Spooky Season: Movie Edition

Press release from the Cromaine District Library:

October 15, 2020

Sure, you can watch horror movies anytime of year. But there's just something special about the month of October as it stands poised upon the precipice of watching the world turn grey and dead for the seemingly eternal Michigan winters that makes it the perfect month to watch horror movies. I suppose it doesn't hurt that the month culminates in Halloween either.

Without further adieu, here are my five favorite horror movies in Cromaine's collection.

5. Cabin in the Woods

Five college students spend a weekend away at a cabin. In the woods. What could go wrong? A family of murderous redneck zombies, of course.

If the plot sounds unoriginal and hackneyed, that's because it intentionally is. This film takes all of the classic tropes of the 80s slasher genre and leans into them so hard that it simultaneously effectively critiques the genre while also paying it a beautiful homage. It might be more of a comedy than a horror movie, but most of the humor is dependent upon the viewer being intimately familiar with the tropes of the movies to which it is paying tribute. Cabin in the Woods is definitely a must see for fans of 80s slasher films.

4. The Conjuring

The inaugural film in the Conjuring Cinematic Universe (because everyone needs to have a cinematic universe now, right?), The Conjuring is based on the dubiously true stories of the cases worked on by famous supernaturalists Ed and Lorraine Warren. This is a modern take on the classic haunted house film. The Perron family moves into what they think will be their dream home only to find that they're living in a nightmare. A spirit hellbent on the family's destruction continually attacks the Perrons, forcing them to seek the help of the Warrens.

The tension ratchets up as the Warrens uncover the fascinating origin of the haunting and the film culminates in a frantic, terrifying climax.

3. The VVitch

The Witch is the story of a 17th Century Puritan family who is banished from their community. Having no other options, they make their own farm at the edge of the woods. Repeated tragedies strike the family and something in the woods terrorizes them. Spoiler alert: it's a witch.

The Witch is, at its core, a fairytale. It's not one of those sanitized versions of the Grimm Fairytales we tell children, it's the real deal full of all the darkness and brutality that entails. It's a beautifully shot, atmospheric slow burn made even creepier by the fact that much of the dialogue is derived directly from primary sources of the time in which the film is set. The movie can be scary, but the true terror is the exploration of what a family is capable of doing to itself when pushed to the brink.

2. Get Out

A young white woman brings her black boyfriend home to meet her parents for the first time. He's apprehensive, to say the least, and he should be, but not for the reasons he thinks!

Get Out is a film that seamlessly blends horror with social commentary. In fact, without giving too much of the plot away, one could easily make the argument that the social commentary elements are the main driver of horror in the film, more so than any of the jump scares, violence or gore. Get Out manages to blend horror, social commentary, and even humor into a lush melange that make it one of the finer films in Cromaine's collection.

1. Sinister

If Get Out is a fine film with a message, Sinister is....not that. Sinister is the story of struggling true crime author Ellison Oswalt, who moves his family into the very house where the grisly murders he intends to write his next book about took place. He finds a box of films and projector in the attic. The films show murders of multiple different families and Ellison sets out to solve the mystery even as his own family begins to experience supernatural occurrences. If the plot sounds kind of clichéd, that's because it is. Like I said, Sinister isn't really a great movie. Not that it's necessarily a bad movie, but it's just not great. So if it's not a great movie, how is it my favorite horror film in Cromaine's DVD collection? Because IT. IS. TERRIFYING. Sinister sets out to do one thing and one thing only: scare you. That's it. It doesn't seem to want to say anything other than GOTCHA with it's collection of spine-chilling imagery, dissonant soundtrack, and truly chilling plotline. Everything in this movie is engineered to elicit discomfort and fear and boy does it ever succeed.

I'll tell you a little story about my theater experience seeing this movie. I went to see it at the AMC Livonia 20 theater. They have these little red lights on the floor to help make sure you can successfully navigate the stairs and aisles if you have to get up in the darkened theater. It adds a certain ambience to watching a horror movie that I generally find endearing. On this occasion, however, not so much. There were some scenes where I actually had to look away from the screen to decompress and I just kept seeing the eerie red glow of those lights, which served to heighten the terror. I didn't look away from the screen long enough on one instance and came back to an unexpectedly frightening image. I may have even made a noise. I'd like to think it was a manly grunt of challenge towards the screen, but I have been assured that it was far less primal rage and much more of a "Please don't kill me!" whine of fear.

Whatever the case, this movie stuck with me for days after that. Not since 2002's The Ring has a horror movie had that kind of effect on me, and it hasn't happened since.I haven't seen all of the horror movies Cromaine owns (Challenge--Accepted!), and there are sure to be some scarier ones than these on the shelf, but that was my current list of five. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you come and check some of these out for yourself if you haven't seen them yet, or want to watch one of them for a second, third, or sixteenth time. Let me know what your favorite horror movies are in the comments!

This press release was produced by the Cromaine District Library. The views expressed are the author's own.