It’s that giddily spooky time of year again. While trees’ leaves shift to their autumnal hues and the air becomes distinctly brisk, Americans begin to adventurously relish in the macabre and supernatural, with ghouls, ghosts and monsters permeating their minds. Halloween swiftly approaches with its piercing yet invigorating chill, and it provides an exhilarating opportunity to deviate from life’s everyday mundanity. Are you a humble, weary university student? Well, try masquerading as a mummy for a few hours or carving a goofy expression into a pumpkin: The fantastical works wonders for a lethargic mind.
Unsurprisingly, film provides a similar sense of euphoria, to escape from everyday woes. So, why not conflate these two entities to maximize your serotonin output during the waning days of this beloved holiday? I certainly cannot claim to have invented the concept of “Halloween films,” but I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend some that I fervently believe are worth a portion of these thrilling 31 days, particularly recent features destined to become classics. The following either explicitly involve Halloween or are generally pertinent, spanning from 2017 to 2021:
Malignant (2021)
Let’s commence with a new addition to the scare-fest canon. Director James Wan’s filmography is brimming with delightfully ominous selections that you likely have encountered in some capacity, including the first two Conjuring films and the initial installment of the Saw franchise. However, I would love to underscore the virtues of his latest effort Malignant, where this esteemed virtuoso of the contemporary horror film distills every fiber of his rugged skillset into his most audacious feature to date.
Wan invests all the capital he has amassed as a filmmaker for over a decade into this gleefully gonzo, deliriously entertaining ode to the campy and Giallo subsets of this beloved genre, executed with feverish precision and flair. Bathed in blood and shrewd absurdity, it’s a chilling yet sensational homage so unrestrained in its creative impulses that it plays like a relic of a bygone era, the unabashed experimentation of the 80s. Dust off the old VHS cover (figuratively, of course) and bask in its unhinged glory.
Availability: Theaters, HBO Max
His House (2020)
My genre sensibilities implore me to once again champion smash hit The Invisible Man, which so smartly straddles its populist thrills with nuanced #MeToo subtext, but an obscure indie nerve-shredder entitled His House deserves the exposure. Originally premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to rapturous acclaim, this staggeringly assured debut from director Remi Weekes eviscerates the “haunted house” conceit of horror to dissect the trauma that simmers underneath.
Weekes brilliantly reshapes and recontextualizes these tropes to empathize with a haunting real-world issue: the ostracization and plight of refugees, that pain being conceptualized as the supernatural. It’s a supremely harrowing film about battered souls yearning for new beginnings and the apathetic government that confines them within domestic barriers. The impeccable shot selection creates a tightly coiled tension with each ghoulish fright delivering wallops of thematic and emotional resonance.
Availability: Netflix
Us (2019)
Jordan Peele’s sophomore outing may not be as narratively refined as his groundbreaking debut Get Out, but this 2019 scorcher parallels its predecessor as a singularly blistering experience. While Get Out’s crackling scares are encased in incisive political commentary, Us is a more traditionally eerie experience with a novel premise, one so deeply unsettling that its ambiance will remain seared into the crevasses of your conscious for years to come, restoked by the slightest wisp of its memory. Us is simply an ideal spine-tingler for this surreal time of year.
It’s a patient and gripping film that renders immense cinematic dimensionality in its deliberate ambiguity, acting as a catalyst for us to examine our deepest, most internalized fears. Is it an allegory for class marginalization? Maybe. Does it aim to examine the price of a traumatic past, both generational and personal? Perhaps. What remains so unnervingly and universally effective about it, though, is its reflective quality, a mirror that illuminates our own most parasitic terrors. Aided by Lupita Nyong’o’s stirring tour de force in a dual role, this is a relentless experience that refuses to be forgotten.
Availability: VOD
Hereditary (2018)
The year 2018 was a notable one for mainstream horror, including A Quiet Place and the Halloween reboot, but may I interest you in the towering arthouse achievement that is Hereditary? Every meticulous detail in Ari Aster’s lacerating debut lies within the horror genre: There’s a palpable, unwavering dread that makes this a once-in-a-generation experience of an achingly human magnitude, infusing its terror into your very being.
Hereditary is a film that’s so existentially rattling that I shudder at even the slightest remembrance of it. The movie is tautly crafted with each sequence of alluring tension underlining the fissures developing within a grieving family, effortlessly balancing its scares with their underlying implications. Toni Collette’s emotionally grueling performance anchors this actualized nightmare into something so intimate and lyrical within the jagged horror.
Availability: Showtime, VOD
Happy Death Day (2017)
Get Out was obviously revolutionary (and a bona fide masterpiece), and its seismic effects are still reverberating throughout Hollywood. However, I’d like to tout a more vanilla feature for those who enjoy a nice shot of terrifying adrenaline and still require a fruitful night of sleep. If you gravitate toward the “Jaws made me afraid of the bathtub” side of filmgoers (and there’s nothing wrong with that because ravenous sea creatures appearing near the toilet paper can never be 100% debunked), then the stylish, unassuming thrills of Happy Death Day will be nevertheless gratifying.
Fun is underrated. Happy Death Day is a slick and sharply subversive take on time loop cliches, showcasing its caustic cleverness through sprightly slasher set-pieces. It’s substantially less frightening than it is scathingly hysterical, but everyone needs a bit of endearing schlock in their lives to counteract all the gloom. This shaggy genre mash-up is a charming diversion, and that’s perfectly fine.
Availability: VOD
Photo Credit / Warner Brothers-Netflix-Universal-A24-Blumhouse
