“Do you Like Scary Movies?”—Scream
Jump to Vampire’s Curse Cocktail
Those of you who have been following me for a while are probably aware that am obsessed with Halloween and all things horror. A fascination that blossomed in early childhood, my love for the dark and macabre has permeated my entire being for as long as I can remember. I inherited this fixation from my mother who is so sweet and kind you’d never guess her underlying affection for all things dark and scary. I owe so much of who I am to her. My childhood is awash with scary stories before bed (some fact, some fiction), frightening games for my siblings and to partake in (ask me about my favorite game I’m Not Your Mother), and a deep love and profound respect for Halloween—our favorite holiday.
I spent much of my adolescence and teen years reading horror from R.L. Stine to Christopher Pike (I’m now reliving the books of my youth via the Teen Creeps Podcast), to John Saul and Stephen King. I looked with longing towards Halloween with the same fervor and excitement most children reserve for Christmas. Hitchcock, Carpenter, Craven and beyond; these were my early mentors in horror, movies we’d often watch together as a family, it was our normal.
In year’s past I’ve taken to Instagram to share a horror film I’m watching each night in October. This year I’ve been averaging 2-3 horror movies a day, every day, all month long. That’s 2020 for you. So, this time around I decided to create a list of my top 10 (plus a bonus!) favorite horror movies of all time. It was very hard only list these! I also mixed up a theme appropriate libation for you to sip on as you celebrate Halloween however you see fit. This list is purely based on my own tastes, it’s not meant as some definitive compilation of the genre. Take from it what you will. I wrote down some quick blurbs, I don’t have the time or talent to dive into all the complexities and themes of these films. I’m no film critic, I’m no expert, I’m just a girl with a dark side, reveling in her favorite month of the year.
Happy Halloween!
Night Of the Living Dead (1968)
“They’re coming for you Barbara.” An innocent enough taunt that quickly ends in death. George A. Romero’s pivotal zombie flick is a classic. Slow moving corpses dragging along, propelled by nothing but the singular desire for human flesh. The claustrophobic terror that builds as we watch the living dead rise and descend upon an isolated farmhouse to feast on the living makes me uneasy and tense in every viewing. But it’s the fate of our hero Ben, played by Duane Jones, that really stays with you long after the movie ends. This movie held up a mirror to society then, that still reflects harshly now. Reminding us that in the end, perhaps the real evil resides within the hearts of men after all.
Black Christmas (1974)
A bunch of beautiful sorority sisters gearing up to celebrate the upcoming holiday are tormented by a repulsive caller (aka The Moaner) spewing hate and obscenities, in a myriad of unsettling voices, through the phone. While Psycho is often credited for establishing the genre, this is arguably the film that launched a thousand slasher flicks. It’s a simple enough formula—deranged killer picks off women one by one and yet it manages to be more than just gratuitous spatter cinema. I’m obsessed with the style and the clothing. I really liked the character Jess (played by Olivia Hussey) who doesn’t take any BS from her weird boyfriend. I like that we never discern the killer’s motives and we never even see his face. He is always in shadow, faceless misogyny personified by a crazed eye here and there—all we really get are grisly murders from his POV. The most chilling scene is when The Moaner interrupts his stream of bizarre and disturbing ramblings to calmly utter, “I’m going to kill you” as all the girls listen in. I get the chills every time I hear it. It’s a horror movie that many have missed and I’d encourage you to give it a chance if you like the genre. It’s an even more interesting watch when you consider that the director would go on to film the holiday classic A Christmas Story.
Halloween (1978)
Another iconic entry in the slasher genre, John Carpenter’s Halloween is the movie most people think of when it comes to slasher flicks (even if it wasn’t the first). Jamie Lee Curtis is our scream queen and final girl who battles her masked and merciless killer of a brother on Halloween night. I watched this when I was younger and the level of panic I felt at Michael Myers’ slow and determined stride made my stomach churn. And the theme music is great! I remember sitting on the edge of my seat wanting to scream at Laurie Strode for her inability to find those keys as he closed in. It’s a feeling that I can access all these years later after countless viewings. Simon and I watch this every Halloween without fail.
