That’s right folks, it’s Halloween, and beyond the requisite costume parties and trick-or-treating, there are the movies. Blood, gore, terror, and a whole lot of screaming and yelling. And just like everyone likes their dose of cannabis a little bit different, so too does everyone like their horror a bit different too, so we put our heads together and came up with a Halloween horror movie hit list that’s got a little blood and terror for every level of cannabis enthusiast out there.
So sit back (or up), turn the lights off, and turn your lighter on as you get into the proper frame of mind for what we deem to be a proper horror-filled Halloween fright fest. Oooh, we’re getting goose bumps just thinking about it. Or maybe that’s the Sour Diesel we just hit.
For the slightly paranoid/anxious cannabis enthusiast looking for a little Halloween adrenaline kick:
THE VISIT
M. Night Shyamalan’s bizarre, scary, and rather funny movie has a bit of something for everyone. About a pair of kids who go visit their grandparents and decide to make a documentary about their stay, the film shows us just how freaky older folks can be (and not in the good way). The Visit manages to be both thrilling and funny, creating somewhat of a unique sub-genre of movies flawlessly mixing humor and horror together, all while giving you nightmares about whether grandma’s awkward smile is that of a possessed soul or just the cute old lady you’ve grown to love.
CREEP
It’s hard not to love Mark Duplass and everything him and his brother Jay do, but his diversion into weird, horror/thriller mockumentary land is uncharted territory that we’re glad he dove into. Forget the Blair Witch Project—this found-footage style film plays off a man who accepts a vague online video job on Craigslist for a thousand bucks (never a good idea, really), then drives up to a remote town on a deserted mountaintop to meet his would-be employer—a seemingly innocent man at first, but then again, looks can often be quite deceiving.
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
A bunch of college kids are stranded in a remote cabin in some dark forest where strange things start to happen and they suddenly find themselves in danger. Sounds like every other cliche horror film you’ve ever seen, right? Wrong. This one is a little bloody, for sure, but there’s plenty of giddy humor injected into it by the director throughout, and the surprise ending will have every horror fan spinning in their seats about the wild brain-twister they just laid out on you. Perfect for a nice pure sativa to keep your mind racing as you try and figure out the shockingly clever twist to this whacky horror flick.
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For those with a medium level of tolerance, both gore-wise and buzz-wise
THE BABADOOK
If blood and gore isn’t really your thing, the psychologically jarring, terrifically-shot Babadook will still leave you shaking in the middle of the night wishing mommy was there to tuck you in. A movie about a creepy bedtime book a mother reads to her kid that eventually turns into a beast that terrorizes the family? Yeah, there’ll be no shortage of screams with this one, and while the terror factor certainly is there, the nauseating factor isn’t, so a munchie-fueled movie night won’t end up with your head in the toilet.
WOULD YOU RATHER
We didn’t put too many gratuitously stupid horror movies on here, and for good reason—while they may make you want to curl up in your bed with your favorite strain for the next couple of weeks, they’re cheap thrills, and The Hemponair is anything but cheap. That being said, everyone loves a good cheap thrill every once in awhile, and this one starring Brittany Snow and that stupid sophomoric Would You Rather game definitely delivers.
GOODNIGHT, MOMMY
Once again, we’d recommend going with a sativa-dominant strain for this one. It’s a psychological German horror flick that has it’s moments of gore and grossness, to be sure, but also ups the ante with a strange terror that lies in an even stranger emotional realm. Z Germans sure know how to scare the living shit out of people and seem to have a knack for casting super-creepy children to boot. Goodnight, Mommy blurs the lines between horror and reality, and that’s something that’ll keep us awake all on it’s own—which is what that indica is for afterwards. 🙂
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For the avid horror fan toker who likes his carnage just as bloody as his filet mignon:
SNOWTOWN
Speaking of movies that blur the line between horror and reality, Snowtown is based on a true story of John Bunting and three other neighborhood “watchmen” who committed gruesome homicides in their small town in the 90’s. The torture scenes in this one might be a gross endurance test for even the most seasoned of horror viewers, but if you’re a true fan of the genre, you should be able to make it through. Just stick with the indicas for this one because you’re going to need to feel as relaxed as possible with everything that goes down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozO_1RARiyU
HUSH
You’ll never want to live alone after watching this movie. Seriously. You’re probably going to double check every window, door, lock, and fire escape (where applicable). This Netflix horror flick is about a deaf and mute woman who lives isolated in the woods (yes, again) and is terrorized by a masked psychotic killer in a cat-and-mouse-like game. Much of the movie is silent, hence our protagonist, but that definitely doesn’t make it boring. A tough but satisfying survival horror film made for a mentally provoking (and plenty bloody) take on the genre.
ICHI THE KILLER
The Japanese have a peculiar knack for taking horror films to the next level with rather twisted, eh, twists, and this 2001 classic revenge film is no exception. It tells the story of a local hoodlum named Ichi whose boss is kidnapped and a man that proceeds to take his revenge in a shocking and extra bloody 128-minute long series of pale-including adventures. With a strangely dark sense of humor running throughout the film, a highly unusual gangster protagonist, and scenes with meat hooks and hot oil (we’ll leave the rest up to your imagination), this movie will definitely not disappoint.
By Naima Karp
