Enrique Moreno Library

  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  We have officially made it! If you've been watching along with us and choosing all our recommendations, then thank you! There's nothing else to say, other than without any further ado... here is our final pick! ( Cue the JC score ) Day 31 - John Carpenter's Halloween "The Night HE Came Home!" Of course it was going to be John Carpenter's classic! The alpha and omega of slasher films is the quintessential Halloween watch. The story of Michael Myers, or as he is better known in the film as The Shape, stalking a babysitter has basically become classic. A true watershed film and a benchmark for the genre, Halloween not only changed the game but it spawned countless of imitators leading to the entire slasher subgenre boom in the 1980s. This is another one of those films where direction is everything - Carpenter takes a page from Hitchcock's textbook and allows suspense to become the key ingredient of the film. Originally titled "The Ba...

  Happy Halloween Eve! I feel like Jack Skellington and the merry creatures of Halloween town making sure that everything goes according to plan before the big day! But here we are, one day before the big night and couldn't be happier with the list we've constructed. Of course, there are some omissions I wish I could have picked, but I only have 31 days. So without any further ado, here's the penultimate pick! Day 30 - David Lynch's Eraserhead "A dream of dark and troubling things..." So says the tagline of David Lynch's Eraserhead - one of the strangest cinematic nightmares ever conceived on the screen that also heralded the arrival of a major auteur. In just 77 minutes, Lynch presents a vision unlike anything seen before OR after it's inception. The plot is very simple, Henry navigates a strange world as he visits his girlfriend while taking care of their baby (who might or not be suffering from some type of mutation). There is a lot to unpack in Er...

  Here we go! These are the last 3 of the entire list. We have selected a plethora of amazing classics and modern hits, but for this entry we're going with a pick that remains one of the most acclaimed horror hits of the last couple of years and simultaneously one of the most polarizing. If The Babadook is one of the foundational "elevated horror" entries then this choice might represent the culmination of the movement. Day 29 - Hereditary Another debut that completely shocked audiences, like The Babadook , and dazzled critics with its combination of sobering family drama and truly horrific images. Ari Aster's Hereditary tells the story of a family dealing with death (again kind of an awesome, if rough, double feature between this and The Babadook ) and what happens to a family's history after years of trauma and hidden secrets. There is no denying that Aster uses the engine of a horror film to discuss what he is clearly interested in; an intense family drama t...

  We have arrived at the final four (cue March Madness theme) picks of the list! For today's pick, we are traveling back to the year 2014 and this is one of those films that, let's say if you do not like children, it reinforces that idea to the absolute breaking point. Day 28 - The Babadook A ferociously original debut from Jennifer Kent that due to its subject matter and presentation became one of the foundational entries in the "elevated horror" subgenre that still continues to this day. The story of a single mother as she takes care of her son, and his fear, has become a recent cult classic due to its unsettling imagery, dreamy sequences, and terrifying monster. There is a lot of classic horror Roman Polanski in The Babadook , down to the way Kent frames the house as a claustrophobic environment that you can't run away from, and it more than carries that 1960s/1970s horror with it perfectly as it deconstructs motherhood, what it is like to raise a child, and ev...

  How do we follow up Hellraiser , one of the most notorious horror films from the 1980s? Well, with an absolute instant classic from this decade that just delivers the scares in spades. For today's entry, we are going back to 2019 and with a sophomore effort from a director who won an Academy Award with his first film.  Day 27 - Us There is no denying that with Get Out , Jordan Peele crafted one of the most talked about thrillers of the past 20-30 years. A genuine phenomenon that discussed everything from race, class, body snatching, and then switched genres like crazy from horror, to social thriller, to even hints at science-fiction. So how do you follow up something like Get Out ? The answer is by going the polar opposite and just lean into the horror angle even more. With Us , Peele tells the story of a family that is attacked by their doppelgangers and soon discover a much more sinister side to this. Get Out and Us are both horror classics, but Us just reaffirms Peele'...

