My SO and I are always looking for good movies, shows, etc. to fill the month of October. We like things that are atmospheric, cerebral, or just fun. But a lot of the standard recommendations are your typical slasher movies and the like, disgusting body horror, kids movies that we have no interest in, and things that are just plain miserable.
Here’s some things we’ve liked to one degree or another from previous years.
Action Horror / Horror That’s Actually Enjoyable
- Aliens
- Bram Stoker’s Dracula
- Fright Night
- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
- The Mummy (1999)
- Silence of the Lambs
- Sleepy Hollow (Great? No. Fun? Yes.)
- Termors 1 & 2
- Various Stephen King Mini series (IT, The Stand, Rose Red)
Funny and Spooky
- Army of Darkness
- BeetleJuice
- Bubba Ho-Tep
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)
- The Burbs (didn’t love it, but a good fit)
- Death Becomes Her
- The Frighteners
- Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
- Ghostbusters 1 & 2
- Gremlins 1 & 2
- High Anxiety
- Little Shop of Horrors (not really into musicals, but still a good fit)
- Shaun of the Dead
- What We Do in the Shadows (movie)
- Various MST3K horror movie episodes
- Young Frankenstein
Anthology Shows (inherently hit or miss)
- The Twilight Zone (60s)
- The Outer Limits (90s)
- Tales From the Crypt
Old Timey Classics
- Dracula
- Frankenstein (actually underwhelming, but it was a good fit)
- The Haunting (1963)
- The Haunting of Hill House (with Rifftrax, but still counts)
- The Last Man on Earth
- Psycho
- The Invisible Man
Barely Qualifies as spooky but still good:
- Dark Man
- The Dead Zone (movie)
- Men in Black
- Pacific Rim
- The Shadow
- They Live
I recommend:
- The Cabin in the Woods
- Tucker and Dale versus Evil
- Midnight Mass
Midnight Massterpiece is more like it. Anything from Mike Flannigan is great. Also check out Midnight Club. It’s not particularly scary, but more touching and sad, in a good way.
He’s honestly the only reason I’ve still got a Netflix subscription at this point.
He did one of the segments in the new V/H/S Beyond movie as well, although I’m pretty sure that falls under gore for this question.
Tucker and Dale is awesome.
And completely fails the “no gore” requirement.
Yeah… but it’s funny gore.
This is the second time I’ve seen this movie genuinely recommended for a spot where it doesn’t belong. I swear, y’all horror movie watchers lose track of just how horrifying your movies get.
The other time it was suggested as a kids movie.
It’s not really a gore movie, though. It’s funny gore. It’s different. Have you seen it?
Yes. It’s why I know they weren’t appropriate suggestions for the requests.
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982). Not gory, so much as gooey.
The Babadook.
The Mist. Based on a book by Steven King. King admits the movie ending is better than his own.
10 Cloverfield Lane. It’s standalone, don’t worry if you haven’t seen Cloverfield
Annihilation. The bear freaks me out.
Event Horizon. Sci-Fi/Horror
Original Ghostbusters from 1984.
Gremlins
No One Will Save You. The ending is weird, but the suspense is top-notch.
The 'Burbs. Classic Tom Hanks comedy.
Tremors.
What We Do in the Shadows
Event horizon is definitely not the type of movie OP is after.
The best thing about Event Horizon is how incredibly gorey it is. Definitely not what OP is after.
Seconding Annihilation. Was going to suggest it if nobody else did.
Based on OP’s likes The Thing is spot on
I love The Thing, specifically because it’s smart and has great atmosphere. And as with Tremors, I like seeing people behave intelligently and adapt to try to overcome the threat, rather than just having people be idiots so we can watch them die.
That said, it goes way past the line for my SO, who makes less of a distinction between gross creature effects and violent gore effects. Plus, it’s not like there isn’t some fairly extreme violence as well. The defibrillator scene for example.
Ah, yes, I had in my mind it was on par with Aliens but probably a step above that gore-wise.
The TV show version of What We Do in the Shadows is also quite good, I think, and very much traffics in the same themes as the movie, if even a bit sillier.
We both liked What We Do in the Shadows, but neither of us loved it. I’ve been suggesting giving the show a try but my SO is always a bit resistant to starting a new show, and the prospect of trying to squeeze a season into a limited time frame only has only made that worse. But it’ll probably happen sooner or later.
It’s worth it. Such a great show.
Hubs and I didn’t love the movie, but we totally adore the series.