Misery (1990)
Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes and won my heart as THE most deranged number one fan of all time. If you haven’t seen Misery, what are you even doing? A former nurse rescues a man from a car wreck in a snowstorm and carries him home to care for him. Paul Sheldon is a famous author and she’s read everything he’s ever written. Things quickly go south when you realize her motives are far from pure and that she is in fact a psychopath. This movie is a masterpiece in mounting tension and suspense. Even though I know how it plays out I still succumb to anxiety every time. And my ankles hurt whenever I think about a certain infamous scene. I can easily conjure up the glazed faraway look in Bates’ eyes when she quietly tells Paul “it’s for the best” and swings that sledgehammer with all her might.
Silence of the Lambs (1990)
“I’m having an old friend for dinner.”
Someday I promise I’ll create a blog post with recipes inspired by the film, paired with Chianti of course. Hannibal Lecter is a worldly psychopath who comes across so refined and cultured you kind of want to overlook the cannibalism and get to know him for yourself. It’s easy to see how he enchants and ensnares brilliant FBI agent in training Clarice Starling who seeks out his help in tracking down a serial killer. He obliges and plays mentor while sinking his hooks in deep. There is so much about this movie to love. The wit, the suspense, Hopkin’s performance, the stress on the importance of body lotion. There are plenty of gruesome scenes for the horror buff, but it’s the final shots of Starling groping and gasping blindly in the dark that makes every cell in my body tense up. This not just good horror but good cinema!
The Thing (1982)
Though panned by critics upon it’s release, John Carpenter’s The Thing is now considered a masterpiece in its genre. The terror mounts in a desolate Antarctic landscape where a group of researchers come into contact with an alien lifeforce that can mimic and replicate the appearance of its victims—and you never can tell just who has been infected until it’s too late. Inspired, no doubt, by films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Ridley Scott’s Alien (next on my list), it plays on our fears of vulnerability, being taken over, invaded. This movie doesn’t ease you into things, it starts off with a sense of dread from the opening scene. The special effects (though over the top) are grotesque even by today’s standards and yet I find it to be a thoroughly entertaining experience. The men quickly succumb to suspicion as they turn on one another and you’re dragged into the paranoia and fear right along with them. This is a fun one that manages to still be scary decades later.
The Witch (2015)
“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” This slow-burn Puritan horror movie (is that a genre?) was not like anything I had encountered in a long while. Rooted in history and lore, Robert Egger’s film unfolds like a nightmarish fairytale. It’s a different kind of horror movie, one that isn’t filled with clichéd jump scares or overt violence. It’s quiet, it’s suffocating, it’s both subtle and startling. The soundtrack is virtually non-existent unless you count discordant sounds and the chanting and wailing of women floating above the trees in the night as music. The Witch takes real-life legends and breathes new life into a twisted tale of terror. I’ll never look at a goat the same way again or butter for that matter. While there is a particularly horrifying scene very early on in the film (I literally stopped the movie and told Simon I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue) this isn’t an overtly violent film. The horror here is about anxiety, isolation, and a sense of escalating doom. Go into it with an open mind and you’ll find a refreshing installment in the genre that gets under your skin and stays there.
Alien (1979)
I LOVE this movie. Somehow, I had gotten it into my head at a young age that I wasn’t a fan of sci-fi. I honestly can’t account for it. I can only say now that I was dead wrong and not only do I love science fiction as a whole, but I have a particular affection for sci-fi horror. Ridley Scott’s Alien is a masterpiece. Slow, deliberate pacing, artfully crafted claustrophobic horror, a creature design by H.R. Giger that still incites terror all these years later and manages to avoid feeling dated. The acting is great, the suspense seeps through the screen. You never really get a full glimpse of the apex predator until the very end and I think that helps build the tension and unease—not to mention, you witness its frightening evolution as the movie plays out. There are countless scenes to make you jump, thought oddly I remember being most disturbed by the Ash reveal. It is pretty close to perfect in my opinion and a movie I can watch over and over.
Hereditary (2018)
This movie rattled me to my core and changed the landscape of the horror genre for the better, in my humble opinion. Ari Aster is a master at submerging his viewer in discomfort—playing on our fears, diving into the darker side of human relationships. Hereditary is a study in trauma, grief, and the devastating collapse of a family unit, woven together within the framework of a horror film for the modern era. This film is brutal and gut-wrenching and legitimately terrifying, but not in the traditional horror movie sense. There are plenty of scares and more disturbing scenes than I care to reflect upon. Toni Colette is something to behold and her performance is one of the best of her career. I don’t want to say too much or give anything away, just prepare to be shocked and unnerved. This movie haunted me for weeks after I saw it and I have yet to dive back in for a re-watch. Also, no pull-down attics for me ever, thank you.
