RT users might remember a little poll we took on the site back in 2022 to try and determine the Scariest Movie Ever. Based on other lists and suggestions from the RT staff, we pulled together 40 of the scariest movies ever made and asked you to vote for the one that terrified you the most. As it happens, a British broadband service comparison website decided to conduct a science experiment to determine the same thing, and their results were… surprising, to say the least. Did Rotten Tomatoes readers agree with the findings? Let’s re-visit what our fans determined were the 10 Scariest Horror Movies Ever.

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1. The Exorcist (1973)

You may not agree that The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever, but it probably also isn’t much of a surprise to see it at the top of our list — with a whopping 19% of all the votes cast. William Friedkin’s adaptation of the eponymous novel about a demon-possessed child and the attempts to banish said demon became the highest-grossing R-rated horror film ever and the first to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars (it earned nine other nominations and took home two trophies). But outside of its critical and commercial bona fides, the film is well-known for the mass hysteria it inspired across the country, from protests over its controversial subject matter to widespread reports of nausea and fainting in the audience. Its dramatic pacing and somewhat dated effects may seem quaint compared to some contemporary horror, but there’s no denying the power the film continues to have over those who see it for the first time.

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2. Hereditary (2018)

Writer-director Ari Aster made a huge splash with his feature directorial debut, a dark family drama about the nature of grief couched within a supernatural horror film. Toni Collette earned a spot in the pantheon of great Oscar snubs with her slowly-ratcheted-up-to-11 performance as bedeviled mother Annie, but the movie’s biggest shock came courtesy of… Well, we won’t spoil that here. Suffice it to say Hereditary struck such a nerve with moviegoers that it instantly turned Aster into a director to watch and shot up to second place on our list.

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3. The Conjuring (2013)

James Wan has staked out a place among the modern masters of horror, directing films like Saw, Dead Silence, Insidious, and this inspired-by-true-events chiller based on the experiences of real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warrens, best known for their work on the strange case that inspired the Amityville Horror movies (which played a part in The Conjuring 2), were portrayed by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who grounded the effective jump scares and freak-out moments with a believable world-weariness. Together, Wan and his co-leads found fresh terror in familiar genre tropes, and the end result is a sprawling cinematic universe that only continues to grow.

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4. The Shining (1980)

Literally dozens of Stephen King’s novels and stories have been adapted for the big screen, and several of those films are considered classics today, like Carrie, Misery, and Pet Sematary (and that doesn’t even account for non-horror stuff like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me). But the mother of them all is easily Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. A marvel of set and production design and a genuinely unnerving take on the traditional haunted house story, The Shining features a host of memorable images and an iconic Jack Nicholson performance. The film’s relatively few jump scares are still absolutely chilling, but its true power lies in the way it crawls under your skin and makes you experience Jack Torrance’s slow descent into madness. It’s rightfully considered one of the greatest horror films ever made, and it ranked fourth in our poll.

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5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

While the top four movies on this list collectively garnered 42% of the total votes counted, they were followed by six films that all earned around 3% of the vote each. In other words, these last six films were separated by no more than 60 votes. The first of them is this low-budget slasher directed and co-written by Tobe Hooper, very loosely inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein. Texas Chainsaw’s grimy aesthetic helped lend it an air of authenticity, which made it all the more frightening (“This could actually happen, you guys!”), and the massive, menacing presence of Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface paved the way for other brutes like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Multiple attempts have been made to breathe new life into the franchise, but none have equaled the original in sheer, over-the-top, power tool-inspired terror.

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6. The Ring (2002)

It’s always a tricky proposition to take something that works well for one culture and try to translate that formula successfully for another, but Gore Verbinski managed that with The Ring. A remake of Japanese director Hideo Nakata’s acclaimed thriller about a cursed videotape, Verbinski’s take kept the original film’s striking visual imagery — the  ghost of a young girl in a white dress with long black hair covering her face — and found that it scared the hell out of audiences no matter where they were from. While the film wasn’t as well-regarded as its predecessor, it features a committed performance from a then up-and-coming Naomi Watts, and for many, it served as an introduction to East Asian horror cinema.

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7. Halloween (1978)

Coming in at the seventh spot on our list is the film that introduced the world to all-time scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis and put John Carpenter on the map. Halloween is frequently cited as one of the earliest examples of the slasher genre as we know it today, and while it may not feature the same kind of realistic gore we’ve come to expect of films in that category, it packs a lot of tension and some inventive thrills in a relatively small-scale package. The film’s legacy is also fairly untouchable: Michael Myers’ mask has become the stuff of legend, and the giant, unstoppable killer and the “final girl” have become ingrained in the horror lexicon. There’s a reason the franchise is still going after more than 40 years.

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8. Sinister (2012)

For those who didn’t read the “scientific study” mentioned at the top, we’ve finally come to the film it crowned the scariest. Before he joined the MCU with 2016’s Doctor Strange, director Scott Derrickson had racked up a few horror films, a couple of which earned cult followings. One of them was this small-scale haunted house/possession story about a true-crime writer (Ethan Hawke) who moves his wife and kids into a house where a family was murdered, only to discover the new place might already have a rather evil tenant. Writer C. Robert Cargill was reportedly inspired to pen the script based on a nightmare he had after watching The Ring, and the story does share a minor similarity with that film, what with the creepy snuff film angle. But for many who saw it, the dramatic reveals and creepy set pieces far outweighed any recycled genre tropes that might have been present. Plus, there’s at least one report out there that says it’s the scariest movie ever made, so that has to count for something.

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9. Insidious (2010)

James Wan has already appeared higher on this list, but before he and Patrick Wilson made The Conjuring, they worked together on this supernatural thriller about a young boy who falls into a coma and begins to channel a malevolent spirit. The bare bones of the story weren’t the most groundbreaking, but frequent Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell infused it with a compelling enough mythology that it spawned four more installments. Wan also stated that Insidious was meant to be something of a corrective to the outright violence of Saw, which compelled him to craft something on a more spiritual level, and the end result is an effective chiller featuring what is frequently regarded as one of the best jump scares ever put on screen.

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10. IT (2017)

The fear of clowns is a very real thing, even if it’s become so commonplace to announce it that it feels disingenuous. If you needed any further evidence, we direct you to the box office haul of 2017’s IT, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, which went on to beat The Exorcist’s 44-year record as the highest-grossing horror film ever. Oh, and of course, its 10th-place finish on this list. Andy Muschietti’s big-budget adaptation drew on nostalgia to tell its story of children scarred by trauma, while Bill Skarsgard’s take on Pennywise the evil, shapeshifting clown was bizarre and unsettling in all the right ways. Add a healthy dose of jump scares, a handful of impressive set pieces, and some top-notch CGI, and you’ve got a recipe for a horror film that’s both fun and full of scares.

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Thumbnail image by ©FilmDistrict courtesy Everett Collection

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(Photo by A24. Thumbnail: Pixar, Vertical Entertainment, Compass International Pictures. Courtesy Everett Collection)

The 100 Best Movies Written by Women

Welcome to our guide of the best movies written by women: These are highly Certified Fresh films (nothing on the list falls below 95%) whose screenplay credit goes in part or fully to women.

The journey begins nearly a century ago with 1925’s Battleship Potemkin, written by Nina Agadzhanova, inspired by her own participation in Soviet uprisings. Just two years later, Metropolis, cinema’s first sci-fi feature masterpiece, emerged out of Germany, written by Thea von Harbou. The 1930s were one of those peak decades for movies, in no small part thanks to King Kong (co-written by Ruth Rose), The Wizard of Oz (co-written by Florence Ryerson), and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Walt Disney had hand-picked Dorothy Ann Blank, a movie magazine writer, to identify and adapt tales into animation. Snow White was the first, and in the process Blank founded the studio’s Story Development Department.

Women were a driving force behind Alfred Hitchcock’s best romantic psychological thrillers. Joan Harrison became the first woman to be nominated for Best Screenplay with Foreign Correspondent at the 13th Academy Awards, with the also Harrison-written Rebecca winning Best Picture that night. Sally Benson and Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville co-wrote Shadow of a Doubt. Elizabeth Reinhardt co-wrote Laura, and Strangers on a Train was co-written by Czenzi Ormonde, who also acted as Hitchcock’s chauffeur as he never learned how to drive.

Suso Cecchi d’Amico helped lay the foundations of key Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves, along with Luchino Visconti’s opulent epic The Leopard. Betty Comden and Adolph Green were showered with Oscar, Tony, and Grammy nominations and wins throughout their six-decade musical-writing partnership, with Singin’ in the Rain their most enduring work.

Novelist Leigh Brackett adapted Rio Bravo and The Big Sleep, and worked on an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back, though she died before the movie came out. George Lucas’ earlier feature, American Graffiti, was co-written by Gloria Katz, who would go on to doctor the script to A New Hope, infusing Star Wars with its trademark sense of humor and fleshing out Princess Leia’s personality and arc. Another sci-fi classic of the era, E.T., was written by Melissa Mathison.

After Sofia Coppola‘s Lost in Translation Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay and nom for Best Director (only the third woman to be nominated at the time in Academy history), representation in the industry has been a constant topic of conversation and controversy. Ever since, there has been a consistent rise in critically acclaimed films solely written and directed by women. The players include Dee Rees (Pariah, Mudbound), Céline Sciamma (Tomboy, Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said), Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda), Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me?), Anna Rose Holmer (The Fits), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women), Chloé Zhao (The Rider), Lulu Wang (The Farewell), Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always), Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth), and more.

In our latest update, we’ve added Till (Chinonye Chukwu), EO (Ewa Piaskowska), and Sissy (Hannah Barlow).

Read on to see the full list of the 100 best movies of all time written by women. Click through on each title for full credits.

(Photo by Netflix, Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection, and David Goldner / © Queen B Productions / Courtesy Everett Collection)

“Know Your Critic” is a column in which we interview Tomatometer-approved critics about their screening and reviewing habits, pet peeves, and personal favorites.

Dani Bethea lives and breathes the horror genre, and they are more than ready to tell us all just how many frightful and exciting new releases are available to us this season.

Bethea has been featured in several horror-centric outlets. They hosted a panel on Black women in horror for Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls magazine last year, appeared in Jonathan Barkan and Andrew Hawkins’s Mental Health in Horror documentary, are the former Editor-in-Chief of the online zine We Are Horror, and self-publish coverage on Medium.

“The month is young and I’m trying to basically either watch a new film a day or, you know what I mean? This month is just so… It’s a rollercoaster of delight, truly,” they told Rotten Tomatoes in an early-October interview.

Given their year-round expertise in genre and the dozens of titles they watch to celebrate Halloween, Rotten Tomatoes wanted to know what Bethea believes are the scariest moments in movie history: “Oh, that’s hard,” they laughed. “American films… I’m going to definitely say the entirety of all of the trippy imagery from Jacob’s Ladder – all of it. None of it is carefree!”

“And then as far as a great international, Ju-On: The Grudge has always been one of my favorites,” Bethea said. “It’s still, all of these years later, just such a solid film.”

Bethea shared myriad recommendations and reflections that are sure to frighten and bewitch all spooky season long.

Dani Bethea is a pop culture writer with a focus on horror. Their work can be found on Medium, Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls, and Daily Dead, among others. They are the former Editor-in-Chief of the We Are Horror zine. Find Dani on Twitter: @TheDaniBethea.

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What was the first horror film to make you scream? Are you squeamish at all?

Not particularly squeamish. However, I guess I will say this, the more realistic the prosthetics, definitely the more I will wince or kind of white knuckle a little bit.

As far as Shudder’s [The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time], I love how they talked about Gerald’s Game. When the main character has to get out of the handcuffs and has to literally deglove their hands from the cuffs. That one is definitely one for the record books.

Hereditary is another iconic film that we were not expecting to see the main character, one, decapitated, and two, the aftermath of the decapitation of her head in the road with the ants crawling all over it! We were not expecting a cut from the mother in mourning to the daughter… That was definitely one that was a visceral oof.

Because it’s a child!

Yeah, we don’t get child deaths often, and usually they are not as… gory or as visceral. So that’s another that I definitely think for sure. I would say the decay and putrefaction aspect of the Candyman reboot was so well done.

The putrefaction slowly starts from his hand and him picking at it, and it’s this weeping wound, and then it just gradually travels up his arm and up his body and if you don’t like that one phobia, what is it called? If you have the fear of holes, and–

Trypophobia!

Trypophobia – thank you. So that was an odd mixture of where we saw him just slowly dying and the holes and the wounds, and that’s a tough watch if you don’t like that as a visual, seeing the human body just slowly decay. The zombification of Anthony in that movie was just… We don’t get a lot of movies like that often where we see people gradually dying while they’re alive.

You’re reminding me just how grotesque that process is, and that’s what makes it excellent. Right?

Right. Make it phenomenal for the eyes, but terrible for the nightmares.

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(Photo by Vertical Entertainment)

We’re both watching and loving Shudder’s Queer for Fear series. What title or titles do you consider essential to the queer horror canon?

Bit by Brad Michael Elmore. … For the mermaid lovers, The Lure. I am definitely going to put [those] out there as far as two new essential ones for people to check out.

I’m going to tell people to avoid They/Them. That was one of the most unnecessary, trite, rote, abominable, weakly written… It just seemed like there was a bulletin board like people were just, I don’t know, taking the sticky notes off and saying, “Okay, let’s put that together, and there’s the movie.”

Checklist first, story second?

Right. It was very half-baked, very underdone. It just seemed like it was the first draft of something that could have been really, really great. So I’m going to tell people to avoid that one like the plague.

But I will say that there are a lot of movies now if they’re not centrally queer in the framing or the premise of the story, that there are a lot more films with queer people now that have characters. I love all the hype that, let’s say, for example, Bodies Bodies Bodies has gotten.

Oh gosh, how can I forget? From Netflix, the three film anthology that came out!

Fear Street?

Yes! Fear Street!

Even before Fear Street came out, I don’t think there was a big to-do that the leads and a protagonist was a part of the LGBT+ anything. And it was just like, once that story got rolling in motion, people were like, “Oh, wait a minute, our leads are queer folk. What? No way!” It was the best surprise ever. And then we were obviously rooting for everyone to live even more because we do not want any more “bury your gays” tropes. Nope, we don’t want any more of that.

The sad thing with our current time is that there have been a lot of queer shows that have been getting canceled or have been one-seasoned. First Kill got the one season treatment. Batwoman got canceled. There’s quite a few more, but it seems like if they don’t get the one season treatment, they’re getting pulled from these streaming platforms due to these company mergers and it’s just really chaotic right now. It seems like, for all of those shows we get, it seems like that more we lose.

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Is there a movie that you watch every Halloween season?

Ooh, you know what? I have a few.

For the nostalgia, I always try to catch Hocus Pocus at least once. Got to watch Halloween, got to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street. Got to catch the original Friday the 13th. I love Miss Voorhees. I live for it. Some others that are just straight-up have-to-watch classics. Well, Trick ‘r Treat, got to catch that one.

Addams Family. That’s another, Addams Family Values. I can literally quote both word for word almost. And then obviously if I can catch all of Universal Monster classics – usually they play Turner Classic Movies or they might come on Svengoolie or something like that, I try to catch them.

If Elvira comes out with a horror marathon, I try to catch that. I cannot miss my girl Elvira. That was actually a true delight. Last year was quite the Elvira year. That was really something special.

Yes! A queer icon.

Yes! And the thing is, right, that we always knew that she was “family,” but to have that just say like, “Yes, and this is my partner and this is how long we’ve been together.” And everybody’s just like, “Okay, we knew.”

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(Photo by Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection)

What’s the hardest review you’ve written so far?

One that was really hard was Amazon Prime’s Them. When it came out, there was a lot of discussion of, what does it mean to have Black horror stories? And then what kind of trauma or traumatic elements are in those stories? And I don’t blame anyone whatsoever for not wanting to see films like that. So whether it be Black stories, queer stories, so on and so forth, where the films have not always been kind to the marginalized folk that are included, I completely understand that.

And I would definitely say when the newest Candyman came out, it seemed like everyone wanted to have some kind of hot take on that movie. And there was also a lot of politicking going on. This was actually the very start of – in online discourse with the banned book movement and even the anti-“woke movie” movement – really targeting a lot of movies that either featured Black people, queer people, women, I mean, pretty much any groups or individuals that never got an opportunity to be the lead or the star. It seemed like those were the films that a certain contingent of the internet were just picking apart, ripping to shreds, not really engaging with the films as they were, but just really being really nasty.

Oh yeah, you know what? Lovecraft Country. I, definitely, as the series went on, I did multiple reviews that were kind of packaged in. I took a chunk of episodes, reviewed them, then did another chunk of episodes, and then did another chunk of episodes.

Lovecraft Country – as I was very clear – for all of its highs, it also had some low lows as well. The series definitely had some issues with LGBT+ rep for sure, as far as a mixture sometimes of imbuing those characters with whole agency and autonomy, but also with “bury your gays” for sure. There was an episode that had the introduction of a native trans, or two-spirit, character and there was a lot of violence that was done towards this character.

So there have been, I guess, a few where I’ve had to be honest and take the films or TV series to task. And that’s important, because for a really good critic, you can’t just voice praise and that’s the end of the review. You have to really get in, wade into the weeds, if you will, to really give yourself the integrity and give the readers obviously that dual integrity as well, that you are looking at the series as a complete product – where it succeeds and where it may have missed the bar in some aspects. Because obviously as critics, our voices and input help the genre advance. Without our good, salient criticism, we would not have the content that we love and are fawning over now; the genre never would have moved. It never would have grown.

What’s the biggest misconception that people have about critics?

There’s a belief that all critics are white and male and cis-hetero. That’s not the case at all. It’s still an issue about who gets the opportunity to have the microphone and have the pen as far as reviewing is concerned. That’s definitely still one of the biggest hurdles.

