Well, October is right around the corner and my fellow horror movie fans will know what that means: It’s almost time for #31HorrorFilms31Days to begin! For those who aren’t familiar with it, #31HorrorFilms31Days is essentially exactly as it sounds – an online game that runs from October 1st – October 31st and challenges participants to watch 31 horror films in those 31 days. You can read a little more about #31HorrorFilms31Days here.
To say I’ve been looking forward to this year’s challenge would be a serious understatement. 2017 was the first time I completed the challenge (You can see what I watched in 2017 here) and I had so much fun while doing so! One of my favourite aspects of the challenge was watching along with friends and deconstructing the films and our feelings about them afterward. The sense of community I experienced was so wonderful and made the challenge all the more enjoyable! A special shoutout goes to Roger and Judy whose insight and enthusiasm were always a particular joy.
Please note: Much like last year, I haven’t watched a single film included on this list before. I actually chose not to see a couple of these movies in theatres specifically so that I could save them for this year’s #31HorrorFilms31Days challenge. Because of this, I can’t promise that every movie on this list will be scary or even particularly ‘good’ or well-made, but I have spent the last few months consulting ‘Best Of’ horror movie lists and skimming movie reviews in a sincere attempt to create a diverse, inclusive list of quality horror movies from a variety of different countries, cultures and sub-genres with the hope that there’s at least one film on this year’s list that everyone can enjoy. I would absolutely love it if you decided to watch along with me this year – You can follow along on my daily challenge and tweet me at @Pop_Reader, where I’ll be talking all about it using the hashtag #31HorrorFilms31Days! I’ll be watching the movies in the exact order you see listed in this post, so you can know what I’ll be watching on any given day in October and join me, should you like to. I really hope you will!
Released 2018
Director John Krasinski
Starring John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, Cade WoodwardIMDB Summary
Two parents do what it takes to keep their children safe in a world full of creatures hunting every sound they can hear. Not a sound can be heard from the family hiding in silence, but all it takes is one noise and everything can go wrong.
Released 2017
Director Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Starring Callie Hernandez, Justin Benson, Emily MontagueIMDB Summary
Two brothers return to the cult they fled from years ago to discover that the group’s beliefs may be more sane than they once thought.
Released 2018
Director Ari Aster
Starring Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel ByrneIMDB Summary
After the family matriarch passes away, a grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences, and begin to unravel dark secrets.
Released 2017
Director Andy Muschietti
Starring Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn WolfhardIMDB Summary
In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shapeshifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.
Released 2009
Director Park Chan-wook
Starring Kang-ho Song, Ok-bin Kim, Hee-jin ChoiIMDB Summary
Through a failed medical experiment, a priest is stricken with vampirism and is forced to abandon his ascetic ways.
Released 2017
Director Cory Finley
Starring Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton YelchinIMDB Summary
Two upper-class teenage girls in suburban Connecticut rekindle their unlikely friendship after years of growing apart. Together, they hatch a plan to solve both of their problems – no matter what the cost.
Released 2017
Director Marc Meyers
Starring Ross Lynch, Alex Wolff, Vincent Kartheiser, Anne HecheIMDB Summary
A young Jeffrey Dahmer struggles to belong in high school.
Released 2016
Director Liam Gavin
Starring Steve Oram, Catherine Walker, Susan LoughnaneIMDB Summary
A determined young woman and a damaged occultist risk their lives and souls to perform a dangerous ritual that will grant them what they want.
Released 2017
Director Tyler MacIntyre
Starring Brianna Hildebrand, Alexandra Shipp, Jack QuaidIMDB Summary
Two death-obsessed teenage girls use their online show about real-life tragedies to send their small mid-western town into a frenzy, and cement their legacy as modern horror legends.
Released 2017
Director Jamie M. Dagg
Starring Jon Bernthal, Christopher Abbott, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWittIMDB Summary
A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence.
Released 2017
Director Joachim Trier
Starring Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik RafaelsenIMDB Summary
A confused religious girl tries to deny her feelings for a female friend who’s in love with her. This causes her suppressed subconsciously-controlled psychokinetic powers to reemerge with devastating results.
Released 2018
Director Philip Gelatt
Starring William Jackson Harper, Rebecca HendersonIMDB Summary
Two scientists who share a romantic history are tasked with investigating unnatural animal behaviour on the site of a Manson Family-style cult’s compound.
Released 2018
Director Dominique Rocher
Starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Golshifteh Farahani, Denis LavantIMDB Summary
The morning after a party, a young man wakes up to find Paris invaded by zombies.
Released 2016
Director Park Chan-wook
Starring Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-Woong ChoIMDB Summary
A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her.
