Let this be the year—if you haven’t already done so—to finally work up the courage to see Tobe Hooper’s criminally underrated classic, a top-rank satire of American class warfare (survival of the hungriest), teenage misadventure in the backwoods and one of the darkest masterpieces of the ’70s. Though shrouded in a gruesome reputation generated by that title, Texas isn’t particularly gory. It is, however, the scariest movie ever made.
Not every horror movie is meant to be watched at Halloween. That might seem counterintuitive, but let us explain. Yes, the holiday is all about confronting whatever fears haunt us in order to be a little less afraid of them. But there’s a sizable difference between ‘fun scary’ and ‘disturbing scary’. A movie like, say, Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now? An excellent film, but not exactly fun. But Creepshow? The Omen? Get Out? All scary, but all fun, too.
So let’s celebrate the subset of the horror genre that is most appropriate for this season of spookiness. Here are the best Halloween movies to watch this year, from cult classics to video nasties to modern masterpieces of the macabre.
Recommended:
😱 The 100 best horror movies of all-time
🩸 The 15 scariest horror movies based on true stories
🔪 The 31 best serial killer movies
👹 The 50 best monster movies ever made
🧟 The best zombie movies of all-time