But the flip side is, because people are so hungry for something else, people are more open and willing to give space and attention actually to anyone that doesn’t check those specific boxes, if you will. I’m in the horror circles as far as social media is concerned. And then, I’m also in the queer circles as well. So I would probably get a lot more women, queer folk, non-white people that are in my feed, you know what I mean? They really come with something unique, something profound.

It’s a lot of the millennials now who are bringing all of their knowledge and life experience to a lot of these criticisms, and we have a different capacity now to kind of reflect on the content that we watch, that we allow the space for, where before we just dive into a piece of media with no content warnings, no trigger warnings, no thought to who this may harm or who this may impact with its content or with its messaging.

And now, not in a cloying way or not in a way that people can’t handle – we know that people are mature, we’re adults, we can handle a lot – but we always just like to clear the air, if you will. We just let people know up front that this is the content that X, Y, Z thing has. I would definitely say that critics now are just very aware, to at least give people the option before they’re thrust into the deep end.

It’s like, prepare yourself and decide whether or not you want to jump. Right?

Right, absolutely.

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(Photo by Netflix)

What’s next on your watch list? What release are you excited to see the rest of this year?

It comes at a very end of the month, but the stop motion Wendell & Wild, that will be coming out on Netflix. The Guillermo Del Toro anthology, and Mike Flanigan’s anthology that’s coming out as well.

I am a very, very, very, very, very, very, very excited for the new Hellraiser that’s coming on Hulu. I think everybody and their mother is excited for that one.

You’re featured in a documentary called Mental Health and Horror. Can you tell me a little bit about it?

We talked about what mental health and mental illness means for us individually. Then also, what is the broader discussion within the films that we watch? Where is the room for improvement in the films that we watch regarding mental health or the discussion of mental illness? Some of the films we talked about were kind of our foundation in the horror genre, or – I’m trying not to provide too many spoilers here ­– films that were integral to our development or films that were maybe triggering for us as well.

How do the horror genre and mental health intersect? Are there patterns in representation?

Oh, absolutely. I don’t think this is too much of a spoiler… Many of us that are just film watchers, or even film historians, know that so much of what we experienced in the United States was a byproduct of the Hays Code and the Lavender Scare as far as queer content and all of that being interconnected with a very conservative presentation in the films that we got in 1940s or 1950s America, and the genre was still trying to shake off a lot of that stuff, even in the ’70s and the ’80s.

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(Photo by 20th Century Fox)

What were you watching the first time you saw yourself on screen, if you’ve seen yourself on screen? And what did you relate to about that character or story?

What’s interesting about this question is it seems like it’s bits and pieces, if you will. I don’t think that, I guess unless you’re choosy, you can say, “Well, that was me and that was my character,” and so on and so forth. Until we get more non-binary characters in media, then maybe I’ll say, “Ah, there we are. There’s our benchmark.” Right?

Yeah, I feel that.

We still don’t have a lot of ace-spectrum representation. We’re still dealing with more characters that are neuro divergent of some kind and different, whether it be disabled or different body types. So I don’t know. Maybe one day I’ll have the muscular, non-binary, neuro divergent nerd of my dreams.

I would say – I even wrote a piece on it, actually; I called them my horror moms – that Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor were two of the first characters that just something about their stories and their journeys really hit something for me.

And it could have been as well they were two of the first visibly queer or queer-coded characters I ever saw in films that really ticked a lot of those boxes – characters that had been through an incalculable traumatic experience, the trauma of not being believed, the trauma of being the only one, the trauma of being the only woman, or the only queer person in the room.

I think that’s why they’re so near and dear to my heart because they were some of the first, and not only just some of the first, but some of the best. It’s rare that women, period, get any kind of horror film to start, but then you’re talking about sequels and then also having their stories revisited. Alien Resurrection and Terminator: Dark Fate are very special for me. I would even say Halloween Ends and everything. Just seeing that, there’s just something very powerful about that because a lot of films, we get a one-and-done that that’s their story. The end. We don’t really get to revisit them and see how are they dealing, how are they coping, how are they not.

And these characters in particular, we get to see that they’re not perfect and they’re flawed. I love a good imperfect character, or that we get to see the nuances of them and see that they’re not okay, that they are traumatized, that they are ostracized for a myriad of reasons.

There have obviously been other characters that resonate for me because they were the first Black one, right? If I had to make a top 10 sort of list, they would definitely be in the top two or neck-and-neck or whatever. They’re my horror moms for a reason.

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(Photo by © Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection)

Is there a movie or series that you love that’s Rotten on the Tomatometer?

I was surprised to see Death Becomes Her on there. I was like, I was like, “No, not this iconic horror film – horror comedy! – no way.” That blew me away.

The Craft! The fact that The Craft was on there…

Thank you!

I was like, “What are these lies?” Blade is on there. That bowled me over. I’m like, “Wait a minute. Not iconic, literal Black vampire that kicked off the Marvel explosion on the Rotten list!” I Know What You Did Last Summer is on there, okay?

What else was on there? The Cell. Now that one really surprised me, because The Cell has such incredible visuals, and in my opinion, the story is actually pretty tight, pretty solid as far as the writing – but the visuals alone in The Cell should have it in the Fresh category, in my opinion.

Honestly, I think their Rotten-ness kind of adds to their history. Jennifer’s Body! Jennifer’s Body is a classic and critics hated it when it came out – they didn’t understand it.

Yes. That’s another, thank you.

The fact that now that film is lauded, that it’s had all this critical analysis, that people are just like, “Oh, this is one of best films ever made.” Oh-wee.

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Dani Bethea is a pop culture writer with a focus on horror. Their work can be found on Medium, Ghouls Ghouls Ghouls, and Daily Dead, among others. They are the former Editor-in-Chief of the We Are Horror zine and are featured in an upcoming documentary titled Mental Health and Horror. Find Dani on Twitter: @TheDaniBethea.

Neil Gaiman’s highly-anticipated The Sandman series and the film premiere of vampire actioner Day Shift starring Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco, and Snoop Dogg lead Netflix’s August 2022 offerings.

Of Gaiman’s extensive roster of work, his Sandman comic series is probably his most famous. Now, his iconic tale of Dream (Tom Sturridge) — also known as Lord Morpheus or the King of Dreams — is coming to the streamer. When Dream is captured and held prisoner for a century, the land of the Dreaming is thrown into chaos. He inevitably escapes, though, and finds the realms thrown into chaos. To set things right, Dream embarks on a mission to reclaim his power and meets some interesting characters along the way. Also appearing in the series is Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Charles Dance as Sir. Roderick Burgess, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, David Thewlis as Dr. John Dee, Patton Oswalt as the voice of Matthew the Raven, and Mark Hamill as the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead.

Jamie Foxx stars in Day Shift, a modern-day horror-themed action flick about an international guild of vampire-hunters and the hard-working father struggling to provide a better life for his daughter — by killing the undead for profit. One part From Dusk Till Dawn and one part Blade, the movie co-stars Dave Franco, Snoop Dogg, Karla Souza, and Meagan Good.

Fans of YA fantasy rejoice: the story of the Locke family is finally back with the third and final installment of the hit fantasy series Locke & Key, based on the comic book run by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez. With more magic being uncovered in Keyhouse, and the most dangerous threat the family has ever encountered let loose, Nina (Darby Stanchfield), Tyler (Connor Jessup), Kinsey (Emilia Jones), and Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) will definitely have their hands full.

For fans of coming-of-age comedies, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, and Darren Barnet return for season 3 of Mindy Kaling’s hit high school series Never Have I Ever. And Kevin Hart joins Mark Wahlberg, Regina Hall, and Jimmy O. Yang in the raucous comedy Me Time.

Find out what else is joining them on Netflix and what’s leaving the service below.

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HIGHLIGHTS

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FULL LIST OF SHOWS AND MOVIES COMING TO NETFLIX THIS MONTH

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Coming Soon

Delhi Crime: Season 2*
Partner Track*

* NETFLIX ORIGINALS

Available 8/1

Big Tree City*

33% 28 Days (2000)

76% 8 Mile (2002)

50% Above the Rim (1994)

37% Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

78% Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)

79% Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

46% Constantine (2005)

42% Dinner for Schmucks (2010)

76% Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

83% Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

68% Footloose (2011)

51% Hardcore Henry (2015)

61% Legends of the Fall (1994)

86% Love & Basketball (2000)

15% Made of Honor (2008)

91% Men in Black (1997)

67% Men in Black 3 (2012)

38% Men in Black II (2002)

41% Miss Congeniality (2000)

19% Monster-in-Law (2005)

47% No Strings Attached (2011)

- - Pawn Stars: Season 13 (2016)

Polly Pocket: Season 4: Part 2: Tiny Taste Adventure

46% Squirrels to the Nuts (2014)

44% Space Jam (1996)

90% Spider-Man (2002)

93% Spider-Man 2 (2004)

63% Spider-Man 3 (2007)

92% The Town (2010)

58% Woman in Gold (2015)

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Available 8/2

77% Flight (2012)

Ricardo Quevedo: Tomorrow Will Be Worse*

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Available 8/3

Buba*
Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99*
Don’t Blame Karma!*

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Available 8/4

Lady Tamara*
KAKEGURUI TWIN*
Super Giant Robot Brothers*
Wedding Season*

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Available 8/5

32% Carter (2022) *

32% Carter (2022) *

Darlings*

63% The Informer (2019)

79% Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022) *

92% Skyfall (2012) *

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Available 8/6

Reclaim*

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Available 8/7

67% Riverdale: Season 6 (2021)

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Available 8/8

Code Name: Emperor*

- - Team Zenko Go: Season 2 (2022) *

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Available 8/9

I Just Killed My Dad*

91% The Nice Guys (2016)

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Available 8/10

Bank Robbers: The Last Great Heist*
Heartsong*

14% Indian Matchmaking: Season 2 (2022) *

Instant Dream Home*
Iron Chef Brazil*
School Tales The Series*

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Available 8/11

88% Dope (2015)

- - DOTA: Dragon's Blood: Book 3 (2022) *

Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story*

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Available 8/12

58% 13: The Musical (2022) *

A Model Family*

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Available 8/15

- - Ancient Aliens: Season 4 (2012) *

Deepa & Anoop*

92% Learn To Swim (2021)

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Available 8/16

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Available 8/17

High Heat*
Junior Baking Show: Season 6*

62% Look Both Ways (2022) *

Royalteen*
Unsuspicious*

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Available 8/18

- - He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Season 3*

Inside the Mind of a Cat*
Tekken: Bloodline*

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Available 8/19

- - The Cuphead Show!: Season 2 (2022) Part 2*

Echoes*
The Girl in the Mirror (Alma)*

- - Glow Up Season 4*

Kleo*
The Next 365 Days*

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Available 8/20

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Revenge of Scar*

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Available 8/21

- - A Cowgirl's Song (2022)

---

Available 8/23

- - Chad & JT Go Deep: Season 1 (2022) *

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Available 8/24

Lost Ollie*
Mo*
Queer Eye: Brazil*
Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee*
Selling The OC*
Under Fire*
Watch Out, We’re Mad*

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Available 8/25

- - Angry Birds: Summer Madness Season 3*

History 101: Season 2*
Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure*
That’s Amor*

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Available 8/26

84% Disobedience (2017)

Drive Hard: The Maloof Way*
Loving Adults*
Ludik*
Seoul Vibe*

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Available 8/29

Under Her Control*

- - Mighty Express Season 7*

---

Available 8/30

- - I Am a Killer Season 3*

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Available 8/31

Club América vs Club América*
Family Secrets*
I Came By*

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TV SHOWS AND MOVIES LEAVING NETFLIX THIS MONTH

---

Leaving 8/4

They’ve Gotta Have Us: Season 1

---

Leaving 8/5

93% Screwball (2018)

---

Leaving 8/7

68% We Summon the Darkness (2019)

---

Leaving 8/9

14% Demonic (2021)

30% The Saint (1997)

---

Leaving 8/10

81% Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014)

---

Leaving 8/15

16% Endless Love (2014)

- - Selfless (2008)

---

Leaving 8/20

86% The Conjuring (2013)

---

Leaving 8/23

- - Young & Hungry Seasons 1-5

---

Leaving 8/24

36% The November Man (2014)

- - Celebrity Wheel of Fortune Seasons 35-37

---

Leaving 8/25

89% Taxi Driver (1976)

68% The Visit (2015)

---

Leaving 8/27

87% Wind River (2017)

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Leaving 8/30

96% In the Line of Fire (1993)

---

Leaving 8/31

94% A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

14% A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

69% A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011)

57% Crooked House (2017)

66% Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

68% Cliffhanger (1993)

87% The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

91% The Departed (2006)

93% Goodfellas (1990)

10% Grown Ups (2010)

97% Halloween (1978)

54% Just Like Heaven (2005)

82% Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

- - Major Dad Seasons 1-4

93% Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

67% Mission: Impossible (1996)

58% Mission: Impossible II (2000)

8% Premonition (2007)

68% Public Enemies (2009)

75% Rise of the Guardians (2012)

45% Soul Surfer (2011)

72% Starship Troopers (1997)

88% Titanic (1997)

48% We Are Marshall (2006)

31% Wyatt Earp (1994)

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On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

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Thumbnail images: Netflix

(Photo by ©Compass International Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)

Ever since John Carpenter first unleashed the terror known as Michael Myers on unsuspecting moviegoers in 1978, the pale-masked villain has stalked cineplexes and thrilled audiences… to varying degrees of success. In 2018, director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride debuted the first of a planned new trilogy, Halloween, to fantastic results, and its second chapter, Halloween Kills, just rocked the weekend box office to the tune of $50 million, despite also streaming on Peacock.

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Listen Now: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | Google Podcasts | Radio Public | Deezer | iHeart | Art19

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But like any long-running horror franchise, Halloween has had its critical ups and downs — let’s be honest, the downs kind of dominate the series — so what is it about these movies that keeps audiences bloodthirsty for more?

That’s what we set out to uncover on this week’s episode of our podcast Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong, digging into every sequel, reboot, and sort-of-sequel-sort-of-reboot — as well as a curiously conspicuous detour — to determine if the Tomatometer scores line up with what fans have come to expect of the nigh-unkillable man in the repurposed William Shatner mask and the Final Girl to outlast them all, Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode.

Does the Halloween franchise as a whole deserve to be Fresher? (Only two of the entries — the original Halloween and the 2018 film — have met that threshold.) Is Halloween III: Season of the Witch a misunderstood gem that should be judged on its own merits? And what exactly does it take to make an effective horror film anyway?

Joining regular co-hosts Jacqueline Coley and Mark Ellis is a guest who knows a little something about the horror genre: Michael Kennedy, who wrote the Certified Fresh 2020 body-swap horror-comedy Freaky and has a new slasher called Time Cut in the works. Will he be able to successfully argue that Halloween H20 is, in fact, a better film than Halloween 2018?

Check in every Thursday for a new episode of Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong (A Podcast From Rotten Tomatoes). Each week, hosts Jacqueline and Mark and guests go deep and settle the score on some of the most beloved – and despised – movies and TV shows ever made, directly taking on the statement we hear from so many fans: “Rotten Tomatoes is wrong.”

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Check out some more episodes of Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong:

• Episode 29: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Joker
• Episode 30: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Video-Game Movies (with WWE superstar Xavier Woods)
• Episode 31: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Game of Thrones‘ Final Season
• Episode 34: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
• Episode 35: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
• Episode 36: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
• Episode 37: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Aladdin
• Episode 41: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Tenet
• Episode 42: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Armageddon
• Episode 43: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Iron Man 2
• Episode 44: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Space Jam
• Episode 46: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Constantine (Bonus Episode)
• Episode 47: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Suicide Squad (2016)
• Episode 48: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Twilight 
• Episode 51: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… Iron Man 3
• Episode 52: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong”… According to Chance the Rapper
• Episode 53: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong”About… Aquaman
• Episode 54: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… The Sopranos
• Episode 55: “Rotten Tomatoes Is Wrong” About… The James Bond Movies

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If you have a suggestion for a movie or show you think we should do an episode on, let us know in the comments, or email us at rtiswrong@rottentomatoes.com.

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Meet the hosts

Jacqueline Coley is an editor at Rotten Tomatoes, with a focus on awards and indie coverage but with a passion for everything, from the MCU to musicals and period pieces. Coley is a regular moderator at conventions and other events, can be seen on Access Hollywood and other shows, and will not stand Constantine slander of any kind. Follow Jacqueline on Twitter: @THATjacqueline.

Mark Ellis is a comedian and contributing editor for Rotten Tomatoes. He currently hosts the Rotten Tomatoes series Versus, among others, and can be seen co-hosting the sports entertainment phenomenon Movie Trivia Schmoedown. His favorite Star Wars movie is Jedi (guess which one!), his favorite person is actually a dog (his beloved stepdaughter Mollie), and – thanks to this podcast – he’s about to watch Burlesque for the first time in his life. Follow Mark on Twitter: @markellislive.

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On an Apple device? Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Apple News.

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Final Girls illustrated the moral split between the chaste and the virtuous. You know the deal – the hard-drinking, promiscuous girl dies first, and the demure, virginal girl survives to take down the murderer. She’s the final one standing. Pop culture is replete with characters that fit the bill – Jess Bradford in the original Black Christmas, Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nancy Thompson in The Nightmare on Elm Street – and their existence has become as integral to the slasher genre as the killers themselves.

(Photo by Lionsgate/Courtesy Everett Collection)

But that was then and this is now. The original Final Girl is slowly but surely being crowded out by a newer, more progressive iteration that acknowledges the restrictive ideas that initially gave birth to her. Over the last couple of decades, and particularly in the last 10 years, the last girl standing has looked a lot different from the final girls of the past. Progressively, in films like Scream, The Cabin In The Woods and It Follows, final girls have complicated the existing frame of the trope by pushing against its restrictions. 