  It is with an infinite sadness that I must report that our 31 days of horror movies list is almost at an end (only 5 more left, and this next pick), but I promise that we are going to finish strong! This next entry is still one of the most disturbing films on this list and it created a genre icon that is still going strong to this very day. Without any further ado, I will simply let this quote give you a hint as to what our entry will be... "We have such sights to show you..." Day 26 - Clive Barker's Hellraiser "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker" so said Stephen King in a poster for the underground cult classic film, Hellraiser . That's a hell of an endorsement if you're going to get one and to paraphrase King, he really wasn't lying. Barker's Hellraiser, an adaptation of his novella "The Hellbound Heart," is unlike anything that had come before in the genre and to this day there's nothing like it. The ...

  We are officially in the home stretch and what better way to celebrate than with a film that critics and audiences still think of as the scariest film of all time. Without any further ado, what an excellent day for... Day 25 - William Friedkin's The Exorcist The late, great William Friedkin poured everything he had into every single one of his films and you can definitely tell with The Exorcist . This controversial and Academy Award winning story, based on William Peter Blatty's shocking bestseller, concerns a mother trying to help her daughter as she is possessed by the devil. From the relationship between Regan and her mother to Friedkin's commitment to the process, there is no equal to The Exorcist . Take the sense of dread from Kubrick's The Shining and multiply it by 100 and that is the tone that Friedkin has for the entire film. Even the opening sequence, set in Iraq, establishes such a striking mood and perfectly sets up the conflict between good and evil that ...

  Toda's pick is a perfect follow up to yesterday's classic. There is not much we can say about this pick, other than a whole lot of praise. Without any further ado and speaking of King (s). Day 24 - Stanley Kubrick's The Shining Speaking of King and Kubrick... what more is there to say about The Shining that hasn't already been discussed? The story concerns the Torrances (Jack, Wendy, and Danny) as they are entrusted to look after the Overlook Hotel for the winter, but sinister forces work against them. There really isn't anything more that we can add to this that hasn't already been talked about. The Shining is one of the best horror films ever made. Stanley Kubrick's foray into horror is a glorious descent into madness that is chilling, evocative, and absolutely mesmerizing to behold. Everything from the ominous opening credits to the sinister use of the steadicam (no other film has employed the steadicam as a haunting unseen force better than this) to ...

  Do not be surprised if a lot of these next titles are consistent classics, because what else are we going to do as we get closer to Halloween! For today's recommendation, it only seems fitting that we start the week with a pick that was based on a novel from the King of Horror... Stephen King, that is. Day 23 - Carrie (1976) Of course we're going with the original 1970s Carrie , directed as a stylish symphony of horror by Brian De Palma, and starring Sissy Spacek and the late, great Piper Laurie. Carrie , based on King's first novel of the same name, tells the story of a young girl who attempts to navigate high school life as she starts to develop psychic powers. Everything from the unflinching view of high school life, the film starts with an incredible opening credits sequence that informs the viewer exactly what the tone of the film is going to be, to the Academy Award nominated performances to even the last act of the film scream "classic". By telling the s...

  Welcome to Day 22 and by all means what I think will be one of the most polarizing recommendations of this list. Today's pick is anything but conventional and it is the type of film that horror critics and fans will still be talking about decades after it's release. Day 22 - Skinamarink The most recent entry in the list is the one that I suspect will be the most polarizing. This either "love or hate" indie sensation rocked the festival circuit and late night screenings when it premiered this year. The premise is relatively simple - two kids wake up to discover that their father is missing and that their house is changing. That's it. What Skinamarink does that is so incredibly effective is that it takes that simple premise and just multiplies it x100 when it comes to the scare factor. Since the entire film is told through the perspective of the two kids, it is their experience that we're seeing and everything that we see is absolutely nightmarish. Shot in an...

  We're officially in the home stretch of the list! We have 10 more entries to scare you with our selection of horror movies! Today's entry is another amazing international feature and one that gets progressively better with each viewing.  Day 21 - Dario Argento's Suspiria The first part of Dario Argento's "Three Mothers Trilogy" (which consists of Suspiria , Inferno , and Mother of Tears ) is one of the best horror films out of Italy; it also happens to be a breathtaking assault on the senses complete with dazzling Technicolor imagery and a rock-heavy score by Goblin. The story is classic giallo  (a form of Italian thriller involving a murder mystery) but with a heavy dose of the supernatural and finds Suzy Bannion, a young American girl, who travels to a prestigious dance academy in Germany but soon learns that there is something truly wrong with the institute. Throughout Suspiria , Argento crafts amazing Technicolor sequence after sequence involving grisly ...

