My SO and I are always looking for good movies, shows, etc. to fill the month of October. We like things that are atmospheric, cerebral, or just fun. But a lot of the standard recommendations are your typical slasher movies and the like, disgusting body horror, kids movies that we have no interest in, and things that are just plain miserable.

Here’s some things we’ve liked to one degree or another from previous years.

Action Horror / Horror That’s Actually Enjoyable

  • Aliens
  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula
  • Fright Night
  • Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
  • The Mummy (1999)
  • Silence of the Lambs
  • Sleepy Hollow (Great? No. Fun? Yes.)
  • Termors 1 & 2
  • Various Stephen King Mini series (IT, The Stand, Rose Red)

Funny and Spooky

  • Army of Darkness
  • BeetleJuice
  • Bubba Ho-Tep
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)
  • The Burbs (didn’t love it, but a good fit)
  • Death Becomes Her
  • The Frighteners
  • Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
  • Ghostbusters 1 & 2
  • Gremlins 1 & 2
  • High Anxiety
  • Little Shop of Horrors (not really into musicals, but still a good fit)
  • Shaun of the Dead
  • What We Do in the Shadows (movie)
  • Various MST3K horror movie episodes
  • Young Frankenstein

Anthology Shows (inherently hit or miss)

  • The Twilight Zone (60s)
  • The Outer Limits (90s)
  • Tales From the Crypt

Old Timey Classics

  • Dracula
  • Frankenstein (actually underwhelming, but it was a good fit)
  • The Haunting (1963)
  • The Haunting of Hill House (with Rifftrax, but still counts)
  • The Last Man on Earth
  • Psycho
  • The Invisible Man

Barely Qualifies as spooky but still good:

  • Dark Man
  • The Dead Zone (movie)
  • Men in Black
  • Pacific Rim
  • The Shadow
  • They Live
  • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    A few that I don’t think have been mentioned yet:

    • Rosemary’s Baby
    • Ring (Japanese original)
    • Mulholland Drive
    • Get Out
    • The Exorcist
    • The Omen
  • BalooWasWahoo@links.hackliberty.org
    0·
    1 month ago

    Hocus Pocus is classic 90s comedy/super-light horror. It’s gooooood.

    edit: and OP says in another comment that they want to avoid it. Noooooo! …I get the sentiment, but noooooo!

  • Andrew@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    For ‘Action Horror’, I’ve liked The Hunt (2020), Ready or Not, Totally Killer and Strange Darling (technically not a horror, but it’s about a serial killer)

    I watched Red Rooms recently, and that’s French (Canadian), so if anyone asks you what you watched recently, you can say ‘Les chambres rouges’ and sound all intelligent and stuff.

  • Prewash_Required@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    1 month ago

    It could just be that I first watched it when I was pretty young, but The Changeling from 1980 with George C. Scott is a pretty good atmospheric horror. No real gore or even deaths to speak of, but a good creepy ghost story nonetheless.

  • Nefara@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    Haven’t seen anyone here recommend The Woman in Black (2012) which fits the atmospheric horror genre perfectly. Stars Daniel Radcliffe and I remember it as being quite good, with no gore and minimal cheap jump scares. I don’t think the trailer is a good representation of it so that would be one to go into blind.

  • Marighost@lemm.ee
    0·
    30 days ago

    The Night House is a really good horror/thriller, I don’t recall it having any gore.

    The Menu is phenomenal, but does have a bit of blood and gore.

    I don’t think I saw anyone mention Get Out, a fantastic movie.

    I’m not a big movie guy, but these were some of my faves (along with Evil Dead, which have been mentioned a ton already 🙂)

  • emb@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    I thought Insidious was good, and not annoyingly gratuitous with the violence.

  • Professorozone@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    Was so excited to answer this only to find the top post hit virtually every one of my suggestions.

    But there is one more. This year I plan to revisit an old classic:

    The Lost Boys.

  • papalonian@lemmy.world
    0·
    30 days ago

    The Haunting of Hill House is a phenomenal show. Incredibly creepy, and one of the most emotionally powerful things I’ve ever watched.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
    0·
    1 month ago

    Dracula: Dead and Loving it. It’s a comedy/horror with Leslie Nielsen.

    Tales from the Dark side: The movie (I never watched the series, so can’t comment).

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    • Ring (Japanese original)

    • The Eye (Taiwanese? Thai?)

    • M3GAN (you want the PG/13 rated version, as there’s a gory cut out there)

    • The Conjuring 2 (the best of the whole franchise)

    • Nope

    That should keep you going for a bit.

  • Dem Bosain@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982). Not gory, so much as gooey.

    The Babadook.

    The Mist. Based on a book by Steven King. King admits the movie ending is better than his own.

    10 Cloverfield Lane. It’s standalone, don’t worry if you haven’t seen Cloverfield

    Annihilation. The bear freaks me out.

    Event Horizon. Sci-Fi/Horror

    Original Ghostbusters from 1984.

    Gremlins

    No One Will Save You. The ending is weird, but the suspense is top-notch.

    The 'Burbs. Classic Tom Hanks comedy.

    Tremors.

    What We Do in the Shadows

      • Makeitstop@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        0·
        1 month ago

        I love The Thing, specifically because it’s smart and has great atmosphere. And as with Tremors, I like seeing people behave intelligently and adapt to try to overcome the threat, rather than just having people be idiots so we can watch them die.

        That said, it goes way past the line for my SO, who makes less of a distinction between gross creature effects and violent gore effects. Plus, it’s not like there isn’t some fairly extreme violence as well. The defibrillator scene for example.