By Ivan Stanojevic

Halloween Suggestions

I’ve grown up being a big fan of scary stuff, which is why I’ve always loved Halloween time. This year, with all the craziness of SCA, I haven’t had much time to rewatch all my favorite scary movies, like I usually do. However, I wanted to share with you a list of some of my favorite Halloween classics.

1. SCREAM (1996) + SCREAM 2 (1997) + SCREAM 3 (2000) + SCREAM 4 (2011)

Scream is one of the first movies I remember seeing as a kid. The mixture of humour, horror and well-written characters enchanted me even back in 1998. Sidney Campbell is the modern era scream queen (no pun intended). In this unlikely quadrilogy we get to follow this girl mature into a badass woman, who’s not about to take any murderer’s bullshit. Also, it’s a great »whodunit« thriller. Many say the third movie in the franchise doesn’t live up to the others, but I don’t agree. This is one of the rare horror series that managed to sustain the quality mostly throughout all the sequels. 

1. CHILD’S PLAY (1988) + BRIDE OF CHUCKY (1998) + CULT OF CHUCKY (2017)

Before Anabelle (ugh), we had Chucky as the menacing killer doll. This year we saw the revival of the Child’s Play franchise starring Aubrey Plaza. It was perfectly serviceable, but it took away almost everything that charmed us about the originals. It’s also especially weird since the creative team behind the original is still making new Chucky movies which are pretty good. I’ve listed three of my favorites above, but if you want to familiarize yourself with the whole franchise there are 7 movies in all (+ this year’s reboot). 

1. FINAL DESTINATION (2000), FINAL DESTINATION 2 (2003), FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006) and FINAL DESTINATION 5 (2011)

The movies follow different groups of people, who nearly escape death, only to find themselves being taken out one by one by an invisible force (Death?). The sequel manages to outdo the original in a way, and after stumbling with the fourth outing (which I purposely excluded from the list above), they returned to form with Final Destination 5, which manages to bring the whole franchise to an appropriate end. 

1. SKELETON KEY (2005)

If you love a good psychological thriller with an unpredictable ending, check this out. Kate Hudson plays a hospice worker who goes to take care of a dying man in Louisiana. It’s a pretty underrated and forgotten movie, but I think it still holds up. 

1. URBAN LEGEND (1998)

Starring an all-star cast consisting of Jared Leto, Joshua Jackson, Michael Rosenbaum, Rebecca Gayheart, and Tara Reid, this is one for the books. A group of college students is terrorized by a killer who models the kills after different urban legends.

1. CABIN IN THE WOODS (2011)

The newest movie on this list – a clever meta spin on the horror genre. Co-written by Joss Whedon and starring Chris Hemsworth. The movie follows a group of college students going away to a remote cabin in the woods (duh). The movie sounds like every other scary movie ever, but there is more to it. If you consider yourself a fan of smart, crazy thrillers, check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Notable mentions: Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), Halloween: H20 (1998), The Hole (2001), Valentine (2001).