As Fall is approaching, so is Halloween season. You know what that means: horror movies. If you love jumping out of your seat and feeling your heart drop into your stomach at every twist and turn of a good scary movie plot, then you’re in the right place, gals.

Let’s take a look at the best and the worst, and what to look out for coming to theaters this Fall. 

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The Excorist (1973): The Classic. Arguably the best and most well-known horror movie of all time. It was daring at the time to star such a young girl who played such a heinous character (cursing, blasphemy, etc.) but the film is tastefully done. Its power lies not in the cliche scare tactics of most horror films (such as ridiculously long build-ups and cheap pop-out scares) but in the pure eeriness of its storyline: a twelve-year-old girl possessed by demons. It was made in the ’70s so it had to rely on genuine terror–not cheesy special effects. Not to mention, there are a ton of theories that the set was actually cursed. Spooky stuff.


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The Fog (2005): The One With Bad Special Effects. Did anyone else have a poster of Tom Welling in Smallville taped to their locker in middle school? Then don’t let this film starring the hunk fool you. It had all the potential in the world, especially considering it’s based on a Steven King novel, but it lacked anything actually scary. I mean, can fog really be that scary anyway? Especially when the fog doesn’t even look like real fog? Fail.

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[Rec] (2007): The Foreign Delight. What starts as as a night shift for a local Spanish TV news reporter, turns into a gruesome discovery. The night reporter and her cameraman end up filming the disturbing array of events happening in a particular apartment complex, where a diseased old woman tries to bite the policemen that are banging on the door. Soon, everyone in the building becomes quarantined. And anyone exposed to a bite can fall victim to becoming one of “them”. Process of elimination through a slow, well-sequenced plot leads the viewer to a terrifying conclusion. You might be weary of zombie or mutant-disease type movies, but I promise you, this one will knock your socks off. It’s completely original and the style of filming — handheld cameras and low-budget editing — gives it the authenticity to make the fear feel real.

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When A Stranger Calls (2005): The Painfully Cliche One. I’m not sure which is worse about this movie, the acting or the horrible pace. Instead of having anything actually happen, Simon West, the director, decides to make trees banging around outside and a few creepy phone calls as the basis of practically the entire movie. Nothing legitimately scary happens until three-quarters of the way through the movie. Sigh. Plus, Camille Belle: you’re gorgeous, but your scared face is lacking.

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White Noise (2005): The Surprisingly Scary One. When I saw the trailer for White Noise, I thought it would be a typical scary movie about haunting spirits and demons trying to connect through modern technology (The Ring, anyone?), but I have to say, White Noise thoroughly horrified me. The storyline deals with a man whose wife disappeared…or so we think. When her supposed spirit tries to communicate over voicemail, radio and computer, we are unleashed into the world “electronic voice phenomena” (EVP), which, according to skeptic.com, is ”the alleged communication by spirits through tape recorders and other electronic devices.” The movie does a great job of staying true to what EVP is and includes a huge amount of special features that give you a look into real life EVP stories. I always say, you could theoretically figure out how to fight another human, but a ghost? Heck no. 

Other good ones to watch…
Se7en (1995), Misery (1990), The Others (2001), The Secret Window (2004), The Descent (2007), The Shining (1980), Silence of the Lambs (1991).

And other ones to steer clear of…
Drag Me To Hell (2009), One Missed Call (2008), The Last House on the Left (2009).

Some good scary movies are slated for this fall too: Sinister (starring Ethan Hawke) coming out on October 6 and The House on the End of the Street (starring our favorite Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence) coming out on September 21, so don’t miss out!

Any other horror movie suggestions, Lovelies?! What will you be keeping an eye out for this fall?

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