September 27, 2016

As my co-host and colleague Elric Kane mentioned yesterday when he did his list, we tend to recommend an astronomical amount of horror movies on a weekly basis via our Shock Waves podcast. Between him, myself, Rebekah McKendry and Ryan Turek, it’s staggering the sheer volume of horror that we’ve all collectively consumed. But despite that all, we still were getting requests from devoted listeners and friends to compile our “31 days of Halloween” lists. One horror title recommendation, per day, for those that want to celebrate Halloween all month long.

This presented itself as quite a challenge. I mean, coming up with a batch of awesome horror movies to watch is easy, but narrowing it down to 31? For most of us, we devour this stuff all year around, good and bad! How could we possibly decide which flicks deserved a coveted October time slot?

Look, as far as I’m concerned John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN should play in every home in the world come October 31st, so I’m not including that here. It’s just a given.

For me, I broke it down to what stands out to me personally about Halloween. This is a season all about fun, mischief, scares, thrills, chills, and the overall sense of just having a good time. I love a good straight forward horror movie, but my personal tastes tend to fall in the horror/comedy realm, because for the most part, those films are universal and can be enjoyed even by a moderate horror watcher.

I tried to mix it up, so yes, you will find some of the classics. But in other spots, rather than go for the first film in a franchise, I opted to pick a sequel. Things like NIGHTMARE 3, LEATHERFACE and HELLRAISER 2 to me can stand on their own as good representations of those respective franchises as a whole.

And rather than go with something like THE EXORCIST, I decided instead to select THE ENTITY. If we’re going to zombies, why not go for the creepy oft-kilter CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD by Lucio Fulci? For every classic like PSYCHO, there needs to be a contemporary movie like THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. I feel like “monster mashes” are the most fun horror movies, so you’ll find everything from ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN all the way up to CABIN IN THE WOODS below. Off-beat picks like THE RAGE: CARRIE 2, IDLE HANDS and the 2009 remake of NIGHT OF THE DEMONS are also worth another look!

So without further ado, here are 31 horror movies I think you should watch to celebrate Halloween in style this year!

October 1st: TRICK ‘R TREAT
October 2nd: ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
October 3rd: THE MONSTER SQUAD
October 4th: THE LOST BOYS
October 5th: LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

October 6th: SHAUN OF THE DEAD
October 7th: RE-ANIMATOR
October 8th: PIECES
October 9th: THE RAGE: CARRIE 2

October 10th: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS
October 11th: HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II
October 12th: LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III

October 13th: JOHN CARPENTER’S BODY BAGS
October 14th: WAXWORK
October 15th: MUTE WITNESS
October 16th: THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL

October 17th: THE ENTITY
October 18th: [REC]
October 19th: CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
October 20th: DEMONS
October 21st: NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (2009)
October 22nd: IDLE HANDS

October 23rd: DRAG ME TO HELL
October 24th: THE DESCENT
October 25th: THE WOLF MAN
October 26th: BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON

October 27th: CABIN IN THE WOODS
October 28th: TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE
October 29th: PSYCHO
October 30th: HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH
October 31st: TALES OF HALLOWEEN