Classic Horror Movies to Watch Out For This Halloween

Most classic horror films find their success in a few key components. For instance, as the killer grows closer or the characters are placed in frightening circumstances, on comes this suspenseful, fear-inducing background music that sends your heart racing and leaves you gripping the edge of your seat tightly. Furthermore, the lack of special effects gives these older movies a certain charm. It may appear as if it is special effects that make movies cool, but in actuality, without these special effects, it becomes more important to develop creative plots and unique killers to keep the audience engaged. Hence, the following are classic horror films to return to when looking for a good scare.

The original Friday the 13th was set up with a bit of a mystery so that the audience found out who the killer was as the characters learned. And when the killer is revealed, it is not some big, strong man — it is a broken mother who is angry about the death of her son. Jason Voorhees takes over the reins as killer in the second movie and begins a very profitable franchise.

Nightmare on Elm Street centers on Freddy Krueger, a child murderer who kills his victims while they are asleep. In the original version, the screenplay writers did a good job painting a unique character that stood out among the walking "brutes" who were antagonists of the many other horror movies, such as Jason and Michael Myers.

What also made this movie so captivating was the fact that it used the one thing that people do every day as the form of torture: sleep. With this element, along with the catchy song that played as the little girls jumped rope to foreshadow Freddy's arrival, Nightmare on Elm Street makes for a very good horror film.

Child's Play was enough to make any child of its era fear dolls that spoke. Charles Lee Ray, an evil killer whose name is derived from several killers (Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray) transfers his soul into that of a doll who then becomes infamously known as Chucky. Despite being a doll, Chucky is ruthless. This movie is interesting because of the fact that it also strays away from the usual plot line of the average slasher. The supernatural element within the film moves it aside from the typical horror genre. Chucky is a character that people still remember.

Movies today lack the charm of the three aforementioned films; they all seem to be fixated on blood and torture, with increasingly dull, overly complex plot lines. The crimes are more violent and bloody, and the killers are not memorable at all. Until we stop obsessing over blood and gore and begin working toward making both the movies and characters good, we'll always end up turning to the classics when looking for a good horror movie.