Halloween is approaching! And sure, you can grab the new Haunted anthology with my story Boot Hill in (plug, plug). But you can also join me as I count down to the spooky day with a bunch of really great horror movies.
I'm chatting about them on Twitter as the day approaches - and below I gather the suggestions in one place for ease. But hey, come say hi on Twitter (or in the comments) and tell me your favourite scary movies.
Some of these will be well known, some not so much - but they're all horrors that I've loved over the years.
I'm counting down to Halloween with some of my favourite horror movies - and I'm starting with the 1963 version of The Haunting. Still great today - because what is scary is so often left unseen. The horror is in the audience's mind - which can always conjure worse than reality. pic.twitter.com/9gs6q3g3jG— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 2, 2019
Halloween horror movie countdown! Tonight it's Nomads, a lesser known film from 1986, directed by John McTiernan in his prime and starring a dodgily accented Pierce Brosnan as an anthropologist discovering his ordered city world is not what he thinks it is... pic.twitter.com/N1bOgeaspa— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 3, 2019
Halloween horror movie countdown! Tonight it's The Howling, still one of the best werewolf movies ever made, filled with building dread, paranoia and sharp-fanged consequences. I love the idea of the retreat and the way he heroes blunder into something bigger than they expected. pic.twitter.com/mSHTG6K9bf— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 4, 2019
Tonight on my Halloween horror movie countdown... Spanish zombie movie [REC], a really well made found footage horror that puts a late twist on the cause of the zombie outbreak that really lifts the whole movie. First sequel also great... later sequels not so much. pic.twitter.com/kwXgNrERnJ— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 4, 2019
The Fog won't be the only John Carpenter movie in my Halloween horror movie countdown, but then he is a master at the craft. The Fog is another movie that hides the horror, behind the fog. Hinted at. Just out of sight. And then... it turns out the people might be the real horror. pic.twitter.com/fIxY8uUl0o— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 6, 2019
Cheating a little in my Halloween horror movie countdown today with a mini-series, Salem's Lot. Directed by the great Tobe Hooper, and has vampirism spreading like a disease. Friends become enemies. Trust is hard to come by. And it has this scene, which still haunts me today. pic.twitter.com/I0uKcrbOyN— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 6, 2019
I've fallen behind a little on my Halloween Horror Movie Countdown - but let me start to catch up with Kill List, Ben Wheatley's chiller thriller about a hitman who has to unravel why his victims keep saying "Thank you". A scorchingly good film that really should be better known. pic.twitter.com/uWjyxYRJT2— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 10, 2019
Next up in my Halloween horror movie countdown... a 1957 classic. Dana Andrews starred in Night of the Demon, adapted from the MR James story Casting The Runes. And gosh it freaked me out. Down to the noise as the demon honed in on its target and the mist it emerged from. pic.twitter.com/G8PoX9JafT— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 10, 2019
Odd Night of the Demon facts:— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 10, 2019
1 - A line from it appears in the Kate Bush song Hounds of Love "It's in the trees! It's coming!"
2 - Martin Scorsese picked it out as one of the scariest movies ever made.
3 - A nearly moment, the demon was nearly created by Ray Harryhausen.
Tonight's Halloween horror movie countdown is... one of my favourite movies ever. From one of my favourite series. Quatermass and the Pit starts with the discovery of an unexploded bomb. Except there's more. As digging continues, the world - even who we are - may be at risk. pic.twitter.com/jQDLYsOSmF— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 11, 2019
Continuing my Halloween horror movie countdown... one of the great things about horror movies is the genres horror can cross into. Alien is one of the all-time great horror movies, a haunted house story in space with a toothy monster rather than a ghost. 1/ pic.twitter.com/uQdVzlidOK— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 12, 2019
One of the things I most love about Alien is that Ripley - the badass hero we know and love - was... not the obvious hero, emerging from the ensemble as a survivor even as her captain fell. It's a grainy story of an imperfect future, and her path to hero is just as imperfect. /2 pic.twitter.com/3bc50LGXzE— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 12, 2019
Continuing my Halloween horror movie countdown, tonight's is a vampire movie. But not your usual kind. Near Dark is set among the drifters and the rough roads of America. It's dirty rather than elegant, a modern Wild West vampire tale. So enjoy it with a glass. Just a glass. pic.twitter.com/w9EpEXpozY— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 14, 2019
My next choice in my Halloween horror movie countdown is a divisive one. Some (like me) love it, some are bored by it. It's The Blair Witch Project. It launched a found footage era, but was rarely bettered. I loved the mythology it created, and the last, terrifying scenes... pic.twitter.com/BAyfXfXtze— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 15, 2019
Today in my Halloween horror movie countdown, it's John Carpenter's best horror movie. The Thing is a masterpiece in paranoia, with characters trapped in a frozen base, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And something is not just killing them, it's becoming them. Brilliant. pic.twitter.com/oixOC91uw0— Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 15, 2019
Some of you guessed, but the Disney movie I'm adding to my Halloween horror movie countdown is... Something Wicked This Way Comes. A great adaptation of a great book. So scary it freaked my horror-lovin' mum out and led Disney to launch an adult studio as this was so twisted. 1/ pic.twitter.com/U6kw4SmMdf— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 16, 2019
It's an adaptation of my favourite Ray Bradbury book - and Jonathan Pryce is magnificent as Mr Dark. It's also a really touching story of parenthood, with a father feeling too old being outpaced by his growing son. Delightful. Dark. Delicious. Watch it. /ends pic.twitter.com/R8DOztwTfQ— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 16, 2019
My choice of movie for my Halloween horror countdown tonight is really easy. A police officer. A missing girl. An island that challenges his Christian beliefs. And definitely not Nicholas Cage. It's 1973's The Wicker Man. If you've not seen it, the less you know the better. pic.twitter.com/0K7QRlEZn7— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 18, 2019
Snuck just after midnight, but my latest Halloween horror movie countdown choice is... one that doesn't get talked about so much now but which haunted me when younger. The Omen. The horror of a parent coming to realise their child is evil. So yes, that's my choice. All for you. pic.twitter.com/BuLyqMW4be— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 19, 2019
Tonight's choice in my Halloween horror movie countdown is a remake - and many will prefer the original, but I loved the 1978 Philip Kaufman version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In a Cold War era of little trust, it asks who we are, and who matters to us. It's stunning. pic.twitter.com/xLsoWUFYVP— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 19, 2019
Tonight's choice in my Halloween horror movie countdown features a famous cannibal...— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 22, 2019
It's Manhunter, from 1986, with William Petersen setting the groundwork for CSI and Tom Noonan as a terrifying killer. Oh and Brian Cox, debuting Hannibal.https://t.co/eAVqceZzLJ
Next on my Halloween horror movie countdown? David Cronenberg, the king of body horror. This time, it's a creepy tale of a living contagion loose on an island, turning victims into crazed sex attackers. Shivers lives long in the memory for the terrifying joy of the attackers. pic.twitter.com/dAKeS7rgmM— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 23, 2019
Next in my Halloween horror movie countdown is a movie from 1942 - Cat People. Simone Simon is scintillating as she portrays a woman who may - or may not - be part of a race of people who turn into black panthers when aroused. Tense, psychological and restrained. 1/ pic.twitter.com/fpDzxqN60J— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 26, 2019
What really sells this is a combination of Jacques Tourneur's deftly handled direction and Simon herself, who brings a depth to the role that casts doubt on what is real, and what is not. Brilliant movie of its time - perhaps overshadowed since the awful, obvious remake in 1982.— Leo McBride at Altered Instinct (@AlteredInstinct) October 26, 2019
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