Halloween is back and, with it, a whole host of horrors and ghastly treats to haunt our screens. The horror movie has been around since the earliest days of cinema—with silent classics such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922). And this witching season, the genre’s appeal remains just as strong for audiences across the world.
Whether you’re looking for some classic scares, a spooky cult tale or something a little more intelligent and sinister, they’ll be something to suit, whatever your taste.
Blockbuster gore
Zack Snyder’s zombie epic Army of the Dead is action-packed, funny, entertaining and, although long at two hours and 28 minutes, it doesn’t feel absurdly so. Released in May straight onto Netflix, it’s no 28 Days Later, but it’s what World War Z should have been if it hadn’t taken itself so seriously. It’s enthrallingly gory and features some surprisingly sympathetic performances, as well as the dumbest premise for a heist movie (robbing a Las Vegas casino that is crawling with the ravenous undead) since Now You See Me 2.
Netflix fans should also check out the recently released, There’s Someone Inside Your House, a teen slasher horror from the makers of the hit fantasy series Stranger Things.
Scary sequels
Spiral, Halloween Kills and Candyman are this year’s most prominent Hollywood horror franchise flicks.
Spiral is a rather disappointing reimagination of the Saw series, masterminded by Chris Rock, with a decent turn from actor Samuel L. Jackson. Halloween Kills sees the return, again, of Jamie Lee Curtis to the role in the movie Halloween that made her famous in 1978. This latest film in the Halloween franchise is disappointing in quality and doesn’t work as well as the 2018 reboot—also called Halloween.
Though fear not, for a fine evening of slasher gore, you might try looking into a mirror and invoking the urban myth of the Candyman (the legend has it he appears if you chant his name repeatedly). This is the fifth film in the Candyman franchise, unlike Spiral, which is the ninth, and Halloween Kills, which is the twelfth. It combines the talents of the series veteran actor, Tony Todd, as the infamous Candyman, and screenwriter Jordan Peele, writer and director of both Get Out and Us—two of the most satisfying horror movies to come out of the US in the last five years.
Small screen screams
The new season of Doctor Who (sadly, Jodie Whittaker’s last) is set to launch on the evening of Halloween. And fans have been excited to learn of the long-awaited return of the show’s most gothic of horrors, the Weeping Angels. These murderous statues are only able to come alive—and kill—when you’re not looking at them.
Their return to our screens offers an opportunity to revisit their finest hour, in “Blink,” the tenth episode of the third series of Doctor Who, which aired in 2007. The episode features a pre-stardom Carey Mulligan and is scripted by Steven Moffat. The Conversation