Spooky Movie Season

A few Octobers ago, I made a list of some movies I categorized as spooky, and spent the month of October watching them. I've tweaked the list since then, finding out what I like and what I don't like in a spooky movie, but the idea of watching a certain type of movie during a certain time of year has become something important to me.

I'm not always the best at paying attention and marking time passing, but lately, as I get into my wise old years of my mid-thirties, I want to slow down enough to notice the seasons changing. I'm trying to take the time to think about how to do this, and one way I've found to mark the end of summer and beginning of fall is to watch some of my favorite movies with aliens and witches and M. Night Shyamalan.

I've watched a few new spooky movies so far this October, and I'm always looking for new movies to add to the ever-growing spooky list (but also for any new movie I watch, I will look up the parental guide for a movie on IMDb, spoilers and all, and I will chance looking like a baby and saying no to one that looks too spooky for me), but there are also some spooky movies that will always remain on my list and will be rewatched and loved on every October.

So if I were to recommend or have a conversation about five spooky movies, here are the five I would pick.

One - Get Out. This movie has so much going for it. A stacked cast (Bradley Whitford alone is worth watching the movie for), a storyteller in Jordan Peele who knows when to be funny and when to be serious and when to be spooky and when to be all three at the same time, and just enough self awareness to poke fun at some horror-movie tropes.

Two - Identity. This movie first drew me in with its Agatha-Christie-who-dunnit premise but proves how the power of a good twist can totally change the entire movie in a matter of seconds. I've seen some movies with good twists but a lot of movies that rely on the twist to be good just aren't the same on the second and third watch. The thing about Identity is a) it's a good story even without the twist and b) the twist is so incredibly good that it almost gets better each time you watch it.

Three - Jennifer's Body. This one I almost didn't watch, and now it's on my list of all-time spooky favorites. I love it because it knows it's ridiculous. It plays into just about every horror-movie trope out there (and even some other general film tropes), but on purpose. I've done some deep dives on it because of how much I liked it, and there are some people out there who hate it with a strong passion but it's because they don't get that the whole movie is laughing at itself. I look forward to watching this one every year.

Four - A Quiet Place. I went to see this movie in theaters twice I loved it so much. While I love a good funny or witty spooky movie, I also love movies that make me feel things big, and this movie makes me cry every single time I watch it. I have come to appreciate films that tell a story within a story, and this movie does that so so well. And this is one of the extremely rare movies that has a sequel that's almost as good as the first one.

Five - Lady In The Water. This movie has gotten a lot of flack over the years, but it remains not only one of my favorite spooky movies, but just one of my favorite movies of all time. I could talk about this movie all day (and have literally written college papers on this movie), but to sum up my ted talk on this movie, it's worth watching for the way it captures people who you normally wouldn't look at twice.

If you like spooky movies, what would be on your list to watch every October? Talking about movies is one of my favorite past-times, so let's go.