Do you feel that? That chill in the air, that tingling sensation on the back of your neck? It can only mean one thing. That’s right: Halloween season is upon us again!
Here at Polygon, we Love Horror. We deal with it all year long, whether it’s ranking the scariest new releases of the year or making lists of the scariest horror movies to watch on Netflix.
We especially Love Halloween, on the other hand, is a holiday dedicated to all things spooky and spooky. That’s why every year for the last four years, Polygon has put together a Halloween countdown calendar, selecting 31 of our staff’s best horror-themed or Halloween-related recommendations from films, TV series and online videos for the month of October become available to watch at home. It was so much fun that we’re actually doing it again – with a whole new range of movies, shows and videos to choose from.
Every day throughout October, we’ll be adding a new recommendation to this countdown and telling you where you can see it. So curl up on the couch, dim the lights, and grab some popcorn for a spooky marathon of Halloween goodness.
Image: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Where to see: Available to stream on Plex and Pluto TV with commercials and to rent on Amazon
Kicking off the Halloween horror movie season is a delicate art. Just days into the official start of fall, it’s important to choose just the right movie to help transform the chill in the air from cozy to spooky as gently as possible. With this in mind, we’re getting in the mood for Halloween this year with Dario Argento’s phenomenaa perfect mix of scary, campy and bleak that sets just the right stage for the horrors to come.
phenomena is set in a remote town in Switzerland at a boarding school where Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly), the daughter of a famous American actor, is the newest student. The only problem is that there’s also a serial killer on the loose in the city, and when Jennifer witnesses one of the murders, her life is suddenly in grave danger. The good news is that she has an inexplicable telekinetic power over insects that helps her stay alive.
And while the film isn’t quite as silly as the premise suggests, it’s still one of the most bizarre and funniest of the many sleazy slashers of the 1980s. But what really makes it special is the fact that it’s one of the rare horror films where the supernatural seems to be entirely on the side of good. It’s rare that a film unequivocally convinces us of the mystical power at its core, giving the whole thing the strange, otherworldly feel of a particularly grotesque fairy tale.
It all adds up to a hugely entertaining and strange mystery film and a great way to start a month of horror films. —Austen Goslin
Image: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Where to see: Shudder, AMC Plus
Anthony Waller’s 1995 horror thriller has a premise straight out of a waking nightmare. Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina), a mute special effects makeup artist, works on a low-budget slasher in a run-down film studio in Moscow. After Billy returns to the building after hours to pick up an important piece of equipment, she accidentally locks herself inside and has no way of contacting her sister Karen or her sister’s boyfriend, Andy. Things go from bad to worse when she secretly stumbles upon the filming of a snuff film made by two Russian gangsters. When the gangsters suspect someone else is in the studio, Billy must find a way to escape undetected before their own lives are put in danger.
Silent witness is a terrific cat-and-mouse murder thriller full of teeth-grindingly suspenseful sequences and a captivating leading actress courtesy of Marina Zudina. The first hour of the film is expertly paced and edited, riveting the viewer to the studio premises before building into a frenzied climax that is breathtaking and terrifying to watch. If that’s not enough to pique your interest, the film touts a brief but memorable cameo from Sir Alec Guinness (star Wars, Lawrence of Arabia) in one of his last appearances on screen. —Toussaint Egan
Image: Warner Home Video
Where to see: Can be rented from Amazon and Apple
If you ever get bored of the same old restaurant cuisines, the answer is often to find a fusion restaurant that mixes up a few of your favorite dishes by taking spices and techniques from different cultures and blending them into something new. The same goes for horror films: if you’re bored with the usual execution of all the familiar tropes, a genre mashup like in the 1998s Fallen may be the best way to put a new spin on familiar ideas.
In FallenIn this case, director Gregory Hoblit and screenwriter Nicholas Kazan put the procedural serial killer thriller and the possession horror story in a blender, using ideas and techniques from both to spice up the drama. Hoblit is a police veteran (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, LA Lawone, Cop Rock), which keeps the action grounded and dark, even if the supernatural touch takes the story far from the normal rhythm of the genre.
