Trying to come up the utter shivery movie to watch can be a real fright . If you ’re struggling to get just the good movie to affright yourself silly this Halloween , why not take a passport from your favorite horror director ? From cult classic to puerility favorites to , in one case , a music video , we ’ve compiled a listing of the films that affright the masters of horror . Read on for sixth sense into the twisted judgment of your favorite horror directors , along with some terrific repugnance movie passport .
1. JOHN CARPENTER ONNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD(1968)
Just in prison term for Halloween , John Carpenter providedFaderwith a inclination of eight of his favorite scary movies . The first picture on his lean was George Romero ’s classicNight of the Living Dead . Carpenter , the fabled film director behind movies includingEscape from New York(1981),The Thing(1982),and , of course , Halloween(1978 ) , praise Romero ’s impact on the last half - century of zombie motion-picture show .
“ The fact that a lie with one can be release into a zombie . It ’s just terrible , ” Carpenter toldFader . “ I mean , look at the movies that have ripped it off ! Look at[The]Walking Dead . I meancome on . ”
2. EDUARDO SÁNCHEZ ONTHE EXORCIST(1973)
Eduardo Sánchez was the co - theatre director of one of the most forward-looking , infamous , and utterly terrifying found footage film of all prison term : The Blair Witch Project(1999 ) . But the movie that scar his socks off as a child wasThe exorciser .
“ I was raised Catholic , and I was teach that everything was real , ” Sánchez tells Mental Floss . “ Satan was real , God was real , there was this fight between good and evil happening on Earth . And thenThe Exorcistcame along . My parent did n’t take me to the dramaturgy to see it , but when it came out on TV , we all sit around the folk TV to check it — almost like it was a documentary film . It was almost like , ' This is what can chance . ' At that old age , it feel totally real to me , and it just scared the crap out of me . To this day , it still frighten off me , even though I do n’t trust the same thing I did as a kid . "
3. WES CRAVEN ONDON’T LOOK NOW(1973)
For nearly four ten , Wes Cravenpushed the edge of the horror literary genre , direct everything from development revulsion movies likeThe Last House on the Left(1972 ) and the classic slasher movieA Nightmare on Elm Street(1984 ) to the horror satireScream(1996 ) . In 2010 , Craven shared 10 of his pet revulsion movies withThe Daily Beast . Writing about Nicolas Roeg ’s revulsion classicDon’t Look Now , Craven explained , “ This was one of the motion-picture show that just whole enthralled me and scared me at the same time , where I was watching a film that was a middling moving work of art as well . ” The film , based on a short floor by Daphne du Maurier , keep an eye on a mourning twosome who , on a head trip to Venice , begin determine an apparition they believe may be their deceased girl . Craven was particularly excise by Roeg ’s power to ramp up fear without relying on descent and gore , explicate , “ The sense that the nipper is either a trace or is torturing them with her presence by disappear was a howling example ( not that I followed it ) of being able to frighten without show blood . ”
4. ANDRÉ ØVREDAL ONPOLTERGEIST(1982)
Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal is intimately cognise for the spit - in - cheek monster flickTrollhunter(2010 ) . Most of late , he directedThe Autopsy of Jane Doe(2016 ) , a despoil - down supernatural thriller set all in a belittled - town dead room over the course of instruction of a single nighttime . Øvredal tells Mental Floss he chosePoltergeistas his favorite horror picture “ for its sense of awe , wonder , and world in the midst of horror . ”
“ It racket in the estimation of the moving-picture show , it has a ism on its own subjects , not just stress to milk the chance for a panic attack , ” Øvredal explains . “ It ’s also passing closemouthed to the characters . You get to know and care for them , so you quickly fear for them . I think the filmmaking is really clever , visually stimulating , and tells the floor with a surprising amount of humor , that only adds to the revulsion and sense of realness . ”
5. TOBE HOOPER ONTHE HAUNTING(1963)
Tobe Hooper ’s religious cult classicThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre(1974 ) is a masterpiece of bedlam and gore frivol away on a shoe string budget . But the tardy manager ’s favorite repulsion film is something quite different : an understated haunted house film from Academy Award - winning music director Robert Wise , based on Shirley Jackson ’s authoritative shortsighted story “ The Haunting of Hill House . ”
“ It was the first horror motion picture that floored me , ” HoopertoldFilmmakerMagazine in 2000 . “ I really felt what the quality were perish through . There is one scene where some of the characters have locked themselves in a way in the house and there are foreign sounds and the rampart begin moving . My imaging ran wild , and it pass on an unerasable notion on me . ”
6. PATRICK BRICE ONJACOB’S LADDER(1990)
In his 2014 directorial debutCreep , Patrick Brice built a chill thriller using just a few key elements : a remote holiday home , a creepy wolf masquerade party , and a supremely unsettling carrying out by Mark Duplass . The broken - budget establish footage moving-picture show was such a surprise hit , Brice direct a sequel , Creep 2 , which was released on streaming platforms this month . For his favourite revulsion picture , Brice choseJacob ’s Ladder , Adrian Lyne ’s hallucinatory film about the visions of a traumatized Vietnam old-timer .
