11 Must-See Horror Movies for Halloween from 1924 to 2024

We’re diving into a hundred years of horror and picking one must-see film every ten years, from 1924 to 2024…

Whether you’re participating in Shocktober or simply upping your intake of horror-related films, Flickering Myth will always have you covered with a host of recommendations. The history of cinema, from silent cinema to a stellar selection of horror films this year alone, shows that the horror genre has a lot to offer discerning viewers.

If you want to add some gems to your watch list this Halloween season, consider these 11 films, starting with one from 1924, and then one every ten years after that, up until this year. Get ready for a century of cinema summarized in 11 films…

1924: The Hands of Orlac

Director Robert Wiene is a legend of the silent era, best known for his iconic film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari one of the most important films in horror cinema. Nor was it his only great work, and although Orlac’s hands It’s not quite as legendary, it’s still packed with stunning imagery and plenty of atmosphere.

The story has been repeated countless times since then (check out Jeff Fahey’s amusing star-studded, Body parts for one). A pianist loses his hands in an accident and grafts a new set, unaware that they belonged to a murderer. Horror, of course, emerges and the reason the premise has been repeated often is because it’s great. For another suggestion from 1924, check out Alice’s Scary Adventureone of Walt Disney’s first shorts that mixes live action with animation. It’s quaint, but an interesting early attempt at what would later be more refined in the future, both in terms of animation and fusion with live action.

1934: The Black Cat

Edward G. Ulmer made more than 50 films in his long career, probably culminating with the excellent noir classic, Detour (definitely check it out if you haven’t already). He also jumped between several genres including horror and perhaps his best in that genre was The black cat. Black cats are synonymous with the Halloween season and Ulmer’s film is based on the Edgar Allen Poe story, so this one draws on iconic literary material.

You’ve got a satanic cult head and a cast of horror luminaries like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. It also has some incredible visuals with more than a few references to German Expressionist cinema. Interestingly, this year also saw the launch of Manic by Dwain Esper, an independent film and considered one of the first entries in the so-bad-it’s-good category, which was also loosely based on Poe’s The Black Cat.

1944: The Uninvited

Firmly established in the era of sound films by this point, the film industry was beginning to see a rise in distinguished visual stylists in Hollywood creating films far beyond the previous decade, and truly taking advantage of the lighting approach of European silent cinema.

The uninvited is an early precursor to that classic horror trope… the grand estate that is mysteriously cheap, only for the new owners to discover it is surrounded by angry spirits. Lewis Allen’s film is stunning to look at and, like most genre films of the time, very snappy. It’s been treated to some reasonable HD and Blu-Ray transfers and is essential. Gas lantern, The Scarlet Claw and The Tenant are also great horror films from 1944.

1954: Godzilla

You young people. You’ve been treated to a number of creature features over the last decade and a notable few with Godzilla, but if you haven’t gone back to Ishirō Honda’s OG yet, you really should.

You know the score, Godzilla, a giant dinosaur that can breathe fire, terrorizes Tokyo. Practice will always trump CGI and there’s something grounded and physical (yet curious) about the visual effects here. In addition to the visual aspects, the film manages to make you care about the characters’ situation, making all that monster-crushing chaos secondary and something recent, Godzilla minus one I really remembered. Elsewhere in 1954 is worth checking out Theywhich also has the destructive consequences of nuclear testing, and The crazy magician that Chris Nolan The prestige perhaps owes some debt to.

1964: Onibaba

1964 was an incredible year for horror cinema, particularly in Japan, with not only the superb, Kwaiden but also the visceral and visually stunning, Onibaba. Kaneto Shindo is a J-Horror icon and someone with a sense of visual storytelling far ahead of his time. Here, a woman and her daughter-in-law are robbing and murdering wandering samurai to survive, but trouble arises when the young girl falls in love with one of the samurai, provoking her mother-in-law’s anger.

Unforgettable images that have become part of horror history, Onibaba is one of the best horror films ever made, mixing popular horror with parables, as many J-horrors did at the time. Outside of Japan, 1964 also gave us The Masque of the Red Death, The Last Man on Earth and Maria Bava’s greatest work, Blood and black lace.

