I love movies, but in particular I love horror movies.  Good ones, bad ones, gory ones, and scary ones.  Horror movies have never had an element of fear for me.  I started watching them when I was quite young and I think that because I started on them young I never really built up the sense to be afraid of what I saw.  I also learned that movies weren’t real pretty early on.  One movie that always had a big impact on me was one of the very first horror movies I ever saw, “Night of the Living Dead“.  It was one of the few horror movies my Mom would watch and she let me watch it with her when I was a kid.  There is a scene where a young girl who’s been infected and finally turns into a zombie kills her mother with a garden trowel in the basement of the house everyone’s hiding out in.  For some reason it reminded me of a cake cutter and for years I would think of that scene when I would see a pointed cake cutter.  So maybe it had a little bit of an effect on me.

Now as an adult I love horror movies more than ever.  I tend to find them funny more often than not.  Most horror movies are full of bad acting, horrible stories, and effects that are usually over the top and completely unrealistic.  I love these movies because they do exactly what movies are supposed to do, take us out of reality for a few hours.

Since Halloween is a matter of days away, and if you’re on the east coast like me you might be trying to find things to do if Frankenstorm hits, I thought I would share 10 of my favorite horror movies for you to grab for the occasion.  New ones, classic ones, funny ones, and bad ones.  All intended to keep you entertained at the expense of other people’s horror for a little while.

{These aren’t in any particular order.}

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Trick ‘R Treat[/fontpress] I love this movie!  This also has a fantastic cast, especially for an indie, including Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, and Anna Paquin.  “Trick ‘R Treat” is an indie horror film {which could be considered a horror comedy since it has a fair amount of dark humor in it} from 2007 that follows the events of a small town on Halloween night.  The film is actually a series of four somewhat interwoven stories.  In all the stories there is the presence of a mysterious little boy, Sam who was originally called Samhain in the animated short that the movie came from.  Sam always shows up when Halloween traditions aren’t be honored to cause some kind of havoc to remind people how to do it right.  Sometimes it gets a little bloody.

Gore Factor: mild…there’s some blood but it’s not ridiculous.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]House of 1000 Corpses[/fontpress] This movie you have to love for a few reasons.  First, Karen Black and Sid Haig.  Second, Sherri Moon’s incredibly creepy and off-putting giggle.  And lastly the fact that this movie, which was a true labor of love for Rob Zombie, had so many problems with studios and funding that the final product looks like two different movies causing you to just feel completely disoriented at the end wondering what the hell you just watched.  Truly it’s the bunny costumes at the end that kill me. Definitely has some dark comedy elements too it as well, and the most fun thing for the first 20 minutes or to…Rainn Wilson.

Gore Factor: high…and weird.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Rosemary’s Baby[/fontpress] Truly one of my absolute favorite movies of all time.  Mia Farrow plays naive and wacko so well.  Because of this movie I always said that if I started another music project I would called it “Elf Shot Lame Witch”.  This is a classic and I’m sure many of you have seen it, but being one of my favorites I’d be remiss to not have it on the list.  The gist of the story…a woman’s husband trades his wife’s womb for fame and she gives birth to the son of Satan.  On a side note someone came dressed to the Salem Witches’ Ball this year as Rosemary with her Satan baby and the big knife she carries at the end of the movie.  I thought it was the best costume of the night and I totally plan to steal that next Halloween.  😀

Gore Factor: practically non-existent.  There is one scene with horribly fake blood early on {you’ll even see it in the trailer below}.  This movie is psychological horror, not gory slasher horror.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Shaun of the Dead[/fontpress] Comedy horror at it’s best!  Simon Pegg and Nick Frost star as friends and roommates who suddenly find themselves as two of the few unaffected by a recent zombie outbreak.  Plain and simple, this movie is hilarious.  It pays tribute to some of the great zombie films of the past and set the tone of some of the zombie craze that has since exploded.

Gore Factor:  moderate…everyone spends enough time running from the zombies that not many people get eaten.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Hatchet[/fontpress] Another fantastic indie comedy horror film, but this one does require that you have an appreciation for bad horror movies.  Part of what makes this movie so great is how bad it is, especially the gore.  For some reason blood mist that doesn’t stop is commonplace when you get killed by a maybe living/maybe a ghost creature in the swamp outside of New Orleans.  One reason I love this movie is for Joel Davie Moore who plays the main character, Ben.  The end of the movie is also fantastic!

Gore Factor:  high…but really this is worth watching for the comedy.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Basket Case[/fontpress] One of the worst horror movies ever that is a total low budget B-movie classic.  The story is about two brothers who were born as conjoined twins, however one was “normal” and one deformed.  Against their will they were separated and the deformed brother is carried in a basket by the other one.  They are on a quest to avenge their separation by tracking down and killing the doctors responsible.  It’s HILARIOUS!  The best way to watch this is one is with friends and alcohol so you can just have a good time and give this one your own Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment!

Gore Factor: moderate… but it’s low budget gore so it just adds to the humor of the movie over all.

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]Idle Hands[/fontpress] OK, truthfully this isn’t a horror movie.  As opposed to horror comedy this is more like comedy horror; the comedy is the main element to this movie and any horror movie elements are meant to be just part of the story.  A boy, a curse, and an uncontrollable hand cause some problems for a group of high school friends.  I’m a huge Seth Green fan so he’s a big reason for my love of this movie.  Overall a fun movie with little scares or gore, just horror movie inspired fun.

Gore Factor:  low

 

[fontpress type=”webfonts” name=”Happy Monkey” size=”22px” lh=”24px” color=”#FF521C”]A few others…[/fontpress]

These are a few other favorites of mine that I’m just tossing in down here because they should be familiar for most people…

 

The 2005 remake staring Ryan Reynolds is actually pretty good too, if you want to see a somewhat updated version.

 

I’m a huge RHPS fan.  I used to go to the midnight showings in college; I went every Saturday night for the better part of year at one time.  You can certainly watch this at home and enjoy it but if you’ve never seen it live you wont ever fully get it.  Do yourself a favor and see it live, even just once!

 

HORRIBLE movie that’s so fantastically bad.  This was one of those movies that I first saw on Up All Night on the USA network, probably when I was in high school.  Very worthy of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment!

 

And that’s all for now.  So watch some horror movies this weekend, whether funny or scary or crappy.  But enjoy the Halloween holiday before it’s time to focus on Samhain.