If I had to name mine, I couldn’t pick just one. I’ve got a holy grail list. These are the ones I return to again and again:
- Pumpkinhead
- Halloween
- Fright Night
- Return of the Living Dead
- It Follows
- The Ring
Why these? It depends. Some hit the nostalgia nerve. Some genuinely scared me the first time and still do. Some are just pure fun. But all of them... every one of them... has a certain look. A certain mood. A vibe.
They feel like fall. Like Halloween. Like cool air, dead leaves, and something lurking. They feel like terror. They feel like comfort. They feel like home.
Pumpkinhead is folklore soaked in guilt and mud.
Halloween is quiet dread and shape in the shadows.
Fright Night is weird charm and neighborly fear. I prefer this over Salem's Lot (There... I said it).
Return of the Living Dead is pure punk rot, loud and collapsing.
It Follows is dream logic and dread that sticks to your skin.
The Ring is static-soaked grief, that seeps out of the screen and lives in your head for days.
Halloween is quiet dread and shape in the shadows.
Fright Night is weird charm and neighborly fear. I prefer this over Salem's Lot (There... I said it).
Return of the Living Dead is pure punk rot, loud and collapsing.
It Follows is dream logic and dread that sticks to your skin.
The Ring is static-soaked grief, that seeps out of the screen and lives in your head for days.
Each of them has a style. A rhythm. A heartbeat I can recognize instantly.
And I think that’s part of why people love horror so much.
Everyone comes to horror for different reasons. Some want the rush. Some want to laugh. Some want to squirm. Some just want to feel anything at all.
But I think a lot of us come to it because it lets us hold the things we’re usually told to ignore. Fear. Death. Grief. Shame. Anger. Horror doesn’t look away. It stares right at it and dares you to do the same. Look long enough and maybe it stops scaring you. Or maybe it finally hits you just how much it does.
The King himself (Stephen King) says horror works like a relief valve. A way for us anxious, weird little puppies to let some of the pressure out.
It also remembers the people who feel like outsiders. The weird kids. The anxious ones. The ones who have too many thoughts and not enough space to say them out loud.
Horror gives those people a home.
Sometimes it gives them a monster they can understand.
Sometimes it lets them be the monster.
Sometimes it gives them a monster they can understand.
Sometimes it lets them be the monster.
So... what’s your favorite scary movie?
Not the one that wins awards or the most popular, but the ones that live in your head rent-free.
The ones that spoke directly to you and said, "We can be alone... together."
The ones that you know were made just for you.
Tell me.
Not the one that wins awards or the most popular, but the ones that live in your head rent-free.
The ones that spoke directly to you and said, "We can be alone... together."
The ones that you know were made just for you.
Tell me.