Whether it’s by having sex, refusing to be constricted by archaic ideas of femininity, or simply by teaming up to fight together, these women now survive despite leading lives the genre used to consider wholly immoral and in need of corrective punishment – they’re a new kind of Final Girl. The Final Girls who were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s have become more nuanced over time, and that progress paved the way for the Finals Girls of Ready or Not and 2019’s Black Christmas who directly confront issues of misogyny and sex negativity.

In some ways, the New Final Girl is almost the original Final Girl’s polar opposite. Rather than surviving because of her innocence, naïveté or virginity, the New Final Girl is the woman who makes it to the end of the film alive specifically because of her rejection of the old norms about what makes a woman morally deserving. The New Final Girl embraces drink, drugs, and sex and defends her engagement in each of them. She insists on being seen as a full human being and actively, often violently defends her right to do so. Most of all, the New Final Girl is still an active participant in her own survival – she knows the original Final Girl shouldn’t have had to sand off her edges to stay alive. The New Final Girl is not a virginal survivor but an intentional fighter who asserts her right to exist despite perceived moral flaws.

In the 2019 sequel slasher Happy Death Day 2U, Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) finds herself once again stuck in the murderous time loop of the first film. Over and over, she relives the same day, and it ends when she is brutally murdered by a serial killer known as Babyface. In the first film, the culprit is Tree’s sorority sister and roommate Lori (Ruby Modine). The two women are both having an affair with the same married professor, and Lori’s jealousy puts Tree in her crosshairs. In the sequel, Babyface is none other than the philandering professor himself, trying to eliminate any evidence of his transgressions.

What makes Tree’s Final Girl status so interesting is that she begins the story as one of the “immoral women” who would usually die in a thriller. Tree is, by all accounts, a typical sorority mean girl. When we meet her, she is recovering from a night of partying and on her way to meet the professor she’s carrying on with. And in fact, she does die, over and over again, punished for her ruthlessness, immorality, and general misbehavior. But through the mechanics of the film itself, she evolves into a New Final Girl through sheer determination. 

(Photo by © Universal /Courtesy Everett Collection)

In both films, Tree breaks her loop and returns to her life not by becoming more virtuous, but by becoming a more compassionate and considerate person. She improves and grows as a character – including ending her affair – not because those things make her unworthy of redemption, but because they are not the best choices for her as a person. She undergoes significant character growth without ever placing a moral frame on her sexuality or femininity. And through each of the infinite deaths it takes her to get there, she plots and schemes to find her killer and thwart them, determined to prevent her eventual death and save herself. 

Tree is a novel subversion of the trope because it’s her death itself that furthers her character growth. Several times, she intentionally kills herself in service of a larger goal; sometimes to gather more information about her situation and sometimes to undo the murders of other characters. As a result, her deaths then become an intentional sacrifice that signals her increasing virtue, instead of confirming its absence. It’s a large departure from the way the original Final Girls functioned in films like these.

Similarly, the evolution of Halloween’s Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) into a New Final Girl in the film’s 2018 sequel of the same name is particularly notable because the character’s first iteration was in many ways the definitive final girl – most other examples are direct descendants of her legacy. In the first film, Strode is left as the sole survivor of the serial killer Michael Myers’ murder spree – the only young woman in the film who chose to abstain from the usual vices. Her survival largely conformed to expectations for women in horror at the time, and helped to cement the trope in the genre.

But in the film’s most recent sequel – which retcons several that had come before –Laurie is now an older woman, driven to extremes by her fixation on stopping Myers’ return. In the 40 years since the events of the first film, Laurie has grown into an obsessive, battle-worn veteran of the war in her own mind. She may not be having sex or doing drugs, but she’s far from the pure, “likable” babysitter we met decades earlier. She is convinced that Myers will return and has devoted her life to preparing for that eventuality. In the process she has lost custody of her daughter and become estranged from her daughter’s family. She is perceived as a lonely old woman too traumatized by her past to move on. 

Of course, Myers does eventually return. But this time Laurie is ready for him, having rigged her entire house to trap and kill him. Whereas in 1978 she was permitted to survive by virtue of her moral purity, in 2018 she fights like hell for that survival, taking active steps to make sure that Myers can no longer victimize her. She takes the lead in tracking Myers down and trapping him on her home turf. After spending years contemplating and preparing for the return of his torment, Laurie has transformed herself into the Ultimate Final Girl through sheer force of will. She has no intention of being defeated yet again.

Critically, Laurie must also protect her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Virginia Gardener) this time around, folding them into a generational legacy of victimization and defense. When the threat they have dismissed for so long reveals itself to be real, they join forces with Laurie to fight and eliminate it – Myers is now a specter that haunts them all, the source of their estrangement and the origin of their familial trauma. Defeating Myers together connects the women as Final Girls of a new generation, forcing them all to overlook their own and each other’s flaws in order to face the embodiment of their fractured relationships. Laurie leads the charge, but her family takes up her mantle. 

This isn’t to say that the old trope never survives. In fact, Allyson’s best friend Vicky is killed during a babysitting job soon after letting her wayward boyfriend into the house. It wouldn’t be a stretch to interpret her death as the same kind of stark moral judgement that historically happened in slasher films. This is especially true given the contrast with Allyson’s own encounter with Myers. After her boyfriend’s best friend inappropriately propositions her, he is immediately murdered while she survives. His overeager instinct to breach her consent should absolutely have been corrected, but death is a disproportionate response. The message couldn’t be clearer: all sexual impulses exist along the same punishable continuum, regardless of how welcome they might be to the participants involved.

 

One of the starkest examples of this shift in recent years is 2018’s Assassination Nation, which explored the trope in thrilling style. Set in conservative Salem, the movie focuses on a group of teen girls who find themselves at the center of a small-town lynch mob when they are blamed for the release of the community’s private information. The girls are not guilty of the mass doxing, but their reputations as “loose women” make them ideal targets for the ire and anger of the town’s men and boys. 

The girls — Lily (Odessa Young), Sarah (Suki Waterhouse), Bex (Hari Nef), and Em (Abra) – are known at their high school for their skimpy outfits, their questionable choices in boys, and their perceived promiscuity. They are open about and proud of their burgeoning sexuality and enjoy exploring their relationships to the men in their lives. Lily is dating an abusive high school boy and carrying on an illicit affair with a married neighbor. Bex is trans and keeping her relationship with the popular football player a secret at his request. Sarah and Em are living with their mother Nance, who is implied to be operating a brothel out of her home. 

When the community devolves into ultraviolence, the citizens hunt the girls across the town, determined to punish them for being forced to confront their own once-private sexual shames. As the balance of power shifts, the horror genre tropes follow in quick succession. From a coordinated home invasion to a horde of masked killers to the use of guns and baseballs bats — the most American of weapons — the girls suddenly find themselves in the middle of their very own slasher film.

At another time, all four of these women would be fated to die before the credits rolled. Their proximity to vice marks them as fallen women, and only the morally pure survive the transformative power of abject terror. But as New Final Girls, all four of them not only survive but continue on to restore order to the town. The girls rescue each other from the outsized violence the men are trying to inflict on them (including an attempted rape and hanging) and take up arms to defend themselves both literally and in abstract. The film ends as they deliver a call to action to the town’s girls, surrounded by bodies and covered in glitter, both claiming the righteousness of their femininity and rejecting the ubiquity of patriarchal terror. Through female solidarity they all survive and mete out the violence necessary to do so. 

Assassination Nation is unique in that the girls are explicitly targeted because of their sexuality – usually, this aspect of the genre is left as subtext. But here, the trope is almost deconstructed by bringing both the reasons for their attack and subsequent defense to the surface. They become New Final Girls because, given the plot constraints, their only options are to transform themselves or die. 

Teenaged Laurie Strode and college-aged Tree Gelbman might have led different lives and made different choices, but when it came down to it, they both survived because they resolved to fight and refused to die. The haunting specter of violent masculinity came for all the women mentioned here, and they all triumphed, even under the restrictive gaze of a society that expects feminine perfection. But no matter how stark the contrast may be, these changes are progressive strides that honor the history of the slasher genre in inventive ways while bringing them into the contemporary moment. The Final Girl survived, but the New Final Girl thrives, and she’s ready to fight again another day.

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Follow Catherine Young on Twitter @battymamzelle

Horror’s consistent focus on stories that double as morality tales often leads to protagonists who are dutiful and serious, leaving a big blank spot in charisma and personality. But that’s why god invented the sidekick. They are the color to the protagonist’s black-and-white, the fiery, funny fools who often drive the story’s complications, as the protagonist runs around putting out all the fires.

Because a fair number of horror films feature female leads, many of these sidekicks are also female characters. Sometimes they bolster the protagonist’s confidence, sometimes tear it down. Occasionally they take on traits of a villain, only to be revealed as the true center of the film. Often they perish, and their deaths trigger an extra significance: If this person with quick wit and endearing flaws can die, then things are about to get serious.

One of the greatest – to our mind – is Barb, played by Margot Kidder, in the original Black Christmas. As we prepare for the release of Blumhouse’s Black Christmas remake this week, here are 15 of the most colorful sidekicks of horror cinema.

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Barb in  Black Christmas (1974) 71%

(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Margot Kidder

Very few horror films possess the kind of joy Bob Clark’s Black Christmas emits when resident alcoholic and prankster Barb (Margot Kidder) patiently explains to a befuddled cop that her phone number begins with the word “fellatio.” Nor do they revel in a character’s tangential knowledge as much as when Barb interjects with some serious turtle-sex facts while a father is grieving his missing daughter. Barb may not be the final girl, but she fills our stockings with delightful coal.

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Tatum in  Scream (1996) 78%

(Photo by © Dimension Films)

Played by Rose McGowan

Wes Craven consistently delivered some of the best female sidekicks, but Tatum (Rose McGowan) earns a spot for her 1990s “girl power” feminism that had her trying to convince her boyfriend, Casey (Matthew Lillard), that the new Woodsboro slasher could be a woman, because girls can do anything boys can do. Her kid-sister vibe – she’s literally Dewy’s kid sister – makes her a sparkling verbal sparrer, and she’s talking s–t right up until the very garage-door end.

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Annie and Lynda in Halloween (1978) 97%

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

Played by Nancy Kyes and P.J. Soles 

Before slashers were a thing, John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill’s prototype for the genre showcased the possibilities for fully fleshed-out sidekicks with sporty Lynda and sarcastic Annie, the bad and badder devils on Laurie Strode’s shoulders. They poke fun at the latter’s virginal purity with the kind of ribbing realistic for angsty teen girls. Both act as comic relief, proving there can and should be more than one funnywoman in the group.

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Pam in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 84%

(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Teri McMinn

Tobe Hooper specifically asked for actress Teri McMinn’s costume to be backless and short to show off most of her “meat,” giving her a visually vulnerable feel in this slaughterhouse classic. Pam is a small role, but McMinn fills her out with a genuine openness and curiosity, a young woman of the perilous 1970s whose kind and trusting nature leads her to disaster.

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Juno Kaplan in  The Descent (2005) 87%

(Photo by © Lionsgate)

Played by Natalie Mendoza

Juno is both the sidekick and the foil of Neil Marshall’s spelunking disaster. It’s her fiery, fierce, and selfish nature that draws her estranged best friend Sarah into the unexplored caves, but also the spirit that gives Sarah the will to leave her as bait and escape. Natalie Mendoza’s empathetic performance speaks to what one is capable of when scared, but not so much that her fate doesn’t seem a little fitting.

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Lambert in  Alien (1979) 93%

(Photo by © 20th Century Fox / courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Veronica Cartwright

Joan Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) was the navigator of the USCSS Nostromo, and she spent just as much time trying to guide the crew of the ship in the right direction. She was the first to say exploring that distress call was a bad idea and the first to say they should “get the hell out of here.” Her hysterics are a natural and appropriate reaction to an alien attack and an extension of the audience’s reactions, so Lambert becomes the lens through which we view the film.

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Jeryline in  Tales From the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995) 45%

(Photo by MCA/Universal Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.)

Played by Jada Pinkett-Smith

Jeryline (Jada Pinkett-Smith) may be a criminal on work release at a rural hotel, but she’s got more smarts and morals than many. Demon Knight is the rare horror movie willing to off its protagonist, and Jeryline steps up from sidekick to lead, showing off her cunning by using the demon’s Don Juan charm against him and ultimately saving the night.

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Tina Gray in  A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 94%

(Photo by © New Line Cinema)

Played by Amanda Wyss

If you’d only watched the first act of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, you’d think Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) were the protagonist of the film, but she’s in actuality the sidekick and catalyst for the film series. She exudes both vulnerability and strength, which is why her iconic demise and subsequent use as a puppet for Freddy Krueger’s mind tricks is a huge punch to the gut.

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Helen Shivers in  I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) 47%

(Photo by © Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar

The key to Helen Shivers’ success as a sidekick is her unabashed and shameless vanity. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s portrayal of the character paints her as the beauty queen with depth, the most likely to succeed. She’s the woman with the plan to track down the killer and the guts to charge into the crowd of the Croaker Queen Pageant talent competition to save her friend. Unfortunately, luck just wasn’t on her side.

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Paige in  House of Wax (2005) 27%

(Photo by © Warner Bros.)

Played by Paris Hilton

When it was announced that Paris Hilton would play a supporting character in Jaume Collet-Serra’s remake of House of Wax, there was a resounding cheer that audiences would get to see this real-life heel bloodily sacrificed for the movie gods. The thing is: Hilton killed it. She infused Paige with the same detached and fascinating poppy materialism she possessed in her reality show, becoming the best love-to-hate-’em sidekick.

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Vasquez in Aliens (1986) 94%

Played by Jenette Goldstein

The descriptor “badass” is tossed around for really any female character who demonstrates anything remotely “strong.” But Jenette Goldstein’s Vasquez is potentially the only character worthy of being called a badass. Her barbed quips and buff biceps are perhaps the most memorable aspect of an extremely memorable film. She exudes fearlessness and feels nearly immortal… until she doesn’t.

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Yara in  It Follows (2014) 95%

(Photo by © RADiUS-TWC/courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Olivia Luccardi

Olivia Luccardi’s Yara is more than a sidekick, she’s the one-woman Greek chorus of It Follows. At first, she seems like a typical tech-obsessed, disinterested teen, constantly reading things on her fictional clamshell e-reader, occasionally glancing up to sneer at her friends’ poor choices. But nearly everything Yara reads aloud to her friends contains a philosophical key to their situation, advice, and omens.

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Alexia in Raw (2016) 93%

(Photo by © Focus World /courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Ella Rumpf

The genius of Ella Rumpf’s Alexia in Julia Ducournau’s Raw is that Alexia at first seems the antagonist of the film, the source of all of her sister’s problematic cravings, but it turns out she’s really the sidekick. She’s a cutting bully who can turn on a dime to become the doting and generous big sister. Even as she emotionally tortures Justine, Alexia clearly wants to snap her sister out of her goody two-shoes demeanor and have some fun.

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Lily in  Black Swan (2010) 85%

(Photo by © Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Played by Mila Kunis

Just like Alexia in Raw, Lily’s the false antagonist, the projection of all the protagonist’s fears and anxieties. In reality, she’s a smart, grounded ballet dancer, probably the sanest of the bunch, whose only hope is to nab the lead role and maybe coax Nina out of her cocooned and infantile life. In a story of paranoia and delusion, Lily’s the realest of the real.

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Nam-joo in  The Host (2006) 93%

(Photo by ©Magnolia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)

Played by Bae Doo-na

There are few things more admirable about director Bong Joon-ho than his ability to create characters who are both wildly inept and also extremely vain and self-satisfied with their limited abilities. Nam-joo (Bae Doo-na) as the protagonist’s gold medalist archer sister who rubs her mediocre success in his face is one of Bong’s greatest creations. It’s impossible for her to swallow her pride, even as she’s face-to-face with a monstrous adversary.

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Black Christmas is in theaters December 13, 2019

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Looking for a Halloween horror binge for the weekend? Stream the three seasons of Penny Dreadful on Netflix. Want to frighten your friends and loved ones?  Turn on Splatterdays, Pluto TV’s free marathon of horror classics. Keep reading to learn more about the season’s best Halloween programming.

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MARATHONS

(Photo by Picture Alliance/Everett Collection)

31 Nights of Halloween, Freeform
The annual event on the network features its usual lineup of Halloween-themed movies — The Addams Family, Maleficent, Hotel Transylvania, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course Hocus Pocus — along with a special (31 Nights of Halloween Special Fan Fest) and an all-day Hocus Pocus marathon on the day itself.

Huluween, Hulu
Visit the streaming service’s Halloween-themed hub for a personalized selection of popular Halloween TV episodes and movies. Hand-picked Halloween collections include Freaky Franchises, Foreign Frights, Psychological Horror & Thrillers, Sci-Fi Scares, Indies, Zombies, Humorous Horror, Anthologies, alongside Hulu Originals and Huluween Essentials.

AMC FearFest, AMC
The network’s annual horror marathon promises 104 spooky titles, including Alien, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Final Destination, The Omen, Leprechaun, and more (ongoing).

Netflix & Chills, Netflix
The streaming service’s spooky hub contains plenty of horror movies and horror TV series, plus a selection of original movies and series debuting throughout the month of October.

Splatterdays and 31 Nights of Horror, Pluto TV
In the free streaming service’s horror marathon, watch a different scary movie every night starting at 10 p.m. ET. Selections include classics like Day of the Dead and Hellraiser and modern hits like You’re Next and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. In the “Splatterdays” terror marathon, watch a marathon of slasher movies every Saturday night starting at 7 p.m. ET. Titles include Prom Night, Prom Night 2: Hello Mary Lou, I Saw The Devil, Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers, and Severance.

Supernatural, TNT
On Halloween day, TNT will air nine hours straight of some of the CW hit’s spookiest episodes, including “Ghostfacers,” “Monster Movie,” “ScoobyNatural,” and many more. The marathon runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 31.

