Halloween is just a few days off, and if you're like me, you love this time of year. Everyone loves watching horror movies on Halloween, but lately, good horror movies are hard to come by. So, mainstream movies aside, I've decided to put together a list of the best horror movies in recent years that you probably haven't seen.
Low-budget, some bad acting, and hate-able characters couldn't keep me from enjoying this fun little flick. Fan of Ghost Hunters? Maybe Ghost Adventures? Well Grave Encounters depicts what you wish would happen when those morons beckon ghosts to make their presence known. In the found footage style made popular by The Blair Witch Project and recently, Paranormal Activity, G.E puts a new spin on the genre. Taking elements that already exist, with shows like Ghost Hunters, and thrusting apparition after apparition into the viewers face. The movie follows some film-makers making a new tv show called, what else, Grave Encounters. The acts they put on are purposely fake, as they are actors within the movie itself, making their own show. But once things start happening that isn't a part of the show, their true colors show, and the real fun begins. The star of this movie is the Asylum itself where it's filmed. The atmosphere makes the movie seem even more genuine, and makes this one of my favorite found footage type films I've seen.
All communication is lost when a strange signal, that turns anyone who listens to it into homicidal maniacs, invades every tv, radio, and cellphone. Part romance, part black comedy, and part horror, The Signal is a unique mixture of different genres that seam together beautifully. Similar in those respects to, Shaun of the Dead, The Crazies, and Zombieland, there's also another feature that sets The Signal apart. The story is told in three parts, from three different perspectives. A woman, her husband, and a third man who she has fallen in love with and has been seeing behind her husband's back. It's a love triangle set amidst a world that is falling apart. The signal that is affecting people, has driven people to insanity, but surprisingly, they still have all their faculties. Meaning, that you don't know who is crazy and who isn't. They don't become zombies. They're seemingly normal people, with just very violent and insane tendencies at a moments notice. Sometimes someone you think is perfectly sane, turns out to be crazy, and vice-versa. The uniqueness of this film deems it worthy a watch, so give it a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
This is actually my favorite movie to watch on Halloween. The whole movie takes place on Halloween, and focuses around 4 short stories. Throughout the movie, the stories interweave in a beautiful and intelligent way. The stories range from a group of teenagers investigating a local ghost legend, to a school principal who moonlights as a serial killer. The movie never takes itself too seriously, but still packs a few chills, and a good amount of laughs as well. The stories themselves would each make for a decent horror flick, but they way they come together makes it all the more awesome. The story jumps back and forth through different times of the night, so occasionally you'll catch a glimpse of events from the other stories taking place from a different perspective. It all makes for a good fun watch on Halloween or any other night of the year that you just want to experience that Halloween feeling.
Tucker & Dale is the Three's Company of horror. It all revolves around hilarious misunderstandings. And when I say hilarious, I mean hilarious. There were a few parts in this movie that made me tear up from laughing. The story revolves around two good ole country boys, Tucker and Dale, who simply want to get away to their newly purchased vacation cabin. The boys planned to spend a few days fixing up the place and making it into a respectable cabin, but when a few college kids show up, the plans get thrown out of whack. The college kids, seeing Tucker & Dale, immediately assume the worst. They MUST be crazy cannibal rednecks who want to muder and eat them. So they do what anyone else would do in their situation (not exactly). They try to take them out before they get taken out. However, Tucker & Dale know nothing about it and continue working on their cabin. To make matters worse for Tucker and Dale, is that as the kids try to kill them, they end up killing themselves without Tucker and Dale even realizing it. So, in a series of absolutely hilarious suicides and failed murder attempts, Tucker and Dale finally realize that they are being targeted. This doesn't help much, as they're actually a bunch of babies, but they finally get the courage to fight back. But the kids corpses keep filling up their yard, and the with the only witness to what's really going on knocked out, Tucker and Dale may have a tough time getting out of this situation.
And my favorite horror movie of all time. Imagine following Jason Voorhees around with a video camera as he explains the things he does. How does he walk so fast? How does he get that door to slam at just the right time? BTM follows Leslie Vernon, a lesser known Jason more-or-less. He gives us an inside look into what these horror icons do(if they really existed of course). BTM takes every horror cliche in the book and explains it in a way that's both hilarious and genius. The crew documenting becomes fascinated and drawn into Leslie's world all the way up until the moments when they have the difficult choice to stop Leslie or let him be. The movie is absolutely hilarious but so smart that it will make you never look at horror movies the same way again. Anytime I watch a Michael Myers film or Freddy film, I catch myself going, "Leslie showed me how you do that." The cast was great, and though low budget, remains my favorite horror of all time, and is also one of my favorite MOVIES of all time. If you haven't watched it, and are a fan or horrors at all, do it NOW. I have a friend who hates horror movies but loved BTM, so give it a try none-the-less.
Happy Halloween :D
-Darrell
