9. The Conjuring
When James Wan’s first Conjuring hit 12 years ago, folks believed it was based on a true story. Technically all of the mainline Conjuring films claim that to one degree or another, with the fun gimmick being that each installment is pulled from the “case files” of supposed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. But by the time this year’s fourth and allegedly final mainline flick, The Conjuring: Last Rites, came out with a kaiju-sized Annabelle doll walking around, it’s safe to say the sense of historical grounding had worn off.
Those first couple of Conjurings directed by Wan though? They were like a full-throated legal defense for the artistry of the jump scare. Wan indeed has an apparently limitless ability to find new and rewarding ways to say “boo,” and it always feels earned after minutes or hours of breathless tension. Part of that is Wan’s command of swooping and aggressive camera movements, but it is also the texture from lead performances by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who make their Hollywoodized Ed and Lorraine so damn lovable. The first two Conjuring movies are top notch “haunted house ride” cinema, and they have spawned a dizzying larger universe of six spinoff films, some of which are pure madcap ‘80s zaniness like Annabelle Comes Home (the one with a werewolf!). Not all Conjuring movies are created equal, but when you have as strong of an anchor as Wilson belting Elvis standards on a guitar, this basically becomes chiller comfort food. – DC
8. Hammer’s Dracula Series
Bela Lugosi’s Dracula defined the popular image of the character and the vampire archetype in general. But it was the Christopher Lee version in Hammer’s cycle that standardized what a “Dracula” story is in pop culture. The blood would be bright red, the fangs pronounced and bared often, and the victims mostly young, nubile, heaving things who doth protest too much. It was a formula, but one that Lee himself gave a lot of class and stoic charm. The material handed to him might have been lascivious, but he made it illustrious, especially in the installments that paired him with Peter Cushing as cinema’s most virile Professor Van Helsing. When these two first crossed paths in the earliest installment, 1958’s Horror of Dracula, it was a veritable swashbuckler but with crucifixes.
Lee would go on to star in seven Hammer productions based around the undead count, and Hammer would produce a further two installments in the franchise absent Lee. But even when they’re quite terrible (see: 1970’s Scars of Dracula), there remains a camp charm. One of the better installments even leaned into that, turning Dracula A.D. 1972 into a cult classic for those who vibed on Christopher Lee’s vampire being transported to swinging ‘60s London (even if in real-life the party was already over) to feed on a bunch of shaggadelic hippies. Other installments actually improved on the formula from time to time, such as Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) and Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), where the seductive vampire turns the youth of Victorian society against their stodgy, hypocritical parents. See, despite Lee’s oppressive formality as Dracula, he could be a swinger too.
7. Halloween
There is not a horror franchise with a more confusing or headache-inducing continuity than the Halloween films. Bless ‘em. As much of a “choose your own adventure” for fans’ head-canon as a straight-forward mythology you can learn, there are anywhere between five and seven ways you can follow the story after John Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece about an inexplicable evil they call “Michael Myers” and the babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) whom he stalks. In most variations, although not all, Laurie winds up being Michael’s long-lost baby sister. And in the original series of sequels—those which Whistle screenwriter Owen Egerton tells us are the “orphan trilogy” because no one wants to claim them anymore—Laurie’s own orphan daughter Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) is stalked by her big uncle, who she learns is possessed by an evil pagan cult.
There are also other continuities where Jamie was never born, and Michael came back decades later to have One. Last. Showdown. with Laurie. Thrice. There’s even the Rob Zombie remake where they share the same white trash family trauma demon that turns them into serial killers. Whatever iteration floats your boat, there is a version out there, and the truth is most of them have at least one decent sequel in their run—Halloween 4, H20, and the 2018 reboot, for those who are counting—and at least a couple of dogs. But even the conflicting and confounding failures give the whole thing a certain panache, all while springing from the granddaddy of perfect slasher movies. So as long as that Carpenter piano and synthesizer theme keeps blasting, we’ll keep watching what is the one slasher franchise that 40 years after the fact can still keep things spooky. – DC
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