Before recommending the horror movies for Halloween not to be missed, let’s find out where this party has become so popular.
Halloween is an ancient festival that celebrates the end of summer and the beginning of winter, linked to the cycle of the seasons and the agricultural harvest. Some have associated it with the ritual feasts of ancient Rome dedicated to the goddess of fruits and seeds Pomona, or the anniversary of the dead which was called Parentalia. But the most frequent association of its origin is that linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, originally from ancient Ireland. According to this Ancient medieval tradition on Halloween it is possible to enter into communication with the souls of the dead, and this over time has created the traditional association of Halloween with macabre and supernatural masks.
The word Halloween, which originally meant “night of all holy spirits” in a Scottish variant, probably comes from the story of Jack o ‘Lantern. Jack was a cunning drunk blacksmith who managed in life to prevent the devil from taking his soul. When he died he was rejected by both heaven and hell, and was condemned by Satan to wander the world in the dim light of a hollowed-out lantern: to hallow in English means to dig.
Around the year 840 the pope replaced the pagan feast with an official recurrence in the Christian calendar, the feast of All Saints on November 1st. But the tradition of Halloween revived in the United States thanks to Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. In the last years of the twentieth century, the festival lost its original meaning and was transformed in Anglo-Saxon countries into a consumerist type costume party.
Halloween Costumes
Throughout the Halloween holiday, there is the custom of using costumes that could be defined as carnivalesque, but which differ from them for a significant tendency to the macabre and monstrous, a custom deeply rooted in the English-speaking nations. Costumes were first used on the night of October 31, 1585 in Scotland. The practice of wearing monstrous costumes on Halloween night would derive from the belief that, on the night of October 31, numerous supernatural beings and the souls of the dead have the ability to walk the Earth among the living.
In North America this practice was first recorded in 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, published an article in which it quoted some boys who had walked in disguise on the streets of the city. In the early twentieth century, the practice of disguise was almost nil among adults. The costumes were made in house and the makeup remained in the Gothic style.
Beginning in the 1930s, some American companies began producing Halloween costumes on a commercial scale, which began to be purchased in grocery stores and children’s stores. The most used characters were vampires, zombies, monsters, skeletons, witches and ghosts. Over the years, superheroes and aliens have been added to these characters. There was a fashion among adults to wear erotic and skimpy costumes.
Halloween from a spiritual point of view
Halloween is a recurrence that revolves around death, spirits, witchcraft, violence, devils and evil. In action to the growing appeal of the holiday, some religious fundamentalists and some conservative evangelical churches have resorted to handouts and comics to turn Halloween into an evangelical occasion. The Christian world opposes the Halloween celebrations, believing that paganism, the occult, cultural phenomena and associated practices are incompatible with the Christian faith.
Some Christians, particularly the descendants of Celtic individuals, from whom Halloween is derived, do not give it an unfavorable meaning, seeing it simply as a non-religious celebration committed to commemorating “imaginary ghosts” and sourcing sugary foods. For these Christians, Halloween poses no danger to children’s spiritual lives – the death and beliefs of Celtic ancestors can be a legitimate life lesson and part of their parishioners’ cultural heritage. In the Catholic Church of the United States, there are those who think that Halloween has a connection with Christianity.
Father Gabriele Amorth, exorcist of the Catholic diocese of Rome, said that “to commemorate Halloween is to offer a hosanna to the devil. Who, if loved, even just for one night, believes he can boast rights over the person “. The Archdiocese of Boston actually threw a party to trace Halloween back to its Christian roots as an event of the night before All Saints’ Day or All Hallows Eve.
6 Halloween horror movies you can’t miss
Here are the titles, selected from the movies not to be missed, for a film marathon on Halloween night.
Halloween
The classic of the classics of Halloween: the film by John Carpenter Halloween. Made on a small budget and with little-known actors, Halloween has become one of the most successful independent films in film history, creating an astonishing number of sequels. The story of Michael Myers is known to the general public: Michael is a mentally ill boy hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital who killed his sister on Halloween night as a child. The day before Halloween many years later he manages to escape from the psychiatric institute where he is hospitalized: a long trail of blood spreads in the small town where he was born … Halloween was the greatest success of slasher cinema that in the 70s, a genre much loved by young audiences. In slasher films, the protagonists are always boys in danger because of an evil supernatural being or a serial killer: usually those who drink, take drugs or have compulsive sex are the first to die.