A Shudder Halloween Collection, Shudder
The horror streaming service is highlighting classics including the Halloween movies and originals including Belzebuth and Terrified.

13 Nights of Halloween, HDNet Movies
A mix of classic and modern horror and thriller films will play every night on the network. Highlights include a Night of the Living Dead Marathon, an Edgar Allan Poe/Vincent Price night, and a 24-hour marathon on Halloween itself.

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RELATED: Vampire TV Shows Ranked By Tomatometer

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SERIES

American Horror Story () 77% — Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX

Castle Rock () 88%  —  available to stream on Hulu

Charmed () - -  — Fridays at 8 p.m. on The CW

Creepshow () 85% — streaming Thursdays on Shudder

Daybreak () 68% — streaming Thursday, Oct. 24 on Netflix

A Discovery of Witches () 87%  — available to stream on Sundance Now

The Killing: Season 4 () 47% — season 3 is now available to stream on Netflix

Legacies () - -  — Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW

Halloween Baking Championship — Mondays at 9 p.m. on Food Network

Haunted () - -  —  available to stream on Netflix

Into the Dark () 70%  — Blumhouse’s horror anthology — available to stream on Hulu

Marianne () 100%  — available to stream on Netflix

Mr. Mercedes () 91%  — Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on Audience

Light as a Feather () 50%  — available to stream on Hulu

Penny Dreadful () 91%  — available to stream on Netflix

Prank Encounters () 40%  — streaming Friday, Oct. 25 on Netflix

The Purge () 42% — Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on USA

The Walking Dead () 79% — Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC

Zomboat! () - - — streaming Friday, Oct. 25 on Hulu

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RELATED: Best Horror TV Series to Watch on Netflix

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MOVIES & SPECIALS

In the Tall Grass (2019) 36% — the film based on the novella by Stephen King and Joe Hill, now streaming on Netflix

Fractured (2019) 56% — a family’s car trip goes wrong in this film starring Sam Worthington and Lily Rabe, now streaming on Netflix

Wounds (2019) 47% — a New Orleans bartender’s life begins to unravel after a series of disturbing and inexplicable events that begin to happen to him after picking up a phone left behind at a bar, now streaming on Hulu

Little Monsters (2019) 79% — the critically acclaimed Australian horror comedy about a school field trip that ends with a zombie outbreak stars Lupita Nyong’o and is now streaming on Hulu

Rattlesnake (2019) 32% — a single mother (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter drive across the country to start their new life, but things go wrong when their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the daughter is bitten by a rattlesnake, premieres Friday, Oct. 25 on Netflix

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RELATED: Best Horror Movies on Netflix to Watch Right Now

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The Top Ten Revealed: Rockin’ Ghoulish Songs — premieres Sunday, Oct. 27 at 8:30 p.m. ET on AXS TV

Agatha Raisin () - - — premieres Monday, Oct. 28 on Acorn TV

World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum — premieres Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. on A&E

The Very VERY Best of the 70s: Horror Films — premieres Thursday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on AXS TV

The 13 Scariest Movies of All Time — premieres Thursday, Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW, hosted by Dean Cain

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EPISODES

(Photo by THE SIMPSONS ™ and © 2019 TCFFC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

The Simpsons () 85% — “Treehouse of Horror XXX” now available to stream on Fox.com

Evil () 96% — “October 31” premieres Thursday, October 24 on CBS

The Conners () - - — “Nightmare on Lunch Box Street” premieres Tuesday, October 29 on ABC

Schooled () 73% — “Run, Rick, Run” premieres Wednesday, October 30 on ABC

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(Photo by Jack Rowand/The CW)

Riverdale () 81% — “Chapter Sixty-One: Halloween” premieres Wednesday, October 30 on The CW

Nancy Drew () - - — “The Haunted Ring” premieres Wednesday, October 30 on The CW

Young Sheldon () - - — “Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan” rebroadcast Thursday, October 31 on CBS

Mysteries Decoded () - - — “Vampires of New Orleans” premieres Thursday, October 31 on The CW

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RELATED: The Scariest TV Episodes Ever

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Director Ari Aster unleashes Midsommar this week, his follow-up to breakout debut Hereditary, the family shocker made very much in the horror tradition of dark corners, black nights, and creeping shadows to conjure up scares. Midsommar, set in remote Sweden during a flower-dressed festival, is designed as an anomaly: A gruesome horror movie that allows all its gore and brutality to curdle in open, bright daylight. There’s no hiding away in this one, folks, inspiring us to offer up our own selection of the 11 scariest scenes where the blood shines bright as the sun.

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11. Pinbacker Attacks in  Sunshine (2007) 77%

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10. The Finale in  Session 9 (2001) 68%

A condemned asylum. Inside: clattering chains, disturbed wheelchairs, and crumbling wards. A group of people enter to clean up the place, some who harbor dark histories. Sound like a set up for classic dark and stormy Gothic tale? Not so with Session 9. What kind of clean up crew would work at night? Come on, this is a horror movie: Logic is king here. A slow atmospheric burn with minimal gore until its final minutes, but even when things go to hell, the blood is bathed in New England sun.

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9. Freddy’s Coming For You in  A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 94%

Time for a victory lap: Hop into the convertible on this bright school morning having vanquished the tormentor of fatal dreams, turn around and wave goodbye to your mom standing on the porch. Suddenly, the top slams down and the car peels down the street, as mama is sucked through the front door window. The nightmare has only just begun. The original Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees made the last-second jump scare a mandatory inclusion for ’80s slashers and beyond. Freddy Krueger may have perfected it.

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8. Michael Myers Stalking in  Halloween (1978) 97%

John Carpenter’s classic did a lot of things right. Gave us a classic creepy synth score. Destroyed suburbia’s manicured image as a stronghold of safety and comfort. And it rolled out the red carpet to let masked killer Michael Myers to wander and stalk his prey in broad daylight. The shot of Myers staring up at you from among the billowing laundry sheets hung to dry in the yard remains an iconic and violating image.

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7. The Day After in  The Hills Have Eyes (2006) 51%

The Carter family is subjected to a litany of brutal terror over the course of 24 hours. During the initial day, they’re led off-road and their car gets mangled in the desert. The family separates in search for help. A dog gets gutted. The gas station attendant commits suicide. And always mutants are watching them from afar in the brush and rocks, leading to a long night of crucifixions, immolation, rape, murder, and baby-snatching. And then the next day, the cannibals feast on sun-cooked flesh. It’s a torturous chain of events that transforms the remaining Carters into out-for-blood hunters in a highly questionable, deeply satisfying revenge ending.

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6. Randy’s Death in  Scream 2 (1997) 83%

You knew director Wes Craven wasn’t fooling around when he killed off know-it-all cinebuff Randy, portrayed by Jamie Kennedy as someone as smart and cynical as the audience. How could he have fallen for the afternoon masked killer in the local news van with noisy nearby breakdancers? Oldest trick in the book! But it’s also series’ most shocking homicide outside of Drew Barrymore’s, the one that tells the oh-so-smart audience that no one was truly safe. The Arquettes, Courteney and David as Gale and Dewey, frantically search for the killer in the college square by accosting students with their new-fangled mobile phones, presenting on screen when awful taunting calls escaped the constraints of landlines and curly cords, and into a new world of free-roaming terror.

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5. The Ceremony in  The Wicker Man (1973) 91%

Midsommar owes a blood debt to this provincial classic: the unsettling tale of an uptight Christian cop investigating a young girl’s disappearance on an island of decadent mystic pagans has thematic and visual parallels to Aster’s film. Likewise, nearly the entire movie is set during the day among verdant nature and maypole celebrations and foreshadowing musical rhymes that seem to follow the officer everywhere he goes. It’s far too late when he realizes the true nature of his work, leading to a fiery climax in the friscalating dusk light.

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4. The Premonition in  Final Destination 2 (2003) 52%

Some of the best horror wedges its way into the normal, degrading the routine and humdrum into a morass of paranoia and fear. Final Destination 2 does that with the daily morning commute, because what could be more humdrum than getting in our 1,000 lb. metal husks every day, navigating them manually down the road as cars careen towards us in the opposite direction separated only by capriciously painted lines on the ground? Suddenly, something as innocent as a flatbed of loose tree logs becomes a rolling thunder revue of broken windshield, splattered heads, and Michael Bay–style auto explosions.

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3. The Opening Chase in  28 Weeks Later (2007) 73%

28 Days Later‘s famous opening features calm shots of the hero wandering an empty London metropolis depopulated by zombies — moments we would consider eerie, almost beautiful, but not scary. 28 Weeks Later takes the opposite approach. It’s set in the countryside, as a band of infected descend upon defenseless survivors. The camera is in your face, the footage choppy and frantically (but not confusingly) edited, save for a gliding crane shot as our new “hero” flees across the field and towards a waiting river boat. The fact that he just abandoned his wife to the zombies moments earlier contribute to the gut-punching bleakness of the situation. Now that we consider scary.

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2. Leatherface Appears in  The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 84%

Like a rusty chainsaw, Tobe Hooper’s horror masterpiece takes a moment to rev up. But once it gets going, the movie is relentless, grinding down the viewer’s endurance up until the famous ending of Leatherface cutting the rising sun light in boiling anger. It’s a great final appearance, but his first introduction is even better. Hapless travelers, in search of gas for their thirsty boogie van, approach a piquant homestead, oblivious that its inhabitants are cannibal freaks who have no qualms doing their dirty deeds in daylight. Leatherface suddenly appears from out of a hallway, smashes his victim’s head in with a hammer as the body crumples and twitches on the ground, and then slides the slaughterhouse door shut. Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys!

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1. The Beach Attack in  Jaws (1975) 97%

The scene that made a generation of filmgoers terrified of open water. It’s immaculately crafted pop horror and it still works today. Steven Spielberg uses a collage of beach crowd noise and throngs of people innocently rising to disorient the viewer, telling us to be just as alert as Roy Scheider’s police chief. Spielberg famously had to use every filmmaking tool he knew to overcome critical obstacles like a malfunctioning shark, and here heightens and stylizes reality as Jaws approaches the beach. A split diopter lens shot puts an obtrusive face and a possibly drowning distant swimmer in equal focus. A dog is discovered missing. We get that terrifying first-person viewpoint as Jaws picks his victim, and the incessant John Williams theme building on the soundtrack. Then a dolly zoom as terror dawns on Schieider’s face. A geyser of blood erupts out in the ocean as pure pandemonium breaks out, and a frantic mother loses her son. It’s a powerful scene in how powerless it makes a man of law feel against a force of nature.

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Horror has a way of making an unlit hallway look like a trek through hell, inducing heart attacks though jumping cats, and transforming everyday tools like chainsaws and double-barrel shotguns into instruments of doom. The marketing and posters for Us suggests that Jordan Peele’s new horror flick will do for golden scissors what Get Out did for tea cups, which also happens to be one of selections for the 25 most iconic props from horror movie history! Read on to get your fill of creaky carriages, demonic dolls, and bloody blades.

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It’s October, people! That means it’s time to sharpen your pumpkin-carving knives, stock up on candy, and…turn on your TV (or at least set your DVR) to celebrate the spookiest holiday of the year. TV networks and streaming services are celebrating Halloween all month long with marathons, specials, series, episodes, and more.

Check back periodically throughout October as we update the list with the latest in Halloween programming!

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MARATHONS

(Photo by Picture Alliance/Everett Collection)

31 Nights of Halloween, Freeform
Expanding from 13 nights to 31, the network is celebrating Halloween all month long for its 20th annual celebration. Programming includes fan-favorite movies (The Addams Family, Maleficent, Hotel Transylvania, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the exclusive television home for Hocus Pocus), a new special (Decorating Disney: Halloween Magic), short-form content and an all-day Hocus Pocus marathon on the day itself.

31 Days of Halloween, Syfy
The network’s October programming includes the debut of multiple original movies, a new installment of horror anthology Channel Zero, new seasons of Z Nation and Van Helsing, and airings of fan-favorite scary movies including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Resident Evil, and The Cabin in the Woods.

AMC FearFest, AMC
Beginning Oct. 14, the network’s annual event includes marathons of the Halloween movies, The Exorcist, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, and Stephen King films; a Slasher-thon; and the AMC debut of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Rob Zombie’s 13 Nights of Halloween, HDNET
The cable network is resurrecting the horror icon’s Halloween programming with 13 films hosted by Zombie himself, airing nightly at 9 p.m. beginning Oct. 19. Selections include Zombie’s The Lords of Salem, The Blair Witch Project, Flatliners, and more.

Classic Horror, TCM and Filmstruck
The classic film network is dedicating different days of the week to various Halloween-themed programming. Every Wednesday will celebrate a different Horror Star of the Week (including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price), while Sundays are for the Monster of the Month: The Mummy (programming includes 11 of the best mummy-themed films ranging from 1936’s Mummy’s Boys to 1971’s Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb). On the network’s streaming service, Filmstruck, find a lineup of monster movies, Japanese horror films, and more.

Nerdoween, Alpha/Nerdist
Three new original series from Nerdist will debut on Legendary Digital Networks’ Alpha during October: Bizarre States: California, Vampire: The Masquerade – L.A. By Night, and The Dark Side, in addition to other Halloween-themed programming.

Supernatural, TNT
On Halloween day, TNT will air 12 hours straight of some of the CW hit’s spookiest episodes, including the pilot, “Bloody Mary,” “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester,” “Monster Movie,” and many more.

Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock Collections, Shudder
The horror streaming service is highlighting classics including Halloween, Halloween 4, Halloween 5, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and an Alfred Hitchcock collection that includes Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope, and Shadow of a Doubt.

Halloween Programming, Cartoon Network App
Check out Halloween specials for popular Cartoon Network Series The Powerpuff Girls, OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes, Unkitty, and more.

Halloween Movies, Pluto TV
Stream ‘n’ scream with plenty of holiday classics, including Night of the Living Dead, Paranormal Activity 2, Leprechaun In the Hood, Silent Hill, Idle Hands, and more.

BBC AAAAAAmerica, BBC America
Get in the spooky spirit with a week’s worth of programming with movie marathons, a takeover of The X-Files, and hours of Hitchcockian horror. Plus, the network is partnering with streaming service Shudder for a Saturday of original films seen for the first time on television.

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SERIES

Halloween Baking Championship — Mondays at 9 p.m. on Food Network

The Purge () 42% — Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on USA

American Horror Story () 77% — Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX

Mr. Mercedes () 91%  — Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on Audience

Creeped Out — this horror anthology for kids bows Oct. 4 on Netflix

Into the Dark () 70%  — the first installment of Blumhouse Television’s monthly event series, “The Body” starring Rebecca Rittenhouse and Tom Bateman, bows Oct. 5 on Hulu

Z Nation () - -  — season 5 of the zombie series premieres Friday, Oct. 5 at 9 p.m. on Syfy

Van Helsing () - - — season 3 of the vampire hunter series premieres Friday, Oct. 5 at 10 p.m. on Syfy

The Walking Dead () 79% — season 9 premieres Sunday, Oct. 7 at 9 p.m. on AMC

Light as a Feather () 50%  — based on the children’s game of the same name, all 10 episodes debut Oct. 12 on Hulu

Apostle — premieres Oct. 12 on Netflix

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell — the spooky baking show debuts Oct. 12 on Netflix

The Haunting of Hill House () 93% — premieres Oct. 12 on Netflix

Charmed () - -  — the reboot premieres Sunday, Oct. 14 at 9 p.m. on The CW

Haunted — premieres Oct. 19 on Netflix

The Good Witch — season 5 premieres Sunday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. on Hallmark

Legacies () - -  — The Vampire Diaries and The Originals spinoff premieres Thursday, Oct. 25 at 9 p.m. on The CW

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina () 82% — premieres Friday, Oct. 26 on Netflix

Castlevania () 94%  — season 2 premieres Friday, Oct. 26 on Netflix

Midnight, Texas () 61%  — season 2 premieres Friday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. on NBC

Channel Zero () 93%  — “The Dream Door” premieres Friday, Oct. 26 on Syfy and airs in full across Halloween week

Tell Me a Story () - - — the creepy fairy-tale anthology bows Oct. 31 on CBS All Access

Stan Against Evil () - -  — season 3 premieres Oct. 31 at 10 p.m. on IFC

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MOVIES & SPECIALS

No Escape Room — a father and daughter check out a small town escape room and discover there is something sinister about the place in this original movie debuting Saturday, Oct. 6 at 9 p.m. on Syfy

Cucuy: The Boogeyman — a teenage girl confined to her home on house arrest soon discovers that the nightmarish urban legends of the Mexican boogeyman, El Cucuy, are actually true in this original movie debuting Saturday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. on Syfy

Karma — when recent college grad Manny has trouble making ends meet, his father-in-law offers him a job evicting delinquent tenants. Manny soon finds himself unleashing a karma demon which stalks him at every turn in this original movie debuting Saturday, Oct. 13 at 9 p.m. on Syfy

Killer High — Sabrina’s perfectly planned high school reunion goes south when a monster keeps killing all the guests in this horror-comedy original movie debuting Saturday, Oct. 20 at 9 p.m. on Syfy

The Good Witch — “The Tale of Two Hearts”

Dead in the Water — an all-female crew on a boat in the middle of nowhere must deal with an invader on their ship in this original movie debuting Saturday, Oct. 27 at 9 p.m. on Syfy

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EPISODES

(Photo by Fox)

Fresh Off the Boat () 94% — “Workin’ the ‘Ween” premieres Friday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. on ABC

Last Man Standing () - -  — “Bride of Prankenstein” premieres Friday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. on Fox

Raven’s Home — “Switch-Or-Treat” premieres Friday, Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. on Disney Channel

Speechless () - - — “I-n-Into the W-o-Woods” premieres Friday, Oct. 19 at 8:30 p.m. ABC

The Simpsons () 85%  — “Treehouse of Horror XXIX” premieres Sunday, Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. on Fox

Bob's Burgers () - - — “Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street” premieres Sunday, Oct. 21 at 8:30 p.m. on Fox

Family Guy () - - — “Big Trouble in Little Quahog” premieres Sunday, Oct. 21 at 9 p.m. on Fox

Rel () 44% — “Halloween” premieres Sunday, Oct. 21 at 9:30 p.m. on Fox

The Goldbergs () - -  — “Mister Knifey-Hands” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. on ABC

American Housewife () - - — “Trust Me” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 8:30 p.m. on ABC

Modern Family () 85% — “Good Grief” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 24 at 9 p.m. on ABC

The Cool Kids () 75% — “Politician, Freemason, Scientist, Humorist and Diplomat, Ben Franklin” premieres Wednesday, Oct. 24 9:30 p.m. on ABC

Superstore () 93%  — “Costume Competition” premieres Thursday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. on NBC

Young Sheldon () - - — “Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan” premieres Thursday, Oct. 25 at 8:30 p.m. on CBS

MacGyver () - - — “Dia de Muertos + Sicarios + Family” premieres Friday, Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. on CBS

Hawaii Five-0 () - - — “A’ohe mea ‘imi a ka maka (Nothing More the Eyes to Search for)” premieres Friday, Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. on CBS

Slasherdom’s ultimate final girl, Laurie Strode, is back in theaters this October – and she’s a changed woman. In David Gordon Green‘s Halloween, set 40 years after John Carpenter‘s horror classic, Strode is at once a tough-as-nails grandma ready for her ultimate showdown, and a shell of her former self. She’s been beaten up by years of dealing, and not dealing, with the trauma of the night “the Shape” first came into her life, turning to drinking and drugs and failed relationships for support, turning away her family and loved ones. For audiences, it’s a shock to see: this is what happened to sweet, innocent, Laurie Strode? The babysitter who couldn’t even inhale that joint? For Jamie Lee Curtis, the woman who’s played her across 40 years, it’s a tragic but logical progression. “She lost everything,” says Curtis. “Nobody went and embraced her. All of the innocence is gone.” To mark Strode’s return to the big screen, we sat down with Curtis and Carpenter, who created the character with Debra Hill, for a deep-dive on Laurie – from the casting of Jamie Lee to the character’s lasting appeal and, finally, to the woman we find in Green’s new film.

