Halloween 2025: Quite a horrific group of flicks for your enjoyment!

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We’re close to Halloween 2025 and here’s my annual rundown of the best horror-type flicks to enjoy this horror-holiday season! I’ve put them in category-by-type with your vampires, werewolves, the paranormal and zombies, all sharing the spotlight with that longtime Halloween villain: the slasher!

You can view quite a few (most probably you’ve seen before) by Halloween and be ready for trick-or-treaters.

Of course, this all culminates this Friday, Oct. 31, and that’s the day to watch the best: ‘Halloween,’ of course!

GUIDE TO HORROR FILMS

Now, here are the categories:

VAMPIRES

‘The Night Stalker’ … Horror coefficient: A+
(1972; 74 minutes; rated NR; directed by John Llewellyn Moxie and starring Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley and Simon Oakland)

Here is my all-time favorite vampire flick and it was an original “made-for-TV” film starring the late Darren McGavin. In 1972, it set a record for viewership of a TV movie and so it has very little gore, but lots and lot of scares. The vampire is introduced to you piecemeal and a shudder goes through you when you first see just his eyes! Frankly, even without the gore, you won’t find a better vampire flick than this one!

Runner up in ‘vampires’ …

‘Salem’s Lot’ (1979) … Horror coefficient: A+
(1979; 112 minutes; rated PG; directed by Tobe Hooper and starring James Mason, David Soul and Lance Kerwin)

Here’s my second all-time favorite vampire flick and it, too, is a “made-for-TV” movie.

ZOMBIES

‘Zombieland’ … Horror coefficient: A+
(2009; 88 minutes; rated R; directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson)
‘Zombieland: Double Tap’ … Horror coefficient: A-
(2019; 99 minutes; rated R; directed by Ruben Fleischer and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin)

The original of this two-film series instantly de-throned the reigning zombie movie champion after only five years. Here is just about the perfect blend of horror, gruesome zombie hunger and an attitude of homicidal insouciance that you need to see in a horror film. The cast does great work in both (but the sequel is just a touch less than original, but it would have been impossible to achieve the same height) and the ending scene at an amusement park in the original is pretty neat.

Runner up in ‘zombies’ …

‘Dawn of the Dead’ … Horror coefficient: A+
(1979; 127 minutes; rated R; directed by George A. Romero and starring David Emge, Scott Reiniger, Ken Foree and Gaylen Ross)

For more than 25 years, this was what I called the best-ever zombie movie. As a sequel, it topped even the original and was creative (people escape to a shopping mall to hide out from zombies) as well as being gruesome with intestines being pulled out and flesh eaten. Director George A. Romero again touched a nerve with his work of horrific violence and gore.

SLASHERS

‘Scream’ … Horror coefficient: A+
(1996; 111 minutes; rated R; directed by Wes Craven and starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette)

Here is the only film that comes close to the all-time classic “Halloween” film with Jamie Lee Curtis. It re-energized the horror genre, which had stagnated through the late 1980s and into the mid-1990s with just a series of films that tried to out-gross each other. Legendary horror director the late Wes Craven made “Scream” renew a sense of real story-telling; a great young cast; and the way to scare the wits out of you … from surprise and shock to outright gore. Here is one of the two best-ever horror flicks ever made and it is a must-watch at Halloween.

Runner up in ‘slashers’ …

‘Terror Train’ … Horror coefficient: A
(1980; 97 minutes; rated R; directed by Roger Spottiswoode and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson and Hart Bochner)

Here is Jamie Lee Curtis’ most underrated horror flick. It is really a wonderful effort in creativity – not that a bunch of college kids get killed, but the location: on a train hired for a Halloween party run by a fraternity. Further, the killer assumes the costumes of the victims and actually makes you think to guess who’s the killer. Also, you get a wonderful supporting shot by real-life magician David Copperfield. All around, this one meets all the standards of a horror classic, but didn’t get the publicity.

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Actors: Jennifer Aniston | Charles Bronson | Pierce Brosnan | Gary Busey | Michael Caine
Chevy Chase | Sean Connery | Jamie Lee Curtis | Matt Damon | Robert De Niro
Leonardo DiCaprio | Clint Eastwood | Gene Hackman | Téa Leoni | Steve Martin
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Directors: William Friedkin | Sam Peckinpah | Sydney Pollack | Peter Yates

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