Halloween is an annual festival that has roots in age-old European traditions. Celebrated each year on October 31, it originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, costumes and sweet treats around the world.
With Halloween dawning upon us soon (3 more days!), I love to soak in the festivity better with horror movies. They are creepy, grotesque, and sinister. What better way to produce nightmares? Let’s creep it up with my top 5 must watch horror movies!
Sinister, 2012, IMDb rating: 6.8/10
If you can’t go through watching the whole movie, we can’t be friends. As sinister as it sounds, this movie needs to be watched until the end as there’s a big plot twist (no spoilers!). The movie revolves around washed-up true-crime writer Ellison Oswalt. He finds a box of super 8 movies that suggest the murder he is currently researching is, in fact, the work of a serial killer whose work dates back to the 1960’s. The most cringy part about this is, Oswalt brought his own family into the victims’ home to live there. All of you must be thinking, “What an idiot”. Of course, you know where this story leads to lah!
Train To Busan, 2016, IMDb rating: 7.5/10
Zombies movie fans should huddle together to watch this. Lots of nail-biting moments, especially of characters being chased by hungry cannibal eating zombies. The story is about a man named Gong Yoo and his estranged daughter trapped along with other passengers on a speeding train during a zombie outbreak in South Korea. Gong Yoo does all he can to protect his daughter and to stay a human being. Yikes! Train To Busan crossed the 10 million viewer mark in South Korea, making it the 14th movie in the history of South Korean box office to do so. The movie also did well overseas and built a great buzz around it. Thumbs up to this movie!
Poltergeist, 1982, IMDb rating: 7.4/10
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this movie went to become a success and talked about until today. This horror film begins when strange and creepy happenings beset an average California family, the Freelings – Steve, Diane, teenage girl Dana, eight-year-old Robbie and five-year-old Carol Ann – when ghosts commute with them through the television set. Initially friendly and playful, the spirits turn unexpectedly menacing, and when Carol Ann goes missing, Steve and Diane turn to a psychologist and eventually an exorcist for help. To make this movie even eerier is the fact that a large number of deaths have occurred among the former cast of the Poltergeist trilogy. The rumour is that the production was in some way “cursed” and reported to be using a real skeleton in the movie. Warning: Movie is not for the faint-hearted.
Saw, 2004, IMDb rating: 7.7/10
This successful franchise starts from Saw up to Saw 3D: The Final Chapter. Best if you watch from the first to the last, to really understand the trail. The movie depicts of two strangers who awaken in a dirty and abandoned room, with shackles tied to them and no recollection of how they got there or why. They soon discover they are pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer nicknamed “Jigsaw”. I have to warn you that there will be a lot of brutal, raw gory scenes. The movie is totally sadistic and violent in every way. Director of the famous horror films of all time – Insidious and Conjuring – James Wan is the mastermind behind Saw. Maybe this could be one of your Halloween favourite movies?
The Babadook, 2014, IMDb rating: 6.8/10
When you were a child, have you ever read a horror book and literally believe there is something like “a boogeymen hiding in the closet” or “monsters under the bed”? Sorry to break it to you, they do exist; in The Babadook movie at least. The 2014 psychological horror film was written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her directorial debut. A widowed mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son that is telling the truth about a monster that entered their home through the pages of a children’s book. All I know is childhood nightmares always come back to haunt us sooner or later.
Have some of these grim movies got you creeped out yet? They definitely did for me as I was typing in a quiet room, when suddenly a friend decided to ring the doorbell that scared the living heck out of me. That was literally five minutes ago… Or was it all only in my head?