With quarantine seeping into yet another holiday, the best way to celebrate Halloween this year is bringing the spooky into your living room. So for your haunting pleasure, the Bromunity Community has compiled our favorite scary movies. Enter if you dare.
Us
Jordan Peele’s second crack into the horror realm with the blockbuster hit Us. While not quite as popular as his first horror success Get Out. I found Us to be extremely compelling from start to finish. The movie is littered with beautiful and foreshadowing cinematography. I’ve seen this movie twice now. Once in theaters and once a few weekends back with some friends while we were in a Spooktober kind of mood. While the first watch through I was quite proud of myself for figuring out the twist early on. It is one of those movies that the more you watch it, the more you pick up on, and I felt like a fucking idiot for missing the hints that he dangled right under my nose.
One of my favorite parts of Jordan Peele’s scarier movies is his ability to splice in his comedic relief. There are some parts of this movie that are genuinely hilarious. Quirky dad humor is the centerpoint of this for me. The dad in the movie is always fucking around and just trying to live his best life.
This movie isn’t as much scary as it is a psychological thriller. But, it definitely has its spooky parts. Rampant bloodthirsty muted doppelgangers make for a very unique antagonist that can frighten anyone. I can’t listen to the classic song “I’ve got 5 on it” without thinking about the chopped up version in the movie. I never thought that song could ever be scary, but they completely pulled it off. Like forreal, how can you change a song that’s about buying pot into a freaky chopped up motive for a scary movie?
I highly recommend checking out any of Jordan Peele’s spookier movies this Spooktober. They’re some of the best, and most original scary movies in recent memory. Check this link below for the spliced up version of “I’ve got 5 on it”
-- Kyle Stumpe
They Live
John Carpenter’s They Live is a cult classic that I hold near and dear to my heart. The 1988 sci-fi, action, horror flick is one hell of a ride. The movie centers around a down on his luck, unemployed drifter that stumbles upon a box of sunglasses that reveal an uncanny truth – the world is secretly controlled by aliens. In his fresh pair of shades, this epitome of an 80’s action hero seeks to unravel the truth, violently. The film boasts one of the most legendary and lengthy fist fight scenes in the history of cinema. Imagine Macho Man Randy Savage and Mr. T beating the shit out of each other for six long minutes because one of them won’t put on a pair of sunglasses. Just when you think these beatings can’t go on any longer, it punches on for another five minutes. And the whole time you don’t want anyone to win because Macho Man and Mr. T are actually really good friends and it’s all just one big misunderstanding.
On a deeper level, They Live is a critique on unbridled Capitalism. The rugged protagonist reveals a world in which individuals are consumed by materialism. At one point, He-Man equips his truth shades and looks at billboards and advertisements reading “consume”, “buy”, “obey” and other subliminal messages hiding under the surface. He even takes a closer look at his cash which now reads “This is your god”. Mankind has unknowingly been transformed into the consumer, and every aspect of the consumer’s life is either regulated by or in the pursuit of capital. In the 30 years since They Live was released, it seems even more relevant today with the rise of social media, corporate greed, and the ever-evolving cleverness of online advertisers. Even so, They Live is a fun, crazy ride that is as entertaining as it is disturbing. I’d say it’s worth consuming.
Check out the fight from They Live here. “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubble gum.”
-- Zach Rimkus
Paranormal Activity
The original Paranormal Activity was released in 2007. However, being in 7th grade at that point, I was far from being brave enough to ever watch horror movies. Possibly because my Dad exposed me to Jaws at age five, I was unable to handle any type of horror movie up until college.
So while trying to reinvent myself and come off as a big boy in my Freshman year, I was given the opportunity to watch the original Paranormal Activity around several new friends (including girls). I reluctantly accepted. While the jump scares and “real-life” footage aspect spooked me, I was actually invested in the plot. A young couple moves into a lovely suburban home that ends up producing some weird nightly activities. So, to document these events, they set up security cameras around the house. The movie alternates between digital handheld footage to replicate a home-video feel, and shots from the security cameras. This filming style makes the hauntings feel more personable and submerses you into the moment in differently than typical horror movies.
Found footage movies are often a result of low-budget indie films. In fact, Paranormal Activity’s budget was only $15,000.00. However, it managed to earn $200 million at the box office and spark a long running franchise. While some of the later sequels fall off the cliff and get a bit repetitive, I cannot recommend the original enough.
-- Caleb Tackes
Insidious
Insidious came out in 2010 when I was still in high school. I have never been a really big fan of horror movies. I find the jump scares cheap and predictable most of the time. Although there are some that really get me. My girlfriend at the time, however, was very into the spooky stuff. So, I reluctantly decided to go with her (“The things we do for love” - Jamie Lannister).
This movie starts off as cliché as they come. New family, new neighborhood, the story seems to seep scary movie motifs at the start. However, they take more of a sinister turn as the dreams of one of the characters start to consume him and inhibit his real life. This movie truly gave me the heebie-jeebies at several different parts. I still have a hard time listening to that creepy ass “tiptoe through the window” song to this day. Scene after scene gave me goosebumps as the plotline progressed. Even that Darth Maul looking mother fucker was scary as hell to me.
The movie became a cult classic, much like Paranormal Activity, but this one has a special place in my heart as the first scary movie that legit scared the shit out of me.
-- Lil' Marco
Alien
Space truckers, 80’s retro future, phallic aliens, and a kitty. What I just listed is a poor summation of the 1979 classic Alien What Alien actually is, and its sequel Aliens, is a masterpiece of cinema. While being a terrifying haunted house in space, it also is rich in theme. Though I could talk about the depth of it all as the pretentious, beret-wearing hipster in me would like to, it isn’t the reason for it being my favorite horror. No, the reason for it holding the spot as my favorite is in how 10 year old me almost pissed myself throughout it.
Now we all say, “I almost pissed myself” as a common hyperbole but in this case I’m certain my undies did not escape the viewing dry. Most people know the dinner scene where during a nice meal, a goddamn penis alien pops out of the captain's chest. About that, Giger’s art direction for the aliens is utterly disturbing in a way that comes from a perversion of the known, the familiar but strange. There is a sexual undertone to it all, but that tone is dark and depraved and evokes a primal terror. The whole life cycle of the alien is a violation of one's body from the freaky facehugger that lays the egg to the full grown big boi that tongue punches skulls in. So rattled was I by the face hugger in specific, I slept underneath the covers until the age of at least 15 so that nothing could attach to my face during the night.
If you haven’t seen it already I can’t recommend Alien enough. A horror that fills the isolation of space with an abomination. Like the tag line reads, “No one in space can hear you scream.”
-- Ulysse Bergquist
2020 Presidential Debate 2
I’m a big fan of horror, so this was a tough choice, but you just can’t beat all the goolies and chills of the 2020 Presidential Debate. If you enjoy early Cronenberg, or general body horror this one's for you. All the monsters are incredibly creepy and well designed. Horror is a tough genre, because as a director or writer it can be incredibly tough to tap into people's deep fears and desires, while balancing with the fantastic and terrifying. Along these lines, 2020 PD 2 is particularly well executed because it feels like something that could actually happen in some bizarre alternate universe.
The other thing that is great about this franchise, is that there are numerous other installations and spin offs that you can really go down the rabbit hole with. Without spoiling anything, 2020 Presidential Debate 1 was a mulholland drive level exploration into nonlinear storytelling and in between 2020 PD one and two, they released a spin off that has a plotline with a fly that will make your skin crawl.
Happy Spooking!
-- The Yankee