1974: Black Christmas

Bob Clark is practically synonymous with Christmas, but not just the light and cute antics of a boy who longs for a BB gun in A Christmas Story. He also did black christmas, a film that has gained more recognition in the genre over the years for being ahead of the curve in its approach (notably with POV). It’s had the remake treatment in recent years, but Clark’s original, starring Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder and John Saxon, is a film that still deserves more praise than it has.

We cannot talk about 1974, 50 years ago, without mentioning The Texas Chainsaw Massacre any. It’s iconic, but I think more people have seen it than Black Christmas.

1984: The Company of Wolves

Of course, 1984 gave us A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Terminatorbut everyone has seen it and I even saw both re-releases in mainstream theaters this year alone. Another great film from that year is arguably Neil Jordan’s most popular film, but it is still distinctly idiosyncratic. The Company of Wolves.

A fusion of fairy tale, fantasy and horror, dressed in dazzling colors, Jordan’s film harkens back to Little Red Riding Hood and Werewolves in a truly unique horror film. Absolutely stunning visuals, and like many fantasy films of the time, it was caught between being too soft for horror-addicted adults and too dark for kids (see also, Ridley Scott’s Legend).

1994: Night Watch

There was a solid Hollywood remake starring Ewan McGregor (from 1997) and a recent sequel, but 1994 Night Vigil is a stellar Danish horror film that comes during a great era of Nordic horrors and thrillers. Ole Bornedal’s film sees a student get a job as a night watchman at a morgue, setting us up for horror right from the start. As the isolation and frightening scenery begin to awaken his curiosity and paranoia, Martin (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) becomes a suspect in the murder of one of the corpses in the morgue.

Atmospheric, spooky with lots of macabre humor (much of which comes from Kim Bodnia), Night Vigil is an underrated gem of 90s European horror. Other excellent horror films from 1994 include New nightmare, cemetery man and In the Mouth of Madness.

2004: Dumplings

2004 was a horror mix, although it launched the Saw franchise with the first feature film of the same name. Of the rest of that year, one of the most intriguing and fascinatingly disgusting films was Cookies from Fruit Chan. Starring Bai Ling in one of her best roles, Cookies is another film with some broad strokes of parable that would make a good complement to this year’s, The substance. A fading actress (Miriam Yeung) seeks to reverse the signs of aging (to attract her estranged husband) and the answer apparently lies in the dumplings made by a former abortionist (Bai Ling).

There’s a grim inevitability about what’s inside these youth-enhancing dumplings, but Chan revels in a grim atmosphere, aided by two excellent performances from Yeung and Ling, especially when the latter flees the country and Yeung finds the effects drastically wearing off.

2014: Follow

With The Babadook and The guestAfter something of a lull in the genre in general, 2014 really seemed to reinvigorate the horror genre, beginning a solid phase that we’re now seeing reach its peak. With He followsDavid Robert Mitchell took a simple premise with a simple allegory and made a brilliantly effective horror chase with the title ‘it’ following the victims unflinchingly, with purposeful and determined pacing. He just won’t stop coming to you.

Maika Monroe leads the film, showing great skill in the genre that we still see today in films like Long legs. She’s more than a scream queen, that’s for sure. A sequel is on the horizon, but whether it can be as effective remains to be seen.

2024: MaXXXine

In addition to the aforementioned The substance and Long legs2024 saw a nonstop barrage of horror films, and for the most part, they were decent. We had the horror of a nun Immaculate and The first omenboth effectively the same film. Flickering Myth even brings our entry into the terror of the nuns, The baby in the basket shortly. We had Alien: Romulus (a rare reboot/sequel that doesn’t suck), indie horrors like I saw the TV glow, In a violent nature until Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 and much more.

It’s by no means the best, but as a new face of horror, I present to you Mia Goth in the final part of the Maxine/Pearl trilogy, MaXXXine where Goth and Ti West take us to the 1980s, cranking up the neon, VHS tapes, and rock soundtrack to pay homage to giallo. It divided fans a little (especially the ending), but the gothic obliges (as always) and the film looks great, really capturing the era and some MTV aesthetics very well. Additionally, it opens with a ZZ Top song. What’s not to love?

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Tom Jolliffe