Halloween is just around the corner and there are plenty of fun and scary events to celebrate the day in Hong Kong. For those of us who love horror movies, Halloween also provides the perfect excuse to indulge in some spooky cinema. Here, the Expat Living team shares some of our favourite scary movies for those who like thrills and chills. If you happen to be faint of heart, feel free to use this as your cheatsheet of what flicks to avoid when someone invites you over for a Halloween movie night!
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 into a dark place on their own! I remember being really scared during Friday the 13th, and Picnic at Hanging Rock is also high up on the creepy meter.” – 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
“Silence of the Lambs is top of my list.” – Kate W
“The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and Dead Calm are 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
“IT terrorised my entire childhood – I can’t believe they did a remake!” – Veena
“Nightmare on Elm Street … who could forget Freddy Krueger?!” – Grace
“Silence of the Lambs… that mask still scares me!” – Jacqui
“Shutter is a 2004 Thai film that’s still the scariest movie to me!” – 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 is pretty terrifying.” – Amy B
“The Exorcist, Halloween, The Shining… I happen to love scary movies, but can’t think of anything recent that scares me more than these!” – Melinda
“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 can’t walk into a row of empty bathroom stalls without being a bit scared!” – 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 terrible 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
Still looking for a Halloween costume? Here are 9 great costume shops in Hong Kong!