Other than the traditional trick or treating, the scary costumes, the ghouls, and the pumpkin displays, Halloween would appear to be incomplete without a good dose of scary movies.
Asking what's one's favorite scary movie would appear to be a question straight out of the horror movie franchise "Scream," so it is best to focus instead on what horror fans think are the movies that really scared the living daylights out of them.
Boston.com posted a list of the 50 scariest movies of all time based on three major criteria.
First, the movie should be scary it can lead to a change in one's behaviour. Second, watching the flick can lead to nightmares in many people. And third, the movie gives one the creeps, the goose bumps, excites the heart, and makes one almost puke.
The list ended up with the 1982 movie "The Thing" on top of its list, followed by "Jaws" filmed in 1975, and the 1973 fan-favorite film "The Exorcist."
"The Exorcist" should be in the top three alright. But "Jaws" is not a horror but a suspense movie. Boston.com did say however that it has listed the scariest movies.
Limiting the list to horror flicks, Rotten Tomatoes also came up with its own list of 100 Best Horror Movies of all time.
Topping the list is the 1920 French film "Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari" ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari").
"Arguably the first true horror film, the movie sets a brilliantly high bar for the genre and remains terrifying nearly a century after it first stalked the screen," says Rotten Tomatoes about the critics' consensus of the movie.
Given the film's age however, the movie has yet to be seen by most of today's generation of horror fanatics.
Rotten Tomatoes' list also included the 1922 French movie "Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror" at second spot and the 1965 film "Repulsion." The 1933 film "King Kong" is at fourth place, followed by the 1933 movie "The Bride of Frankenstein" at fifth spot.
"King Kong" is not a horror movie or at least that's what its story says. But given the age again of the top five best horror movies in the Rotten Tomatoes list, the new generation of horror fans simply may not be able to relate.
Searching for more relevant, as far as the current generation of horror fans are concerned, we come to the top 100 Modern Horror Movies as noted down by List Challenges.
List Challenges defines 'modern' as year 2,000 and up. Headlining its list is "La Casa Muda" followed by "Let the Right One In" and "Sheitan."
Rounding out the top five on List Challenges' fare are "Inland Empire" and "The Ring."
In the end, the level of scare that a horror movie can generate depends largely on the personal perception of the viewer. One horror movie can be scary to some but certainly not to all.