“I’ll be right back.”

 

Never, ever, ever say those words on Halloween,  or in a lonely woodland cabin, or in an abandoned castle.

 

This is the first law that horror movies teach us. As soon as you say these words, you are dead meat. Also avoid uttering the phrase during a blood moon or if the stars are in a once-in-a-lifetime conjunction. Follow the same advice if the newspaper headlines concern an escaped murderer and/or lunatic or news about scientific experiments on animals.

 

There are of course many more such rules, but time will not permit for us to go through the whole list. However, seeing that Halloween is fast approaching, you can learn more of these rules by watching some great horror movies (preferably on the 31st October with lights off and… Wait! What was that sound!). If you are looking for something truly terrifying, then consider one of the five excellent horror movies below:

 

 

The Exorcist

 

One of the few horror films to get an Oscar nod (it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won 2), The Exorcist was released to a mixed reception in 1973 with critics either loving it or hating it. However, the film’s standing has grown with time and it is now unanimously held to be a classic.

 

Starring Jason Miller and Max von Sydow, this is a gripping story of a young girl, Regan MacNeil, and two priests who struggle to free her from the control of undeniably demonic entity. This film ushered in the subgenre of horror possession movies, which have continued to this very day.

 

You can find The Exorcist on bidorbuy.

 

It Follows

 

The strange low tone of this film makes it at once more engaging and more terrifying. It Follows was released in 2014 to universal acclaim and it concerns a strange and terrible curse. The accursed, whoever they may be, are pursued relentlessly by an entity visible only to them and capable of taking on any form. This being moves at a slow walking pace but it never stops moving and if it catches the accursed it will kill them savagely. The only way to stave off this creature is to have carnal relations with another human; the curse will then move to them. If the creature kills its target, then it will pursue the previous victim of the curse.

 

You can find It Follows on bidorbuy.

 

Poltergeist

 

Written and produced by Stephen Spielberg, the famous director’s lone venture into the horror genre produced a highly unsettling masterpiece. The youngest daughter of a family of five becomes attuned to a strange presence in the house in which they live. The force is malignant. It attempts it harm one of the other children and it abducts the aforementioned daughter, imprisoning her in an extradimensional prison. Her distraught parents, able to communicate with her only via a static channel on their TV set, call a renowned psychic to help reclaim their child and defeat the evil force that has entered their lives.

 

You can find Poltergeist on bidorbuy.

 

The Babadook

 

Critically acclaimed as one of the scariest movies in years, this indie film coming out of Australia has garnered rave reviews and has been nominated for a slew of awards (winning a good share).

 

The film tells the story of a mother and her 10 year old son, both of whom are trying to cope with the death of the family patriarch. The mother has a love-hate relation with her son, burgeoned by the fact that he was born on the same day her husband died. The son, raised in the absence of a father and with an erratic mother, has a host of developmental issues. He buries himself in an obsession with monsters and demons. Eventually he discovers a pop up book about a being call Mr. Babadook… and this marks the entry of a supernatural entity into their lives. A being that will either bring them together or tear them apart.

 

You can find The Babadook on bidorbuy.

 

 Insidious

 

You may have noticed a trend in this list. Each entry has generally concerned a supernatural and non-physical force tormenting the weak and vulnerable. The reason for this is twofold:

 

One, as soon as a threat is given a physical form it becomes entrenched in the physical world and can be studied and understood… this diminishes its capacity for terror as the oldest and most powerful form of fear, is fear of the unknown.

 

Two, the focus of these invisible demons on the young and powerless intensifies their evil in the mind of the viewer.

 

Our last movie on this list follows this formula.

 

Insidious is almost a modern version of Poltergeist. A demonic force captures a young child and his parents must find a way to bring him back. It differs from Poltergeist in that the evil manifests far more violently and in the end the father must journey into the demonic realm himself to rescue his son…

 

You can find Insidious on bidorbuy.