My Horror Movie Marathon for 2016

From IMDB "Directed by Terence Fisher. With Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling. Jonathan Harker begets the ire of Count Dracula after he accepts a job at the vampire's castle under false pretenses."

I'm not that into vampires, but hubs is a fan. Plus, how much more classic can you get? It's a Dracula movie from the 50s so you know it's good ;-)

IMDB "Directed by Fred Dekker. With Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr. A young group of monster fanatics attempt to save their hometown from Count Dracula and his monsters."

This is a favorite from my youth. For some, it seems to be an acquired taste, but I have no idea why. It has an adorable beagle plus an awesome treehouse and classic monsters like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf Man (with nards.)

IMDB "Directed by Ki-hwan Oh. With Jin-seo Yoon, Gi-woong Park, Ki-woo Lee, Yu-seon Ham. This creepy, supernatural thriller revolves around the paranoid belief that those dearest to you may want you dead."

Delightfully creepy! I have to read it cuz subtitles--if I only I were fluent in Korean! This is one of those rare horror movies with lots of blood and guts and affable characters.

IMDB "Directed by Ti West. With Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov, Greta Gerwig. During a night of 1983 with full lunar eclipse, Samantha Hughes takes a babysitting job surrounded by mysterious circumstances before she finds out her client's terrifying secret."

My husband refuses to watch this movie because he thinks one of the girls gets a raw deal. I think he's being a bit biased, but if I elaborated, I'd be giving everything away. It's a creepy movie featuring Tom Noonan being especially creepy. What's not to like?

IMDB "Directed by Bob Clark. With Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon. During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger."

This movie is such a gift (see what I did there?) I mean, yes, you can watch it for Halloween OR repurpose it as that sweet slasher movie that is also Christmas appropriate. (Your family might not appreciate it so much though.) Even though I've seen it a few times, it still makes me jump.

IMDB "Directed by Takashi Shimizu. With Yûka, Karina, Kippei Shîna, Tetta Sugimoto. A Japanese actress begins having strange visions and experiences after landing a role in a horror film about a real-life murder spree that took place over forty years ago."

What a surprise, this ghostly import is also super creepy! It's sort of like a cross between Audition and The Shining with better pacing. It does require a little reading, but it's worth it.

IMDB "Directed by Takashi Shimizu. With Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Tomomi Miyashita, Kazuhiro Nakahara, Miho Ninagawa. A fear-obsessed freelance cameraman (Shinya Tsukamoto) investigates an urban legend involving mysterious spirits that haunt the subways of Tokyo."
Candyman, candyman, candyman, candyman, candy . . . Oops! Wrong movie, but right trend--urban legends! These will suck the life out of you, especially if you're depressed and go off your meds. Then you go to The Mountains of Madness and bring back a girl who behaves very strangely.

IMDB "Directed by Ridley Scott. With Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright. After a space merchant vessel perceives an unknown transmission as distress call, their landing on the source moon finds one of the crew attacked by a mysterious lifeform. Continuing their journey back to Earth with the attacked crew having recovered and the critter deceased, they soon realize that its life cycle has merely begun."

Alien is oddly enlightened for a pre-80s movie in many ways--note the treatment of female characters and nonwhite characters. Also, if you haven't seen this movie yet, it's worth it, but watch with a friend because it will scare the you-know-what out of you.

IMDB "Directed by Ronny Yu. With Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Kelly Rowland, Monica Keena. Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees return to terrorize the teenage population. Except this time, they're out to get each other, too."

I just love that there's a movie out there that portrays Jason Voorhees as a vulnerable idiot with too much brawn and too many neuroses. I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting spin. And hey, this faceoff for the New Line fans is to die for.

IMDB "Directed by Paul Feig. With Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones. Following a ghost invasion of Manhattan, paranormal enthusiasts Erin Gilbert and Abby Yates, nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann, and subway worker Patty Tolan band together to stop the otherworldly threat."

Yas! Girl take-over of Ghostbusters, and you still get a Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver cameo. (Shake your head now, but I know you love it.)

IMDB "Directed by David Gregory. With Josslyn DeCrosta, Erica Rhodes, David Lombard, Lindsay Goranson. An American family visiting their Irish roots accidentally stumbles on a horde of bloodthirsty mutant children."

The tragic thing about this movie is that everyone in it is probably still employed somewhere.

IMDB "Directed by Brian Clemens. With Horst Janson, John Carson, Shane Briant, Caroline Munro. A master swordsman and former soldier and his hunchbacked assistant hunt vampires."
Also known as "Hey, that guy isn't wearing a shirt" and "why does that dude have a katana?" Seriously though, I just go by the fact that this as an old school Hammer horror movie. If it's Hammer, you know it's awesome. I mean, it could be bad, but it still will be awesome. You have to be a true horror fan to understand this.

