Jack Wagner, Editor

It’s Halloween season again which means it’s time to cozy up under some warm blankets and screen some scary cinema. But what movie is right for you? Here is a list of several spooky movies to pick from so you can get the just right level of horrifying haunts.

Addams Family Values

Featuring the ever delightfully Macabre family, this 1993 film is perfect if you want to get into the Halloween spirit but are not in the mood for frights and nightmares. Follow the Addams as they send Wednesday (Chrsitina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) to a camp woefully unprepared for the siblings, welcome new addition Pubert to the family and deal with the evil babysitter Debbie (Joan Cusack), who sinks her claws into Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd). There’s ghosts, arson, guillotines and electric chairs, everything necessary for some fearsome (mostly) family-friendly fun. The movie is a sequel to the 1991 Addams Family, but each film stands well on its own, so there is no need to watch both. Or do… they’re both good fun.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Moving to a film with some real frights, but still none too severe, Tucker and Dale vs Evil is a 2010 horror-comedy starring Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine. It follows friendly country pals Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine) as they finally fulfill their dream of buying an old lake house to restore. Unfortunately, a group of foolish (and very clumsy) college students, led by the hillbilly hating Chad (Jesse Moss), mistakes them for crazy backcountry murderers, leading to a whole host of horrifying hijinks. The main draw of this movie is the humor, and there is a lot of it. There is also a lot of blood and gore, earning the movie its R rating. If you’re looking for some Halloween laughs and have a stomach for blood but not for serious scares, Tucker and Dale vs Evil is an excellent pick.

A Quiet Place

The 2018 horror/science-fiction movie A Quiet Place is in a good position as a movie with scares that odds are you can still get a good night’s sleep after. The film is about the Abbot family as they try to survive in a world destroyed by an invasion of seemingly invincible aliens that hunt by sound. Evelyn Abbot (Emily Blunt) is pregnant, and the family must do their best to make sure the birth goes smoothly without attracting the monsters. The movie thrives off the tense atmosphere created by forcing the characters to be near silent at all times, no matter what is happening to or around them. It’s not a gory film, being rated only PG-13, but it still has plenty of good thrills and frights for your viewing pleasure. A Quiet Place also spawned a couple of other films in the same universe, A Quiet Place: Part II and A Quiet Place: Day One, so if you enjoy the movie make sure to check those out as well.

Halloween

One of the forefathers of the slasher movie genre, the 1978 horror movie Halloween is appropriately one of the very best movies to get you into the scary season spirit. The film follows the swath of bloody murder escaped mental asylum patient Michael Myers (Nick Castle) who cuts through the city of Haddonfield, Illinois, chased by Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasance), while teen Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries not to be his next victim. Halloween does a great job building suspense and tension, helped along by a simple but eerie score that is possibly one of the best of the genre. Like all slasher films, it has some very graphic violence and some not-as-graphic-but-still-pretty-graphic nudity, earning its R rating with room to spare. Halloween is an excellent film if you want some real scares for your viewing pleasure.

The Thing

1982 horror movie The Thing is my pick for the scariest and final movie on this list. Following a group of researchers in a remote Antarctic station during the winter as they are hunted and killed by a shapeshifting alien being that can take on the appearance of anything it kills, the movie creates a delightfully bleak and terrifying atmosphere that really puts you in the mood to hide beneath your blankets. The Thing has a lot of excellent but very gruesome practical special effects, and manages to combine gore and tension in a way that elevates both. I have to mention for honesty’s sake that The Thing is my favorite horror movie of all time, but I still would say it earns its spot as one of the best and scariest films to watch as All Hallows’ Eve draws near.

This list is meant to have a spooky film that all levels of horror enthusiasts can enjoy. Whether you are terror prone or a hardened horror fan, I hope this list helps you find something to watch during this Halloween season.