Best Scary Movies for Halloween 2008

Saw V

Directed by David Hackl
Written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan
Release date: October 24, 2008

Jigsaw will be back for the 5th and final time. This series has been an on-going investigation into the mind and horrifying activities of the 'Jigsaw Killer' as played by Tobin Bell. Each film features a series of deadly games with messy conclusions. Each film throws in a new shocker of an ending. In the last film, we discovered that someone we did not expect had taken up reigns and continued in Jigsaw's footsteps. Now, what little surprise are they going to throw in to blow the minds of their audiences? We won't know until October 24th. What new games and medieval tortue devices can we expect to see? We'll have to wait and see. But I guarantee October 24th and Saw V will have something terrifying to offer.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley

Directed by Mickey Liddell
Written by John Travis and Rebecca Sonnenshine
Release date: October 31, 2008

This looks like Craft, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Carrie and even a touch of The Exorcist. Could the film be as terrifying as the previews are boasting? I'm not sure. Starring Haley Bennett as Molly Hartley, the film tells the story of a young girl who was once stabbed by her mother in an attempt to kill her. Molly soons finds herself dealing with the same psychological problems that her mother had. But, perhaps, she's not as delusional as she thinks. To be honest, I'm not going to rush to the theater for The Haunting of Molly Hartley. I was already far too disappointed by the similarly titled, The Exorcism of Emily Rose. But I can't let it go without a recommendation either.

The scary movies that you can now find in theaters and on DVD

Quarantine

Directed by John Erick Dowdle
Written by John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle
Release date: October 10, 2008

If you mix The Blair Witch Project and Night of the Living Dead, you'll understand the concept of this terrifying experience. A lone reporter, Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman, Scott Percival (Steve Harris) are trying to produce a story on the local firefighters. They interview a couple of them, Jake (Jay Hernandez) and George (Johnathon Schaech). Angela gets friendly with both men and learns a few things about the life of a fireman. The firefighters get the call. They get dressed up in their gear, climb aboard the fire trucks and head out to a building. Angela and Scott are going along for the ride and so are we. Once they reach the building, discover a diseased old lady, everything hits the fan and everyone gets locked away inside the building. Given the same hand-held camera work last seen in Cloverfield, you'd expect Quarantine to make you just as sick. A person shouldn't get motion sickness while watching a movie. But Quarantine does a good job of avoiding this problem, strongly due to the fact that the few glimpses of the biting and snapping zombie-like creatures we see is just THAT scary. I myself felt like I wanted to get as far away from their jaws as possible. Quarantine is certainly scary enough to give you nightmares, but you might want to bring along some Dramamine.

The Ruins

Directed by Carter Smith
Written by Scott B. Smith
Release date: April 4, 2008

Starring Jonathan Tucker as Jeff, Jena Malone as Amy, Laura Ramsey as Stacy and Shawn Ashmore as Eric, The Ruins tells the tale of these four friends as they explore an ancient Myan pyramid. They are very smart and intriguing characters in a film that could've easily been made with typical college students that have no depth or intelligence. Each characters provides his or her own insight into the problems. Jeff, a med student really becomes the leader. His girlfriend, Amy is strong in spite of the things she says and does. Stacy and her boyfriend, Shawn provide some good entertainment. In short, The Ruins may have followed the typical horror film convention, but it certainly didn't feel like it. Now, let's talk about the terrifying situations found in this genuinely scary movie. First, there's the biggest problem, a vine that is wrapped tightly around the Myan ruins likes to consume flesh. Secondly, you've got the locals, a bunch of terrified people who don't speak spanish and refuse to let anyone leave the pyramid. The vine becomes a kind of contamination that can grow from the insides of a person. The locals will do whatever it takes to keep this plague from spreading to their village. All of these problems contribute to the terrifying experience of The Ruins, challenging and changing the four friends in ways we didn't expect, making them all the more interesting. It's brilliant writing for a movie that could have followed the standard commonly found in the Friday the 13th / Jason Voorhees series.

Mirrors

Directed by Alexandre Aja
Written by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur
Release date: August 15, 2008

Kiefer Sutherland tries to keep his family safe from ghosts in mirrors. Sights and sounds in Mirrors are genuinely creepy, and even horrifying. Mirrors is definitely a movie to see this Halloween. For more information about this frightening movie, check out My Review of Mirrors.

Shutter

Directed by Masayuki Ochiai
Written by Luke Dawson
Release date: March 21, 2008

Joshua Jackson plays Benjamin Shaw, a photographer, a ladies man and a man with a bad history. To look at him, you wouldn't suspect him of anything worse than running a few lights, failing to pay parking tickets and getting into a few drunken brawls with his college friends. Shutter follows Benjamin's new bride, Jane (Rachael Taylor) as she begins to uncover his past with the help of a terrifying ghost. In the tradition of The Ring and The Grudge, Shutter gives us an interesting experience of fear from a unique perspective. Did you know that ghosts can appear in photos? Well, Shutter shows us how and shows us how dangerous these photographs can be. As poorly as it was received by critics, Shutter does have the goods and the number of people who screamed in the theater is proof.

Cloverfield

Directed by Matt Reeves
Written by Drew Goddard
Release date: January 18, 2008

Another film that can easily make you sick to your stomach features a group of young people that are scrambling through New York City as its invaded by alien creatures that range in size. The cameraman can't seem to keep it steady, but the few glimpses of the monsters can make anyone jump out of their seats. Where The Blair Witch Project failed to show the scary things lurking in the dark, Cloverfield was one of the first of its kind to actually reveal the thing(s) that are making everyone scream. But, just like Quarantine, you might want to grab some Dramamine before you pop this scary movie into the DVD player.

The Happening

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Written by M. Night Shyamalan
Release date: June 13, 2008

Given the director's previous accomplishments in The Sixth Sense and Signs, The Happening is somewhat disappointing. Sure, it's got the same eerie feeling we felt in Signs. Does it have the same draw to the characters, Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg) and Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) as we felt toward Mel Gibson or Joaquin Phoenix in Signs? No. Does The Happening deliver the same bone-chilling suspense of The Sixth Sense? No really. The Happening does try to recapture the terrifying shock and awe of The Sixth Sense, but its leaps and bounds from it. So what is so scary about The Happening? The concept itself is scary if you think about it. Some chemical is blown around the East Coast, killing off great numbers of people by making them commit suicide. The scientist, Elliot has to figure out the pattern of this toxin before it's too late him, his girlfriend and a little girl. The concept can leave you scratching your head and make you think about other ways in which Shyamalan could've made The Happening. But there is a lot of creepiness to the film as we watch people kill themselves, one by one.

The Eye

Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud
Written by Sebastian Gutierrez
Release date: February 1, 2008

I expected more. Done in the tradition of The Ring, The Eye had a lot of potential as seen in previews. When I first saw the film, it was clunky. The character of Sydney Wells as played by Jessica Alba is one of the strongest parts of the film. She has been blind all her life. Alba does a good job convincing the audience of her disability. But then, Sydney gets replacement eyes, unaware of what's in store for her. The eyes happen to be haunted. Sydney begins to see horrifying images which all lead to a huge climax. Everything but the character of Sydney Wells looks and feels conventional. Suspense doesn't last long. The shock images are over-the-top and they too are a little too fast for effectiveness. But there is some good scares to be found in The Eye. Watch and see for yourselves. No pun intended.

More great selections

Day of the Dead
Blindness
One Missed Call
Prom Night
Untraceable
Rogue