Courtney Balcombe

News Editor

clb6264@psu.edu

• Friday the 13th collection

Crystal Lake’s history of murder doesn’t deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people pay little heed to the old-timers. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they’re slashed, shot and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless opponent.

Jason Voorhees died due to camp counselor negligence, in which he drowned as a young boy. However, he comes back and kills people as they come to Crystal Lake.

Jason is a well-known horror movie killer who uses a machete and throughout the films, holds onto his dead mother’s head, making Friday the 13th a must watch for Halloween.

• Nightmare on Elm Street collection

In Wes Craven’s classic slasher film, several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger, a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams — which, in turn, kills them in reality. After investigating the phenomenon, Nancy begins to suspect that a dark secret kept by her and her friends’ parents may be the key to unraveling the mystery, but can Nancy and her boyfriend Glen solve the puzzle before it’s too late?

Nightmare on Elm Street is a great followup for Friday the 13th as the final film is Freddy v.s. Jason. It helps to watch Friday the 13th first and then Nightmare on Elm Street, the order doesn’t matter to an extent, but some films do connect back to the previous one based on what character lived through Freddy’s nightmares.

• Stephen King’s IT Chapter One and Chapter Two

Seven young outcasts in Derry, Maine, are about to face their worst nightmare — an ancient, shape-shifting evil that emerges from the sewer every 27 years to prey on the town’s children. Banding together over the course of one horrifying summer, the friends must overcome their own personal fears to battle the murderous, bloodthirsty clown known as Pennywise.

Stephen King, the king of horror, brings to life one of his most popular books. A killer clown killing children, controlling children, and not staying dead. What could be better than that?

• The Ring

It sounds like just another urban legend — a videotape filled with nightmarish images leads to a phone call foretelling the viewer’s death in exactly seven days. Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller is skeptical of the story until four teenagers all die mysteriously exactly one week after watching just such a tape. Allowing her investigative curiosity to get the better of her, Rachel tracks down the video and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery.

How can a film about a murdering VHS not be included in a horror movie must watch list? This movie is an interesting take for a horror movie killer, especially once you see who the killer is.

• Stephen King’s The Shining

Jack Torrance becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack’s writing goes nowhere and Danny’s visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

This Stephen King movie is probably best known for Jack Nicholson breaking down a door with an axe followed by saying “Here’s Johnny!” and the creepy twins who say, “Come play with us.”

• Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep

Struggling with alcoholism, Dan Torrance remains traumatized by the sinister events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a child. His hope for a peaceful existence soon becomes shattered when he meets Abra, a teen who shares his extrasensory gift of the “shine.” Together, they form an unlikely alliance to battle the True Knot, a cult whose members try to feed off the shine of innocents to become immortal.

Stephen King follows The Shining with little boy Danny as a grown adult. This movie is not as hilarious as The Shining, but it does tie the two movies to a good close.

• Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Revelation 

Unable to accept the fact that her daughter is dying, Rose decides to take the girl to a faith healer. On the way, the pair drive through a portal in reality, leading to an eerie town called Silent Hill. The town is surrounded by a potent darkness, and the human survivors fight a losing battle against it.

For both of these horror films, Rose is a reincarnation of a little girl who was burned alive as a witch. In turn, Rose is pulled back to Silent Hill by that little girl so she can have her revenge for being burned alive, however the second one involves a cult trying to kidnap Rose and return to Silent Hill with her.