culture / movies

My Neighbor’s Halloween Movie Recommendations

The Portly Politico28 Comments

I have two neighbors named Jerry.  I identify them as “Next Door Jerry” (NDJ) and “Across the Field Jerry” (AtFJ).  NDJ is a temperamental alcoholic who shouts incomprehensible frontier gibberish while hosting his drinking buddies for a Tuesday box social.

AtFJ is an upstanding citizen and modern-day Renaissance Man with the physique and demeanor of Gimli the dwarf.  He and his son walk Murphy for me while I’m working, and AtFJ even mows my lawn (NDJ did the same until his health and riding mower deteriorated too much, so I’ve somehow managed to dupe two Jerries into engaging in lawn care on my behalf).

That background information isn’t necessarily germane to today’s post, but I thought it would add a bit of “local color” to the proceedings.  If you just came for the list of Halloween flicks, well, you’re almost there!

Monday evening AtFJ texted me with excitement for the imminent arrival of Halloween.  He sent along a list of films to watch each night of the month, although his list runs to thirty-two flicks in total.  We discussed some other possible additions, but here is Across the Field Jerry’s Halloween Movie Recommendations (in no particular order):

Across the Field Jerry’s Halloween Movie Recommendations (2024):

  1. Ghostbusters (1984)
  2. Halloween (1978)
  3. Hocus Pocus (1993)
  4. The Exorcist (1973)
  5. It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
  6. Dracula (1931)
  7. Frankenstein (1931)
  8. The Wolf Man (1941)
  9. The Invisible Man (1933)
  10. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
  11. The Shining (1980)
  12. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
  13. Beetlejuice (1988)
  14. Friday the 13th (1980)
  15. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
  16. The Fly (either; 1958 and 1986)
  17. Fright Night (original, 1985)
  18. It (1990)
  19. American Werewolf in London (1981)
  20. The Thing (John Carpenter version, 1982)
  21. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
  22. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
  23. Phantasm (1979)
  24. The Omen (1976)
  25. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
  26. Scream (1996)
  27. House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
  28. The Addams Family (1991)
  29. Evil Dead (1981)
  30. Poltergeist (1982)
  31. The Lost Boys (1987)
  32. Hubie Halloween (2020; per AtFJ: “It’s Adam Sandler; sue me!”)

Jerry said his list “is a mix of the fun, spooky, and downright disturbing, with minimal slashers and a bent to the classics.”  He also noted that because “I have ISSUES with zombies, aside from them just being done to death (see what I did there?), I have no zombie movies listed[.]  But, if pressed, I’d go with Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead [1968] and the Ving Rhames Dawn of the Dead [2004].”

I did not inquire about his “ISSUES” with zombies, but recommended Train to Busan (2016) as another zombie flick worth watching.

So, dear readers, which of these films would be on your list?  Which would not make the cut?  What’s missing?  AtFJ identified himself as a layman when it comes to horror, but it seems like a good list overall, with some family-friendly fare tossed in for good measure.

Leave your comments and thoughts below.  I know Ponty will have something to say—ha!

Happy Halloween!

—TPP

28 thoughts on “My Neighbor’s Halloween Movie Recommendations”

  1. Yep, you’re right about that! 😂

    Some good films on that list – points for originals – but it has some suspect titles and is missing some great foreign horrors. House of 1000 corpses is gratuitous horse manure and should have been enough to cast Rob Zombie onto the cinematic waste pile and I guess titles like Hocus Pocus are there as seasonal films for the family. I don’t have children so for me, it’s all out horror.

    Top 3 for Halloween?

    1. Halloween (1978).
    2. Ju-On 2 (2003).
    3. Ringu (1998).

    Evil Dead, The Omen and Poltergeist are wicked choices too. The originals, of course. 😉

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  2. Any list of horror movies has got to include Carnival of Souls. Ultimate creep factor.

    In other news … I had occasion to watch AMC Sunday night; season two opener of TWD – Daryl Dixon. I haven’t watched tv in a couple of years so Sunday night at AMC was a revelation. It seems to have become a huge source of horror programing. Used to be it was just TWD; now, it’s seems it’s every kind of horror. I haven’t looked in to it but it seems to be all AMC original programming. Port … if you get a chance, check it out and tell us what you think, ok?

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    • Yes! I know that is one of your favorites. Are there any other movies you’d add to this list? Any you’d remove? Any of your favorites on here?

      Yes, AMC has some awesome horror content. They own Shudder, I’ve learned, so a lot of the AMC content shows up on Shudder as well. Some of the shows they only will stream one or two episodes, I guess to get you interested in getting AMC’s streaming service, but they have a lot of the same movies.

      I learned this when dating my last girlfriend, the horror-loving flight attendant. She had the AMC streaming service and I was like, “wait a minute, I’ve already watched a lot of these weird horror movies on Shudder.” She then explained to me that the two are connected. Whoa!

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  4. Another film you could check out – In Fear (2013), starring Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech. As basic a horror as you’re likely to see but some of the best horrors work from simplicity.

    Tina and I watched it a few years ago and enjoyed it.

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