Silent Night, Bloody Night
Another cinematic pearl, a must-see cult film perfect to watch on Halloween night. Unreleased in Italy, shot for about $ 300,000 with a style similar to John Carpenter’s Halloween, but much less known. Theodore Gershuny’s Silent Night, Bloody Night begins with the sale of a house formerly used as an asylum. One of the mentally ill, now hospitalized in another institution, does not like the arrival of the new owners. Ordinary people who hide terrible secrets in a slasher movie with a very intricate plot, which makes extensive use of moving subjects, with the camera by hand, from the point of view of the murderer. The character of Sheriff’s daughter Diane gives an originality to the film that makes it different from others: people are not what they seem and hide dark secrets, as in the best films of Dario Argento.
The Terror
One of Roger Corman’s best films, with a very young Jack Nicholson at the beginning of his career. Lieutenant Duval has lost his Regiment and lands along the Baltic Sea coast where he meets a fascinating and mysterious woman on the beach. Shortly after the woman vanishes and the lieutenant tries to find her in every way until he reaches the castle of Baron Von Leppe, played by the icon of horror cinema Bela Lugosi. From the large paintings hanging on the walls of the castle, the woman met by the lieutenant seems to be the baron’s wife, who died years earlier. A gothic horror on the theme of black magic and on the control of the physical body by evil entities. The old witch who lives in a shack near the castle is a black sorceress accused of practicing the phenomenon of mesmerism.
Haxan
An avant-garde film from the mid-1920s, written and directed by Swedish director Benjamin Christiansen, is a great masterpiece of enormous artistic value, provably one of the most beautiful films in the history of cinema, and not just horror cinema. Halfway between documentary and fiction, between essay and gothic film, Christiansen invents linguistic models that would only arrive many years later, in the avant-garde of the 60s such as the Nouvelle Vague, with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard. We move with incredible ease from the almost didactic analysis of texts on witchcraft to satanic sabbath scenes shot with visual mastery and an editing rhythm that dwarfs Tim Burton’s best film. Extraordinary special effects for the time, witches flying on brooms, human sacrifices. Faces of desperate old men, accused by priests of being devil worshipers, filmed with a realism and desperation rare in the history of cinema. Haxan is one of those moments in which the history of films meets the history of art, and becomes something unique and inimitable. The director also enjoys playing the role of Satan. It is the only film made by Benjamin Christiansen, who will subsequently open a cinema and devote himself to the activity of exhibitor.
Backtrack
An English independent film dealing with the theme of reincarnation. Raf, a 26-year-old young man, has a guided regression experience in a past life of his where he learns that he was a cynical Nazi commander during the world war. To try to answer his questions, he embarks on a journey with his friends in search of those places he saw in the regression. But a showdown awaits him with his karmic debt. A horror that explores the themes of reincarnation and Karma, together with lesser known concepts such as those of the Akashic registers: registers where all the human actions of the world, present, past and future, are kept by the gods.
Night of the Living Dead
We close the list with a great classic of horror cinema that inaugurated the Zombie Movie genre: Night of the Living Dead by George Romero. A man and woman, along with 5 other people, are trapped in a house near the Pennsylvania cemetery. Due to mysterious radiations coming from the planet Venus, the dead come out of the graves and come back to life with cannibalistic instincts. Any person who is bitten turns into a living dead. Low-cost film that marked a turning point in horror cinema, taken by Romero out of the studios and out of the conventions of mainstream cinema. It is a bitter film that behind the horror genre hides the vision of the end of the American myth: the protagonist is in fact a black man, an unthinkable protagonist in the cinema industry in 1968. Costing just over $ 100,000, it grossed more than 5 million. . There is a colorized version. A film followed by countless remakes that in 1968 conquered the audience of fans of the horror genre becoming a cult film.
Rocky Horror Picture Show
A criminologist tells the story of Brad Majors and Janet Weiss (“Dammit Janet”), who find themselves with a flat tire on a rainy and cold evening in November 1974. At the searching for a phone, the couple goes to a nearby castle (“Over at the Frankenstein Place”); there, they discover an annual Transylvanian convention, where they meet the Riff Raff, his French maid Magenta and also a groupie called Columbia (“Time Warp”). Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite pansexual mad scientist, introduces himself to the couple (“Sweet Transvestite”).
A staple of midnight film screenings around the world, Night of the Living Dead focuses on Janet (Susan Sarandon) and Brad (Barry Bostwick), a couple who stumble upon Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s terrifying castle in a dark and stormy evening. A Roger Corman B-movie, funny and scary at the same time. Tim Curry’s interpretation remains impressed.
