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A HEALTH WARNING: This list might cause some unfortunate side effects such as outrage that your favourite is not on here.
Add your suggestions in the comments…
From the vaults: The pioneers
Nosferatu (1922) - Max Shrek personifies Dracula for the movie age. Still properly haunting.
The Mummy (1932) - Egyptology, a beautiful woman pursued by a monstrous Boris Karloff and a powerful atmosphere that dictated the code for mummy movies for decades to come.
Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - A poignant sequel to Frankenstein of four years earlier, the monster meets the missus.
Six feet under: The ‘golden’ era
The Exorcist (1973) - Children are pure evil, part 1.
The Omen (1976) - Children are pure evil, part 2.
Halloween (1978) - Ever before Scream, this was the movie that launched a million Halloween masks. Horror comes to the suburbs.
The Shining (1980) - The monstrous creativity of Stephen King is translated into this masterpiece by Stanley Kubrick. Here’s Johnny – and he will never leave you.
Freshly-dug: Contemporary classics
Blair Witch Project (1999) - A terrifying presence that remains unseen until the very last frames, coupled with a convincing ‘found footage’ pre-launch whisper campaign made this a massive and effective hit.
Let the Right One In (2008) - Romance and horror go together like a … vampire and a vulnerable young boy in this moving and tense Swedish film.
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The Babadook (2014) - Who is the monster in this terrifying and claustrophobic thriller? The answer hits uncomfortably close to home.
Resurrections: Reboots and remakes
The Ring (2002) - Possibly scarier than the Japanese original Ringu, with a cursed videotape storyline that’s still just about believable because this is 2002 and Netflix was yet to be invented.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Very appealing to fans of a gorefest and moved away from the George Romero 1978 version by making the zombies move at terrifying speed, now a given for your modern screen depiction of the undead.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006) - Wes Craven is the master of the original but this version, 30 years later, is somehow more subtle, with more left to the imagination – and somehow all the more atmospheric for it.
If you fancy the big screen experience, there are a number of outings of classic horrors this Halloween. One of the biggest is the Monsters! season at the LightHouse in Dublin, where there are a dirty dozen of them scheduled all over the weekend.
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