  Welcome to Day 20! We officially have 11 more entries to go and we complete this journey into the darkest corners of horror cinema. For today's pick, we are recommending a canonical classic that continues to terrify moviegoers every time they watch it. It is loud, insane, and it is technically a Texas film.  Day 20 - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) "Who will survive and what will be left of them?" With that ominous tagline, director Tobe Hooper unleashed a dark vision of American cinema that completely changed the landscape. Released a year after The Exorcist and "inspired" by notorious serial killer Ed Gein, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is tour de force of intense filmmaking, brilliant editing, and terrifying visuals. The story centers on a group of friends, traveling on a road trip, who pick up a hitchhiker on their way to the destination and it only gets worse from there. Hooper's film is one of the most relentless (horror) films ever made - 83 minut...

  For today, we are continuing with the trend of remakes that are superior to the original and after The Thing  there a select few that can carry that title with pride. This pick is also one of the most disturbing, grossest, and emotionally scarring films of all time so just get ready. In fact, you should... "Be afraid. Be very afraid". Day 19 - David Cronenberg's The Fly A remake of the 1950s Vincent Price creature feature, transgressive Canadian filmmaker and body horror pioneer David Cronenberg takes the simple premise of mad science from the original and just blows it up by expanding upon it. Jeff Goldblum stars as Seth Brundle, a genius scientist, who invents a teleportation device but during a fateful accident, something goes terribly wrong for him. It doesn't matter if you've seen it countless times or you're watching it for the first time, there is no preparing for The Fly and how wildly transgressive it gets. Financed by Mel Brooks (yes, that Mel Bro...

  How do we follow up one of the greatest remakes of all time? Simple by recommending another classic that has truly stood the test of time from one of the most influential directors alive. Since yesterday we looked at unfriendly aliens, today we will switch things a bit by looking at some of the scariest entities of the genre... ghosts! Day 18 - Guillermo Del Toro's El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) "¿Que es un fantasma? / What is a ghost?" With that simple question, Guillermo Del Toro starts, arguably, his scariest film. The story of a young boy who discovers terrible and unforgivable secrets at an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War is one of the great works of Gothic horror. Called by Del Toro as a "companion" film to his 2006 Academy Award winning Pan's Labyrinth , The Devil's Backbone  is a classic ghost story that balances drama and horror with elegance and dazzling filmmaking. Just like all of Del Toro's work, Backbone ...

  With the days getting chillier, why not up the ante with a stone cold (pun intended) masterpiece that gets under your skin and redefines what paranoia can do. For today's pick, we are traveling to the freezing temperatures of Antarctica, specifically to Outpost 31. If you recognize that name, then you know what today's film is and let me tell you, there's nothing else like this.  Day 17 - John Carpenter's The Thing "Man is the warmest place to hide"  So says the incredibly chilling and bleak tagline for John Carpenter's legendary cult classic, The Thing , based on the novella and the acclaimed 1950s sci-fi classic. The first part of Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy ( Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness ), The Thing tells the story of an Antarctica Research Station that is invaded by an alien force that mimics and kills each one of the researchers leading to a downward spiral of paranoia and claustrophobia. If the original The Thing from An...

  We are officially less than halfway through with our list! Yay! As you all have probably noticed we are fully in R rated territory and today's pick is a genuine slasher classic, not to mention a phenomenon that is still going strong 27 years later!  Day 16 - Scream (1996) The late, great Wes Craven was one of the masters of horror and Scream (1996) remains one of his crowning achievements. Following the Jason Lives model, screenwriter Kevin Williamson and Craven team up to deliver a film that practically revolutionized horror in the process. Having changed the face of horror in the previous two decades ( The Hills Have Eyes , and A Nightmare on Elm Street ) Craven does it again with Scream by crafting a movie that both references and adores horror but isn't afraid to criticize it. The story of Sidney Prescott and her fight for survival against the deadly Ghostface killer has all the trademarks of a fantastic Craven film, including incredibly suspenseful sequences, a terrify...

