Halloween Playlist: Musicians List Their Favourite Horror Films

BY Josiah HughesPublished Oct 26, 2015

If you're spending your Halloween week doing anything other than watching horror movies, you're most likely doing it wrong. There's no better time to appreciate this film genre and its many subgenres than the last week of October.

To help you make the right choices, we reached out to a handful of Canadian musicians to learn what films haunt their screens this time of year. The results were both unsurprising (a lot of people love The Shining) and strange (who knew a Robin Williams family comedy could be so frightening). Check out some choices below.

Exclaim's Halloweek continues throughout the week, with a new list hitting our film section every morning.

Abdominal
Movie choice: The Shining

 

Gotta go with The Shining, because if a film can terrify you with a simple shot of a toddler riding his Big Wheel down a hallway, you know you're dealing with a bonafide horror classic!
 
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Brad Barr (Barr Brothers)
Movie choices: Babe, Experiments in the Revival of Organisms
 


My favorite horror movie is Babe. The moment when you think he is going to be shot, I can't even watch. And those wild dogs... forget about it. I watch it at least twice a year.

Experiments in the Revival of Organisms: This is not my favourite horror movie. Its not even a horror movie. It's a Russian documentary from the '40s. But its one of the scariest and most disturbing things I've ever seen. If I want to be really scared, I watch archaic medical documentaries. If I want to be entertained, I watch Goonies.
 
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The Bros. Landreth
Movie choice: Ernest Scared Stupid



We will always hold a special and terrified spot in our hearts for Ernest Scared Stupid. The 1991 horror masterpiece that takes place in Briarville, Missouri is easily some of the most horrifying work done in the genre. Kubrick, eat your heart out.

 
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Federal Lights
Movie choice: Creepshow 2
 


Four college kids find hidden away pond perfect for hanky-panky and skinny dipping only to be killed by morally conscious British Petroleum oil slick. What could be better than that?
 

 
Grounders
Movie choice: The Shining



Our favourite horror movie is The Shining. While helping his latest client woo the fine lady of his dreams, a professional "date doctor" finds that his game doesn't quite work on the gossip columnist with whom he's smitten.

 
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Jon Harvey (Monster Truck)
Movie choice: Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
 


My favourite horror movie is Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. It had nothing to do with the Mike Myers franchise and kids faces turned into snakes and bugs when they wore "silver shamrock" (I think) masks. Scared the shit out of me as a kid.
 
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Terra Lightfoot
Movie choice: Amityville Horror, Ghoulies
 


I watched Amityville Horror in grade three in my friends basement over and over and have never forgotten it. Also I just watched Ghoulies for the first time this week and it was simply transcendent within the horror genre. Complete with absolutely ridiculous special effects and storyline. 
 
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Kalle Mattson
Movie choice: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
 


It's obviously a stone cold classic and how can you not empathize with Charlie Brown's ghost costume and all the houses giving him rocks instead of candy.

Pierce McGarry (Walter TV, Mac DeMarco's band)
Movie choices: Evil Dead, The Conjuring, City of the Living Dead, Zombi 2, the Halloween series.
 


Hello this is Pierce McGarry stepping in for Mac DeMarco. He chose me to respond to this interview, not just because he likes me and I play in his band, but also because of my deep expertise in film, being just three credits short of a degree in the study there of.

Without further adieu let us begin pls and thx y'all.

Halloween is branded as a day of terror by massive corporations in Canada/USA to sell plastic and nylon products that resemble monsters or some shite. Halloween is actually a day of remembrance of people who have died, and to recognize death in all its mysteries and glory. So I watch whatever movies around Halloween because it's not about 'horror,' and death is always on my mind; it's there, it's a darkness behind the darkness. That being said I love horror movies, so let's do this!

1. Evil Dead: The original, huge inspiration for me, an original punk DIY flick!

2. The Conjuring: Big ideas in here on witchcraft and the powers that come from practicing dark magic (i.e. Satanic sacrifices) and the guaranteed results it produces.

3. City of the Living Dead by Lucia Fulci: hardcore black magic zombie flick that will instil real fear and possibly tears ( I cried).

