My Top 5 "Horror" Movies

It's October and Halloween is upon us. Depending on where you are in the world, Halloween parties and/or trick-or-treating might not be in the cards. So instead, let's spend the spooky night watching some movies that will give you a good scare.

To help you out, I've compiled my top five horror movies. Now I'll put my hands up here and tell you all straight up, horror is not typically my genre of choice. I know it's a genre that gets shafted quite a bit by some high brow movie types, and I can assure you that's not me. It's just not my cup of tea (along with the majority of romantic comedies). So these choices will most probably be considered conventional (and maybe not even 'horror') but they are great movies that scared me, held me in suspense, or creeped me out.

So here we go, in no particular order other than alphabetical, my top five horror.

Danny Boyle's film presented the question many of us have pondered: "what would you do if you woke up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?" Jim, our protagonist played by the always brilliant Cillian Murphy in his breakthrough role, is an everyday man. He isn't a particularly impressive individual neither in physicality or intelligence. He is just a guy trying to survive, and also, isn't that just very 2020.

28 Days Later is a thrilling ride with depth and heart. It is so good that it basically revived an entire genre for the Western world.

This was James Wan's directorial debut, and while he hasn't done many horror movies as of late, never forget that he is a king of suspense and slasher, not just of the ocean's underworld.

This is a tricky movie for me to talk about here because what I love about it and why it's in my top five is because of the twist, and I don't want to spoil that for anyone. But just trust me, it is a phenomenally made horror movie that builds tension masterfully and absorbs you into the world right at the beginning.

The first horror movie I can remember watching was this uber '90s, meta film about the horror genre. It has arguably one of the greatest opening sequences in film across any genre, and similar to '28 Days Later', it revived a genre and even inspired the spoof horror sub-genre of the late '90s/early '00s.

I would consider Scream to be a classic horror movie. Its sequels never quite captured the greatness of the original, but they are decent enough to warrant a watch through of the whole franchise (Halloween idea).

Is SE7EN a horror movie? Probably not in the traditional sense. I think many would consider it a thriller, and I wouldn't argue against that. But I think we can all agree, this is one scary movie.

I watched SE7EN as a kid and it absolutely terrified me well after I returned the tape to Jumbo Video (my parents didn't really have much consideration for what was 'appropriate' for a child to watch). Upon re-watch as a teenager and again in my 20's, I had a deeper appreciation for what David Fincher created. It's a psychological mind-bending detective action story with elements of horror throughout and similar to Saw, the ending only elevates the movie as a whole.

This is one of my all-time favourite movies and if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favour and enjoy '90s Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman take on Kevin Spacey before we knew just how much of a real life monster he really is.

What can I say that hasn't already been said about this film? It set a new standard for psychological horror, elevating the genre much like Alfred Hitchcock.

If you love film and you haven't yet watched this one, Halloween or not, grab some snacks and enjoy being immensely creeped out and terrified by Jack Nicholson.

So there you have it. My top five picks in the horror genre ("horror" used loosely). You may have noticed that the 'newest' film I've listed is 'Saw' which came out in 2004. 16 years ago. This is probably because as I got older, I lost my love (edge?) for horror films.

I'm a big fan of 'Get Out' (2017) and 'Us' (2019) and think that Jordan Peele is bringing a new and interesting take on the genre and I'm excited to see what else he'll do. Admittedly, movies that are critically acclaimed like 'Midsommar' (2019) have stayed on my to watch lists, and while I can't say enough good things about 'Hereditary' (2018), probably nostalgia above anything else has prevented it from knocking down one of my five.

Now, over to you! Are you a horror fan? I know there's a passionate group out there that loves the genre and I love their love for it. Give me some of your picks and maybe I'll have to do my own personal horror film festival.