It is finally October and you know what that means, Halloween! Halloween brings a lot of excitement whenever it comes to horror movies or horror movie franchises. You might be confused, because there is a lot to choose from, but today I will help out by discussing many different horror movies for this Halloween season.

One of my personal favorite horror movie franchises are the Scream movies directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson for the original 4 movies. These movies are always a great watch and all 6 movies are high quality horror and even at times comedy. The first 4 movies include the main character Sidney Prescott getting terrorized by Ghostface for over 15 years. It makes sense how these movies have been loved by fans for almost 30 years. It might not be the longest horror series out there, but I think it is one of the best.

 Another very solid choice for a franchise are the Halloween movies created by John Carpenter. This 13 movie franchise is a go-to staple for slasher movies ever since the first one back in 1978. These movies are not all the greatest, but they are a fun watch during the Halloween season. 

 Nightmare On Elm Street is a classic horror franchise from 1984 also created by Wes Craven. The series ended in 2010 after the death of Wes Craven, but even with the shorter collection of movies Nightmare On Elm Street is still a fantastic horror franchise. These movies are more psychological than a lot of other horror movies because it is all about going into dreams instead of the world like most others take place in. 

Friday the 13th is a horror staple with the iconic character Jason Voorhees. This franchise was created by Sean S. Cunningham with this 13 movie franchise. Jason Voorhees is a horror icon, and the movies are a great slasher franchise. While these movies are iconic, they have not stood the test of time. These movies are pretty cheesy, but they are a product of their time. 

The Saw franchise created by James Wan in 2004 is an ongoing franchise still to this day. These movies have been beloved by fans for 20 years because of the elaborate traps they have been making for each movie. The plot in all the movies have people going through traps based on bad things that they have done. The franchise has been highly successful and high in quality for the majority of its run. 

Now if you do not want to watch a whole franchise there are many stand alone movies that are worth your time like, The Blair Witch Project. Created by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez in 1999, it was groundbreaking for horror movies being the first of the found footage genre. This movie builds tension by the great acting from the main 3 characters in the cast. They provide realistic emotions and draw you into the movie with the camera work being from their perspective. This is a horror movie that I would 100% recommend to anyone exploring the horror genre.

The next standalone horror movie I want to recommend is As Above, So Below, the 2012 film created by John Erick Dowdle. This movie follows along The Blair Witch Project in that it is a found footage horror movie. This movie is about a group of filmmakers going into the Paris catacombs. The group of people encounter strange anomalies throughout, giving the viewer the question whether what’s going on is really happening.  While this is a smaller production, this is one of my favorite horror movies I have seen in quite some time.

Finally we have the horror classic The Shining created  by Stanley Kubrick in 1980. This is one of the most iconic movies in the horror genre being referenced throughout many different pieces of media. This movie features a hotel that influences the father of a family to violence because of the hotel itself.. This movie features some of the most famous imagery in horror so it is one that everybody should see.

There were definitely movies that I left that other students would have Apex recommend. So I interviewed a couple of students to see their recommendations!

“Reanimator, really good 80’s movie, and a cult classic” – Joey

“Child’s play, because it’s like, a little doll going around killing people. It’s great,” – Kaleb 

“Terrifier, the dude can’t die and he like, is really cool” – Charles

Watching horror movies for the Halloween season has been a tradition for many people for years. It’s a great way to get into the Halloween spirit by watching something frightening. So I encourage you to give some of these a shot this Halloween.