It’s that time of year again. The leaves are falling, the wind is howling, and the Halloween movies are rising from the dead! It’s Halloween season, October, my favorite time of the year. Why? Not only does carving pumpkins, baking cookies, and dressing up make me excited, but horror movies are icing on the cake.

I absolutely ADORE horror movies. However, when I was little (7-11 years old), my mind would buzz all night with thoughts of monsters and ghosts devouring me each time I watched a not-so-scary horror film. Yet, now I am the ultimate lover of horror movies. I have watched approximately 50 famous and critiqued films and the spirit of Halloween makes them even more enjoyable to watch.

Many of the people I know and talk to hate horror movies, like my friend Aniston Fedler, a freshman attending South Forsyth who said, “The problem I have with horror movies is that every time I watch one, I end up screaming so loud from those stupid jump scares! Those are what get me the most, and the way they make the characters so creepy. Also, I can never go alone. Instead, I have to go with a group of people to lighten the mood.” Others love them with the same passion (probably a little less) as me, like my friend Sydney Logan, a freshman attending Milton does, “Horror movies are fun because of the thrill. I like being scared and they always keep my heart racing. Watching them is entertaining because it’s basically a roller coaster of emotions: they start out peaceful and then jump-scare you. My favorite horror movies are the ones with the twist endings because it really messes with your mind and makes you rethink the whole movie. I especially love horror movies during October because they really put me in the Halloween spirit.” I’m so engrossed by horror movies, that I’ve even done short films with my friends about scary themes. I don’t know what it is—maybe it’s the intense music, the effects, or just the idea of being scared, but I just love, love, LOVE horror movies.

Now that you know my endearment for horror films, why not show some of my absolute favorites? I gathered up just a few of my all-time favorite movies’ trailers, which are most suitable for the Halloween spirit!

Here is an older movie from 1984, a movie with a different vibe. A badly burned monster; who haunts your dreams and kills you in your sleep. The reason this frightened me so much was because every time I am finished watching a film that scared the living daylights out of me I would go straight upstairs and tell myself that when I go to sleep then I’ll be fine. Not with this movie, because Freddy Krueger comes to kill you in your nightmares.

Here’s another one of my favorites, a 1980s movie, originally a book written by the famous Stephen King, about a small family doing a whole winter-long shift at the Timberline Lodge hotel for extra money. However, what they don’t realize is that the hotel has a dark secret that causes the father to go berserk. It is well played and intense and a great movie to cuddle up with a blanket and eat some popcorn!

A very recent movie released October 13th, 2017 that was a major hit and also a great watch from my perspective. The intensity and plot twists of it all and the character development made it all so intriguing. It’s a unique idea for a movie, because the main character has the day repeated over and over and usually there’s a cop or detective to solve a murder, but the girl who is killed relives the day of her death to solve it herself. Highly recommend watching this movie while it’s still in theaters for a great scare!

This movie is such a thrill and such a scare. It’s not your average movie, because unlike others, it never shows anything really that scary, it’s just the sounds and the way the actors are acting that makes it so intense and terrifying. Fun fact: The actors in the movie actually believed that the Blair Witch was real and that they were actually never told about all the paranormal things going on which caused genuine fear, making it seem that much more realistic.

Lights Out is of great interest to me because I used to be terrified of the dark. I could never sleep without a night light because I always felt like someone was going to come and kill me and I wouldn’t be able to see anyone coming. This movie not only enlightened those previous fears that made it even freakier, but it also provided with an interesting backstory of the monster in the film. Interesting fact: 3 years ago on March 15th, Fatalis published a short horror film “Lights Out” for a horror short film competition, which has this exact introduction.

Jeepers Creepers was one of the scariest movies I have ever watched. It not only is suspenseful, but it’s intriguing in a way that keeps everyone on the edge of their seat. The plot twists of it all and the mystery of the guy driving the rusty old car makes it truly creepy. It’s a different kind of movie, where a brother and sister witness a stranger man or creature dumping what seems to be a human body wrapped in cloth down a pipe, which then causes chaos for them.