Recommended Halloween Movies 2012

 

❣ Halloween ❣

I love the fall season with the leaves changing colors, carved pumpkins and the cool brisk feel of the day. The Halloween candy isn't half bad either!

The scary movies are also a perk during this time of year. But we have all seen the usual villians...Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees over and over, Halloween after Halloween. Don't get me wrong...these are MUST SEE scary movies...but to be completely honest, it's becoming a little tiresome.  

So I put together a list of scary movies that are a little more untraditional but will still get you in that spooky Halloween mood!

 

 

SLEEPY HOLLOW

Ichabod Crane is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people with the culprit being the legendary apparition, the Headless Horseman.

Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson

Directed by Tim Burton

(If you are a Harry Potter fan like me, you are bound to see some familiar faces/heads)
 

 

GHOSTBUSTERS

Three unemployed parapsychology professors set up shop as a unique ghost removal service.

Dan Aykroyd

Bill Murray

Harold Ramis

Sigourney Weaver

Directed by Ivan Reitman

WHAT LIES BENEATH

The wife of a university research scientist believes that her lakeside Vermont home is haunted by a ghost - or that she's losing her mind.

Harrison Ford, Michelle, Pfeiffer

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

 

 

PROMETHEUS

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce

Directed by Ridley Scott
(Follow this film with the Alien trilogy...)

 

 

THE MUMMY

An American serving in the French Foreign Legion on an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra accidentally awakens a Mummy.

Brendan Fraser

Rachel Weisz

Directed by Stephen Sommers

 

 

JAWS

When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.

Roy Scheider

Richard Dreyfuss

Robert Shaw

Direct by Steven Spielberg
 

 

 

THE SHINING

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Jack Nicholson

Shelley Duvall

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

 

 

RED DRAGON

A retired FBI agent with psychological gifts is assigned to help track down "The Tooth Fairy", a mysterious serial killer; aiding him is imprisoned criminal genius Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter.

Anthony Hopkins

Edward Norton

Ralph Fiennes

Directed by Brett Ratner

 

 

THE LOST BOYS

After moving to a new town, two brothers are convinced that the area is frequented by vampires.

Jason Patric

Corey Haim

Keifer Sutherland

Directed by Joel Schumacher

 

 

SILENT HILL

A woman goes in search for her daughter, within the confines of a strange, desolate town called Silent Hill.

Radha Mitchell

Sean Bean

Directed by Christophe Gans

 

 

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS

An uncommonly gentle young man, who happens to have scissors for hands, falls in love with a beautiful teenage girl.

Johnny Depp

Winona Ryder

Directed by Tim Burton

(May also be considered for the Christmas Holiday)

 

 

LET ME IN

A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.

Kodi Smit-McPhee

Chloë Grace Moretz

Directed by Matt Reeves

 

 

SIGNS

A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening is to come.

Mel Gibson

Joaquin Phoenix

Rory Culkin

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

 

 

GHOST

After being killed during a botched mugging, a man's love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.

Patrick Swayze

Demi Moore

Directed by Jerry Zucker

 

 

PRACTICAL MAGIC

Sally and Gillian Owens have always known they were different. Raised by their aunts after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but typical-their aunts fed them chocolate cake for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But the invocation of the Owens' sorcery also carries a price-some call it a curse: the men they fall in love with are doomed to an untimely death. Now, adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that threatens the lives of all the Owens women.

Sandra Bullock

Nicole Kidman

Directed by Griffin Dunne

 

 

ROSEMARYS BABY

A young couple move into a new apartment, only to be surrounded by peculiar neighbors and occurrences. When the wife becomes mysteriously pregnant, paranoia over the safety of her unborn child begins controlling her life.

