13 terrifying movies to watch before Halloween

PAULA HENRY-DURU

With Halloween less than a month away, here are 13 horror movies to get you prepared for the Spooky Season, with my favorite lines from each one.

13. Friday the 13th (1980)

Twenty years after the gruesome murders at a summer camp, a group of teen camp counselors arrive to reopen the camp in spite of warnings from the locals. Inevitably the murders resume by the same killer, and we can only watch as the counselors are picked off one by one.

Favorite line: “I’m a messenger of God. You’re doomed if you stay here.”

12. Absentia (2011)

After a woman’s husband has been missing for seven years, her sister comes to live with her as she prepares to declare him dead in absentia, but strange things start happening that makes her question if he, and all the other missing people in the town, are really dead and what truly happened to them.

Favorite line: “I can’t go back in there.”

11. Us (2019)

While on their summer vacation, a family is attacked by another family that looks exactly like them. As they try to escape their doppelgangers and fight for their lives, a bigger plot unfolds and we begin to question how far these doppelgangers will go to get what they want.

Favorite line: “It’s us.” 9. Halloweentown (1998)

Upon turning 13, Marnie finds out she’s from a family of witches and is taken to Halloweentown, where her grandma and other non-humans live. But there is trouble brewing in Halloweentown with a villain at large and people continue to go missing. Marnie must find a way to stop the villain because now both her worlds, the mortal and Halloweentown are at stake.

Favorite line: "Magic is really very simple, all you've got to do is want something and then let yourself have it."

8. A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

Two girls return home from a mental institution to their father and stepmother, and have to deal with ghosts, conflicts between their stepmother, and the realization that everything is not as it seems.

Favorite line: “There’s something strange in this house.”

7. The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)

Depicting different timelines and set in the town of Shadyside over the course of about 300 years, the movies track the encounter, manifestation and origins of the same curse that has tormented the town for so long.

Favorite line: “They think we’re guilty so we are.” (Part 3)

6. The Shining (1980)

The protagonist here is a struggling writer spending the winter in an isolated hotel as its caretaker with his family. Although he is warned of the hotel’s gruesome history about the former winter caretaker upon arriving, he waves it off and in a horrifying repeat of events, madness, visions and death ensue.

Favorite line: “Wendy, I'm home.”

10. Haunt (2019)

On Halloween night, a group of friends go to a haunted house and what starts out as fun, with cool props and actors, turns into something else entirely. The friends realize they need to get out as soon as possible but the “actors” in this haunted house have other plans.

Favorite line: “It’s a bit of a work in progress, but, oh, I think you’ll like it.” 5. Coraline (2009)

Featuring jumping mice, a portal to another world and people with buttons for eyes, Coraline is about a girl who moves to a new house and whose parents are seemingly too busy for her. She stumbles upon another ‘better’ world with replicas of everyone she knows, but living in this new world comes at a high price and a sinister plan begins to unfold. Coraline must find a way to end what she started and save her loved ones before it’s too late.

Favorite line: “You probably think this world is a dream come true, but you’re wrong.”

4. The Ritual (2017)

In the wake of their friend’s death, a group of old friends plan a hiking trip but get lost in the forest after taking a shortcut into it. figure out a way out of the forest as an unseen creature stalks and influences them. But something sinister is afoot, and they must find a way to escape the forest before they are all dead.

Favorite line: “Shut up. You’ve not broken your nose alright.”

3. It (2017)

A group of friends try to face a supernatural being in the form of a clown who has been responsible for all the child disappearances and deaths in their town over the years.

Favorite line: “I'm not real enough for you?”

2. The Babadook (2014)

Trouble begins for a mother and her son when they are tormented by a creature that manifested from a children’s book that appeared out of nowhere. As they struggle with this presence living in their house, the mother must come to terms with her own unresolved issues.

Favorite line: “I’ll wager with you, I’ll make you a bet. The more you deny, the stronger I get.”

1. The VVitch: A NewEngland Folktale (2015)

Set in the 1630s, a family moves to live at the edge of a forest after they are excommunicated from their religious group. Within the first ten minutes, the youngest child, still a baby, disappears, and everything else goes downhill for this family as tension builds up and discord abounds. An unsettling presence forever looms in the background, until the end when its effect on the family can no longer be ignored.

Favorite line: “Sleep. All will be well, sleep.”

Number three on the list is It, the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel about friendship and overcoming fears. CREDIT: UNSPLASH

inside you run away. You bolt your way down the porch steps but feel something get snagged. Your jeans are caught on a rusty nail. You shimmy and shake trying to get it loose - but it’s too late. You see flashing before your eyes. When your vision clears up, you see your friend Jackson is there, taking a video, pointing and laughing. “Ha! We got you good there,” he said. “I’ve gotta put this on TikTok! You were so scared, bro!” The next day you wake up and find out you’ve gone viral after Jackson set you up. Everybody recognizes you as the guy who ran out of a house and face planted. You devote the rest of your life to creating prank TikToks and become an influencer. You now have 187 million followers. You often think about that time you went up to a creepy house, got scared and you thank your lucky stars you decided to get out of there.