October 2024 Horror Movie Challenge

Need something to watch this spooky season? Don't worry, your entirely normal and not at all hyper obsessive resident horror fan is here to help.

Photo by Bruno Guerrero on Unsplash

It’s the most beautiful time of the year! The summer has faded away, the air outside is cold and miserable, everything now has a pumpkin spiced version of itself for some reason, but it’s a damn good excuse to stay inside and watch some scary movies.

Halloween is basically a month now right? If Christmas can start on September 1st the Halloween can have a month, it’s only fair. And if you’re like me and like any good excuse to watch movies that scare you and move you and make you laugh and sometimes all in the same 90 minutes, then this is the challenge for you.

It’s easy, there are 31 categories, you chose a film that fits that category and that’s it! I’ve created an extensive list of movies below too, so enjoy and scare yourself silly.

(You can save the above for your Instagram stories and check them off as you go!)

Below you can find many recommendations to help you if you can’t quite put your finger on what you fancy watching for that category.

• 2024 - There’s been a lot of good (and not so good) horror released this year, so try something new!

Late Night With The Devil, Oddity, The Substance, Alien Romulus, Cuckoo, The First Omen, Longlegs, In A Violent Nature, The Devil’s Bath, Speak No Evil, Maxxxine, A Quiet Place Day One

• Found Footage - Everyone’s favourite genre to make you feel a bit sick in a cinema. If' it feels handheld, it counts.

Blair Witch, Afflicted, Rec, As Above So Below, Host, Deadstream, The Hell House series, VHS series, Horror In The High Desert, Gonjam Haunted Asylum, Lake Mungo, Borderlands, Hellhole, The Taking Of Deborah Logan,

• Video Nasty - The gross stuff. The horrible stuff. The stuff no one should really watch. Sorry.

Evil Dead, Censor, I Spit On Your Grave, Cannibal Holocaust, Hostel, Human Centipede, The Last House On The Left, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Clockwork Orange, Anti-christ, The Sadness, Cloverfield

• Religious - It all gets a bit spooky when the church gets involved…

The Exorcist, The Pope’s Exorcist (shut up), The Omen, Immaculate, Saint Maud, The Excorism of Emily Rose, Incantation, Apostle, The Nun, The Witch,

• Isolation - Any movie where the main characters are trapped or stuck in a situation they can’t get out of. Claustraphobia awaits.

Triangle, The Descent, The Tunnel, Rec, As Above So Below, Creep, Barbarian, Horror In The High Desert, The Thing, You’ll Never Find Me, Sick, The Ruins, Inside

• Serial Killers - For extra ideas on this list, please consult any white woman’s podcast history.

Zodiac, Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer, Silence of the Lambs, Nightmare On Elm Street, Saw, Longlegs, Scream, Cure, Terrifier

• 80s - The decade of big hair, loud clothes and films that make little to no sense.

The Thing, Hellraiser, Poltergiest, The Evil Dead, The Shining, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, The Lost Boys, American Werewolf in London

• Vampires - Yes, if you need a bit of a break you can watch Twilight

30 Days Of Night, The Lost Boys, Red Sky, Afflicted, Salem’s Lot, Stake Land, What We Do In The Shadows, A Girl Walks Alone At Night, Fright Night

• Creature Feature - Anything that isn’t human whose mission seems to be bothering people

Under Paris, Lake Placid, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Tremors, Godzilla, Cloverfield, The Host, Jaws, The Thing, Infested, Nope, Rogue

• Zombies - Or Zombie adjacent, we aren’t going to have the whole 28 days later VS dawn of the dead zombies argument here thank you very much.

Dawn Of The Dead (All of the ‘Of The Dead’ series really), Rec, Train To Busan, #Alive, 28 Days Later, The Crazies, Girl With All The Gifts, World War Z, The Night Eats The World, Pontypool, Overlord, One Cut Of The Dead, Zombieland

• Meta - Horror movies that know they are horror movies so slightly parody horror movies!?

Scream (and any of the sequels), Cabin In The Woods, The Final Girls, Tucker and Dale VS Evil, Shaun Of The Dead, Censor, Zombieland, It’s a Wonderful Knife, Totally Killer, Slaxx, Rubber

• Techno Fear - Technology is bad. Very bad. And should be avoided at all costs.

The Ring, Pulse, One Missed Call, Host, Unfriended, Ex Machina, We’re All Going To The World’s Fair, Megan, Cube, Lawnmower Man, Shutter, Videodrome, Coherance, Influencer

• Final Girl - The cliché we all adore. Basically find a Jamie-Lee film and you’re sorted.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Alien, Nightmare On Elm Street, Ready Or Not, Scream, Black Christmas, Last House On The Left, Fresh

• Aliens - Ripley’s least favourite category.

