25 Horror Films You Must Watch Before Halloween

1. Halloween

Was anything else ever really going to be #1? It's the quintessential horror movie to watch at Halloween, the one that frequently gets screened at cinemas around this time of year, and the one that started the slasher franchise trend. It's also arguably still the best of the bunch, relying more on tension and suspense rather than the excessive gore of both the Friday the 13th and Elm Street franchises. Furthermore, Halloween also features one of the smarter and more likeable horror movie protagonists in Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode. She's neither a boring, squeaky-clean priss nor a drunk slut, presenting a dignified protagonist who's easy to root for, whereas the aforementioned franchises (and the later entries in the Halloween series) pretty much just served up fodder for the bad guy. Best Moment: The iconic climactic moment in which Laurie hides inside a bedroom closet, before Michael Myers punches a hole through the door to try and get to her. Curtis' excellent performance, the creepy Myers mask (a William Shatner mask painted white) and Carpenter's score and direction make this a pulse-racing moment of the genre's lineage. Sequels: 7 direct sequels followed, the worst of which was the third, Season of the Witch (which didn't even feature Myers), and the best of which was the sixth, H20: 20 Years Later. Still, none of them lived up to the original, and by the time 2002's Halloween: Resurrection came out, in which Strode was killed off in one of the opening scenes, the series had nothing left to offer. This led to a decent if unnecessary Rob Zombie reboot in 2007 which focused more on Michael's origins, and then a forgettable, bland 2009 sequel, which appears to have pretty much killed the series dead for now. Though a third film is reportedly still in the works, it'll probably end up being another reboot. Which horror movies will you be checking out to get in the Halloween spirit? Shout it out in the comments!