  For our 15th entry, we thought we would offer a real treat and what better way than with one of the most famous horror characters of all time. This entry is also one of the first horror movies in our list that deals directly with dreams and nightmares... "One, two, Freddy's coming for you Three, Four, better lock your door..." Day 15 - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Don't worry we are not picking the forgettable 2010 remake, we are going with the Wes Craven classic. A Nightmare on Elm Street manages to add a healthy dose of imaginative visuals, a wildly outrageous character, and nightmarish concepts that still haunt pop culture today. Released in 1984, Craven's film feels like the "shot of energy" that the slasher subgenre needed and in the process created something unforgettable. The story of a group of teens who get killed in their dreams by a notorious killer in their dreams still haunts our collective dreams to this day. Not only does it have one...

  Happy Saturday and hope you're enjoying the Annular Eclipse and really what better way to celebrate this incredible spectacle than with a horror movie. For today's recommendation, we're going back to the Master of Suspense and a cast that includes Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam, John Gavin, Vera Miles, and the incredible Anthony Perkins. We're of course talking about the one that started it all. Day 14 - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho The one, the only. Psycho. Considered by critics to be THE earliest, if not one of the earliest, examples of  a slasher movie, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a horror film that remains as shocking and provocative today as when it premiered in 1960. The story of a young woman who steals money from her work takes a wild turn when she hides in the creepy, Bates Motel and meets the owner, Norman Bates. There's no way to discuss this movie without even getting into spoilers, so the only thing you need to know is that Psycho is one of those...

  Unlucky 13! Or in our case, lucky 13! Not only is today a Friday but it also happens to be Friday the 13th... in October! The amount of excitement at that sentence cannot be overstated, as this day on this month feels perfect, it just feels right! So without any further ado, there's only one movie we can choose for today and it is... Day 13 - The Eras Tour ............. Totally kidding. Day 13 - Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives We have all seen the original Sean S. Cunningham film and its great sequences, including its all timer ending, but for today I wanted to spotlight an entry that maybe doesn't get as discussed as Parts 1 - 4 and that is Part VI . Written and directed by Tom McLoughlin, Friday the 13th Part VI pulls a 180 and pushes the franchise completely into the realm of the supernatural complete with an imposing and frightening undead Jason. While the Friday franchise has been one to introduce comedic relief characters and funny moments, Part VI is the one th...

  We are finalizing the final entry in our PG-13 section of horror movies and it is quite a winner, but of course you cannot lose with the Master of Suspense. Day 12 - Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds What Jaws does for sharks and Psycho does for showers, The Birds does... well for birds. Hitchcock's "animals attack" classic follows a woman who travels to Bodega Bay to deliver some lovebirds but soon finds herself being confronted by constant bird attacks. There are many reasons why The Birds still stands tall as one of the greatest horror films of all time, but without a doubt one of them is the fact that Hitchcock, along with screenwriter Evan Hunter, keep Daphne Du Maurier's original concept of unexplained bird attacks completely intact... in fact they completely double down on it to maximize the terror. There are a plethora of sequences that show Hitchcock just flexing and showing how good he is at creating unbearable suspense out of nothing (look at a scene at...

  Today we are going to bump it all the way up to 11 (couldn't resist) with our recommendation for this week. Continuing our showcase on PG-13 horror classics and essentials before we move into truly forbidden territory with R rated masterpieces, today's entry became a genuine phenomenon when it was released in 1999.   "I see dead people..." Day 11 - The Sixth Sense Those four words still reverberate as some of the most famous lines in, not only horror but, cinematic history. M. Night Shyamalan's third feature film tells the story of a young boy with a unique gift and the psychologist trying to help him. Bruce Willis, as the psychologist, and Haley Joel Osment (nominated for Best Supporting Actor) are tremendous in Shyamalan's film and explore the film's various thematic concerns about grief, innocence, faith, and death with a haunting elegance that is truly exceptional. Obviously Shyamalan's film has one of the most famous twists in all of pop culture...

  We have officially crossed double digit entries and our PG-13 showcase continues with a modern cult classic that is both hilarious and spooky! If this is your post, here is the first entry of our "31 Days of Horror" Recommendations, including our gimmick for this frighteningly fun endeavor!   Day 10 - Drag Me to Hell Our second Sam Raimi entry in the list and one that pushes the PG-13 limits to its grossest, yet deliriously entertaining, limits. Raimi's Drag Me to Hell is like a carnival of fun horror movie tropes wrapped in a story about the mortgage crisis and a morality tale about the power of greed. Drag me to Hell , complete with borderline Looney Tunes antics and Raimi's trademark sense of humor, is a return to form for Raimi after spending nearly 10 years in the Marvel world with Spider-Man. What makes Raimi's film so deliriously entertaining and wildly outrageous is that he takes the horror seriously but never forgets to have fun while doing it; basica...