What follows is a history of Laurie Strode drawn from sit-down interviews with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

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ALSO WATCH: ORAL HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN (1978) WITH CURTIS AND CARPENTER

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“To have that kind of complete character was exciting for me.”

Jamie Lee Curtis: “I had done a TV series prior to Halloween. But I was one of 13 or 14 regulars on a half-hour, one-camera TV show. If I had two lines a week, that was a lot. All I remember about Halloween was that it was a script where every single page had the name ‘Laurie’ on it. What I knew was that it was a big part. To have something where it was that kind of complete character was kind of exciting for me.

The roots of this were so low-scale. It was crappy little offices in this old building on Cahuenga Boulevard [where Curtis auditioned]. It was two little offices, side by side: One was Debra Hill’s, one was John Carpenter’s. That was the extent of their big production offices.”

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

“Jamie had a quality about her.”

John Carpenter: “We picked a scene in the script and she read it, and she had a quality about her. There was an innocence and yet a strength going on in there, and I really liked it. Plus, the girl I wanted for the part had turned me down – so Jamie was perfect!”

“We went to J. C. Penney and bought back-to-school clothes for this girl.”

Curtis: “I remember meeting with the costume woman, talking about Laurie, and we went to J. C. Penney and we basically bought back-to-school clothes for this girl. It was like going shopping with Laurie’s mother. There was that skirt, then there was the turtle neck, and then the little cardigan sweater, and the thigh-high big socks.

I’d had a perm when I met John, but then they decided they wanted my hair straight – or, not straight, but not frizzy like a perm. I remember putting hot rollers in my hair each day to get it to straighten out.”

“She did smoke pot… which was such an anomaly for a good girl”

Curtis: “[She] was the archetype that had to be the center of that story, which is an innocent girl, without boyfriends, without experience. She’s the good girl, even though she did smoke pot, which is such an anomaly for a good girl. But the way she smokes it, you can see she’s not experienced. She coughs and she sort of blows it.” 

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

“The audience was let in on her vulnerability from the very beginning.”

Curtis: “The movie was conceived as The Babysitter Murders. Moustapha Akkad went to John Carpenter and said, ‘I wanna make a movie about babysitters who get slashered.’ It was John and Debra who set it on Halloween night. I think it was Debra who said, ‘Let’s have it take place on Halloween night.’

It’s really the innocence of babysitting coming into conflict with this evil being. That’s why the movie worked: because she was so incredibly vulnerable. The audience was let in on her vulnerability from the very beginning. ‘I wish I had you all alone…’ ‘Oh, poor Laurie, scared another one away. It’s pathetic. You study too much.’

There is something beautiful about babysitting. Babysitters are not nannies. This was neighborhood girls coming over so the parents could go out to dinner or go out to a birthday party. There’s just something beautiful about the relationship between a babysitter [and a child]. You’re not a teacher. You’re not a governess. You’re not Mary Poppins. You’re a peer, in a weird way. You’re only probably 8 to 10 years older than the kid you’re babysitting. There’s an innocence about it all.”

“When you introduce something scary into that, you are going to step up and be the responsible quasi-adult.”

Curtis: “We are no longer innocent. Particularly in America, 9/11 removed all of our innocence. Yes, there are still small towns and yes, there are still people within them babysitting and stuff, but I think innocence has been ultimately lost because the brutal reality of life came into our lives.

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

[But] the archetype still works. There is still that lovely connection and ultimately, you still are entrusted with the lives and care and safekeeping of children. When you introduce something scary into that, you are going to step up and be the responsible quasi-adult. That hasn’t changed. We, as a nation, have changed.”

“Just go over the bannister and hold onto this rope – you’ll be fine.”

Carpenter: “I love everything about [Curtis’ performance as Laurie]. She was so game about everything. I tell her to do something – ‘Okay, go over the banister and just hold onto this rope. You’ll be fine…’ – and she’d do it! And she was just great at it. And she could produce all the emotions that were necessary. She was just a joy to work with.

[Laurie] was a combination of things. She was a virginal character, but she was extremely strong and self-directed. It was mainly Jamie’s performance. I think that’s what took us there. Every time I make a movie, I learn things from the process of making it. It’s the casting decisions that you make that are so important. To cast the right person for the role is essential. What I learned [from Halloween] is that any time you cast Jamie Lee, you’re in good hands.”

“There’s 1978 Halloween and 40 years later – that’s it.”

Curtis: “What was so beautiful about the first movie is it was complete. You can’t kill the bogeyman. It was the bogeyman – [and] as a matter of fact, it was. What’s beautiful about the new movie is that it just literally slices away all of those other movies. They exist, you can watch them, you can love them or hate them. [But with the new movie] there’s 1978 Halloween and 40 years later. That’s it. That’s why this [new] movie got me. That’s why I said yes. Because it made all the sense in the world.”

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures, @ Universal Pictures)

“She was the freak. She’s the girl who survived. She’s the final girl.”

Curtis: “Now we get to really look at what happened to Laurie Strode 40 years later, to the day, with no attachment.

She lost everything. She lost herself, she lost her friends, nobody was helping her. Everybody was saying, ‘Oh, just get on with your life.’ Of course, that didn’t happen, so then the cascading trauma, like a tumbleweed, just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. She slams into people looking for contact, men, alcoholism, drugs. All of it with no support.

She was the freak. She’s the girl who survived. She’s the final girl, but she’s also something that you recoil from, in a way. Nobody went and embraced her. All of the innocence is gone. She has been self-reliant and the more calluses that she created on herself, the farther and farther people [moved away from her], and she had a child and they took the child away.

The woman we meet [in Halloween 2018] is alive by her own wits, has no friends. She is the freak of the town. And lives in a compound because she is preparing herself every day for the eventuality that Michael Myers will return.

And he does.”

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ALSO WATCH: ORAL HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN (1978) WITH CURTIS AND CARPENTER

It’s been 40 years since Halloween opened in American theaters, leaving its indelible mark on terrified audiences and inspiring four decades’ worth of imitators. This month, moviegoers are headed back to Haddonfield thanks to David Gordon Green‘s direct sequel to the original, also simply called Halloween. While Green’s movie ignores the events and lore of every Halloween sequel and reboot, it is still the eleventh film in the franchise that centers on “the shape” (well, mostly – shoutout to Season of the Witch). Why do we keep revisiting this film, and these characters, so many years on? Why do Michael Myers and Laurie Strode appeal, and endure? What was it about John Carpenter‘s low-budget slasher that cut so deep? Ahead of the release of Halloween, we sat down with Carpenter and Laurie herself, Jamie Lee Curtis, for an extended look at the making of 1978’s Halloween – from the casting of Curtis and Nick Castle to the first days on set – and the creation and legacy of Hollywood’s ultimate bogeyman, Michael Myers.

What follows is a history of Halloween (1978), and reflection upon it, drawn from sit-down interviews with John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

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ALSO WATCH: ORAL HISTORY OF LAURIE STODE WITH CURTIS AND CARPENTER

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“Right away we were working – there was no gentle entry.”

Jamie Lee Curtis: “Right away we were working. I remember that, there was no gentle entry. I think the first thing we did, if I remember correctly, was the girls’ walk-and-talk on the street: carrying the books, the car comes by, ‘speed kills’ – that whole sequence.

Then, the second half of the day was me and Tommy Doyle meeting, where I crossed the street, meet, walk down the street…’That’s the scary house, don’t go in there.’ Then I go up to the door and we have the little scene out on the street and then the great shot, later, of Michael inside the door. His POV. Then, Laurie walking down the street.

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

“I wish I had you all alone…”

Curtis: “The last thing we shot that day was me walking down the street, away from Tommy Doyle, singing the little song. I remember saying to John, very clearly, I remember saying, ‘So, what do you want me to sing?’ He said, ‘Well, just make up a song.’ I said, ‘I don’t sing. Really don’t sing.’ He said, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s like an internal monologue – she’s not belting a country-and-western tune.’ I remember going, OK. Just really making it up on the spot. [singing] I wish I had you all alone...

When I think about it now, it’s incredibly poignant. I think that must’ve been [co-writer and producer] Debra Hill. That whole idea of a girl… I would hold you close to me, so close to me, just the two of us. It’s incredibly romantic and dreamy and innocent and beautiful and, of course, you’re counterpointing it with this POV of this killer.

It’s just beautiful and that was the first day. All of that was day one.”

“The phone rang that night and Tina said, ‘Jamie, it’s John Carpenter.'”

Curtis: “I think it was [shot for] $300,000 in 17 days [Carpenter says it was 20]. It was fast, and all I remember was that first day and the beautiful story that goes with that. I like telling it because it tells you everything. And it’s never happened to me again.

I lived with a hairdresser named Tina Cassidy, we rented a house together in Studio City. I finished my first day of work and I came back to this house we lived in. The phone rang that night and Tina said, ‘Jamie, it’s John Carpenter.’

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

In my day, and I’m sure it happens now, people get fired after their first day of work. You know, the director thinks about it and goes, ‘Uh, I made a mistake.’ That’s why I remember this slow walk over to the phone and doing that thing of like, ‘Um, hello?’

He’s from Kentucky, I believe, and he was like, ‘Hey, darlin’, it’s John. I just wanna tell ya how happy I am and how fantastic you were today. I just know it’s gonna be amazing.’

That just doesn’t happen. And that was all John Carpenter. That’s how it began.”

“Nick Castle came from a dancer family, so he had a grace – an odd grace about him.”

Curtis: “Nick Castle, John Carpenter, and Tommy Wallace [who helped edit the film, and played the Shape in the closet scene] were all friends. They were in a band together called the Coupe De Villes. They were 30-year-old guys… 27-, 29-, 30-year-old guys, who all went to film school together and they were all wanting to be in the movie business. These were people who were young people. We would call them hipsters today. That’s who was making this movie.

Nick Castle was married. I think he had two kids at the time. You know, he was around with his kids and being the guy in the mask. I think [Nick] just did it as a favor to John. I’m sure John just said, ‘Eh, I need somebody to be in the mask, will you do it?’. Maybe he got paid a couple hundred bucks or whatever it was. I mean, nobody got paid, anything. I think I got paid $8,000 for the whole movie, which at the time, for the lead in the movie was $2,000 a week.”

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

John Carpenter: “Nick Castle is a friend of mine from film school. We had a rock & roll band together, we made student films together. I liked the way he moved. He came from a dancer family so he had a grace, an odd grace about him. Plus, he was free. He was cheap. So he put on the costume and I said, ‘Now, go from here to here.’ And that was it.”

“Now it’s time to stab the son of a bitch!”

Carpenter: “I was in the closet with Jamie and I believe I was holding a camera. I was directing her, and I tended in those days to direct verbally – out loud. I think I said something like, ‘Now it’s time to stab the son of a bitch.’ And she said, ‘Can you please not say that? I’m gonna laugh.’ So I shut up. I [actually] didn’t say, ‘son of a bitch’ – I said other things that I can’t say on camera.”

“Halloween was a word-of-mouth movie. That’s why it worked.”

Carpenter: “‘My god, this is a disaster,’ is what I thought. No, none of us knew [the movie was going to be loved]. A lot of people criticized my ending. They thought it sucked. They thought it was bad. And then we finished the movie, and put the music on it, and put it out there, and then the reviews came in and they were bad. ‘John Carpenter does not have a talent with actors’ it said in some of the reviews. Oh lord. So, once again, I got bad reviews on something. But then the audience started to build. Halloween was a word of mouth movie. That’s why it worked.”

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

“He was everywhere in the darkness, he was just a killing machine.”

Carpenter: “The script was a departure from a lot of horror films that I had seen as a kid and as a film school student. The antagonist, Michael Myers, was neither human, nor supernatural, but a combination. So I had to ride a line there with him. He was everywhere in the darkness. He was just a killing machine and at the time we hadn’t seen that too much. That’s what I was trying to do – and [I was] trying to scare the audience. That was my job.”

“We can put all of our fears and concerns and knowledge that evil exists in the world… behind that mask.”

Curtis: “The reason he continues to have the impact that Michael Myers has is the simplicity of the evil. The enigmatic, faceless, expressionless look of Michael, it projects into that mask every terrifying image we have.

You see, I think we can put all of our fears and concerns and knowledge that evil exists in the world, ’cause evil exists in the world. Put it behind that mask and it can be anywhere anytime, anybody. I think it’s the simplicity of that. That is terrifying.

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection)

If I had to analyze it, which of course, you know… Because the problem is, I can say all that and you guys will be like, ‘Wow, she’s really smart, that was really articulate and really thoughtful.’ But the truth is: It’s a fucking William Shatner mask. Do you know what I mean?

I’m talking out my butt because the truth is, I don’t know anything about why he endures. I’m just glad he does because he’s my buddy. Me and my shadow. Where would I be without Michael Myers – you know what I’m saying? I’m grateful to him, for all of his badness.” 

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ALSO WATCH: ORAL HISTORY OF LAURIE STRODE WITH CURTIS AND CARPENTER

(Photo by © Universal, © Warner Bros., © Paramount, © Dimension Films)

Those who saw John Krasinski‘s A Quiet Place earlier this year surprised to hear that the director and his co-star and wife, Emily Blunt, recently told Rotten Tomatoes that Jaws is their favorite movie. Their new creature feature opens with a scene that shocks audiences in ways that echo the Spielberg film’s famous first scene, and even goes one step further, breaking one of the biggest rules of horror (and nope, we’re not saying which).

The scene was not in the original screenplay, say co-writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods; it was something Krasinski added himself in the rewrite phase. “I’ve got to give props to John for just being a crazy person,” says Beck. “I think he just really wanted, like, the opening of Jaws — let’s establish this monster right out the gate, and get really, really dark.” Woods adds: “You pull that on an audience and you instill this instinctual fear: These characters are fair game, so watch around every corner.”

Is it one of the scariest openings, ever, though? Time will tell — we need a few years and a lot of perspective to make those kinds of calls. For now, we at Rotten Tomatoes have voted on our favorite scary opening scenes up to now, and ranked them according to just how pinned-back-in-our seats we were the first time we saw them.

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20. My Bloody Valentine (1981) 56%

This is Quentin Tarantino’s favorite slasher flick and it’s not hard to see why: It’s gruesome as hell. It’s set in a mining town, and the slasher wears a mining get-up and uses mining tools, which means a lot of inventive swinging pickaxes and nail-gun use (so much so that the MPAA had the filmmakers slice out 9 minutes of gore from the original cut). The opening is basic, over in barely two minutes, and may have suffered a touch because of those cuts. But its simplicity and directness is kind of the point: This film isn’t wasting any time, and it didn’t come to play.

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19. Scream 2 (1997) 83%

How did director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson choose to up the ante on awesome openings in this sequel, which is actually slightly higher on the Tomatometer than the original? They showed us that original opening again, this time as a movie-within-the-movie (Stab!), starring Heather Graham as Casey Becker, who had been played in the original by Drew Barrymore. Confused? So is Jada Pinkett Smith’s Maureen, the actual victim of this super-meta opening. She just came out to see a dumb scary movie, and has no idea why her boyfriend has just stabbed her and the audience is doing absolutely nothing about it. Seriously, worst movie theater audience ever.

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18. Final Destination (2000) 50%

Movie rule #96: When a flight steward says it’s going to be fine, you can bet that it really, really isn’t. This opening set the standard for the rest of the Final Destination franchise, and was believed at the time to be inspired by the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Like the flight shown in the movie, that real-life 747 was on its way to Paris and carrying high school kids when it blew up shortly after takeoff.