The Shining (1980)
This is not only my favorite horror movie of all time, but one of my favorite movies, period. A well-crafted psychological horror where you never quite know whose version of events to believe. This was one of the first scary movies I can recall instilling a deep sense of dread and unease that lingered long after the credits rolled. Watching this still makes me uncomfortable, makes me feel like I want to scrub out my brain. I was seven or eight when I first saw The Shining and I watched it alone. That was me calling my mom’s bluff. I pleaded with her to let me see it, it was one of the few films she pushed back on. But I was a persistent—and I’m sure annoying—child and I wouldn’t let up. I wanted to see it. I had to see it. I could handle it. So eventually she relented and said I could watch it, but I’d have to watch it solo, thinking I’d reconsider. Not a chance. So I watched it. I never closed my eyes or looked away—which is something I do now! I think I was too drawn in, too absorbed, too traumatized. I’d never seen a anything like it. The twins in the hallway, terrifying even before they lay slain and chopped into bits. Elevators full of blood. Jack’s steady descent into madness and that unsettling scene where he tells Wendy about a horrible dream he had. There are however two scenes that rattled me to my core and replayed in my head for months to come. Of course, the infamous bathtub scene is a top one for many. I would only take showers for months after that, too terrified at the thought of getting in the tub. Oddly the other scene that bothered me was one I didn’t quite understand the implications of at the time—I only knew it didn’t feel right, or good, or ok. At the end of the film when Wendy is running through the hotel as it’s showing its true face, she comes across a man in a bear suit and a guy in a tux. If you’ve seen it, you know. I cringe even now when I think of it. There is just something so dark and disturbing about it that makes you feel unwell. I’ve watching the movie countless times since then, obsessed with how beautifully it all unfolds. The acting incredible, the ending haunting and ambiguous. If you’ve never had the pleasure, now’s the perfect time.
BONUS FILM! Suspiria (1977)
I want to start by saying that I have a thing for Italian horror giallo and that it’s absolutely not for everyone. Giallo (Italian for yellow) references the mystery/thriller fiction paperbacks that often had yellow covers. Dario Argento’s films are beautiful and unsettling with intense music, dreamy hallucinatory sequences, bold color palettes, and (WARNING) intense gore. An unfolding fairytale of terror in vivid technicolor, Suspira is truly something you have to experience firsthand. An American ballerina travels to dance at a prestigious dance academy in Germany. Unbeknownst to her, the school is a hotbed for the occult and run by witches. The movies plays out like a fever dream, with gruesome deaths and an eerie score—I’m always left feeling disoriented. It’s dark and twisted and I love it.
[ps2id id=’VampiresCurseCocktail’ target=”/]Vampire’s Curse Cocktail
A spooky little drink to make this Halloween night!
Ingredients
- 2 oz. gin
- 2 oz. unsweetened pomegranate juice
- 1 oz. blood orange juice
- 1 tsp. fresh ginger juice
- 1-2 Tbsp. red jam (see notes)
- 1 egg white(see notes)
- Ice
Directions
- In a cocktail mixer add gin, juices, jam, and egg white.
- Shake vigorously for 15 seconds. (A dry shake helps the egg white get frothy).
- Add in ice and sahek another 30 seconds.
- Strain into a rocks glass. Place two drops of jam on top for spooky effect if desired.
Cheers!
Notes
- You can use any type of jam you’d like, I had raspberry which didn’t have chunks of fruit, but did have seeds. Ultimately, I was fine with in the finished product. I went with 1 Tbsp. because I don’t like my drinks super sweet. Before adding your egg white, you can mix the rest of the ingredients and taste test to see if you’d like it sweeter.
- If you prefer you could use simple syrup or honey or any other sweetener you prefer.
- If you want a vegan option substitute the egg white with 2 Tbsp. aquafaba, which is the liquid in a can of chickpeas. It works surprisingly well!
