31 Halloween Movies For October #7 - (2016)

Year 7 had a fair amount of sequels in Ghostbusters, Scary Movie, Underworld, Conjuring, REC, Cloverfield, Halloween, Hellraiser but a couple original films as well. Lots of invasion tropes, lots of hopeless at the end horror.

31 Halloween Movies For October #6 (2015)

31 Halloween Movies For October #5 (2014)

31 Halloween Movies For October #4 (2013)

31 Halloween Movies For October #3 (2012)
31 Halloween Movies For October #2 (2011)
31 Halloween Movies For October #1 (2010)

31. Return of the Living Dead (#4) Necropolis

Year        : 2005
My Rank: 30
IMDB     : 31
Rotten   : 31

It seems like whatever charm the original had died here. While all four stories all ended up being slightly different tales about a bin of ooze that creates zombies, only the first is recommendable. Always kids/teenageer, always creating zombies on accident. A lot more fighting the zombies here, like a traditional zombie movie, but more like a TV movie.

30. Silent Hill Revelation

Year        : 2012
My Rank: 26
IMDB     : 28
Rotten   : 28

Something about the trailer hooked me. It genuinely frightening. The original was only okay, but I was willing to give this a chance. This time instead of a woman looking for her daughter, we have a daughter looking for her father. Random things seem to happen to the woman rather that anything meaningful. The things I thought would be scary would end up being more like action set pieces. So good special effects and 3d, but poor story.  

29. The Lords of Salem

Year        : 2012
My Rank: 25
IMDB     : 27
Rotten   : 29

Expected a 1000 Corpses sequel or something more relevant to the actual Salem witch trials. Instead a DJ is given a record and triggers some hallucinations and flashbacks but the town loves it. Seemed like it wanted to be a music video more than anything - the images and music really stick out to me way more than anything the story had to offer. 

 
28. The ABCs of Death

Year        : 2012
My Rank: 21
IMDB     : 30
Rotten   : 30

26 shorts for each letter of the alphabet. Some are straight forward about spiders, killing others or monsters, but others are more exploitative of time loops, alternate dimensions and realities, a cartoon, lots of toilet humor. Literally T is for Toilet. Lots of them relate to animals.

27. Man with the Screaming Brain

Year        : 2005
My Rank: 28
IMDB     : 23
Rotten   : 27

I want to like Bruce Campbell's non Evil Dead works, but it's never quite the same. The trailer looked silly enough to be fun. A mad scientist puts two brains in one body so there is some multiple personality disorder going on. I was never bored, but never laughing really either.

26. Halloween 2

Year        : 2009
My Rank: 14
IMDB     : 29
Rotten   : 26

The remake of the sequel but not the most recent remake of the maybe sequel. Have we run out of numbers and ideas yet? Just remake Halloween 3 now, it's about time. Same hospital setting. Laurie finds out she is a Myers. Supposedly there is a directors cut with 15 more minutes and a different ending.

25. The Awakening

Year        : 2011
My Rank: 24
IMDB     : 19
Rotten   : 23

In a post World War 1 boarding school a woman goes to investigate and prove the ghosts are all a hoax. She stays there during a break with some others and the ghosts start appearing.

24. Southbound

Year        : 2015
My Rank: 20
IMDB     : 22
Rotten   : 24

Circular time plot where the beginning of the movie is the end of the movie. We follow different journeys all interwoven together. Neat idea and visuals, but I feel like if it had a bigger budget it could have been a lot better. 

23. REC 2

Year        : 2009
My Rank: 29
IMDB     : 17
Rotten   : 18

I had a bad attitude going into this as I really didn't want to watch more of the original. Found footage people getting ill, finding people turned into zombie like things. SWAT team gets taken out one by one as does everyone else eventually. There are some interesting things to explore in this franchise, but it ultimately doesn't go anywhere interesting.  

22. Hellraiser 2

Year        : 1988
My Rank: 23
IMDB     : 18
Rotten   : 19

Sequels are rarely as good as the original and this is no exception. One character looking for the door to hell, the other wanting to save her family. Lots of images intended to disturb you, but the story and acting are subpar. Pinhead is brought more to the forefront of the franchise rather than just one of the cenobites.

