Horror movies are always huge in October. Everyone around this time gathers around the television with their popcorn in hand, watching as young busty blondes run in slow motion while a man with a Slipknot mask on and a chainsaw, chases them through a house that looks like it came straight out of a Rob Zombie music video. You know, fun for the whole family. Movies like the Friday the 13th movies and Nightmare on Elm Street get a lot traction around this time, but what about the movies that don’t get as much attention as Freddy and Jason gets? These are movies that are fantastic, but don’t receive mass attention

John Dies at the End

This horror comedy follows Arnie Blondestone (played by Paul Giamatti, known from critically acclaimed films such as Sideways and Cinderella Man) as he interviews a man named Dave (who hunts demons for a living with his friend John) who has an incredible story about otherworldly creatures, a girl with no hand, and a strange new drug called Soy Sauce. If you take this drug, then you get unbelievable psychic abilities, such as talking to ghost and seeing into the future. Dave takes the drug with his friend John and gets sucked into a journey that none of them would ever expect.

The true star of this story is the insanely strange sense of humor throughout the film. The movies humor is a lot like one in a Chuck Palahniuk novel, with extreme details and disgusting imagery. Even though the film can be too much to people, to others it could amount to an extremely enjoyable experience.

V/H/S 1&2

Found footage is now officially annoying to me. Every time I see a new trailer for a Blair Witch wanna be, my liver gives up on me and I go into epileptic shock. I really thought that the genre was dead, until about last year when I saw V/H/S on Netflix. V/H/S is a found footage horror series, where every different segment is directed by a different director. The entire series covers about every subgenre of horror that you can think of, everything from the paranormal to zombie to serial killers. Some of the segments in the film are kind of hit or miss, with the first segment in the first film “Amateur Night” being the best by far, and 2 of the 4 in the second movie (“A Ride in the Park” and “Safe Haven”) being insanely good. But 1 and 2 are definitely worth a watch.

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

If any of you know anything about me know one very important thing: I love Firefly more than I love myself. Seriously, it is so good, and so ahead of it’s time. I will watch anything that Joss Whedon or anyone in the main cast is in. So when I stumbled upon Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil on Netflix,  seeing that Alan Tudyk (who played Wash in Firefly) was in it, I just had to watch it. And to tell you the truth, I fell in love with it.

The Story follows Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine, who stars in the Hulu show Deadbeat) after Tucker buys a “vacation home”, that is really just a dilapidated cabin in the woods. In the same woods a group of  college students go for a camping trip. The college kids mistake Tucker and Dale for ‘Hills-Have-Eyes” like killer hillbillies hellbent on killing them. After a series of unfortunate misunderstandings which leads to a few of the college kids dying or going missing, one of the kids starts a war with Tucker and Dale.

This movie is funny, charming and actually really heart warming. Tucker and Dale are just really nice guys caught up in a really crappy situation, that people cheer to get out of there situation. The performances are really solid, the people who play horror cliches (like some of the college kids) really ham it up and it works really well. The two leads put on really convincing performances, especially Labine (Dale), who puts on a surprising sympathetic and raw performance, that I would totally put on my list for the underrated performances of all time. Watch it, love it, and then watch it again.

The Guest

The Guest is one of the best horror movies I have seen in the last 10 or so years, but when this movie came out last year, it made practically no money. Seriously, it made like 10 dollars at the box office, and that 10 was from me. This movie is just straight up awesomeness and I have never had more fun watching a movie in my entire life.

The film follows a family, as a strange man comes to their door, that claims to know their dead son from the military. This man named Dave (played by Dan Stevens) is just oozing charm and charisma out of his pores. Because of this, the entire small town, where the family lives, falls in love with Dave and accepts him as one of their own. Dave, however, may not be what he seems.

