Christmas Chills
Freddie Smith

​Halloween has just come and past, and in order to get you into the right mood for the occasion, I have picked out a few of my favourite Horror films to share with you. These range from the iconic classics to the obscure masterpieces, with that i hope you can find as much enjoyment in them as I do.

Halloween (1978)
What better than to start the list with the eponymous John Carpenter classic from 1978, which helped to boost the infamous Slasher sub-genre with the classic antagonist of Michael Myers.
Halloween is possibly the most haunting slasher film to date, due to the mysterious nature of ‘The Shape’ and the tense atmosphere that runs throughout the course of the film.

Hereditary (2018)
Hereditary may well be one of my favourite Horror films to release in the past few years, and even one of my all-time favourites. It features one of the most shockingly disturbing scenes that I have ever witnessed.
It is a very slow burner, but when the horror starts – it really starts. Haunting performances all around help this film stay put in your brain for days after watching it, which makes it stand out so much in a modern age of cheap jump-scares.  
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The Shining (1980)
The Shining is easily one of my favourite films ever. I could not recommend it nearly enough.
The Stanley Kubrick & Stephen King classic is widely renowned as the best Horror film to ever be released. This is in part to the chilling performances from the cast, specifically Jack Nicholson, as well as a dark and mysterious past that the Overlook Hotel harbours.
Following the story of Jack Torrance, The Shining explores the haunting and horror of the notorious hotel and its iconic locations - such as the infamous Room 237 - and how Jack's slow descent into madness brings everything crumbling down around him.
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Psycho (1960)
DO NOT be put off by Psycho’s 59 year old release date as it very much stands as one of the greatest thriller films of all time. Alfred Hitchcock’s magnum opus, if you will.
Set in the titular ‘Bates Motel’, Psycho follows the story of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) who takes refuge in a nearby Motel run by the Bates family. But not is all what it seems… 
Many iconic scenes and jaw-dropping twists ensue, which helps to elevate the ground-breaking storytelling in this film. 
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Get Out (2016)
Get Out has a rare accomplishment of earning Director Jordan Peele and Oscar for best Original Screenplay – on his Directorial debut! As well as being in my top 3 favourite films of all time.
A genuinely brilliant film with dark racial undertones and fantastic social commentary. Get Out follows the story of Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) who visits his girlfriend’s rich, white family. As tensions rise, so does the horror – as well as superb comedy – until a fantastic climax of the film.
I genuinely adore this film, I can’t recommend it enough at all!
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The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter AGAIN.
The Thing takes place in a remote Arctic research base as the crew accidentally let a shape-shifting extra-terrestrial being in with them. They can’t trust each other anymore because any one of them could be the Thing…
This film contains some of the most disturbingly realistic ‘Body Horror’ and prosthetic work in any film ever – the effects still stand up today brilliantly too. An intriguing film with a much debated ambiguous ending, The Thing is seen as a near perfect Sci-Fi horror film.
  

The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The film that encouraged the trend of ‘Found Footage’ in the horror genre, The Blair Witch Project still stands out as a very innovating horror film, which is a very substantial feat when considering the shoestring budget that was required.
The Blair Woods are a very iconic horror setting and will both haunt and confuse the viewers along with the characters until the very end. So much so that nearly everyone believed that it was actually real. However, it wasn’t… was it?
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Sinister (2012)
In recent years, Sinister has become somewhat of a cult horror film and has seen a large resurgence with horror fans. It is a very dark film and not for those who don’t enjoy horror.
The story follows that of a washed-up Horror writer (Ethan Hawke) who moves into a new house with his family and discovers a series of disturbing ‘snuff’ tapes which he investigates. The story continues down this very dark and twisted path until it reaches its eventual (chilling) climax.
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Those are just some of many fine horror movies over the past few decades, showing just how strong of a genre it really is, there are dozens upon dozens of more, equally worthy horror films that just didn't make my personal cut.
Some of these include:

• ​The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)
• IT (2016)
• Eraserhead (1977)
  
• Us (2019) - Jordan Peele's equally superb horror film to Get Out
• The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
• The Wicker Man (1973)
• 28 Days Later (2002)

As well as my personal favourite Horror Comedy: Shaun Of The Dead (2004).
Any of these films are well worth checking out and I hope that you have found this list helpful in some form.