15 Recent Horror Movies Destined To Become Halloween Essentials
Not everything recent sucks...
Halloween will forever been synonymous with glowing pumpkins, ghost stories, darkened neighbourhoods abuzz with excited kids and fully grown adults legitimately trying to out-scare each other. All in all, this is the real season to be jolly. And this is the season to let yourself be scared.
Now, throughout the years horror movies have been released all year round - but not all of them are true seasonal fare. The day only comes around once a year, so when it comes to picking the right movie it has to be one that fits the occasion.
If it was creeping out you wanted, the likes of Poltergeist, The Exorcist and throwaway flicks like The Amityville Horror and the House series have served this purpose. For the behind-the-sofa-experience, fans could always rely on The Blair Witch Project, Friday The 13th and, naturally, Halloween. Even creature features (Alien), arty affairs (Suspiria) and some of the real classics (Psycho) still have a place this time of year.
All of the above will certainly send you to bed fearing the dark, but it doesn't all have to be classics and oldies. Since 2010 the horror genre has actually seen an upturn, with films being released that have the ability to scare you witless and make you feel like you're watching a Halloween movie.
It's time to start adding some of those more recent affairs to your Halloween playlists...
15. The Purge: Anarchy
With his first film, writer/director James DeMonaco presented a decent concept to audiences: the world will be subjected to an annual purge, a twelve hour period of unadulterated anarchy where anything goes. Frustratingly, this concept was wrapped up in a confined movie, which for the most part saw Ethan Hawke and his family hunkering down for the night and waiting it out. Obviously there was a bit more to it than that, but you get the gist.
That all goes out of the window with his sequel, which is a marked improvement on its predecessor and a taut, violent film in its own right. This time around the focus is spread out across Los Angeles, with various factions – including a pre Crossbones Frank Grillo – playing the survival game. The result is a film as downbeat as it is nail-biting. Scary in a very real way.