15 Best 2016 Horrors To Watch This Halloween

Send in the clowns...

31 Clown Rob Zombie
Saban Films

When it comes to choosing what to watch in the run-up to Halloween every year, you're generally faced with the same questions as when you're choosing a costume. Do you go classic with something Universal Monsters like, or go with the modern trends that all the kids love? Should it be gory? Should it be an inclusive experience? Can I get it in Asda at short notice...?

The good news for the modernists this year is that horror has had something of a shot in the arm. As blockbusters have grown increasingly gaudy and disappointing, more smart film-makers have gone smaller scale, drawn in by genre projects where story-telling and authentic feelings remains paramount currency. And that means we've got a strong crop of movies from 2016 that deserve to be re-appreciated now that Halloween is drawing closer.

This is how horror should be: varied, scary and occasionally not at all scared of poking fun at itself. And it's truly brilliant to be able to revel in the quality (or at the very least the entertainment value) of some deservedly memorable recent offerings.

Here are the 2016 horror movies you need to watch this Halloween...

15. The Purge: Election Year

31 Clown Rob Zombie
Universal Pictures

The Film

After trying to get revenge on the killer of his son, Frank Grillo returns as a personal bodyguard of a reformist politician seeking to end The Purge as the corrupt New Founding Fathers try and wipe her out.

Why Watch It?

Because if you crazy cats vote Trump in, you're going to need some tips for your future.

In all seriousness, it's not a terrible film, improving vastly on the Warriors-like attempt of the second movie. It's also grossed more than $110m off a $10m budget, so it's unlikely we've seen the last of the franchise.Hopefully they'll concentrate more on it being a grand-scale home invasion movie rather than trying to take it too big.

Obviously the Purge itself is on the way out in-universe but there's lots of potential for prequels that just go back to the horror of strangers trying to kill you for no reason. That's the appeal of these movies after all.

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