Beyond The Black Rainbow - A psychedelic loveletter to the 80s, about a dying cult and its first and last victims.
Anything by David Lynch, but particularly Mullholland Drive and Twin Peaks.
Mullholland Drive is a dream logic trip through Los Angeles as a small town actress finds work and love and heartbreak and murder in the big city while the world becomes increasingly incomprehensible and nightmarishly surreal; it also includes one of the best acted, directed, shot and scored scenes in all of horror.
Twin Peaks is the story of a small town deep in the forests of Washington, struggling to solve the murder of a high schooler, an FBI agent arrives and proceeds to explore esoteric and supernatural causes; part drama, part cosmic horror.
I would add The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) to your Funny and Spooky list. I’ll also second the The Fog (1981) suggestion.
Hmm… Haven’t seen them since they first came out, my memory of them is vague, but might be worth a watch.
Also there’s an Addams Family channel on Pluto.tv that plays nonstop Addams Family episodes from the 60’s. It was a fantastic silly show. Love watching it with my kids.
They definitely still hold up, and can actually be better seeing them as an adult for the first time if the last time you watched them was as a kid.
As long as you don’t mind blood and guts in a lighter context, Cabin in the Woods and Tucker and Dale vs Evil are both incredibly fun comedy horror. Neither is really scary (though CitW has a stretch where it emulates classic slasher tropes), but both are quotably hilarious. Considering Shaun of the Dead is on your list and it includes a full evisceration, you’re probably fine.
If you’ve seen Bubba Ho-Tep but not at least Evil Dead 2 if not also Army of Darkness, then you’re woefully deprived.
Zombieland and its sequel are both delightful popcorn fun and very funny.
Happy Death Day is a slasher, but it’s also Groundhog Day and a likable, fun, PG-13 romp without too much meanness or darkness. The sequel is… fine.
Slither is a brilliant horror comedy but it’s a bit of a gross-out type, so it’s iffy if you don’t like seeing people swell to bursting with alien slugs and stuff like that. But the tone is always light and it’s just so much fun. Nathan Fillion in his peak Firefly days is the immensely likable hero.
There’s also a movie from the 80’s called Night of the Creeps that’s a cheesy, schlocky, gooey slugfest that is the spiritual predecessor to Slither.
Speaking of the 80’s, Return of the Living Dead is a super fun and funny 80’s zombie movie that actually has the honor of originating the “zombies eat brains” trope as far as I know.
If the 90’s are in play, Idle Hands is a fun, slightly gross, thoroughly silly stoner horror comedy that’s especially fun if you’re a fan of The Offspring (IYKYK).
I would also add Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas as spooky atmospheric fun that aren’t obnoxiously kid-focused.
And segueing into Christmas horror, Krampus is a really fun movie that is both very funny and, but also works as a solid proper horror movie AND a family Christmas movie (for freaks like me).
Candyman Candyman Candyman Candyman … … . … … <draws breath> Candyman
Don’t sleep on Doctor Sleep.
Still have to watch The Shining first. It’s been sitting on the list for years but keeps getting bumped for something else at the last minute.
Then I vote for The Shining!
Personally, I vote for The Shining mini-series over the movie with Jack Nicholson but I might be in the minority there.
Oddly enough I have seen that one. But my preferred version will always be The Shinning.
Was so excited to answer this only to find the top post hit virtually every one of my suggestions.
But there is one more. This year I plan to revisit an old classic:
The Lost Boys.
Try Oculus, 1408, and Session 9.
Everyone likes a good mindfuck horror now and then.
watching every AVGN halloween special
A few that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:
- Rosemary’s Baby
- Ring (Japanese original)
- Mulholland Drive
- Get Out
- The Exorcist
- The Omen
The Omen is great but has a couple of beheading-style scenes if I recall right.
Ah, fair point, I forgot that!
The Pirates of the Caribbean movies fit I think. Skeleton pirates, curses, sea-zombie pirates, giant squid attacks, the East India Trading Company…
If you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t recommend Midnight Mass highly enough! Probably my favorite horror/spooky thing ever. Best to go in blind, I think. It’s not a mystery per se, but figuring out what’s going on is part of the fun for sure.
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Ring (Japanese original)
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The Eye (Taiwanese? Thai?)
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M3GAN (you want the PG/13 rated version, as there’s a gory cut out there)
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The Conjuring 2 (the best of the whole franchise)
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Nope
That should keep you going for a bit.
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