Alien, Aliens, Pandorum, The Circle, No One Will Save You, Signs, The Fourth Kind, Prey, The Endless, District 9, Monolith, Coherance, Annihilation, Monsters, The Thing, Nope

• Psychological - Horror movies that fuck with your head and leave you in a state of existential crisis. Light stuff.

Speak No Evil, Hereditary, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Jacobs Ladder, The Shining, The Babadook, The Wailing, Misery, Coherance, The Coffee Table, Get Out, Midsommer, The Perfection, Gerald’s Game, The Empty Man, Brooklyn 45, Influencer, Attachment, Sissy, The Night House, Under The Shadow, Resurrection

• Remakes - There are good ones, and there are ones that should never existed.

Dawn Of The Dead, The Crazies, The Ring, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Evil Dead, The Thing, Friday The 13th, The Fly

• A24 - Horror that makes you feel superior to everyone else in the room.

Talk To Me, Green Room, Midsommer, Hereditary, The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Saint Maude

• Japanese - A category that posits the question: “What is wrong with the Japanese?”

Ring, Pulse, Noiri The Curse, One Cut Of The Dead, Uzamaki, Ugestsu, Battle Royale, Suicide Club, One Missed Call, Cure, The Grudge, Audition

• Stephen King - The master of horror and also the master of a lot of dubious films.

Gerald’s Game, The Shining, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, Misery, The Mist, Doctor Sleep, IT, In The Tall Grass, Children of the Corn, 1408, Pet Semetary, The Dead Zone

• French - A category to posits the question: “What is wrong with the French?”

Raw, Frontiers, Inside, Titane, Infested, Martyrs, High Tension, Under Paris, As Above So Below, The World Eats The Night, Saloum, The Deep House

• Comedy Horror - Beacuse it’s fun to laugh at horrible things.

Attack The Block, Zombieland, Shaun Of The Dead, Tucker And Dale VS Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Ready Or Not, Abigail, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Happy Death Day, Jennifers Body, Deadstream, The Blackening, Slaxx

• Body Horror - Basically any film that makes you think “Oh that shouldn’t be coming out of there.”

The Substance, The Fly, The Thing, Titane, Raw, Autopsy Of Jane Doe, Swallowed, The Sadness, The Void, Martyrs, Colour Out Of Space, Annihilation, American Werewolf In London, Videodrome

• Ghosts - Dead people coming back to generally be annoying.

The Hell House Series, Paranormal Activity, Mama, Lake Mungo, Light’s Out, Gonjiam Haunted Asylum, The Empty Man, The Conjouring, Under The Shadow, Talk To Me, The Orphange, A Tale Of Two Sisters, Brooklyn 45

• Folk Horror - Is it in the woods? Is it all a bit local? Is there an old fable you probably should have paid more attention to? Then it’s folk horror.

The Ritual, Wrong Turn, The Wicker Man, Midsommer, The Wailing, Kill List, Hot Fuzz, Lovely Dark And Deep, Apostle, Heusera The Bone Woman, Antlers, Baskin

• Home Invasion - Films that could be avoided with an Amazon Ring Doorbell.

Funny Games, The Strangers, Inside, No One Will Save You, Us, You’re Next, Don’t Breathe, Panic Room, The Invisible Man, The Purge

• The Future - Because the future wasn’t scary enough already.

The Circle, The Platform, Pandorum, Doomsday, Event Horizon, Alien, Aliens, Sunshine, Life, Akira, Upgrade, Children Of Men

• The Occult - Satanic panic, witches, religion without the buildings…

The Wailing, Hereditary, Kill List, Suspiria, The Wicker Man, Hellbender, The Empty Man, Noiri The Curse, Cabin In The Woods, Baskin, Terrified, Heusera The Bone Woman

• Subtitled - Because reading is fundamental.

A Girl Walks Alone At Night, Under The Shadow, The Sadness, The Orphanage, Pan’s Labyrinth, A Tale Of Two Sisters, Terrified, When Evil Lurks, Heusera The Bone Woman Rec, The Platform, Baskin, Saloum, The Wailing, Project Wolf Hunting, I Saw The Devil, The Coffee Table, The Medium, Train To Busan

• Underground - Even going into a basement is too far.

The Descent, The Tunnel, As Above So Below, Borderlands, Creep, Midnight Meat Train, 10 Cloverfield Lane

• Revenge - We clap along as our protaganist gets closure through violence.

I Saw The Devil, Promising Young Woman, Becky, Mandy, Piggy, Carrie, Oldboy, Hard Candy, You’re Next, Sympathy for Lady Vengence, Sissy

• Your Fave - Choose your own adventure!

This one is pretty self explanitory. Go wild! Maybe a disney film on Novemeber the 1st though.

Tag me on Instagram at @TechnicallyRon if you end up giving the challenge a go!

Enjoy and good luck!