“Ring, ring, ring… do you like scary movies?” “Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep.” These classic lines should sound familiar if scary movies become part of the daily schedule during the fall season. It seems that during the holidays, there is always a group of movies that tend to be the most popular, no matter when they were produced. Based on Rotten Tomatoes’ top ten scariest movies list, along with a couple of other classics, a highly scientific poll was sent out to Lewis Cass High School Students in grades 9-12. Students voted on their top five favorite scary Halloween movies. After the poll closed, out of the ten movies, the five that received the most votes were Scream in first with 82 votes, The Conjuring in second with 76, Halloween in third with 62 votes, Friday the 13th in fourth with 60, and It in close fifth with 59 votes.
During the fall season, movies based on serial killers seem to have a spike in popularity. And according to the poll sent out, this is true. Out of the top five movies, in four of them, the main antagonist is a serial killer. The original 1996 Scream landed in first place, which I think is deserved. I believe the reason this film is so popular is that it has an even balance of humor and horror. The film is filled with plenty of jump scares and laughs, which both tie in to the plot of the Ghostface killer terrorizing a friend group in high school. This movie is part of a sequel, but nothing beats the OG, right?
The Halloween 1978 movie, also being the first in the series, can still give people the same scare as it did the first time they watched it. Being 45 years old and still being voted top five by current high school students says much about a movie. This traditional horror film, set in a small town, revolves around Michael Myers, who murdered his sister, and fifteen years later escaped a mental institution and found the gruesome hobby of stalking people in his hometown. This movie will forever represent the scary side of the holiday of Halloween for me personally, because I know I can always count on Halloween to give a good scare.
The other two movies, which also follow the plot of a serial killer, are It (2017) and Friday the 13th (2009). These two movies share something in common. Unlike Halloween and Scream, the newer versions of Friday the 13th and It were picked for this top 5. It, produced in 2017, is part of a two-movie adaptation. This version is just a remake of the original, which is why it might be more popular. In the new one, the producers were able to enhance the special effects, which ended up making scenes scarier and more realistic than they were before, in my opinion. The 2009 Friday the 13th is new for the series as well. This movie seems like a remake, but ties in certain elements from each of the movies before, instead of focusing on the first movie of the franchise alone. Friday the 13th follows a group of college students as they come to a house in the forest to party. One of the student’s sisters is kidnapped by the masked killer Jason Voorhees, and the student has to search for her around the original location, Camp Crystal Lake (hbomax.com).
The one movie that made the top 5, which is not based around a serial killer, is The Conjuring, which was voted second place overall. This was the original movie and was based on a true story, which adds to the terror. The film dives into the paranormal activity of a farmhouse in 1970. The owners call Ed and Loraine Warren, who try their best to rid the demonic presence and bring the family back to peace, but this is not as simple as it sounds. This movie brings a whole different vibe from the rest of the top five, which was not expected.
All in all, each of these movies represents the fear part of Halloween in a different, unique way. Sending out a poll for the students to vote on made this process more interesting to see the results keep changing, rather than using a list that was already generated online. Whether scary movies are an interest or whether they are intentionally avoided, I think everyone should give them a try. There are a lot of Halloween movies out there, and depending on whether you let them, not all of them will give nightmares!
