By Tatiana Craine

Halloween is, perhaps, my favorite holiday. I spend weeks readying my costume, buying candy (all of which I devour before the big night) and of course, watching horror movies. I’ve been fascinated by the grim and gruesome for a long time. “Jurassic Park” isn’t exactly a horror movie, but it was the first film I saw in a theater. From that day onwards, I was hooked on movies that made me jump and cringe. For some reason, the horror genre fascinates people by the millions. It’s one of the biggest draws at the box office, especially at this time of year. Maybe it’s something about being in a group and all being individually terrified by the same thing. It could be that strange phenomenon that the horrific happenings on screen make people want to look away, but they just can’t tear their eyes from the movie. Or perhaps it’s just that people like to be scared of the unknown. I dorkily used to say that out of all movie genres, horror films made me feel the most alive because they caused me to unconsciously look at things in an entirely different way. Years ago after seeing “The Ring” for the first time, I remember the terror I felt whenever one of the televisions in my house would get fuzzy and snowy. Was Samara going to crawl out of the screen and mangle me? I can safely say she stayed put in the film world, but I know part of me hoped something strange and eerie would actually happen. The following list of movies is dedicated to all the film-lovers that want a little fright in their nights with classic, new and foreign horror delights. In no particular order, here are 50 unforgettable horror films.1. “The Shining” (1980)
2. “Haute Tension” (2003)
3. “The Hills Have Eyes” (2006)
4. “28 Days Later”(2002)
5. “Saw” (2004)
6. “The Descent” (2006)
7. “Audition” (1999)
8. “The Sixth Sense” (1999)
9. “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
10. “The Ring” (2002)
11. “El Orfanato” (2007)
12. “Psycho” (1960)
13. “Se7en” (1995)
14. “The Others” (2001)
15. “Scream” (1996)
16. “Alien” (1979)
17. “Halloween” (1978)
18. “The Thing” (1982)
19. “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)
20. “The Exorcist” (1973)
21. “Rec” (2007)
22. “The Birds” (1963)
23. “Arachnophobia” (1990)
24. “Children of the Corn” (1984)
25. “Poltergeist” (1982)
26. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984)
27. “Child’s Play” (1988)
28. “Carrie” (1976)
29. “Hostel” (2005)
30. “The Omen” (1976)
31. “The Amityville Horror” (1979)
32. “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974)
33. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956)
34. “Dawn of the Dead” (1978)
35. “Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
36. “Jaws” (1975)
37. “Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood” (1985)
38. “Ju-on” (2002)
39. “Eyes Without a Face” (1960)
40. “Frontier(s)” (2007)
41. “Teeth” (2007)
42. “Les Diaboliques” (1955)
43. “A Tale of Two Sisters” (2003)
44. “Them” (2006)
45. “Cannibal Holocaust” (1980)
46. “It” (1990)
47. “Hellraiser” (1987)
48. “Cabin Fever” (2002)
49. “House of 1000 Corpses” (2003)
50. “Frankenstein” (1931)