4. Zombi 2: Fulci again, tense scenes with great practical effects and old voodoo to boot. This type of magic is real and common place in many locations around this earth.

5. Halloween: any of them, dope, straight up! The Rob Zombie remakes are a real challenge to get through, a true gauntlet of suffering.

Peace and love, thanks for your time. Now get to Blockbuster and rent my favourite horror movies, along with some of your own if you'd like!
 
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Port Juvee
Movie choice: Scanners
 


Nightmare On Elm Street gets a little silly, and The Shining, great as it is, is too easy. Scanners is just so badass. The soundtrack is so on point and the vibe of the movie is just so creeps. David Cronenberg is the man, and this is his movie about people who can explode your head of your shoulders with their thoughts. Enough said.
 
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Pup
Movie choice: Jumanji
 


What is the best horror movie? Jumanji! The answer is Jumanji. Holy shit. When Robin Williams get sucked into the jungle.... Man that still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Ben Rogers
Movie choice: Suspiria
 


Dario Argento's Suspiria is a macabre masterpiece. Goblin's soundtrack is beautiful sonic gore. It makes you feel like someone is eating away at your flesh.
 
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Spookey Ruben
Movie choice: The Devils

 

All my favourite horror movies are firstly art films (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Rosemary's Baby, Irreversible, Taxi Driver, Halloween). The Devils is everything and beyond what you'd want in a horrific cinematic masterpiece: Super extreme characters on and off-camera, futuristic film sets, medieval costumes, blood, sacrilege, sex and violence. 

I only found out recently that Derek Jarman was the guy behind the eye-popping set design which ("boing" — that makes sense!) I always thought was one of the most mind-blowing aspects of the movie. If you haven't seen this film yet, please try to find it, even just for Vanessa Redgrave with a crooked neck.
 
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Jaye R. Schwarzer (Cancer Bats)
Movie choice: Halloween

 

For the sake of nostalgia (and of me not rambling on forever), I'm going Halloween. This movie was made for next to nothing, around $300,000 I'm pretty sure. Yet, it almost single handedly defined the slasher genre of horror films. It took what Hitchcock was doing with Psycho and made it even more intense. The thing I like about this movie is that there is next to NO blood and gore! It's driven by suspense and fear! A lot of horror films of the '70s and especially the '80s relied on over the top production or ridiculous amounts of gory scenes. Not that there is anything wrong with that! My point being, John Carpenter and Debra Hill created a movie without all of that and still managed to make one of the most unforgettable and worshipped horror films of all time. And let's be real, how badass is Michael Myers!?! Just a dude in a plain white mask with a kitchen knife... that can't be killed. Scared the shit out of me as a kid, that's for sure. 
 
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Donovan Woods
Movie choice: Halloween: Resurrection
 


I'm not a scary movie person, because I don't like being scared. No thanks, I'd like to sit calmly and chat instead. I do though have a favourite Halloween movie and it's 2002's Halloween: Resurrection starring Busta Rhymes, the guy from Cruel Intentions, and my buddy Luke Kirby. Luke gets to have his head smushed by Michael Myers and it's just great. I don't feel afraid because I know Luke is still alive.
 
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Jesse Zubot
Movie choice: The Shining
 


I'm sure MANY MANY people will be picking this one…  but I kind of just have to too!

In general, i'm not a huge fan of horror films for some reason, but The Shining really grabs me.  It feels ANALOG and more realistic than most horror films in a surreal kind of way. Kubrick's vibe includes so much space, mystery and colour. It's not littered with gore, but the endless supply of blood flowing out of the elevators down the hallway in that ONE scene probably adds up to more blood than all horror films put together!  The scene with the Grady twins standing together is forever engraved in my memory. There are so many memorable climactic scenes that also work as stills. Also very interesting is the psychological breakdown of Jack. REDRUM.

I can't remember when i first saw The Shining, but I have made an effort to go to special re-run screenings at OLD SCHOOL theatres many times throughout the last 20 years. It's a nice way to get a little creeped out.
 
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