I know this sounds like just a typical horror movie, and it really is. It is filled with cliches and horror movie tropes, but they are done is such a fun and interesting way that it makes you forget about them and go along for the ride. There is definitely a lot to enjoy for everyone. It is streaming now on Netflix, so if are at home alone on a Friday night, while all the cool kids are out doing fun things that they didn’t invite you to, put The Guest on and love it as much as I do.

Slither

Another Firefly bug has hit me again, with James Gunn’s fantastic creature feature Slither starring the greatest person alive, Nathan Fillion. The movie is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the classic universal monster movies from the 1930’s. But instead of big green guys with screws in his neck, there are intergalactic slug monsters set to earth to harvest the human race. As you can imagine, it is a little cheesy… O.k. very  cheesy. What do you expect from the director of Guardians of the Galaxy James Gunn? Gunn’s blend of insider nerd humor and interesting dialogue cuts through the cheesiness of the B-movie story and makes nerdy kids cheer in excitement.

Jacob’s Ladder

Most of these movies on this list are fun, easy to watch, and enjoyable movies that you can watch with almost anyone and have a good time, but that is not the case with this movie. This film is amazingly depressing, like Bambi’s mom dying kind of depressing. Jacob’s Ladder stars Tim Robbins (mostly known for Shawshank Redemption and the greatest movie ever made Howard the Duck) playing the title character Jacob, a Vietnam veteran as he deals with the loss of his son. Sounds like a cheerful happy movie, right? I know what you guys are thinking, this movie sounds more like a Drama than a horror movie. But what truly makes this movie properly one of the most freakiest movies I have ever seen in my entire life, is the strangest visuals I have ever seen which are in this movie. Stuff like bloody nurses and mental hospitals fill this bizarre movie. This film is not a happy movie and it is a hard film to watch, but afterwards you will get an rewarding experience.

The Host

Let me get this out right away, IT IS NOT THE 2013 STEPHANIE MYERS MOVIE! Not going to lie, that movie is one of the worst things to happen to film since Batman & Robin. This is the 2006 version directed Joon-ho Bong.

The Host is a fantastically cheesy creature feature from South Korea. The film follows a riverside resort as they get attacked by creature, that kind of looks like a mix between Creature from the Black Lagoon and that one creature from that Futurama episode from the last season, where the crew goes on a retreat (if you have seen the episode you know what I mean). The movie is weirdly, and surprisingly beautiful with a shot comparison that rivals none. The Host is streaming on Netflix right now.

Drag me to Hell

After the success and failure of the Tobey Maguire Spider Man Franchise, director Sam Raimi was kind of lost. Spider-man 3 was a flop at the box office and Raimi was under the invisible hand of Sony. So after that, he went back to his roots and made Drag me to Hell, a throwback to classic 80’s horror, like the ones that Raimi perfected with the Evil Dead series. It follows a banker as she denies a bank loan to an old woman. After the fact, the young banker starts having weird things happen to her, as she battles a curse put on her by the old woman. This movie has classic Raimi all over it, with gross out visuals (that seriously gave me nightmares for days after) and that classic Raimi sense of humor. The movie hearkens back to classic horror in a fun and great way.

Cabin in the Woods

No going to lie, this the is best movie on this list. Most of the other movies on this list are like 6,7, or 8’s out of 10, this movie is one of six movies that i have rated a perfect 10 out of 10 in my life. The movie is nothing short of perfect. It is written by Joss Whedon (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly fame), and Drew Goddard, who has written with Joss on Buffy and has recently gotten fame from writing the excellent script for The Martian. The film follows a group a young college kids as they go to a cabin in the woods. Creepy stuff happens and people die. Sounds like every horror movie ever made, right? Wrong, the last half of this movie is the greatest hour of cinema ever created. That is no exaggeration. I know that I am not giving you guys much, but if I tell anything else, I would spoil the movie. The only thing that I am willing to tell is that this movie is a complete love letter to horror as a genre. There are many references that makes any horror fan giggle in excitement. I can’t stress this enough, watch this movie.