It’s Halloween season, and if you’re like us you love to have a creepy, crawly, or just plain fun flick on to amp up the feels through All Hallows Eve…
Everyone’s got their favorite scary movie, or their favorite fun and freaky tale that celebrates all the creatures and legends that make this time of year such a delight. If something is your absolute fave, you probably own it on BluRay or DVD to pop it on at a moment’s notice. (“I see you, Poltergeist!” – ed.) However, there are loads of great seasonal treats to scare things up in between which you can stream on Netflix, Hulu and more… so for today’s Friday Five we’re highlighting five of our favorites that you can spool up right now at the touch of a remote! BOO!:
Hellraiser (1987) (Available on Netflix and Hulu)
Thirty years later, Clive Barker’s claustrophobic, gory, pervasively creepy debut still has the power to shock, from the ruthless familial relations to the bountiful amounts of flayed skin. A classic haunted house vibe invaded by the demonic kink of the Cenobites, there have been sequels but none are as unnerving as the original. (Warning for the faint hearted: We’re not kidding when we said it is gory.)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) (Available on Netflix)
There weren’t many places Wes Craven could go after the sixth Elm Street film was entitled Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. What better direction, then, than going all-out meta? – where actress Heather Langenkamp (as herself) and her family (*not her real family) are suddenly terrorized by a Mr. Krueger who has made the jump to “real life.” The best part? No more jokey one liners, a gnarlier makeup job, and suddenly Freddy is actually scary again.
The Craft (1996) (Available on Netflix)
The spoopiest of all teen epics! Everything is great when Sarah (Robin Tunney) first meets her new misfit friends, the girls discover their witchy powers and rapidly, sweet revenge involving making mean girls’ hair fall out ensues. But ringleader Nancy has more sinister plans; it’s more fun and less frightening, this one, but damned if Fairuza Balk isn’t scarily insane as Nancy.
Young Frankenstein (1974) (Available on Netflix)
Come on, you need a little levity this season too. And there is no greater source of chuckles than Mel Brooks, with arguably his best parody among many great ones. Marvel at the incredible cast and his attention to detail to get his film to look like James Whale’s Frankenstein. That is when you’re not howling and quoting every line. (“Mind telling me whose brain I *did* put in?”… “Abby someone. Abby Normal.”)
Fright Night (1985) (Available on Hulu)
Pound for pound, this is probably still my favorite horror flick to trot out at Halloween. It’s just so good: There’s a real live vampire next door, Charlie has to stop him, and nobody believes him… even the aging horror star turned late night host he idolizes. (Let’s be real, Peter Vincent is the great unsung role of the late Roddy McDowall’s career; sure, David Tennant had a blast in the not-terrible remake, but it wasn’t the same.) Fun fact!: The not-on-DVD-or-Bluray sequel Fright Night II is criminally underrated and worth seeking out.
