Unlucky 13 — Even More Horror Movie Recommendations

Top 10 lists are perfectly fine during any other time of the year — but when it comes to the horror of Halloween season, only an unlucky 13 will do!

In the past, we brought you a spine-chilling list of haunting horror movie recommendations packed with plenty of picks to suit any taste. But since there’s simply too many movies for one single post, we’re back to bring you even more macabre madness for your streaming (and screaming) pleasure.

From video game reloads to foreign horror flicks, we’ve nominated 13 more movies you can sneak into your Halloween marathon before October ends. There’s a mix of modern releases and cuts deep enough to make Freddy and Jason jealous. So pour your popcorn, grab a cozy blanket, and prepare to be scared!

---

Another Holiday:

• For Thanksgiving madness: Thanksgiving
• For Christmas spirit: Krampus

Look, everyone has an opinion about where holiday lines are drawn — but the horror genre holds nothing sacred! There have been horror movies set at nearly every holiday, from New Year’s Eve to the 4th of July.

If you crave the carnage of carving turkeys and battling it out for killer Black Friday deals, Thanksgiving will satisfy your appetite. Meet its pilgrim-themed slasher John Carver as he takes up to 50% off (and then some) the victims of Plymouth, MA, in order to teach them a lesson on gluttony and greed.

Meanwhile, if you’re waiting for hot cocoa, tinsel, and presents under the tree, get merry and scary with Krampus. Based on the European folklore figure, this film brings a dose of ho-ho-horror home for the holidays, as the titular monster punishes naughty children (and families) at Christmas time.

---

Vampire Lovers:

• For landmark Black arthouse horror: Ganja & Hess
• For gothic fantasy and literary allusions: Only Lovers Left Alive

Who doesn’t love vampires? Even vampires love vampires! On our last list, we covered “unusual” vampires, both in filming style and from around world cinema. This time, sink your teeth into these irresistible bloodsucking couples whose love for one another is truly immortal.

Using the metaphor of vampirism to critique cultural imperialism and organized religion, Ganja & Hess is a gorgeous, intense vampire film that follows Dr. Hess Green’s study and subsequent un-death related to a ceremonial dagger from an ancient African culture of blood drinkers. What follows is an engaging but artistically experimental film that has become a well-deserved cult classic.

If you haven’t seen Only Lovers Left Alive, you still may have seen the images of the vampires dining on blood popsicles. This film stars Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as an undead couple called Adam and Eve whose exploits have taken them all over the world, all throughout history. The movie features many references to famous names and figures as they search for “the good stuff” to sustain their immortality.

---

Haunted Houses:

• For Japanese horror-comedy: House (or Hausu)
• For Australian psychological thrills: Lake Mungo

The home is supposed to be a safe place. It’s where you get comfortable, put your feet up, and relax by yourself or with loved ones. That’s why the haunted house (and home invasion) subgenre is so upsetting, even in the case of horror-comedy!

House (or Hausu, not to be confused with the 1985 American horror film House) is legendary among foreign film fans. This over-the-top cult flick features mostly amateur actors in the roles of Gorgeous and her friends Fantasy, Kung Fu, Prof, Mac, Melody, and Sweet — one by one they’re devoured by the titular house, which is full of malevolent spirits.

Filmed in a found footage, pseudo-documentary style format, Lake Mungo is a frightening film about a family’s grief and experience with supernatural occurrences in their home after their daughter drowns. The low-resolution footage elements, including phone screens and interview cameras (this was 2008, after all), add tension and heighten the horror of the scares.

---

Video Game Adaptations:

• Recently released: Until Dawn
• For biopunk action and franchise longevity: Resident Evil
• For supernatural psychological horror (and an upcoming sequel): Silent Hill

Video game adaptations do have a bit of a reputation for being … well, not always the best. But many horror fans love schlocky, low-budget attempts at earnest storytelling. Just look at the library of scary movies that exist! This trio of video game movies are worth a watch for any curious fans of these hit titles.

Until Dawn released in 2025 to mixed reviews, although theirs was always an uphill battle — how do you make a movie out of a game with about 256 variations on the ending? This film tells a totally new story of a group of friends caught in a time loop mechanic, with the sole aim of surviving the night. Easier said than done.

The Resident Evil franchise kicked off on cinema screens in 2002, loosely based on the hit horror franchise’s game plots. This first film stars Milla Jovovich as Alice as she leads a unit of Umbrella Corporation commandos against an outbreak of the T-virus, developed to create bioweapons like zombies, lickers, and even Nemesis.

Silent Hill has always taken a more psychological approach to its scares, but this film changes to formula by seeing a mother in search of her missing adopted daughter. As Rose Da Silva searches for her child Sharon, she encounters creatures and ghosts shaped by the fog-covered town (though their original psychological significance deviates from the source material).

---

Found Footage:

• For production value: Late Night With the Devil
• For anthology scares: V/H/S

Found footage is a subgenre all its own, utilizing immersive elements of “unpolished” or otherwise “raw” footage to create or enhance the film. It was most famously seen in The Blair Witch Project, but plenty of other movies have utilized this stylistic technique in interesting ways.

Late Night With the Devil dives into the unexplained oddities of a studio broadcast event on Halloween night from 1977. Blending investigative journalism framing with clips of Jack Delroy’s (played by David Dastmalchian of The Suicide Squad fame) late-night talk show, this film features Satanic terrors, a live possession, and a hell of a lot of twists and turns.

The V/H/S anthology film franchise already includes nearly a dozen prequels, sequels, and spinoffs. The original film featured a series of six found footage shorts that blend murder, monsters, technical glitches, and other occult oddities that give viewers an opportunity to explore shortform horror. Future installments even included found footage elements from sources like social media. These stories are like the fun-sized candy of spooky cinema.

---

Sci-Fi Vibes:

• For an ’80s apocalypse: Night of the Comet
• For ’90s aliens: The Faculty

Science fiction is fertile ground for added horror, as humans meddle with natural forces, encounter extraterrestrial terrors, and more. Its inclusion in horror films is wildly prevalent, but it’s not all simple alien invasions, you know.

A satire on Valley Girl culture, cult classic Night of the Comet is a horror comedy that later influenced the creation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After a comet leaves most of humanity as zombies or turned to dust, two sisters fight to find other survivors in the wasteland of Southern California.

The Faculty takes every high school student’s belief that their teachers are totally alien and makes it a reality. This beloved ’90s horror flick sees a class of students discover that the school’s faculty have been taken over by mind-controlling parasites. Defeating alien invaders was totally not on the homework!

---

What other horror movies and subgenres would you add to your movie marathon? Were any of these already on your watchlist? Join the conversation with other horror fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!

Stir up the spirits and face the monsters within … Spooktacular has been unleashed once again!

Put the EEK! in geek during Sideshow’s Spooktacular 2025, a celebration with ghastly giveaways, deathly deals, eerie exclusive perks, and more. Join us from October 23 – October 31 by visiting side.show/spooktacular and don’t forget — sleep is for the weak!