The Exorcist
In northern Iraq, Catholic priest Lankester Merrin participates in a historical excavation that unearths a Saint Joseph medallion and an artifact representing Pazuzu, an ancient demon. As Merrin prepares to leave Iraq, he encounters a large statue of Pazuzu and observes two domestic animals fighting in the desert. In Georgetown, actress Chris MacNeil takes part in a film directed by her close friend Burke Dennings. Chris stays in a residence with his daughter Regan. Georgetown pastor Damien Karras sees his mother in New York. He confides in a colleague who feels unfit for his function as a counselor to various other priests. Chris hears sounds in the attic and Regan tells her about an imaginary friend named “Captain Howdy”. A sculpture of the deconsecrated Mary is discovered in a church in the neighborhood.
This Oscar-winning film is still truly terrifying. Directed by William Friedkin, it tells of a young mother (Ellen Burstyn) who tries to save her child from demonic possession (Linda Blair), it is full of frightening shots and a perfect script, as well as remarkable special effects and makeup.
Rosemary’s Baby
Guy Woodhouse, a stage actor, and his wife, Rosemary, move into Bramford, a large Renaissance-style apartment in New York City. They ignore their friend Hutch’s warning about the Bramford’s dark past with witchcraft and murder. Rosemary meets Terry Gionoffrio, a young drug addict on the mend that Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouse’s elderly neighbors, have taken in. One night, Terry throws himself out of the 7th floor house of the Castevets. Neighbors try to reassure her but Rosemary finds the couple bothersome and even meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry’s necklace to Rosemary, stating that it includes “the origin of the tannins”.
Providing perhaps the best reason not to befriend the neighbors next door, this mental horror classic focuses on a young wife (Mia Farrow) who comes to be inexplicably pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbors are having some negative influence on her. baby. With a delightfully weird twist from Ruth Gordon, this movie is a must for Halloween.
Nightmare on Elm Street
In 1981, young Tina Gray awakens from a frightening nightmare in which a disfigured man using a hand cover with blades attacks her in a club water heater. Her mother sees 4 strange cuts on her nightgown. Tina’s friend Nancy Thompson and Nancy’s girlfriend Glen Lantz console her, revealing that they too had a nightmare the previous night. They both stay at Tina’s house when Tina’s mother goes out of town, where she discovers that Nancy also had a nightmare about the monstrous man. Tina’s boyfriend Rod Lane interrupts their sleepover. Tina dreams of the disfigured man who chases her when she falls asleep. Rod is terrified of the beating Tina receives and sees her being dragged up the ceiling as Nancy and Glen wake up to find Tina bloodied and dead.
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a Wes Craven from the 1980s by Freddy Krueger, a movie about a serial killer in gloves with sharp blades killing people in their dreams while they sleep. If you never want to get a great night’s rest again, check out this.
Friday the 13th
In 1958 at Camp Crystal Lake, therapists Barry Jackson and Claudette Hayes sneak into a hut to make love, where an attacker kills them. Nowadays (1979), therapist Annie Phillips is driven halfway to Camp Crystal Lake by Enos, a truck driver, regardless of Elder Crazy Ralph’s warnings and even disgusted citizen responses. While driving, Enos warns Annie about the place’s troubled past, starting with when a little boy drowned in Crystal Lake in 1957. After being taken to her destination, she finds another ride from a person.
In this cult horror movie, a team of therapists is followed by a vengeful serial killer. The Friday the 13th series is best known for Jason, a serial who wears a hockey mask and wields an ax, but does not appear in this first version. the film series has maintained its originality over time but has become more and more absurd as the years have gone by.
Hereditary
Artist Annie Graham looks after psychiatrist spouse Steve, their 16-year-old son Peter and also 13-year-old daughter Charlie. The family attends the funeral of Annie’s mom, Ellen, and even Annie is amazed by the variety of people in attendance. Annie goes to bereavement support meetings, revealing that she and her mother had a strong bond until Charlie’s birth, when Ellen became a significant figure in her growth. Meanwhile, Steve receives a phone call during a conversation with Annie who informs him that Ellen’s grave has been desecrated by unidentified criminals, but does not inform her of the incident.
A truly scary horror film about pain and also about domestic secrets, Hereditary is both a study of the mind and pure entertainment and adrenaline. Toni Collette certainly deserved an Oscar nomination for her role as a mother who seriously tries to keep her family together in the face of evil.
Donnie Darko
On October 2, 1988, teenager Donald “Donnie” Darko sleeps outside, led by a strange voice. Once outside, he meets a being dressed as a bunny who introduces himself as “Frank” and tells Donnie, precisely, that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. Donnie wakes up the next morning on a neighborhood golf course and also returns home to find that a jet engine has actually collapsed right in his bedroom. His older sister Elizabeth tells him that investigators do not know the cause of the accident.