21. Goosebumps

Year        : 2015
My Rank: 22
IMDB     : 21
Rotten   : 15

R.L. Stine, aka Jack Black's books come to life to terrorize children and the author himself. His daughter and friends accidentally release them to the town and have to re-capture them. If you are a fan of the books I'm sure there are enough neat surprises to keep you entertained. I was more of a Christopher Pike and Are You Afraid of the Dark fan. 

20. Ghostbusters

Year        : 2016
My Rank: 6
IMDB     : 26
Rotten   : 25

I doesn't matter if they are women, or if they have better special effects. If it's not funny or interesting, it won't live up to the original. Chris Hemsworth is actually the comedy relief to the mostly comedy. There are 30 jokes about Chinese food. The cameos are mostly flat with Bill Murray's being my favorite. They might have been better off playing themselves and forwarding the plot . Let's see how Afterlife handles it.

19. Scary Movie 2

Year        : 2001
My Rank: 9
IMDB     : 25
Rotten   : 22

I may have watched this one the most of any of them. For some reason it's the only one Netflix has or the only one on TV ever. It's not as funny or fresh as the original but it does have the original cast and adds Tim Curry and David Cross. It spoofs The Hauting with more weed jokes and sex jokes. 

18. Underworld (3): Rise of the Lycans 

Year        : 2009
My Rank: 27
IMDB     : 14
Rotten   : 14

A prequel which confuses things to a great degree if you don't remember the previous two. Or just shut your brain off and watch Kate do her vampire action. Oh wait, she isn't in this one...Bill Nighy's Viktor is my favorite character, so bringing him back for a full movie was a good idea. 

17. Scary Movie 3

Year        : 2003
My Rank: 10
IMDB     : 24
Rotten   : 21

Drops the Wayne's brothers for Charlie Sheen, George Carlin, Leslie Nielsen, Queen Latifah, Simon Cowell, Kevin Hart, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Denise Richards, Ja Rule, Method Man, Master P, Eddie Griffin, Darrell Hammond. It's quite a cast upon reflection. Spoof on both Signs and The Ring. Different feel from the first two(less weed and toilet jokes) as it's directed by David Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun, BASEketball), but I don't know if I would say I liked it more overall.

16. John Dies at the End

Year        : 2012
My Rank: 12
IMDB     : 20
Rotten   : 20

A drug sends people across dimensions. Two college dropouts have to save the world from invasion. I really like Paul Giamatti, so he stole the show for me. The book is a bunch of stories pasted together and the movie doesn't do a great job piecing them together. Not scary at all and I can't remember it being that funny.

15. The Guest

Year        : 2014
My Rank: 31
IMDB     : 10
Rotten   : 10

I don't like the uninvited house guest thriller trope who stays too long. Mark Wahlberg's Fear is probably my favorite though. A soldier pretends to be a friend of the family's deceased son. The Beast from Beauty and the Beast plays the soldier. Motivations and backstory aren't present, but it's a ride.

14. The Invitation

Year        : 2015
My Rank: 18
IMDB     : 13
Rotten   : 11

It starts off as a dinner party with affairs and tension and then ramps into something cult like. A woman brings her new man to the party to try and make amends with her old friends and ex. The middle was probably the best part of the movie. The ending was kind of disappointing or maybe it could have been done better but it had an original idea.

13. You're Next

Year        : 2011
My Rank: 5
IMDB     : 16
Rotten   : 17

Our heroine starts off as one of the hunted and becomes a huntress. I'm a big fan of revenge movies, especially where the main character gets lots of good moments. Reminded me of the Stranges, or Hush. There is no motivation or much of a story. The next movie on my list is quite the opposite.

12. Eden Lake

Year        : 2008
My Rank: 15
IMDB     : 9
Rotten   : 13

I really enjoy Michael Fassbender, but this was hard to watch through most of it. I wanted an uplifting ending after the whole nightmare. Even Texas Chainsaw Massacre was more uplifting. I prefer Straw Dogs and Last House on the Left.

