Halloween is just around the corner and there are plenty of fun Halloween events to enjoy in Singapore! For those of us who love horror movies, the last day in October provides the perfect excuse to indulge in some spooky, scary cinema. That’s why we’re sharing our favourite fright-night movie picks here, for anyone who like thrills and chills. If you’re a litte more faint of heart, feel free to use this as your cheatsheet of flicks to avoid if someone invites you over for Halloween movie night! We also have a list of not-so-scary films for those planning a kids’ get-together. And finally, don’t miss our roundup of places where you can create your own scary space and buy costumes for trick-or-treat night!
In the cinema now!
- It Chapter Two: Twenty-seven years after the events of the summer of 1989, It returns…
- Joker: A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and becomes a psychopathic murderer.
- Parasite: In this Korean film, Ki-taek’s family of four is close, but fully unemployed, with a bleak future ahead of them. After their son gets a job as a tutor with a new family, an unstoppable string of mishaps lies in wait.
- Metamorphosis: Another Korean film, this one about an exorcist Joong Su, who is living in a terrible guilt after a girl he tried to exorcise kills herself.
- Revenge Of The Pontianak: It’s 1965 in Malaysia, and a small village is helping Khalid and Siti prepare for their wedding day. Soon, though, a great darkness falls upon the village, creating widespread fear and paranoia.
- Midsommar: What begins as a carefree summer adventure in a land of eternal sunlight takes a sinister turn when the insular villagers invite their guests to partake in festivities that render the pastoral paradise increasingly unnerving and viscerally disturbing.
The Expat Living team’s top Halloween horror movies
The Shining was very clever and nobody did anything stupid – like leave everyone else and go in to a dark place on their own! I remember being really scared during Friday the 13th, while Picnic at Hanging Rock is also high up on the creepy meter for me. – Rebecca
The Shining always gets me. Red rum!! – Melissa
I first saw Jaws at the age of 11 or 12, at the very start of a long summer spent in an Australian beach town. Needless to say I didn’t do a lot of swimming on that holiday. Ironically, the bit that scared me most didn’t involve the shark at all. (I’ll let you try to remember it!) – Shamus
Bird Box is about an awful, mysterious force that has killed off most of the planet. If you see it, you die. A woman (Sandra Bullock) and her children set out on a blindfolded journey through the woods and down a river on a desperate search to find a rumoured place of sanctuary. – Melinda
Silence of the Lambs is top of my list! – Kate W
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Dead Calm are two thrillers that had me on the edge of my seat. – Danielle
I don’t do horror movies at all. I saw The Shining as a 14-year-old, one dark Saturday night in my boarding school common room. Ten minutes into the screening, I knew it was a mistake, but I was too frightened to walk back to my dorm down the long, dark corridor. So, I had to watch the whole movie and it scarred me for life. – Verne
The original version of It terrorised my entire childhood; I can’t believe they did a remake! – Veena
Nightmare on Elm Street … who could forget Freddy Krueger?! – Grace
That mask in Silence of the Lambs still scares me today! – Jacqui
Shutter is a Thai film made in 2004 that I still think is the best scary movie! – Siti
I absolutely love scary movies, always have! I started watching them when I was 10 (my parents didn’t know). My first was Jaws, and that stopped me wanting to swim for about five years. I think Halloween, with Jamie Lee Curtis, is terrifying. Then of course there’s the classic Psycho, directed by Hitchcock. More recently The Conjuring and It are pretty terrifying. – Amy B
Annabelle – some people think it’s funny but I’m yet to finish it as I’m so scared! – Susan
The Scream series, The Blair Witch Project and Labyrinth – Emi
I love scary films! It Follows was a recent one I watched that definitely gave me nightmares! – Leanda
I love the cult classic Scream – it still manages to spook me every time! I still can’t walk into a row of empty bathroom stalls without being a bit scared! I also love Get Out! – Amy G
All time scariest movies for me are Poltergeist II (when Kane walks up to the house in the rain – I can’t!), those Phantasm movies from the 80s (led by yet another scary old man). More recently, I watched Jordan Peele’s latest movie Us, which was disastrously frightening too. I had to pause it and talk it through with my husband about 30 times, much to his dismay. And I hear Peele is remaking Candyman, another 80s whopper; who remembers him calling out “Helen, Heellleeen” to Virginia Madsen in the original? It’s the stuff of nightmares for decades. – Monica
Hands down, The Orphan is my favourite horror/thriller; that movie’s twist still haunts me and now I’m permanently sceptical of children… – Michaela
More Halloween articles:
Haunted and spooky places in Singapore
Halloween fun for all ages!
Halloween recipe: Risotto Jack-O lanterns
