After an apartment building is inexplicably called in for emergency support, a reporter following the fire department decides to go inside to investigate. The building is quickly put on lockdown, meaning no one is allowed in or out, due to a threat of disease from a woman in one of the upstairs apartment. The occupants of the apartment quickly begin to panic – and with reason. The entirety of the movie is filmed on the reporter’s camera; with a point of view that makes you feel like you are actually trapped inside the apartment building as well.

I can’t stress enough just how terrifying this movie is. I watched it in the middle of the day on a train to Virginia and was squealing in my seat like a baby. Later that evening and for the next couple of days, my boyfriend and I ran everywhere we went after the sun set. We are grown-ass people! If you’re strong of will and/or it takes a lot to really scare you, then “[Rec]” is your movie.

7. The Craft (1996)

If you haven’t seen this movie yet, you should get it for the amazing gothic-schoolgirl fashion inspiration alone. When the flawless Robin Tunney begins attending a Catholic prep high school, she is befriended by a group of lady outcasts who practice witchcraft. Beginning small with glamour spells, things quickly take a dark turn when some of the girls plot revenge on their tormenters. One of the girls, played by the huge-mouthed Fairuza Balk, goes particularly off the deep end and we are witness to the torture she inflicts as well as the battle for good against her.

This movie has a heavy dose of female empowerment and general awesomeness. The four main characters are played by women alone, something very rare in the horror/suspense genre and actually, in any movies at all! The all-lead-female cast was enough to drive me and my girlfriends to practice glamour spells on each other every time we got together and try “light as a feather, stiff as a board” at literally every sleepover until I was 15.

8. Pet Sematary (1989)

Of course I had to include something by Stephen King in here! Let me preface this blurb by confessing that it’s been a very long time since I actually watched this movie. I was probably 14 or 15 when the nightmares that it gave me made me crawl into my mom’s room in the middle of the night and sleep on the floor next to her bed like a dog (I didn’t want to wake her up and she shares a bed with her boyfriend, which would’ve been awkward). “Pet Sematary” was the first movie, to my knowledge, to ever instill the fear that someone (or something) would slash your ankles as you walked past a bed/car/etc. To this very day, as a 25 year old woman, I am still afraid to walk past beds.

The movie revolves around a family who comes upon a burial ground that is said to bring the dead back to life. They decide to bury their deceased cat there but are concerned when the cat comes back much more vicious than it originally was. Grief-stricken after there toddler son is hit and killed by a truck, the father decides to bury him there as well. You can imagine how well things go after that.

For whatever reason, the one thing that terrified me the most were the flashbacks that the mother had of caring for her sister as she died from spinal meningitis. In these flashbacks, the sister was doubled over, her spine permanently deformed, and incredibly gaunt and zombie-like. It’s been over ten years since I’ve seen this movie and that image is still enough to make me pop my head back under the covers some nights.

9. The Mist (2007)

Did I say one Stephen King movie? I meant two. “The Mist” is set in a small town where an unexplainable fog has been released from a nearby military facility. Most of the movie takes place in a grocery store, where a large group of people have sought refuge in order to escape the mist. Why run away from opaque air? Because the people who are consumed by the mist do not return.

This movie has everything you want in a film: people turning on and accusing each other under stress, religious fanaticism, and a twisty ending that will blow your mind. I literally could not stop shouting “NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!” after the movie finished. The acting is also excellent and made me hate someone in a movie almost as much as I hate Prince Joffrey. Well done, “The Mist.”

10. The Ring (2002)

I still think Samara, the creepy little girl from “The Ring,” is going to get me one of these days. The plot of this movie revolves around a reporter who is investigating a relative’s death. She soon realizes that her cousin’s death is connected to a video tape that she watched seven days before she was found mysteriously dead. After she finds the tape and watches it, strange things begin to happen to her and it is clear that she now has seven days to figure out how stop the girl on the tape from killing her and her loved ones.

The story, tape, and movie itself don’t really make all too much sense and sort of come off as a bit weak when summarized. However, it is the incredibly cryptic journey to finding out about this girl’s past and the ”can’t unsee” imagery that really makes this movie fucking creepy as all hell.

“The Ring” is an American remake of the Japanese movie “Ringu.” I must confess that I have yet to see the original, but have heard from many that it is much scarier than the remake. Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m emotionally prepared for that.

And because there is no way in hell I could’ve limited my favorite scary movies list to 10, here are some honorable mentions:

Let the Right One In (2008) *

No scary movie list would be complete without at least one vampire movie (and no, it’s not fucking “Twilight”). This is another foreign film (Swedish) that also has an American adaptation (“Let Me In” – which is nowhere near as good but does have Chloe Grace Moretz in it). The movie centers around a young boy who befriends an enigmatic, young girl when she moves into his apartment complex. The two characters spend a lot of time learning about each other and that childlike curiosity continues once Oskar, the young boy, find out that Eli is a vampire.

More charming and darkly reassuring than straight-up scary, this movie is an absolute must-see. Low-budget when it comes to special effects, “Let the Right One In” is at its best when using animatronic puppetry to make Eli appear more monstrous as she feeds on human blood.

Fido (2006) *

The zombie apocalypse hits in the 50s and dapper men and housewives alike learn to market and use zombies as housekeeping pets. Do I really need to say more? Ok, Carrie-Anne Moss is in it too! Also, it’s the first movie I’ve seen where zombies are able to develop relationships with people and be more than just mindless, decaying bodies moaning “Braaaaiiiiiinnnnsss….” Honestly, the phrase “Zombies in the 1950s” is enough to get me to watch right there. If that doesn’t work for you, then I don’t want to be friends.

And that’s it! Thanks for checking out my list, everyone. I hope you get a chance to view some of these amazing movies this Halloween and as, always, be safe! Just count your lucky stars that we don’t have to look for razor blades in candy anymore.

Comment below with any questions, demands for even more movie recommendations (give us ALL the recs), and your own favorite spooky movies!

Written by Taylor Blakin
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