31 Actually Good Horror Films If You Need A Good Scare This Halloween

One for the spooky girlies.

As a genre, horror gets a bad rap. It’s seen as trashy, lazy, shocking for the sake it.

But horror can, surprise surprise, actually be good. In fact, it can even sometimes be great.

So, to mark the beginning of spooky szn, we’ve put together a list of 31 horrors films that are actually good and worth your time seeing.

Watch one every day of October, if you dare.

1. The Blair Witch Project

The GOAT of horror and the origin of the food footage horror as we know it today, the Blair Witch Project was so convincing audiences in 1999 actually thought those poor people got lost in those woods.

2. Saw

The first one is excellent. Trust me.

3. Hereditary

Toni Collette and Gabriel Byrne star in Ari Aster’s feature length debut about grief, cults, and the horrors of the family unit.

4. Skinamarink

An acquired taste but if you’re into it, you’ll love it. Two children awake in the middle of the night to discover their parents are gone, and all the windows and doors are missing. Watch with the lights off, and your phone across the room.

5. X

Mia Goth and her pals head down to a farmhouse to shoot some porn – the only issue is the elderly couple who own the land are… not the most sex positive.

6. Hellraiser

Crazy plot and wild practical effects. Jesus wept. 

7. Baskin

A Turkish surrealist horror film that plays with time… and innards.

8. Threads

Okay so not technically a horror, but a dramatic retelling of what would happen in Sheffield in the event of a nuclear war. It’s grim.

9. Ringu

Before The Ring, there was Ringu; the Japanese techno-horror that introduced dead girls climbing out of TVs to the world. Only 10 times scarier than its US remake.

10. Barbarian

Bill Skarsgard and Georgina Campbell spend the night together in an Airbnb that’s been double booked. But there’s more than just them renting the space.

11. The Witch

Robert Eggers’ feature film debut starring Anya Taylor Joy, and probably one of the most impressive period pieces you’ll ever see.

12. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The grandpa scene. That’s all.

13. Pearl

The prequel to X that was written in about two weeks, and may actually be more satisfying than it too. Mia Goth is incredible.

14. The Wailing

There’s horror and upset as a Korean town is plagued by killings following the arrival of a strange man. Featuring a bumbling police officer and lots of blood.

15. Evil Dead 2

This is a comedy. It’s also a masterpiece. A Farewell To Arms has never been so apt.

16. The Substance

In cinemas now, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance has been disgusting audiences for weeks on end.

It’s well worth a viewing, imo.

17. Midsommar

Florence Pugh may be Hollywood’s golden girl, but back in 2019 she was starring in an A24 horror called Midsommar alongside Ireland’s own Jack Reynor.

18. Saint Maud

An introverted, deeply religious woman takes a job caring for a dying woman and becomes obsessed with saving her soul. The final shot. Jesus.

19. Evil Dead Rise

The long-awaited reboot of the Evil Dead franchise came out last year, and it was directed by none-other than our very own Lee Cronin. Be warned, there will be blood.

20. Talk To Me

Viral ghost summoning game goes horribly wrong, again and again and again.

21. The Shining

A Kubrick classic, and one that everyone should see at least once… whether they’re into scary movies or not.

22. Audition

If you could hold auditions to meet your next partner, would you? Judging by what goes down in this film, maybe you shouldn’t.

23. 28 Days Later

Cillian Murphy wakes up in an abandoned hospital following an accident to discover there’s been a zombie outbreak. Stunning shots of vacant London. Weird ending.

24. Oddity

A woman grieving the loss of her twin sister spends a night in a seemingly haunted house… with a large wooden man.

What could go wrong?

25. The Thing

The dog scene. That’s it.

26. REC

A Spanish camera crew end up trapped inside an apartment building with something less than inviting.

27. A Tale Of Two Sisters

There’s an American remake starring the girl from A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Don’t watch that one.

28. Enys Men

A woman living on an isolated island observes a rare flower for days on end… until she starts to question what’s real and what’s not.

29. The Descent

What is a scary movie without a solid helping of trauma? A group of gals head underground on the caving expedition of a lifetime, only to find that they’re not alone.

30. The Innocents

When a group of children discover they’ve got mysterious powers, they wait until the adults are out of sight to use them… not always for good.

31. Halloween

Before Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends and Halloween H20 and all of those other questionable sequels, there was just Halloween – and it was very, very good.

 

Tags:

• halloween
• October
• scary