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17. Final Destination 3 (2006) 44%

(Photo by (c) New Line)

It’s hard to pick the best of the Final Destination openings — replace plane with car with roller coaster and so on and they’re essentially the same — but the Rotten Tomatoes staff votes have the third installment, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, nudging out the others. This time we’re at an amusement park, and the latest set of unlucky teenagers is killed (or not) on a roller coaster. It’s brilliantly staged, zeroing in on virtually every “could it happen?” thought that runs through your mind when strapping into a fast-moving ride: Will the wheels come loose? What if my seat lock comes undone? The film’s Devil’s Flight roller coaster was actually a ride called the Corkscrew in Playland in Vancouver, which was made to look higher — and much deadlier — in post-production.

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16. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 84%

Nothing really happens in the opening few minutes of Tobe Hooper’s infamous low-budget 1974 horror flick, and yet rarely has a movie evoked so much dread so quickly. There’s that (rather long) text scroll, laying out the movie’s “maybe-based-on-a-true-story” credentials, and then those camera flashes, shocking us to life with grisly images of decomposing eyes and other bits and bobs. Finally, Hooper pans out to reveal a ghastly, barely-human sculpture sat upon a grave marker. Fun fact: The Narrator is none other than John Larroquette, who has said he was paid for his efforts with a marijuana joint.

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15. 28 Weeks Later (2007) 73%

While 28 Days Later opens in an empty London, its sequel begins in a packed house somewhere in the countryside. We’re quickly introduced to the occupants, a sweet-seeming family and a Walking Dead-style crew of likable survivors. And then all hell breaks loose. It’s not just that director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo throws everything at the scene — “name” actors bite it, Scream-style, and kids are in no way off limits — that makes it such a gut punch. It’s the way the filmmakers upend expectations, particularly when it comes to our “hero”, played by Robert Carlyle. With each choice he makes, he reveals himself to be anything but a Rick Grimes. And frankly, when the dust settles, we’re leaning #TeamZombie.

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14. Jeepers Creepers (2001) 47%

Did you know Victor Salva’s monster flick is based on a true story? Well, the opening scene, in which the Creeper gets into his truck to tail two kids who catch him dumping a victim, was inspired by one. In 1990, Ray and Marie Thornton were driving on a Michigan road when they spotted Dennis DePue dumping what looked like a body behind an abandoned schoolhouse (it turned out to be his wife). In their court testimony, the Thorntons said that DePue proceeded to follow them in his van for miles.

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13. Black Christmas (1974) 71%

(Photo by (c)Warner Bros.)

Scream and When A Stranger Calls may have horror-dom’s most famous problem callers, but Black Christmas’s pervy “moaner” is a close runner-up. The film’s opening sequence meanders a little, lurching from one cliché (stalker cam!) to another (hiding in the closet!), with detours into calls with mom and a bit of bathroom boozing. But when the sorority sisters circle around the phone to listen to the stalker — who goes from static-y groans to screechy vulgarities that we won’t repeat here — it’s as transfixing as it is disturbing.

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12. The Stepfather (1987) 89%

(Photo by ©New Century Vista Film)

Sometimes seeing the aftermath of a horrible act can be even more terrifying than witnessing the act itself. The opening sequence of The Stepfather is a case in point. With each shot we’re given an awful little breadcrumb clue to what has just happened in this bland-looking suburban home. There’s the blood on Terry O’Quinn’s face. An out-of-place toy boat. A dial tone. And then… We won’t give it away. Director Joseph Ruben would go on to make more chillers in this vein — including Sleeping with the Enemy and The Good Son — but none would come close to creating moments as chilling as The Stepfather’s (very) cold open.

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11. Piranha (1978) 72%

(Photo by ©New Century Vista Film)

A couple decides to go skinny dipping at night and it ends badly thanks to something bite-y in the water. Sound familiar? There is a lot that sounds and looks familiar about this Roger Corman-produced answer to Spielberg’s Jaws. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun in its own right — and memorable. A bunch of the Rotten Tomatoes staff saw this one when they were kids, and the opening scene left a mark.

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10. Ghost Ship (2002) 14%

(Photo by (c) Warner Bros.)

What’s worse than an iceberg — right ahead? A wire, right onboard. In the best part of this pretty mediocre movie, almost an entire ship’s worth of passengers is wiped out in one fell swoop when a wire snaps and slices across a dance floor packed with revelers. It takes the well-dressed folk a few seconds to realize they’ve all been cut in halves and quarters and thirds (depending on height), and when they do, the makeup department goes to work. Side note: The little girl who survives (she was just short enough to escape) is Emily Browning.

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9. The Witch (2015) 91%

Robert Eggers’ unnerving opening plays on every parent’s — or babysitter’s — greatest fear: A child that vanishes the second you look away. Here, a game of peak-a-boo takes a dark turn when Thomasin’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) baby brother disappears and is then seen in the clutches of a witch. Said witch is then doing something to the baby that we can’t quite make out until… wait, is that a knife?

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8. 28 Days Later (2002) 87%

How exactly did Danny Boyle film in a completely empty — and completely eerie — central London? He had some help from his then teenage daughter, it turns out. Boyle has explained that in lieu of traffic marshals and police, which he couldn’t afford, his daughter and her friends tried to hold back traffic during the seven early mornings over which they shot the sequence.

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7. Carrie (1976) 94%

High school is terrifying, and rarely has it been as terrifying as in the opening sequence of Brian De Palma’s Carrie. The film is no conventional horror flick, and the scene is no conventional horror opening, but its mark is indelible: Just try to wipe the image of a screaming Sissy Spacek begging for help from your memory.

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6. Dawn of the Dead (2004) 77%

Online snarks have said that Dawn of the Dead’s opening seven minutes were the peak of director Zack Snyder’s career. Frankly, they’d be the peak of most directors’ careers as far as we’re concerned. In the absolutely brutal sequence, Sarah Polley’s Ana wakes to discover her neighbor’s daughter is a ravenous zombie (the fast-moving 28 Days Later kind) who isn’t making any sort of distinctions between family and food. Eyes out for the “Here’s Johnny!” nod and ears out for the excellent use of Johnny Cash’s “When the Man Comes Around” over the killer credit sequence. [Editor’s note: This story originally said that Ana woke to find her own daughter was a zombie — we have corrected, and regret, the error.]

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5. It Follows (2014) 95%

It Follows opens with an almost two-minute tracking shot that coldly observes a young girl running for her life on an idyllic suburban street. We eventually join her as she gets in her car and later find her next alone on a beach. Cut to… well, just watch it. There are no big scares or jumps or monsters in these few minutes. The key horror here is mystery: Why is she running? What is she running from? And what the hell did that to her?

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4. Halloween (1978) 97%

(Photo by © Compass International Pictures)

John Carpenter told Rotten Tomatoes recently that you have two options for opening a horror film: “You can slow things down, lull people into a false sense of security, and then smack them in the face with it,” or “kick it into gear straight away — let’s go!” For 1978’s Halloween, he went with the latter approach, opening with a stalker-cam single shot that took him and his crew some eight hours to execute. Carpenter says he was inspired by long tracking shots in films like Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.

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3. It (2017) 85%

Director Tommy Lee Wallace’s 1990 miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s It doesn’t open with Georgie and Pennywise’s drain-side chat — it begins instead with the disappearance of a little girl and a memorably abandoned tricycle — but it does get to the scene eventually. When the moment does come, Wallace plays it TV safe: We see Tim Curry’s clown bearing his teeth and advancing on his victim before we cut to the next scene. Andy Muschietti takes the road less traveled in his treatment of the scene, which opens 2017’s It, showing Pennywise’s attack on poor Georgie in all of its gory glory. Yes, that’s a child getting his arm chomped off — and Muschietti isn’t letting us look away.

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2. Scream (1996) 78%

Wes Craven’s big comeback film kicked off a slasher revival and gave the horror genre one of its most famous lines (“What’s your favorite scary movie?”). Most of that was thanks to the opening scene, penned by horror fanatic Kevin Williamson, which plays out like a mashup of Jeopardy and the last half hour of Halloween. It was always going to be a nerve-shattering ten minutes; what made it more than that was the casting of Ghostface’s first big target, Casey Becker. Craven said he wanted to have the film’s biggest star die straight out the gate, and had considered offering the role to Alicia Silverstone. But when Drew Barrymore, who was set to take the lead role, said she wanted to do the opening scene, the plan changed and Craven had his “No they didn’t!” moment.

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1. Jaws (1975) 97%

It took a lot of innovating to pull what is arguably cinema’s most famous opening together: Actress and stuntwoman Susan Blacklinie had hooks attached to her Levi’s so that drivers could pull her to and fro to get that jerked-by-a-Great-White effect; Spielberg employed a devastatingly effective predator’s-eye view to put us inside the hungry mind of the shark; and John Williams’ score did the rest of the work. The scene was a direct lift from the opening pages of Peter Benchley’s bestselling book. In those pages, the reader — like Spielberg’s camera — mostly inhabits the perspective of the beast (the opening line reads, “The great fish moves silently through the night.”). On page, the opening scene is as brutal and mysterious an attack as on screen. “At first, the woman thought she had snagged her leg on a rock or a piece of floating wood,” writes Benchley. “There was no initial pain, only one violent tug on her right leg. She reached down to touch her foot, treading water with her left leg to keep her head up, feeling in the blackness with her left hand.” Then comes the kicker: “She could not find her foot.”

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Which scary opening scene is your favorite? Don’t see it on the list? Are you about to write us an angry letter asking how in Samara’s name we could leave out The Ring? Save the postage, and let us know what you think in the comments. 

Movie remakes tend to get an automatic bad rap, but this time we’re putting some numbers behind it. Take the original’s Tomatometer rating, subtract by the remake’s number, and voila: the 24 worst movie remakes by Tomatometer!

Best Horror Movies by Year Since 1920

Look, we know that it’s the time of year when everyone and their sister has a list of the best horror movies of all time. This time out, we at Rotten Tomatoes decided to take a slightly different tack. Using our weighted formula, we compiled a list of the best-reviewed fright fests from each year since 1920 — the year The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which created the template for horror cinema, was released. This wasn’t an easy assignment — there were several years, like 1932 and 1960, that boasted a slate of classic films (and a few others, like 1937 and 1938, in which we had trouble finding any solid contenders). What was the best horror flick the year you were born? Check out our list — if you dare.

 

As the new IT trailer has been opening up new dimensions in clown terror across the Internet, we’re celebrating (?) the occasion with 17 more terrifying clowns from movie and TV history!

Rings is out in theaters this week, continuing the ghostly VHS story started by the first American Ring 15 years ago. Not a bad length for a horror franchise that started this century, but in this week’s gallery we look at 24 series that have been taking a stab at audiences for over two decades. Remember: If your franchise has gone over four movies without a Fresh rating, consult a script doctor.

The 75 Best Horror Movies of All Time: So many movies, so many corpses and cups of red corn syrup… If you got the stomach for it, take a stroll down dismemberment lane with 24 iconic moments from horror history!

We here at RT went deep into the vault of horror franchises to tally up the victims of some of film and TV’s most deadly psycho killers. Take a peek at the results — if you dare!

 

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Norman Bates  – Psycho (1960) 97%

Haunting Grounds: Bates Motel
Estimated Body Count: 20
Has there ever been a cinematic slasher more pitiable than Norman Bates? The poor guy is practically at war with himself, and his mom nags him from beyond the grave. Heck, every time he makes friends, they seem to end up dead. If Psycho exerted a profound influence on the slasher genre (and onscreen violence in general), it wasn’t because Norman was a particularly prolific killer. Alfred Hitchcock’s original (and the sequels) depicted a man in the clutches of inner torment and madness that was so gripping and scary that it didn’t need buckets of blood (or, in one memorable case, chocolate syrup) to be deeply unsettling.  Nine deaths are attributed to Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) on the five-season AMC prequel TV series Bates Motel. But, really, who can say for sure?

Watch Trailer

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THE CREEPER – Jeepers Creepers (2001) 47%

Haunting Grounds: The Jeepers Creepers series
Estimated Body Count: 20
When Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer wrote “Jeepers Creepers” in the late 1930s, they surely never guessed their snappy little pop ditty would go on to provide the theme song for a murderous winged creature who possesses a bee- and dog-like ability to smell fear, and who can regenerate body parts by ingesting those of his victims. And that’s not all — the Creeper can also overcome overwhelmingly negative reviews, too! Although critics kept 2001’s Jeepers Creepers from a Fresh certification, the Creeper was back just two years later with a sequel, and there was even talk of a third installment. Not bad for a bad guy who’s limited to a single 23-day feeding frenzy every 23 years, right?

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THE THING – The Thing (1982) 85%

Haunting Grounds: The Thing from Another World, The Thing, The Thing
Estimated Body Count: 20
Human beings have long wondered what otherworldy monstrosities might be lurking out in the far reaches of space, which helps to explain the enduring appeal of John W. Campbell’s 1938 short story, Who Goes There? It’s the tale of an Antarctic research team that unwittingly rescues a malevolent alien from an icy grave. The creature repays the favor by forcibly (and messily) assimilating every living being within reach, including 20 unlucky scientists and a handful of dogs. Campbell’s monster — referred to as the Thing — has provided rich fodder for filmmakers over the decades, inspiring 1951’s The Thing from Another World, John Carpenter’s 1982 cult classic The Thing, and, most recently, the 2011 prequel/reboot of the same name.

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JAWS – Jaws (1975) 97%

Haunting Grounds: The Jaws series
Estimated Body Count: ~21, if you count the whale in Jaws 2
Most of the slashers on our list are bona fide film icons, but few of them can boast of having changed the entire industry the way Peter Benchley’s great white shark did: Before Jaws‘ 1975 debut, studios actually held their big films out of the summer market, believing the vacation months to be a commercial graveyard. Almost $500 million (and lots of bloody ocean water) later, a franchise was born — and although the third and fourth installments aren’t good for much besides unintentional humor, the original remains a certified classic with a 98 percent Tomatometer rating. Granted, the kill count here takes into consideration the havoc wreaked by multiple great whites over the course of the franchise, but it merely illustrates what Benchley already knew: the ocean is scary enough even without a gigantic bloodthirsty shark chasing you around, so tossing one in the mix just ups the ante.

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LEATHERFACE – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) 84%

Haunting Grounds: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series
Estimated Body Count: 30
The twisted true-life tale of grave robber Ed Gein has inspired many notable cinematic grotesques, from Norman Bates in Psycho to Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. However, Tobe Hooper may have done the most to immortalize Gein in the annals of perverse pop culture by emphasizing his habit of making clothing out of human flesh. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre introduced Leatherface, a developmentally disabled fellow under the control of his cannibalistic family. Though he started out as a pretty timid guy who was as afraid of visitors as they were of him, Leatherface came out of his shell in the sequels and reboots, making up for lost time in liberally employing his Poulan 306A.

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PINHEAD – Hellraiser (1987) 71%

Haunting Grounds: The Hellraiser series
Estimated Body Count: 35
By the late 1980s, the slasher genre was starting to feel a little stale — and then along came Pinhead, the sadomasochistic leader of the extradimensional pack of hooligans known as the Cenobites. The spike-headed hook fetishist wasn’t featured heavily in 1987’s Hellraiser, but Pinhead’s combination of creepy appearance, selective taste for victims, and clear fondness for gruesome torture stole the movie; throughout the eight-film series (four of which were released straight to DVD), Pinhead has remained the only constant, and for good reason: although his body count may be relatively low, no one else can match his prowess with a sharp, well-placed hook.

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CHUCKY – Child's Play (1988) 64%

Haunting Grounds: The Child’s Play series
Estimated Body Count: ~38
Chucky may have devolved into a pint-sized Tony Clifton at this point, but the original Child’s Play was a superior genre piece — creepy, suspenseful, and blessed with an insidious sense of humor. Child’s Play riffed on the idea of innocence gone horribly wrong, with a quasi-Cabbage Patch Kid embodied by a vicious serial killer thanks to a voodoo ritual. Subsequent sequels — the most recent of which, Curse of Chucky, just recently made its way onto home video — have delivered more camp than scares, but Chucky’s left a trail of more than 35 corpses in his wake — and probably didn’t enamor himself to Teddy Ruxpin.

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FREDDY KRUEGER – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) 94%

Haunting Grounds: The Nightmare on Elm Street series
Estimated Body Count: ~39
Arguably the most recognizable movie monster of the 1980s, Freddy Krueger may not be able to compete with other horror icons when it comes to killing in bulk. But the dermatologically-challenged Elm Street resident certainly wins points for style; in addition to his expert use of claw-tipped leather gloves, Freddy is adept at shape-shifting, strangulation, and generating geysers of blood from the bodies of future heartthrobs. Even accounting for the various forms Freddy has taken over the years in his efforts to turn the sweetest dreams dark and bloody, we’ve got his kill count somewhere in the vicinity of 39. That might be fewer than one might expect, but Mr. Krueger is an artiste who chooses his victims very specifically.

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FATE – Final Destination (2000) 50%

Haunting Grounds: The Final Destination series
Estimated Body Count: 39
Remember the old margarine commercials that said you can’t fool Mother Nature? Well, according to the Final Destination series, you can’t cheat Fate, either. It’s often said that revenge is a dish best served cold — but for the unseen hand of Fate, it tastes even better when garnished with a series of incredibly brutal (and, it must be said, very morbidly entertaining) booby traps. The series’ unseen antagonist has dispatched 39 victims, using everything from the mundane (death by falling brick) to the cleverly rewind-worthy (shower cord strangulation, ladder through the eye, death by falling cherry picker). By the time we surpassed The Final Destination and got Final Destination 5, the series was clearly aware of its silly appeal, and each creatively choreographed death was equally as hilarious as it was cringeworthy.

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GHOSTFACE – Scream (1996) 78%

Haunting Grounds: The Scream franchise, Scream (TV series)
Estimated Body Count: 49
One of the rare slasher antagonists who’s a killer by committee, the Scream series’ Ghostface is played by a revolving door of mask-donning, knife-wielding psychopaths. Their motives are different (peer pressure, revenge, etc.), but the results are the same, no matter who wears the Edward Munch-inspired getup: teenagers will turn up dead, following the conventions of horror movies. And, as with other horror franchises, the body count increases with each sequel. Adding to the mayhem was the first season of MTV’s Scream, which aired this summer. All in all, this council of killers is responsible for at least 49 slayings.