Released 2017
Director Mike Flanagan
Starring Carla Gugino, Bruce GreenwoodIMDB Summary
While trying to spice up their marriage in their remote lake house, Jessie must fight to survive when her husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her handcuffed to their bed frame.
Released 2017
Director Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry G. Bernson, Herb Caillouet, Bill CampIMDB Summary
Steven, a charismatic surgeon, is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart, when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.
Released 2016
Director Michael O’Shea
Starring Eric Ruffin, Chloe LevineIMDB Summary
When troubled teen Milo, who has a fascination with vampire lore, meets the equally alienated Sophie, the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo’s fantasy into reality.
Released 2011
Director Jaume Balagueró
Starring Luis Tosar, Marta Etura, Alberto San JuanIMDB Summary
You wake day after day to the comfort and security of your home. But how safe is it really?
Released 2017
Director Taneli Mustonen
Starring Santeri Helinheimo Mantyla, Mikael Gabriel, Nelly Hirst-Gee, Mimosa WillamoIMDB Summary
Every camper’s worst nightmare came true at Lake Bodom in 1960 when four teenagers were stabbed to death while sleeping in their tent. As the years passed and the case grew cold, the unsolved mystery turned into an urban legend, a creepy campfire story passed from generation to generation. Now, a group of teenagers arrives at the same campsite, hoping to solve the murder by reconstructing it minute by minute.
Released 2016
Director Craig Goodwill
Starring Analeigh Tipton, Marta Gastini, Jakob CedergrenIMDB Summary
After a fight with her boyfriend, a successful female erotic novelist on a book tour of Europe joins her ex and his female friend, with whom she falls madly in love, for a party at a castle owned by a dangerous cult.
Released 2017
Director Sergio G. Sánchez
Starring George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton, Mia GothIMDB Summary
A young man and his three younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.
Released 2003
Director Jee-woon Kim
Starring Kap-su Kim, Jung-ah Yum, Soo-jung LimIMDB Summary
A family is haunted by the tragedies of deaths within the family.
Released 2018
Director Colin Minihan
Starring Hannah Emily Anderson, Brittany Allen, Martha MacIsaacIMDB Summary
Majestic mountains, a still lake and venomous betrayals engulf a female married couple attempting to celebrate their one-year anniversary.
Released 2015
Director Oz Perkins
Starring Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy BoyntonIMDB Summary
Two girls must battle a mysterious evil force when they get left behind at their boarding school over winter break.
Released 2018
Director François Simard, Anouk Whissell
Starring Rich Sommer, Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb EmeryIMDB Summary
After suspecting that their police officer neighbor is a serial killer, a group of teenage friends spend their summer spying on him and gathering evidence, but as they get closer to discovering the truth, things get dangerous.
Released 2017
Director José Pedro Lopes
Starring Daniela Love, Jorge Mota, Mafalda BanquartIMDB Summary
The Forest of the Lost Souls is a dense and remote forest, Portugal’s most popular place for suicide. On a summer morning, two strangers meet within the woods.
Released 2010
Director Guillem Morales
Starring Belén Rueda, Lluís Homar, Pablo DerquiIMDB Summary
The story of a woman who is slowly losing her sight whilst trying to investigate the mysterious death of her twin sister.
Released 2013
Director Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Starring Klaus Tange, Ursula Bedena, Joe KoenerIMDB Summary
Returning home from a business trip to discover his wife missing, a man delves deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder. Does anyone in the building know something?
Released 2018
Director Luca Guadagnino
Starring Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia GothIMDB Summary
A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up.
Released 2011
Director Pedro Almodóvar
Starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Jan CornetIMDB Summary
A brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: A mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Released 2016
Director Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi
Starring Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi IshiharaIMDB Summary
Japan is plunged into chaos upon the appearance of a giant monster.
Is there a movie you think I just have to include in this year’s #31HorrorFilms31Days challenge? Let me know in the comments – I would love to hear from you!
2 Responses
My friend Dahmer is… not scary, as such. But it’s a bit of a mind-f**k!
Cee Arr recently posted…Comics Wrap-Up – I Wear This On My Sleeve
It is such a fantastic movie – something that, I think, horror fans and those who usually don’t watch horrors can both enjoy. I also liked The Quiet Place, although after the hype it just didn’t fully meet my expectations. Hereditary, though, is one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent years – SO DARK and twisted. One I’d recommend but it’s not a horror only a thriller is A SIMPLE FAVOR – I watched it in the cinema last week, and it was very entertaining.
There’s a lot on this list that I need to check out, and a lot I already know and I’m excited for! Good luck on watching all these! 🙂
Veronika @ The Regal Critiques
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