Mia Farrow

John Cassavetes

Directed by Roman Polanski

 

 

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS

Fool, an African-American teen, breaks into the home of the wealthy landlords who evicted his family from a ghetto tenement. A fortune in gold coins is rumored to exist inside, but Fool discovers that the mansion is a chamber of horrors presided over by a pair of incestuous, serial killer siblings. The twisted couple has also tried to raise a succession of kidnapped boys. Each botched effort is handled the same way - the victim's eyes, ears and tongues are removed, and he's sent to live in the sealed-off basement, where a colony of similarly deformed "brothers" resides. Fool is able to avoid the evil lovers as he moves through the house's maze of hidden passageways. He discovers that the occupants have a daughter, who has survived their abuse, so he rescues her and they attempt to free the "people under the stairs."

Brandon Quintin Adams

A.J. Langer

Directed by Wes Craven

 

 

MONSTER HOUSE

Three teens discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster.

Steve Buscemi

Directed by Gil Kenan

 

 

THE OTHERS

A woman who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children becomes convinced that her family home is haunted.

Nicole Kidman

Directed by Alejandro Amenábar

 

 

HOCUS POCUS

After 300 years, three sister witches are resurrected in Salem Massachusetts on Halloween night, and it is up to two teenagers, a young girl, and an immortal cat to put an end to the witches reign of terror once and for all.

Bette Midler

Kathy Najimi

Sarah Jessica Parker

Directed by Kenny Ortega

 

 

THE SKELETON KEY

A hospice nurse working at a spooky New Orleans plantation home finds herself entangled in a mystery involving the house's dark past.

Peter Sarsgaard

Kate Hudson

Directed by Iain Softly

 

 

ZOMBIELAND

A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, and a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the Last Twinkie and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.

Jesse Eisenberg

Emma Stone

Woody Harrelson

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

 

 

POLTERGEIST

A young family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts. The ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house for the amusement of everyone. Eventually the events turn sinister and their youngest child disappears and is held captive by the evil ghosts.

JoBeth Williams

Craig T. Nelson

Heather O'Rourke

Directed by Tobe Hooper
(#1 on my list of scary movies)

 

 

GREMLINS

A boy inadvertantly breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

Zach Gallagan

Phoebe Cates

Directed by Joe Dante

(May also be considered for the Christmas Holiday)

 

THE FRIGHTENERS

Frank Bannister has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town - ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey, the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley and her witchy mother have to do with the sinister killing spree.

Michael J. Fox

Dee Wallace Stone

John Astin

Directed by Peter Jackson

 

 

ORPHAN

A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

Peter Sarsgaard

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

 

 

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

 A flighty teenage girl learns that she is her generation's destined battler of vampires.

Kristy Swanson

Donald Sutherland

Luke Perry

Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui

 

 

STIR OF ECHOES

After being hypnotized by his sister in law, a man begins seeing haunting visions of a girl's ghost and a mystery begins to unfold around her.

Kevin Bacon

Directed by David Koepp

 

 

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS

An American man unwittingly gets involved with werewolves who have developed a serum allowing them to transform at will.

Tom Everett Scott

Julie Delpy

Directed by Anthony Waller

 

 

If you are finding it difficult to stray from the tradional horror films, at least upgrade to the new versions...

 

 

HALLOWEEN

After being committed for 17 years, Michael Myers, now a grown man and still very dangerous, escapes from the mental institution (where he was committed as a 10 year old) and he immediately returns to Haddonfield, where he wants to find his baby sister, Laurie. Anyone who crosses his path is in mortal danger.

Scout Taylor-Compton

Malcolm McDowell

Directed by Rob Zombie

 

 

 

 FRIDAY THE 13TH

A group of young adults discover a boarded up Camp Crystal Lake, where they soon encounter Jason Voorhees and his deadly intentions.

Jared Padalecki

Amanda Righetti

Directed by Marcus Nispel

 

 

THE STEPFATHER

Michael returns home from military school to find his mother happily in love and living with her new boyfriend. As the two men get to know each other, he becomes more and more suspicious of the man who is always there with a helpful hand.

Penn Badgley

Dylan Walsh

Directed by Nelson McCormick