Kevin Albers ’15

Oculus

Rotten Tomato Score: 74%

To start off the short list is the horror movie Oculus. Oculus first and foremost aims to break its audience’s senses of reality and placing them in a constantly changing and uncomfortable environment. The story centers around a brother and sister who went through a horrible trauma as children that centers around this strange mirror. This mirror messes with the sibling’s perceptions as well as the audience’s perception throughout the movie.
Watch this if: You are in the mood to see a simple yet complex mind bending experience served along with your horror. Oculus will truly satisfy those looking for something new and inventive within the horror genre.

The Conjuring

Rotten Tomato Score: 86%

If  you want a little more simple, old-fashioned haunted house film with some new twists and turns then The Conjuring and you are meant to be. This is the newest horror movie by acclaimed horror director James Wan, who created the Insidious series and also kicked off the long running Saw franchise. The Conjuring is first and foremost about a family in a new house in a fairly rural area who experience extreme and horrific supernatural phenomena and eventually have what could be thought of as the main characters, the Warrens, come in to investigate the strange events and attempt to end the families grief.
Watch this if: You are searching for a horror movie with an actual story while having the creepy unknown horrifying you at every unexpected corner. This movie truly delivers classic horror at its best with each subsequent sequence of horrors and creepy lulls. It is a perfect movie for a stormy night with all the lights turned off.

Sinister

Rotten Tomato Score: 63%

Before getting any further there must be a warning for this movie since much of its material can be incredibly disturbing to some, but if you’re willing to accept that this is the horror made for you. Simply put, Sinister focuses on bringing its audience to a different world through the use of old movie reels depicting horrible murders. The story is centered all around a writer who moves into a new house to attempt to write his new book comes across these disturbing homemade movies in his attic. Strange events start to occur after the discovery of these movies that terrify him and yet no one else causes alarm for anything suspicious happening besides his very own behavior.
Watch this if: You want your night of horror to be a little more serious and disturbing, and when you get off of your couch at the end of the movie the horrors presented to you may still linger within your thoughts. As an added bonus this movie has great acting as well as a story to surround it so the mature material does not seem too far out of place.

The Blair Witch Project

Rotten Tomato Score: 87%

The mother of all found footage movies! The Blair Witch Project was a pioneer in horror movies when it first premiered in 1999. While this movie may not be action packed and frantic at most moments, it is a very slow burn of a movie and is great at immersing its audience into thinking these are real people that happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Blair Witch Project takes place for most of the movie in what is supposedly a haunted forest and has three central characters to the creepy plot. There are many cryptic scenes in this movie that will always keep the viewer guessing especially its famous ultimate scene.
Watch this if: You want to see what true found-footage horror can be. While this movie may be slow, its journey is truly memorable and horrific and will always be there to be watched over and over again for it truly delivers great horror.

The Cabin in the Woods

Rotten Tomato Score: 91%

This movie is truly something special since it is both a terrific horror movie but also a meta-comedy that makes fun of almost each horror cliche! Without too many spoilers, this is a movie about a group of five friends in which each character follows a horror trope (such as the nerd, jock, and the stoner) that takes a trip to an isolated cabin in the woods. Cliche, am I right? But this movie spoofs the horror genre in all its scenes while still offering some of its own terrifying sequences.
Watch this if: You want a little bit more light-hearted horror that will give you screams as well as laughs perhaps both at the same time. No matter who you are this is one of those movies you should watch and will enjoy.