  We are nearly halfway through the month and there's still plenty of fantastic horror picks we have yet to choose for you, but today is a classic! Let's just say it right out of the gate, this is easily one of the best remakes of all time and one of the scariest PG-13 movies ever.  Day 9 - The Ring Hideo Nakata's Ringu is one of the great Japanese horror films of the late '90s. What Gore Verbinski does with his American remake is keep the same eerie and disturbing atmosphere of the original and successfully Americanize it for a completely different audience. The story of a Seattle reporter, played brilliantly by Naomi Watts, that investigates a mysterious videotape linked with several deaths contains some of the most disturbing visuals for a PG-13 film ever. The footage of the actual videotape, shot in black and white and resembling a surreal nightmare complete with bizarre footage of a ladder falling or a woman in a mirror, still terrifies with its simple and hauntin...

  Ah, what a lovely Sunday for our first PG-13 entry in the list! This next recommendation is a bit of an "out of the box" swing that, if not quite on par with something like The Witches , Poltergeist , or Jaws , certainly brings a darker edge to a genre that at this point needs a little bit of a shock and this one certainly accomplishes that.  Day 8 - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Sam Raimi is no stranger to horror, or superheroes for that matter, but his first film since 2009 is one of the most ridiculously fun superhero movies in a long time. The premise, without having to go through 20 other movies, basically finds Doctor Stephen Strange battling a deadly enemy across the vast multiverse. Sure, some of the more Marvel Easter eggs distract from what is otherwise an extremely solid horror superhero story with stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen fully committing themselves to the lunacy of Raimi's unhinged tone and knowing perfectly what type of...

  There is no denying that this recommendation is one of the big ones in the genre. So, without any further ado, let's get to it.  (Cue John Williams' Jaws theme) Day 7 - Jaws Speaking of Steven Spielberg... although this film has him as a director, rather than a producer and it still remains not only one of his greatest triumphs but one of the best, and scariest, films ever made. There is absolutely no doubt that Jaws will make you terrified of the water. What Psycho did for showers, Jaws did for the ocean and with good reason. Every single shot of Spielberg's classic is drenched in gut-wrenching suspense and PG-rated intensity that remains unmatched. Spielberg's direction, the truly iconic Williams' score, the performances (Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are extraordinary - look at the scar scene in the boat for an example of that), underwater footage that is wondrously unnerving; it all adds up to create something truly special and unforgettabl...

  "They're Here..." Happy Friday, everyone! We really want to close out strong for this first week, so these next couple of recommendations will eventually lead us into the more terrifying entries of our list! Day 6 - Poltergeist Another great entry in the "How was this a PG rated movie?" category. Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist is one of the great haunted house movies and a melding of two great filmmakers coming together to produce a true horror classic. Directed by Hooper (more on him in a later entry) and produced by Steven Spielberg (with a screenplay co-written by him), the film follows a family that gets a new home and are soon haunted by evil ghosts. While Poltergeist might have the PG rating, it certainly uses it to its absolute breaking point by showcasing some truly frightening imagery (the face peeling scene is an all-timer) that pushes the intensity to new levels. There are plenty of scares from Poltergeist that have been parodied or imitated to de...

  This is where the fun begins! Welcome to the fifth day of our recommendation series and if you think that we've been pretty lenient, then we have good news because this is one of the turning points... while still, somehow, keeping a PG rated classic.   Day 5 - The Witches (1990) Not the most recent Robert Zemeckis adaptation, we are going with the original Nicolas Roeg's The Witches , itself an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book. The Witches is pure nightmare fuel for kids and one of the best horror films of the '90s. The set-up is classic: a young kid stays with her grandma at a hotel and discovers a coven of witches who want to turn little kids into mice. If you're a kid, which I was when first watching it, this film is an absolute nightmare from beginning to end. It doesn't help that the entire film has the point of view of a kid, which is one of the reasons of why it is so scary. This classic is directed by British arthouse director Nicolas Roeg ( Don't Look ...