“ For its power to be formally experimental , relentlessly terrifying , and downright touching all at the same time , I really thinkJacob ’s Ladderis one of the undervalued treasure of horror , ” Brice tells Mental Floss . “ There are import in the movie that apply virtual and in - camera effects to pull off scares that are beyond comprehension . I remember having to rewind certain moments require myself how Adrian Lyne was able to pull them off , and it ’s his only horror motion-picture show ! "
7. DANIEL MYRICK ONJACOB’S LADDER
Patrick Brice was n’t the only director we speak with who was ravish byJacob ’s Ladder . The Blair Witch Projectco - theatre director Daniel Myrick also chose to recommend Adrian Lyne ’s classic revulsion classic .
“ It ’s really operose to designate one picture as my ‘ favorite , ’ but certainlyJacob ’s Ladderranks up there for me , ” Myrick narrate Mental Floss . “ This is more of a psychological thriller than actual ‘ repulsion , ' but those are always the scariest in my judgement . The way Adrian Lyne played with your senses on every level was consummate and to this day , one of the majuscule closing ever . ”
8. GEORGE ROMERO ONPAN’S LABYRINTH(2006)
In a 2010 audience , legendary horror director George Romero toldTIMEhe was n’t a fan of mod repugnance — with one exception . “ I do n’t like the young trends in horror , ” he explained . “ All this torment hooey seems really mean - zippy . citizenry have forgotten how to laugh , and I do n’t see anybody who ’s using it as allegory . ” But Romero , who directed classic likeNight of the Living Dead(1968 ) andCreepshow(1982 ) , professed his respectfulness forPan ’s Labyrinth , a surrealistic and often terrifying dark fantasy plastic film set shortly after the Spanish Civil War . “ The guy I be intimate aright now is Guillermo del Toro , ” Romero toldTIME . “ I ’d love to make a film likePan ’s Labyrinth . ”
9. BABAK ANVARI ONTHRILLER(1983)
Babak Anvari ’s directorial debutUnder the Shadow(2016 ) secernate the story of a female parent and girl facing the horror of warfare and stalk by something supernatural in eighties Tehran . But the study of horror that has haunted him since childhood is n’t a film at all , but a medicine video by the King of Pop .
“ I have too many favorite repulsion films , ” Babak evidence Mental Floss . “ But , the pic that scared me most as a child , almost traumatise me , was actually not a film but a foresightful music video : Michael Jackson’sThrillerdirected by John Landis . I accidentally watched it too young — I think my sure-enough crony showed it to me first — and I got really freaked out . I used to be even scared of the tape that it was recorded on . I could n’t be around it even during day . I continue think that zombies would crawl out of the tape to eat me alive . ”
10. MICHAEL DOUGHERTY ONHALLOWEEN(1978)
Michael Dougherty ’s first feature of speech was the 2007 anthology filmTrick ‘ gas constant Treat , so it ’s meet that his favorite repugnance movie isHalloween . “ It ’s very wide-eyed , in that it sort of defined the slasher genre , but it did so in a very elegant way , ” Dougherty tells Mental Floss . “ It ’s beautifully made , and it ’s attractively shot . I think of as a kid , it was the first time I felt suspense — like literal bone - cool suspense . ”
But Dougherty does n’t consider you should finish at just one horror film . “ Halloween is a great time not to just revisit your one best-loved horror film , but [ to ] watch just a whole slew of them , ” he explicate . “ It ’s a good opportunity to go back and revisit all your deary or to introduce yourself to classics you might not have meet before : Halloween , The Exorcist , The Omen(1976),Poltergeist , It ’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown(1966 ) . These are the thing that make for a really good Halloween time of year . ”
