The Best Horror Movies to Watch at Halloween

This may sound really pathetic (and it really is) but every year on Halloween Day I watch the original Halloween (1977) horror film starring the inimitable Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes, I am freely admitting that I watch Halloween on Halloween no matter what is going on in my life.

My brother and I also usually leave the creepy piano theme music to this horror classic on each other's answering machines on that day as well. As that first Halloween film still scares me more than pretty much anything in this world, I think it demonstrates the effects of letting your kids watch horror movies.

Don't get me wrong, when I was growing up we rented horror movies by the dozen and the rental place never asked us for ID. I think I saw Halloween for the first time when I was 8 years old. I can still remember crouching down on the sofa and covering my eyes as Michael Meyers walked slowly up the stairs with a rhythmic yet soulless abandon.

Unfortunately for my 8 year old self, the last 3 minutes of Halloween were cut out because my mom was videotaping it from the television. She was trying to edit out the commercials with a stop/start VCR remote and forgot to turn it back on for the climactic final moments.

I never knew if Michael Meyers was killed at the end of the movie or if he was coming back for what would amount to one of the most horrible sequels in all of horror history. Yes, I am talking about Halloween 2 replete with Jamie Lee Curtis in a really, really bad wig.

The sequel took place on the same night as the first Halloween so poor Jamie Lee had to have the same hair she had four years prior when the first film was shooting. But it looked like it was made out of Golden Retriever fur. The wig also must have been cutting off some oxygen to her brain because all of the personality and charisma that Jamie Lee demonstrated in the first film was oddly missing.

So on Halloween I recommend that you watch Halloween and Halloween 2 back to back. Now, if you are annoyed that your boyfriend is planning to do this, there is a different horror movie you can rent that will put the fear of God in him. It's called I Spit on Your Grave.

This film tells the story of a young woman who is raped by a group of four men and how she exacts deadly revenge on each of them. There is one scene in particular that is renowned among horror buffs that takes place in a bathtub and involves the removal of someone's manhood.

I am just saying that if you show I Spit on Your Grave to your boyfriend then you can probably do whatever you want this Halloween. Now, if that means not watching a scary movie then that is your loss.