My Top Ten Halloween Movies

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday list was Halloween Freebie, and I struggled to pick a bookish theme other than Top Ten Horror Novels which is what I did last year. 

So this year, I decided to deviate from bookish lists to go with My Top Ten Halloween Movies, which is completely biased because I’ve probably only seen ten horror movies to begin with. While horror movies are not my forte, when October rolls around (which it has, so much so it's almost over) and I'm in the mood to set the mood, these are my go-to movies.

1. The Exorcist (1973). Probably not the scariest possession story by today’s standards, but Linda Blair put on a convincing performance.

2. The Omen (1976). Yeah… I would not have let that nanny within a mile of my child… She was creepy from the moment she introduced herself.

3. The ‘Burbs (1989). There’s an argument to be made that this is not horror it’s just a comedy. But I was too young the first time I saw it, and it gave me nightmares. Now I quite like it but some scenes still give me the heebie-jeebies.

4. Joy Ride (2001). Paul Walker and Steve Zahn were interesting choices for this road trip from Hell, where a fun prank backfires.

5. The Black Phone (2021). A kidnapped boy gets help from murdered children. Ethan Hawke was terrifying as The Grabber. But the 2nd one looks too rich for my blood and I won't be seeing it.

6. Halloween (1978). Jaime Lee Curtis plays the part of an unsuspecting final-girl-to-be as she is stalked by an escaped mental patient. Fun fact: In the first movie JLC is NOT Michael Myers sister in the movie, but a random unrelated babysitter. The sequels decided to change her from stranger to family for some odd reason.

7. The Village (2004). I believe this M. Night Shyamalan film is completely underrated. The suspense is great, there are little flashes here and there of a monster that hides in the dark, and Joaquin Phoenix and Adrian Brody were perfect. 

8. Let the Right One In (2008). I don’t speak Swedish, so I had to watch this with subtitles, but not being bilingual didn’t take away from the creep factor in this strange story of friendship and murder.

9. Nosferatu (1922). This silent film features a vampire that creeps about, emphasis on creeps.

10. Queen of the Damned (2002). I think this movie was superior to Interview with the Vampire featuring Lestat as a rockstar, but I think I'm alone in this. (The critics absolutely hated it.)

Have you seen any of these? What did you think of them?