There’s nothing like watching a scary movie when fall is in the air.  Every year, horror buffs look forward to the countdown to Halloween, when it’s socially acceptable to binge-watch as many horror movies as you want, and even the squeamish might give the genre a try.  Today’s list isn’t complicated.  It’s just a selection of horror films, all available at Mead, that I really liked, and that I hope you’ll like too.  One quick note: these are the preferences of a long-time horror aficionado – viewer discretion is advised for all of these selections.  With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Stopmotion

Stopmotion follows Ella, creative assistant to her mother Suzanne, a celebrated stop-motion animator.  Ella yearns to find her own artistic voice, but she’s been smothered by Suzanne’s personal and professional mistreatment.  When Suzanne’s health takes a turn for the worse, a mysterious young girl begins to haunt Ella.  The apparition encourages her to abandon her mother’s unfinished film and tell a different, very macabre story. Ella thinks she’s found her chance to come into her own – until the film begins to haunt her.  Stopmotion is a brilliant work of psychological horror – I was literally on the edge of my seat by the end.  I really appreciate how the film doesn’t overexplain itself.  It’s left up to interpretation whether the haunting represents Ella’s abusive upbringing, the toll of her devotion to art, fear of mortality triggered by her mother’s failing health, or something else entirely.  Furthermore, the stop-motion animation sections of the film impress, both on a technical level and in scare factor.  Stopmotion is a good story well told, capable of sending shivers up a jaded horror buff’s spine, and it absolutely deserves a place on your watchlist.

Late Night With the Devil

The year is 1977.  Late-night TV host Jack Delroy needs to pull out all the stops to save his career from dwindling ratings and unsavory rumors.  His solution is a Halloween broadcast like no other, culminating in an interview with a demon, courtesy of an allegedly possessed young girl.  But as the night rolls on, increasingly uncanny events pile up, captured live on the air. Soon, Delroy realizes that the bill from his bargain with evil is coming due.  Rather than reinventing the wheel, this film puts an inventive new twist on a very old story.  Cautionary tales about dealing with the devil are a perennial feature of storytelling; the novelty here is setting the climax of one within a live television broadcast gone awry.  The juxtaposition of 70s’ cheese with the mounting realization that something is about to go very wrong is effectively chilling.  Lead actor David Dastmalchian hits a home run as Jack Delroy, caught helplessly in the tide as his amiable mask is stripped away.  As the credits of Late Night With the Devil rolled, I found myself wishing there were more movies like it.

Suspiria (2018)

This 2018 film is a remake of Dario Argento’s celebrated Suspiria. While nothing could supplant the original’s place in the horror canon, I think this remake by Luca Guadagnino deserves its flowers as well.  The broad strokes of the plot follow those of the original: at the Markos Dance Academy in Germany, ballet student Susie Bannion falls into the machinations of a coven of witches.  But from there, the two films could hardly be more different.  Guadagnino’s remake delves deep into the intrigue of the Markos Coven and the psychology of the characters. Guadagnino’s version also feels more grounded in its setting of 1970s West Berlin, with the Cold War still ongoing and the atrocities of the Nazi regime still very recent in memory.  The remake also takes care to develop its own visual identity, distinct from Argento’s famous original.  If you, like me, think a movie set in a ballet school ought to have some good dance sequences in it, this movie doesn’t disappoint.  The interrupted ritual at the film’s climax is unforgettable, both beautiful and genuinely scary. If any of the above sounds intriguing to you, I highly recommend giving this a watch.

Midsommar

This is probably the most well-known film on this list, and in my opinion, it absolutely deserves the hype.  The film follows Dani Ardor, who accompanies her lackluster boyfriend Christian and his grad student friends on a summer trip to Hälsingland in Sweden – even though she’s still recovering from a harrowing family tragedy.  Ostensibly, this is a research trip: Christian and his friends hope to study the Hårga, the pagan-revivalist commune where exchange student Pelle grew up.  When the Hårga perform a gruesome ritual sacrifice in broad daylight, it becomes clear that their guests are going to get more than they signed up for.  But when Dani discovers that the Hårga have special plans for her, she may find herself unable to refuse.  Midsommar is gorgeous to look at. Though it plainly wears its influences on its sleeve, pulling from classics such as The Wicker Man, this film also takes the folk horror subgenre to places its never been before. Even though Midsommar follows a summertime festival, Halloween is still a perfect time to watch or rewatch this modern folk horror classic.

A Field in England

This 2013 film follows a group of four unlikely men thrown together amidst the chaos of the English Civil War.  The soldier Cutler emerges as their de facto leader, but it soon becomes clear that he has ulterior motives.  He embroils the other men in a clandestine struggle of occult artifacts and otherworldly power, but even his authority crumbles in the face of dangerous rival magician. The entire party soon find themselves at the mercy of O’Neill, an expert in alchemy and in ruthless violence.  There’s so much about this film that’s so unique: the 17th century setting, the use of black-and-white film, and the juxtaposition of the supernatural with the very real horror of what human beings are capable of doing to one another. All the way up to the film’s culmination in a psychedelic wizards’ duel, there’s never any winking at the camera.  For a moment, the audience is invited to understand magic in the same way that the characters do – as a terrifying force barely within the realm of human comprehension.  I will enthuse about this movie to anyone who will listen, and if you’re looking for something off the beaten track for your next watch, A Field in England comes highly recommended.