Copyright Screen Rant
Staging a horror movie marathon is a tradition almost as vital to Halloween as dressing up in crazy costumes, carving Jack-o’-lanterns, going trick-or-treating, or erecting tacky plastic witches and monsters on the front lawn. Putting together a perfect Halloween horror marathon is easier than ever today, thanks to the proliferation of streaming services, most of which feature extensive catalogs of scary movies from all eras. Prime Video is one of the biggest of these streaming services, and its virtual shelves are appropriately stocked with enough titles to fill out any horror fan’s Halloween playlist. Among the classics available on Prime Video are a 1980s obscurity that combines body horror with Lovecraftian weirdness, a Universal monster movie that inspired one of today’s most acclaimed directors, and a horror-comedy sequel to a 1970s masterpiece. There's also a non-comedic sequel to another seminal 1970s masterpiece, and an overlooked early slasher built around a truly creepy lead performance. From Beyond (1986) The works of H.P. Lovecraft are considered notoriously difficult to adapt. CGI has made it easier to summon the author’s iconic monster Cthulhu visually, but capturing the true spirit of Lovecraft’s unique cosmic horror remains an elusive goal. If there’s a filmmaker who can claim to have achieved this goal, at least partially, it’s Stuart Gordon. The director’s wildly gory, truly bonkers Re-Animator remains one of the best horror comedies of the ‘80s. With the follow-up From Beyond, Gordon toned down the comedy, choosing to instead focus on gruesome, weirdly sexual body horror. Gordon brought back Re-Animator stars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, and revisited some of the earlier film’s themes, crafting a less madcap, much more straightforwardly disgusting exploration of weird science, irresponsible playing at being God, and unspeakable sex creepiness. Though Re-Animator is clearly the better movie, From Beyond arguably does a better job tapping into the essence of Lovecraft (minus the racism). Those who enjoy gnarly practical effects will not be disappointed by John Carl Buechler and John Naulin’s squirm-inducing work. Frankenstein (1931) Guillermo Del Toro’s take on Mary Shelley’s classic novel is currently playing in theaters, with a Netflix release set for December 7. It should come as no shock that the Oscar-winning Del Toro cites 1931’s Frankenstein as an influence not only on his newest film, but on the entirety of his cinematic output. The film that inspired Del Toro and Mel Brooks, and even the creators of Franken Berry, no longer has the power to shock, though the famous scene of Boris Karloff’s monster throwing a little girl into a lake to watch her float like a flower petal, only to have her drown, remains quite upsetting. But it’s not Frankenstein’s presumed shock value that interests artists like Del Toro, it’s the Monster himself. Played with a masterly touch by Karloff (billed in the credits as ?), Victor Frankenstein’s unholy creation is a pathetic creature, not a frightening one. James Whale’s Frankenstein can easily be written off as a camp object, but it’s absolutely worthy of study for anyone interested in movie history or who loves Del Toro’s Frankenstein and wants to dive deeper. But Karloff’s performance is the main reason to revisit this nearly 100-year-old Gothic melodrama. Texas Chainsaw Massacre II (1986) The original Texas Chain Saw Massacre was classic grindhouse, but its 1986 sequel is fully Grand Guignol. Tobe Hooper brings back the cannibalistic Sawyer clan, including the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, in a madhouse movie that delivers shocks and laughs in equal measure. Blessed with an actual budget this time around, Hooper goes whole-hog with the gore, tapping the great Tom Savini to design the film’s truly disgusting effects, while upgrading the Sawyers’ lair from a dilapidated old wreck of a house to an abandoned amusement park that’s equal parts Mad Max and Ed Gein. As if the meat-crazed Sawyers weren’t already bonkers enough, Hooper brings in Dennis Hopper for even more mayhem. Not many people get chainsaw massacred in the film, but plenty of load-bearing beams get sliced up by Hopper as he tries to bring the Sawyers’ world literally crashing down around them. Drayton Sawyer and Chop-Top are both hilariously unhinged maniacs, but the movie’s real star is Leatherface, who becomes an actual character for the first and only time in the Texas Chainsaw franchise. “Bubba” is more King Kong than Michael Myers as he develops feelings for plucky heroine Stretch, becoming her protector. Those who love ‘80s comedy-horror of the Evil Dead 2 and Re-Animator variety should consider Texas Chainsaw Massacre II a must-watch. Fans of Rob Zombie should also check it out, as the movie’s influence on Zombie’s particular brand of horror could not be more obvious. The Exorcist III (1990) The Exorcist is the title of a classic horror movie, and a brand name associated with a specific horror franchise that continues to this day. The exorcist film is a subgenre focused on demonic possession and efforts to cast out these supernatural pests, which retains its popularity in 2025, despite a scarcity of good examples. 1990’s The Exorcist III may have Exorcist in the name, but it's not an exorcist movie, except for the last few scenes, which director William Peter Blatty tacked on at the behest of the studio, who realized they were about to release an Exorcist sequel with no exorcism. One day, the world may get to see an Exorcist III director’s cut that fully restores Blatty’s vision of an Exorcist movie with no exorcism. In the meantime, the theatrical cut is still a fascinating and effectively scary watch. The Exorcist III ties in with the original through the characters of Detective Kinderman and Father Dyer, re-cast with George C. Scott and Ed Flanders, and revolves around Kinderman’s investigation of a series of gruesome killings. It’s loosely a serial killer procedural, then, more than an exorcism movie. But mostly, The Exorcist III is a character-driven drama centered on Kinderman, with Scott giving one of his signature tortured-white-man performances. Yes, the movie contains one of horror’s greatest jump scares, and yes, there eventually is an exorcism. But the true horror of Exorcist III lies in Kinderman’s slightly pathetic existential crisis, bizarrely summed by Kinderman himself, in a truly amazing monologue about a fish in a bathtub. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) The creepy kid movie has been a reliable horror subgenre since the days of The Bad Seed and Village of the Damned, and continues to thrive thanks to hit films like Hereditary and Abigail. Alice, Sweet Alice is not nearly as famous as any of those movies, but it deserves to be. Alfred Sole’s 1976 proto-slasher might have been just another horror potboiler, known mostly for being Brooke Shields’ film debut, but for the lead performance of Paula Sheppard. She may have turned 19 when the film was shooting, but Sheppard looked much younger, allowing her to play the disturbed 12-year-old murderer Alice Spages. Sheppard’s is a strange and completely convincing performance, and is the highlight of Alice, Sweet Alice, a grubby urban-Gothic chiller that caught the eye of a few discerning critics back in 1976, including Roger Ebert, and is now beloved of horror aficionados like Eli Roth. In addition to being an early slasher and a top-notch creepy kid movie, Alice, Sweet Alice also prefigures Candyman in its use of urban decay as a horror background. It also fits snugly with The Exorcist, The Omen, and other religiously-themed fright-films of the era.
