Horror movies have been around since the 1800s. In fact the first ever horror movie, The House of Devil, came out in 1896, just a few years after movies first started being produced. Horror movies are a major part of this time of year and are loved and hated by many. As the Halloween season approaches this October, you may be wondering what movies to watch. If you’re looking for something scary and not too gory this is the place for you. 

Hereditary (2018)

Hereditary is truly a crazy movie based around death and grief. It is a good movie to watch before Halloween because it is scary, there are spirits, and witchcraft also takes place. This movie is about a family and one night the son, Peter, wants to go to a party but his mom makes him bring his younger sister Charlie. At the party, she eats a piece of cake and has an allergic reaction. She finds her brother and they leave the party to get help but don’t make it in time and she ends up dying. This leads to a whole series of events which results in a lot of death, pain, and spiritual activity. 

The Conjuring (2013)

The original The Conjuring was released in 2013 and is one of the four films in the franchise. This movie as well as the others are based on true stories and all are based around Ed and Lorraine Warren’s spirit hunting adventures. This story in particular is about a family that moves into a house in Rhode Island and is haunted by the spirit of the lady who lived there previously, who was also an accused witch. This spirit ends up possessing the mother of the family, Carolyn, and Ed and Loraine help to get rid of the spirit and get the family back to their normal life. This is a great movie to watch before Halloween because it is scary without being gory and is not just kill after kill or jump scare after jump scare but rather a story is being told throughout the whole movie.   

It (2017)

It follows the story of a group of boys who live in a fictional town of Derry in Maine. It is based off of the Stephen King Novel, It, and also has a sequel, It Chapter 2. It is a great movie to watch before Halloween because it is creepy and good to watch especially if you are afraid of clowns. This group of boys, plus their new friend Beverly, is terrorized by Pennywise the clown who targets their fears. This movie shows characters and what their social and family life is like as well as their interactions with other people which also contributes to how Pennywise is tormenting them.

“There are a lot of good representations of different groups of people [in It],”  junior Olivia Irizarry said of the movie.

Pet Sematary (1989 and 2019) 

Pet Sematary was first released in 1989 and is another movie based on a Stephen King book, Pet Sematary, where a family from Chicago has just moved to Maine and experienced some wacky events. This movie is great for this time of year for its spiritual burial ground and other supernatural factors. When they arrive their new neighbor takes them for a walk in the woods behind their house. He shows them the Pet Sematary which was made by the children of the town. Their house is also right off a busy road where large trucks speed down. Later on, Louis’s daughter Ellie’s cat gets run over by one of the trucks. After burying the cat in the “sematary,” the next day it returned home and it was like nothing ever happened. Many months later Gage the youngest of the family is also hit on the road. Selfishly, Louis buries him in the same “sematary” knowing the outcome. When he finds Gage at home the next day they realize something isn’t right . . .  

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

This movie was released in November of 1984 just after Halloween and is a great movie to watch before Halloween because of elements of slasher and supernatural horror. Freddy Kruger, the antagonist, was killed when he was younger by a group of teenagers who burned him alive. Now Freddy targets the kids of his murders and kills them through their dreams. Nightmare on Elm Street is based on a true story, reported  in 1970, and shared later by the LA Times. A group of Humong Refugees (Southeast Asia) fled to the United States because of war in Vietnam; however, many of them suffered severe nightmares and died in their sleep.