Summer haters rejoice: we’re officially into autumn. It won’t be long until the days of orange leaves, pumpkin spice and remarking to your flatmates that you just can’t believe how dark it is are upon us.
I often find that as the nights draw in, I’m drawn to the sofa to watch a film: I love a good movie night at any time of year, but in the summer, there’s a certain pressure to go out and frolic while you still can.
Luckily for all the introverts, cinephiles and autumn lovers of the world, the beginning of October marks an appropriate time to put your social life on the shelf and settle into some quality viewing. As Halloween is fast on its way, I’ve selected five films to get you into an appropriately spooky spirit.
I’ve included some first-rate horror for anyone seeking a good scare, some childhood favourites for anyone wanting a nostalgia hit, and a new release that I think is destined for eventual sleeper-hit icon status. Sit back, grab a seasonally flavoured treat, and happy viewing!
1: Halloween
It almost goes without saying that Halloween should feature on a list of Halloween films, but John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher doesn’t coast by on titular association. The first of thirteen films in its decade-spanning franchise, it laid the groundwork for masked killer Michael Myers to become arguably the most iconic horror character of all time. Halloween follows Myers (Nick Castle), an escaped asylum patient who returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois and begins stalking teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Shot on a budget of just over $300,000 (the average Hollywood movie budget in 1978 was around $5 million), Carpenter relies on wide, disorienting camera angles and an unsettling score to create a sense of impending doom as Myers closes in on his victim, slaying several others along the way. As a result of this low budget, Halloween is unburdened by the schlocky special effects that have aged other films of its era poorly. Forty-four years later it remains chilling and precise, full of dramatic tension and restrained in its use of gore. While the franchise has proved enormously influential, the original film remains a must-see standalone on any horror aficionado’s list.
BBFC Rating: 18
Available on: Amazon Prime, Apple TV.
2: Hocus Pocus
Lower down on the scare-o’meter but a spooky classic nonetheless, I first watched Hocus Pocus at a Halloween sleepover in primary school, and I’ve enjoyed revisiting it since. Bette Middler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathryn Najimy star as the Sanderson sisters, a trio of witches who haunt Salem, Massachusetts on Halloween night, disguised as some well-dressed trick-or-treaters. It’s the perfect film to put on as background entertainment while you and your friends get ready for a Halloween party – it’s quotable and humorous enough to keep your attention, but there’s a good chance you’ve all seen it before and won’t have to focus too hard on it.
BBFC Rating: U
Available on: Disney+.
3: What We Do in the Shadows
The brainchild of Oscar winner Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords creator Jemaine Clement, What We Do in The Shadows combines quirky New Zealand humour with one of the most pervasive mythical creatures in European folklore: vampires in a Wellington flat-share, anyone? Released in the wake of the Twilight saga, the film follows the tradition of Young Frankenstein, The Lost Boys and Shaun of the Dead, and injects some much-needed humour back into the genre. Vampires Viago (Waititi), Vladislav (Clement) and Deacon (Johnny Burgh) are in trouble when would-be sacrifice Nick (Cori Gonzalez) is turned during a killing gone wrong. As they attempt to school him in the ways of vampirism, Nick seems most upset that he can no longer eat chips without projectile vomiting. With its mockumentary framework and dry comedic style, potential cliches are replaced with a fresh take on the vampire genre: what if bloodsucking creatures of the night were just as petty and odd as the rest of us? From a gang of ineffectual werewolves led by Rhys Darby to the vampires engaging in a getting-ready montage without mirrors, horror and comedy fans alike will find something to love in What We Do in the Shadows.
BBFC Rating: 15
Available on: BBC IPlayer, Disney +.
4: The Wonder
Though not a traditional Halloween slasher, The Wonder is the most recent film to make my blood run cold. It begins in 1862 with the arrival of English nurse Lib (Florence Pugh) in rural Ireland, shortly after the Great Famine. Hired to observe Anna (an excellent Kíla Lord Cassidy), a young girl who claims not to have eaten for four months, surviving on ‘manna from Heaven’, Lib quickly suspects something is amiss. Florence Pugh is, in my opinion, one of the best actresses of the last decade, and her restrained performance is matched well with the tense subject matter. Sebastian Leilo uses the professed miracle of Anna’s survival to toy with religious fanaticism and rational factualism, and the idea that one must always oppose the other. A psychological drama with elements of Irish folklore, The Wonder is a powerful exploration of belief, storytelling and the fraught consequences of religious zealotry. When Anna eventually reveals the reason behind her fasting, my stomach dropped both with shock and the feeling that her trauma was not at all uncommon. While it’s light on traditional jolt-your-popcorn scares, the ending will stick with you for some time.
BBFC Rating: 15
Available on: Netflix.
5: Lisa Frankenstein
Released in March this year to middling reviews, Lisa Frankenstein mostly flew under the radar, but I think a handful of critics have forgotten that some movies are just meant to be fun! An 80s set retelling of Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking novel, Zelda Williams’s debut opens with morbid high-schooler Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton, in her first lead role), stuck in stifling small-town America and yearning for a guy who gets her. He arrives in the form of a mute, re-animated Victorian dandy (Cole Sprouse), who proceeds to kill everyone who has wronged Lisa and take their body parts for himself. A girl can dream, right? Kathryn Newton is reminiscent of Winona Ryder as a passionate, wilful young women who takes ‘weird’ as a compliment and refuses to settle for less. We live in an age of serious, metaphor-laden horror films like Longlegs and I Saw the TV Glow, and as great as they are, it’s fun to watch a new film incorporate some humour into the monster genre. Fans of Tim Burton will enjoy this comedy-horror, with a genuinely sweet love story comparable to Edward Scissorhands and the biting high-school satire of Heathers.
BBFC Rating: 15
Available on: Amazon Prime.