(THE PICKET) – People have traditions, and some traditions revolve around the holidays. For the past two years, my friends and I have had a tradition of watching nothing but horror movies from Oct. 1 to Halloween.
Because of this month-long marathon, I have seen several of the horror movies Netflix has to offer. These are 10 of my favorites in no particular order.
HUSH
This Netflix original thriller tells the story of a deaf woman surviving a home invasion. Full of tense moments, and great performances from Katie Siegel and John Gallagher Jr., Hush is sure to thrill. I would also recommend checking out director Mike Flanagan’s other two horror movies, Oculus and Ouija: Origin of Evil
DARK SKIES
If you look up reviews for this movie, you’re going to see a lot of mentions about overused clichés. I’m not denying that they’re there, but my friends and I believe that this movie does its absolute best with those clichés. Dark Skies functions as a movie about the disintegration of a suburban family due to a haunting, only instead of ghosts, its aliens.
V/H/S
I have only recently seen V/H/S and only its first sequel, but I like the idea behind it. These punks break into this house to find a V/H/S only there are several dozen tapes, each one containing a unique, short horror story, many of which could make feature-length films and leaves audiences wondering what they would be like.
EVENT HORIZON
This is a movie that does something daring, crossing science fiction and horror. The story revolves around the crew of a rescue ship sent out to rescue the crew of humanity’s first faster-than-light ship, Event Horizon, only to discover that something sinister and sadistic happened to the ship’s crew. This is a movie that it’s better not to know much about before sitting down to watch, so I won’t add much.
THE GUEST
This movie also combines elements of different genres, mainly suspense thriller and action, all set around Halloween. A family’s oldest son was killed while in the military and one day, a man claiming to have been in his unit shows up on their front door. This movie is directed by Adam Wingard, one of the creative minds behind V/H/S, and features a mesmerizing performance by actor Dan Stevens.
HELLRAISER
I’ve only seen the first three films of this horror franchise from writer/direct Clive Barker. The story revolves a mysterious puzzle box that unleashes otherworldly beings. The films introduce one of the icons of the horror genre, Pinhead, and is worth a watch.
THE BABADOOK
Personally, I find this Australian monster thriller more interesting than scary. The Babadook is about a single mother who is nearly at her wit’s end from raising her son, but after she reads him a mysterious bedtime story, the boy fears that the monster written about in the pages is coming for him and his mom.
EVIDENCE
I’m not really a fan of found footage movies, and I don’t really think that Evidence is that great of a movie, I actually think it would work better as a television series, but the way it uses its found footage is what makes it unique and raises it above other movies in its sub-genre.
THE WICKER MAN
I’m not putting this movie on this because it is a good horror, it is actually pretty bad. I’m putting it on here because it is a Nicolas Cage who deserves to be seen simply for how fun and stupid it is. Don’t believe me? There is a scene where Cage punches a woman in the face while wearing a bear costume.
JAWS
Do I really need to explain this one? Jaws is one of the most iconic monster horror movies of all time. It is definitely worth a watch.
Westley Elkins is a staff writer for The Picket. He can be reached via email at jelkin01@rams.shepherd.edu and followed on Twitter @WesElkins.