Richie’s Review: Top 5 Halloween Movies (Modern)

Over the years, horror movies have taken a downfall and are mainly made to take our money. With nothing new ever being released, the genre is falling apart. But every year there seems to be one gem that glistens underneath the surface. These are some recent horror films that you should see this Halloween season. (The list is not in a certain order).

    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): Tim Burton’s grim adaptation of the play is a movie for a certain audience. The movie is about a man named Sweeney Todd played by Johnny Depp who is taken from his family and sent away by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), so that the judge could try and take his wife. Over time, Sweeney Todd comes back for revenge with the help of Mrs. Lovett and his
razors. At first I wasn’t too fond of this movie, but recently I’ve come to appreciate the movie and understand how great it actually is. The bloody musical creates such a depressing mood with it’s characters and the situations they’re all in. The themes explored are dark and the songs sung are contrastingly beautiful. The bloody images are extremely vivid and compelling. If you’re a fan of musicals or gloomy dramas, this is your movie right here.

    Goodnight Mommy (2014): With the dual direction of Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, this german horror film has showed the general audience that not all horror movies need loud noises, scary locations, or hand-held cameras to make it scary. The movie is about two twin boys who have been waiting for their
mother to come back home from surgery, and are surprised when she returns. With bandages covering all of her head, the boys try to find out if it really is their mom. In all honesty, the movie starts off very slow but by the end of the film the steady beginning pays off. The visuals and cinematography are done so well that the images of cockroaches and fire have your skin feel as if a bug were trying to crawl under it. If this movie knows how to do one thing really well, it creates agitation and psychological worry for the person watching.

    The Babadook (2014): This drama/horror flick has become one of the highest rated films to come out of it’s genre for the last couple of years. The movie is about a mother who reads an odd bedtime book named “The Babadook” to her child because he has trouble sleeping at night. After she reads the book her child and herself begin experiencing a chain of unusual events. It’s her job to protect her child and learn to love him. I think this is a good movie for the season because it has real scares that do mess with you. There aren’t any jump scares, but it still manages to leave a chill in the bone. The movie makes the shadows at night look surreal, it makes you feel as if you were a child sweating and scared under your blankets thinking something is hiding in the dark corner of your room.

    Planet Terror (2007): Robert Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror” is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s about a small town in Texas that has become infested with a swarm of hungry zombies, and the journey that Cherry (Rose McGowan) and Wray (Freddy Rodriguez) go through to survive the hordes of zombies. With being a
fan of Robert Rodriguez for a long time, movies like “Sin City”, “Spy Kids”, and “Desperado”, I was totally on board with what he had to offer. The action in this movie is over-the-top, the dialogue is beyond amusing, and the style is stimulating. The 70’s cheap horror flick style just makes the whole movie, alive. It’s what makes this movie different and complete, with cigarette burns, scratchy resolution and nostalgic saturation, this is one of the fun horror/action flicks around.

    It Follows (2014): David Robert Mitchell’s movie has shown audiences that there is still hope for the horror genre, after releasing his break-out film “It Follows”. The movie’s about a girl named Jay (Maika Monroe) who has gotten a curse through her boyfriend. The curse makes people she knows and strangers walk towards her trying to kill her. After her friend’s also experience the paranormal being, they try to help her from getting killed. This is probably the best Halloween type flick in recent years because it has so many fresh ideas and such a vibrant style to it. The music sounds like a mix of retro 80’s music mixed with Halloween rhythms, improving the atmosphere for the whole movie. The cinematography is creative and effective, again adding to the feeling of a retro horror film. If your friends need something new and entertaining “It Follows” is the go-to movie.