The week of Halloween should be filled with scary movies and haunted houses and luckily we have suggestions for both! Click here for the best Haunted Houses in the area and keep reading to hear our top six picks for spooky movies.
Scream
The Scream franchise is built on six movies dating from 1996 to the current year 2023. The movies are based on murder mysteries involving slashers wearing their signature ghost face masks. The first four movies were directed by Wes Craven and the next two were continued by Kevin Williamson.
The first movie’s storyline was about a teenage girl named Sidney Prescott who was dealing with the one-year anniversary of her mom’s brutal murder. While she was dealing with this, she was being terrorized by a killer behind a ghost face mask. The killer plays a deadly game with questions based on popular scary movies. The rest of the following movies build on this movie and become more modernized as time goes on.
“I like the series because they make you think it’s one person is Ghostface but then it’s someone completely different, but the time of the murders is very predictable,” said junior Sabrina Zamora.
We really enjoy watching any movie from this series. It keeps me on the edge of my seat even after watching it for the millionth time. It just has a way of giving you this thrill when watching and the series is definitely our favorite horror/scary movie series.
The Conjuring
The Conjuring is the most notorious trilogy in the broad world of paranormal films. Released on July 19, 2013, it’s been a decade since the world was introduced to the world of The Conjuring. Other movies featured in the franchise are Annabelle, The Nun, and La Llorona. But none quite grasp the fear factor of the original Conjuring.
Its use of practical effects with a dash of CGI made the film ahead of its time. While the entire franchise did not meet up to the same standard, they aren’t unenjoyable.
We won’t spoil the plot and make it utterly predictable, but if you enjoy the paranormal and demonic entities, give it a go.
Smile
Smile took the world by storm and smashed the box office, earning 217 million US dollars on a budget of 17 million. The film featured something no one has seen in a while: an original horror film. In our generation, many productions’ attempts at fresh content are remakes of amazing (yet corny) 80’s hits. This film changed the classic “hero always wins” cliche and kept us guessing the whole way through. We do believe it was overhyped by fans of the film. It was not the scariest movie ever as many described. The best part of it was its uniqueness. But nonetheless, the film was great overall and deserves a watch.
Jennifer’s Body
Jennifer’s Body was released on Sept. 18, 2009, with main star Megan Fox. The movie starts with the odd friendship between Megan’s character Jennifer and co-star Amanda Seyfried’s character referred to as Needy. The duo consists of a popular cheerleader and a nerd that people didn’t know existed.
One day Jennifer dragged Needy out to see a band perform in a small venue. Jennifer was on a mission to get the lead singer to fall for her, but that night didn’t go as planned. The venue ended up burning to the ground, and one of the band members invited Jennifer into their van. Needy begged her not to go, yet Jennifer still climbed in. Later that night Jennifer showed up at Needy’s house and a sight that will haunt Needy for the rest of her life locked up in the mental hospital.
We were very interested in watching this movie because it was like nothing we had seen before. It kept us guessing because we never knew what was going to happen next. The storyline was nothing we had ever watched before and experienced, just in the sense of never being able to predict who the killer or killers were. We enjoyed this movie and recommend it if you’re looking for a new type of scare that isn’t just like one of your basic horror movies.
IT
The first IT movie was released on Sept. 8, 2017, and IT: Chapter Two was released on Sept. 6, 2019. The main character, Pennywise the Clown, was played by Bill Skarsgård. For the first movie, he received 9 nominations and 2 awards for his work as Pennywise. The second movie earned him 4 nominations and 2 awards for his performance as the same character.
“The clown moments were very scary, the way the clown would walk around with the red balloon and jump out really made me jump. I was scared,” said senior Danielle Ditella.
The movies are based on young “outcast” children in Maine facing the town’s horrific fears of Pennywise the Clown, who reappears every 27 years to prey on young children in the town of Derry. The kids work together to fight against their fears and Pennywise.
We were very hesitant to watch these movies, as they seemed to be basic to us. We thought the storyline of a movie with clowns was dry and not very interesting. To our surprise, the movies kept us on our toes. We found how the kids overcame their fears to work together against something so frightening.
Exorcist: Believer
This movie was the creepiest film we have seen in a long time. The practical effects were extremely gruesome and made us gag. It was not the best paranormal film we have seen by any means, but it was enjoyable.
The best part of the film was the ending; it genuinely tricked us. We can’t say the acting was amazing for most of the characters, but the directors truly make you dislike the right ones.