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LEPRECHAUN – Leprechaun (1993) 35%

Haunting Grounds: The Leprechaun series
Estimated Body Count: 50
The Leprechaun series is the embodiment of the finest that Irish culture and letters has to offer, easily surpassing the works of James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. The titular antihero is murderously committed to acquiring a pot o’ gold, an undertaking that prompts travel to such exotic locales as Las Vegas, Compton, and outer space. Despite his diminutive stature, the Leprechaun’s super-sharp claws and teeth have helped him tally 50 onscreen fatalities, including a very young Jennifer Aniston, who made her big screen debut in the first film.

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JIGSAW – Saw (2004) 50%

Haunting Grounds: The Saw series
Estimated Body Count: 60
John Kramer was first christened “Jigsaw” by detectives who discovered the serial killer’s calling card was a puzzle piece-shaped hunk of flesh carved from the corpses of his victims. The name stuck as the cops closed in on Kramer and realized his elaborate, irony-laden traps were designed to punish those he deemed guilty of criminal acts or taking life for granted (he must have been a fan of Se7en). More characters and plot twists (Jigsaw doesn’t work alone! Something about cancer!) were introduced as the series wore on, and Saw evolved into a labyrinthine annual soap opera drenched in blood and agony. A Grand Guignol for our times.

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HANNIBAL LECTER – The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 95%

Haunting Grounds: Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal, Hannibal Rising, Hannibal (TV)
Estimated Body Count: 98
Before 1991, you may not have even known what fava beans were — but after Anthony Hopkins’ first appearance as Doctor Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, nobody ever thought of them the same way again. Like Jason Voorhees, Lecter doesn’t appear in much of the famous reboot — he’s only in a little over 15 minutes of Lambs — but it was the first time we actually witnessed the good doctor rack up a few kills on screen (both Manhunter and its remake Red Dragon only imply Lecter’s murdered some folks), and audiences had a clear, um, appetite for the flesh-craving serial killer’s brand of mayhem: he’s gone on to appear in a number of other books and movies. Although we just saw the end of Hannibal‘s three-season run on NBC, series creator Bryan Fuller insists we haven’t seen the last of Lecter just yet.

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MICHAEL MYERS – Halloween (1978) 97%

Haunting Grounds: The Halloween series, minus Season of the Witch
Estimated Body Count: ~107
The best-known escapee of Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, Michael Myers has never been a big fan of babysitters, nor is he particularly fleet of foot. He digs Blue Oyster Cult, and makes special use of Star Trek paraphernalia and kitchen cutlery. Since the release of John Carpenter’s landmark Halloween, Myers’ legend has been told in a number of sequels, and if his reasons for killing are obscure, he’s still coldly efficient at the task; he’s racked up a whopping 100-plus notches on his belt.

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THE INVISIBLE MAN – The Invisible Man (1933) 95%

Haunting Grounds: The Invisible Man (1933)
Estimated Body Count: 123
We were shocked (shocked!) to discover that killers with high body counts could even be found in Old Hollywood fare. Based on the H.G. Wells 1897 novel, James Whale’s pre-code horror film featured Claude Rains (Casablanca) in his American film debut as the titular villain, also known as Dr. Jack Griffin. Hiding away in a snowy village, Griffin experiments on himself while working on a drug called “monocane,” which he believes is the secret to invisibility. Although he does succeed in turning himself invisible, he also becomes a crazed murderer. Killing those who get in his way, and a train full of people just for kicks, Griffin eventually causes the death of 123 people – including himself.

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JASON VOORHEES – Friday the 13th (1980) 68%

Haunting Grounds: The Friday the 13th series
Estimated Body Count: 146
Rocking facial protection that would do Jacques Plante proud, Jason Voorhees terrorized Camp Crystal Lake with cold precision (and an ability to cheat death that Rasputin would envy) in Friday the 13th. Occasionally, he breaks out of the bucolic confines of the countryside to wreak havoc in the big city (Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan), Hades (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday), and the future (Jason X). According to our research, Jason has put a whopping 146 unfortunate souls on ice. Pretty impressive for a cat who drowned in 1958.

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En español: Read this article in Spanish at Tomatazos.com.

Why did they make God’s Not Dead 2? The divine hand of the free market christened the original God’s Not Dead with a $60 million box office tally, and against its $2 million budget, that makes it one of the most profitable movies ever in these United States. So, sweet Jesus, of course they would make a sequel! And that inspires this week’s gallery: the 24 most profitable low-budget (under $5 million) movies ever (in America)!

The most successful horror franchises tend to feature protagonists audiences can root for — heroes that viewers hope will beat the odds and emerge from their respective situations victorious and, well, alive. With that in mind, we here at RT decided to look back at some of cinema’s most stubborn survivors, those characters that somehow managed to avoid being offed in multiple horror movies.

Needless to say, you may want to avoid what follows below if you’re allergic to spoilers. Without further ado, here are our choices for the Horror Movie Survivor Hall of Fame!

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Ellen Ripley

Survived: The Alien Franchise

You can’t keep a good woman down. Case in point: Ellen Ripley. Even if she only survived two-and-three-quarters of the first three Alien films, the DNA in her blood cells was enough to create a pretty killer replica (which gives us all hope for future Chuck Norris clones, but we digress).

Ripley could have gone the way of Dr. Frank Poole a whole bunch of times throughout the series. As the only survivor of the Nostromo (not counting Jones the cat), she still could have been torn to shreds when the alien hid on her shuttle. In Aliens, Ripley and a few of her compatriots survived a tough battle with the Alien Queen aboard the Sulaco. Even a universe-saving suicide in Alien 3 barely slows Ripley down — the follow-up isn’t called Alien Resurrection for nothing. How does she do it? Our guess is those decades-long stasis naps do a body good.

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Ash Williams

Survived: The Evil Dead Franchise

You can possess him with a few demons. You can chop off his hand. Hell, you can even send him back through time. But the one thing you cannot do to Ashley “Ash” Williams: keep him down for good.The same can’t be said of Ash’s friends, who, in the first two Evil Deads offer up a survival rate of exactly zero. Ash is actually supposed to have died in the final frames of The Evil Dead, but the sequel retcons the whole thing, causing him to re-endure a gory getaway in the forest cabin. In the process, he loses his hand, but hey, chainsaw hand as replacement.

In the final Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Ash is sent to 1300 AD. His only way to get back to the present time and his job at S-Mart: Going through a horde of the undead (led by an Ash clone) to retrieve the Necronomicon, the book of the dead. Groovy.

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 Dr. Frankenstein

Survived: The Frankenstein Series by Hammer Films

Some folks just don’t know when to quit. You’d think that Baron Victor von Frankenstein would reconsider his diabolical experiments in reanimation after nearly getting his dome lopped off in The Curse of Frankenstein, but no; this guy’s got a one-track mind. Unlike the Frankenstein of Mary Shelley and the Universal movies, our man Vic (played with eyebrow-raised relish by Peter Cushing) doesn’t evolve from hubristic to guilt-ridden — he’s pretty much a murderous mad scientist from minute one. After surviving the guillotine in The Curse of Frankenstein, the Baron continued his artificial life experiments in a bunch of Hammer films (either five or six, depending on whether you count the Cushing-free The Horror of Frankenstein as part of the cannon — many don’t). It’s pretty amazing that Frankenstein can perpetually stay one step ahead of death, given that angry townspeople, public officials, and even his own stitched-up creations are always trying to kill him.

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Tommy Jarvis

Survived: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Friday the 13th, Part V – A New Beginning, Friday the 13th, Part VI – Jason Lives

The Friday the 13th series only had two protagonists who would carry themselves into sequels. The first was the original camp survivor who would be unceremoniously offed in Part II‘s opening sequence. The other: Tommy Jarvis. He first appeared in arguably the series’ best installment, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, as a young boy vacationing with his single mother and sister. With a penchant for masks, he and his sister succeed in confusing Jason, before Tommy is taken over by madness and hacks poor ol’ Jason Voorhees to death. The ambigious final shot of The Final Chapter suggests he has taken on an evil spirit.

In the godawful sequel, A New Beginning, Tommy is a taciturn mental patient, drifting in and out of institutions. As copycat murders begin around him, he suspects that his psychosis is taking over under the cover of night. Turns out the killer was just a disgruntled paramedic. In his final appearance, Jason Lives, Tommy attempts to tear Jason’s corpse asunder, but a steel pipe left in his heart attracts a bolt of lightning and Jason is resurrected. Ultimately, Tommy lures him back to the lake and to a watery grave. But we all know how long the dead stay dead in horror movies, don’t we?

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Laurie Strode

Survived: Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween H20, Halloween (2007)

It’s no wonder that Laurie Strode takes a breather every couple of Halloween installments; neither sleep nor time nor even a franchise reboot can rid her of Michael Myers. In the original Halloween, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) survived the babysitting gig from hell, successfully keeping Michael Myers at bay (though he killed a couple of her friends). In Halloween II, she learned why she’d been stalked — it turned out that she was a blood relative of the knife-wielding psycho.

Laurie lay low for the next four Halloweens, but reemerged in Halloween H2O; she had faked her own death and changed her name, but she couldn’t stay hidden from her brother forever. Unfortunately, Myers finally got the best of Laurie in Halloween: Resurrection. Rob Zombie’s 2007 franchise reboot began at the beginning of the Laurie Strode story, with Scout Taylor-Compton stepping into the role; whether this incarnation of Laurie Strode shows the same survival instinct as the first remains to be seen.

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Dr. Loomis

Survived: The Halloween Franchise

Most psychology PhDs don’t receive gun training in school, tranquilizer or otherwise. Not sure about cursed zombie entrapment (that could be covered during mandatory intern hours), but Dr. Samuel James Loomis is somehow capable of all these things. At one point in Halloween 4, he agilely escaped death by diving behind some convenient barrels while his unkillable former patient took out a gas tank with a truck, causing a near-fatal explosion.

Dr. Loomis’ constant attempts at shooting Michael Myers really only impeded the guy’s momentum. It only took the first two films for Loomis to realize that bullets just wouldn’t work. At the end of II, he decided to be the martyr and blow both Michael and himself up using a combo of oxygen and ether.

Oh wait… but they both survive — somehow. Maybe Loomis got the explosive recipe wrong. But that’s great because then we got him for four more films! In those films we saw him use Michael’s female prey as bait to lure him into a trap consisting of a metal net, a tranquilizer gun, and his fists. But it was when he used his shrink skills to reason with the monster that we thought, “Oh yeah, that’s what he was trained to do.”

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Kirsty Cotton

Survived: The Hellraiser Franchise

Puzzle boxes were all the rage in the 1980s. Of course, when Kirsty Cotton played with one, she suffered the consequences: the opening of another realm filled with sado-masochistic Cenobytes led by none other than Pinhead himself. Pinhead’s posse included Butterball, Chatterer, and the Female. After attacks from a deceptive dead-skin-wearing uncle, a group of deal-reneging “explorers” from another realm, and a stepmother hell-bent on devouring her boyfriend, Kirsty even withstood a trip to the Cenobyte realm. In Hellraiser III, she existed only through old interview footage, but she returned in Hellseeker with some gruesome tricks up her sleeve.

Being orphaned could inspire one to focus on new hobbies and interests, like mastering such a puzzle box, incidentally called the “Lament Configuration.” That, and a propensity for turning the tables on your loved ones, could be all you need to survive when confronted by violent unearthly beings that thrive on the pleasures of pain.

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Nancy Thompson

Survived: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

How exactly does one defeat a nemesis who manifests himself in the dream world and makes nightmares come true? Nancy Thompson seemed to have figured out the trick, but not before notorious burn victim Freddy Krueger dispatched a good number of her friends and family in gruesome ways.

After Freddy skewered her BFFs and effectively turned her boyfriend into a bloody geyser in the original Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy somehow managed to escape, only to meet her end in Part 3: Dream Warriors. But here’s the kicker: Freddy actually came after the actress who played Nancy, Heather Langenkamp, in Wes Craven’s [very meta] New Nightmare, in which he also terrorized director Craven himself and the man who portrayed him in the movies, Robert Englund. Whoa… And maybe, you might think, a name change would help protect poor Nancy, but Freddy’s too smart for that.

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Jill Tuck

Survived: Saw III through Saw 3D

Throughout all the twists and turns of the Saw franchise, one woman emerged as the series’ unlikely hero (seriously, the bad guys got waaay more screen time than the goodies): Jill Tuck, the ex-wife of serial killer Jigsaw. Jill was a rehabilitation clinic director who suffered a miscarriage after an assault from a junkie, prompting Jigsaw’s descent into madness.

Despite the Saw series’ brutally high body count, Jill survived five filmed appearances. After Jigsaw’s death in Saw III, she received a mysterious box via his will. For a while, her role as either protagonist or antagonist was up in the air, making her the most compelling character outside of Jigsaw himself. Then it was revealed her final role in Jigsaw’s twisted blueprint was to “test” his apprentice, crazy corrupt cop Mark Hoffman. Jill almost took him out, but was eventually killed in the final Saw with the infamous reverse bear trap.

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Cindy Campbell

Survived: The first four Scary Movie movies

A high-school-student-turned-college-student-turned-anchorwoman-turned-professional-boxer-turned-caregiver, Cindy Campbell knows how to throw down and maybe even snap some necks. Her response to a home-attack by Ghostface? What else? Throw a HOUSE PARTY! That would be the safest thing to do, right? But everyone ended up dead. Go figure. Her Matrix-like aerial fighting skills got her through another night, but could she survive a wedgie in Scary Movie 2? Turns out… she could and did!

This one was handy though. Only Cindy Campbell could MacGyver random objects into a tractor, allowing her to crash through the door of a refrigerator she was locked in. Even a UN nude-ray couldn’t stop this savvy ingénue. At one point, an alien Command tripod ensnared her with Venus flytraps in a grimy old bathroom, and she was instructed to find the key to free herself and her friend Brenda. The key was located behind her eye, but it wasn’t a problem for Cindy. She’s got a glass eye (old bar fight injury).

Cindy has survived a lot. She’s slick and sagacious. But we’re still not sure whether she’s still with us, since she sat out Scary Movie 5.

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Sidney Prescott

Survived: The Scream Franchise

Poor Sidney Prescott. She survived an entire franchise dedicated to her demise, and it really all came down to reasons that were far beyond her control. What’s that saying about “the sins of the father” (or, in this case, mother)? Yeah, Sidney sort of represents the epitome of the adage.

Consider this: Sidney’s own boyfriend, Billy, played the long con on her and ultimately tried to off her in the first Scream because Sidney’s mom broke apart his parents’ marriage — yikes. But it got worse: who should come around for revenge in Scream 2 but Billy’s mom herself, understandably upset, along with an accomplice who just wanted to be famous for killing Sidney. Scream 3 saw Sidney terrorized by a half brother she never knew she had, upset about being rejected by their mother, and 4‘s Ghostface Killer turned out to be Sidney’s own cousin, itching to get a taste of Sidney’s fame. Sidney is safe and sound as of now, of course, but you never know; there might be a great granduncle or a step-niece just rarin’ for a go at her.

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Alice

Survived: The Resident Evil Franchise

At first, it wouldn’t appear that the Umbrella Corporation of the Resident Evil films planned very well for a possible outbreak of their zombifying T-virus. In fact, the soldiers sent to Umbrella’s secret lab in 2002’s Resident Evil spent most of their time simply trying to survive.

But even in the face of this population-decimating epidemic, there was one particular survivor who eventually went on the offensive for the good of all mankind, and her name was Alice. The folks at Umbrella must have spotted her potential, too, because in Apocalypse (2004), they outfitted Alice with some genetic modifications, and in Extinction (2007), they even cloned her in hopes of building a butt-kicking army. She’s survived attacks by all kinds of mutations, speedy, strong, and grotesque, but she hasn’t fallen yet. Alice and Umbrella both know the whole ordeal is Umbrella’s fault, and her quest to bring them to justice continues through to the franchise’s sixth installment, which is scheduled to open next year.

It’s one of the best types of binges — Halloween candy and Halloween TV! The spookiest day of the year is upon us, so catch the spirit with this collection of marathons, specials, and Halloween-themed episodes airing on a TV near you this week.

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Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Netflix, Currently streaming
Curate your own Halloween-themed marathon this weekend with the 39 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents currently streaming on Netflix. Be sure to include episodes directed by the Master of Suspense himself, including “Revenge,” “Breakdown,” “The Case of Mr. Pelham,” and “Back for Christmas.”

 

South Park “Hell on Earth” 2015
Hulu, Currently streaming
Get into the Halloween spirit with Kyle, Stan, Cartman, and all the rest in nine spooky South Park episodes currently streaming on Hulu. Standout installments include “A Nightmare on Face Time,” a parody of The Shining from 2012 in which Randy’s Blockbuster video store goes out of business; “Hell on Earth 2006,” a parody of My Super Sweet 16 from 2006 that shows Satan throwing a massive party; and “Korn’s Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery,” a parody of Scooby Doo which has the band coming to South Park for a Halloween concert.

 

“Treehouse of Horror” Marathon
SimpsonsWorld.com, Currently streaming
Watch every Halloween-themed Simpsons ever at SimpsonsWorld.com with your cable subscription. Start with critics’ favorites if you don’t have time to screen all 27 seasons’ worth, and then check out the most recent special, “Treehouse of Horror XXVI,” which shows the return of Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer), plus segments spoofing Godzilla and the found-footage film Chronicle.

 

“Hunting Vampires” on Expedition Unknown
Travel Channel, Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 9 p.m.
Host Josh Gates travels across Transylvania to follow the legend of the vampire, talking to Romanian villagers arrested for grave-robbing and revealing what appears to be 700-year-old vampire remains.