11. World War Z

Year        : 2013
My Rank: 17
IMDB     : 7
Rotten   : 9

I never read the book so I have nothing decent or different to compare this against. I do love me Brad Pitt. Most of the movie is a global look on one important privileged man and saving his family from the world's zombie invasion. The ending becomes more typical zombie movie, which was the best part. 

10. Ghostbusters 2

Year        : 1989
My Rank: 1
IMDB     : 15
Rotten   : 16

It wasn't as good as the original, but it never was going to be. I do love it for lots of other reasons. Some scary moments full of possessions, scary ghosts and a haunted subway. It's interesting to see how they could have all fallen as heroes after saving the city and world from invasion. It has funny moments but feels too serious getting wrapped up in the story about Oscar the baby. I do love most of the other scenes not involving the baby though.

9. Hush

Year        : 2016
My Rank: 11
IMDB     : 12
Rotten   : 7

Just like the previous You're Next entry, we have an invasion plot complete with woman who is mute and has to escape and fend off her attacker. Lots of good uses playing with the disability of not making noise. Visually appealing and won't likely disappoint you if you like this kind of thing.

8. Final Destination

Year        : 2000
My Rank: 3
IMDB     : 11
Rotten   : 12

I remember seeing this in the theater when I was young. I enjoyed it then, but I really enjoyed the ending. That mostly holds up for me. I feel the deaths are never taken as truly somber as they would be in real life. Some of the death's are just too ridiculous. The set up and discovery are a good ride.

7. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Year        : 2016
My Rank: 16
IMDB     : 5
Rotten   : 4

I wasn't a huge Cloverfield fan. I liked the monster shot we got at the end. I've never been able to sit through the God Particle. At least we didn't have shaky cam. I liked the back and forth of John Goodman's absolute belief that the outside world was gone. It was a decent idea that could have been a stand alone movie. At an hour and 43 minutes though it felt a tad long.

6. Inside - À l'intérieur

Year        : 2007

My Rank: 8
IMDB     : 8
Rotten   : 6

At least this home invasion had a motive. Someone coming to steal your unborn baby is quite the horror story. I don't think there is a ton of backstory again here. It's a slow burn and the ending is quite similar to the ones we have seen lots of times.

5. Following

Year        : 1988
My Rank: 19
IMDB     : 1
Rotten   : 1

Probably my least favorite Christopher Nolan movie but I haven't saw Tenet yet. It reminded me of the movie Pi but less quirky. Low budget and short. Not scary at all and the story was kind of bizarre but it was at least easier to follow than either Memento, Dunkirk or Inception.

4. The Host

Year        : 2006
My Rank: 7
IMDB     : 6
Rotten   : 8

Looking at the poster it seems like a generic made for TV monster movie, but it's actually a surprise. A family tries to rescue one of it's own from the monster's clutches. Some funny and intense moments. A good example of how a monster movie could be. 

3. Re-Animator

Year        : 1985
My Rank: 13
IMDB     : 4
Rotten   : 2

Lovecraft story about trying to bring back to life a deceased body, or parts. Two scientists experiment on cats before reanimating humans. Another rival scientist gets involved. Lots of camp, lots of nudity, lots of gore. 

2. Cape Fear

Year        : 1991
My Rank: 2
IMDB     : 3
Rotten   : 5

I liked it so much I had to watch the original. I've watched this several times by now. Robert De Niro does a great crazy guy trying to get revenge on his old lawyer. There are some uncomfortable scenes involving little Juliette Lewis but the whole movie is done in a good way that you feel trapped with the family in a kind of Aliens way.

1. The Conjuring 2

Year        : 2016
My Rank: 4
IMDB     : 2
Rotten   : 3

The Warrens helping another family get through a ghost crisis. James Wan, possession, haunted houses, The Devil. It's all there. Not as good as the original Conjuring, but as a series, much more entertaining to me than Insidious 2 or lots of other sequels.