IMDB "Directed by Jacques Tourneur. With Frances Dee, Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith Barrett. A Canadian nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island."

If you haven't seen the Val Lewton movies (this, Cat People/Curse of the Cat People, Bedlam, etc.) you are missing out! Just set aside a weekend and watch them.

This has the word "zombie" in the title and while I luuuuuurv zombie movies, this is not a zombie movie the way we usually think of zombie movies. This is African/Haitian zombie. So, yes, there are zombies in it, but it has a different flavor than the others. For one thing, no post-apocalyptic vibe. This is more of a psychological thriller and it's filled with racial tensions that are handled surprisingly well.

IMDB "Directed by George A. Romero. With Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Adrienne Barbeau, E.G. Marshall. An anthology which tells five terrifying tales based on the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s."

OMG, how can this not sound enticing? It's a classic from my youth and me and my dad still joke about Father's Day. If you like the anthology style of horror movies, this is a good one for you. I don't think there are nearly enough of these out there, but this is a favorite.

IMDB "With Richard Thomas, Tim Reid, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson. In 1960, seven outcast kids known as 'The Loser Club' fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown."

I twisted the hubs' arm into seeing this, but he says it's a slight improvement over the book because it was made for TV and had to be cleaned up a bit. (Don't worry, it's still gross.) Just avoid it if you're already afraid of clowns.

IMDB "Directed by Wes Craven. With Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich. A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game."

Do you like scary movies? Hell yeah! It's easy to forget that this movie is actually scary since it's considered a play on the classics like Nightmare on Elm Street, but make no mistake, it still will get a boo out of you.

IMDB "Directed by Fred Walton. With Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Rutanya Alda, Carmen Argenziano. A psychopathic killer terrorizes a babysitter, then returns seven years later to menace her again."

Being a babysitter is hard in horror movies. My suggestion is that if you know you're in a horror movie, don't babysit. Okay, yes, I know that's silly. I still can't watch this movie alone. It is way too creepy.

IMDB "Directed by Bernard Rose. With Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons. The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth."

I love urban legends and Virginia Madsen, so it's no surprise that this ends up on my to-watch list every year for Halloween. Also, I find that the husband comes to a totally appropriate end.

IMDB "Directed by Gore Verbinski. With Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman. A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it."

You won't die after 7 days if you watch this movie. Sorry if I gave it away. However, what does seem to be true is you will favor the version you saw first: Japanese or American. I saw the American version first and I think it's much creepier. Also, I love Japanese horror, so it's not a weird bias on my part. I just think everything is too neat, clean and manicured in the Japanese version. Anyway, this movie is legit. Yes, it's a remake of a Japanese film, but it has a solid script, a great cast and it will make your skin crawl.

IMDB "Directed by Susie Dietter, Bret Haaland. With Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille. When the inheritance Bender claims in the Old Country isn't quite what he expected, the Planet Express crew has to find the source of an age-old curse."

A Futurama haunted house episode? Oh yes! Stay alert for the honking werecar.

IMDB "Directed by John Gallagher. With Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler. While the BAU are in Miami investigating a series of bizarre ritualistic murders, Reid suffers from intense migraines which makes him concerned about his health."

Also known as "The Voodoo" episode, I find this one extremely creepy. If it's a Criminal Minds episode, it's like Halloween every day, but this one seems particularly Halloween appropriate.

IMDB "Directed by Jonathan Demme. With Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney, Kasi Lemmons. A young F.B.I. cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims."

I didn't used to think serial killer movies really counted as horror, but I've been informed otherwise. It's so liberating. Now even more of my favorite creepy movies are in the October rotation. This one is so scary. Manhunter, directed by Michael Mann, actually has a Dr. Lecter who is truer to the character in the books and is a totally scary movie on its own, but somehow this one just feels like it embraces the horror genre more fully.

IMDB "Directed by Bill Paxton. With Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary. A man confesses to an FBI agent his family's story of how his religious fanatic father's visions lead to a series of murders to destroy supposed 'demons.'"

You've got to love family, right? Well, if you are second guessing yourself right now, this movie could be therapeutic.

IMDB "Directed by Kim Manners. With Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Jim Beaver, Richard Speight Jr.. Sam relives the same day over and over, continually having to deal with Dean's death."

Hubs loves Groundhog Day so this is his favorite Supernatural episode. I'm more partial to "Playthings," but I share the TV, sometimes.

IMDB "Directed by William Friedkin. With Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb. When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter."

This movie probably doesn't count as that much of a horror movie for me since I gather that if you're Catholic, it's really scary, if you're not, it's entertaining. I'm not Catholic so it falls into the latter category for me. Still, who can resist the tubular bells? They just say "autumn" to me.