Sawyer’s list of spooky Netflix movies to kick off Halloween season

In order from least spooky to most, guaranteed to help you throw a horror movie marathon

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Artwork by Aidan Scott

Horror is my favorite genre, and I have always loved October for giving me the honor to discover new scares and revisit many of my favorites. To get ready for Halloween, I broke down some of the spookiest movies you can watch right now on Netflix. Below I review and describe the following movies, ordered from least spooky to most spooky.

Starting off the list is “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil.” This movie was greatly underseen when it was first released but has found a second life on streaming services. While not necessarily scary, this is a movie I love to revisit during the Halloween season. It encompasses the feel of a typical slasher movie but spins the cliche. The hillbillies living in the creepy shack turn out to be fun-loving guys who are terrorized by teens who believe they are murderers. This movie includes the most ridiculous and horrendous situations that you cannot help but laugh. While I think it runs out of steam at the end, no other horror movie makes me laugh as hard as this one.

Over the years, found-footage has become a joke for being the laziest, worst kind of horror movie. Pretending to be real footage, they usually consist of cheap scares and shaky camera footage to hide the lack of effort. However, “Creep” embodies why found-footage should not be forgotten. The filmmakers prioritize uncomfortable and awkward moments over typical jump scares. The typical person can relate to these moments more than the exaggerated horror from most movies. It follows a filmmaker who responds to an advertisement on Craigslist for a cameraman. Through this, he meets cancer-ridden Joseph who wants to make a movie for his son who will be born after his own death. As the day goes on, our main character slowly starts to realize that Joseph was not telling him the truth. The standout: Joseph’s werewolf mask he named Peachfuzz.

You will never find another horror-comedy that balances the two genres better than 1997’s “Scream.” It has become so washed over with memes of the notorious Ghostface mask that it has been forgotten how great this movie is. It is very ahead of its time, being one of the first major meta movies that pointed out horror tropes as it used them. It has one of the best opening scenes in any horror movie and has endlessly quotable lines. Genuinely scary at times and hilarious at others, this is a great movie to watch with a group of friends during the Halloween season.

If scary movies just don’t do it for you, I recommend “The Haunting of Hill House.” This 10-episode miniseries follows a family as they reflect on their childhood and the strange events that occurred prior to the death of their mother. Flashing back between their childhood and their adult selves makes for one of the most compelling shows on television, endlessly revealing mysteries that draw in the viewer more and more as the story goes on. The show is basically a family drama with horror in the background, but that does not mean it is not scary. The involvement with the extremely complex characters makes the show so incredibly tense and horrifying. Not much scares me anymore, but there is one jump scare that almost gave me a heart attack. Also, make sure to keep your eyes out for the hidden ghosts in the background!

If you are prepared to sit back, turn off all the lights, and be chilled to your core, then “The Witch” is the perfect movie for you. A slow-burn horror set in 1630 in New England, a family is excommunicated from their colony and forced to live on their own. When their youngest child goes missing, suspicion rises between the family members and it just goes downhill from there. This movie is a masterpiece of modern horror, from the naked old woman in the woods to the evil goat, there are so many memorable moments that still scare me to this day. It feels like it was made during the 1600s with extremely accurate accents and simple filmmaking. If you want to be entranced by horror, this is the movie for you…

If those were not enough scares for you, don’t be concerned. This is not even half the quality horror movies that are included with Netflix, you’re bound to find something to terrify you.