This arthouse film set on Halloween night deals with profound and existential themes such as destiny and predestination. Disillusioned teenager Donnie (a dazzling Jake Gyllenhaal) is plagued by visions of a man in a large bunny suit. We spend the film unsure whether Donnie’s weird populated world is an element of something wrong with his mind or a bigger, world-dangerous vision. Certainly the most cerebral Halloween choice, Donnie Darko is sure to leave you pondering many of life’s great secrets.
The Fly
The brilliant but eccentric scientist Seth Brundle meets the science journalist Veronica in a press conference held by Bartok Science Industries, the company that funds his work. He takes her to the laboratory of his residence and asks her to document his invention: two cases that can teleport between them. Although “telepods” can perfectly transfer immobile things, they are unable to teleport cells in real time, as demonstrated when a baboon is turned upside down after being teleported. Also including the ever-great Geena Davis, The Fly is disgusting as well as unusual and better.
Midsommar
American psychology student Dani Ardor was seriously shocked after her sister committed a homicide-suicide by charging your home with carbon monoxide killing herself and her parents. The incident further strains Dani’s relationship with her boyfriend, cultural anthropology student Christian Hughes. He learns that Christian and other students, Mark and Josh, have been invited by their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a summer party in his hometown, Hårga, in the countryside of Hälsingland, Sweden. The event only happens once every 90 years and Josh, who is writing his thesis on European summer parties, sees it as an incredible opportunity. Christian actually hadn’t made it through the trip with Dani, as he intended to break up with her before the catastrophe with her family. After a disagreement, he reluctantly welcomes her.
It might be summer season in Sweden, but this movie has Halloween in mind. A haunting and relentless film from the Hereditary director, Midsommar follows an American couple who get involved in a Swedish summer event, which isn’t what it seems. This is the movie for you if you like creeping, invisible terror that doesn’t show itself directly but grows slowly.
The Babadook
Amelia Vanek is an exhausted widow living in the Australian city of Adelaide who raised her six-year-old son Samuel on her own. Her late husband, Oskar, was killed in a car accident while accompanying Amelia to the health facility during labor. Sam begins to exhibit strange behavior: he becomes sleepless and is obsessed with an imaginary beast, against which he builds weapons to fight. Amelia has to pick up her son from school after Sam brings one of the guns there. One night, Sam asks his mother to review a storybook called Mister Babadook. He calls the beast the Babadook, a tall pale-faced humanoid in a claw-fingered stovepipe hat who tortures his victims after they sense his presence. Amelia is shocked by the book, while Sam is convinced that the Babadook is authentic. Sam’s persistence on the Babadook leads Amelia to spend sleepless evenings as she tries to comfort him.
Long before The Babadook became an unlikely gay symbol, it was the subject of a weird Australian thriller. After the death of Amelia’s husband (Essie Davis), she must raise the child alone. When the boy (Noah Wiseman) begins to sense a monster under his bed, the family members begin a terrifying journey with sinister mythological pressure. A film that offers a realistic as well as a metaphorical level, The Babadook is ideal for themed Halloween celebrations.
Get Out
Chris Washington is a black professional photographer from Brooklyn, New York, preparing for a weekend tour of Upstate New York to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage. Reluctantly, he asks Rose if her family knows about their interracial relationship, but she assures him they are not racist. While there, Rose’s brother Jeremy and their moms and dads, neurosurgeon Dean and also hypnotherapist Missy, make shocking remarks about blacks, and Chris witnesses the strange behavior of the black housekeeper of the Georgina estate and the gardener. Walter.
A dramatic horror with a reflection on the theme of racial differences. Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning film tells of a black boy who discovers that his girlfriend’s family is hiding something dark and menacing; a ruthless vision of American society in a thriller that is both thrilling and entertaining at the same time.
Creepshow
Creepshow includes five short stories: “Father’s Day”, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” (based on King’s fiction “Weeds”), “Something to Tide You Over”, “The Crate “and also” They’re Creeping Up on You! ” 2 of these stories were adapted from King’s stories, with the film closed by a prologue and epilogue scenes including a little boy named Billy (played by King’s boyfriend Joe), who is haunted by his abusive father for reviewing horror comics. Creepshow is a tribute to EC horror comics from the 1950s, such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear. In order for the film to give audiences a cartoonish feel, Romero employed longtime specialist Tom Savini to achieve comic-like results.
A collaboration between masters of horror George A. Romero and Stephen King, 1982’s Creepshow is a collection of disturbing stories. While some of the stories border on the absurd, there are some genuine fears, as well as truly remarkable special effects, between prosthetics and animation.
