Halloween (1978)

Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield to kill again. (IMDb)

The horror here is appreciably subtle, with smart camera angles and lots of long foreboding tracking shots laid underneath a chilling piano theme, but considering the consistently bad acting, the overload of pointless teenage fluff in between the thrills (at the expense of the doctor’s more intriguing narrative), and the underwhelming payoff (the inexplicably immortal Myers is never explored in depth and suddenly can’t aim his knife in the climax), some more direct shocks would’ve been welcome.

6/10 (Mediocre)

Scream (1996)

Happy Halloween, dear readers! Go pour yourself a mug of hot apple cider, grab some candy, and watch a scary movie. This one is highly recommended by me! 🙂

 

Attempting to cope with her mother’s murder, Sydney and her horror movie-obsessed friends are stalked by a murderer who seems to have a hard time letting the past go. (IMDb)

A top notch scary movie featuring an entertaining combination of tense slasher-violence, unnerving murder mystery, and loads of jump scares to go along with dashes of dark teen comedy and meta, self-parodying horror movie satire. It’s well acted (the supporting Lillard and Kennedy are especially delightful) and cleverly written (“Look behind you, Jamie!”), and its whodunit plot is packed full of great twists and red herrings that keep you guessing right up until the absolutely killer climax.

8/10 (Great)