Denzel Washington plays homicide detective John Hobbes with John Goodman as partner Jonesy. The two men (working under a sinister lieutenant played by Donald Sutherland) have recently solved a murder case that sent a serial killer (Elias Koteas) to the gas chamber. However, after his death, the murders begin again and Hobbes and Jonesy begin work on a new case, which is revealed to be the old case. Horror veterans will know where this is going long in advance, but Hoblit ratchets up the eerie tension as Hobbes’ life begins to unravel.
Horror is often about people encountering the supernatural for the first time and searching for an answer that will allow them to survive, but the stakes always seem higher when the protagonist is working for the police and, in theory, following procedures, following rules and making assumptions must be innocence. (See also: The hidden, Angel heart, Long legsetc.) Washington is an excellent rule-following cop who finds himself in a terrible situation where none of the rules he’s learned can ever be applied. The result is a thoroughly spooky film with a touch of curiosity. —Tasha Robinson
Image: Scream Factory
Where to see: Prime Video, Peacock, Shudder
Creature film directors often quote Jaw as inspiration for holding back all the monster carnage until the end – the less you show, the scarier it gets. Unscrew! If a movie promises that a big mutant alligator will terrorize the city, then we best see a big mutant alligator terrorize that city, and often!
Good news: alligator is exactly that, with the added bonus of great performances, a wicked sense of humor and a dash of social commentary.
Robert Forster (Jackie Brown, breaking Bad) plays Detective David Madison, a police officer known for doing good while losing his partners in the heat of the moment. When news of a killer alligator roaming the sewers surfaces, Det. Madison comes forward with Dr. Marisa Kendall (Robin Riker) in action, a herpetologist whose no-nonsense approach to amphibian research paves the way for a classic, sizzling romance. Only the legendary John Sayles could squeeze a retro screwball romance into a killer alligator movie and still find room to stick to the bumbling bureaucracy.
Similar JawSayles and director Lewis Teague interrogate the failed institutions that allow a 36-foot-long hypermetabolic alligator to run wild in Chicago – not only do the cops not get their shit together, but the alligator is nothing but dinosaur-like after becoming a biotech’s alligator Company consumed discarded animal carcasses, all irradiated with growth formula. As opposed to JawTeague puts his giant alligator puppet to good use by breaking the mouths of countless victims, from street cats to random children in a pool. Blood splatters, Chicagoans run for their lives, Det. Madison complains about his receding hairline, and in the end everything goes boom. alligator isn’t particularly scary, but it’s a great time, head and shoulders above most monster B-movies of all time. —Matte patches
Image: Scream Factory
Where to see: Can be rented from Amazon and Apple
For me, Park Chan-wook belongs to the top group of living filmmakers, so of course I also like the “smaller” works in his catalog. Heaterhis only English-language film to date (although he has also directed two English-language miniseries, including Fantastic The Little drummer girl), is an eerie, atmospheric psychological thriller that’s perfect for people who want to get in on a spooky season without getting it to scared.
It’s India Stoker’s (Mia Wasikowska) 18th birthday. Her father (Dermot Mulroney) has died and her mother (Nicole Kidman) has welcomed his younger brother (Matthew Goode) into her home. What follows is a Hitchcock-style gothic fairy tale full of sensual delights. The film’s music is absolutely perfect due to the eerie atmosphere it conveys, and Park always manages to deliver unforgettable images.
Oh, and a fun fact: the film was written by Wentworth Miller Prison break/CW-verse fame, under a pseudonym. —Pete Volk
October 6: Doctor Who, “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances”
Image: BBC
Doctor Who has two tones: the triumph of intellect and romance over brutal violence and cynicism, and the heebie-jeebie-inducing horror that will have young viewers peering through their hands, hiding behind the couch, or watching the occasional nightmare of it for years fear.
This two-parter from the first season of the 2005 franchise reboot embodies the best of both. Sure, it’s the one that gave us the indelible Doctor line: “Just this once… everyone lives!” But it’s also an episode that left me, a grown adult, terrified by the sound of the intercom ringing in my apartment. The Doctor and Co. take place in London during the Blitz. Fight a strange plague that appears to be transmitted via telephones.
The phone rings, you answer it, a scary little British child’s voice comes out on the other end: “Are you my mom?” Five minutes later there is a knock on your door and the scary little British child is wearing a gas mask and asks, “Are you my mommy?” ?” And BAM, You are now a gas mask zombie. millions of Doctor Who The fans never recovered. —Susana Polo