 

Black-ish Halloween Episode
ABC, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 9:30 p.m.
In this week’s Halloween-themed episode of black-ish, “Jacked o’ Lantern,” Dre’s nieces and nephews come to the “good candy” neighborhood for trick-or-treating. The Middle, The Goldbergs, and Modern Family will have Halloween episodes as well Wednesday night; see the complete schedule here.

 

“Michael Jackson Halloween” on Key & Peele
Comedy Central, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6:00 p.m.
From season two of Key & Peele, this Halloween-themed episode includes parodies of Harry Potter, The Walking Dead, and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

 

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
ABC, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m.
This perennial Halloween favorite from the Peanuts gang shows an ever-ernest Linus van Pelt imploring the Great Pumpkin to rise from his pumpkin patch with a big bag of presents for the children.

 

The Bones and Sleepy Hollow Halloween Crossover
Fox, Thursday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
In Bones’ Halloween episode, the team gets a visit from Sleepy Hollow’s Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) who have come to reclaim a headless body. The story continues with Sleepy Hollow, as both teams work together to stop the British Army of the Undead from taking over.

 

Robert Kirkman on Comedy Bang! Bang!
IFC, Thursday, Oct. 29 at 11 p.m.
Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will visit the extra-spooky Comedy Bang! Bang! set and chat with host Scott Aukerman (who will be going as Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Frank-N-Furter this Halloween).

 

Toy Story of Terror
Disney Channel, Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m.
From 2013, this 21-minute Halloween special follows Pixar’s Toy Story gang, who stop at a motel and have to figure out why one of their own has gone missing before it happens again!

 

Evil Dead Movie Marathon
Starz, Friday, Oct. 30, starting at 8 p.m.
Prime yourself for Starz’s new Ash vs. Evil Dead series starring Bruce Campbell with the movies that started it all: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. See the complete schedule here.

 

The Puppet Master Marathon
El Rey Network, Saturday, Oct. 31, starting at 12 a.m.
Hosted by Puppet Master producer, writer, and horror aficionado Charles Band, the ultimate Puppet Master marathon showcases all five films of the franchise and repeats for 31 hours over Halloween weekend. See the complete schedule here.

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street Marathon
IFC, Saturday, Oct. 31, starting at 6:15 a.m.
Insomnia got you down? If you’re awake early enough on Saturday morning, be sure to watch the first five Freddy Krueger movies: A Nightmare on Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child.

 

Ash Vs. Evil Dead Series Premiere
Starz, Saturday, Oct. 31 at 9 p.m.
Bruce Campbell reprises his role from the Evil Dead horror franchise in Sam Raimi’s highly anticipated TV reboot, Ash vs. Evil Dead. The first of 10 half-hour episodes airs Halloween night and finds the chainsaw-handed monster-hunter Ash Williams having spent the last 30 years trying to shirk his responsibilities of defending the world.

 

The Returned Season Two Premiere
Sundance TV, Saturday, Oct. 31, at 10 p.m.
The Returned… returns! Season two of the acclaimed French zombie series (which is also the inspiration for A&E’s American series The Returned) is back for a second season, picking up six months after the undead gathered outside the Helping Hand. Season one is currently streaming on Netflix.

 

Halloween Night on Adult Swim
Cartoon Network, Oct. 31, starting at 9 p.m.
A collection of special Halloween episodes from the Adult Swim library includes the “Hilloween” episode of King of the Hill (1997) when Hank works construction on a haunted house; the “It’s the Great Pancake, Junior Brown” episode of The Cleveland Show (2010) when Cleveland Jr. is told he’s too old to go trick-or-treating; the “Poltergasm” episode of American Dad (2013) when a poltergeist visits the Smiths; and the “Fat Guy Strangler” episode of Family Guy (2005) when Lois discovers she has a long-lost brother — who happens to murder fat guys! See the complete schedule here.

 

The Halloween Hangover Movie Marathon
Sundance TV, Sunday, Nov. 1, 6 a.m.
New Year’s Day isn’t the only time for hangover marathons. Check out Sundance TV’s “cure” for Saturday night’s revelry with all five original Halloween movies, including Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: Return of Michael Myers, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. See the full schedule here.

 

From Dusk Till Dawn Season Two Marathon
El Rey Network, Sunday, Nov. 1, starting at 10 a.m.
Robert Rodriguez’s story of the Gecko Brothers continues with all 10 episodes of season two of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series. Missed season one? You can stream it now on Netflix (as well as the original 1996 film).

There have been so many horror remakes that there’s no way we could cover them all at once. We did, however, decide to collect a sampling list, making room for some of the best, worst, and most puzzlingly misguided examples from the genre. Let’s get started, shall we?

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The Amityville Horror (2005) 23%

Like many of the movies on this week’s list, the latter-day Amityville Horror was produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes — and like more than a few of them, it suffered in comparison to the original. Which is a shame, because Amityville‘s central story — about a young family moving into a horrifically haunted house — is both devilishly simple and allegedly fact-based, which has helped the franchise retain its aura even through a series of sometimes-silly sequels and spinoffs. Unfortunately, despite a talented cast that included Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George, and a young(er) Chloe Grace Moretz, this Horror was mainly scary for the studio execs who had to account for its $64 million domestic gross, which sentenced the franchise to years of direct-to-DVD purgatory.

 

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The Blob (1988) 70%

Inspired by the way David Cronenberg used modern special effects and less-campy storytelling to amp up the horror in The Fly, Hollywood spent a portion of the late 1980s rushing to the vaults and searching for other long-dormant properties that might benefit from the remake treatment. Hence 1988’s The Blob, in which an alien goo plops down in a small town and starts gorging on its unsuspecting residents. It was just as fantastically cheesy a premise as it had been in 1958, when Steve McQueen starred in the original — but thanks to a solid screenplay from future Shawshank Redemption director/adapter Frank Darabont, as well as a (slightly) more believable Blob, it managed to just about reach the rather low bar set by its predecessor, which is about all one can hope for when making a film about hungry interstellar plasma.

 

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Cat People (1982) 65%

The original Cat People, produced on the cheap by Val Lewton in 1942, emphasized suggestion over explicit horror; four decades later, director Paul Schrader used the movie’s central idea — about people whose sexual desires trigger a sometimes-deadly feline transformation — as the basis for a steamy softcore flick that made up for its lack of genuine scares with an abundance of Natassja Kinski and a cool soundtrack featuring David Bowie and Giorgio Moroder. While it may not be the most terrifying movie on this list, it’s probably one of the hardest to turn away from if you happen across it on the cable dial during a bout of late-night viewing.

 

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The Crazies (2010) 72%

“WHY ARE THE GOOD PEOPLE DYING?” screamed the poster for George A. Romero’s paranoid The Crazies about the side effects of a military accident that resulted in a small American town being poisoned with a biological weapon that turns people into violent lunatics. Sadly, the tagline for Romero’s 1973 effort might as well have been “WHY WON’T MOST THEATERS SHOW THE CRAZIES?,” because the picture died with a whimper at the box office — but a good idea always turns up again in the horror genre, and in 2010, director Breck Eisner repurposed Romero’s original to create a sleek, gleefully nasty update that managed a surprisingly robust 71 percent on the Tomatometer. Alas, while Eisner’s Crazies at least made it to wide release, they didn’t fare a whole lot better at the box office, managing to slash together ony $54 million worldwide. The result of a military-industrial conspiracy, perhaps?

 

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Dawn of the Dead (2004) 77%

Did George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead really need a remake? Perhaps not. But if we were going to get one, it might as well have been one that blended the the visual wizardry of director Zack Snyder with a screenplay from future Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind James Gunn, and that’s just what we got with this 2004 “re-envisioning” of the zombie classic. Using the original’s basic framework as an effective delivery mechanism for a fresh round of gruesome gore and heart-pumping action, the new Dawn proved surprisingly bright for most critics, including Aisle Seat’s Mike McGranaghan, who wrote, “Dawn of the Dead is ultra-violent, excessively bloody, and extremely gory — all in a good way. I left the theater feeling pumped full of adrenaline.”

 

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Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010) 61%

It might seem a little odd to base a horror remake on a TV movie from the 1970s, but the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark — starring Kim Darby as a housewife whose new home comes with some nasty little tenants lurking in the basement — is a cult classic for aficionados of the genre, so a theatrical version was probably inevitable. Given that the 2011 edition was co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro, fans had reason to be hopeful that the remade Dark would be even scarier than the first; alas, after being trapped in studio limbo for months due to Miramax’s shuttering, director Troy Nixey’s update on the story — which focused on an eight-year-old (Bailee Madison) and her father’s girlfriend (Katie Holmes) — was greeted with lukewarm indifference by audiences and critics alike. Perhaps some things are just more frightening on the boob tube.

 

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Evil Dead (2013) 64%

How in the world do you put together a remake of one of the most beloved horror-comedy cult classics of the last 40 years? If you’re director Fede Alvarez, you film a new version of Evil Dead with production input from creator Sam Raimi and original star Bruce Campbell, a much bigger budget, and a far more serious take on the story of young campers who unwittingly unleash a demon plague while goofing around with the Book of the Dead. The amped-up gore in Alvarez’s Evil Dead certainly wasn’t for everyone, but it arguably made more sense, given the film’s narrative outline — and the resultant uptick in attention to the franchise helped lead to the subsequent TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead.

 

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The Fly (1986) 94%

The original version of The Fly, released in 1958, was a Vincent Price classic that didn’t really need to be remade, but that didn’t stop producer Stuart Cornfield (working with an uncredited Mel Brooks) from getting the ball rolling on a new version. After several years in development, plenty of studio struggle, and some turnover at the screenwriter and director positions, Cornfield had his movie: David Cronenberg’s gorier, more suspenseful take on The Fly, which went back to George Langelaan’s 1957 short story and emerged with one of the more delightfully suspenseful horror/sci-fi movies of the 1980s. Unfortunately, Cronenberg’s Fly — starring Jeff Goldblum as the ill-fated scientist whose experiments leave his DNA accidentally intertwined with the titular pest, and Geena Davis as the woman who loves him — was too successful to prevent a sequel: 1989’s rather uninspired The Fly II. Rumors of another remake (and a quasi-sequel penned by Cronenberg) have popped up over the years, but it’s all been for naught. So far, anyway.

 

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Friday the 13th (2009) 26%

Featuring a “star” hidden behind a hockey mask and a brilliantly low-budget conceit that needed nothing more than anonymous young actors capable of screaming in various states of undress, the Friday the 13th series was one of the most reliably profitable horror franchises of the 1980s — and ripe for the reboot treatment in the 21st century. Platinum Dunes did the honors in 2009, reimagining the murderous Jason Voorhees as more of a lethal maniac and less of a lumbering dolt, with cooler special effects and plenty of T&A; once again, the formula worked, producing plenty of pure profit for the studio and signaling that perhaps a new slew of sequels was on the horizon. Alas, Jason slumbered for the next several years, although he’s currently set to terrorize a fresh batch of Crystal Lake campers on May 13, 2016.

 

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Fright Night (2011) 72%

If director Craig Gillespie had polled horror fans in 2011 and asked them if he really needed to remake 1985’s Fright Night, the answer probably would have been a resounding “no”; after all, the original was not only a surprise hit, it had matured into a solid favorite among scary movie lovers, and little seemed to be gained by updating the story of a horror-loving teen (William Ragsdale) who makes the awful discovery that his new neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is secretly a vampire. While it may not have been strictly necessary, the new Fright Night — starring Anton Yelchin as young Charley Brewster and Colin Farrell as the undead addition to the neighborhood — proved surprisingly potent, with Farrell’s charismatic performance matching Gillespie’s confident lens. While box office returns were fairly weak, the remake brought the Fright Night franchise back to life, with a direct-to-video sequel arriving in 2013.

 

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Halloween (2007) 28%

By the 2000s, producer Moustapha Akkad’s once-proud Halloween franchise had fallen on hard times, with deathless serial killer Michael Myers resurfacing in a series of low-budget sequels that bore little resemblance to John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original. All that was left was to start over from the beginning — and that’s what director Rob Zombie did with 2007’s Halloween, which retold Myers’ gruesome origin story and returned him to poor, unfortunate Haddonfield, Illinois for a gorier version of his first grown-up killing spree. While Zombie had previously flirted with critical respectability with 2005’s The Devil’s Rejects, his Halloween mustered a mere 25 percent on the Tomatometer — not as high as 1982’s much-maligned Halloween III: Season of the Witch, but still better than the sixth installment in the series, 1995’s The Curse of Michael Myers, and good enough to greenlight a sequel (dubbed H2) in 2009. A planned 3D follow-up eventually fell off the schedule, but the next sequel, reportedly titled Halloween Returns, is currently in development.

 

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) 93%

If Gus Van Sant’s Psycho serves as an argument against remakes, then the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers offers an equally persuasive rebuttal. While the 1956 original is one of the most highly regarded sci-fi/horror movies of its era, director Philip Kaufman’s update matched it with a thrillingly gritty, ensemble-driven look at what might happen if alien spores landed on Earth and started sprouting eerily emotionless replicas of our friends and loved ones. Sharpening up the special effects without overly relying on them, the new-look Body Snatchers featured solid performances from a stellar cast that included Donald Sutherland, Leonard Nimoy, and Jeff Goldblum — and although it definitely made its share of money at the box office in 1978, if anything it’s even more highly regarded today. Here’s hoping Kaufman’s Snatchers continues to stand as the most recent version of the movie for many more years to come.

 

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My Bloody Valentine (2009) 62%

If you’re looking for fright value, bad guys don’t come much more elegantly brutal than a bloodthirsty lunatic with a pickaxe, which might be why the low-budget 1981 Canadian slasher flick My Bloody Valentine — about a miner who survives a collapse by dining on his fellow crew members, goes crazy before being rescued, and wages murderous revenge — proved even more potent when its 3D remake surfaced in 2009. And although it may not have generated blockbuster numbers at the box office, it fared surprisingly well with critics; it can’t be long before we’re treated to yet another Bloody Valentine.

 

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A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 14%

Given how much money the Nightmare on Elm Street movies made for New Line during the 1980s and early 1990s, remakes and/or reboots were probably always a matter of course; problem was, the series was just as memorable for Robert Englund’s outstanding performance in the role of series killer Freddy Krueger as it was for its scores of inventive on-screen murders. Faced with the unsolvable problem of replacing Englund, the folks at Platinum Dunes hired Jackie Earle Haley to take over the part for their 2010 reboot — and although Haley is certainly a talented actor, and more than capable of exuding a sinister aura, he isn’t as physically imposing as Englund. Add that to a story that hit many of the same beats as the original, and the end result was a movie that, while certainly profitable, failed to land with as much impact as it had the first (eight) time(s) around.

 

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Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) 93%

Werner Herzog’s filmography offers more than a few case studies in audaciousness, not the least of which is 1979’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht. Occasionally referred to by its less cool English title, Nosferatu the Vampyre, this remake of F.W. Murnau’s classic 1922 silent film finds Klaus Kinski stepping into the bloodsucking role so memorably inhabited by Max Schreck, with all parties involved acquitting themselves admirably. No less a cinematic authority than Roger Ebert agreed, writing that “To say of someone that they were born to play a vampire is a strange compliment, but if you will compare the two versions of Nosferatu you might agree with me that only Kinski could have equaled or rivaled Max Schreck’s performance.”

 

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Psycho (1998) 40%

Of all the remakes on our list, Gus Van Sant’s Psycho embraces the concept more eagerly than most, delivering a somewhat bafflingly precise update on the 1960 Hitchcock classic with a shot-for-shot replication that, while assembled and acted by talented creative types, exhibited no real creativity of its own. But while Van Sant’s Psycho wound up bottoming out at a rather miserable 37 percent on the Tomatometer, he dodged a few bullets in at least one sense — unlike a lot of remakes of classic films, his attempt to re-Hitchcock Hitchcock inspired more critical bafflement than anger or derision. Ultimately, the 1998 Psycho serves as a perfectly persuasive (albeit most likely unintentional) argument against remakes in general.

 

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) 37%

A man, a plan, a chainsaw. Oh, and a facemask made out of human skin. It may not sound like much, but from the moment 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre terrified its first audiences, it’s served as the basis for one of the horror genre’s more surprisingly durable franchises — in spite of the mostly miserable track record suffered by its spate of periodic prequels, sequels, and spinoffs. The horror remake enthusiasts at Platinum Dunes tried to take things back to the beginning (again) with their 2003 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and although most critics claimed time had dulled Leatherface’s blade, audiences still turned out to the tune of more than $100 million in box office grosses. Yet another prequel followed in 2006,  followed by a 3D sequel to the original in 2013, and the origin story Leatherface is currently scheduled for 2016. Confused? Don’t think too hard; in the end, it all goes back to those first simple ingredients.

 

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The Wicker Man (2006) 15%

There are worse (and far, far better) horror remakes than Neil LaBute’s update on The Wicker Man, but we absolutely had to include it here, because no other film provides its particular brand of sheer, cackling lunacy. While it’s misguided on just about every level, the 2006 Wicker is chiefly noteworthy thanks to Nicolas Cage’s presence as police detective Edward Malus, whose journey to a secluded island in search of his abducted daughter ends very badly for all concerned — including any audience members not prepared for the unforgettable sight of Cage punching a woman in the face while wearing a bear suit, or the equally memorable sound of Cage screaming “Oh God! Not the bees!” Avoid it if you’re looking for truly scary viewing, but it still needs to be seen in order to be believed.

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En español: Read this article in Spanish at Tomatazos.com.

Sometimes they come back from the dead…again! And sometimes…they never come back at all. That’s what happened to the horror movies in this gallery: they never got the sequel they deserved, so we’re dreaming up our own. You’re welcome, Hollywood!

[Spoiler alert for the whole gallery!]

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