Shocktober Special
You want Halloween viewing recommendations? Here are the movies from the Theo Curated Collection that should fit any mood, from “Let’s just watch something a little creepy” to “I don’t want to sleep for the next three nights.”
Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
The first jump scare in cinema history…allegedly…but otherwise a moody and shadowy thriller, but nothing to make you afraid to keep the lights off.
Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)
“The creatures of the night…” and some German expressionist lighting, but otherwise a bloodless telling of the classic story.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)
Doesn’t necessarily hold up 30+ years later, but the costumes are wonderful and Gary Oldman gets my vote as the best ever Dracula.
Sleepy Hollow (Tim Burton, 1999)
More moody lighting, more over-acting, but some impressive beheadings and the Headless Horseman is still a startling figure in the moonlight.
Sinners (Ryan Coogler, 2025)
A beautiful, creative movie with vampirism as a symbol – more thrilling than scary, most of the time.
Tigers Are Not Afraid (Issa Lopez, 2017)
A Del Toro produced movie about cartels, violence, and ghosts. Deserves to be better known, I say, stroking my smug cineaste's beard.
Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
Not one twist, but two! Even if you know them both, this is a brilliantly paced and beautiful looking proto-horror. A classic for a reason.
The Devil’s Backbone (Guillermo Del Toro, 2001)
My one Del Toro…this one is an evocative, creepy ghost story set in a haunted orphanage. We’re still in the creepy-not-scary zone, but it's very creepy.
The Others (Alejandro Amenabar, 2001)
Nicole Kidman and her two children in a haunted house surrounded by fog. What’s going on? Even if you know, it still manages to give an impressive amount of chills.
The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)
Horror or thriller? You decide. Either way, we’re moving away from creepy and more into blood and gore, with Hannibal Lecter as a great movie monster.
Hellboy: The Crooked Man (Brian Taylor, 2024)
No, not that one. Or that one, or even that one. This one is a little folk horror story set in Appalachia in the 1950s. (Is Appalachia the the best place to tell a ghost story in the US?) Creepy and then scarier than a movie this small has any right to be.
Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall, 2002)
The first werewolves on the list and the first Neil Marshall movie; there’s more of both to come. This one is a small British movie about soldiers, the dangers of nature, and hungry, hairy lycanthropes.
An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
Is this still scary? I admit I haven’t watched it in decades, but it scared me when I was too young to be watching it. The transformation scene is famous but a gradually decomposing Griffin Dunne is the thing that sticks in my memory.
30 Days of Night (David Slade, 2007)
Of course vampires would gravitate northward, where the days are shorter or even non-existent. Josh Hartnett is a brave sheriff defending his town against powerful, vicious, and hungry bloodsuckers.
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Stephen King hates it, but the atmosphere, design, and batshit Jack Nicholson makes this one of those movies I do not watch alone.
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
Do the special effects stand up? No, they do not. Is the frozen, claustrophobic setting still enough to have you on the edge of your seat as the group of scientists and explorers are picked off, one at a time? You betcha.
The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)
Neil Marshall made a movie that lies right on the edge of what I’m able to stand. Movies scarier than this are not for me. In this one, a group of female cave explorers go looking into some dark, narrow and claustrophobic underground rock formations. Just the time they spend squeezing through narrow gaps is enough to have me hiding behind the sofa. Once they realize they’re not alone down there, my blood pressure medication needs to work overtime. The perfect cure for constipation.