: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
On the off chance that you don’t know what this classic is about, I am not going to spoil it for you. Just enjoy the ride.
Oct. 30, Wednesday: The Exorcist (1973)
Considered by many to be one of the scariest movies ever, I am consistently told by snot-nosed millennials that “I didn’t think it was that scary.” What makes their bad takes even more excruciating for me to hear is the fact that by the letter of the law I am considered a millennial because I was born in 1983 during the 1981-1996 millennial window. Let me tell you something. I am not a goddamn millennial, if not just for the simple fact that I am a normal human being who finds The Exorcist terrifying. They got those dates wrong. These kids today…
Oct. 31 (Thursday): Halloween (1978)
Where did you think we were going to end up? This was our natural final stop.
Hopefully, you enjoyed going on this journey with is. If you have your own curated list or certain movies you want to suggest for subbing in on certain days, we’d love to hear from you.
Leave us a comment or hit us up @FanSided on Twitter.